Favorite Instrument
Nobody knows...yet...
Hardest song I ever mastered
Nobody knows...yet...
Song I can’t stop playing
Nobody knows...yet...
Band that Should be in Rock Band
Nobody knows...yet...
Song I want played at my wedding
Nobody knows...yet...
Personal rock hero
Nobody knows...yet...
DLC Wishlist
No one knows...yet...
Recent Pictures
Recent Comments
mattmoss...
I feel compelled, whilst navigating Rock Band's menus using the drum controller, to bang (i.e. move) from option to option in time to the background music.
mattmoss...
Apologies for not getting this blog out on Wednesday, I was sick! I'm much better now. :)
Here are the questions I selected and my answers. I didn't answer everything, but I tried to get a variety and a bit from everyone.
Q: What do you play in Rock
Band?
A: Pretty much
anything. I'm enjoying the drums the most right now, but I also get into vocals.
The latter is a bit tough... I can sing, but my voice is a baritone... low
tenor, high bass... not a typical rocker voice, and it's not likely Carmina Burana will show up as
DLC.
Q: Who is a better guitarist, Angus or
Slash?
A: Well, see... You're asking someone who
is rock-ignorant. Seriously. I should know this stuff, but I don't. But I'd have
to say Angus, just because it sounds like a kick-ass steak, and beef is
awesome.
Q: What's one thing that was insanely
difficult to code in any of the games you've worked
on?
A: Hmm... A close second is hand
optimizing assembly code for a PS1 triangle renderer, squeezing every last cycle
out. But first place goes to the port of our engine to the Gamecube (for an
earlier title)... Aside from figuring out how to make use of its more limited
resources, there were significant differences in floating-point libraries
provided for the Gamecube vs. our other platform ports. This would show up
during debug as numbers called "
Number. In game, this caused characters to contort beyond all recognition,
eyeballs would explode... not a pretty thing. My coworkers can attest that I lost my brain over that.
Q: Are you diggin' RL
Stine's Goosebumps coming back on the air as much as
I?
A: When I was a kid, we had a goose. Well,
a gander and a goose: Jack and Jill. Jack would honk his face off if you looked
at him, but the moment you turned your back on him, Jack would lower his long
neck parallel to the ground, start hissing, and come a-biting at you like a
rabid tank of some sort. Jack was crazy... I think he had some bumps, but that
was a long while ago.
Q: What game or games
(computer, video, board, or otherwise) would you consider your
favorite?
A: Despite being a video game
programmer, I prefer playing board games. I think it's the social and strategy
aspects I prefer. Board games also cover a much wider variety of genres and
gameplay than video games. I play things like Monopoly and Risk, but I really
enjoy the good, deep German board games. (
the major source of board game goodness.) Some of my favorites are Puerto Rico,
Ra, Chinatown,
Bang, Bohnanza, Settlers of Catan... plenty
more.
Q: To poop or not to
poop?
A:
Yes.
Q: Have you gotten a chance to
check out the Orange Box yet?
A: Quite frankly, I never really
got into Half Life. I tried Team Fortress 2 with some of the folks from Demiurge
(another game studio a half-block away); it was enjoyable, well balanced. I've
seen the Portal videos over and over; looks neat, but I think I'm more impressed
with just watching it than necessarily trying it myself. So overall, Orange Box
looks neat, but given that I have limited time nowadays for playing, it's
unlikely I will purchase it for
myself.
Q: What's the oddest thing in your
cubicle/office/workspace right now?
A: Well... There's the duck... or
the slide rule... or my trebuchet (work in progress)... or me. Take your pick. (Sorry, no photo of the slide rule... it is an awesome slide rule, though.)
Q: If you could relocate Harmonix
to any city, what would you choose?
A: I love
a couple of years (and grew up an hour or so north of NYC); it would be awesome
to be back there. 'Course, it's darned expensive, though not much more than
wanted a bit cheaper, Austin TX is also great (I was there for 3 years).
is teh awesome, and generally the weather is great, though to me it feels wrong
if there isn't snow around Christmas.
mattmoss...
Okay, for next week's blog, I want y'all to do the hard work for me. Send me your questions (post to the comments of this blog post) and I'll answer them on Wednesday.
They don't have to be about Rock Band... In fact, that's probably better they're not, since then Sean is gonna get out the ol' Blog Sanitizer Solution, which burns my eyes and makes me cry. Ask anything.
Yeah, I'm lazy, you know it.
mattmoss...
So I've skipped blog for
the last couple weeks... During one week, things were extremely busy getting all
the last details done, bugs fixed, disc burned and verified and sent out the
door. During another, I was enjoying a much needed day off. (Basically, I stayed
at home, sleeping and leveling my Hunter in
LOTRO.)
Now I'm back at work,
conscious and functioning. (Well, "functioning" is a relative term and I think
some of my gears might have slipped their axles.) Anyway, right now we're in a
waiting mode, so to speak... Waiting to know whether our game is accepted and
heads to production. Not that we're sitting around wasting time (though we are,
a bit); there is still lots of work to do to get you guys the greatest game in
the universe.
Myself, I'm helping finish
up the PS2 version with some additional microphone support. There's some folks
working on more for the Rock Band website. There are some more folks working on
other stuff that I'd tell you about if not for Sean, who
might send some ninjas to "deal with me" if I say the wrong
thing.
When a project comes to an
end, there is one question that I inevitably get asked several times by
friends... "So, are you going to play it at release, or are you sick of the game
now?" Part of the answer lies in whether I can actually get a copy around
release time, but the gist of the question is more of my attitude towards the
game after having worked on it for the bulk of a
year.
To that, I have to answer,
"Yes." I've worked on over a half-dozen video games since I began programming
games almost ten years ago, and have a mix of feelings towards some of them.
But I feel like I've barely scratched the surface playing Rock Band. Aside from
just being able to play through all the instruments' campaigns and playing
online with friends, there is a depth to the artwork and animation that I'm
really just beginning to explore... Things that I've never really seen as a
whole, because I've been scrutinizing little things here and there to make the
game. Only now have I begun to see all the little touches the artists and
musicians have put into the game using the tech I've worked on... it's
awesome.
Oh, and of course, drumming
kicks ass. I pledge to beat expert on drums. (I'm looking at you, Won't Get
Fooled Again.)
mattmoss...
like everyone here has gotten an iPhone, self included. While the company
has somewhere around 140-150 employees now, combined we own something like
542 iPhones. It's ridiculous. But it works well, especially since I am
primarily a Mac user at home, and not one of those Emo-Apple users who get
all whiney if you insult the Mac. Go ahead, I can take it, I have
the power of BSD backing me up.
down to QA the other day for some bug hunting, and was nearly run over by a
herd of wild guitars, Here's a pic, taken from handy iPhone, The quality isn't
so good; I needed to adjust the photo levels a bit because the lighting sucks
in the QA cave.
assignment: Explain the difference between a nerd and a geek. (And by
"geek" I mean common usage today, not geek in the circus-freak sense.)
Thursday, November 1, 2007