So, I turned on my Xbox tonight for the first time in forever and was flipping through to see what was new...when I came across a new episode of Inside Xbox Sentuamessage that said something about Red Faction.  Cool!

A few minutes in they display a user question asking if there's another Red Faction game coming and the hosts talk about about Armageddon and say they met up with the Creative Director. Sweet, Zug is gonna be on here...

Next thing I know they are showing an interview with me...and listing me as the lead designer for Spec Ops: The Line. LOL  For the record...i'm Lead Level Designer on RF:A(and have nothing to do with Spec Ops)

Oh well...at least the interview was pretty good :)

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/insidexbox/video/suam/default.htm

Here's an interview I did on the E3 show floor with My Two Senses.

The last day of E3 was much slower than the others...my guess is because they were all as tired as I was.  I had the morning shift off so I took some time to walk around the floor.  It didn't last long though because I was exhausted and wanted to head back to the booth.  As I got back...there was a pleasant surprise.

Today turned out to be the day of award nominations for Red Faction: Armageddon!  We even won the best of show award from Game Chronicles. We were all very excited to say the least.  Everyone seemed to really love our game and it was nice to see some recognition of that.  The E3 show awards don't come out for another week or so, but we're crossing our fingers.

After a long week and a lot of talking, we were all pretty exhausted. As the show came to an end we had to do one last demo, as Adam and Abbie showed up just as they said they would along with a few of their friends.  We filled up the room around them with people wondering what on earth I was about to do...even had some people ask me if I was sure about this.

Before long everyone was happy with what I had in mind to show and the room even broke out in applause several times during the play through.  So I'd say it went well :)

We then headed back to City Walk for dinner at Tony Romas and I reminded Zug of a bet he'd made before we left Champaign, IL.  He hasn't drank alcohol in 15 years and promised that he'd have a drink if we got nominated for any awards at the show.  So, true to his word...he ordered and drank a Long Island Ice Tea.

The entire show went great!  The game showed really well and we didn't have any technical difficulties...which amazed me.  Here's looking forward to our next showing...Comicon! (I hope to be there too)

As the show was winding down on day two my evening was a bit uncertain...when I was presented with a wrist band into the THQ party.  Chad and I decided to head over there and boy were we glad we did.  Waiting just outside of the convention center were stretch limos to take everyone to the party.

The party was on the roof of The Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and it was a REALLY nice place.  When we arrived, they switched out our wrist bands for the Hotel silver version which made us happy we got there early before they ran out.  I got texts from friends asking if I could get them in, but it was literally impossible.

I was checking out the roof area and ran into Tomonobu Itagaki near the pool...and of course had to get a photo with him.  He asked if I wanted to jump into the pool with him and on hindsight I totally should have.

The view of LA from the hotel was incredible...so I had to spend a bit taking some pics.

I then saw Bonnie Burton, the winner of the G4TV booth babe contest and she quickly showed me why.  As she saw me taking this picture, she immediately stopped talking to the guys in front of her and made this pose for the camera.

As the sun set, the night continued to get even better...Chad and I were able to sneak into the VIP area!  I stood up at one point to take a couple of pictures and noticed my stool was gone.  I said something to Chad about it and he gave me that silent "look to the left" nod... Rachel Bilson had taken my stool :)  So, I talked to her for a bit and then she was nice enough to take a picture with me.

I never expected to see someone I had actually met before in the VIP area, but then we ran into Christina from the PIMP.tv crew.  Luke and Aron were around filming somewhere(I would LOVE to see that footage)

The evening wouldn't be complete without running into Adam Sessler and Abbie Heppe.  After chatting for a bit, I promised if they came by the Red Faction: Armageddon booth the following day at 5pm as the show closes...i'd give them a special version of the demo.

All in all, it was a fantastic night and one that I'll not soon forget...

Day 2 on the floor was "Media Day" which meant it was at least twice as busy as the first day for us.  Our demo room held about 25-30 max and we were at that for the entire day.  We started a new show about every 10 minutes so it's safe to say we showed it over 1200 people that day alone.  It was pretty amazing since we weren't really telling people about the demo in order to ensure media go in there in a timely manner.

At the front of our demo room we had a 103 inch plasma television, which i'm told, cost over $80,000.  I tried to take it home with me but no one was going for that.

On top of doing our normal demo, we had a large number of interviews to do.  In the first 2 hours I had done more interviews than the entire day before.  I'll post links to those as I find them appearing on the various sites.  I caught Zug doing an interview and tried to make him laugh...he handled it quite well :)

I got a few minutes to walk around the floor and was happy to see Epic Mickey.  Saying that i'm a Disney fan would be a HUGE understatement.  So, seeing a game that looks remotely interesting is very exciting for me.

The show floor didn't open until noon but we all headed in together to arrive at 9:30 to make sure everything was in order and for an investor tour that was happening that morning.

The booth still looked like a construction site when we left the day before, so it was really great to see it all cleaned up and the L.E.O. operating.

We split up the day between the 5 of us and I had the first half with 2 others of showing the game and doing interviews.  I took the first shift of talking during the demo and had a blast seeing peoples reactions to the game as we showed it.

A couple of hours into the show I had done a few interviews here and there...then meet the PIMP.tv crew(Luke, Aron and Christina).  I did a fun interview with them (found here)...they are a great group of people.

As the day went on there was tons more demoing and interviewing and the "half day" idea turned into the other half hanging around to spell people and do interviews.  It was an exhausting day, but people absolutely loved the game and that made it a blast to be around for.

At around 3pm PST Jim and Zug broke away to do a live demo of the game for G4TV.  It was cool getting calls and texts from people saying they are watching the game live on TV.  That segment can be found here.

Later in the day, I did the interview for the Gamespot Virtual Booth found here.

After the show as over, we decided to head back to the hotel right away.  On the way, we saw the Red Faction Armageddon truck!  Apparently this thing was driving all round town during the show, pretty slick.

For dinner, we walked over to City Walk and I convinced the others to let me scratch my seafood itch with Bubba Gump.

After that it was early to bed...I was exhausted.

We headed to THQ corporate headquarters at about 10am on Monday to meet about the plan for E3

We ended up running through the pitch a few times with the heads of marketing and getting some feedback.

After that, we took off for the LA Convention Center so we could see the booth and make sure all of the equipment was setup and ready to go.  We stopped at El Pollo Loco on the way...really miss that place. We were greeted by our 4-story banner on the front of the convention center.

Walking in...the first thing we see is the enormous Red Faction L.E.O.  I knew it was going to be big...but seeing it in person was amazing.

Our booth was positioned well so that most people will see it very shortly after walking into the show floor.


After making sure things were good to go and drooling over the L.E.O. we decided to head back to the hotel and relax before a big next day.

If you own an iPhone, or iPod touch...this thing is a must buy.  It gave me an at least 2 extra full charges of my phone during each day of E3. Without it...how could you have read my totally amazing E3 tweets from the show floor!?

Pretty Slick

Link