Then, while digging through some old files tonight, I found this gem:

The mock-poster was made by my friend Mike Smith (producer of what I firmly believe to be the greatest fishing game ever made – Creatures of the Deep) and it instantly brought a smile to my face.

Mike cast me in the role of the Sokka on the left and my friends Wade as Zuko and Benson as Aang (the Last Gamebreaker.)

Even M. Night’s travesty cannot ruin the original animated series and the pure awesomesauce it inspires.

(One day I will have to tell the story of how ‘Havadog: The Last Street Vendor’ made it into a kids game on the DS.)

Yuki 7 is a fictional movie franchise – a fictional, female version of James Bond if you will. The Yuki 7 book “Seductive Espionage” is written in a documentary style, chronicling Yuki’s rise to popularity and the careers of her creators.

The pulp style and flavor of Yuki is one of the main influences on Ray Ardent (the original back-ground mock-ups were done in a style similar to Darts) and I’ve been a huge fan of Kevin Dart’s work ever since I stumbled across his table at Comic-Con four years ago.

Absolutely brilliant and inspiring work!

A substantial amount of work was done on an updated Gatchaman movie before production was stopped.

Now, we only have this early promotional trailer, which only hints to the awesome Science Ninjutsu that we could have seen.

Now – bring on the live action Starblazers!

If inspiration strikes, I’d rather be prepared than count on myself to ‘remember it for later’.

My Moleskine is a riddled mess of notes, sketches, sticky notes and random ideas. It is held together with duct tape because my pen also needs to be with me at all times. (no point in having a notebook without a pen…)

4 Year's of Moleskine

I have lost two Moleskine’s in the past 4 years. Both were tragic events. One was left on a plane as the family was flying from Vancouver to PEI. By the time I realized it was gone, the plane had been cleaned. On the inside page of each of my Moleskines, I offer a reward of $100.00 if it is found. It still infuriates me to this day that the damn cleaners couldn’t bother to look inside the front page of that book.

I love my Moleskine.

This morning, while checking out Raincoast Book’s Blog, I stumbled across something that has the potential to replace my beloved Moleskine:

I present to you, the Designers Notebook:

Designer’s Notebook (Amazon.ca)

This book looks absolutely incredible! Wonderful bits of inspiration, handy visualization tools and more.

One question – if someone were to make this the ‘Game Designers Notebook’ and included notes and reference points from consoles, handy frequently used LUA and AS3 commands or other things along those lines, would people interested in something like that? What do you think? Leave a comment.

Ah, GDC, my favorite event of the year. This year was a marathon. Six days of conferences, followed up by a quick road trip down to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic-Con. I did enough nerding out and geek partying to last me until PAX in the fall.

My marathon began with the Flash Gaming Summit, the second (now annual) event that focuses on the Flash Gaming side of the industry. I deeply, deeply enjoyed the Flash Gaming Summit. Not only was it a chance to meet fellow Flash developers, but it was great to get a pulse on where the Flash space is going (more on that later…)

My favorite sessions from FGS:

1. Opening Keynote – Mochi announces:
a) Social Media Plug-in for Flash games which means that indie developers get to spend less time fighting with Facebook’s API and more time on the game. (Facebook is notorious of randomly changing their API without warning, causing games to break)
b) Mochi Game Developer Fund – A 10 Million dollar fund to help developers get their game done and out. (Yes, Ray Ardent has been submitted)

2. Canabalt: Behind the Skyline - Adam Atomic talks about the 2009 uber-success that is Canabalt – and where the name came from.

3. Monetizing Your Game Outside of Sponsorship – Sponsorship has been the main source of revenue for Flash Developers for the past few years. Times, they are a changing and this panel goes through a few ways that developers can make money from their games outside of sponsors.

My personal big take-away from the weekend is that the industry is one that is in transition. Companies like Mochi, Gamersafe and Flash Game License are putting more power in the hands of the developers. Portals like Kongregate are taking a more supportive role for developers and more and more developers are making a lucrative living off of their Flash Games.

Every developer I talked to was all about micro-transactions and digital download as a way to take Flash developers to the next level. While a couple of portals were flat out refusing micro-transaction games, it quickly became obvious that this the the future of the free-to-play Flash game world.

If you want to spend a couple of days at the Flash Game Summit – Mochi has been kind enough to post all of the panels w/video and slides (in Flash – of course) online free of charge.

My two favorite tidbits from Flash Gaming Summit:
- King.com – the Flash game portal – employs 100 people in Stockholm. Yep – 100 people.
- At one of the panels, the moderator asked the panelists to look into their crystal balls and predict what the industry would be like in FOUR MONTHS. That’s how fast this space is changing. A far reaching prediction asks the leaders of the industry to speculate what it’ll be like in the summer. Crazy.

The next two days were spent at the Independent Games Summit. Sadly, GDC is keeping most of the panels and discussions behind a pay-gate, so there’s only so much I can share.

