tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104338802009-02-23T13:35:57.581-08:00The chronicle of my journey to becoming a game designer and educator.Angelnoreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-9267511719441185452008-04-02T01:16:00.000-07:002008-04-02T01:40:40.528-07:00

I was interviewed by Gamezebo, a leading publication for the casual game industry, as part of a series about women in our industry. The article touches on themes such as breaking in, diversity and the making of Wedding Dash . Read the interview.

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-28799884418983440532007-10-02T11:34:00.000-07:002007-10-02T11:36:23.992-07:00

Getting viral about viruses. Here is an example of a Flash tool that integrates with a social networking site to promote a game or in this case, a cause. Check out Be my Bra.

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-47316693473802854842007-08-09T22:40:00.000-07:002007-08-09T23:27:39.190-07:00

My first game shipped! Wedding Dash is about a woman named Quinn that gets thrown into planning her friend's wedding. She gets so good at it that she gets hired to plan other people's weddings. Her responsibilities include picking out flowers, stopping fights, seating guests and making sure a room full of people get fed a 3 course meal. It is in the spirit of the bestselling casual game, Diner

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1173880560893300652007-03-14T07:56:00.000-07:002007-03-14T07:56:00.936-07:00

So I went to GDC last week and hung out with Game Developers at the Blacks in Gaming roundtable and party. My first project is pretty challenging. I'm leading production of a high profile game. This is my first game and there is a lot of pressure to get it done quickly with hight quality. So I sought out advice from some mentors that I wish to post:Team must believe in what they are doing.Put

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1161486329765349482006-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:002006-10-21T20:05:29.810-07:00

The causal gaming genre is dominated by games that the industry calls "chain-poppers." These games include Luxor, Zuma Deluxe, Lotus Deluxe, Dynasty and Sweetopia. Each game adds something unique to the category. The basic mechanic is to fire a ball at a rapidly moving chain of balls. If the ball matches two or more balls of the same color you explode that part of the chain. The major obstacle

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1160972472525635912006-10-15T21:21:00.000-07:002006-10-15T21:21:12.580-07:00

Here is a clip of a risk/reward scenario in Egg vs Chicken. My job is to protect my castle from invaders so that I can collect enough energy to boost out of the level. When any three same-colored eggs touch the outside walls, I can launch an attack. However if I collect more eggs I can set off a cluckossal event that damages more chickens and earns more points and energy. Watch the video below.

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1160869808927657932006-10-14T16:50:00.000-07:002006-10-15T18:54:20.486-07:00

Why do people burn popcorn?a) They like the way it tastes.b) They can't follow directions.c) They don't pay attention.d) They want to test their smoke alarms.Though compelling, none of the these answers get at the true reason. People burn popcorn because they are greedy. Making popcorn involves a simple risk reward scenario. If I let it heat longer, I get more popcorn. If it over heats, it burns

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1160677444717361172006-10-12T11:23:00.000-07:002006-10-12T11:24:04.730-07:00

A great tool for brainstorming game design. It can help you find logic holes early.http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1156996215202842442006-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:002006-08-30T20:50:15.216-07:00

I was playing a demo of a real time strategy game by Monte Cristo, in which you respond to fires. The demo was of a exploding fire in an Urban mall. You had a series of objectives like rescuing people from a movie theater, saving artwork, stopping a fire from spreading to other buildings and healing injured people. You could also call in for reinforcements. I thought it was great how you would

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1155687964801006602006-08-15T17:26:00.000-07:002006-08-16T10:39:46.506-07:00

Listen to the speech - 3.25 minWhen you go to the book store you seek edification - history, travel, language - subjects to help you live life... better. So I thought it especially appropriate then, as we all embark on our next adventures to share some words of wisdom from the racks of Barnes and Noble. I brought three books here with me. These books are so good, I'm going to share 4 tips that

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1155663634705363042006-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:002006-08-15T10:40:34.760-07:00

IGN just published a list of video games that teach. On the list are DDR and even Resident evil. The list:10) Dance Dance Revolution Series9) Typing of the Dead8) Guitar Hero7) Gran Turismo 46) Total War Series5) The SimCity Franchise4) Microsoft Flight Simulator Franchise3) Civilization IV2) Resident Evil Series1) The Carmen Sandiego FranchiseTake a look. http://cube.ign.com/articles/722/

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1155573817318928882006-08-14T09:43:00.000-07:002006-08-14T15:47:40.760-07:00

I am attending an event in Los Angeles about outsourcing game development. The conference will build an argument for outsourcing, talk about the dos and dont's and discuss strategies for setting up an offshore office. A common myth is that outsourcing means loss of jobs in the US, in actuality we have been outsourcing for years in this industry. Outsourcing could be anything from the company

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1154497925342144362006-08-01T22:52:00.000-07:002006-08-01T22:52:05.676-07:00

Here is an article published in the Palo Alto Weekly, the online edition that mentions Outbreak. Outbreak was given mention a couple times as an example of "cutting-edge education products" being exhibited at Stanford last Friday. Exciting.

