Blog for Ken Finney at GarageGames.com

Here and There

Ken Finney — 2007-06-14T20:58:09+00:00

I will be a guest speaker at Microsoft's EnergizeIT! event being held this weekend at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre. I will be presenting at the Game Camp / XNA breakout thread, at about 2:30 pm on Saturday, the 16th.

If you want to attend, you'll need to register here (Click the Register Now button). Registration is free.

And then I'll be out of town or otherwise tied-up until mid-July. My father died a few weeks ago, and I'll be spending a lot of time with my mother helping her get things sorted out.

Regards,
Ken

Canadian Torque Developer killed in Afghanistan

Ken Finney — 2007-04-12T06:34:02+00:00

My friend, and fellow GG Torque dev, Master Corporal Allan Stewart, aka Dr. Evil ~ TAG, was killed in combat yesterday in Afghanistan, along with one of his buddies. They were in their Coyote AFV about 45 km west of Kandahar, racing to the rescue of another Coyote crew, when they were hit by an IED. This was his third time in Afghanistan, this time having arrived in-country only last week. Two other crew members were injured by the roadside bomb.

More here.

He was my friend, and I will miss him.

Bopping along at Sprite House Games

Ken Finney — 2006-12-16T15:28:08+00:00

Quote:
Yay!

As a direct result of this event,
Sprite House Games, Inc., a new independent game company, was formed:
a three-way partnership of myself, Paul Forest, and Josef Rogovsky.

With the (strictly) volunteer help of 12 student artist/developers and 4 faculty artist/developers at the Art Institute of Toronto, and the support of Lisa Delorme, the President of AiTO who granted us unfettered access to AiTO facilities and equipment, we've put together all of the paperwork for our submission for the Great Canadian Game Contest, filmed, edited and built the pitch video, and shipped everything to Vancouver.

Everybody's pretty pumped. We won't hear back that we've made the Phase 1 cut until mid-January. In the meantime, we carry on.

Calling all Canadian Game Devs!

Ken Finney — 2006-11-14T16:39:23+00:00

During the past couple of weeks, I've been to a few game industry events, two of which particularly deserve mention: MIGS (Montreal International Game Summit), and the Microsoft GameOn XNA event in Toronto. I intend to write more about both of these in a later .plan when I have more time.

However, something that happened while I was at the Montreal Summit that I think needs to be publicized here: Telefilm Canada has announced a Big Deal game contest.

Telefilm Canada launches The Great Canadian Video Game Competition

Montreal, November 8, 2006 - In partnership with industry, Telefilm Canada today launched an innovative competition to create the next great Canadian video game.

Canada's top, emerging video-game developers will vie for up to $2 million in financing and invaluable industry mentorship in Telefilm's Great Canadian Video Game Competition, announced Wayne Clarkson, the Corporation's Executive Director, at the Montreal International Game Summit.

"Leveraging the Canada New Media Fund, Telefilm has created a new opportunity for talented Canadian game developers to build business expertise and commercialize original game content that takes advantage of innovative distribution methods," says Clarkson. "With the input and support of industry, this competition will give independent firms the leverage to attract required financing and distribution opportunities for its intellectual property."

Industry consultant and partner Danielle Michael, former Vice President of Business Development for Vancouver game developer Radical Entertainment, adds: "Telefilm is convinced that Canada has the talent and potential to be a world leader in the $20-billion video game market. While the country is already a key international hub for game development, challenges exist for independent game developers to bring original content to market in the multiplatform environment. The Great Canadian Video Game Competition, a first-of-its-kind initiative, will elevate the commercial profile of Canadian-owned gaming companies and help grow the industry."

The Competition is encouraging eligible game development companies to register at www.telefilm.gc.ca/game by December 15, 2006.

The initiative will take place in three rounds that mirror traditional industry financing. In January 2007, 10 companies will be selected by an industry jury to attain Round 1 status (Innovation) and receive up to $50,000 each in financial assistance to explore their gaming concepts, develop a visual identity and elaborate a plan to raise initial private-sector investment. In March 2007 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, four of the 10 companies will score Round 2 status (Project Development), receiving up to $250,000 each in financing to create a playable prototype. At Vancouver's VidFest, Telefilm will announce the winning company that will reach Round 3 (Commercialization), and receive up to $500,000 in matching funds from Telefilm to support the commercialization of its game.

However, all initial 10 Round 1 companies will receive key mentorship and insight from industry veterans with senior experience in game producing and/or business development.

The Competition is made possible through Telefilm Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada New Media Fund and the sponsorship of industry partners Electronic Arts, Radical Entertainment and Ubisoft.

Industry jury members include: Yannis Mallat, CEO, Ubisoft Montreal; Ron Moravek, Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Electronic Arts Canada; and Kelly Zmak, President, Radical Entertainment (Vivendi Universal Games Canada).

Competition advisory board members include: Lynda Brown, President, New Media BC; Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association; Rick Griffiths, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; and Victor Lucas, producer and co-host, Electric Playground.

Industry mentors include: Warren Currell, President, CEO, Sherpa Games; Rob Edgar, Manager of Business Development, Union Entertainment; Kirsten Forbes, Producer, Radical Entertainment (Vivendi Universal Games Canada); Clint Hocking, Creative Director, Ubisoft Montreal; and Alain Tascan, Vice President and General Manager, Electronic Arts Montreal.

