GeekSugar

It's Party Time: The Spore Launch Event

GeekSugar — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:00:19 -0700

I was lucky enough to get invited to the Spore Launch Party which was held at the new (but still under construction) California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park last Thursday. It was the perfect place to hold the release party, as we were surrounded by science and evolution! I can't wait for the facility to open to the public so I can go back and check out all the cool things they have hidden behind those closed doors. Check out my slideshow where I rubbed elbows with the likes of Will Wright and Ocean Quigley - a geek's dream come true!

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Spore Mania: My Interview with Ocean Quigley

GeekSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:00:18 -0700

We have just a few more days until Spore hits the streets, and I couldn't be more excited! In preparation for the release, I got a chance to speak with Ocean Quigley, Spore's Art Director, about the making of the game, and all the challenges they faced while producing this trailblazing title. We also talked in depth about Spore's Creature Creator; the thing that allows you to mold and sculpt your creatures to life.

I'm assuming that you've already been toying around with it, because there are more than three million creatures created and submitted to the Sporepedia - Spore's answer to the encyclopedia!

Not surprisingly, with all the fun creatures, buildings, and planets you can make (and take over) in Spore, this game has been in development for quite some time. But you won't believe just how long it took to get made! Read on for my full interview!

So exactly how long have you been working on Spore?
A great long time! I started on it back in '99 after finishing up Sim City 3000, doing a few months of conceptual design with Will Wright (the creator of The Sims and Spore), then took a break to work on Sim City 4. So I've been noodling with it, well, geez, since back in the 20th century!

You must be totally relieved now that it's finished!
It's kind of hard to believe that we've come to the end of such a long development cycle. I've accumulated about six months of vacation, so I'm going to disappear for a while!

To check out the rest of my interview with Ocean, and why Spore will change the face of 3D modeling forever, just read more.

Where did your career start? Did you always know that you wanted to get into video games?
I started out as an oil painter, but it's not too often that you get to be on the ground floor of a new medium like that has been done on computers. Oil painting has been around for centuries, and people have been painting on cave walls before that, so if you think about the opportunity to be in the thick of a formation of a new art form, those opportunities are really rare. With the explosion of computer power we've seen over the last few years or so, it's become possible to make no-holds-barred, straight up artwork. It's was obvious to me in the early '90s that I needed to be a part of this.

Coming from a fine arts background, was it hard for you to relinquish that control of what will be produced in the game by the players?
That was kind of interesting! Because you have to hold back a little bit. Usually, when you're an artist you say, "This is what I want this object to look like," and you sort of bang on it until it looks like what I want it to look like. But in Spore, I had to step back because how it works out will be up to the player. In Spore, you're really experiencing a new kind of artwork where it's made by the interactions of the player. It's not this static, inert object. It's a dynamic art form. It took years to figure out and get used to.

Spore's creation editor is similar to some professional 3D modeling programs out on the market. How do you think Spore's creation editor is better or different than those programs?
The main difference is that the professional programs like Maya don't make any assumptions about what you're doing, so you're working up from bits and pieces. If you wanted to make a creature, you may start with a cube, and then pull those shapes where you want them to be. Whereas in our Creature Editor, we've given a lot of thought about making creatures and how they are put together. So instead of starting with a triangle or cube, we give you the structure of creatures (spine, muscles) and they are just waiting to be sculpted. So really, you could make creatures, like, a thousand times faster in our editor than in other programs.

I get the feeling that Spore will spawn a whole new generation of 3D modelers and animators. Did you have that in mind when creating the game?
No question. It's such a wonderful experience to create things and bring them to life. But the barrier to enter the 3D modeling world is incredibly high - not only are the production tools really expensive, but they are really hard to use. So one of the things that I wanted to do was give that experience of creation - of what it's like to shape something and see it come to life and basically give tangible form to your imagination - to millions of people, not just the handful of artists that use these expensive programs.

I'd expect that Spore will be a gateway to thousands of visual artists, but also that professional modeling programs are going to have to learn from Spore's user interface. You're going to have these artists coming from Spore, and then into these higher level programs like Maya, and they will realize how awful they are to use.

You worked on The Sims, which has been hugely popular with the female gaming community. Did this fact have any impact on how you made Spore?
Yeah, no question. We have a lot of women in senior positions, and we wanted to make sure that we didn't just make something that would appeal to the guys on the team, so at every stage the art direction was critiqued by the women that were on the project. The final art direction that you see reflects the years of ideas we thought would appeal both to men and women.

Will you play Spore, or are you completely Spore-d out?
Yes, I will play, but I'm actually waiting for a release copy, just like everyone else! I've got a pretty good sense about what the play will be like, but I'm needing a little bit of a break so that I can play with fresh eyes. My kids are very excited to play it as well.

Do you play any other video games?
I like all kinds of games, but the only type that I really don't play are the World of Warcraft, or online games in general. I've got the kind of personality that I know it would just take over my life! It's good to know your limitations.

2008 Video Game Preview: Part I

GeekSugar — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:15:12 -0800

As awesome as 2007 was for gaming, with the release of some of the most advanced games yet, 2008 seems to have a few tricks up its sleeve for us, too. Although Super Mario Galaxy, Halo and Guitar Hero will be on heavy rotation for months to come, I have a feeling that we'll need to make room in our closets for some new faves.

In the first of this three part series, we'll look at four of the twelve coolest games to hit the shelves in the next twelve months. Kicking it off will be the newest title in an uber-creepy series, a fast paced racer that encourages destruction, a revolutionary newcomer and a little something to help you work on your fitness. Game On!

