Well as some of you may know I used make games back in the 90’s then switched to web development from 2000 to 2007, and have recently jumped back into creating games again. I was recently at the Game Developers Conference here in my home down of San Francisco and wanted to write up a small preview of what I saw.

Why games again you ask? Well as some of you may know I love technology and was able to work with some of the top 3d game engines back in the 90’s and now have a chance once again to work on projects pushing the boundaries of game development.

What did I see at this years GDC 2008? Well for once think I went to a lot of talks and sessions one of them being about BioShock and its story, I thought this was quite a good session, and it covered the bases of empowering player to care about your stupid story. Well thats the title of the talk that Kenneth Levine gave at GDC this year. I don’t have my notes in front of me since I left them at work but to recap they really scaled down what BioShock was originally. They wanted to span a great time period but scaled it down and also scaled back the number of characters in the game. One thing that stood out was the evolution of the little sister.

Pictured below is a few slides from the session, I missed one concept and sorry for the blurry photos but I didn’t want to be rude and use a flash during someones talk.

You can it changed quite a bit from the original design, and they eventually settled on the little girl, which worked out well since they Big Daddy was sort of a father figure type of monster that would protect the little sister like it was his daughter.

Next up…

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North Star,
originally uploaded by Gate-Way.

You just cant be a view like this. This picture was taken at the top of NorthStar at Lake Tahoe on the East Ridge run, while this looks cool I would avoid it if your a snowboarder. There seems to be way way to many flat spots along the Ridge to get to the snow park and half pipe.

It’s been a great season so far and while spending a week up in Tahoe over the Xmas Holidays I was able to get in some good days, and I also made it up with some friends a weekend ago. Today im checking the forecast and 3-4 extra feet of snow just dropped in the last few days. This looks like its going to be one hell of a season and if you ski or snowboard at Lake Tahoe this is the year to go.

More info on this sucker.. all I can say this was gooood…

I have always known about the many hiking trails behind the cabin but I did not know that their is a 2 and 1/2 mile hike from the cabin to our one of our favoritate brew pubs, so Thomas and I strapped on our snow shoes and ran down the trail for some beer and believe it or not we did it much faster with in the snow than during our summer trip.

Well, I figured I would post a little tree picture on my blog, I had a wonderful dinner for the holidays and I was with a great group of friends. We even did the white elephant gift giving, stealing game , which I was shafted on. I was number one to pick from the pile of gifts and eventually people took my gifts from me a few times. Oh well, all is fair in love an war esp around the holidays. I did end up with this crazy puzzle that is nearly impossible to put back together with out cheating

I hope everyone is having a great holiday and enjoying some time off and to all those crazy people out their leave me alone (inside joke)

My new house,
originally uploaded by Gate-Way.

Well I finally broke down and bought a house, its not the one I wanted but well as far as housing prices in Marin California go this was a good deal. It only cost me $299k but its well worth it, parking is a bit of a bitch but I manage. My underwater James Bond car which you cant seen is parked on the right side.

Where Am I,
originally uploaded by Gate-Way.

I was lost for days and I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, luckily my trusty head lamp didn’t give out after being stuck in this coal mine for what seemed like 20 minutes

This picture was taken in the Prospect Tunnel in Somersville, CA a coal mine community back in the 1860’s.

“From the 1860s through the turn of the last century, five coal mining towns thrived in the Black Diamond area: Nortonville, Somersville, Stewartville, West Hartley and Judsonville. As the location of California’s largest coal mining operation, nearly four million tons of coal (”black diamonds”) were removed from the earth. The residents of the mining towns were from all over the world, and their life was characterized by hard work and long hours. Occasional celebrations and a variety of organizations and social activities served to alleviate the drudgery of daily existence.

The coal mines had a significant impact on California’s economy. By the time operations ceased due to rising production costs and the exploitation of new energy sources, much of California’s economy had been transformed from a rural to an industrial base.” - ebparks.com

The Stewartville Hike goes by this section and the whole hike is about 7 miles long. If your in the East Bay I would defiantly recommend this hike but in the fall because it would be way to hot in the summer.  You can download a pdf map from here.

Budweiser - Budvar,

I just created a flickr group that focuses on pictures of beers from around the world. My buddies and I have a habit of taking cell phone snaps of our drinks and sending them to each other, It kinda gets you in the mood if your buddy send yous a nice margarita at noon and gives you something to look forward to when you leave work.

If you want to join my group head on over to Beers around the World and feel free to contribute.

A few weeks back, a few friends and I went up to our regular place in the mountains for some nice R&R, Hiking, Drinking and a game of Mensch argere Dich nicht (The Board game “Sorry” for US folks). While we did our battle of Sorry the guy who never seems to loose that game won again. Oh well we all know he cheated.

We did some really nice Hikes both days in Tahoe. The first one was a 6-7 mile hike to Ellis Peak and the other one Barker Pass into Tahoe city where we ended right up at the bridge tender for a few pints of beer before catching a cab back to the cabin.

If you would like to see the trails we did and pictures taken load these files into the Free Google Earth viewer.

• Ellis Peak Trail Tahoe
• Barker Pass to Tahoe City

If you don’t have Google Earth Installed check out the hikes in Google Maps.

• Barker Pass to Tahoe City
• Ellis Park Trail Tahoe

Enjoy…. Can’t wait till the snow starts falling for some snowboarding.