Once more, with feeling.

Let's see...since the last update we were in the recording sessions for the last of our VO. That was Thursday and Friday of last week. I had what could only be described as a moment of geeky happiness. It is not all that big of a deal, but for me it felt like I had achieved something cool or made another step, albeit a small one, as a director. I realized this momentary feeling of accomplishment when I was directing one of the actors – breaking down the story behind their character and explaining what I wanted out of the gameplay moments. Now I am a fan of the guys work; I have seen several things he has done and have always been impressed. Not saying he is pacino or deniro impressive...but he's good people. Anyway It really isn’t that big of a deal, but for me it was a great moment of accomplishment. Here I was giving direction to an actor that I totally respect about a game that I am directing. It was pretty damn cool. I am sure to most other directors it is really no big deal, but to me it was a cool moment…a moment of really doing something. There have been a lot of cool moments….a lot of firsts for me….but I had not had one in a while so that one really helped pick me up and get me 'back into the game' so to speak. The performance turned out great too, I thnk it will really add a lot to the gameplay his character is involved in. At first I brought him in because I recognized him and was a fan of his work but I was a bit worried that I might be making a similar mistake that I made early on…going with a 'name' without knowing whether or not they would work out or be difficult to work with. Trust me when I say...that sucks ass. Not only is it diffcult when doing the work...but you look like the biggest asshole int he world for pushing to get this person. Just all around bad times at ridgmont high. But thankfully…and that is a BIIIIG thankfully…like massive weight off my shoulders thankfully…it all worked out. He rocked. So keep an eye out for future updates when I can actually tell you his name, and the names of some of the other peeps we got to do the voices.

I also got to relax a bit and watch a few things this weekend that really got me thinking about the concept of the creative visionary – the rare person who is able to see the complete picture before they ever start working on something. Watching some of behind the scenes stuff about Joss Whedon really cemented the idea to me that he is a creative visionary. I mean this guy has created some really great work.. I was watching season 6 of Buffy…for the first time, I never watched the show on TV…when I got to the “Once more, with Feeling” episode and was blown away. He wrote the script for the show, the music and the lyrics…and performed on the demo CD. CRAZY! It really made me feel lazy. I know I have a ways to go before I will have that kind of creative clarity. There are some things with the game that I see the whole picture…that I know exactly what I want and I am able to convey that to everyone. But then there are still other things that I do not have the perfectly clear picture, and I kind of have to feel my way around in the dark a little before I see the whole thing. I know I can get better at that…and I know I can get to that point where I see it all clearly in the very early stages of production. That will be a good day.

Thanks for all the feedback guys…we are moving forward on the action figures. Not sure as to when they will be released or anything, but we have a collection of some great ideas we are working with now so stay tuned for more updates on that. Maybe I can get some pics posted of the early molds or something…that would be cool…kind of a work in progress sort of thing.

Gonna go into an iChat with Jaffe in a few minutes to talk about various aspects of the game so I am just killing a little time before that. I have a pretty full day today since I was out yesterday at another of our V.O. sessions. I got back in the office at 7:30pm last night and was running around trying to meet with as many people as I could, but still there is much that did not get done due to my absence yesterday.

I am also going to a Gamestop managers show at the end of September to show off the game…so that should be fun. I actually like demo-ing the game and getting to see the excitement on peoples faces when I rip off someone arm or stab minotaur in the head. I guess that says something kind of scary about me…and I the rest of society….but whatever. But it’s just a game, no matter what that no talent ass clown Jack Thompson says.

“Nobody shoots another person in the face unless they are a hitman or a video gamer.”

What an idiot. At any rate it will be nice to be able to show off the latest after having worked so crazy hard. The only downside is we are going alpha shortly after that so missing those two days will most likely have me working like mad to catch up. Well…not much of a positive outlook for my sleep in the near future.