Industry information sessions will be held in the following cities:

- Montreal: Montreal International Game Summit, Montreal Convention Centre, Room 522, Level 5, November 9, 10:00 AM;

- Vancouver: Hosted by New Media BC, Centre for Excellence, 555 Great Northern Way, November 14, 5:00 PM; and

- Toronto: Hosted by the New Media Business Alliance, Devil's Martini, 473 Adelaide Street West, November 16, 6:00 PM.

Competition information is available at www.telefilm.gc.ca/game.

Developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry

Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry. Telefilm provides financial support to the private sector to create distinctively Canadian productions that appeal to domestic and international audiences. The Corporation also administers the funding programs of the Canadian Television Fund.

Media inquiries:
Glen Edwards, Competition Media Relations
(604) 561-4640, glen@karyo.net

Douglas Chow, Deputy Director, Strategic Communications, Telefilm Canada
(514) 283-6363 or 1-800-567-0890, chowd@telefilm.gc.ca

What goes around, comes around

Ken Finney — 2006-09-26T19:04:10+00:00

3D Game Programming All in One, Second Edition (3D2E) was finally put to bed today. It should be on the shelves in November. The CD has gone for printing, the book is rattling through preprint layout, and I'm a wreck. Everytime I finish one of these things I feel ever more deflated afterwards.

The TOC for 3D2E looks exactly the same as the 1st. Ed. except for one more Appendix. But there's a hockey sock full of new content. I haven't received the final page count yet, but it's bigger. I'd include a link to its page on the Thompson site, but that part of the site db seems to be undergoing some changes at the moment, so no linky yet.

Paint Shop Pro is outa there. QuArK is outa there. Map2Dif is outa there, ms2dtsExporter is outa there (except for the built-in one, natch). The Gimp 2 is in (but GIMPShop didn't make it, 'twas too late :-( oh well ). Milkshape 1.79 is in there still, and steroidized with Chris Robertson's DTSPlus exporter (w00t!). Torque 1.4 is in there. Gobs o' goodies on the CD too. All the known errata are fixed. Latest revision of Audacity & UltraEdit-32 are there. Lotsa new tips & notes.

Plus a special surprise chapter !

Well, I've got this week off. Gonna kick around, play some games (Prey), mow the lawn for the final time this year (I hope), maybe get out for another Paintball shoot 'em up with the boys. Do some more work on the Return to Tubettiworld--got some storyboarding that I want to do for the singleplayer game. Sleep a lot.

Next week: new term at school. I've got seven classes to teach starting in the fall semester. It's gonna be a bear!

Ha! But I have one class to teach in Fashion Marketing. That's gotta be worth something :-)

Friday Jun 11 18:59

Ken Finney — 2004-06-11T18:59:53+00:00

More books in the works, game design ideas gathering mental dust. Tubettiworld creeps along, furtively, but undeterred.

It's been a busy, busy year. After shipping my book, I had a backlog of "regular" projects to get out of the way. Those being almost finished, I'm moving on to other things again.

I'm also currently wrapping up a companion work to my "3D Game Programming All In One" for college/university profs, which includes Powerpoint slides, exams, etc.

The most significant boats on the horizon are three book proposals I've been presented by three different organizations. I can't say anything more about them at them moment, except that one will certainly be of interest to the GG Community; a second one probably will be (I don't have any detail yet) and a third might be -- however I'm not sure that I will take on the third one (it's not really in any of my areas of expertise). There is some sorting out to do, but I'm planning (read: hoping) to get at least two of them done during the remainder of this year.

Tubettiworld has been mostly in the background for the past year, with little things being done here and there when I needed a break from writing. I've prototyped the player ranking system: if you are familiar with places like slashdot, where people moderate other people's posts, and then meta-moderators rank the moderators, you will be somewhat informed of the TW player ranking system. Just exchange 'posts' with 'player actions', introduce time-outs and default neutral rankings, and you'll be on your way. I've also prototyped an in-game 'technology creation' errr... technology, that you can use in 3D 1PPOV in a manner somewhat similar to TIM or Chain Reactions. Use 6 components to build a motor vehicle, or take away 3 of them, add an hoist and get a static crane.

Finally, a host of game ideas looking for creators, all doable with Torque:

Bomber Command (flight sim): Multi-crewed (actually the favoured term is 'poly-crewed') bombers and of course, fighters to attack them. WW I or WW II era.
We need a good Torque based flight model for this. In fact, there is a ready-made player base out there that's looking for a kick-ass flight model (high fidelity) with poly-crewing.

Space Command: Like Bomber Command, but use distributed host servers, where each spacecraft is hosted by a player, and its crew logs in to it to man the ship. A Master Server then manages the inter-ship action.

Construction Site: Never mind terrain deformation -- give the kids a bulldozer, a crane, a dump truck and a pile of steel girders, pre-formed walls, wood, etc. and put them to work building Anywhereville.

Net Parlour: Internet meeting site, with 3D avatars at a simulated parlour table (picnic table, deck, basement hideaway) to play games like chess, checkers, battleships, cards, etc. Chat interface (voice/text). You could do it free-form (no rules set, only game action support) or rules-aware (so that a server tracks scores, enforces game play rules, prevents cheating). Obviously if you do a single-player mode, then it would have to be rules-aware. You could do the whole thing in a modular form with new add-ons to support new game types (card games, 'board' games, 'paper' games, 'floor' games (pretzel), 'body' games (charades). Game hosts could design their own 3D parlour and clients could design their avatars and upload them to hosts.