Creation Year: April

After the busy-ness of March, April was a welcome respite and a chance to start working again.  I chose to start a fairly ambitious project...

One of the main ideas of Creation Year was benchmarking.  I had to create things and show them off to people so I could have an idea of how good I was at those things.  With my application to UCSC denied, it became especially important to get my work out there.  I decided to make a goal of showing off a game project or four in an art gallery.


Given that most of Grand Rapids is not terribly aware of the art game scene, I thought a simple premise would be best.  Something that everyone understood on a fairly fundamental level so that they can easily "get" how a game could express that idea.  I figured the seasons would be a good place to start.

Beyond just picking a subject, though, how would I make that happen?  For some time, I've been interested in Perlenspiel, a simple, abstract, web-based game engine.  Created by Prof. Brian Moriarty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, it's an engine that not only suggests abstraction, but demands it.  It forces both the designer and the player to think more about the systems of interaction than on art or world building or storytelling.  Its high degree of abstraction would, hopefully, help my players "get" the idea of Seasons even better.  Hopefully.

So April began with Spring.  As the trees were blooming outside, I sought to create a simple, game-like interactive toy that expressed the new life, unpredictability, and simple joy of that season.  I finished it just a few days into May.

Currently, the demo of Spring is available here, soon to be hosted on a new website designed by Jared Ransom.

Creation Year: March

I have not been terribly faithful about updating the blog this year so far.  However, my Creation Year experiment is, so far at least, a moderate success.  The next few posts will be exploring the projects and ideas that I've been trying to tackle in this process

March was (and always is) a horribly busy month.  Midterms are in full swing at work.  The Game Developer's Conference runs.  And, this year, I visited the University of California at Santa Cruz to follow up on my application to their MFA program.  Needless to say, not a lot of things were created.

However, my visit to the Digital Arts and New Media program at UCSC gave me something quite tangible to bring back home.  While I was there, I had the opportunity to sit in on their graduate student pod meetings.  These were bi-weekly meetings where small groups of graduate students (both PhD and MFA candidates) get together for challenge, inspiration, and accountability.  At the beginning of each meeting, each member spends no more than three minutes 1) explaining what they've accomplished since the last meeting, 2) what they plan to have accomplished by their next meeting, 3) what current obstacles their facing, and 4) any topics for discussion among the group.

I was enthralled.  The meeting I sat in on, we discussed topics as disparate as one of the students' potential job prospects post-graduation, procedurally generated facial animation and its effect on player interpretation of text, and the #1reasonwhy/#1reasontobe situation at GDC this year.  These students pushed each other on, gave each other ideas, and discussed fascinating topics within their specialties.  Very cool and very inspiring. 

So I wanted to do it here in Grand Rapids.  The last several weeks, two friends and I have been gathering for our own pod meetings.  It has been, at times, difficult to schedule with our busy lives, but it's been worth it.  Already, they've helped me (in motivation and brainstorming) in my new project for the summer and, I think it's been helpful for them, as well. 

So, though no concrete thing was developed in March, I consider pod meetings an important step in the ongoing development of Creation Year. 

Also, if you're local to Grand Rapids, MI and interested in games, story, interactivity, and media work (in general), and want to join, drop me a line @thekemp on Twitter.  Or something.

Creation Year.

Every New Year, friends and I gather at a local bar in Grand Rapids to talk about the year that was and the year that is to come.  It's become a powerful tradition in our lives, giving us an opportunity to reflect and vision cast as a community.  We each set a theme for the year, sometimes shared, sometimes not. 

2012 was the year of being invested.  Every decision I made about how to spend my time was all about that one theme.  Being invested.  Overall, I think it went well.

This year, I sat and thought quite a lot about the past few years.  Pretty much since graduating college, I've been planning on going to graduate school for games.  I've applied several times over the last couple of years to different schools around the country, but haven't made it in yet.  Currently, I have an active application at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  I don't feel especially great about my chances.

If I don't get in for fall 2013, then, clearly, the last couple years have not given me the experience I need to get in to grad school.  How, then, do I get that experience?

I present to you, Creation Year.  This year, my goal is to create something every month and present it for critique to those that know more than I do.  That way, I can both add to my portfolio and gain a better perspective for my abilities among my peers.  No more of this big fish in small pond business.

I spent January teaching MDA 480 - Video Games Theory and Criticism at Cornerstone.

February has given me this:



This is my first experiment with Source Filmmaker, Valve's cinematic creation toolset.  More thoughts to come on that business.

Feedback is welcome.  More Creation Year products to be displayed here.

Swaziland (part 4).

We had our Swaziland open house on Sunday.  I've previously said some things about the trip.  I said some similar things there..

Here's another video that I made for this last weekend.  I expect to make a few more before the footage gets archived for good, so you can look forward to that.  Or, you know, not.  That's cool, too.

Grad School.

This is a big time of year. 

At work, students have just finished their midterm projects.  They're crewing up for their final projects (which means I've had producers asking me lots of great questions). 

At church, we're really into the swing of the school year again.  We've started new small groups - both in student ministry and in adult ministry.  To be successful, both of those require a high level of investment.

Oh.  And I'm applying to grad school.

I've applied a few times before.  I was even accepted once, which was great.  $90,000 was a bit steep, though.

This month, I've decided that I'm going to use every spare moment to get into school.  If I don't make it in, I'll at least have done everything in my power to try and I'll have a year to try again.  (And I have plans for that year...)

Right now, the Digital Arts and New Media program at UC Santa Cruz is my top choice.  But I've made some connections at USC that suggest that could be an exciting program as well.

Over the last year, I've discovered that publicly saying that I'm going to do something helps.  (See my Blogging Challenge from a year ago or my recent Points Project...)  So this is me publicly saying that I'm going to apply to grad school.  Both of them.  And work really hard to do it.  This month.

That is all.