It has been a while.

It has been a while dear reader (and internet) since I have blogged my brains out. I should decide on some structure before I begin writing this but whatever I’ll roll with it. Ok this will be a retrospective on the last few months including GDC and the beginning of my final project. There structure.

First off GDC, O man it was so much fun. First off I got accepted as part of the conference associates program, every year 300 people are picked to help work the conference, some how I got picked. This was probably one of the greatest things ever to get picked for this. Not only did they pay for my ticket, they helped get me a hotel for dirt cheap. So what did I do as a CA. Well anything that needed done mostly I worked sessions which meant I went early to a session met the speaker and did anything they need and helped people coming to the session. This was great because I got to meet tons of great people doing this. Now I could go in depth as to what the sessions were but that was a while ago and I can’t really remember most of them. But they were all great.

In all it was a great week I met a ton of awesome people through the CA program and the conference in general. If you get a chance to be a CA at GDC do it.  Also I got to play in a charity poker tournament that lets just say everyone there was way above my pay grade and I did really well.

Since then I have been working my butt of in final project trying to make a great game. You can check the current build out using the link to the right. We have 3 months left to finish up the game and polish it up. Also I finally beat Bioshock after 4 months of playing. It was amazing very well done game, I had a few complaints here and there but in all one of the best games of last year. There are some more sweet things going on which I will write about in a later post. Until then later,

Grant

Call For Testers!!

Hey everyone, As some of you may know I am in my final project at Full Sail, this means I have 5 months to make a game with 4 other guys. So we have a pretty cool idea and we are 2 months into production and just got a very basic demo up.

So here is what this email is all about. We need testers. So what will a tester do: every few weeks we will send out an email with a link to the newest version of our game, in the email we will say specifically what we want people to test for. Then you just play the game and email us back answering the questions. Super easy, Super fun, and super helpful to us.

If you want to go ahead and check out the newest version that we have go to smashbricks.blogspot.com and click on the newest release in the top right corner.

If you are interested just email me back (include your name and email) and I will put you on the list.

Thanks guys,

Grant Shonkwiler
Project Lead
White Board Logic
smashbricks.blogspot.com

PS This is a very early version so it doesn’t look or sound pretty we know

Smashout Final Project

So we have created a new blog for our final project. I will be posting most of my thoughts about it there. Check it out at smashbricks.blogspot.com. Also check out our website whiteboardlogic.com  I will post more soon. I have spring break starting Friday and I will be home to eat my mommy’s good food.

Now back to work.

Top Films of 2007

Here it is my top films of 2007. I could not get it down to 13 so yea there are 17

No Country for old men

Juno

Ratatouille

Once

This is England

Hot Fuzz

I’m Not There

Bourne Ultimatum

The Lookout

Into The Wild

Death at a Funeral

There Will Be Blood

The Kite Runner

The Great Debaters

American Gangster

Charlie Wilson’s War

Persepolis

Honorable Mention list: Sweeney Todd, Michael Clayton, Zodiac, Gone Baby Gone, In The Shadow Of the Moon, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Before the devil knows your dead, The King of Kong, Offside, No End In sight, You Kill Me, 1408, Away From Her, 3:10 to Yuma, Breach, Atonement

Movies I still want to see from 2007: August Rush, The Savages, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Killer of Sheep, Triad Election, Enchanted

The Beginning of Final Project

So today starts Final Project. Just five months till I finish with a great game (hopefully) and graduate from Full Sail. So today we got our groups. My group is already presented with an interesting challenge because we are the only team that only has 5 team members (all the others have 6) but we are already rising to the challenge. The jobs so far (not 100% set in stone) Me Project Lead, Naveen Nattam (his blog is over there on the right) Technology Lead, Scott Rodda Interface Lead, Franklin Ludgood Gameplay Lead, CP Wilkinson Asset Lead. We have some great initial ideas and have already started researching to see how they will work. All in all I am really excited for the next five months they will be hard but fun I am sure. Well that is all 10 days to GDC I am really excited.

Also my website is now almost completly finished. I have put up more projects, some design docs, and my resume both on the page and for download. Check them out and let me know what you think. grantshonkwiler.com

PS

I am one film away from making my top films of 2007. Should be up this weekend.

2007 Lists

So for all 3 of you out there who actually have read my top albums of 2007 AND are interested in my top Games and Films, I just wanted to let you know that I’m still working on my lists. There are still 2 0r 3 games I want to finish first and about 20 movies but I’m burning through those at a good rate. So don’t hold your breath but they should be up in the next o…2 months :).

Help With Full Sail

I realize I have been recommending this blog to most people who have questions about the school. I just want to make sure that everyone knows that if they have any questions about my experiences and feelings about the school feel free to shoot me an email at gshonk@gmail.com and I will try to answer as soon as I can. For those of you who don’t know GDC is just a few weeks off (February 1 and I am doing the work program at the conference so I will be there from Sunday the 17th-24th. I am extremly excited to have been given this opportunity to help out with the conference (and have my ticket paid for ). Hope to see some of you there.

Grant

Website

http://grantshonkwiler.com/ is officially up. Check it out

Top Music of 2007

Here it is the long awaited list(by me that is). My favorite albums of 2007. This seemed to be a year of British rock, female singers, indie bands who play mostly acoustic, and of course just some more rocking stuff. So here it is the top 13 albums of 2007.

The View- Hats off to the buskers

Feist – The Reminder

Amy Macdonald- This is the life

Artic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare

The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Cloud Cult – The meaning of 8

Eisley- Combinations

Bright Eyes – Cassadaga

The Almost – Southern Weather

The Maccabees – Colour It in

Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha

The White Stripes – Icky Thump

J-Roddy Walston and the Business- Hail Mega Boys

Following are some of the other albums I have enjoyed this year but just aren’t great enough to be in the top 13.

Aqualung – Memory Man, Spoon- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, The Thrills – Teenager, Colour – Between Earth & Sky, Anberlin – Cities, Hot Hot Heat – Happiness, The Killers-Sawdust, Mae- Singularity, Justice- Cross, Dashboard Confessional- The Shade of poison trees, Foo Fighters- Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, DJ Tiesto – Elements of Life, The Brothers Martin- The Brothers Martin

There were a few albums I haven’t gotten yet but they just didn’t make it into the cut. I hope to keep finding great cds from last year.

Blog Writing

So I realize I am getting really bad at this blog writing thing so I’m just writing this to let you know that I am still alive and my plans for this blog and a future website. Currently I am in my last month of Full Sail before the five months of final project so I am extremely busy with school. Also I am getting ready for my first GDC which I am extremely excited about. I will be writing about GDC and my experiences there.

Now for the blog I have a few things that I want to write in the next few months first I am going to do my top lists of 2007 including, Movies, Music and games. But right now I am very behind in the movie and game department so it will take me a few weeks to catch up. Also I will be posting a resume soon and hopefully I will have a website up and running in the next few months. Until the next time.

Grant Shonkwiler