Just passionate about Education, Gaming, and Family
Business
The Indie Force is Strong in Austin
21 year ago
Many people have asked why I decided to stay put in Austin when the gaming space is so large in California. I could list a million reasons all dealing with financial issues, however the big reason for me is the indie movement. Yes Austin is known for its indie music scene but the creative talent doesn’t stop there. Austin is home to over 60 game studios both indie and AAA and we have several events every month for games it seems. A few nights ago Austin hosted the Game On event. I decided I needed to get out and mingle a bit and I took along my camera. Please give me feedback on the video! Thanks for watching!
Related links:
http://www.twistedpixelgames.com
http://www.descendantsoferdrick.com
I Want to Say Thank You
51 year ago
As many of you know my current job at InstantAction has come to an end. I lived a great dream to be able to work at the company I have loved for so long. It’s sad to see it go and to see so many friends with out a job. But I don’t want create a blog that focuses on the negative, there is too much positive to focus on right now. And mainly I want to say Thank You!
I want to say thank you to Eric Preisz mainly for hiring and giving me the opportunity to work along a great team. He gave me the chance of life time and it was a great value to me and something I will never forget. As it turns out, he is a very awesome boss and I mean that with the utmost sincerity. I also want to say thanks to Michael Perry, Derek Bronson, Michael Blenden, Matt Fairfax, and Deborah Fike. There has only been one other job in my life where the people were as passionate as these guys and gals here. These people, whom I consider close friends, will stay with me for ever. I can only hope they thought I was just as passionate about InstantAction as they were. I hope that I get the chance to work with them again some day… and some day soon!
Why am I taking the time to thank these people? Because I consider them friends and not just networking connections. Yup, I am going to turn this post into a business post…. 
Some people consider my network connections pretty large, I am no Gary Vaynerchuk, but I am getting there. However, when I make connections with people I try and build REAL friendships with them. The kind where the people I am connected to actually care about me and I care about them. Competitor or not. As the result of these friendships, I have built over the years, I am seeing an abundance of real concern and connections with many job opportunities. As soon as I announced I was unemployed 5 opportunities were sent my way. These were not the “Hey I saw this on the job board you should look at it” but it was more “Hey sorry to hear you are a bum now, but I have an opening and would love for you to interview”. I even got a phone call asking, “Why the H#LL didn’t you tell me?!” followed by an “ok well let’s get you going again”. I am not sharing this to brag, I don’t think I am some kind of BizDev wizkid, or that my skills are so awesome that people throw themselves at me. I am writing to tell you that if you are in a job and you are making connections, treat them like humans and remember to say THANK YOU to each of them! Be remembered for making each person count and they will remember you as a result of that.
Okay that’s it for now and you know what? Thank you for reading this!
How to Find the ROI on your Social Media Efforts
01 year ago
There is no way to truly measure ROI on Social Media please stop asking!
Yes there is a value in Social Media, will you find a way to measure it? No, not from someone else. You will have to find what is valuable to you and your organization and look to increase that point with social media. No one else can create this formula for you. Oh, and one more thing. Don’t try to tie social media efforts directly to revenue or you will end up like this. That is all!
@therealcliffyb FYI the US Supreme Court is about to decide if violent games should be treated like porn.
01 year ago
So let me explain. This was a tweet sent out from non-other than Cliffy B of Gears of War fame. I wanted to expand on my reply ,”we already have a system in place just like porn what we need is responsible parents” to this tweet. The system we have in place to identify games that may not be appropriate for children is already there in place. The issue is and always have been are the parents. Video games are not babysitters, they are not friends for your kids, and they are not something to shut your child up so you can get some peace and quiet. We as parents need to pay attention to what our kids are doing with their spare time and be move involved. If your child has a console or PC in there bedroom then how can you be sure of what they are playing? Kids trade games with their buddies and bring home new games all the time. Treating the games like porn and requiring an ID to buy will do nothing to stop the games you don’t want to come in your house. It’s only going to make kids want them more! Unless again you are more involved. Understand what titles you are buying them and make gaming a family experience and move the consoles and PCs to an area like the den or living room where you all can see it. Sorry I hate to vent on this one however, people assume since I have kids I will be on the side of making it more difficult to buy games. NOPE. The strict purchasing rules don’t stop kids from smoking or drinking alcohol. We know that all programs aimed at kids to stop them from smoking or drinking has a statement in it about getting parents involved.
