One thing you have to remember is....

Is what ??

Interrupt.

But it doesnt have to be a garage

It's anywhere baby. Anywhere with wi-fi, that's our office. It feels so cyberpunk sometimes.

Some of the greatest companies started out in garages

Apple computer Atari microsoft HP to name but a few...

We're actually literally in a garage.

My garage band is. Some of the largest computer and tech companies started in garages. It's practically a tradition. Anyway, our garage actually has a pipe in the middle of the ceiling. This pipe has a leak. So our last session of "the distributed office" had a drip coming down from the ceiling at unpredictable intervals. The tables had to be rearranged around the drip. We need funding, that's what we need.But how do we get it? Tune in next time, and find out?

Did i mention we also play tabletop RPGs?

like Dungeons and Dragons. Actually, its not even advanced D&D. We're playing one of the earliest modules ever released. And our GM has adapted it to 3rd edition rules. Nerd crediblity- established.

HIRE AMERICAN CREATIVES

Please hire American creatives.

another way the distributed office can work:

This group i'm in, my wife calls it my "garage band",(it's not really a music group. More like a startup.) We meet once a week and show the work we've been doing over the previous week. We have multiple projects going at any one time, and different people working on those but usually a main project that gets all the time. We'll have something to eat together, sometimes game together, all in all a nice little meeting. That gets work done. Here's the thing, the meeting place can be everywhere and has been anywhere. It's not based in any one place like a regular office. Some places we meet do have desktop computers, but that's because it's usually someone's house. Really, We're all over the place. As a result there are no cubicles. no cubicles. i remember one time we had a meeting in a stairwell at the San Jose Convention center in the middle of FanimeCon. With the low-flying jets booming by directly above us, in a pit in the ground where no one could see. it was cool. it felt like we were on the cusp of something next. Even though we were just standing around talking.

how does the distributed office work?

Well, at the QA job i don't have anymore, We were able to do all our work (as a QA Lead), wirelessly, anywhere. As long as we had two things: our work laptop, and a mobile device of some kind to load versions onto. We'd monitor and "participate" in office life by at least 3 methods: Skype chatrooms, email, and a business-oriented form of Facebook whose name slips my mind at the moment, and some might say also Facebook. all of these just need a wireless connection, that could be anywhere. our QA work itself consisted of: writing emails, reading emails, leading a group of off-site testers over Skype, finding and writing up bugs in the game. Our bosses tried to keep us in the office through carrot and stick. There were delicious lunches every day. There were also weekly "all hands meetings" where an increasing number of us crowded into the main office. But i think the office wanted to be distributed. I'd argue that the place i worked was a distributed office even as it tried to be a regular office. A transitional form.

qualified?

Why am i qualified to write about the distributed office? Well, right now i'm in a group that's one for sure. And my own office job that i don't have anymore really tried to be one. It's like the technology wanted us to be distributed, but we needed to be together for... what? Old time's sake? Food and meetings mostly. All of our actual work was able to be done at home, or anywhere really. Anywhere with a decent wireless connection. I hope to make this sound like the science fiction it is.

the distributed office

This is maybe gonna be a series about my thoughts on the distributed office, meaning The office where everybody works from home.

So i'm looking for work now

something with art this time.

GundeadliGne

Sometimes they literally have mazes of bullets onscreen.
literally.

Currently playing:

Gundemonium Recollection
Gundeadligne
and Hitogata Happa

Three "Bullet Hell" shooters from Japan.

Found them on Steam. Steam is cool.

It's amazing how much time slips away from you.

It's amazing how much time slips away from you.

keep on bloggin'

Portal 2: femalest game out there

I think in many ways Portal 2 is designed to be the opposite of Half-Life.
In Portal2, you never attack anything directly. You always sneak around behind enemies or use portals in novel ways to drop things on them or drop them on their heads.

You accumulate many weapons in Half-Life, and using the right one in the right situation is a key element.
Portal 2: You always have the same gun- a gun that shoots holes.

Half-life is male, portal female.
portal is female? You bet, it's the femalest game out there. Tell you why.
First of all, the main conflict is between two females, a daughter and an evil stepmother/witch character.
Visual design-wise, everything made by Aperture science is smooth and rounded and white, like an egg.
Did i mention your gun shoots holes? It's the least phallic gun ever made. It's shaped like an egg, it's got three little arms on it.

Lastly, and i think this is subtler, you don't just shoot things, You solve problems. This to me is a much more female approach to things.

I don't even think there are any male characters in Portal1. Oh wait, Doug Ratmann, but you never actually see him, just his dens.It's all about the females.

Portal 2: it's about the family

Think about it.
The main character is an orphan. Glados serves as her evil stepmother. Her dad is Wheatley. He's super dumb and clumsy. Uh, oh, look out when he takes over the house!

The mother/father conflict is expressed many ways throughout the game. In many pivotal scenes, both robots are urging you to do opposing things. But you really have only one thing you can do.

Turrets: defective turrets have a male voice, good turrets have a female one.

Portal2 is such a great game. There are levels of depth and complexity that really are there.

or maybe not

Maybe i'll keep doing what i've been doing for the last year.

its just kind of ironic that

the job i have now is in video games. Went to school to get a degree in games. Changed my major cause Animation seemed so fun. Now i'm back in video games. Back in QA, sadly, but maybe that'll change soon...

that was for my new blog with pictures of my art

http://thejeremycampbellproject.blogspot.com/