Assassin's Creed 2- An Interview (BlogPost #13)

Assassin's Creed was an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2007 and for PC in April 2008.

The game centered around use of a machine called the "Animus", which allows its user to view the genetic memories of his or her ancestors, specifically a bartender named Desmond Miles. As Desmond relives the memories of one of his ancestors, the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, details of a battle between two ancient sects, the Knights Templar and the Assassins, emerge as both scour for an artifact known only as a "Piece of Eden".





On January 22 2008, it was confirmed by Ubisoft that Assassin's Creed II was in production, but no details were revealed. A promotional video was released by Ubisoft on April 6 showing a map of Italy, some hidden blade designs, and DaVinci's flying machine on a scroll.

On the official site after the teaser is viewed a symbol is given to print and show in front of a webcam. Doing this will unlock a picture displayed on the site. 4 of the 5 symbols have been given by Ubisoft, and the other was found by a fan.

Later, on April 10, Game Informer magazine released details on the game, as well as pictures of Ezio. There are about 240 team members, some of these members were sent to Italy, traveling through Venice, Florence, Tuscany, and Rome.

In early May, Ubisoft has stated that they were putting full emphasis on the game and that 450 team members were now working on the title. 75% of the original developers for the original Assassin's Creed were now working on the second.




Exactly one month before Assassin's Creed 2 was released (November 17, 2010), I received my Careers course culminating (or, final project). We were told to research whatever careers we thought were most suited to ourselves and finally choose the one best suited for you.

After looking through many different careers and getting evaluated on Career Cruising dot com I decided that I would research becoming a Video Game Developer.

However, I had a different idea for my project than a boring essay. So I asked my teacher about my idea and she allowed it.



My Idea? An interview with the developers of Assassin's Creed 2. Now, with the Internet and connections these days you would think it would be easy to get in contact with somebody, right?

Very, very wrong.

I first contacted a website who told me that they only managed the budget for AC2, and was directed to the official website of Ubisoft UK. I wrote a message asking if it would be all right to speak with a developer of Assassin's Creed, however, I have never gotten a reply back.

I decided to email Ubisoft Montreal and pray that worked.

Hello,

My name is -Kaze-, and I am a student attending School in -undisclosed-. Right now in Careers class we have just received an assignment for the career we have chosen to follow. For me, I chose Video Game Developer. I was wondering, if at all possible, if I could speak with/ Interview a developer of Assassin's Creed II. I really love to play Assassin's Creed, and I love the idea of speaking with somebody who enjoys doing what I love, and who develops the games I love to play.

Thank you,

-Kaze-.

I got a reply back from Mathieu Perreault who is a networking specialist working for Ubisoft. He told me that It was not possible at the moment for me to speak with any of the developing team, as they were too busy polishing up the game (Assassin's Creed 1 was known to have MANY glitches, and they wanted to smooth out any problems).

However, Mr Perreault was kind enough to pass on the questions to a Senior Developer by the name of Philippe Therien.



Here is the interview I conducted with Mr Therien.


1. What is your current occupation? Where do you work?


[Philippe Therien]I am a Senior Game Designer at Ubisoft Montreal, I have been working here for 8 years


2. What do you enjoy most about your field of work? Why?

[Philippe Therien] The thing I enjoy the most is the fact that my job is never the same thing from one day to the other. Due to the nature of what I do, I will do a lot of research and immerse myself in a different world a few years at a time. For instance while working on a military game I will spend years researching the subject and I could just as well be researching race car driving a few years afterwards. It’s quite rare to find a job where you can always be doing something new and exciting I think.


3. If you had the chance to, would you want a promotion to a higher level of the workplace, or stay in your current level of job? Why, or why not?

[Philippe Therien] To me the sky is the limit, as I grow more experienced and older I realize that transferring my knowledge is important and I enjoy coaching junior designers at work. As I take more responsibilities in higher positions, it keeps me stimulated and i will keep doing this. I like being a designer but in the long I will eventually want to have more influence so promotions are an obvious career path for me.

4. What types of training did you need for your current occupation?

[Philippe Therien]When I started there wasn’t any training available so I trained myself. These days there are good classes available but personally I studied in electrical engineering, finished my degree in psychology and I worked 5 years in the movie industry before jumping over to Ubisoft. I think overall the important thing for a designer is to have great communication skills and be able to write properly. Having great ideas is awesome but it goes to waste if they cant be communicated to others.


5. What kind of Education is needed?
(Example: High School courses/ University/ College)

[Philippe Therien] Nowadays there are some great college level courses offered that train people in the basics of game design. They are not a must have however, as we routinely hire designers who aren’t necessarily finishing a design class. The one thing that helps tremendously with these classes is that as a junior it tells everyone that you have basics and that you have a clear interest for the job. I would have to say that right now, any design training course is great.

