Kickstarter will help us hire a programmer at GDC (we hope)

Posted by bhigley on February 14, 2012
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My brother Matthew and I have started a Kickstarter project, in an obvious attempt to utilize web traffic caused by Double Fine’s outrageous success with the site, to help fund a much-needed programmer for our game Extreme Hugtime Simulation Challenge.  GDC will offer an unparalleled chance to find undiscovered talent to fill the role, so we hope to do some scouting while I’m there, but it would ne nice to know with certainty what we can offer as compensation.

You can donate by clicking on the project’s sidebar in this post, and you get cool stuff based on how much you donate, and can even be in the game if you are feeling especially generous.

But, if you don’t want to donate, you can still be super-awesome by sharing this link with everyone you know:
http://kck.st/yETHri

Officially attending GDC 2012!

Posted by bhigley on February 3, 2012
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I’m not sure what else to write beyond the title of this post.

Well, obviously, I have purchased my pass to the Game Developer’s Conferece in San Francisco.  I went for the Audio Pass, and made sure to register before the early-bird cutoff date, so hopefully I saved some cash that I can put toward a hotel, since it is starting to look like that will be my only option other than vagrancy for sleeping arrangements.  I am currently looking for a place in Walnut Creek, Fremont, or any other area serviced by BART that isn’t San Francisco, so that I can get a reasonably priced room and not have to worry about parking.

I’ve been to GDC before, specifically in 2009, when I was still in college and could only afford an Expo Pass.  The experience was useful, but access to lectures like “Digital Orchestration” weren’t available to me then, nor was the networking potential quite what it could have been had I attended anything other than the Expo and the Career Pavilion.

This probably won’t be my only pre-GDC post, so maybe I will talk about what the difference is between E3 and GDC next time, or something like that.  We’ll see.

Portfolio and News pages added

Posted by bhigley on March 7, 2011
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In a rare moment of courage, I extended an offer to the Internet at large to visit my website and critique it. That action proved incredibly fruitful; a helpful User Experience Designer reminded me that my websites primary functions are to allow users to listen to my music and allow them to contact me with work offers, and recommended changes that would better accomplish those goals.

The first major change was to add a Portfolio page (rather than to simply embed a music player on every page of this site), which I originally thought would be redundant because of the music player embedded on the right, but my helpful UED explained that there is no maximum number of ways to accomplish a site’s primary goals; many users expect different routes to certain information than others do, so providing as many as possible is ideal. This, you’ll notice, also led to the addition of my email address in the footer, below the copyright information.

The last change was to use this News page as a Home/Welcome page. Anyway, it’s late, and I’m tired.

Biography re-written, credits updated

Posted by bhigley on March 2, 2011
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As I said in my previous update, my website desperately needed the dust of the ages cleared so that I could confidently admit to people that indeed I do have a website, and that it doesn’t look like garbage. This included not only its design, but its content; my biography was out-dated and lacked appealing prose. I’ve re-written it, and hopefully it is informative without being completely boring.

I also added Type 3 to my list of works, even though it was never released, and never will be. It was my first project that was based entirely online, and looked like it could have been a very promising indie project; as you can see from the link above, there was a definite artistic vision that could have made for a great FPS. To save you a long story, I’ll summarize the development of Type 3: it was being developed, and then it wasn’t. It’s really too bad.

New website!

Posted by bhigley on March 1, 2011
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At the beginning of the week, I received an invoice for my next year of web space, which reminded me that my website was not only horribly out of date, but that I’ve been meaning for quite some time to redesign it and add a more professional flare. I won’t lie: I used a template for WordPress, but I’ve already added some changes that make it more my own, and will slowly add more in the next few days.

Already I’ve re-written my biography, updated my resume, added means by which I may be contacted, and shared some useful links for other composers and sound designers. It’s not without its bugs, however; the media player is embedded in each page, and because I abhor frames, it reloads every time a user navigates to another page within the site, thus stopping any music that might have been playing. I’m sure I’ll figure that one out sometime, but if not, it’s not a big deal.

If you have any recommendations for my site, or simply wish to point out bugs or typos, email me and let me know. Of course, I welcome positive feedback, as well!