standing in the shower….thinkin

So I am sitting here at my computer wondering what I can talk to you about…about our game.

And then it dawns on me…wtf am I doing? I am actually trying to come up with content; I should just talk about what’s on my mind and see if anyone out there can connect.

I mean s%$@; we all are gamers here yeah?

Halo 3….are you REALLY excited or do you actually THINK you’re excited because its “Halo” and everyone loves “Galooooo” and if you don’t you are considered “insane” or just an idiot who doesn’t know better.

Me?…
feh…I want to see the world they built, I want to see how much more immersive I can get inside this universe and really…that’s it.

Halo 2 to me was thin, multiplayer is insane and I love it and I cry tears of wonderment and joy whenever I play over my buddy Raymond’s house on one of the 15 big screens in the house, yes it’s that sick and yes it’s the most godly experience next to this, that you can actually get.

But really….it was thin…when you played the game for the story and you really PLAYED it …feh

It looked rushed, it felt rushed, don’t get me wrong. Bungie is an extremely talented group of individuals, but I’d bet they wince in certain areas of that game.

We all do.

Everyone whose ever made a video game that was not under the perfect conditions: a fat schedule, a healthy budget etc etc.

a Bioshock is a great example of something that lived up to the hype. Bioshock to me is game of the year…no…game of the next 2 years.

Yeah that’s right…I said 2 YEARS!!! It’s that good. And so what that it’s basically System Shock 2, its a great ride. The world hooked me in and made me forget whatever s@!#$% thing was going on in my normal real life.

I get like that with Turning Point, but for a different reason. For me, it’s because I am connecting with it. Being a native New Yorker I connect with the situation that arrives in Manhattan in our game. I feel like my home is being taken over by hostiles.

I don’t know, it’s odd. Something as small as a games context can make you immerse yourself and forget about the day.

I got into videogames because I wanted to give people something that would take them away for awhile. Something that would help people just escapes for a while, like a good book, album or movie. Hopefully I can make some of you “escape” for a while, that to me…would be the greatest reward for a job well done.

I’m recording some stuff this week; if anything is worthy I will post it here for you. Please bear with me…..I am just getting into video editing and what not on the pc for real now. So the old hack methods I used to do…just won’t cut it.

I want to post some footage of me running around in the game and then post it here. Let me know if you wanna see it and more specifically WHAT you wanna see.

New York levels?

Washington levels?

England maybe? hmmm…..so many choices

Hey nowwww

So this is the unofficial “official” Turning Point Dev blog….very roomy in here….
Ok, come closer please so I don’t have to yell…My name is Dean; I will be your guide on this blog from now until the game comes out.

Sometimes the posts will be solely focused on the game, other times it won’t….and sometimes it will be a mix of both. I kinda want to reach out to everyone and talk …just get to know our fan base and hopefully shed some exclusive light on details that the other web mags and magazines in gaming…won’t offer you.
For that I am going to have to sneak stuff in here under the radar of the publisher…but no worries…
I can try to occupy their time so you can see it all before it gets pulled

On this here blog you may even get posts from other members of the team……who knows.
It all depends on how much time we have on hand.

Time?

Ahh time…that’s a real rare commodity right now at the studio, Turning Point just hit its pre beta milestone, a biggie to us…we have only a short time left now before we have to get it ready for certification.
What’s certification you ask?

That’s when we get the game to pretty much “retail” ready state and then send it to Sony, Microsoft…etc… and they evaluate it for 7 – 10 days. If they like what they see and it passes their strict guidelines (and they are strict)…then it gets Gold Certified and from there it goes to manufacturing…and then finally….to a store near you.

If it fails a good % of guidelines they will kick it back to the publisher who in turn notifies us that it has to be resubmitted with corrections..we fix it then resubmit and go thru the cycle again…until it goes retail, where hopefully you and a few million of your friends pick up a copy.

So as I was sayin….when we have the time, for some of us its work, radio show, this blog so we even have LESS time…but we will be up here and we will try to keep you guys in the loop BEHIND the scenes.

I’d like to get some video up here of how we do what we do…maybe I can do that.

Hmm.

So until then…
Take care…brush yer hair

Turning Point Fans Unite – News From the Trenches

You’ve seen the official site for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.  Looks awesome, doesn’t it?

Well, this is a not quite as official official site for Turning Point, done by some of us here on the team at SPARK.  Not quite as sexy.  Just a pretty simple Blog for now — unless you syndicate it like the Codemasters guys did and put it into a cool template. (Nice job, Adam!)  But what you’ll see here are a lot of our thoughts as we hit D-Day on finishing one of the biggest games all of us have worked on.  Pure, (mostly) unfiltered commentary on what it’s like in the trenches as we bring our world — our game — to life.

Dean Martinetti — Turning Point: Fall of Liberty’s producer — is going to be the main voice here with the help of some special guests on the team.  For those of you who have posted with Dean on the Gamespot forums, or have seen him cut interviews for IGN, you know he’s outspoken and loves to write you back.  Which brings us to a question at least one of you is asking right now:

Why are we doing this?
Because We Want To.  Well, part it is we want to see what Dean is going to write because he can be hilarious when properly Red Bulled.  But we also want to give you a chance to talk to us and to have the most direct way possible to keep tabs on our game.  We have no idea what kind of traffic this site’s going to get.  But (earmuffs to Mac, our PR guy) not everything we do is for the sake of page views.  Sometimes we do things Because We Want To.

So. . . Yeah, of course subscribe to the RSS feeds, post how much you love Turning Point in your favorite forum, fight your local oppressors, call your congressman, and obviously buy the game when it hits stores in January. But most of all, stay in touch.  You are our Turning Point and a bright and shining star.

More to come,
Your Fearless Resistance Leaders and Tour Guides