6. What kind of advice would you give to a high school student looking into your field of work? Please be specific.

[Philippe Therien] The important thing is to always try to understand games. Figure out how things are done, reverse engineer as much as possible. You should have a keen interest in making already existing games better. Ask yourself, could you make Pac-Man better? And if so, how would you do that? Another important thing is networking, when you get to the stage where you are looking for work, you should attend IGDA meetings and read up on www.gamasutra.com all the advice and interview related articles on there.

Doing these things will give some knowledge about the video game world and it will surely help you get your foot in the door somewhere.

Lastly, never stop playing games, no matter what! Knowing what others are doing is as important as having good ideas.



Thank you very, very much to everybody who directed me to contact Ubisoft Montreal.
An extra hug gigantic thank you to Philippe Therien and Mathieu Perreault.

Thanks again for helping me out!

It really helped me understand Game Developing a lot more, and I can say that talking with you was (still is!) a great experience.

Assassin's Creed 2 is OUT NOW!!
Please go and buy it :)
(However, I'm already 'married' to Ezio ;) So he's mine <3

Aka-Chan: Character Designs (Blog#12)

Even if you've never drawn in a sketchbook, painted a canvas, messed around in Photoshop or doodled on your math assignemtn that's due in seven minutes, there's a high chance that even once in your life you've thought, "wow, that would-" and then insert something positive about whatever you see and in whatever format you think of.
For me, anything can set off a thought of a new character for a short story, comic or Novel.
Today, let's look at how I designed my characters for a Novel I'm writing.



Above is an image that I made up in Photoshop a while back when I was first designing characters. The story plot was that I wanted a girl to have her identity erased from all the world's memory.
But anyway!

Origionally I was thinking that I wanted her to be a really girly character- wearing skirts and having bleached blonde hair. But then I was thinking that I wanted her to resemble who I want to be.

Pumpkin orange hair, can stand up for herself, is loved unconditionally by her boyfriend and is thin

Though I have dark blonde hair, can't stand up for myself at all and I'm now boyfriend-less, I didn't care!



And so, character design started.

Because I am obsessed with Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed, those kinds of designs came out first. I took Ezio from AC 2's outfit, made it blue instead of red and sculpted it to fit a female- and it looked really good!

But even if you're happy with something right off the bat, keep going with more ideas; this is a skill I'm starting to learn that I need.

So I tried out Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy, Ulquiorra and Halibel from Bleach, and so many others!!

But you always want a character who represents you, represent you. Right?
I started looking at Lolita Fashions that I've always wanted to be able to fit into (But because of my weight I'd look really stupid.)



The final design was based on the Assassin Creed character, and I ended up with an unusual-looking character.
Her name is a secret, but for fun let's call her Aka. Aka has pumpkin ornage hair, and as you can see her outfit is designed tight-fitted so that she can fight properly and efficiently.
(I apoligize that there is no image, the file is currently too big to upload.)

Oh, I forgot to mention, it's a fighting story.

Anyway, she holds her assassin gear in pockets and has two hidden blades.
I hope my character design inspired you at all to start thinking of your own!!

On The Bus by Aaron Chan

Okay!
Today I went to the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children with the CyberARTS classes of Year one to four. We were shown many movies in the time span of an hour and a half, and then had a sit-down with some of the script writers and directors of the movies.

These movies were animated, acted, or a documentary of creepy, very creepy bugs. But what really interested me was a movie called, "On The Bus".

"On The Bus" is a short film directed by Tracy D Smith, written by Aaron Chan, starring Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman and Giles Panton. However, before you read the rest of the post I would like you to please watch this video first.



Well, I hope you watched the video, because this post will make more sense if you did.

In the movie, you can see that the boy Jeremy is talking to Sean, the boy sitting in front of him. Sean keeps talking to Jeremy, telling him to "just talk to me!".
When he says this, you know something is wrong.
Is this a daydream, like Sarah suggests in the beginning, or is it really happening? But then again, Sean did just show up out of nowhere.

SO many questions!!

At the end of the movie, Sean suddenly disappears and then you see him walk right back onto the bus. He looks around and, despite all of the empty seats, sits right next to Jeremy! AT the very, very end the two boys turn to look at each other and I'd love to hear in the comment section what your reaction to what happened after was.

Mine? Well, when the screen turned black and the movie stopped I slunk into my seat in embarrassment after I howled, "what?!!" But I really did like the movie.



After, during the talk with the directors/ script writers I was able to talk to Aaron Chan and ask him a quick question.

"So how did you come up with the idea for 'On The Bus?'."

Aaron told me that he had expected that question sometime, and that it was based on something that he would always do as a teen on the bus. He told me- or really, the crowd- that if there was an empty seat in front of him on the bus we would pretend the guy he liked was sitting in front of him and they were talking.

