EA Tiburon rookie of the year?

Over the past 6 years since college, I've grown accustomed to over-achievement and under-recognition. In virtually every workplace and project I've worked on, I've consistently contributed on a level far above my pay grade. Though I've never received any formal recognition, I've developed a strong portfolio and a reputation along the way, which did eventually lead me to a position at EA.

Every year at the Hard Rock Universal in Orlando during the annual holiday party, EA Tiburon has an extravagant award show called "The Sharky Awards" to honor outstanding performers around the studio. It's an over-the-top award show with all of the ambiance you'd expect from the Oscars or the Emmys.

I was recently informed that I was 1 of 5 people nominated for "The Rookie" award by my coworkers for my contributions to the Tiger 09 UI and marketing efforts. I'm truly thankful and honored for this nomination and am frankly shocked that people seem to be taking notice. Its not my style nor temperament to wear my accomplishments on my sleeve.

Win or lose it's just a great honor. So thanks to everybody at Tiburon for a great rookie year. As the Lead UI designer for Tiger 10, I'll try to make my sophomore year even more successful.

real-time swing feedback meter

As interface designers for video games, its accepted that we're not going to get much cred from the critics. If the UI isn't mentioned in a review it's probably a good thing. And it usually means that gamers aren't getting confused and/or lost in the menus trying to access the game. We're usually lucky to get a "the game looks nice" or the "presentation has improved" from the reviewers. And thats okay.

This year on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, I actually conceived of, designed, prototyped, and implemented (with some engineering help) an element to the game that has influenced gameplay in a very positive way. The "real-time swing feedback meter" is a simple addition to the in-game HUD that shows the player what their thumb is doing on the analog stick during their golf swing.

And it's showing up in all the reviews, read what 1up is saying about it, it's the first thing they mention

"Well, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 brings more tinkering...but this time, the planets appear to have aligned just right. The issues with swing sensitivity are answered with a swing feedback meter, which clearly illustrates any deficiencies in your swing. As you pull back on the stick, you see a little glowing trail in the lower left that shows exactly how steady your thumb is (most likely nowhere near as steady as you think). The instant feedback does wonders for those wishing to learn proper technique."

It's exciting to contribute something that may have direct influence the Metacritic score, 1up gave the game an "A". But my little addition is only the tip of the iceberg. The game is tremendously better than last year and is loaded with new features... and is fun as hell to play. I'm just proud to have been part of the development and am looking forward to another year on the EA Sports team.

Tiger 09 available in August

Mark your calendars, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 will arrive in stores on August 26. As we wrap up our development cycle and the reviews (like this one) begin to come in... the excitement is beginning to mount and the grueling 12 month development cycle begins to feel rewarded. My contributions to the interface design of this game for both xBox 360 and PS3 versions is certainly the epitome my portfolio and my career thus far and I'm looking forward to having an even more influential role in the development of Tiger Woods 10.

I feel wonderfully fortunate to have worked with such a brilliant team, an experience that has causing me to look within myself to reexamine exactly who I am as an interactive designer. The trajectory of my career has been clarified as a result and I've begun focusing much more on the art and concept side and relying on the genius of engineers and scriptors for the code. In my previous lives at BIG Communications and Moncur Associates/Emsix, I'd begun drifting toward the coding side of the spectrum, not because it was my strength but because of necessity... and a lack of support from my cohorts.

change me clothing hypercolor style t-shirts

To add to the immense changes I've undergone over the last year, me, my wife, and a good friend of mine have decided to develop a brand of hypercolor-style t-shirts called Change Me Clothing.

Here's a little excerpt from our about us info:

Change Me Clothing is a retro-rebirth inspired by the nostalgic color-changing brand, Hypercolor. We believe that Change Me Clothing is the brand to rejuvenate these bold, bright styles and deliver them to a new generation. Change Me’s fabric features the revolutionary DYENAMIC INFUSION, a color-changing dye technology that reacts to your body, the sun, or any other source of heat. It’s touch-sensitive, so if you place your hand on the fabric, it will leave a hand print. As the fabric cools, it will return to it’s original color.

We're still in the early stages and are currently working on the site and the artwork for the shirts, expect to see some great stuff soon. Visit the site and buy a shirt:
www.changemeclothing.com

blogging again

Seeing as how I've started a new chapter in my career and am finding little need to add new work to my portfolio, I've opted to suppress that aspect of my site. I've decided instead to begin blogging again and keep my status updated with the occasional post.

So, If you noticed a 9 month gap in my posts between August 07 and now... don't be alarmed. I was just busy rearranging my life entirely.

moving to orlando

Anyone who really know me, knows that since early in my college years, I've devoted my life to my career... hoping that somehow, someone would recognize my potential and give me a shot. It has been a long, sleepless, and emotionally compromising journey... not only for me, but certainly for my family. After several years, I finally feel that my perseverance may have finally paid off.

It has been a remarkable year and I've had the opportunity to meet some incredible people in the interactive business. Between visits to Yahoo in both Santa Monica and San Clara, California, visits to breakout interactive agencies like Hyperquake in Cincinnati and IQ Interactive in Atlanta, and even a few beers with some folks from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, I've been subject to an extreme professional makeover.

And after all that, I was fortunate enough to actually have a choice. I've chosen to follow a path I could have only dreamt of as a computer-illiterate, high-school football player 10 years ago. As of August 20th, 2007, I am joining Electronic Arts Tiburon in Orlando Florida, working as a UI designer/developer for EA Sports... a dream opportunity not only for me, but for my entire family.

It'll be a departure from the design studio/agency settings I've been apart of thus far in my career, but that is part of the appeal. I'm burnt out from the inherent disorder of companies who are perpetually discovering themselves and lack steadfast focus and leadership.

And... anyone who knows me, also knows that I am a sports fanatic. I spent my childhood playing sports. And when I wasn't actually playing, I was playing EA Sports games like Madden, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods Golf, and NHL on the Playstation and Sega Genesis.

Now I get help develop the Flash UI's of the actual games. I was made for this job.

flv player

Coming from a design background, aside from a couple C++ classes in college, I'm entirely self-trained in... well... everything programming related, including Actionscript. My lack of formal training in object-oriented design, coupled with the leniency of Actionscript 1 permitted me to develop a very procedural, haphazard style of development... which fortunately for me has worked pretty well.

However, as of late, I've taken interest in OOP theory and how I can apply design patterns to make my code more intuitive and scalable. With a observer pattern in mind, I developed a dynamic flv player application utilizing event Dispatcher, which I'm particularly proud of.

I ripped a bunch of youTube videos down to my site and dropped them into a directory. Using php, I'm populating an array of this directory's contents and building out the menu. The app is so low maintenance that anybody can maintain the videos by dragging them in and out of a folder... there has to be a practical use for this. I'd be happy to customize it and build a microsite for anybody wanting to put there videos on the web.

http://www.innersection.com/videos

P.S. My only beef at this point is with the FLVs and their garbage metadata. I really hope Abobe and other third-party developers can get this right with the next generation of apps. It's seriously a problem... detecting completion on a FLV with bad metadata is literally impossible.

designer or programmer?

Eight years ago when I began studying interactive design, I guess I always assumed that to be a designer, I must have a broad understanding of related technology... and be capable of getting my hands dirty in the development process. Because of this core belief, I've relentlessly studied interactive design inside and out and devoted my life to constantly upgrading my skill set to new, trendy coding platforms in addition to following art and design trends. I can't imagine designing a website without knowing how to code standard xhtml or css, or a flash based interface without actionscript. I've always felt that having a firm grasp on the entrails, empowers me to design richer interfaces. I'm baffled to the number of designers out there that don't feel this way. Personally, I take pride that for the most part, I am capable of physically developing most of what I design.*

Particularly lately, I feel pressure to make a decision as to what exactly my specialty is... design or programming. I'm sorry, but I don't feel that this is so black and white. Does it make me a freak that I am both? No, it makes me an Interactive Designer.