| PlayCrafter is live! |
[30 Jul 2008|08:19pm] |
We launched PlayCrafter last week. Things are going very well so far. We've had very positive reviews on Mashable and GigaOm. People are making games and playing them. So you should definitely check it out and make me a game! :-)
Here is a short game I made:
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| Just made our PlayCrafter teaser video public. |
[10 Jul 2008|11:29pm] |
Check out a teaser / demo of PlayCrafter, our game creation for everyone site, and see what I have been up to for the past year and some. And let me know if you want an invite to the private alpha or just go to the site and leave your email address. Enjoy! :-)
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| Happy flu, a viral experiment |
[10 Jul 2008|09:40pm] |
One of my French acquaintance is running this social, viral experiment. It's weirdly named 'Happy Flu'. He's asked me to help out by seeding it in the US. Click on the nodes to see details. We'll see how this little French thing does on this side of the pond. :-)
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| Dusting off these old videos |
[11 Apr 2008|09:12am] |
I am pretty excited about flickr video. I have been sitting on a few small videos that I have never bothered uploading. And now I can do so easily and they will stay in context with my pictures. This one was shot in Vegas, a features Curt and his brother Lee. The dialog is a bit hard to hear but the last line is priceless. :-)
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| I call it "startup jet lag" |
[31 Oct 2007|06:25am] |
When you wake up in the middle of the night thinking it's time to get to work and can't get back to sleep until, you do, in fact, get to work.
Ah, we are far away from the "roughly 40 hours a week " that I was putting in when ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anukul asked me about it back in May. I feel like a true american now. :-P Or at least a true entrepreneur (entrepreneuse???) The funny/good thing though: it doesn't feel like work.
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| We got business cards! |
[19 Oct 2007|12:06am] |
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music |
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Be With You-Magnet-Dreamfall - The Longest Journey Soundtrack EP |
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And they are awesome. They are customizable. You pick either Zip or Zap for the back and 1 of 3 characters (a robot, Cork Man and Cute Guy - featured in my userpic) for the front.
Now, we just have to kick ass so we have a reason to hand them out! :-D
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[18 Oct 2007|11:55pm] |
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music |
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Be With You-Magnet-Dreamfall - The Longest Journey Soundtrack EP |
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shaktool is awesome! He found an MP3 of the theme song from Dreamfall. I spent hours looking for it when I finished the game, and finally gave up. But he found it in ... oh... less than 30 seconds. It's easier when you know where to look I guess. (In this case, Galbadia Hotel, a game music download site.) :-)
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| Craigslist posting machine |
[19 Aug 2007|12:39am] |
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mood |
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 accomplished |
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I just posted 12 things that had been sitting in the garage for years on craigslist. Yeah!
(And they'd better sale, or I'll get mad.)
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| Starting a company is like... |
[17 Aug 2007|12:44am] |
I thought of a very good analogy for starting your own company. It's very much like moving away from home. It's really great and exciting because you can do whatever the hell you want, but it's also incredibly challenging and stressful at first because you need to own up to things and take a lot more responsibility.
When you first move away from home you might eat dessert for every meal, go to bed at 2AM on a school night and not pay much attention to that phone bill you got a while ago, but soon enough you start understanding things (like where that "freshman-15" came from, why you are getting C's in your 8:30 class and why the cell company just cancelled your cell phone service.)
Same with your own company: after a few months of flexible hours, you understand why most companies have "core hours", and after having to figure out your own payroll you suddenly realize the red tape at your old job really wasn't so bad. However, just like I wouldn't go back to live with my parents (and I love them very much), I don't think I'll ever go back to a corporate job.
Freedom is addictive, even when it comes with responsibility.
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| Casual Connect and the fire under our butts |
[09 Aug 2007|01:48am] |
Casual Connect was rather informative. None of the talks were mind-blowing, although a few of them stuck with me: Kenny Dinkin of Playfirst had some good insights (and mostly asked good questions) about character and story creation in casual games. Nick Fortugno gave a more traditional game design talk focusing on points and gave a useful way to think about them. John Vechey, co-founder of PopCap games, had some juicy and very pointed warnings for the industry as a whole. Of course, it was also fascinating to see Nolan Bushnell talk since he has been around for so long. (I was dying to ask him if he'd ever regretted selling Atari, but I was afraid he'd eat me alive.)
In any case, the most valuable thing we got out of Casual Connect was: a fire under our butts (even now, I hear it crackling under my chair!) We felt the heat so much that, since we got back, we have: officially incorporated (we exist, woohoo!), recruited a full-time developer (away from Google–isn't that something!) and found a contract developer / game designer / artist. All that while still making significant progress on the design and development side. Motivation is everything, folks.
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| Going to Casual Connect |
[08 Jul 2007|10:35pm] |
(Why is it that so many video game-related things sound vaguely dirty?)
Anyway, Curt and I will be in Seattle 7/15 to 7/19 for Casual Connect, the casual games conference. We will be staying with a friend of mine from high-school. I am sure he'll have lots of wisdom to impart since his startup is in the post-acquisition stage. (Lucky him.)
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| Back safely (and comfortably!) |
[02 Jul 2007|02:15pm] |
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I got back safely yesterday. They were able to find me a seat on the afternoon flight that I was on standby for. "Unfortunately" they only had a business class spot available (and it was a window seat, at that!) It was the most comfortable flight: I could recline my seat completely to turn it into a bed. The champagne, wine and food were quite delicious. The only complaint I have is that the entertainment system didn't quite work, but that only meant that I spent more time enjoying my flying bed. Not a bad deal.
