Off to the IDEF Expo in Cannes, France

Travel season is definitely underway! As I’m heading into the final stretches at work before our game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, releases, I’m starting to see my travel schedule start to fill up. It’s pretty exciting to start showing off our games to a wide variety of people and industry colleagues, especially coming off a killer E3 2009 which saw us win quite a few awards, including the Game Critics Awards “Best of Show.”

This week, I’m heading way across the Atlantic to Cannes, France, to attend the IDEF 2009 expo. I’ve never been, but I’ve been told it’s a pretty important business-to-business trade fair for the European market. And well, you know, it’s in Cannes — which is not exactly terrible place to have to visit! My travel schedule is fairly grueling — it’s pretty much go, go, go from the moment I step on the plane today, but I have no doubt it’s also going to be awesome experience, work-wise and personally, since I’ve never been to the south of France at all.

With luck, I’ll have the time and energy to be able to post some interesting updates, if not my personal Twitter feed or the Naughty Dog Twitter feed can help you live vicariously, especially the jet lagged parts.

See you on the beach!
(I’m cruel, aren’t I?)

Delicious Links for Apr 14, 2009

Criterion Collection DVDs
Speaking of Criterion Collection box covers, here is the full catalog of DVD covers on the Criterion Collection website.
(tags: design cover film inspiration)

iGoogle Gaming Themes
Google presents a set of official themes for iGoogle that feature art from a wide range of videogames.
(tags: videogames google igoogle themes theme)

The GAF Collection Collected
The Criterion Collection inspired set of videogame box covers has been saved, resized and collected on one page for easy reference.
(tags: videogames design neogaf games boxart cover inspiration)

“The GAF Collection” – Weekend Photoshop Thread – NeoGAF
There’s been an interest recent surge of interpreting videogame box covers (and movie posters) in a style inspired by iconic design schemata from other media, like books (e.g. Penguin), movies or earlier eras in videogames. In this collection, gaffers take inspiration from covers of the acclaimed Criterion Collection. Possibly inspired by this post from WellMedicated: http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/an-ode-to-criterion-box-art/
(tags: videogames design neogaf games boxart cover inspiration)

Delicious Links for Apr 5, 2009

The Puma 917 Lo Mega shoes in action – Tiny Cartridge – Nintendo DS & DSi News, Media, Videos, Imports, Homebrew, & Retro Junk
Tiny Cartridge ran a photo I of my pair of Puma 917 Lo Mega shoes that I sent JC. They basically got delivered in one day since the shipping center was nearby. They’re pretty bright (and I love em), but they look a lot better than the product shot on Puma.com.
(tags: videogames shoes shopping mega+man megaman kicks)

Darwinia+
An interesting experiment by Introversion — they are going to basically document as much as possible regarding the development of Darwinia+ for Xbox Live Arcade.
(tags: videogames design developer darwinia development xbox360 xbla)

Delicious Links for Mar 29, 2009

Gamasutra – News – GDC: Evolving Game Design — Pagliarulo, Suda, And Ueda Speak
Gamasutra’s write-up about the Evolving Game Design panel I missed at GDC09.
(tags: gdc09 gamasutra videogames gamedesign)

The Brainy Gamer: The taciturn designer
The Brainy Gamer’s write-up about the Evolving Game Design panel I missed at GDC09 due to other work commitments.
(tags: gdc09 videogames gamedesign brainy+gamer)

Derek Yu – Game Over/Continue?
Speaking of Derek Yu, he was asked to collaborate with his artist friend Hellen Jo to collaborate on a game for the Giant Robot art show Game Over/Continue? I saw Derek playing this during the opening of the show and it looked pretty fun. Have to say that the art style is pretty great too. Can’t wait until Derek provides the game for us to download, I’ll be there day one.
(tags: experimental+games videogames gamedesign derek+yu giant+robot art)

Derek Yu’s Spelunky v0.99.8
A game I saw at the Experimental Gameplay session at GDC09. While I had played Spelunky before, I hadn’t really read about it. My interest increased exponentially when Derek mentioned that aspects of roguelikes inspired the creation of Spelunky.
(tags: gdc09 experimental+games videogames gamedesign free roguelike spelunky)

www.Farbs.org – Quirky little games for your edification
Home of ROM CHECK FAIL — a game I saw at the Experimental Gameplay session at GDC09. ROM CHECK FAIL was born out of an idea to combine variations of player characters and enemies, all randomly mashed-up from various videogames from the past.
(tags: gdc09 experimental+games videogames gamedesign free)

Closure, a free online game on Kongregate
One of the games I saw at the Experimental Gameplay session at GDC09. The background was that Tyler wanted to create a game where darkness would be an aid to the player, instead of just a challenge of obstacle.
(tags: gdc09 experimental+games videogames gamedesign kongregate free)

Achron – Time Travel is Coming
One of the games I saw as part of the Experimental Gameplay session at GDC09. 10 years in the making, this looks like it has some really interesting potential. Can’t wait to be able to play this, if that becomes an option.
(tags: gdc09 experimental+games videogames gamedesign rts achron)

Gamasutra – News – GDC: Inside The Experimental Gameplay Sessions 2009
Gamasutra’s write-up about the Experimental Gameplay session I attended the second half to, after the original session I was going to attend was massively overbooked.
(tags: gdc09 gamasutra experimental+games videogames gamedesign)