Happy Birthday to Me

Cripes, I've not updated in a while - been somewhat preoccupied, what with starting a company, more on which as and when. However, I felt this day should go marked - the first day of my thirties, and the conception of Ricky 2.0.

The last film I watched in my twenties was Spiderwick Chronicles (some nice character design and ideas hamstrung as usual by condensing a load of books into a shortish film).

The last book I read was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is outstanding - it's a novel about the birth of comics, the Second World War, and an Escapist.

Best of all was the last video game I played - the single player Xbox demo of Left 4 Dead. Valve have taken their knack for level design and industry-leading production (textures, voice acting, animation) and married it to a high octane, multiplayer Zombie blaster. The original Doom is definitely a strong point of comparison here. The levels seem to be highly replayable, since the game's 'AI Director' generates waves of zombies and pickups programmatically, ensuring that no two experiences are the same. Highly recommended.

I am currently working on 4 separate games. The last one I finished was a flash conversion of a platform game I originally made for mobile: Balloon-Headed Boy for Gimme5Games.

In addition to the games I'm making, there are also a bunch of games queued up to play. This includes Fable 2, Loco Roco 2, Fallout 3, Lich King, Left 4 Dead and Little Big Planet. Then there are some I may check out depending on having a go of them - Gears 2 and Dead Space among them. I still need to finish World of Goo, and apparently Crayon Physics may yet be out this year! This comic sums up the predicament of gamers nicely.

Had a big party, saw lots of friends and got some awesome presents (including this print by Scott C from my lovely wife).

Okay, that's it for now - will no doubt post some kind of end-of-year summary before '09.