Personal Projects
Here's a list of extracurricular projects that coincided with my professional experience in the videogame industry.
I wrote at least one haiku every day since August, 2022 to December 2023. I published the collection of 2,049 poems through Kindle Direct Publishing. Get a copy of the Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover versions of the book at this LINK!
Farm Merge Valley Tips (2022)
Just a collection of tips and observations for Farm Merge Valley. Play the game on Facebook!
I pitched in Game Design ideas and documents for the Zynga Blockchain group early in 2022, and consumed a bunch of information on Cryptocurrencies and NFTs. An innovative "Play to Mint" design offering in the Duskbreakers project. I Played their 3rd-person sci-fi shooter game and won an opportunity to Mint Duskbreaker #3584 for some Etherium. I poked around the Duskbreakers Discord server and a bunch of owners were writing up backstories for their 'Breakers.
I wrote up this little backstory for the the Sisters based on the Greek myth of the Kindly Ones / Furies.
San Francisco Rush 2049 Developer Interview with STV and Team Rush Discord - 3 July 2021 (2021)
Thanks to PK_Supra and the Team Rush Discord server for inviting me to answer questions about RUSH!
Thanks to Ryan Neal of Ketchup & Mustard for this interview on Primal Rage fighting mechanics! As of 4/20/2022 the video has over 300k views, and I try to read and Like each comment!
Reclaimed Playground Structure Chicken Coop (2020)
We acquired a playground structure from our kid's school and it made a cosy, sturdy chicken coop for our ~30 birds. We 'chopped' it so that it sat lower to the ground, and attached it to boards and steel pipe around the base and 8' x 16' run. Most of the wood came from the cull carts at our local home improvement stores at 70% off.
IMG_8890.mp4IMG_6921.mp4Used Oil Pipe Fence Project (2019 - 2020)
To complete the fence around the perimeter of our 'homestead', this project used 2 3/8" reclaimed steel drill stem pipe and sucker rods from oil rigs, 4" hogwire panels (orange segments), a rolling gate across the driveway (red segment), and a swing gate on the lower lot (magenta segment), and horizontal wood picketing (cyan segments) Each of the ~72 steel posts (yellow dots) were pounded 2'-3' into the ground. Cross beams were welded at 6' high and the hogwire panels attached. The whole project took over a year to complete with two subcontractors helping me with the pounding and welding.
Jacob Melvin asked me a bunch of questions about lesser-known and unreleased games that were developed during my time with Atari from 1993-2002.
Check out his podcast on SoundCloud!
Here's my transcript of the interview questions:
You were involved with Freeze and War the Final Assault? Awesome. I have wanted to know information about those games since I was a kid. I'll send my questions your way. Hopefully it's stuff you haven't been asked before.
1. Your portfolio says you wanted to be a game designer since Christmas of 1979. What led you to join Atari in 1993?
I was tired of college and wanted practical experience in the industry I wanted to work. I filled out an application at Atari Games, went for an interview, and was hired as a Video Lab Assistant in the stop-motion capture studio.
2a. Japanese gaming legends SNK were the distributors of Atari games in Japan (as well as Gaelco's Radikal Bikers, which Atari published). How exactly did SNK become the publishers of your titles over there?
I don't know honestly. Maybe similar to how Capcom is the publisher for High Moon Studios Darkwatch? Japanese publishers also have marketing and distribution channels that some American companies do not have.
2b. Was there a sizable fanbase of Atari's titles in Japan?
I'm unsure, though I know that there was some pushback from Japanese marketing and distribution even over Primal Rage.
3. Freeze was an unreleased puzzle game that used Atari's CoJag hardware. Despite the intuitive gameplay and neat spin on the genre, it ultimately never saw the light of day. What led to the cancellation of it?
No idea. I was just a fan of the game and provided playtesting and feedback.
4. Though Freeze was said to be developed by Atari, the game has Japanese text, as well as Japanese voices, unlike other Atari titles. Was there an external developer who worked on it and was uncredited, i.e. the Japanese branch of Time Warner Interactive?