The general vibe at the Indie Summit was amazing. Ranging from highly experimental art games to polished commercially released games on XBLA and Steam. The attendees ranged from college students and established indies to game industry veterans like myself who are going indie to pursue their dreams.

My personal highlights from the Independent Summit:

- Numerous talks and perspectives on the future of indie games. While everyone had their own opinions and success stories on the future, the one thing that was obvious was that if you can make a good game it can find an audience. If it finds an audience, it can be successful.

- Randy Smith’s presentation on Immediacy and Depth reminded me of the basics that are so easy to forget when trying to get everything to work and play together.

- The Gamma4 party was great time meeting up with old friends while surrounded by cool games and chiptune DJ’s.

After these three intense days, it was time for to kick off the main GDC conference.

The GDC expo floor is often a spot to see new tech and new ideas – this year, it was pretty quiet. Which was a bit of a disappointment for me, but the floor was still packed, so maybe I’m just too jaded.

The Conference itself was filled with great sessions.

My personal fav sessions:
- Get Your Game out of my Movie by Armando Troisi – Armando is a former student and a good friend and his presentation was great.

- Dan Cook’s presentation on the Convergence of Social and Flash games

- David Edery’s insight’s into digital distribution. I especially enjoyed Edery’s identifying the Kindle as a huge opportunity that everyone is missing.

- The Nuovo Sessions gave each nominee of the IGF’s Nuovo award 5-10 minutes to talk about their game. Incredibly enjoyable.

If you are looking for more from GDC, you can also check out slideshare and search for GDC 2010, or do the same on Youtube and see what you can find that might tickle your fancy.

Did you go to GDC? What were your highlights?

Eskil Steenberg’s online multiplayer game Love has gone live. It is a collaborative, procedurally generated MMO that looks like nothing else (gorgeous!)

Here is a video to give you an overview of the game and gameplay:

GDC is where the shroud of secrecy is broken.

It’s an event where developers from around the world come together to celebrate their love of making games. Want to know how BioWare tackled cinematics in Mass Effect 2? Go check out Armando’s talk. Interested in the latest AI developments, there’s a WHOLE summit just for Artificial Intelligence.

Every time I go to GDC (I think this will be my 8th time), I’m amazed at how open and candid the other developers are. These are trade secrets, their companies competitive advantage, that they are sharing.

While it’s true that some of the sessions are pretty light and filled with marketing and PR buzzwords, but if you have ever been at a Clint Hocking GDC presentation, you will leave that room with a better understanding of how to design better games, if it doesn’t all go over your head.

And the candor doesn’t end in the presentations. If you want to know more, chances are that a deeper discussion into the topic at hand is only a few beers away.

On top of this assault of information, there is the added bonus of a little thing called ‘Friendship’. While some people will degrade the term by calling it ‘networking’, GDC is a place where I can meet up with past co-workers who have drifted to all corners of the globe, as well as meet new friends.

This year also marks my first trip to the Flash Gaming Summit (which, after being a HUGE success last year, I’m surprised isn’t a part of the official GDC this year) and it will be great to see what the big movers and shakers in my newly adopted Flash world are thinking 2010 has in store.

I’ll be posting pics and stories from GDC on my Twitter @shaneneville .

And if you are going to be at GDC, and you don’t know me, please come up and say hi (I’ll be the guy in the NinjaRobotDinosaur shirt) or hit me on Twitter to meet up.

Today, I am saying good bye to my home for the past two years – the gentle island of Prince Edward Island.

Top 3 things I will miss about PEI:

The Beaches

In the past two years, I have spent more time on the beach than in the entirety of my life before moving to PEI. There are so many reasons:
- Being alone at 10AM on a gigantic beach was a regular occurrence.
- PEI is home to the warmest swimming ocean water in Canada.
- Quite simply, the beaches are unmatched in there beauty and serenity.

The People

Canada is well known for being friendly and PEI has to be the friendliest place in Canada (I hear rumors that Newfoundland is nicer – but I have my doubts) I also had a tremendous opportunity to work in super-duper awesome people at Longtail Studios. I have made a great many friends on this little island and I will miss them all.

10 Thanksgiving deserts blended together!

The Sunsets

Coming from Saskatchewan, I love the open sky and the sky on PEI is amazing. Even on a frosty winter evening, the sunsets can warm you up. Cheesy? Sure – but so awesome.

It’s surprisingly hard to say goodbye. Thanks for everything you gentle little island.

Captain Forever - Build a Ship

Captain Forever is a new flash game from Farbs in which you fly through the galaxy, blowing up other ships and salvaging what is left for your own ship.

The gameplay itself is wonderfully addictive in how you always want to try and build different shapes of ships. Combat is very interesting in that you want to destroy the enemy ship, but also want to save pieces for you to salvage.

If you like Captain Forever – for $20 you can become a supporter and have access to the game Captain Successor.

Here’s a fan-made video to give you an idea of what’s in store when you play Captain Forever: