Zenien
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There is definately two sides to my current Crunch…
Theres the bad side :
- Been working 80+ hours weeks for over a month with another 2-3 weeks to go.
- Lots to do, with the associated stress that everything basically depends on it working… fast, stable and useable.
- All your external dependencies have to sync up at the same time.
- How many variations of non-meat Pizza can there be?
But theres also the good side…
- Lots going in very rapidly, has a tendency to stress test the systems.
- No time to defer decisions or have “yet another meeting”. Its just goes in and be darned with the issues…
- That team feeling among the few who have been working extra hard… When you’ve eaten with the same 5-10 men and women everyday for a few weeks, there is a certain comradeship (you can tell by the eyes
)
- The game itself
That’s probably the one that makes the least sense to those outside the business, where there is the tendency to think that all we do is play games all day. In actual fact its largely possible not to actually play the game for weeks if not months (and that applys to everybody on the team!), because its takes so many bits to be working at any one moment for you to see the ‘whole’ game that usually your not playing it. I think it was Sunday that I was testing the game quite late, technically to try and track down an random annoying memory crash I started noticing I was having fun and actually enjoying it. Rather than just trying to crash the game I started actually fighting and trying out various moves…
Which is a really nice feeling, given some of the pains (and depression) its took to get here It gives you a real sense that after all it might actually be worth it and we are going to ship a game we can all be proud of.
Hopefully thats a really good sign, cos quite frankly I barely notice the lovely graphics and stuff anymore and I still found it good.Hopefully an audience who have never really seen or played it will be even more impressed…
I guess only the future will tell, and we will know soon enough when people get to have a play, but I’m currently feeling very good and hopeful its going to go down well (though it has been noted I have a disinct maniac-depressive streak, so maybe I’m just in a mania phase)
This time next month should be really fun, for several reasons
E3 - Don’t think I’ll get banned as a Booth Babe
Never been to LA or even the USA (actually I’ve avoided flying…)
Lots of stuff I can’t mention… but all related to the above
Now time for of that badly need sleep… office photos tommorow so I guess I should shave and make myself look at least partially human and I need all the beauty sleep I can get
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03.19.06RelaxedPosted in Computer Games, Development at 11:54 pm by Deano
I feeling nice, relaxed and happier after a much better week and weekend.
Work has been a bit smoother and more pleasant over the last week, but whats probably lightened my mood the most, is working this weekend.
The office was all but empty this weekend, apart from some workmen doing some decorating and Marco in on both afternoons, its been empty, which is really nice. Quiet and able to do some programming work.
Most of my time is spent keeping things ticking over when everybody is around, so getting some ‘quality’ time with the kit is nice.
I can’t exactly describe what I’ve been doing, but its extremely low level, what good console programming is all about. So thats what I’ve been doing, munging some data into formats that the different bits of the system can consume and then writing lots of code to manipulate it all as fast as possible. This is where the Cell architecture really starts to pay off, the SPUs are very powerful when programmed at a low level, with an MFC to move data and a decent integer ISA (as well as the float unit that everybody goes on about) they can do this kind of thing with ease. And because they are completely indepedent, you can use them to really leave the PU to other stuff.
Of course the fun bits is that its just like programming an Amiga’s Copper but N times more complex, just like the good ol’ days
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