The Time is Nigh

Its Sunday night, almost Monday morning, and on Tuesday morning I fly out to San Francisco for the first time in my life for Game Developers Conference 2011.


The Trade Secret website is finally up and our alpha is currently available to play right now. Just follow the link and you can jump right into the action.
(The site is new, so it may break. If so, try the game here!)

We've also been increasing our internet presence to help raise awareness for the game:

Check us out on IndieDB

...And TGISource

...You can also Like us on Facebook

...Or just admire the team 


We've worked really hard to get the game ready for presentation at a major event, all of us putting in a lot of extra hours on top of our schoolwork and other jobs. Despite the amount of effort its taken, I've enjoyed every minute of it. Every day I sit down and work on the game with my team mates I am reminded how much I love game design. I am constantly reassured that I have chosen the right career. This is my passion, and I am glad to be apart of such a great team just as passionate as I.

Our fellow UAT project Tellus: Save the Earth will be accompanying us to GDC, so be sure to check out their game here. They're a bunch of dedicated guys too, and a few of Team Trade Secret are also on Team Tellus.

GDC Aproaches!

10 Days and counting to Game Developers Conference 2011 in San Francisco!

I am growing really excited to finally be able to show of Trade Secret's beta build to the public. We've been making some great progress and everyone on the team has really been putting in extra effort to get as much done as we can. We have the levels themselves virtually completed, and now are just working on the enemies and the boss fights.

This past thursday we had an open play-test at our school, The University of Advancing Technology. We had a lot of favorable feedback, and some scathing critiques that we hope to use to better the game. With the data we gathered, our QA lead has compiled an updated list of bugs and feature fixes that we hope to finish before GDC.

GDC is certain to be a blast this year. The team is looking forward to some R&R while mingling and networking with industry professionals.

The Hunt

GDC is coming up soon, and Trade Secret has big plans for the event. We have specialized business cards being made up, and have quite an effective plan to market ourselves. I am pleasantly surprised with how well thought out our producer is planning things. Hopefully we can really get the word out about TS and get some attention, meeting and networking. While I have already graduated, the rest of the core team has this semester left, and some have just one more after that, so the majority of the team will be entering the workforce and I have no doubt in my mind that my teammates and I will make great additions to any game company.

Like I've already said, I have recently graduated from UAT. It was a bit of work, but it was also a ton of fun. When i first started, i had this idea of what game design was. My teachers did a good job of waking me up quickly to the realities of game design, how it isn't all fun and games. Even so, i discovered that game design was still for me, and over the past few years it went from being an interest to a passion.

I'm still in the beginning stages of my job hunt, and I don't expect to be hired as a junior designer any time soon, especially with the flood of talent from recent layoffs in the industry, but i still have high hopes. Even if i start as a tester, I'll still bring my A-Game and keep working towards my dream. In May I'll be relocating to Seattle, and I'll be physically, as well as metaphorically closer to my dream. Wish me luck!

Trade Secret at GDC 2011!!!

I am very pleased to announce that 2% Collaborative Projects in association with Politically Incorrect Games will be taking Trade Secret to Game Developers Conference 2011, courtesy of the University of Advancing Technology.

Back in early October, the team heard that our school U[A]T was hosting an internal competition for student projects. The winners would be given hotel, airfare, and an expo pass to GDC 2011 in San Francisco. On top of that already considerable investment, the school would also print off marketing materials such as fliers, shirts for the team, and other various marketing tools.

Our team has worked very hard polishing the game as well as preparing a presentation to woo the judges. After a lot of lost sleep, sacrificed weekends, and dedication by the team, we won out over 8 other teams, and will be sent to GDC along with the other winners, Project Tellus, with which we share many Team Members.

I'm very excited to go to GDC San Francisco for the first time and look forward to promoting the game as well as making many contacts this february.

As always Trade Secret can be found and played here: Trade Secret Game

Trade Secret in the IGF

Well yesterday we submitted Trade Secret to the Independent Game Festival. Realistically, I am fairly certain we will not win. Optimistically we may reach the student showcase. We spent a lot of last week in crunch time, working long hours trying to get features in.

I didn't spend as much time as a good portion of the team working because there was little i could do to meaningfully contribute towards our goal. Most of my work is more abstract, and for the IGF build we focused on Tier 2. My work was already completed for Tier 2 and i lack the unity skills to meaningfully help the level designers. I did spend a lot of time with the group though, giving my moral support and answering the odd question here and there.

The last few days however i was able to test quite a bit, tracking bugs, finding flaws, and giving general feedback to see what we can and cannot fix in time. The most up to date and current build of the game will be located here:

Trade Secret

Overall, it was a great experience trying to get the build as good as it could be, even if we ran into issues and it is far from perfect. This simulation of a real crunch time is probably going to be one of the best learning experiences i take away from my time in school, and of course it was learned on a personal project, not a school project.


So it goes...

We are the Guild, BWA HA HA HA

Today, I became a villain, an icon, and the leader of all humanity. At least in Trade Secret. 

So today I had to explain the structure of the gameworld to the level designers and everyone else on the team. During my explanation of the first in game cutscene, i happened to do a two second motion that made everyone laugh, and declare me as the main villain. I simply move my arms in a motion akin to "The Twist", only much more muted, while i said "Bwa ha ha ha, We are the Guild!" They all proclaimed i should be modeled and animated doing that very motion for the game, and they declared me the Guild Master.

So i'm not only the Combat Designer and the Writer (or as i like to call myself, Loremaster), but i am now the Guild Master. So i'm going to write myself in to be a steampunk Dr. Robotnik like character, and i will make sure it is in the final game. So let that be a lesson to all you in game design. Make your team laugh, and they'll put you in a position of power.

Oh, and the next person who says Hey-Oh! is getting kicked in the shins.

So it goes...

Trade Secret Update and Legacies of Mistborn

Trade Secret is doing pretty darn well lately. Our team size has gotten quite big, and at 23 members, we apparently have the largest team UAT has ever seen. Our project manager, producer, and other leads had a meeting with the schools marketing department recently and were assured that if we get sponsorship to GDC San Francisco, they'll send all of us.

I had fun volunteering at Austin and I plan on volunteering at San Francisco as well. Hopefully some of our more sociable members will spread the word much more effectively than i ever could. I've never been a good salesmen, but hey, that's what producers are for, neh?

I'm very much looking forward to working on this project more. I recently had an idea for a very cool new feature for the game that is simple to implement but will just require a lot of new content on my part. I'm pretty excited to do a bit more visible work, since much of the story elements aren't portrayed by cut scenes or dialogues. I'm not sure how much i can say, so i guess I'll have to be mum on more details.

There is another project i am going to begin very soon that i dont have the same restrictions. I'm excited to announce my plans for the game Legacies of Mistborn (LoM), based on the novels by the very talented Brandon Sanderson. This is an unofficial fan game and i will do my best to bring the excitement and feel of the Mistborn universe to a new medium.

I plan on splitting the game up into several small episodes, each featuring different characters with different allomantic abilities. Once i have the first episode to a point of testing or critique i'll post a link, and eventually once its completed i plan on sending a link to Mr. Sanderson himself.

Thats all for the time being. Hopefully i'll start to update more regularly, especially when i get my portfolio up in the next months.

So it goes...