MR : James Cameron’s “Avatar” – Technically Brilliant!

The movie has been in a lot of hype for a long time now, knowing that James Cameron is one the best directors in the world whose story telling methodologies have been creating sensational flicks in various age groups of people. With Avatar, according to me, he still maintains the very same pace. Avatar is not a packaged with a base story line that’s complex or pitched for a more sequel based movies but very simple old wine in the new bottle. You know the kind of inspirational movies that shows that at times self confidence helps you win the biggest battle of your life. More than the story its the narration of this story with James Cameroon’s vision of an ET life is more than stunning than the story. He sets the standards for the industry to target for and that’s really, I mean really GOOD!

There has been a lot of movies where you had the featured ET life forms on earth and humans on their planet and all sorts of things, but this was one vision that makes me feel that I would be like to be a NAVI! Extremely detailed environment(MY FAV PART OF THE MOVIE – IT WAS WOW!) and really good creatures/animals/humanoid visions on that kind of an environment. The vision of “Biological Network”, oh boy something you will have to see and figure out is WOW, where do he get the inspirations from? Its like a p2p network we have with computers today! Throughout the movie, the humans, pictured in a negative money greedy (typical serial fashioned Indian mother-in-laws in south movies, even kill the first daughter-in-law to get a new daughter-in-law for her son with more dowry style!) being negative aspect for the movie shows 2 distinct vision of humans, scientists who says – MORE KNOWLEDGE and business men – MORE MONEY. So yeah we have more distinct people back on planet earth!

Inside the Making of the Movie

Coming back on the story telling, James Cameron just touched the expectation that I had for the movie, good story telling, very very convincing display of his version of the ET life forms, using the the latest CG techniques and technologies known and created for the movie AND the movie a is great EXPERIENCE! You will need to EXPERIENCE it, its a must watch if you are James Cameron/CG/Sci-fi/ET/Hollywood Movie Lover. There would be a lot other sites which can give you an insight of what is in store for the movie, but I stand with director for not breaking the experience that’s there in the movie for the viewers. So you guys should go and watch the movie, its 200% money value entertaining movie!

My First Trip to ‘PANDORA’ was AWESOME! I wanna go for the trip once again may be not in 3D this time, want to know the experience it in 2D too!

HATS OFF to the LEGENDARY VISIONARY – JAMES CAMERON!

CHEERS!

GC/GNEWS/TFF : Tegra for the Next Nintendo DS?

nVidia has disclosed that they have come to deal with Nintendo in getting the next gen Nintendo DS to have Tegra in it. As Tegra has claimed to be the next wave in handheld console gaming, as said by the nVidia CEO, seems to get the Big Fish in the league, but Nintendo is yet to disclose on it. Until Nintendo says so, I am not gonna, you know, expect this. It’s NINTENDO, they do anything, and they do it own their WILL! They had once upon a time refused to use the Compact Disc Technology from Sony, later adapted it for Wii.

So it’s not easy to convince Nintendo like that. Let’s see whether nVidia has been able to convince Nintendo or not. According to me, Nintendo should be doing it, we need to see a platform (handheld) to compete with sony so that the market improves.

Right now, DS is lagging only with the quality on visual experience, and Tegra can enhance it, a new feature addition may or may not enhance but the thinking of the possibilities of games like God Of War for a handheld like DS with the innovative hardware features like mic and touch plus a competitive graphics processor can really push the user experience to a different envelope, provided the game developers exploit it.

Well, I am not that old enough to give a suggestion to Nintendo, they know the market too well and they know to how to get people buy their hardware and their games as well, hope they will do something I would like to see them doing.

CHEERS

WAM : “100 All Time Favorites” kept me busy!

Finally, now I have the right to talk to the world about what I was working on for the past 8 months. 100 All Time Favorites – Ubisoft Pune’s first in-house production for Nintendo DS was successfully launched this Oct 27th in US and Nov 19th in EMEA. Since it was the first of its kind in India, promotions are some thing I am working more on these days, of course keeping my next project in wraps.

There are a couple of my feelings I would like to write in out somewhere. I feel today is the right day for it. I have my first Media Exposure on the title’s promotions and I got my hands on the original cartridge too! YAPEEEE!!!

My Official DS Copy of “100 All Time Favorites”

Thats the link to the first surfacing of the Interview with Animation Xpress’s Gaming Division, Gaming Xpress : LINK, the December Edition of Animation Xpress is to be having the article on the title too. Eventhough there are a lot more articles to follow, I will keep it in wraps again until these surface.

Even if I am happy with all the proceedings happening for “100 All Time Favorites”, a small sadness still pricks me. It may be very much only to me, there is a lot of things that I want to tell to the media on the Production, who worked day and night hard enough to re-invent and re-write a lot of things which weren’t right for the title at the first place! They always got me what the core team wanted. I remember days when they freaked out and said its impossible, but next they come back and tells “Jithin, we tried it like this and its working and so we can do it”. They just DON’T GIVE UP! May be I am a bit OBSESSED with my favorite team, may be I am not “may be obsessed”. I AM Obsessed with my team. They have no fear to improve, no giving ups and always think to get better second by second or hour by hour. I AM LOVIN’ IT!

From the testing part there were a lot of things about the QC PUNE too, the nights when they sat to get the 45+ hours game tested thoroughly making sure that the product is of really good standard.They worked hard to make sure that the hardships we went are perfect for any crowd outside. The energy they had to test a 45+ hour games more than 3 times, AH come on, I can’t watch movie (even if its the BEST movie ever made) for more than 3 shows or max of 6 hours. The commitment and energy is DAMN, really good.

