writer thoughts on a game-crazy world
Writing about a light is today’s little gem. I bring you a prose poem by the good, if perhaps inebriated, people behind “Safety Warning Flashing Lamp”:
Especially for the children,
blind men
old men
in the morning
or evening
and the cloudy
day
when the bright is
not enough,
to increase
more safety.
We’ve got an urgent call for game testers to work at Bioware, one of the best studios in Austin.
“We are looking for 20 Game testers for Bioware. We need to hire them by Friday. There are onsite interview on this Friday for this job in our office and start on Monday 04/19 of next week.
“We need resumes with good game testing experience on Online MMOs. I need your Word resume and the cover letter elaborating your experience in the Game Testing-Online MMO game testing, games you have tested, your QA experience/skills etc. I would be happy to schedule your interview.
“The rate is $10/hr on W2. The start date is 04/19. (Work location- Domain Mall- North East Austin)”
The interview is Friday 12pm-5pm at 12007, N Research Blvd, Suite 103, Austin, TX 78759 (the Volt offices). If you’re interested please contact Manisha, mlele AT volt.com – don’t email us! And don’t go to the interview sessions without contacting Manisha first.
BUT if you do land this tasty game tester job, please let us know! It sounds like a good opportunity for the right people.
Game Writers Aren’t the Only Developers Who Need Writing Skills“Game designer” is an oft-misunderstood label that, like all labels, sometimes fails completely in describing the variety and depth of tasks tackled by the many talented people who fall into this bucket. Many times game consumers and friends have told me they thought game designers were the people who put faces on avatars and choose the colors for game environments. (I believe the confusion stems from the word “designer,” which evokes “graphic designer” and all things visual.)
Perhaps it’s a related consequence that few non-developers understand how much writing figures into the workload of a good game designer. Randy Smith’s latest blog at the excellent British game publication Edge Online addresses this, and the oxymoronic way in which we are often forced clumsily to use words to describe the indescribable. It’s a little-known fact that game job postings for designers specifically ask for English degrees. A game designer must be an idea generator, but she must also be an idea communicator. If a game designer can’t draw a vivid picture of her concept with words and the occasional diagram*, she can’t expect her teammates to bring that vision to life using often-recalcitrant tools and code.
* And yes, a good game designer needs the ability to use art tools to communicate visually as well as verbally.
Game design pointers don’t get any better than when they come from Jordan Mechner, the man who designed Prince of Persia, The Last Express, and one of the main reasons I became a game designer, the elegant and stylish Karateka.
Here’s his blog on story-based game design. Today I’m giving props to design tip #6: “The more the player feels that the events of the game are being caused by his own actions, the better — even when this is an illusion.”
And yes, the new Prince of Persia movie looks promising. They scored Jake Gyllenhaal, Alfred Molina, and Ben Kingsley on the cast. It’s helmed by Mike Newell, whose resume is a lot more balanced than, say, Michael Bay’s (Newell’s work includes Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Love in the Time of Cholera, and the indie darling Four Weddings and a Funeral).
Austin music and Brandi Carlisle fans, here’s a heads-up: Austin City Limits is taking emails for lucky audience applicants for a March 30 taping of Carlisle and Rosanne Cash.
We recently received notification of a need for game testers for Sony in Austin. If you’re interested in a game testing job in Austin, please fill out the contact form and we’ll pass it on to our contact at Nelson Technology. Please put the words “Game Tester” in the subject line.
Charge Your Xbox 360 Controller the Smart WayRecharging an Xbox 360 controller is totally different than charging a PS3 controller. An Xbox 360 controller, unlike the PS3 controller, has many removable battery options. If you choose, you can run your Xbox 360 controller off disposable AA batteries. However, buying new batteries and disposing of the old batteries* gets tiresome quickly.
Chances are that you have bitten the bullet on an Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack and are now looking for tips on charging your Xbox 360 controller with the RBP.
To figure out the proper way to charge your Xbox 360 controller, you gotta know what kind of batteries are inside it. And once again we have a little visual aid to show you exactly that. The answer: two Sanyo NiMH AA batteries.
No, NiMH doesn’t have anything to do with Mrs. Frisby and talking rats; it stands for nickel metal hydride. And as the kind folks at Battery University can attest, NiMH batteries do suffer from a memory effect and are best used in nearly-full recharge cycles. Avoid recharging your Xbox 360 controller after every use. Instead, run the battery pack down to about 20% charge and then give it a good full charge before using it again.
* Your neighborhood Radio Shack will recycle old batteries for you free. Cheers to the Shack.
Charging Your PS3 Controller BatteryYour PS3 controller charging should have a strategy. That’s right – it’s not just playing the PS3 that demands tactical thinking.
You see, someday your PS3 (aka Sixaxis or DS3 or, if you’re looking at the controller’s model number, CECHZC2U) controller battery is going to crap out. Not today, probably not next year, but someday. Every rechargeable battery someday becomes unusable. You’ll be charging the battery over and over again for minutes and then mere seconds of gameplay.
You want battery failure day to be a long way off. So with rechargeable controller batteries, you want a charging strategy that extends the battery’s life as much as possible. Unfortunately, controller charging strategies vary radically depending on what kind of battery’s inside your controller.
Fortunately, some other geeks have already sacrificed a PS3 controller for science, and here’s what they found: a nice large flat lithium battery.
Not only is lithium handy for settling scrambled brains (under supervision of a medical professional), but it’s perfect for most gamers’ play habits. Lithium controller batteries thrive when charged frequently. On the flip side, they fail sooner when they are subjected to frequent full discharges.
So don’t let that USB controller-charging cable gather dust. Connect up your PS3 controller regularly and let it drink deep from the power of your sleek PS3. Charging is good. Repeat after me. Charging is good.
I’ve also researched Xbox 360 controller charging strategies, and I’ll unload that on you folks next. Hint: it’s not the same as the PS3 controller charging technique.
Television poker has spread all over late night TV like an aggressive mold growth, and I realized recently that it’s leaped over the proverbial shark, several times. No great revelation there, but it really sunk home for me the other night when I surfed into a game where Phil Ivey was at the table eating leftovers out of a pie tin while the other players discussed apartment hunting.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the antithesis of gripping, edge-of-your-seat television. Poker isn’t the most dramatic sport to watch (and arguably not even a sport), but I felt like at any minute Joe the Plumber might bust in with a twelve-pack of Natty Light and some generic pizza rolls.
I got into Texas Hold ‘Em — and yes, made some money playing online poker — back in the days of Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo. The poker on that show wasn’t always professional, but it was usually funny, light, and interesting if one of the guests was an actor or personality whom you admired. Those were some fun times. Looks like they’re gone now.
Haiti needs donations badly, as everyone knows.
The situation is bleak. But I just found out that several Austin organizations are offering a generous 1-to-1 Haiti donation match. You don’t have to be in Austin to participate. This is a great way to double the positive impact your dollars have.
Many thanks to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas, and God bless Haiti.