Pay attention to your kids!
Basically I want to say this: Please stop blaming game makers and start blaming bad parents. Parents get off your butts and find out what your kids are doing by being a part of their lives. Porn, Alcohol, Sex, drugs, Violent Games, educate your kids on what not to do. And show them good examples and stay involved in their life.
end of rant
The Phone Arms Race has Begun!
01 year ago
A few days ago a report surfaced that Sony has a new Playstation phone. This maybe bigger news for the mobile gaming space instead of the mobile phone space. Nintendo has been the king of mobile gaming for a long time. Even though Steve Jobs said that the iPod/iPhone was the number one selling gaming platform. Nintendo is doing its part to innovate by bringing us 3D game play with out the glasses. Sony is bringing us a phone with a REAL controller. And Microsoft is connecting us to our home experience with it’s device as well as a tactile way to interact with the game. These brand new innovations are coming out on the hills of an iPhone iteration which of course gives Apple the chance to sit back and watch what takes off and what fails, but also puts them at a disadvantage. Apple should not create a new iPhone so that users who just upgraded feel alienated and leave to another platform. Maybe Apple could finally approve of a hardware addon to the iPhone? How is Apple going to compete in this new market where the consumer has so many options. Not to be forgotten, how are the developers going to fair with so many platforms to build for? The next 2 years will be a very difficult time for developers and consumers as we will have the many viable options for mobile entertainment. Let the war began!
Windows Phone 7 was my idea!
41 year ago
While attending GDC Online this year I had the chance to speak with several different people from many different positions in the game industry about Windows Phone 7. Some people got it and understood why it was such a big deal and then some didn’t. There was one conversation I had with an executive from a mobile phone game studio that definitely did not get it. No I wont say the companies name nor the employee’s simply out of respect.
The conversation started like many others that day. “Hey, here’s who am I. Hey, who are you?” That sort of thing. But then it turned as soon as I said, “What are your plans for Windows Phone 7?” He gave me a look of disgust and said that Microsoft didn’t know how to build a working mobile phone solution. He began telling me about all the problems with the Microsoft Kin and Windows Mobile. He started spewing facts on the Kin’s failure and on how the Windows Mobile market place was not centrally located and had low quality. He even mentioned how there was so many varying version of the hardware to develop for. I let him go on and on about his bash spree with out interrupting him once. Once he was done, I told him that those were all valid arguments. Yes, the company made mistakes in the past. However, Microsoft is a rather smart company and they will figure out this market. In fact, I think that all the things he listed is exactly what Microsoft targeted to fix. Here are the facts I listed to him:
Windows Mobile Market Place - The new Market Place has a more robust presentation and some forms of quality verification this time around. The final thoughts on the app store is that it will have a similar feel to the Xbox Live experience where you have professional portal (Xbox Live Arcade) and then an Indie outlet (Xbox Live Community Games). This will give the users a better understanding of what type of app they are getting into. If you want to download fart apps all day, stay within the Community section. However, if you want a real portable gaming experience, head over to the Arcade section of the phone and download a AAA experience for your phone.
Windows Phone Hardware Variants – Microsoft is putting a standard place that all phone manufactures must follow. As talked about here, MS is putting an end to freestyle hardware design. There will be a clear definition as to what is acceptable hardware for a Windows Phone 7. This will level set what developers have to build for. If the app ends up on a better more advance platform then the user will get a snappier more crisp experience. The studio does not have to worry about developing a 3D mobile game for a 600MHZ processor.
What’s a Windows Phone 7? – Kin had some marketing behind it. But the Windows Phone 7 marketing push will be MANY times greater. Microsoft has announced that it will be spending the same amount that it spent on Windows XP launch and the original Xbox launch. That’s around 500 Million dollars. With that being said, as a game studio you have a choice. Do you want to develop for an open source platform with very little marketing? Or develop for a new platform with hardly any competition on it and half a BILLION dollars in marketing spend?
A whole new world! – The Android app store has around 50,000 apps and the iPhone App store has about 250k. Competition is good, yes. But being the first to market to beat out your competition is even better. Studios with big hits should DROP EVERYTHING and focus on porting that hit to Windows Phone 7. Many of your customers will be trying out the device and would like to see their favorites there. They already love your product and will buy it again. The time to strike is now. Get your IP out there and get customers! For new studios this is an easy target, get your new IP out in a place where it can shine. Really, I should not have to go into much more detail here on this.
