dimanche 25 septembre 2011

News and updates

Hey I've been travelling a little this summer so i havent had time to continue my Level Design talks, but I'll do so at some point soonish.

So ive been to Hawaii and to Chicago this summer for two different reasons.

Hawaii to relax after a long crunch period on Space Marine and to lie down on beaches and discover the amazing scenary of Maui. It was a great time and everything there is amazing and relaxing so it was just perfect :)

I went to Chicago mainly to go to Lollapalooza which was celebrating its 20th anniversary of existence. This festival is just the best festival ive ever been to.
Its so well organized with fast water filling stations, stages facing each other to make sure that people at the main stages will never have to wait, the variety of food options was just really impressive from organic farmer market options, to vegetarian products to normal fast food but with many options too!
Also the little shops, merch tents and shade areas were everywhere.

It was soooooo hot in Chicago and it was hard to go through the 3 days with that temperature, but I made it and it was painful at some point, but the festival ended in a muddy field thanks to the torrential rain that pourred during the last hours of the festival and during the Foo Fighters' show.

Obviously, the groups were there as well ;) There was so many bands, so many were really good and it was hard to see all the ones I wanted to see so I had to walk around a lot and I missed part of shows to see some bits of others. I discovered a lot of new bands and im adding them to my discography :)

Moreover, I left the great company I worked for the last year, Relic Entertainment, and decided to join Slant Six Games to work on Resident Evil. That should be an interesting time ... such a great IP to play and work on...just amazing :)

so i will write again in the coming month to continue my Level Design series.

Nevermind - 20 years already!!

On a totally different note...
NEVERMIND is now 20 years old!
wow what a great album it was and it's still great today by most standards.
When I first listened to Nevermind in 5th or 6th grade, i never expected that music like that existed.
It totally changed the way I was listening to music and mostly the type of music i was listening to.
It totally changed me.
I was listening to Rap (MC Hammer,...) and some pop french singers from Quebec before this incredible happening...then I discovered Nirvana! Then I got interested in Grunge and the groups that created music around that genre.
To this day I still listen to Nirvana once in a while on my ipod and whenever a radio station plays something from them I really enjoy that time in the car. It still feels fresh to listen to them even though its been 18 years now since Kurt died :(
Everytime I see a kid or teenager with a Nirvana shirt, I smile and Im happy that this generation too is enjoying the music I grew up on. This music feels immortal and I hope it stays in the minds of the coming generations for ever.
I've got so many things from Nirvana, still buying books about them or magazines with old interviews from Kurt and the band or new talks from Novoselic or Grohl. I'm buying the deluxe editions of all the "new" releases to hear anything that I havent heard before from them.
Everytime i visit Seattle it feels special and it will always feel like a mystical place for me.
Im a huge fan of music and I attend a lot of concerts each year, but I wonder if my interest would be that big if it wasnt for Nirvana and what it brought me as a kid...