I'm fairly sure that all development of Freeze was in-house. I think from the variety of Japanese puzzle matching games in the lab, the goal of Freeze was to appeal to that audience.
5. San Francisco Rush is a unique specimen, as San Francisco Rush is not the same as San Francisco, California. What was it like remaking the city for the game to be more fun?
The main complaint from marketing about the original Rush was that it wasn't 'casual' enough. The development team struggled to accommodate their feedback while at the same time staying true to the white-knuckle wheel-to-wheel racing that the franchise was known for. Going futuristic allowed both Art and Design to stretch reality in the name of FUN - corkscrews and ramps were integrated into the architecture, and even the texturing of futuristic buildings was done to mesh with the fast pace of the game.
6. San Francisco Rush came out around the time when many racers were more grounded in reality. What exactly led to the creation of the Rush games?
My recollection is that Rush was founded on the legacy of driving realism that the Hard Drivin' game introduced. Though the Rush cabinet did not feature the CHAIN-DRIVEN force feedback system, everything about the Rush franchise was built on the Hard Drivin' foundation. I take issue with your claim that other racers were 'grounded in reality', when games like Daytona, Ridge Racer, and Cruisin' were far more unrealistic than the Rush games - even 2049. Again, it was the solid foundation of the 'realistic' driving model (though numerous 'training wheels' had to be bolted onto the system) that drew racing enthusaists to our games.
7. Hot Rod Rebels, the planned 2049 sequel, was unfortunately never released. Were there ever plans to move game development to home ports?
Yes. Around the time of Hot Rod Rebels cancellation, the whole of coin-op product development started to transition to console development.
8. Primal Rage 2 used a PlayStation 1 based CPU instead of the GT system used in the first game (which is also notoriously difficult to emulate). What necessitated the change?
I think that the change in hardware was to accommodate the fighting game graphics frames being STREAMED off the hard drive WHILE THE MOVES WERE BEING DISPLAYED. I thought that this feat of engineering was astounding at the time, but enabled one character to have access to the moves and animations of TWO (both the human, and beast forms)
9. Primal Rage 2 ditched the complicated specials and combo system of the first game and went for a more traditional approach. I felt a Darkstalkers vibe with the changes. What were the influences behind the new battle system?
The development team actually thought of it the other way around - Primal Rage attempted to simplify the button-mashing-prone layout of the popular Street Fighter franchise, and the move+button style of execution to be MORE inclusive to inputs. Primal Rage allowed either a button edge (button was pressed OR released) or a button level (button is simply held down) in combination with a joystick move to execute specials. Ultimately, the development team gave in to the popular control scheme.
10. I need to know this one, since there's no information on it at all online, but do you know what Die Alien Scum was about? I know that it ran on the same hardware as Beavis and Butt-Head.
iirc, this was a 3rd-person 3D shooter similar to Zaxxon, but with full analog 2-axis freedom.
11. War The Final Assault was an awesome game, because it was one of the few first person shooters that was arcade exclusive, and had a crazy fun multiplayer mode. Despite this, it never saw a home port. Rumours persist that there was a planned N64 port, but nothing else on that has surfaced. Why did War never get a home port?
No idea. Maybe this style of game was too 'mature' for the Nintendo console?
12. As a followup to my previous question, War was one of the first (released) arcade exclusive FPSes. Where did the idea come about to make the game for the arcades instead of PCs or consoles of the time?
My guess is that a) PC/console markets were saturated by big franchises, and b) Atari Games strength was arcade development and distribution.
13. Of the cancelled Atari games that you worked on, which do you wish would have made it to production?
The tracks and stunts in Hot Rod Rebels were some of the most over-the-top and difficult and fun stunts and shortcuts ever designed. The idea that the 'optimal' line through 3 laps in a race changed each lap as new shortcuts/stunts opened up was groundbreaking, I think. See my blog for more detail on the game and Track Design: We Totally Did the Donut Jump Before Red Hot Chili Peppers
14. One of the programmers for Tenth Degree had said on a video for it that they wanted to put it, as well as some other fighters on Midway Arcade Treasures 2, but was declined. Were there some other titles that you would have liked to have seen on there?
idk. I never liked arcade-to-console ports, even though Primal Rage seemed to gain popularity on console (SNES) I always preferred playing on the Arcade machine.
15. What is your personal favorite title you have ever worked on?
Hands-down Boom Blox Bash Party. I think this was because my team and I got to come up with dozens of new game modes, blocks, and tools, and created THOUSANDS of level ideas in under a year. Over 400 levels shipped in the box game, and there were another 100 available on launch day for download, but there were literally thousands of levels and lots of ideas that just didn't meet the quality bar and make it into the game. For example, there was a full stack of levels stood up to explore a 'maze' like mode using the Grabbing Hand, where you guided a block through a maze-under-glass. The concept totally worked with the tools we shipped in the final game, but there were some quirks like if you released the block, you wouldn't be able to grab it again since it was under glass. Another reason was that I believe the Design team delivered and went above and beyond our stated goals from the beginning of the project: we kept about 30% of the game the same as the original. Dismantle, and Knockdown levels stayed, and I even fought to keep the Shooting Gallery modes; we improved about 40% of the game - more levels and ideas using the existing tools, more focus on multiplayer. In fact - we FIRST imagined almost every level and game mode as a MULTIPLAYER game. If it was successful in multiplayer, it was almost guaranteed to be successful in singleplayer. Finally, we added about 30% new content to the game - new tools and blocktypes gave way to new multiplayer and singleplayer modes. The underwater Dismantle, and outerspace zero-gravity Gem Blast levels were lots of fun to create. Lots more Multiplayer Versus and Coop modes and levels. Also, I have a funny little Steven Spielberg story to share on the subject of playtesting. But I'll save that for another time!
Thanks again for agreeing to do this interview Mr. Riesenberger. Feel free to get back to men whenever you can, since you're a busy man.
It's always a pleasure to share my experience with someone who loves videogames!
What does "Home" mean to you?
Home is a safe place where we learn about the importance of family and traditions. In practicing these traditions, and passing them down to future generations, we preserve the meaning of Home.
Download the game for Windows, Mac, or Linux from the Global Game Jam site!
Our team was recognized by the HOFT Institute for Best Audio!
Exclusive first-person hamster electroshock experiment simulator! Download it for Windows/Mac from the Global Game Jam site!
I contributed to Level Design with MS Excel, and setting up the game scenes in Unity
Our team won the "Pizza Time" award from the hosting HOFT Institute!
Captured 639 Pokémon (2004 - 2013)
Through Fire Red, Emerald, Diamond, and finally, Pokémon Black, I managed to capture, hatch, evolve, transfer, and trade a bunch of Pokémon.
I really went deep into competitive breeding, IVs and EV training, building up a team of my faves - Darmanitan, Galvantula, Gengar, Gyarados, Torterra, and Tyranitar - each with 5/6 perfect IVs.
In Pokémon Diamond, with the addition of the Poké Radar, I became obsessed with Shiny hunting and acquired over 50 Shinies! The extremely tedious, esoteric, and delicate "shiny chain" hunting method increased the probability of encountering a Shiny from 1/8192 to 1/200. Once you had a chain of 40 going, it was an exquisite grind through time, patience, and resources, to be rewarded with that glowing patch of grass!
BS Computer Information Systems (2010)
As part of the Educational Reimbursement program through Electronic Arts, I took classes part-time at California Lutheran University - nights and weekends - to finish out this degree program. I maintained a 4.0 average over the 13 classes, mostly in computer science and business management.
There were a couple opportunities for work/school crossover like the Boom Blox Employee Survey, and my Capstone Project, the Boom Blox: Bash Party - Level Database Interface.
WHERE DREAMS BECOME LATE NIGHT TV SHOWS
This blog is a kind of dream journal, edited for television.
Pokémon Pinball for Gameboy Advance is the finest console pinball game I've played (the title for best mobile pinball game goes to Zen Pinball)
November 28, 2008, lost a ball and working backwards to get the score: current score is 149,766,848,779. 808 Pokemon caught. Score before the bonus was 135,456,398,779. Bonus subtotal was 144,550,000. Multiplier was 99. Bonus total is 14,310,450,000. I have a video of the bonus but I pressed the 'A' button before seeing the breakdown of the bonus so I was only able to see 99 Pokemon caught on the ball.
Read more about the journey in this blog post: Gotta catch 'em all - one flight at a time
This blog was created as a receptacle for all of my fondest video game memories.
Some are memories of video games I've played, like Raiders Of The Lost Ark for the Atari 2600 or Impossible Mission for the Commodore 64.
Other memories are from professional experiences, but those that would never make it into a review page, like walking Steven Spielberg through Operation Neptune on Medal Of Honor: Airborne, or the birth of the ficticious business, "Seventies Television" in Rush 2049.
Puzzle Quest - Lord Bane vs. Deathbringer (2007)
Puzzle Quest for the Nintendo DS is a Match-3 RPG, and one of the first successful examples of the genre mashup.
The Warrior's Deathbringer spell was a welcome surprise at level 30 but I realized quickly that this spell was immensely overpowered.
OperationElevator.pdfOperation Elevator (2007)
This was a Medal Of Honor-inspired mission beat document, created after some of our Level Designers were moved to a lower floor in the building.
Fun With Booleans (2004)
Getting into Maya modeling and going nuts using boolean operations resulted in this city block compound level.
stvlogo16.mp4Learning Tree University - 3DSMAX (2003)
I signed up for a 3DSMAX modeling and animation workshop from Learning Tree University in order to level-up my skills in the software package.
The Seventies Television and STV logo idea combined what I thought were three cool elements:
The CBS Special ident intro music from the 1980's that you'd see before The Charlie Brown Christmas Special and Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory every Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Three spinning colored lights - one red, one green, one blue, that animated and combined into a white light.
Flying text 'punch-out' animation and fade out that I drew out of the McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" campaign at the time.
As a commercial project for Chiquita Bananas, I modeled all of the objects and scene in the Still Life Reflect video from real objects I had in the kitchen.
I used the cool 'spiraling violin' intro from Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" to match the spinning lazy susan and spiraling camera.
Finally, I mapped the amplitude of Ms. Cline's singing onto a translate animation controller in MAX to give the text a lyrical wiggle.
The Great Giana Sisters - Dance With Intensity PC DDR Simulator (2002)
Before StepMania there was Dance With Intensity, a free Dance Dance Revolution simulator for Windows.
I submitted a song and stepchart for Machinae Supremacy's The Great Giana Sisters (after getting permission from the band, of course) to an online tournament, winning the popular vote and 3rd place from the official judges.
Playing And Presenting Robotron: 2084 (2002)
Robotron: 2084 is my favorite game of all time!
On a co-worker's machine at Atari Games, I set up an 8mm video camera to capture footage of gameplay, then submitted a performance with a score of 624,000.
This score is currently recognized and ranked #7 on Twin Galaxies official leaderboard.
Of course, I wrote a blog post about the game: Eugene smiles upon you, and gave a presentation of the game and my progress in my public speaking class at Gavilan College (using OVERHEAD PROJECTOR transparencies!)
Gitaroo Man - Legendary Theme (2001)
I fell in love with Gitaroo Man after playing it at E3.
Not only is COIL's original soundtrack awesome, but the rhythm game mechanics are innovative in that they incorporate not only the timing-based button presses, but the analog thumbstick directionality and natural vibrato and bending of guitar notes.
Being a guitar-playing fan, I naturally had to learn the Legendary Theme, and wrote out a tablature with chords in this blog post: Mojo Mojo Mojo King Bee!