So after listing my facts on how Windows Phone 7 will be the “go to” place for developers, he just sat there for a moment. He then replied, “Well, I don’t like Microsoft!” with a smile. Come to find out he had a personal grudge against the company. Be that as it may, he still needs to look at the facts and for this moment take the hard feelings out of the business equation.
So I ask you, what are your plans for Windows Phone 7?
GDC Online 2010 Wrap Up
01 year ago
Had a blast at GDC Online this year. As far as work is concerned things went VERY well. Got some good face time with customers and moved some deals forward. It’s always nice to have your Director sitting next to you in a room with a customer if needed Obviously most everything that was discuss I can’t share here but keep an eye out on the www.torquepowered.com page for anything new.
As for personal development it was a great conference as well. It was my first time as a speaker at GDC Online. I had a lot of help during and before the round table from Sheri Ray and I want to say thank you to her. You can find out more about Sheri here. The talk was titled “How to create a diverse team, and keep it!” The first thing we notice about the room was that there was not a lot of diversity. In fact the room was mostly 25-35 white males. The good thing was that they came because they are interested and see it needs to be addressed. There was a lot of great ideas presented in the talk, so much so that I think I will be post another blog post later in the week to keep the discussion going.
And of course the after parties were awesome. I think on one night I made it through 5 different parties. One thing I have to say. If its a conference after party just try and be the sober one. I can’t tell you how much extra info I get simply because I am more sober than those around me. Although there was this one party that it was getting close. Thanks to my great friend Adam for making me eat something As for documenting the parties I took a few images but my camera broke… or well my wife’s camera that I got her as a gift broke. And yes I am in trouble for that so enjoy these pics
Constantly Maturing in Your Career
21 year ago
There are times that in your career you will come across a point where you think you have it all figured it out. At that point in time just remember there probably is someone who has done this before and probably has good advice to offer you. Recently, I had the chance to learn something new. Even though it was a small lesson, there was a much larger lesson to learn about it.
With out going into much detail let’s just say I had to take a document that I was presenting to a customer, and take it from “shorts and t-shirt” look to a “Nice Blazer and jeans” look. I looked at the document and thought to myself all the needed information was clearly presented, why would I need to change it? It was explained to me that it’s just like a resume you always have to put your best foot forward. And it was just some simple formating that need to be done to that document to spruce it up.
The message I want to push here is that you have to listen. You should listen to everyone especially to those who have done this job before. HUMBLE yourself and listen to your elders
A Great Honor
01 year ago
I am very happy to announce that my talk for GDC Online in Austin has been accepted. This is a huge deal for me because of two reasons.
Reason number 1, I get to hold a round table on something I am very passionate about. My round table will be discussing methods on building AND keeping diverse teams in the video games industry. I think as both game developers and game players we could all benefit from some NEW diverse backgrounds coming into to share new stories and new development methods with us.
Reason number 2, It’s a big honor to be able to speak in front of your peers and be recognized as someone who has something important to say. I don’t think its often that one gets the chance to publicly speak so to me its an honor one of which I hope to use well.
Well that’s all I have to say right now I hope to see you all at GDC Online until then keep living the dream!
Casual Connect A Week in Seattle
31 year ago
Well I survived my first Casual Connect. It was a very busy week for me as we had a ton of meetings to participate in, more news about that will come out later this year. The focus I wanted to have on this blog is why is it important to attend an event such as Casual Connect? I had a bunch of opportunities just by being at the event and meeting everyone who was there. I know it can be costly to travel but you have to go in with the mindset of being able to off set that cost with generating business. As a single developer or a small studio you have to look at this as an investment into your team and future.
The first day was filled with setup and prep for our business meetings. I didn’t even get the chance to shoot good video on day one. Once Tuesday rolled around and the meetings began with NDA early in the morning it was apparent how awesome this trip would be. After that meeting was done we raced back to the conference to meet up with NDA after which I was pretty tired. In between different speakers in the main room I took some video of the booth and our setup. Check it out here:
As the days continued at Casual Connect I was able to generate more meetings with NDA and even NDA! It was awesome you guys should have been there At the same time it was insanely tiring so much so that I was to lazy to get up and get closer to Mich to have better audio on the last recording:
All in all it was great show and I can’t wait to go to more. I hope to see you guys at the next conference. I should be at GDC Online I hope to see you there, I will be hosting a round table on diversity in gaming. I hope to see you there!