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| Travel woes |
[01 Jul 2007|12:35pm] |
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On standby in Heathrow. Possibly stuck here overnight. No Curt. I am assuming he got on the flight (we were on different flights out of Paris.) My flight got delayed 2 hours this morning because they couldn't figure out how to load 2 wheelchairs into the cargo hull of the plane. 2 hours it took them! Granted, these were bulky-custom-made wheelchairs, but it leads one to ponder whether the term "disabled" should be applied to more than just the wheelchair owners.
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| Off to Spain! |
[15 Jun 2007|03:18pm] |
I sure hope the weather in Madrid and Barcelona is better than in Normandy, otherwise I might never leave California again!
Ah! Just kidding. :-) All the rain in the world wouldn't stop me from coming back to France and visiting Europe, but still, a bit of sunshine would be nice, especially when we are supposed to be going to the beach!
No internet access and no pointe shoes in Spain - what will I do? (It would seem that my vacation is just now beginning.)
Hasta luego!
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| Performance withdrawal |
[06 Jun 2007|01:13am] |
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mood |
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bittersweet |
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music |
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Paquita(V. Variation. Allegro ma non troppo -- mus. Cherepn)-Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Boris Spassov-LEON MINKUS:La Bayadere, Paquita |
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My ballet performance was this past weekend. It went very well. We had two shows, one on Saturday night and the other on Sunday afternoon. A lot of my friends came to see it and my parents flew in for the weekend. It was such a wonderful time and I am so very sad it's over.
The pas de deux was amazing. I have had fun with dancing before (and the other piece was just that: a lot of fun with all the miming and silly costumes) but this the first time I have been able to go beyond the steps to generate a feeling and share it with an audience. It was intense. I am still recovering. Although, I am not sure that I will recover. This performance was such a rush, I just want to go right back on stage. I didn't even have bad stage fright this time. Certainly not the second day. Just an intense excitement beforehand and a tremendous sadeness afterwards. Honestly, I think I missed my calling.
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| Show-time! (Well, rehearsal time anyway.) |
[01 May 2007|03:53pm] |
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mood |
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 happy |
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music |
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Noc Pecal'na, Op.26 Nr 12-Galina Vishnevskaya And Mstislav Rostropovich-Songs Of Rachmaninov And Glinka |
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I have been rehearsing for my ballet performance that is coming up June 2nd and 3rd. This is a school performance for L'Ecole de Danse in Palo Alto. I have been dancing with the school since I moved to California two and half years ago and the school's artistic director, Christine Morgan, is the person I hold responsible for getting me back into ballet seriously.
The performance is showcasing the school's students with several 3 to 5 minutes pieces. Then the whole school gets together at the end for the finale. I am in 2 different pieces (besides the finale). One piece is based on the Legats' Fairy Doll where 2 Pierrots (mime-like characters) are trying to win over the love of a ballerina (the fairy doll). I play one of the Pierrots (traditionally a male role). The other piece is a pas-de-deux (a partnering piece), which I am dancing with ... a boy! (I suppose I should call him a man but he is only 19, so I think "boy" is more fitting.) He is an alum of L'Ecole de Danse and is now studying at the Academy of Ballet in San Francisco to be a professional dancer. Needless to say, he is very good. The piece we dance together is called Spring Waters, to a Song of Rachmaninoff and Glinka.
This performance is going to be a lot of "firsts" for me: first pas-de-deux, first time on pointe on stage, first time wearing a tutu (for the finale). (Not my first time in a male role, though.) It's very exciting as well as slightly scary.
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| Goodbye frog. |
[09 Apr 2007|04:24am] |
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Last Thursday was my last day at frog! I was sad. I was excited. I was sad.
I am really going to miss those guys! I guess I'll just have to crash dessert club once in a while. It was nice to hear several people (such as my manager, my manager's manager, and the director of HR) say that I could come back anytime.
Tomorrow is the first day of my new "job". It's going to be so odd not to have to go anywhere in the morning. We definitely have some logistics to work out between Curt and I: when do we work at home vs. at a coffee shop, when and how often do we see our respective friends so we don't drive each other nuts, etc. The first order of business is to reorganize the "office". I brought back 2 boxes of books and other miscellaneous stuff from work, Curt brought back 3. Plus, we bought a white board and we don't really have space to hang it up right now. Once that's taken care off, we can start for real.
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| D-day minus 2 |
[04 Apr 2007|12:49am] |
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mood |
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 restless |
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My last day at frog is Thursday. It was going to be Friday but it's a company observed holiday (Good Friday) so they are kicking me out a day early. That way, they don't have to pay me a vacation day. Oh well. I am still taking it off. So there!
I am really going to miss all the frogs (well, most of them anyway). Sometimes the projects sucked and the clients sucked, but the frogs were always there to save the day. I have handed off Dessert Club to Ben, a good friend from CMU and a foodie. I am sure he'll do a fantastic job with it. Maybe I'll just have to go back and crash periodically.
Curt and I are going to take Monday and Tuesday off before we start this thing in earnest. We have a 3 week vacation in June so we don't feel too bad about taking more time off now. In fact, I am wondering if we are going to be able to refrain from starting sooner. Excitement is building, but then we are also pretty tired from working nights and weekends on this for a while. Yes, 2 days off would be good. If only to celebrate our newfound freedom. :-)
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| And... Action! |
[27 Mar 2007|11:17pm] |
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mood |
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emotionally drained |
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It seems like Curt and I would be bored if we didn't make at least one life altering decision per year. It has been over a year since our last one (buying a house) and so we were overdue. But no more.
We are starting a... I know what you're thinking: "They got married then they bought a house so now, they must be starting a family" - but, you're wrong. We are starting a company, a web games company. Curt's brother, Tom, is also in on it and he has generously offered (and can afford) to pay us until we release our first product. Curt and I gave notice yesterday. Our last day is April 6th. We will be working out of our aforementioned house until we require real offices.
It's all incredibly exciting and a bit scary. Stay tuned.
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