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1154407778400957342006-07-31T21:49:00.000-07:002006-07-31T21:49:38.416-07:00

Friday was our expo of our master's projects. I've been so quiet lately because I was getting ready for that show. The morning began with a presentation of our project and the afternoon was a public expo. Here is a picture of me talking in front of my booth. It was awesome.

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1152734088920731182006-07-12T12:54:00.000-07:002006-07-12T14:55:50.546-07:00

Here is my personal introduction speech for my speech class. I lengthened it to just over 3 minutes to add background.> Listen to the Speech (3 min.)What's in a name? What's in a name? A name brings both culture and identity. It give you a sense of who you are. It tells where you've been and where you are going.On March 4, I was born a two named girl, to a three name culture. My name is Angel

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1152283712459155702006-07-07T07:48:00.000-07:002006-07-07T07:51:45.906-07:00

Yesterday and today, Jeff and I are doing a design jam for Outbreak. Yesterday three people came by to talk to us and see our direction. The question I asked myself at the end of that was. What is the value of documentation during rapid prototyping? Should people at anytime be able to walk into the room and get a coherent briefing of the game. The answer is of course yes. But how much time do you

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1152234992262621282006-07-06T18:16:00.000-07:002006-07-10T13:19:39.236-07:00

Here are my graduation photos. My roomate took some photos of graduation. Her photos are marked private so I'll post my favorite here.Here are my favorite

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1152105416022417922006-07-05T06:16:00.000-07:002006-07-05T06:16:56.103-07:00

I just read this article summarizing a talk at the March Serious Games Summit and San Jose. It presents the ranging opinions on the struggles of making serious games a serious genre in the game industry. In my last newsletter, I said that it would be a significant piece of the trillion dollar game industry in the next 10 years. Right now, this article asserts, it's revenue is nothing more than a

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1151963218542309462006-07-03T14:46:00.000-07:002006-07-03T14:46:58.553-07:00

Here is an eyespot clip of my graduation. The audience is cheering and laughing. They are being entertained by hat disasters. You see my professor Shelley Goldman, must carefully drape a mult-colored hood over our heads. The problem is we are all at least a foot taller than she is and we're wearing these awkward mortarboards. So you see what happens to Kristine Hanson in front of me. Shelley

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1151961116822953472006-07-03T14:11:00.000-07:002006-07-03T14:11:56.886-07:00

I played the demo version of this game called Earthquake in Zipland to teach kids how to cope with divorce. The main character is this child moose that tries to repair a rift between his parent's islands caused by an earthquake. He collects quests in his journal as he completes activities that he thinks will bring them back together at first. You might need to read the walkthrough to get past

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1151740387450857582006-07-01T00:53:00.000-07:002006-07-01T08:58:07.156-07:00

Okay warning, this is a non academic post. Today I was helping Natalie pack her apartment in Escondido Village after we swam in Stanford's beautiful Avery pool. We ate dinner and made up this tempting recipe. Olmsted Smores1 Plain graham cracker 15 morsels from a bag of Special Dark Hershey's baking chips1 marshmallowPreparation instructionsSplit the sheet of graham cracker in half

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1151347260521508482006-06-26T11:41:00.000-07:002006-06-26T16:44:14.480-07:00

I'm reading two books now Blink (audio) and Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. Both brains talk about how our unconcious mind makes decisions for us that are effiecient and life saving. Both parts of the brain are motivated differently. Gladwell states people can make split decisions with 2 seconds of information. The data found that persons can watch a silent 2 second video of teachers

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1150263372233762442006-06-13T22:36:00.000-07:002006-06-13T22:36:12.296-07:00

Zillow and Craigslist are the two websites I've mentioned this week because I'm house hunting. Craigslist has changed the way we look for housing. It' amazing. People post stuff on their everyday because it's free and it tends to cater to the "just-in-time" needs because everything is listed as vacant now. I guess what happens then is people tend to visit frequently. So where am I going? An

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1150128609207837192006-06-12T09:10:00.000-07:002006-06-12T09:10:10.996-07:00

Playing with Yabla was interesting. They used video to teach language with interesting features like forward and slow down. The slow down option allowed you to slow the video but it still retained the same pitch. The technology element of the tool is interesting. As far as community, it seems fairly self-paced at first but then I realized you could integrate it into a course. So for example at

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10433880.post-1149967679947860132006-06-10T12:27:00.000-07:002006-06-10T12:28:00.020-07:00

I'm so excited that my quarter is drawing to a close. Here is what I'm busy with. I'm finishing a paper for my online learning communities class. I just found my favorite song on yahoo music, Concerto in A Major For Clarinet and Orchestra, K.622: II. Adagio by Karl-Heinz Steffens. I first heard it on the Green Card movie. It rocks my world because it is so beautiful. I can tell if its the

Angelnoreply@blogger.com0