Anachronox

June 17, 1997

Wow, we're going crazy getting ready for E3!

We're not coming out until next year, but we want to give a few editors a sneak peek at what we're doing. We were going to make this long demo thingy, but decided to go for more of a cool action trailer that shows off the cool effects we're doing with the engine. There are so many unknowns right now: Can we get the models in the engine correctly? Can we get that much animation in? Can we pull all this together by E3? Game makers face these huge stresses for events like E3 and the Great Big Christmas Deadline.

Some of us have been up for days, sleeping in Fort Nox (our cardboard fort), and working to get these effects in. Cleaner and Squirrel have been the big troopers in this area, and Larry's pulled all-nighters as well. He gets big smiles from the team when he brings us awesome food on Fridays.

Jake and I are working on getting the art in, and Jerry and the art folks are finally getting to spend some time on our demo. Yes, the most exciting moment for our team recently was when Ben Herrera walked up to us and said, "I'm your artist." Hallelujah! We kinda felt like the poor stepchild for a while.

I just replayed Full Throttle. I was watching it for how the cinematic scenes and stuff were directed. I was also looking at the balance of "play vs. watch," which I think was a little bit heavy on the watch side, but it's still an awesome game. So many cool moments. I really admire the LucasArts philosophy of not killing you every time you peek your head in a new place. And, of course, Tim Schafer did it, and he did Day of the Tentacle, so it had to rock.

Read about the stresses of E3...