Scott Andrew

Posted August 13, 2012

I was reading the Penny Arcade Report story on Slender, a tiny indie game that has you running around spooky woods with a flashlight, when this sentence jumped out at me: "Slender is a successful debut from someone who only wanted to learn how to use an engine." And I'm like oh really? What engine is that?

I can't quite see myself actually making games, but I am intrigued with virtual worlds. I'm the guy who's still scaling every mountain peak in Skyrim because hey, the makers put these rocks and trees here for a reason, so hell yeah I'm gonna try to get up there. My ideal "game" isn't a game, but an enormous landscape to explore. (Alone. Which is why WOW is a non-starter for me.) But anyway, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make something myself, so after a few days reading Unity tutorials and messing around, I got my first "level" up to explore.

I think I'll call it "Scottopia."

The primary actions in Scottopia are: run around, look at stuff, and plummet gracelessly off the edge of the world. Otherwise, there's not much else to do. That said, the moment the screen filled with the landscape, I experienced that fist-pumping horns-throwing emotional rush you get -- to riff on a Ze Frank chesnut -- from "moving from zero to one." Victory!

Any software -- or tool, or tutorial, or anything that is structured to help you make things -- that gets you to this YAY ME state quickly is doing something right. It's one of the reasons I still dig Garageband, despite its narrow feature set. It's designed to help you make something awesome quickly without making you feel bad about how little you know about recording. Likewise, I was able to get excited and stay excited building a 3D landscape, even as my mind was swimming with terms like "mesh renderer" and other unfamiliar bits of moon-language. That momentum is so crucial; you want your users to ride that wave on to the next challenge.

There's a huge yawning abyss between making a little 3D game world, as I have done, and making an actual game, something "playable" and "fun." I'm not sure I'm up for such a project, but it's kind of exhilirating to know that it's possible at all. By the way, Unity is free, so have at it.

Posted August 10, 2012

I lucked out today and got to see The Fixx up close and personal like. I must've been in my early teens when the band was at their peak, and their ubiquitous hit "One Thing Leads To Another" is still one of my favorite tunes from that time. I can't even begin to describe the weird emotions I experienced when those opening chords started ringing out, not six feet away.

I didn't get the chance to meet the band, but did get to talk at length with one of their label guys about cloud streaming and the challenge of working with Triple-A heritage acts in the indie world. So that was cool.

Posted August 6, 2012

Posted August 5, 2012

Not a great day to decide to wear my glasses onstage. Too hot, and they kept slipping down my nose when they weren't collecting sweat. On the other hand, I remembered to bring a face towel onstage, so yeah!

The crowd mostly kept away from the stage, hiding in the shade of trees. Smart people!

Posted August 4, 2012

Posted August 4, 2012

Posted August 4, 2012

This is where the tasty contestants begin their run through the zombie-infested motocross track.

Posted August 4, 2012

Posted August 4, 2012

Hey, hi. Kirby Krackle is on the road again, this time to play the Run For Lives 5K, where runners will literally chased by zombies. Literally chased, that is, not by literal zombies. Because zombies aren't real, ha ha!

It's supposed to be 99 degrees there. Oy.

Posted August 4, 2012