Hello from the Community Guide (check out this 3D space!)
Ahoy there, readers!
This is my first of many posts as the new Community Guide for Just Leap In. I have been with the company for a short while, and it seems somebody thought I had a knack for talking to the public, so here I am talking to all of the fine people that visit our blog daily. Since we’re going to be seeing so much more of each other, I thought I’d tell you a little about myself, just to break the ice.
I’m a long time gamer, first time blogger. Online, my handle has been Infirmo for a little over 10 years now. I have worked on some major titles and quite a few smaller games, mostly doing quality assurance. Like many QA people, I started out as an enthusiastic gamer, playing text-based adventures and early RPG and primitive side-scroller games on archaic platforms. I became a frequent beta tester for various games and projects, and eventually landed work in game testing, which I have done off and on for many years now. I have also worked in tech support and documentation for other software projects, including educational software and video editing tools.
But my first love is games and interactive media. The possibilities they afford and the stories they tell are inspiring to me in a powerful way, one that has directed me along (what looks, in retrospect, to be) a very direct path pointing right at the position I hold today.
So what do I do here? Put simply, I’m here to do what you are doing, which is to use the interface Just Leap In has provided to create new worlds, new spaces, and new ways for people to connect to each other. But I’m also here to hear from you, to see what you are doing with the application, to listen to your wishes and complaints, and to learn what you want do to with 3D spaces, interactive media, and social networking. We’re here to deliver what you want, and I’m on the task of figuring out what, exactly, that is.
So, as user myself, I have been playing around with the tools for a while now, and have created what feels like a nice little space.
Here’s a picture:
Here’s Office Racer, a video I made a couple years ago:
Here’s where I might be hanging out with friends, having a coffee:
Hrrm. These pictures really don’t do it justice. You might just need to see it for yourself. Try this:
Use contingent on these terms
[After installing the Player, click above “Click to Enter” to jump into 3D].
A picture may be worth a thousand words. But a 3D space lets every visitor write their own chapter in the book.
From my place we can visit my friends Joanna, Seven, and DJ Simple through portals (doors in this case) that directly connect my space with theirs, or they can all come over for a get-together. We can watch a movie, listen to music, and talk amongst ourselves. If we get a fresh idea for my area, I can change things around and get their opinions of the new stuff.
This is where I like to hang out. Drop by for a visit any time.
Just don’t drink up all my espresso.
“Infirmo”
Community Guide
Just Leap In
Greetings from the art engineer
(Part … well, we’ve lost count of Roman numerals, but it’s the next part in our continuing series of team profiles: Leap In’s Art Engineer, whose avatar binds our tongues with the challenging name “Schmayekol”. As you’ll discover, he’s a duality wrapped in two likeable personalities…)
Hello fellow cyberspace explorer, glad you came to visit.
I suppose writing that last sentence that I use the term cyberspace not simply to invoke 80’s nostalgia for William Gibson’s works (although I am a fan of that for some reason) but rather because the Internet has become something much more then a connection of networked computers.
Art brain: They don’t want to hear that…
Engineer brain: But it is interesting… packet switching over networks of networks routing data…
Art brain: They came here to have a good time, let me take over for a while…
Sorry about that. Sometimes I get a little carried away with the little details and need to step back and look at the work as a whole. As the art engineer I like to think I use both sides of my brain, artistic and logical and thus that my head will not get so full on any one side that I begin to fall over or walk in circles. I am (and possibly will be forever) a perpetual student even while I am out of school and am always looking for new techniques and ideas in art, computers and literature.
At Leap In Entertainment I have found a great place to learn, both in the great ideas and techniques of the industry from my fellow colleagues varied backgrounds and within the work itself. Zen and the Art of Art Engineering?
Engineer brain: They want the details! Less philosophy more facts… my turn…
The role of the Art Engineer is to work on the art pipeline bringing art assets (models, textures, animation) into the game engine in an optimal and efficient manner, while attempting to preserve as much detail and quality of the artist’s work as possible. I also get to work with some lower level details involving shaders, mesh manipulation and all sorts of fun graphics components which is really where the balance between art and engineering comes into play. It is not only important that the content works but also that it looks great.
While I may seem to have the need for two (sometimes conflicting brains) the ability to both help and create 3D content that is both beautiful and functional appeals to both sides of my brain.
It is my hope that you will enjoy them as well.
Till next time I remain,
Schmayekol
Weblog on the beach fire
Part III in our continuing series of intros…
Introducing “Pimm”, Animator & Renaissance Man
Just leap in. A decree that sounds enticing to these ears o’ mine. For me, it’s reminiscent of a hot summer’s day when that phrase would be declared as a dare to all others as my 10 year old self would blaze across the local beach’s dock, picking up every possible splinter in my feet and clambering to hold onto my brother’s 2-sizes-too-big hand-me-down shorts. A dare I’d still be screeching out as I’d spring out into the air over the surface of the cool water. Of course, then there would come that Wiley Coyote moment where I’d hang in the air, my skin involuntarily goosepimpling, bracing for the irrefutable icy shock to come. The next instant, plunged beneath that frigid water, the effervescence of bubbles from impact massaging my tantalized skin, the sensation of refreshment and weightlessness as if in some mouthwash-seltzer solution. And as I’d drift up toward the shimmering surface, I’d realize the leap, the risk of what I’m sure I thought would be me inside a giant ice cube bobbing in the water the moment I resurfaced, was worth every splinter.
No need to worry though.
Just Leap In isn’t asking you to risk hypothermia. Heck, not even hyper-extension. Mouse manipulation isn’t quite that straining. And it’s not water they’re asking you to leap into. But let me tell you, it is refreshing.
I’m the kind of person who wants to play a video game this second, have my own soundtrack playing, chat with my buds, be browsing for a new dinner recipe, have at least 4 blogs and/or entertaining websites open, all the while checking out what new bicycles are cool yet affordable (because I swear I’m going to buy one this time). But the next second I want to shut it all out for “just me” time. Time I need to keep the sanity and let me absorb the extravagant prices of a decent bike. JLI is on the DL to habits like mine and is maneuvering to indulge my tendrilous reaches into the deep corners of my myriad preoccupations while letting me have most of the control. They’re creating a sort of a combo package combining a bunch of the things I listed above to give you and I something we’ve been expecting to show up sooner or later on the web. Something you and I are going to be be able to use, and, yeah, enjoy.
JLI is a company I have chosen to work for, so they haven’t just sold me on their charms alone. They’ve got a solid grasp on where you and I want to be and what we’d hope to accomplish when we’re traversing the web as our digital alter-egos. Just Leap In’s concepts for the what could be conceived as an advancement in the evolution of the individual’s online “presence”, once explained to me, seemed, well, obvious. Obvious in one of those epiphanic, wish-I’d-thought-of-that kind of ways. The kind where, say, you’re struggling for a new graphic design and your 2 year old shows you the wall mural she just made out of peanut butter and bananas and you think, “Of course!” Creative uniqueness achieved and you’ve got your choice of sandwich made for next day’s lunch! Yup, a double whammy. That’s how Just Leap In does it. When you get a chance to experience what Just Leap In is, as the end user, you’ll understand that as much as you’re a part of them, you’re all you. You, your friends, your music, your interests, your own virtual hangout. You, just hanging, chatting, or exploring the virtual world out beyond your space.
The ideas Just Leap In has are great ones. I can’t unveil the intimates of everything that you’ll be able to have and do, but soon. And, unlike that cold lake water back home, you’ll definitely want to just leap in.
C U there.
-Pimm
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