I spent a little time polishing and changing the site. You'll notice a lot of my work in areas outside level design have been removed. I decided to make this site focus on my level and game design work since that's what I'm aiming to do. I'll probably show my other stuff on another site or a profile site, but for work this is what I need to focus on.

I also changed some of the aesthetics of the site to make it easier to browse and more harmonious. I'm hoping it comes across more professionally. I am still playing with this so there might be random changes to the look of the site over the next couple weeks, but mostly what you see should be what it will remain.

I have finally made some progress on the game project section of the site. Along with that I have added concept work to the site. I am still working on making the site as user friendly as possible. Part of this process has been me realizing that the pages are fairly large for the area they are being displayed in. Part of the answer to this problem is that I will be doing a rebuild of the main frame page which holds all the frames. Look for that in the near future. The other part of my solution involves creating pages which will allow you to scroll through my images rather then having large images taking up space on the page I will be showing thumbnails which can be opened and then scanned in a slideshow type of interface. This will take a little longer and I ask you to be patient while I work on it. Additionally my blog is now accessible from various pages in the site, as well as from a new drop down menu option on the main interface. Check it out!

In other news I am still adding more project content to the site, most of the project work should be up by the end of the week. The site is going to be getting a lot of aesthetic improvements over the next few months. These include the navigation and layout changes I listed just a moment ago as well as changes to the colors in the site to make everything easier to look at. The overall theme of the site is going to stay the same, but the link colors and text colors are going to be updated to be easier on the eyes, as well as to give the site a bit of much needed color. Additionally I am working on making demo videos for the complete game project work to give a more dynamic and interesting feel to the game projects.

I finally got some of my 3D Model work on the site and cleared out one of those horrible "Under Construction" pages. No it's not quite finished yet as I need access to a more accurate image editing program then Paint to create an exact image cut for the preview navigation bar. However you can now see some of my 3D work and I hope you'll take some time to check it out and let me know what you think.

Well it's back to Phoenix, if you follow the site regularly you may have noted that there weren't a ton of updates posted over the summer. Mostly the site saw a new section (my online resume) added as well as updated resumes that can be downloaded and printed for your viewing pleasure. Well that's all that got posted though more did get finished. You see I normally use Photoshop to work on images and Dreamweaver to update the site, but because of a computer crash and my not-so-smart decision (IE forgetfulness) to not bring the cds with my programs with me to Dallas I was a bit stuck on how to work. I did what updates I managed in notepad and managed to create a few more (unfinished) pages that are currently missing only images.

Those pages will be complete and up soon. I am using the website as my portfolio both for class and work which has made it a double focus of mine. On top of that it means I can use schoolwork time to be updating rather then trying to schedule updates around my schoolwork.

Speaking of school I'm down to my last regular semester finishing up those pesky classes that have evaded me thus far. I am also in close contact with the employment department looking into all manner of interesting internship opportunities. Beyond that I am working on increasing my skill-set by learning texturing basics in Maya and increasing my Rose Stone portfolio work. I know there isn't anything up about it yet, and won't be much up even when I finish the section page for it, but I promise there will be interesting visual (and maybe even a playable download) by the end of the semester. We have finally gone into official production on the levels (no more concepting) and should have a playable game by the end of December.

Finally I would like everyone to bid a fond farewell to this small, cramped, outdated blog. I decided that it is just too unprofessional to have a simple text blog with no images and thus this section of the site is to be relegated to announcements about site updates soon as I am in the process of implementing links to my new official blog (Check it out here) which will feature all my attempts at deep thought on gaming and game design, and my life updates in general. I will also be editing some of the color scheme here at the site to make the two more cohesive.

All in all it's shaping up to be a fun couple of months, with a lot of updates coming soon I hope you'll check back often to see everything new.

So I guess the whole "I'm going to update this often" thing didn't work. But what can I say, between school work for classes, two projects and family and friends I didn't update as often as I should. Well here's to making better progress. The level design area of the site is still underway, and with the new work I need to add besides what's supposed to be up now, I would say it's almost 25% done. Yes I said 25%.

