A Visit to FuzzyEyes
Studio Tour from Matt - Thursday, 31 January 2008 @ 12:47am
I've never really used a GPS before. I mean, I knew what they did, and I have a good general idea of how they work. There are satellites, triangulation, etc. GPS these days is incredibly cheap and available as a technology. But I'd never really used it before. All that changed when we went to visit FuzzyEyes.
Most of the development companies in Brisbane are located in or around Fortitude Valley. We know most of them at a glance, and can get there within a few minutes. Some of them don't look like development studios, and some don't look like much of anything… but if you know where you're going and you know the names, yeah, you can pick them.
FuzzyEyes... not so much. FuzzyEyes is located about a million kilometers south of Fortitude Valley. In fact, the trip was in general quite different to the usual. Yug pulled up at my work to pick me up. He normally drives an MX5, but this time he had with him an MX5.
Actually, I should probably clarify that. Because it makes no sense unless you happen to be me or Yug, which 60% of you probably aren't to your everlasting sadness/joy depending.
The MX5 in question was a much newer model than Yugs, was a shiny red beast and rather fancily appointed. It was, I have to say, quite spiffing. It was also not Yugs. There's nothing wrong with Yug's car, it's quite fine, and certainly better than my '98 Colorado, but it's not as new and shiny as a newer and shinier one. Profound.
The car in question belonged to Yug's girlfriend's father. Who presumably hasn't met Yug and therefore felt comfortable lending him the car. Either that or he lent it to Yug's girlfriend who passed it on. I'm unsure of the details, the only conclusion I really have to make is that I need a girlfriend too.
So we headed south. A long and perilous journey to the heart of industrial estate on the southside. That's about when I got to play with the GPS. Yug has a new phone (as well as girlfriend… do we hate him yet?) and it has some GPS stuff built into it. I got to be navigator, which pretty much consisted of saying "take the next exit" when the thing said (out loud) "take the next exit". A role that I'm sure you agree was a bit redundant.
We headed south, then took an exit. Then some more roads… you know how it is when you're driving in a car. Then we realized we've gone too far. Then we came back. Then along a different road. Then back again. Yes, we got a bit lost. But finally we saw the sign that marked FuzzyEyes!
On the other hand I got the opportunity to play with the GPS, and have now for the first time in my life had satellites globally position me.
I was actually going to segue from the GPS thing in to something along the lines of "Speaking of things that are well positioned globally FuzzyEyes are too.". But I've decided not to dignify it because it's incredibly lame.>
We wandered in and Augustine came to meet us. Yug had talked to Augustine a little bit on the phone (he usually organises these things because I'm not trusted to talk to actual people) but I was relatively unfamiliar with the fine gentleman.
Augustine and Yug and I sat down and had a bit of a chat for a while. We actually really enjoy that part of things. When we get to speak to developers off the record, find out what they think about things, and really get to know them. The conversations are very interesting, and it's always a genuine regret that we can't share them with you guys.
But we can't. That's what off-the-record means. Duh.
In any case, the time came soon enough to go back on the record. Augustine took us for a tour of the place, wandering around and looking over people's shoulders. Like any of the other dev companies we've been to FuzzyEyes is a diverse mix of people and skills. In some cases it was really good to meet people that we've encountered previously on the site. I was most happy to meet Alti, who is one of the artists and has done some excellent concept art that's been posted to the forums.
We met people from a range of different skills, including administrators, lead designers, artists and programmers, and we annoyed them and stared at their screens for a bit. There seemed to be a lot of artists, and there was definitely a lot of art happening.
After we wandered around for a while and took some photos (including a photo of the game... it makes more sense if you were there) we stepped into the conference room and had… well… a bit of a conference.
Most of the development companies in Brisbane are located in or around Fortitude Valley. We know most of them at a glance, and can get there within a few minutes. Some of them don't look like development studios, and some don't look like much of anything… but if you know where you're going and you know the names, yeah, you can pick them.
FuzzyEyes... not so much. FuzzyEyes is located about a million kilometers south of Fortitude Valley. In fact, the trip was in general quite different to the usual. Yug pulled up at my work to pick me up. He normally drives an MX5, but this time he had with him an MX5.
Actually, I should probably clarify that. Because it makes no sense unless you happen to be me or Yug, which 60% of you probably aren't to your everlasting sadness/joy depending.
The MX5 in question was a much newer model than Yugs, was a shiny red beast and rather fancily appointed. It was, I have to say, quite spiffing. It was also not Yugs. There's nothing wrong with Yug's car, it's quite fine, and certainly better than my '98 Colorado, but it's not as new and shiny as a newer and shinier one. Profound.
The car in question belonged to Yug's girlfriend's father. Who presumably hasn't met Yug and therefore felt comfortable lending him the car. Either that or he lent it to Yug's girlfriend who passed it on. I'm unsure of the details, the only conclusion I really have to make is that I need a girlfriend too.
So we headed south. A long and perilous journey to the heart of industrial estate on the southside. That's about when I got to play with the GPS. Yug has a new phone (as well as girlfriend… do we hate him yet?) and it has some GPS stuff built into it. I got to be navigator, which pretty much consisted of saying "take the next exit" when the thing said (out loud) "take the next exit". A role that I'm sure you agree was a bit redundant.
We headed south, then took an exit. Then some more roads… you know how it is when you're driving in a car. Then we realized we've gone too far. Then we came back. Then along a different road. Then back again. Yes, we got a bit lost. But finally we saw the sign that marked FuzzyEyes!
On the other hand I got the opportunity to play with the GPS, and have now for the first time in my life had satellites globally position me.
I was actually going to segue from the GPS thing in to something along the lines of "Speaking of things that are well positioned globally FuzzyEyes are too.". But I've decided not to dignify it because it's incredibly lame.>
We wandered in and Augustine came to meet us. Yug had talked to Augustine a little bit on the phone (he usually organises these things because I'm not trusted to talk to actual people) but I was relatively unfamiliar with the fine gentleman.
Augustine and Yug and I sat down and had a bit of a chat for a while. We actually really enjoy that part of things. When we get to speak to developers off the record, find out what they think about things, and really get to know them. The conversations are very interesting, and it's always a genuine regret that we can't share them with you guys.
But we can't. That's what off-the-record means. Duh.
In any case, the time came soon enough to go back on the record. Augustine took us for a tour of the place, wandering around and looking over people's shoulders. Like any of the other dev companies we've been to FuzzyEyes is a diverse mix of people and skills. In some cases it was really good to meet people that we've encountered previously on the site. I was most happy to meet Alti, who is one of the artists and has done some excellent concept art that's been posted to the forums.
We met people from a range of different skills, including administrators, lead designers, artists and programmers, and we annoyed them and stared at their screens for a bit. There seemed to be a lot of artists, and there was definitely a lot of art happening.
After we wandered around for a while and took some photos (including a photo of the game... it makes more sense if you were there) we stepped into the conference room and had… well… a bit of a conference.
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