using our brains to save yours
Steve ran across this story on Lifehacker the other day.
Is this really efficient enough to be practical? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s awesome. Once the power grid goes down and zombies are roaming the streets, electricity is gonna be in short supply and the more ways you know to get around that, the better. Let’s face it, despite the fact that shake-to-charge flashlights exist, most still use batteries.
And darkness isn’t your friend.
When I first started in the business (Jeez, is it really fifteen years?) making games really was, well, a lot of fun and games.
There were, of course, plenty of creative frustrations and long hours, but back in those primitive days game development was just like what you want in a game: adventure, exploration, and immediacy. When I look back at the kinds of stuff I did in the Wild West days of games — like the Mechs in MechCommander, the Ospreys in Half-Life, or the animations in Counter-Strike — I remember it almost the way you do a great gaming session: a lot of drama, laughing, cursing, and pushing yourself hard.
In a word, fun.
Today it’s my pleasure to introduce our technical art director Steve Theodore, also referred to as the “king of all technical artists” by our art team.
(With apologies to all other technical artists out there; I’m sure you’re awesome too…)
It’s a distinctive pleasure to have Steve onboard at Undead Labs, because I’ve been trying to recruit the guy for at least five years. Can you believe he turned me down to take a job at Bungie working on Halo 3? Really, what was he thinking?
For seven years, I headed up game design at ArenaNet, working with a family of friends to create the Guild Wars games. I am tremendously proud of the work we did together and of the world that millions of players have lived in and enjoyed.
Still, when the opportunity came to join Jeff at Undead Labs, I didn’t hesitate. I knew I could do so safely. Guild Wars 2 is well in hand. Eric Flannum has been at the helm as lead designer for more than a year now, taking the concepts we developed at the start of the project and bringing them to life. He and I are long-time friends and partners-in-crime, working together on Warcraft II, Diablo, Starcraft, Sacrifice, and every Guild Wars release to date. I have complete confidence in the game that he and the team will make.
I am ready for a new challenge, and this is the perfect opportunity to do something groundbreaking and amazing. Console zombie-survival MMO. If your heart doesn’t race a little at the possibilities, check to make sure you’ve got a pulse at all.
Today is a momentous day at Undead Labs. Over the past few months we’ve been quietly refining our design, working out the core systems, and — most importantly — building the most ass-kicking zombie-slaying game development team ever assembled. Over the next few weeks I’ll be introducing the entire team to you; including our inbound art director Doug Williams, who painted the tasty image attached to this post.
Today, we start with my long-time friend and colleague James Phinney.