Defense Grid Trailer

This is low res (higher resolution available on File Planet if you're willing to deal with the download wait) but still cool. T.J.'s game!



"Coming early December 2008 for the PC, Defense Grid: The Awakening is a unique spin on tower defense gameplay that will appeal to players of all skill levels. A horde of enemies is invading, and it's up to the player to stop them by strategically building fortification towers around their base. Beautiful environments, spectacular effects, and a dynamic, engaging soundtrack bring the world to life. The controls are intuitive and the gameplay is deep - the special attacks and properties of each tower work together to provide many ways to succeed."

Pumpkin Carving

Last weekend T.J. and I drove up to Bellingham with the intention of doing a little pumpkin carving with the Simkins. What we really ended up doing is watching them carve--yes, we're totally lame. We'd both had long weeks and were happy to kick back and watch the magic be created by others. Our pumpkin is headed for a more culinary fate.



Hannah went with the classic bat theme (ewwww). I was pretty impressed with the speed and ease with which her pumpkin was carved. She has definitely put in more carving time than I have.



Lars opted for something more complex...Shodan, the villian from System Shock 2. For those of you who don't know Shodan is (I didn't):



Lars, you know we are pumpkin carving, right? We aren't using an etch-a-sketch here (that's another story entirely).



Huh. Well, this is new. Doesn't pumpkin carving require, well, carving? I guess it is a fine line.



Well then. I've never going to bother trying to carve again.



Lars may be a little too talented. Artists. Sheesh.

Pet Passing

T.J. came to me last Saturday afternoon to let me know we'd had a death in the family. Rest in peace, Dr. House...you were a really great betta. Really, I mean it. I don't know if I could handle having a more sentient pet...life spans aren't long enough! Fish dying make me sad enough!

If big things come in small packages...

...does the opposite follow? If so, Amazon Fresh is doing things right!

I love Amazon Fresh...groceries delivered to the door! I got home the last time I ordered to find six crates on my doorstep...that'd be a lot of groceries!

Exhibit 1: Unopened bin.

Exhibit 2: Opened bin. With a...folded paper bag? What the heck?


Exhibit 3: Seriously? The bin contained...a CD! (By the way, Amazon Fresh recently started offering to deliver select items from Amazon.com with your groceries...this is bad, very bad.)

One of the other bins contained a single 16-ounce carton of sour cream. That's it. Maybe they are trying to make lifting easier on their drivers? I can't really complain about the extra containers...they stack and I just leave them on my porch. Plus, they gave me the sour cream for free because they were out of the brand I requested! :0)

Defense Grid: The Awakening

Edit: Replacing embedded videos with links becaues the videos don't fit...anyone know how to fix that?

T.J. never posts anymore so I thought I'd share a new video about the game he is currently working on at Hidden Path Entertainment...

Exclusive: Defense Grid All Access

Pretty nifty, huh! And fun too (I know, I've played...perks of being the wife of one of the developers)!

Want to see more? This video interview is from GDC (Game Developers Conference) back in February of this year (Defense Grid has come far since then). Less pretty pictures but still entertaining as Hidden Path representatives Jeff Pobst (CEO), Michael Austin (CTO), and Mark Terrano (Design Director) talk about both Defense Grid and Culture (technical/game demo).

360Sync Interviews Hidden Path Entertainment

Indiana Jones Party

Playing blog catch-up!

Let me introduce two of our more creative and adventurous friends: Hannah & Lars. (I love how excited they look in this picture.)



A few months ago we received the following invitation from said individuals and you can bet it resulted in an immediate R.S.V.P.



We started the evening in the library of Yale University. Yup, that's right. Didn't you know T.J. and I are professors at Yale? In our spare time. We were called there because a letter had arrived for us from a colleague who had been seeking the lost Artifacts of Life (Yes, our friends and colleagues really are just cool.)

The night just got crazy (fun) from there. Lars and Hannah had gone all out. We had handmade messenger bags to carry our flashlights, cell phones (in case we needed to call Jungle Tech support), and all the important material clues we picked up along our way. We found skeletons, crawled through bug-filled catacombs, visited a dig site where we decoded an inscription on broken pottery, trespassed on burial ground, faced Kinich in the Temple of Doom Light, and crept through the forest of darkness towards our ultimate goal! The chalice! The Holy Grail!

We might have set off a few booty traps...I think that made Hannah more happy than it really should have. But, hey, we found way more gold coins than anyone else! We might have been maimed but at least we had the money to pay the doctor bills. :D

Merry Christmas!

Friends and family,

Well, it’s been another busy year. (Too cliché.)

We hope this letter finds you well. (No, just as bad.)

