Thursday, January 11, 2007

Mariachi!

This post has no Mariachis. Or Dinosaurs for that matter. What it does deliver is another action packed Dinner post and some press some of my co-workers have been getting. Toys For Bob is a small company but it has a concentration of some extremely talented, experienced, and funny people.















This is a rehash of potatoes I had last week in Illinois except I tried it all on my own. 5 Potatoes. Wash and lightly brushed clean. Microwave 3 minutes. Cut. Oil + Onions till browned. Add Potatoes. Cook for quite some time. Near the end, add chopped up scallion greens.
















See? I said I would and I did. Organic baby spinach. Halves pearl tomatoes. Chopped carrots. Walnut pieces. Blue cheese. Some olive oil and balsamic. Just a little. You don't want to drown out the cheese.




















TFB Lead Designer Toby Schadt gives the breakdown for our game Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam in the latest issue of Game Developer Magazine. Online version link when it arrives. I thought the article was well written. Unlike many postmortems I've read, each section ends with a "this is the lesson we learned and how it might apply to you" bit. There are points being made! Most are like "oh we hired too many people at the start and had too few at the end!" which is in fact a point but it that should be obvious. Furthermore, when you say it like that, it isn't something I think companies would be able to consciously identify in many cases.





















Also on Gamasutra, other lead designer, the chuckling Mike Ebert (of Maniac Mansion, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Escape from Monkey Island, barbeque fame), or as we call him "Boots" (as well as Mike), is featured in a video games version of "Where are they now?" article. It's probably the most extensive article in the series I've seen. Way back in 2005, our boss Paul (Archon, Star Control I & II, Mail Order Monsters) was also featured so I'm going to go out on a limb and say TFB is the most featured company in the series of "Playing Catch-Up: Just how old are these guys?" or as Mike puts it, “This is going to make me seem like some old geezer,”

Great working with all 3 jeorbs.

No comments: