Disqus - Friends of Gaiiden

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:19:17 -0000

Woohoo!. I just got the Disqus comment system working.

Re: An Itch That Can’t Be Scratched

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:25:05 -0000

This is the founding members of GarageGames proudly showing off our first office. From left to right: Tim Gift, Jeff Tunnell, Mark Frohnmayer, Rick Overman. Like the alt-text says, "nothing but promise!" The entire ride was a lot of fun. Some hard times, but I would do it again in a nano-second. Wait, I am doing it again!

-Jeff Tunnell

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:56:09 -0000

Thanks for coming by. Hmmm. I never use IE. I'll talk to Sean about this. Maybe he knows something.

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:56:56 -0000

Hey, Tom. Send me an email. I would love to catch up with you again.

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:58:01 -0000

Britton! Awesome idea. I have actually kind of started some of that in my About section. I just need to finish it. I would have no problem revealing some of the numbers.

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:59:45 -0000

I know they are starting to work on GGE again and have some big plans. I hope it works out. The developer profile is better than anything on the net. Having a full time editor making sure all the latest games are in there would be in inexpensive way to make sure everything is up to date.

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Jeff Tunnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:02:55 -0000

Actually Eric, those game lists on GGE could actually help you as a "hired gun". You could use them as an embed on your site and other social sites to tell people what games you have worked on, you can use them to instantly tell prospective team members what kinds of games you like. It all links back to the GGE developer profile page, which is still very good at showing teams you worked with, mini postmortems on the projects you worked on, etc. It takes no time, and gets your Google juice going back to your site. Anyway, just some thought.

Hey, I look forward to seeing what you have going and working with you again.

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:24:58 -0000

The content of this site will be broadened a little, but I am an Indie, so writing about things that concern Indies is close to my heart.

I won't be revealing too much about the new venture yet, but I will be doing a lot of blogging about the process of starting something new, i.e. things like how to decide what to do, how to look for opportunities, how to build a team, how to structure your game development business, etc.

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:57:16 -0000

Not nerve wracking at all. Exciting, yes!

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:59:12 -0000

Will definitely be working on games, but Tribes will have to be done by somebody at Sierra. You should check out Legions on Instant Action when it comes out. It is not as big as Tribes yet, but the cool thing about browser games is that they can continue to evolve.

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:42:11 -0000

Tim, I absolutely agree with you, with the slight exception that I think the definition of what a Gamer sees as a PC is not what PC's will be. Some PC's are expensive, hulking, over-clocked units attached to a desk, and are good for playing Crysis. But, most will be small, portable, energy sipping, Internet connection devices where the OS matters little. A Macbook will seem large and powerful, an Eee PC typifies what many people will be using. In addition, cell phones will be tiny PC's that happen to do voice as one their services. This range of "PC's" is where most games will be played due to the market opening up to an audience that goes well beyond 14-25 year old males, i.e. the traditional "hard core" gamer market.

Re: The Daily Five: Wednesday, 4 June, 2008

Jeff Tunnell — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:56:57 -0000

I think it is incongruous that LEED does not take geography into account. How can an 18,000,000 sq. ft. building in the middle of a desert that gets 3" of rain per year even be considered for certification? Of course it is better to be LEED than not if the building is going to be built, but who cares if the condos have low VOC paint if the occupants are using up what little water is left in the Colorado river?

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:21:41 -0000

For sure, not only free bagels, but basketball courts, video game machines, Nerf balls, Friday beer bashes, employee "courage" awards, and all of the little drivel to keep the brain washing alive. You get a two dollar award for working two straight months with no days off. That is not very good pay is it?

Again, I am not saying people should not take these jobs. Just be aware of what you are getting into, don't buy into the lifestyle, pay your dues, and squirrel away your money getting ready for your big break into your own company.

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:26:05 -0000

Thomas, the movie industry has been around for a long time, and they used to use the "slave labor" approach, but eventually the industry was unionized and that changed the way things were done. I am NOT a proponent of unions, but feel that our industry better get things under control, or unions or guilds will become a reality.

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Jeff Tunnell — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:29:28 -0000

Good point, Logan. That is a dirty little secret the big companies use. They promise jobs, but only if they can get huge tax cuts and credits. There is no promise to treat those employees in a humane manner. Then, to add insult to injury, a lot of times these companies pack up and leave when the tax credits run out. Here in our little part of the world, Sony made huge state-wide headlines when they put plant in Springfield, OR, USA. Eight years later, they pulled up stakes when the taxes started.

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Jeff Tunnell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:38:28 -0000

Like I said, I wrote this article two years ago. GG is still a very small company with a headcount around 60 people, so this has nothing to do with my leaving.

Good luck being independent. It IS scary, and that is one of the best things about it.

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:48:29 -0000

When you are just getting started, use one of the hosted blogging platforms, such as www.wordpress.com or Google's Blogger. I prefer Wordpress.com and even use it for my personal blog until I get jefftunnell.com up to speed on Movable Type. Check it out here: jefftunnell.wordpress.com . You should blog about things you have expertise in, notes on things you are trying to learn, your personal game reviews, your thoughts on the industry, etc. You should also become active in IndieGamer forums, GarageGames, Gamdev.net forums, etc. In other words, get out there and get yourself known.

Re: Welcome Alltop and the “Better Assholes” Clause

Jeff Tunnell — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:51:01 -0000

Well said, Benjamin. Nice to see you survived all of that bad weather out there in the heartland:)

Re: The Daily Five: Monday, 16 June, 2008

Jeff Tunnell — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:39:13 -0000

Mass heaters are fairly carbon neutral because the fuel is grown from trees before it is used. According to the Spring, 2008 issue of Permaculture Magazine, a 1,300 foot hedgerow of trees cut in a four year rotation will provide a family fuel in perpetuity. So, the fuel is building up a nice carbon offset before it is used. These are the reasons my wife and I chose to install a Tulikivi mass heater in our home as a cornerstone of our eventual goal of getting our house off the grid.

P.S. Ignore my first post where I could not figure out how to log in to Disqus.

Re: First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Jeff Tunnell — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:09:45 -0000

Brian, great to see you back. I should have a bunch of changes coming here over the next couple of months now that I am back in circulation.

Re: Dear Twitter: It’s Over. And It’s for The Best

Jeff Tunnell — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:04:35 -0000

Too bad. You were one of the reasons I have been using Twitter. I thought it was crap a year ago. When I tried it again, I noticed there were a few people using the service as more than a way of telling us they had just farted or just ate a large pizza. You were one of those people. It lead me to your EcoTech blog, this blog, your FriendFeed, etc. Your post about getting on Alltop lead me to Alltop, which, in turn, got my blog onto Alltop. I think you are missing an opportunity here.

Re: Lookout Below! Yahoo In A Sickening Slide

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:36:49 -0000

Sean, I would love to root for Yahoo. I used to trust them the way I trust Google now, using their services everyday. MyYahoo was actually open in my browser all the time. That is why I am making the call for vision and strategy to be exposed by their CEO... we need another vibrant and viable competitor to Google to keep them honest. However, it just is not happening. The traffic on Yahoo feels like the kind of traffic that used to be on AOL, i.e. somewhat naive and not willing to change.

Re: Lookout Below! Yahoo In A Sickening Slide

Jeff Tunnell — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:38:47 -0000

Pretty much just that, i.e. if they are not growing they are dying. Joshua Schacter left Yahoo yesterday. That, combined with the no upgrades fact tells me there are problems under the covers.

Re: What’s wrong with Del.icio.us? Nothing. Really.

Jeff Tunnell — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:53:43 -0000

I have been using Delicious (notice I don't use the old convoluted method of naming.. they have dropped it also) since it was barely a gleam in the blogoshpere's eye. I had thought about creating a similar web service, but when this one came out, I quit thinking about it because it was good. It got even better when the Firefox extension came out (I can't use it not thought because I have FF3 and it is not yet compatible), and became a daily part of my life. Now I want more though. I want to have the equivalent of private rooms like FriendFeed has, I want better searching, better annotations, better publishing options, etc. This service should not have stagnated for the past couple of years, and I think it is a symptom of the problems Yahoo has. Now that Joshua has vested his stock and left, I don't hold out much hope for the service getting better.

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Jeff Tunnell — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:11:15 -0000

Glenn, Starting your own company or going with a small start-up certainly is not for everybody. I am not trying to imply that it is. However, for the people that are inclined to go that way, this blog is to help them get over the hump. I do think that if you want to "make it big", you do need to make the leap.