We wish you all a happy holiday season. (We’re getting nowhere.)

Hi!

Around this time last year we spent five days without power. Owing to this, we hope you do not fault us for having this year’s holiday newsletter be our first. This month also marks our second anniversary…time does fly!

The first few months of this year brought many big changes. We moved and both found new jobs. Our new apartment (yes, we still live in an apartment—we don’t want to talk about Bellevue real estate prices) is in the same complex as the old one but is larger, has a better layout, had just been remodeled, and overlooks a lovely duck pond. T.J. left Microsoft and pursued his lifelong dream of becoming a game programmer. He now works at Hidden Path Entertainment (HPE), a small video game studio here in Bellevue. This change entailed a trivial pay cut and a significant improvement in happiness. His coworkers are brilliant, kind, helpful, and he loves going to work every day. (Yes, he loves it that much.) As enjoyable as the job is, it does sometimes demand a lot of time but HPE is fairly successful at keeping the extremes to a minimum. In contrast, Lisa’s new job at Laplink Software was not as ideal. While she liked the company, the position was not what was advertised and did nothing to further her career. After several months Lisa left Laplink in search of a more fitting position. She was successful and now works as a technical writer (or editor, or instructional designer, depending on the project) for Wadeware, a technical consulting company. It isn’t a perfect match, but she is gaining relevant experience and becoming more familiar with the technical industry.

On a more entertaining note (hehe), we’ve been getting back into music. Since apartment living does not accommodate a concert grand piano we happily settled on the purchase of a high-quality digital piano. The feel and sound are comparable to the real thing and it never goes out of tune! Another perk is the ability to use headphones for late night playing without subsequent annoying of the neighbors. Lisa only wishes she had more time to play. In conjunction, T.J. has added a double bass pedal to his electronic drum set—here again, our neighbors appreciate headphone capabilities. The new equipment allows him to work on techniques he has always wanted to develop. To motivate our musical efforts we’ve attended a number of concerts. T.J. says the Symphony X concert was the best he’s ever seen but Lisa feels that the Nightwish concert holds that honor. Disappointingly, the Evanescence concert fell short of our expectations. We were also able to attend a Seattle showing of Broadway’s Spamalot. It proved entertaining, but T.J. prefers the movie from which the play was adapted.

Everyday life around here seems even more uneventful when retelling it in an annual letter. We haven’t subscribed to cable TV for several years and we don’t regret it. We prefer to discover new and interesting television series by watching them at our own pace on DVD or via the internet (no commercials). Some of the gems we’ve discovered are Firefly, West Wing, and Veronica Mars. We have only graduated to the fish level of pets. We have two—both are betas but of differing colors—and their names are Dr. House and Bones. T.J.’s fanaticism for collecting and playing designer board games has cooled but he still gets a chance to dust them off for his company’s semi-weekly board game night (nerds!). After more than two years, we’re still quite invested in playing World of Warcraft (an online computer game) together—we imagine that someday that will get old. T.J.’s love of World of Warcraft has spawned his current personal project: designing and creating his own multi-player computer game that focuses on teamwork and coordination. Lisa’s current personal projects include designing and implementing a family social website, various crafts, and attempting to keep up on her writing aspirations. She is also teaching a class for the 9-year-olds at her church each Sunday.

Last month, we traveled to New York to visit T.J.’s grandma. Lisa got to see the Martin family home and was beleaguered by a small contingent of the eleven Martin siblings. Since it was Lisa’s first trip to the East Coast we also made an effort to play tourists and spent a couple of days in New York City. We hit a lot of major landmarks including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero. T.J. finally got to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural History (that floor was closed when he visited as a child and he never quite got over it). We were excited to see Les Misérables on Broadway before its closing in January, but the day after we arrived in NY the stagehands went on strike and Broadway was filled with “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”.

In other travel news, Lisa is planning to visit Europe with a friend for a couple of weeks in May/June. She’ll be visiting France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy (and possibly Iceland and/or Greece). She is beyond excited. Another possible travel destination is Pennsylvania where T.J.’s favorite band—Liquid Tension Experiment (LTE)—will be performing in the Northeast Art Rock Festival (NEARfest). As LTE is comprised of musicians from other bands, the group does not tour and this will be one of the only opportunities to see them perform. NEARfest is the largest and most prestigious progressive rock festival in the world though so tickets will be hard to acquire.

Hopefully, at this time next year no catastrophes will have befallen us and we’ll be able to write the second installment of the T.J. & Lisa Martin Holiday Newsletter™. We hope everyone is healthy and happy this holiday season and wish you the best throughout 2008!

T.J. & Lisa