 Clearing
The Slate, Summer 2007
Some Long Overdue Updates
By Tim Carter (5 Sept 2007)
I have been up to a ton of stuff that last few
months, but been neglecting my site. Probably I have too much on
my plate now. Anyway, here's what I've been up to...
Hello Toronto
Moved to Toronto in May from the US just
because I find it easier to work for American companies from
here (instead of having to continually apply to US Customs for a
work permit every time I get a gig down there). The city has
been refreshed to me after two years away, in the US.
Amaze & The Mouse
I did a gig for
Amaze
Entertainment (in Seattle) over the summer - a project for
Disney given the code-word "Ptolemy". Myself and the rest of the
small Amaze team on this flew down to Disney World, which was
interesting. It was even more interesting, in a sense, entering
the inner sanctum of Disney for both the creative meetings and
socializing (wound up drinking beers with these execs and
creative leads in an Irish pub at "Disney Town" down there).
This project was so secret that Amaze sectioned off a
closed-door office within their studios, prohibiting Amaze
people not on Ptolemy from entering. I participated in
brainstorming in Seattle in said top secret zone (though my work
was done in Toronto). Naturally, I can't divulge anything about
this until it is released - except to say it was for the DS
(well, in a sense...) and Disney is also working with Nintendo
on it.
Hello To Hollywood
I was at the
Hollywood & Games Summit a few months ago. A great
adventure, though overshadowed by the death of my Uncle (below).
Made a bunch of contacts, and had the privilege of a lengthy and
sincere conversation with game industry legend David Perry. I
think the game industry really needs to start going the film
route in recognizing and developing the talent of individual
creators. It's a long story: been hammering on an article for
Gamasutra, which I proposed after meeting Brandon Sheffield in
LAX following the Hollywood & Games Summit (we were both on the
same flight out).
G'Bye My Uncle
My Uncle Clive, a great creative and personal
influence in my life, passed away in June. This overshadowed
everything this summer, though his passing was not unexpected
(given his deteriorating condition following a severe stroke a
few years ago). My sister, the writer, wrote about it
here.
"Unk" was a creative force of nature - lived almost his whole
life in America (retaining his Canadian citizenship) where he
was known by his nickname "Scott", published an award-winning
book on his adventures in the American West there. He will be
sorely missed.
University of Ontario - Game Narrative
Starting to teach a course in game narrative
design at the
University of Ontario. Should be fun, though the class size
(74 students) is a little intimidating (still trying to figure
out how that is going to work...).
Latest Writings
Got a letter published in Gamasutra, about
design. You can read it
here. Written a lot of posts, as usual, on IGDA. Again,
gotta write that thingy for Gamasutra, if I can ever get around
to it.
Fire Zone
I continue to work on my game
Fire Zone - a labour of love for me.
Over the past few years I have continued to compress and
compress this game. Now I am giving it heavy boardgame elements,
just because I want to increase its portability and "usability"
(in an age of intense electronic gaming I want it to demand less
time from any newcomers, though still provide a rich experience
to those who want to get embroiled in it). It still follows the
same basic mission statement, though: a game about the
experience of the footsoldier in the modern era.
Disaster Response & Game Design
Developments here...
I attended the
17th World
Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto. A lot of this
was geared toward corporate preparedness (rather than first
response, which is what I know more about).
In a funny incident, my backpack was searched
- randomly, I presume - by the Toronto police. When they asked
me what I had done I told them I had designed a game called
Code Orange which dealt with terrorist bombings at the
hospital level. When they heard the words "terrorist" and
"bombings" they kind of woke up - but after I eventually
convinced them I was benevolent they let me go (okay, they kept
asking me these curveball questions, which I consistently and
patiently answered, but when I finally showed the officer my
dog-tags and told him I had been in the 48th Highlanders the ice
was totally broken and they let me in).
I learned a lot there and added to my roster
of contacts. The event occurs every year and there is a whole
community of municipal disaster response people who touch base
year after year. I wound up on a party boat in Lake Ontario,
chartered for the event, later that evening. Yes, some of those
disaster response folks know how to let off steam. Interesting
where communities will arise.
---
I am writing a design document for a new,
wide-spectrum, comprehensive game about disaster response (more
on the incident command side). This is based on my experience in
this area (including working for a major US hospital as a game
designer) and seeing the disconnect between what many of the
serious game companies want to give to their clients and what
their clients really need - what the pressing training needs
are. Will be putting together a company for this, eventually,
but the main challenge - as always - is getting the design right
before the coding starts.
---
Also: about to begin a contract on pandemic
management for
Sim Quest in Washington DC. A good chance to learn more on
this dimension of disaster response. Should be fun. Flying down
in a few weeks for the initial meeting. Don't wanna say much
more.
Frontlines: Fuel of War
THQ released a spate of stuff on the upcoming
Frontlines: Fuel of War following E3 - a game I worked
on (maybe
this is a better link; more objective). Some of the stuff I
worked on is starting to come out now on the web. For example,
they released a lot of the glossary stuff, about 85% of which I
wrote, including these
vehicle and
drone descriptions (haven't seen my infantry weapon
descriptions out yet).
It is also strange seeing and hearing the
names I gave to all this high-tech machines and weapons getting
splattered all over the Internet - in trailers, developer
interviews and whatnot. One thing that bothers me is I included
a lot more "grunt" colour in my descriptions - for example, when
I named the Western Coalition light vehicle the LVS (Light
Vehicle Standard), my glossary entry stated the grunts nicknamed
it the "Elvis" (get it?: LVS, Elvis), something I can tell you
from personal experience that grunts would do (the machine
gunner in my platoon, coincidentally, nicknamed his Mag58
"Elvis"). That colour is mostly gone from the descriptions now,
which is kind of sad (though they did retain the unique story of
the origin of the "MQ38 Hunter Recon Drone" that I wrote). Ah,
anyway...
Am also looking forward to the final game. I
want to hear more of the dialogue I wrote for FFOW
(battlechatter, mainly - and if you go
here you can watch a scene for which I revised the military
radio lingo).
Summary (Summery?)
So that was my summer. Got to get back at it. |
