Network is the Name of the Game.

So, during the first week of August, I traveled down to New Orleans to take part in SIGGRAPH's first ever gameJam! competition, willing to spend 24 hours in a chair to create a game out of thin air (with the help of my wonderful teammates of course). The experience was fantastic, the food delicious, and the game... experimental. We spent about 3 hours just coming up with what you do in the game, constantly throwing out ideas that had been done before. Our final result was something special (which is what you get when you toss out things you know were successful elsewhere). The good news is that we won the Committee's Choice Award, which effectively granted the three of us passes to next year's SIGGRAPH in LA. As for the bad news, there is none. Awesome, right?

I would be apologizing for the 2-month tardiness of this post (the competition itself taking place exactly 2 months ago today), but I was waiting for something special. That something finally arrived in my mailbox this week, which greeted me with some fantastic postage in the corner. I'm too used to Liberty Bells and Homer Simpsons on any packages I get, so this was a wonderful treat.


As far as what was inside, that would be September's issue of Animation Reporter, "Asia's leading Animation industry magazine." And inside on page 18? That would be my first ever appearance in a magazine, an almost full page feature on my team and our game Network. It was part of a larger feature that covered both the gameJam! and the FJORG! competitions from SIGGRAPH 09. A lot of my Ringling friends were featured in there, along with their own interviews, so go check it out!


And since you've been wondering this whole time, yes the game is playable right now. So go play and enjoy!

Also, there may or may not be a two-part behind-the-scenes video of the experience at gameJam... Okay, there is.