Sunday, January 23, 2011

a humble bundle of shared words

me: hello? :D This is Tony Puccinelli, a CS student at UC Berkeley I just got done with finals and am looking forward to playing some "Revenge of the Titans", that game's got me hooked. anyone there? 
dev: hey tony! 
me: hey! so how are you related to the bundle? 
dev: i co-developed osmos 
me: oh nice! I've been playing that on my iPhone :D 
dev : nice! 
me: that game is so very relaxing but so very strategic at the same time. I like how every action you take jettisons part of yourself, nifty mechanic :D Actually, it reminds me a bit of "Orbient" on WiiWare. so how did you get into game development? I've been trying to learn Flash myself, and potentially have an interview with Telltale come March or April 
dev: we played that at some point, and yes, very similar aesthetic 
me: and similar in the sense of being moody and abstract and basing gameplay around one simple mechanic that just works really well; Thanks for the great game! 
dev: we just worked on osmos as a side project, that's how i got into game dev. i'm actually a comp-sci professor in my "real life" 
me: oh wow, so that was your first step into the industry? nice! 
dev: yup. worked out pretty nice :) 
me: What's your area of interest? in Comp-Sci, I mean, and at what school? sorry for grilling you with questions :P 
dev: computer graphics and geometric modeling, but these days with a huge emphasis on human perception and game design 
me: ah, nice, I lamentably have yet to take a graphics class, but have one scheduled for next semester; that said, I'm trying to make a Flash game over Winter break. I don't much like Flash, but feel as a complete unknown a Flash game will be easier to distribute and get feedback on. probably the most interesting course I've taken thus far has been Artificial Intelligence 
dev: you should try flixel and/or flashpunk. it's a really huge topic 
me: AI or graphics? well both are, definitely :-) 
dev: oh yes, both. graphics is crazy 
me: It was astonishing seeing all that's been done in AI and how it works (at a very high, rough level), but also very intriguing to get a glimpse at the more cutting-edge stuff, like Natural Language Processing, cars that drive themselves, the professor's starcraft AI :P graphics IS crazy 
dev: yeah, that genetic algo stuff is insane 
me: I'm pretty ignorant to the world of graphics, so very excited to dive into it next semester 
dev: super wide field. could use a bit more inspiration though :) 
me: SO MANY POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS, yes 
dev: i'm much more interested in abstractions than trying to render the real world in all of its detail 
me: haha, yes, the remarkable, amazing power of computing is often wasted on simulating the minutiae of what we can already experience without computers :P well, not exactly wasted... :P 
dev: well, maybe a bit wasted :) i'd rather play real chess than holodeck chess :) anyway... i gotta run! great chatting with you! 
me: ok, very nice talking to you, and keep up the good work! 
dev: we'll definitely try hard! cheers! 
me: cheers!

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