He continued on, however my memory fails me as the conversation was over six and a half hours ago. And I feel bad about not remembering, which I do apologize for, really.

"On The Bus" has been featured at many festivals and award ceremonies such as the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Washougal International Film Festival, Vues d'en Face, Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, Paris Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and in London, alllll over the United States and finally here in Canada.

Over all I really quite enjoyed the video, and it was good to see that something was brought into the festival about homophobia. Being part of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community, I was glad to see that something was shown. Although I didn't expect the reaction from the audience when they kissed- most people went 'awww'- I was glad to see it was accepted.

Twitter Backgrounds- Tutorial on how to make your own!! (Blog Post #11)

Hello All!!

I just found a really interesting tutorial on how to make your very own background for Twitter, using Power Point!!

You see, if a background on your Twitter page looks boring, it might make your content look boring. I have experiance with this because I think my Blog content on this blog is really, truely interesting- and I've been told it is!!

But my background is boring as heck because I can't change it.

And so, to help you make your Twitter page looks wonderful, I present a link to a great Twitter Background Tutorial.


Click me to have a look at this awesome Tutorial :)

And don't worry- the template is FREE.

BigDog (Blog Post #10)

BigDog is a stable four-legged robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. BigDog is 3 feet long, stands 2.5 feet tall, and weighs 240 pounds, about the size of a small donkey. It is able to travel on difficult terrain at 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h), carrying 340 pounds, and can climb a 35 degree incline. Motion is controlled by an on-board computer that receives input from the robot's sensors. Navigation and balance are also managed by the control system.


The BigDog project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), hoping that it will be able to serve as a pack mule to follow soldiers on land too rough for vehicles. Instead of wheels or treads, BigDog uses four legs for movement, allowing it to move across almost any surface that would defeat wheels. The legs contain a variety of sensors, including joint position and ground contact. BigDog also also contains a stereo vision system.

BigDog was featured in episodes of Daily Planet, Web Junk 20 and Hungry Beast, and in articles in New Scientist, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and The Wall Street Journal.

On March 18, 2008, Boston Dynamics released video footage of a new generation of BigDog. The footage shows BigDog's ability to walk on icy terrain and recover its balance when kicked from the side.

You can see the amazing video, Here

Now, as you may have noticed, BigDog does not sound like a normal robot would. This is because it's engine is powered with Gasoline.

For More information, Please visit Boston Dynamics's Online Webpage here

Follow this link to an interesting video CLICK ME

To Have a look at more BigDog videos, visit the Youtube Channel at This Beautiful Link

Proximate Pyrotechhnics (Blog Post#9)

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to go and see one of the most amazing and hilarious concerts ever. Nickelback played an amazing show filled with the lead singer Chad Kroger's hilarious jokes and comments, and even better- the pyrotechnics.

Explosions, flashes, smoke, flames, fireworks or other propellant driven effects used in entertainment are referred to as Pyrotechnic special effects, theatrical effects, or proximate pyrotechnics. Proximate refers to the pyrotechnic device's location relative to an audience.

In most jurisdictions, special training and licensing must be gained from authorities to legally prepare and use pyrotechnics.



Many musical groups use pyrotechnics to make their live shows as awesome as the rock band KISS. Some of the earliest bands to use pyrotechnics were The Who, Pink Floyd and Queen.

German industrial metal band Rammstein are known for their large variety of pyrotechnics, which range from flaming costumes to face-mounted flamethrowers. Nightwish and Lordi are also known for their amazing pyrotechnics in concert. Many professional wrestlers have also used pyrotechnics as part of their entrances to the ring.



Modern pyrotechnics are, in general, divided into categories based upon the type of effect produced or manufacturing method. The most common categories are:

* Airburst - Hanging charges designed to burst into spheres of sparks.
* Comets (meteor) - Rising shots resembling shooting stars.
* Preloaded Smoke Pot - Cartridges designed to release a mushroom cloud of smoke.
* Preloaded Report (concussion tube) - Tubes designed to create a loud report.
* Falls - Devices intended to drop like falling stars.
* Flame Projector - Columns shooting pillars of flame.
* Flare (Torch) - Short, high intensity flames or various colours.
* Flashpaper - Sheets of nitrocellulose resembling tissue paper.
* Flash Pot - A container for creating a bright flash and smoke.
* Flash Tray (split mine) - A long tube creating a wide, bright flash.
* Gerb (including fountain, whistle, and waterfall) - A fountain of sparks.
* Lance - A small brightly colored fountain that produces few sparks.
* Line Rockets - Whistling gerbs traveling across wires.
* Strobe - A device intended to create bright repetitive flashes.
* Wheel (Saxon) - Tubes that create a spinning wheel of sparks.

I hope you've had a chance to see Pyrotechnics as they are truly amazing to see, and play with. Just be careful when around them!!

Here's a neet Pyrotechnics Fireworks Display