Resident Evil 5
If you're a fan of Resident Evil, you will most likely dig the newest installment of zombified Haitians, eerie sounds, and guns, lots of guns, which you'll want to keep fully loaded. Although it might be hard to top the scare factor of RE4 that left me wanting to leave a light on before bed! Sure to scare you this year on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Now for three more games if you read more

Spore
This evolutionary game created by The Sims' mastermind Will Wright starts us off in the first of five "phases" as a single cell organism. Once you've gathered enough DNA points, you'll then have the ability to evolve, customize your creatures, mate, populate and travel to different worlds.
Evolving on your PC this summer.

Burnout Paradise
The awesomeness of Burnout continues with destruction based challenges and all out pedal-to-the-metal-timed races, this time covering the world with online play and incorporating your consoles' camera abilities to take your license photo! Sweet! Cruising onto your PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter.

Wii Fit
The Wii can do no wrong. Totally Fit approved, the Wii Fit balance board will help you perform up to 40 different exercises and even calculates your BMI. Perfect for all those who over indulged this winter and might need a little bit of intervention. It's not exercise - It's a game! Sculpt your way to being fit this winter.

Stay tuned for the remainder of our preview series to scope out the rest of the best for 2008!

Source

Geeky Girl We Love: Ingrid Diaz of Play Girlz

GeekSugar — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:04:19 -0700

Last month we featured some of the cutest geeky couples and bachelors in the blogoshere, which left many of you wondering - what about the women? Fear not my fine friends, we were just saving the best for last. March is Women's History Month so I figured there was no better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the smartest, most creative and successful women on the internet.

Ingrid Diaz is one of those women that proves geek is chic while bashing the misnomer that girls can't love video games and celebrity gossip. She's the co-editor of Play-Girlz, a fun site that "proudly shows that gaming isn't just a guy sport," and the editor of Grey's Anatomy News and Top Model Gossip. Besides being a great ying/yang combo, Diaz is pretty hilarious and not afraid to admit she likes to frighten the neighbors by singing loudly and off-key while she plays video games. She's also the first geeky gal to admit she thinks Bill Gates is sexy...or maybe that was her joking again... For the full interview, read more

Geeksugar: Tell the geeksugar fans how you became a blogger.
Ingrid: Hmm. A little about myself. Well, I’m a level 70 human mage. Currently fire/frost specced, though this changes … Oh. You meant the “real” me. Ahem. Well, my professional career began at the ripe age of eight when I became the President of the Nintendo club on my street. It came complete with uniforms (white t-shirts with Nintendo logo patches expertly stitched on by un-talented eight-year-old hands…) Then came the obsessive collecting of video game consoles whenever they’d come out.
Then came the moment a couple of years ago when I was offered the chance to get paid for my video gaming obsessions. A good friend of mine, Erin Harvey, emailed me out of the blue and said, “Hey you want to write on this video games blog with me?” and I was like “Hm. Write about video games? For money? Let me contemplate this deeply and in the lotus position…” and then I had a phone meeting with Jeremy Wright of b5media and Play Girlz was born.

Geeksugar: The most obvious question: So many people think girls aren’t gamers or geeks – what do you say to them?
Ingrid: Well I probably wouldn’t say anything. I’d email them, or IM them, or send in-game tells with disapproving emotes. And then it’s likely that I’d challenge them to a “friendly” PvP duel, pwn them, and then do a little victory dance … and then I’d do my nails.

Geeksugar: What are your three favorite video games?
Ingrid: World of Warcraft, SingStar (I like to frighten the neighbors by singing loudly and off-key), and Grand Theft Auto (I like stealing cars… in the game … not in real life … erm…)

Geeksugar: How many hours are you online everyday?
Ingrid: Depends on the day, but usually anywhere from 12-18.

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a ...
Ingrid: Desperate attempt by a 10-year-old to create a super computer out of duct tape, construction paper, and a series of other household items that didn’t work out quite the way she’d planned. She was then forced to turn it into a space ship (this didn’t work out very well either…) My first working computer a Texas Instrument something or other that only had a chess game on it. I played a lot of chess.

Geeksugar: What is your favorite thing about your job? What is your favorite thing about the sites?
Ingrid: It gives me a chance to re-label all of my dorky, geeky, and previously known as “procrastinating activities” as “working.”

Geeksugar: Any funny stories about being a blogger?
Ingrid: Noooo … this is a very serious business. SERIOUS. No laughing allowed. *whispers* This conversation isn’t bugged, is it?

Geeksugar: How many blogs are in your RSS reader?
Ingrid: Uh… 543. I have an unhealthy addiction to the subscription button…

Geeksugar: What are some of your non-geeky hobbies?
Ingrid: Um. Er. Hrm. I like to juggle … that’s not geeky, is it? Oh! I like shop! …. Online. Hm.

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest male geeks in the world?
Ingrid: Marshall on Alias, Bill Gates (so sexy), and the Lone Gunmen on X-Files (does that count as 3?)

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest female geeks in the world?
Ingrid: Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Brennan from Bones, Oracle on Birds of Prey, Elphaba on Wicked, and Abby on NCIS.

Geeksugar: Name a blogger you admire and tell us why.
Ingrid: Caitlin R. Kiernan. Well, she’s not really a professional blogger per say, since she’s actually a fiction author, but her online journal is a must-read for me. I love her style and her beliefs about writing and I’ve always found her to be a big inspiration. Her books are awesome if you’re into dark fantasy type stories.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about being called a “geek”?
Ingrid: I feel warm and fuzzy inside. I love it. It’s so much better than being told I’m “normal.” What a dreadful tragedy that would be.

Geeksugar: What is the geekiest thing about yourself?
Ingrid: After much contemplating and running it through my super computer (still made out of duct tape and construction paper) I have calculated that the geekiest thing about me is 7.82.

Geeksugar: Anything else you want to share?
Ingrid: Gum. I have gum. Would you like some?

Check out our other interviews with geeky girls.