These people’s credits are very much a part of their appreciation for the work they had done for the project. But for the audience of the game, all they need is to know about the game and how you made it, that’s all.

Of course the media also wants ONLY that kind of information, provided that are a couple of limited things to be disclosed too. This is the part where I am a bit sad, but that’s how it is. Hope that my team would understand it. Tremendous WORK, Tremendous COMMITMENT, Tremendous ENERGY! 3Ts for the TEAM!

Ah, it’s time I get back for the next another amazing journey of game development, long way to go and I need to play “100 All Time Favorites” too.

For the blog readers, I will some day (not committing on anything now) let you know about what I and my teams had learned from “100 All Time Favorites”.

CHEERS!

WAM : Long Time, Back to Blogging :)

It’s been pretty long time since I last blogged. Well, just trying to be back on track with it . Navarathri is starting and the weekend’s a 3 day vacation. Here’s what I did on the first day, a push and pull with Adobe Photoshop CS3 on a MUG .

That's what I did without a VACOM!

It’s gonna be a long weekend, and am gonna finish off all the pending games . Cheers!

GD : Top 10 Tips for a Game Programmer

I came thru this very good article on the top ten points thats a beginner programmer should be concentrating on @ Game Career Guide, thought it would help the new and younger generation developers who want to break into the industry. Lets start with as follows :

1. Write games. 

This is the most important thing any aspiring game programmer can do. It doesn’t matter what language you use, or what type of game it is, or even whether it’s very fun. What’s important is that you go through the experience of writing several full games from start to end and get a feel for how everything works together. The best recommendation would to work on several smaller games rather than one huge one.  Writing a mod is good, but make sure to write a few with your own, and very simple technology. These games will make great demos to strengthen your resume. 

2. Cover the basics. 

As a game programmer, there are certain techniques you’ll keep reaching for in your bag of tools. Make sure you get comfortable with matrices, vectors, and their operations; with basic data structures and algorithms; and with the fundamentals of software engineering and object-oriented programming. Getting a good foundation in those areas will allow you to concentrate on creating a game and not fumbling with basic concepts. 

3. Achieve intermediate level in C++. 

Most games are still programmed in C++, and to be an effective team member, you’ll need at least an intermediate level of C++. Don’t worry about mastering the language yet. C++ is full of dusty, dark corners that only language lawyers know about. Concentrate on writing solid, clean code without language trickery. Don’t obsess over specific APIs (DirectX, OpenGL, etc). Chances are you’ll use a different API or that it will be wrapped in a higher-level interface. 

Bonus points: Learn another, very different language. Python, Lua, or Lisp are good candidates. They’ll give you a whole new perspective on programming and make you a more effective programmer all around, and, depending on the project, they might even come in handy for game development. 

4. Never stop learning. 

Don’t think for a moment that as soon as you’re done in school you will have learned everything you need. The best game programmers are always actively learning new things, even after many years of experience. There’s no shortage of new things to learn about: new hardware, languages, techniques, APIs, algorithms, and more. And with so many resources on game development out there, there’s no excuse not to be constantly learning from books, magazines, web sites, and conferences. 

5. Communicate. 

I can’t emphasize enough how important good communication is when working in a team. You’ll have to communicate effectively to coordinate efforts with other programmers, to explain how your code works to artists and designers, to understand what features the rest of the team needs, and to explain to your boss what you’ve been doing and offer suggestions on how to make it better. 

How do you become a better communicator? Give presentations in your class, share what you’ve been doing with other people over lunch, write a blog detailing your experiences, or participate in forums and mailing lists on game development. 

6. Tools of the trade. 

Learning all the theory about programming and algorithms is great, but when it comes down to it, you’ll be using certain programming tools all day long. Get comfortable using a good editor, a source control program, and a debugger. Don’t worry whether they’re the same ones you’ll be using in your job or not. The important thing is to know what you can do with them and how to use them effectively. 

7. Work with a team on a large project. 

If you only work on projects by yourself, you’re going to be in for a shock when you land your first job in the games industry. Not only will you have to coordinate how your code works with other people, but you’ll have to read and modify large amounts of code written by other members of the team as well. If you don’t have the chance to work on large projects for your courses, join an existing open-source project to get some of the same experience. 

8. Play and study games. 

You should be familiar with the latest games out there, and with the latest advances in game technology. Don’t just play the games, but study them. Try to figure out what shadow rendering technique they’re using, or how their AI is making those tactical decisions. Find out more information through postmortems or mailing lists and think about if those techniques could be applied to your games. 

9. Pick an area of expertise. 

An effective game programmer has a very good understanding of how all the different areas of a game work together: graphics, AI, collision detection, networking, user interface, input, physics, and all the rest. At the beginning of your career, it’s very important to get exposed to as many parts of the game as possible. At the same time, start thinking about which areas appeal the most to you and focus on those a bit more. 

After a few years you’ll be able to specialize more and become an expert in a given area. 

10. Get a well-rounded education. 

Don’t be afraid to branch out and learn things not directly related to programming. Having a well-rounded education or even hobbies totally unrelated to game development can provide a useful foundation that will help you all throughout your career in lots of unexpected ways. 

Above all, apply yourself and finish your degree the best you can. Not only will you get a lot out of it, but you’ll also show potential employers you can stick to a long-term project and do well in it. 

Courtesy : Game Career Guide and the Original Author of this Article Noel Llopis written on [03.26.09] 

CHEERS