This could have been an incredibly different story

After watching a lot of the special features and extras in the Pixar DVDs, I have a strange feeling that Pixar uses something akin to “Agile Development” methodology in their storytelling.

In the “Incredibles” deleted scenes, the villain, “Syndrome”, actually makes an appearance at the start of the movie while Violet is just a little baby.  He invades the home of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible while they are still a young couple. This scene was supposed to be the prelude to the story introducing the characters and their super powers.  It included a fully animated storyboard with sounds and voices. The dialog of Syndrome breaking into the home and capturing the family even included a mention that there was a prohibition on “supers” marrying and having children.

The final movie did not include any of this. In fact, if this was the original scene for the movie, it would have radically altered the entire story, plot trajectory, theme and mood to the narrative. This wasn’t a “deleted scene” so much as it was a complete rewrite of the entire story.  In fact, in some of the “Behind the Scenes” dialog, Syndrome was not even considered the main antagonist of the plot.  He was supposed to just be a random villain that allows the characters to display their super powers.

What Pixar appears to do is that they storyboard, voice and create the entire movie more than once and get audience feedback. This allows the storytellers the ability to refine the story ideas over and over again – scrapping bad ones, changing scene orders, and completely rewriting the story if need be. It is the “Agile Development” method of software taken to film – quick iterations, and lots of opportunities for feedback loops.

Linguini was voiced by Lou Ramano, Art and Production Design

In fact, that is how the voices for Linguini and Emile were discovered for “Ratatouille” – they were Pixar staff who did the voice work for these storyboard sessions and fit the characters so well, they kept them for the final production.

Keep in mind, this is merely conjecture from viewing a lot of “Behind the Scenes” features on the DVDs and on the Internet for the latest Pixar movies. But at the same time, I cannot help but think that a massive amount of research was done to perfect the movies that Pixar produces.

Both “Ratatouille” and “Up” stunned me in their storytelling craft. But if you attempt to describe to someone what these two stories are about, they would be incredulous to believe that someone could actually tell a good story from such a ridiculous plot premise.

It is almost as if someone at Pixar is taking bets that using their storytelling method, they can tell a good story from anything that you can throw at them: from a mouse who wants to learn how to cook in France, to an old man who strings his house up on helium balloons and wants to fly to South America.

With so much story refinement done up-front with tons of research done on audience reaction, I think that it would be nigh impossible for Pixar to make a bad movie. At worse, you won’t get a Pixar movie next year because they are still iterating the kinks out of the current story they are developing, but you will never get a bad one.

"Up" was probably created by a random plot generator

My day starts kind of late.  I wake up at about 8:30 on the couch.  My youngest son is usually wrapped around my arm sleeping cozily and I gently let myself out of his grasp to take a shower.  I get ready for work, kiss my wife and eldest son good-bye for the day and head to work.  I usually work from 9:30-6:30, but typically in a week, I go till 7-7:30 at least once and even take home some work at night like tonight.  I am also on 24/7 support call rotation because our installations are critical systems.

As soon as I get home and have a bit for dinner and some conversation with my wife, I spend some time with my sons, usually wrestling, sword-fighting or playing some video games together while my wife catches a break and does some cleaning up.  I bathe my sons and put them to bed.  My eldest usually goes to bed around 9:30-10:30.  My youngest usually sleeps at about 10:30-11 because he’s had multiple naps during the day.  If I’m lucky, I get a chance to spend some time with my wife before she heads to bed around 11:30, unless she is tired and sleeps early.  My wife has the toughest job – taking care of us, the house and they yard all by herself, so I’m more than happy to take care of the kids at night.  Especially because I’m a night owl and I have learned how to sleep in less than a blink of an eye.

My Saturdays are spent with my boys.  I take them to the park, to museums, or exploring in the backyard while my wife has some time alone to catch up on chores that are difficult to do with small children underfoot.  My Sundays start with going to Church and my sons and I play some more, but on a more relaxed pace than a typical Saturday outing.

As it is, my days and weeks are typically very busy.  Making time to be social with friends is already an ordeal because my wife works pretty hard to take care of me, the boys and the house and I understand that leaving to see friends is imposing more time on her on top of unfinished chores.  Even more difficult is making time to go on a date because we have to find and pay a babysitter to take care of our two small rambunctious boys and we fall even further behind on chores.

Any reasonable person would say that what I have is enough.  It already is a full-load and there isn’t any reason I should want more.  I have a beautiful wife, two healthy growing sons, a good job and we live in a great neighborhood.  Why should I pursue more?

