Getting in the game

Shayne Guiliano — 2007-01-02T12:59:18+00:00

I've yet to prove myself to be a consistent blogger, but it's my new years resolution and this seems like the right place to start. I'll see how long that lasts (let's see if it lasts longer than my diet resolution...both might end in record time.)

My xmax vacation in Tampa was so nice. I moved out to San Jose from Boston in July and started working for Namco Networks in August. Since then I've probably been more focused and productive than ever in my life (mostly trying to get to that first raise and convince them to move me onto original games...porting Pacman and Galaga is fun, but not sustainably engaging.)

Anyways, so this was the first vacation in my life that really felt like it was absolutely necessary for my continued sanity. Fortunately, my 2nd Wii controller arrived in the morning just before we left for the airport. Made the whole vacation so much more fun than it would have been otherwise. I think the Wii should win the Nobel peace prize for the miracle that occurred at my parents' house Christmas Eve and day. Everyone had so much fun making Mii's of the whole family, playing Wii Bowling, drinking way too much of my Uncle Paul's "Special Sangria" and then we all laughed our asses off while watching the drunken results via slideshow after sliding the SD card from my camera into the Wii.

And then Super Mario Bros was released on Christmas day!! I've got a picture of my 76 year old grandmother playing Mario Bros on Christmas. Can't ask for a better vacation.

Let's see...my games of the year for 2006:

1a Wii Sports - Watching my other grandmother, who is developing alztimers, play a hole of Wii golf is probably the most emotional I got over xmas, and playing a game that 3 different generations can enjoy simultaneously is revolutionary. Nintendo might have just saved the industry for the 2nd time.

1b Wii Mii's - Probably as fun as actually playing the games, Mii's might go down as the most emotionally attaching video game device in history. I'm interested where Nintendo goes with them. I can imagine entire fan-built Miivilizations forming.

2 Battlefield 2 - X360 - Haven't spent more hours on any other game. Totally addictive. Better than Halo 2, imo.

3 Bully - PS2 - Just a brilliant game, the most important experientialistic game of 2006, imo.

4 Skipping Stone - Mobile - Probably the first original, addictive mobile game in the short history of the industry that truly works better as a cell phone game than it would on any other platform. Wish I had thought of it first.

5 - Cybernations.net - My nation is autonomonadia. The best 5 minute per day web site game I've ever played. My nation is already as big as San Jose, and hopefully I'll be gobbling up San Fran soon!

Honorable Mention - Trauma Center Wii - The first Wii game that proves the Wii is not a gimmick that will fade, and a game that will at least inspire 1 new child to become a doctor who might not of otherwise.

Personal Highlights from 2006

Winning GDC Mobile Game Developer's conference contest. Co-winning , actually, but it was still cool. Got to walk on stage during the Game Develop Choice awards and sat a couple tables away from Keita Takahashi and Tim Schafer. I have to say, Tim Schafer is like a cult leader with his dev team. I've never seen anyone so loved by his co-workers. His table-mates even had Tim Schafer cheers that seemed a little choreographed to not be regular. I wonder if they do those chants every time he walks into the office in the morning, like he's a rock star.

Getting a job with Namco - Just fricken cool. Not only do I get to work with Pacman, Dig Dug and Galaga, but before I got the job offer I had $26 in my bank account.

Becoming a Wii developer - If Autonomous can get Butterfly Garden done in 07, it'll be so fricken cool to be able to download my game onto my Wii.

Concepting Butterfly Garden - I just love the game concept. I actually thought of it while thinking about what to give my girlfriend for xmax 05, but didn't really start to understand the game design until after GDC when I got good feedback from MS and Nintendo after showing our initial butterfly demo movie.

Moving to California - This is paradise. Apple, Google, Ebay, HP, etc are down the street. Weather is amazing, especially compared to Boston and Tampa. Best choice ever. If it wasn't for the astronomical housing market, I'd never leave.

Looking forward to 07! I'll try to start blogging more often!

Blog for Shayne Guiliano at GarageGames.com

Getting in the game