Truth be told I have two more projects to talk about in level design, the first being a small Neverwinter Nights 2 MOD that I am part of, where we are taking a published Dungeons and Dragons campaign and turning it into a playable Neverwinter Nights module.

The other I will have unfortunatly a lot less to show. I am currently working on a fairly large scale project under the code name Project Rose Stone. It's an action/adventure/platformer being developed by a group of about 15 people all from my school, and it's definitley the largest undertaking I've been a part of up to this point. The game is being built from the ground up, including most of it's engine and all of it's assets. My part is to design the basic layout of the levels and areas in the game while incorporating the lead designer and writer's quests and needs. I am also creating level proxies (well at least terrain proxies) which the 3D team is then using to create the terrain for the game. All in all a lot of what I'm doing is concept work (paper maps, write-ups, etc.) but that IS what level design at least starts out as. In the future I will be responsible for scripting out the levels but right now we're still in the early stages. As I get permission to put up more info and more of my work I'll update the site.

Also on the agenda for this summer, finding an internship. It's getting close to time to graduate and I still need to fill this requirement. So wish me luck as I am updating the site this time mostly with this goal in mind.

So currently I am starting to write for and research a game I intend to make very soon. I want to address the topic of school shootings and how they affect the victims and families. I thought long and hard about why I wanted to make this game and what kind of effect it could have. I have also been racking my brain as to how I can make it while still being respectful to the people who have gone through these horrible events.

But with a topic like this there are no easy answers. I've played both the games that have already come out online in relation to the topic, Super Columbine Massacre RPG and V-Tech Rampage . I didn't enjoy them, but I had to see what it is that has been done in order to judge if what I planned to make was any different/better. I think it is. I think the V-tech game was a piece of garbage, and while I can see what the attempted message in SCMRPG was, I don't believe it carried through. I'm not going to give a lot of details right now, because I am still planning and designing, and this project is far from even getting off the ground.

But I have been reading, and researching, and I assume that will have to continue for the life of the project. If I could have my wish I would interview every student that was in the area on those fateful days, every parent who had to recieve that terrible phone call and fear for their child's life. I would ask what they thought, what they felt, and what they did. I may get that luxury as I try to move forward with this, but then again I might not. All I can hope for is that in the end what I create will have the affect I'm looking for.

I want people to remember that it's not the killers we should put all our focus on. We shouldn't put their demented videoes onto the news and play them over and over again looking for an answer. We need to hear the stories of the other people involved, the families, teachers, and friends of the killers, to learn about their lives in complete detail. Not just the inner darkness they possessed, but some sign of what may have put that there.

I have no doubt that when I do finish the project I will catch hell for it. I only hope it reaches the audience I intend. I want my generation, the gamers, to see what kind of effects these events really have. I want us to put aside our anger at being singled out as the cause, and take a step back to think about the event as a whole. Maybe, if enough people start to do that, we can really begin to prevent these events.

I'm going to try and post often on here, to show people that I am working and to bring my ideas to the table. As of right now, the things I have read and seen haven't helped me much as far as designing this "game". However, they have steeled my resolve and proven that what our culture needs is something just like what I plan to make. We need a reality check to realize these events are not about politics or blame, but about human suffering and tragedy, and we need to stop fighting over why it happened and start trying to stop it from happening again.

So the new site is up and running, I am feeling pretty accomplished. Now it's time to actually start working on some work!

Time for me to start adding content rather then polish to the site. I have a few Game Docs in the works which will see excerpts on here soon. Hopefully I'll have some shots of a few levels I am workign on to put up as well. I may even post the files.

In the meantime I hope everyone is enjoying the new look to the site. In case you don't already know I am on break from school for the summer and living in Portland Oregon. I'm working on this site (done now besides adding content) and some personal projects I have been putting off. It's also a good break which I'm enjoying. Back to school in Tempe starting in September, but I will be back to Phoenix early August.