Vertigames » Surreal

Alive and Kickin’

Patrick — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:48:27 +0000

All right enough of this… I miss the whole blog thing. SurrealGameDesign was a great chance for me to collect all my various thoughts and collect them into (hopefully) a compelling or at least comprehensible package. It was healthy as a designer and kept me sharp. I pretty much starved this blog at the time so that I could maintain SGD, but it was worth it.

While eventually things got complicated enough that I couldn’t keep it going, I consider the blog an overall successful venture. Last summer, I was growing frustrated with the lack of exposure that Surreal had in the game industry, since it had not been visible to the public since The Suffering: Ties that Bind shipped in September 2005. I knew also that our new game would not be announced until early this year. If anything, it made recruitment difficult, which makes it tough to build the best department I possibly could. In addition, I was encouraging my designers to broaden their horizons by playing and talking about new types of games. The blog’s mission was to both build outside awareness of the culture at Surreal, but also to build a team spirit and grow the perspectives of the design department at large.

By late fall, SGD was getting some great momentum, with several thousand visits a day and some notice from some cooler mainstream-y places like N’Gai Croal’s Levelup blog and Stephen Totilo’s Multiplayer blog. Not bad for a studio with no visibility for two years and an unannounced game on its plate. It might be resurrected in some form in the future, but for now I’ve archived the contents at a site called GamesGoneFeral.

So moving forward, this is the place that I’ll come to talk about my current efforts, and reveal perspectives on my past (and perhaps even my future). Some of my compatriots have also carved out their own corners of the internet, as can be evidenced in the Surreal Network on the sidebar. We’ll be responding to each other and encouraging others to join the (loosely organized) fold. We’ll see where all this leads, but regardless, it’ll be a journey worth taking.

Why yes, we DO play Team Fortress 2…

Patrick — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:19:44 +0000

We sit in the aftermath of Surreal’s big TF2 LAN showdown. At the studio we’ve been getting pretty competitive in our matches of Team Fortress 2. Discussions on strategies such as where to place sentry turrets, and how to cap the middle point of Granary are common fare in the offices. However, in the past few weeks it got more and more difficult to squeeze in matches at lunch as we approached last Friday’s big milestone, so we planned a LAN blowout for the day after. Leading up to the big day we had a competition to choose two captains, who each proceeded to forge a team in the fires of Mount Doom. We were destined to meet on the field of battle, and on Saturday, November 10, the milestone was in the can and it was on.

That day we gathered in the presentation room for the match of matches, meticulously planned by Project Tech Director Tim Ebling. Early in the afternoon, we moved 20+ machines to the battlefield, running extension cables to various offices to avoid blowing a circuit with the combined might of our gaming horsepower. Tech Designer Dan Osborn was kind enough to haul a huge batch of Three Pigs barbeque across Lake Washington to feed us, and we amassed a mighty supply of beer, snacks, beer, sugar, and beer.

Teams consisted of Laser Jesus, led by Dan Osborn, versus JSM, led by Gameplay Programmer Austin McGee. No, I won’t explain the team names.

The official matches were played from 4PM to 11PM, with lingering skirmishes continuing into the wee hours. The results had JSM take the win home, with five victories out of six:

Well: Laser Jesus 0, JSM 2
Granary: Laser Jesus 1, JSM 2
Dustbowl: Laser Jesus 1, JSM 1 (Tie)
2Fort: Laser Jesus 0, JSM 2
Hydro: Laser Jesus 0, JSM 2
Gravel Pit: Laser Jesus 1, JSM 3

This is all a warm-up, though, because across the Seattle area, the TF2 showdown has crossed studio boundaries in the Valve-hosted TF2 Studio Rumble 2007. So far Surreal has defeated two contenders, and unless Zombie pulls out an upset tonight, we’ll be going up against the dreaded forces of Valve itself next week. Wish us luck!

I put up a “Games We Play” page for this sort of thing if you want any details on our teams.

Gallery:

Stranglehold and Art of Midway

Patrick — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:45:19 +0000

We’d like to congratulate the team at Midway Chicago for completing Stranglehold for the Xbox 360! It’s been spotted on store shelves around here, so obviously that’s the official sign! We’ve been playing a lot of it as it approached completion, and it’s a really fun game. They really executed well… It isn’t just about mass destruction, but about using the world around you and gaining the high ground and playing with style. The game rewards you for being the coolest you can be.

We should also call out the incredible work of the Surreal FX team that appears in the game. Every column, chair, and statue all have all been translated into a visual symphony. Perhaps the game isn’t just about mass destruction, but in Stranglehold, even fruit can be capable of dazzling moments. Check it out!

Also, if you dig the visuals of Stranglehold, or if you liked the creepy vibe of The Suffering, you should check out the new Art of Midway book now available! This is concept art on overdrive, including some incredible work from our own Garrett Smith and Ben Olson. These guys create entire worlds with the sweep of their pens (or mice). This is only a sampling of what we see everyday… Thanks also to the Midway art directors for putting this together. Fantastic stuff.

PAX Day Friday!

Patrick — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:56:20 +0000

Surreal sent the entire company to PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo) on Friday… It was conveniently located in downtown Seattle this year, at the Washington State Convention Center, not too far away. A few of us actually found a reason to take the semi-famous-but-usually-useless Seattle Monorail (it only travels end-to-end from the Space Needle to downtown, not very far). The rest of us found that it wasn’t that far of a walk… and we were able to stop at Shorty’s for a dog in the process!

Some of the guys have some impressions that will be posted shortly.

Mariner’s Day

Patrick — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:35:18 +0000

Nothing exciting today, just a visual recap from our day of baseball and beer at Safeco field. Seattle beat the Red Sox 2 to 1 in extra innings… Ichiro!

First Introduction

Patrick — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:37:30 +0000

Let me have the honor of being the first to introduce myself. My name is Patrick Lipo. I’ve been in the game industry for around 14 years, which makes me approximately a thousand years old.

My Time at Surreal:

I’ve been working at Surreal for around 2 years, working primarily on the next-gen project that is yet unannounced.

My Job:

My title is Studio Creative Director, which basically means that I head up a team of talented designers across all the projects underway at Surreal. I work directly with the Project Creative Director on each project, although right now I’m mostly dedicated to our primary title. I also am working with the team and with Midway on what our next raft of projects might be, and help conceive of and plan prototypes.

As SCD I also help build the team and mentor the growth of individual designers. This is partially why this page came into being, to give us yet another outlet and keep us thinking. Anyway, let’s get started.