Because I cannot not pursue my dreams.

Ever since I realized that I could punch lines of BASIC on an Apple II+ when I was 7 years old, I’ve wanted to make games.  And I’ve grown tired of making excuses why I can’t make them:

• That I’m not smart enough.
• That I don’t have the right education.
• That I don’t have the right game programming book.
• That there is some secret technique that I don’t know.
• That I lack talent.
• That I lack skill.
• And most of all, that I lack time.

Now, with a typical week like I described above, when did I make time to work on my own projects?

From about 11PM to 3AM every night, I work on my own projects.

Sometimes it is take-home stuff from my day job.  Sometimes its my own game projects or freelancing job I picked up for extra cash to pay off some debts.  Sometimes it is my own art work.  But more often than not, I am working on something in the middle of the night.  Around 2-3 in the morning, my youngest son stirs from his sleep and calls for me to comfort him.  So I hold him for a bit to let him settle down.  And more often than not, I don’t make it to bed.  I fall asleep on the couch with him and wake five hours later to my beautiful wife gently shaking me, and to the aroma of coffee close behind.

I am told that to truly be successful, you have to put in at least 10,000 hours of blood, sweat, and tears into it.  That is the difference between the merely pedestrian and those that the world would call a “genius.”  If that’s the case, then I will have to manage to put in that time now.  Otherwise, I will never realize my dreams.

I am often asked if I should be catching up on sleep.  What I love to say in response is, “I could either be asleep and be dreaming or I can be awake and be building them.”

Above all, it is most important to remember that no dream is worth building without being able to share it with someone.  I must accomplish this without compromising that which is truly important – my wife and children.  This is why I wait till everyone is asleep before I do my damnedest.

If you think 10,000 hours is just too much then you don’t want it badly enough.  And don’t begin to tell me that you can’t find the time.

The Bursting Bubble

In some of my previous posts, I have asked the question whether or not the gaming industry can be sustained between rising production costs, smaller profit margins and the forces of piracy.  In the current economic situation, it is unfortunate that there are thousands of jobs being lost all over the gaming industry (except at Blizzard/Activision thanks to World of Warcraft).  However, one has to wonder if there wasn’t a “gaming bubble” akin to the “housing bubble” and “dot com” phenomenon?

The gaming industry only really became mainstream in the late 90s with the original PlayStation and the decline of cartridge games.  The technological leap between the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 2 was beyond imagining and it was this generation that the gaming industry exploded.  Suddenly almost every one and their kids had a PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube.

A Generational Leap - Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2

Yet the massive technological leap between PlayStation 2 to 3 is unwittingly its own downfall.  The amount of production cost to utilize a fraction of the PS3’s power cuts heavily into profit margins.  Further, the slow consumer transition this next generation of consoles has a resoundingly loud dirge of complaints.  Gamers all around are just bored of their games.

As proof of this ennui, the most popular and widely received game review on the Internet is “Zero Punctuation” by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw.  It is telling that the reason Yahtzee rose to such popularity is through his witty satire panning and blasting the tired gaming industry with barely a breath between words and his thick British accent.

Valkyria Chronicles

Perhaps the bloom is off the rose for the gaming industry.  The gamers who enjoyed the old 16-bit consoles were amazed at the full-motion video and lens flare polygon effects of the late 90s.  Photorealism got a shot in the arm with the addition of more polygon crunching machines such as the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox.  That is also when more realistic 3D physics systems were introduced and became the next novelty.

With the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 era, the photorealistic browns and grays of modern games have shown the end of this technological road – a drab brown canvas devoid of life.  Now you are finding games that are drawing away from photorealism into more artistic styles and expressions of gameplay such as toonshading, and a return to 2D-style games.

Geometry Wars

And strangely enough, the games that have the greatest profit margins are games that have low production and even “retro” feels, such as Geometry Wars and Peggle.

One has to wonder if there wasn’t an economic crisis, would the gaming industry have shifted this direction anyway – an emphasis on gameplay over glitz?  With the advent of the Wii, Nintendo showed how a very low powered system with gameplay as its main focus could dominate the industry.  The entire gaming industry did a triple take because they were too busy focusing on pushing polygons that they failed to see the thirst for good games rather than photorealistic skin wrinkles.

I have much hope for the gaming industry.  It is hopeful times for those who wish to see better games, more enjoyable experiences, and true interactivity.  And with the tightening economy, I would be very surprised if gamers didn’t get all of this for an even lower price.