B.E.S Vacation 5

The last time I took a break from blogging was to prepare for GDC 2012. Last summer was my last B.E.S Vacation post. It's time to take another break but not before taking a moment to look back. 

Old TV. New HD.

Can you believe that I've been playing my PS3 on an SD TV since launch. I've been plagued by "next gen text" that's too fuzzy and too small for me to read. Now I have a 50 inch flat screen to read the text that's still a bit small but thankfully clear. HD looks great, but there's a reason why I'm so late to the party. Visuals are not what I most like in games. I guess you know that all to well by now. 

Old PC. New PC.

I've been blogging on my netbook for 3 years! All that writing and all the image editing was done on such a tiny screen. It runs so slowly now I can hardly use it. Now I have a newly built desktop PC with more cores than I can count on 1 hand, enough RAM for the future, a monitor that I can split in half and still see more than ever, and the ease of maxing out settings on any PC game I download. Yes, I can play PC games now, but I'm more interested in developing games, creating art assets, and recording audio/video on my new machine. 

Old Bros. New Sasso. 

Remember Neo*RPG? Remember the DKART games and Megafied? Those where the days when I created games with my brother, Marcus. The two of us make up B.E.S Studios. Those days of striking out against the world on our own are over. I'm happy to announce that we've teamed up with Noah Sasso, friend and fellow critical-gamer, to develop BaraBariBall. We've been hard at work and have exciting plans for this game. Hopefully, BBB will be the first game where I put all of my critical-knowledge to use. Expect great things. 

Old blogger. New speaker. 

In the old days, I only thought and wrote about games. But on September 17th, I'll be a speaker at the Game Design Conference in San Francisco. It's a small conference, but I hope to deliver a hard hitting presentation about game design and how to innovate. I'll try to record my talk or report on the experience in some fashion. Wish me luck!

Old pod. New cast. 

You don't remember the old Critical-Cast episodes I released back in 2007. If you do, congrats! Consider yourself a veteran. If not, don't worry, they weren't very good. To be honest, I don't even remember what they were like. Fast forward 5 years and I've relaunched the Critcial-Casts podcast starting with an interview with Shawn McGrath creator of Dyad. I've received very positive feedback and constructive criticism for episode one. I plan to create more episodes and refine my craft. I've been looking for help anyone on the net who wanted to contribute in any way they can. So far I have a few guys who are on board. I won't announce the full cast yet, but the support I'm gathering is exciting.

So if you're a developer or a gamer with something interesting to say (or a topic to suggest) contact me. I've set up my Skype name "krazykirbykid" to take voice mail recorded messages when I don't answer calls (whether I'm online or offline). Now you can supply any audio suggestions, comments, or rants to me to possibly use in future episodes.  

I can't make any promises at this point on how regular the episodes will be. 

Old look. New book. 

Take a look at the Critical-Gaming blog right now. This is the old look. As I draw closer to the 5 year blogging mark, I realize that I have to restructure what I put my time and energy into. Just blogging and giving everything away for free will not only drain my time and energy, but my bank account as well. So I'm trying to take myself seriously and market my efforts. I'm currently working on the final touches of a a gaming related book publishing contract! It'll be my first real published work. Wish me more luck!

With all of these changes going on, I'll be taking a break from blogging. I need the extra time to figure out how the next half year or so of my life will play out. Here's what you can expect on this blog whenever I return.

• Kid Icarus Uprising Review
• Kirby Mass Attack article
• Resident Evil Revelations + RE6 article
• Kirby Epic Yarn & Rayman Origins Review
• How Movies Killed Games
• Game/Mental State 6, 7, 8
• Conveyance (Implicit, Explicit, Scaffolding)
• The State of Level Design
• Genre!

Thanks for all the support. Thanks for sharing my articles and podcast. Keep in touch in the meantime.