>>Satanworx<<

New Website

2011-04-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

I got this new website up:

http://www.sayantanbiswas.com

Thanks to Avishek for the help. :)

The Road - Here I come

2011-01-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

Been a long time I've stepped on my blog to make a mark or two. Didn't get a reason to. When the priority of life takes too many U-turns, it's difficult to follow your compass, and realize which way you're heading. Understanding how real or fake your friends are aren't sometimes the easiest job. I decided it's high time I have to stop taking chances; that also in a land where you don't know whom you think you know. I recently learnt that it doesn't matter who's the hero or who's the villain. It just depends on which side of the chess-table you are. But. You have to be one of them. So that it makes a difference. So our blood isn't a waste. I also learnt that I need 1 more person in my team, just 1. Whom I can relentlessly trust through up's and down's and thick and thin. Regardless of place. Regardless of time. Regardless of my presence, or her. It'd be a bond. A bond of life, towards a goal, towards a future. We'll both help each other to take the next best leap of faith. Unconditional. Uninterrupted. UNSTOPPABLE!! :)

How to irritate some-one!

2010-04-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

New Job Ahoy!

2009-11-04T03:45:00.000-08:00

After a long break of random learning curves and a few small contract jobs, I'm finally appointed to "Knowledge Adventure India Pvt. Ltd." as a "Game Artist". Full-time. :)

Hope my stay here is comfortable for my colleagues as well as me. There were a few particular reasons I joined this company. The most important being, the company deals with Children Games. Yes, you heard me right: "Children Games". You must be wondering what made a Game Artist, who's a hardcore Shooter-head get into development of Children Games. Well here it is:

For ages developers have deviated from the root cause of a video game. It was to make children happy. These days it's just turning into a gore-fest. If everybody is making games for teenagers and mature people, who'll be the ones to carry the tradition. Well I'm proud to say I'll try to be one. :)

Moreover KA doesn't only make children games, it tries to educate and train children up through these so-called edutainment-type video games. It might not have the most complicatedly realistic AI activities, but it ACTUALLY has something which will pave the path of a REAL future for a child ahead.

And yeah, I've somewhat relocated to Bengaluru (Bangalore) for a couple of years. ;)

Links to visit:
JumpStart
Knowledge Adventure.com

Monsta Choppa!

2009-07-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

"Phantasm Games developing ‘Monsta Choppa‘ for Xbox
09 July 2009 10:55 AM

BY SHIVA PRASAD

Bangalore based game development studio Phantasm Games Studio is working on its console game titled ‘Monsta Choppa‘ for XBOX 360 console targeting XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) and Xbox Live Indie Games. The game development is scheduled to be completed by February 2010.

Monsta Choppa is a 3rd person action game which will feature hack and slash combat, giant monster battles, strategies trap placement and many more key exciting features. The game would be available at a cost of 800 Microsoft Points and is been targeted towards casual gamers.

Microsoft Points are the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Games for Windows - Live Marketplace, Windows Live Gallery and Zune online stores. The points allow users to purchase content without a credit card and in the United States; 80 points are equal to US$1.

Speaking to Animationxpress.com Phantasm Games Studio CEO/Lead Programmer Manjith Krishnappa said, "Our aim is to release a fun to play game, which will satisfy the gamers. The game‘s success will also be gauged from the response of the gaming community. Monsta Choppa‘s many features, challenges and achievements will also attract hardcore gamers who want ultimate thrills. The development team is confident to achieve this target."

The development team size is 7 and the project was started on April 2009. Two game designers were involved for the game design from whom it has been purchased. The team also has a technical consultant who gives regular feedback about all aspects of the game such as game art, programming and implementation.

The game consists of total 9 levels with 3 themes namely robot theme, alien theme and horror theme. Each of these contain theme based monsters and environments. The games pick up and play mini game style approach allows a vast range of players to enter the game. The challenges and stages will be customizable allowing for all sorts of combinations creating an experience to excite any audience.

The Core Concept of the game is to battle with endless hordes of monsters, tackle great challenges and meet the greatest heroes around. Players will create their own legend as they battle, maximizing their style to become the champion of Monsta Choppa and the hottest celebrity in the universe.

In Monsta Choppa the player will and do battle with endless hordes of monsters, tackle great challenges and meet the greatest heroes around. Players will create their own legend as they battle, maximizing their style to become the champion of Monsta Choppa and the hottest celebrity in the universe.

Phantasm Games Studio is an Independent game development studio based in Bangalore and is operational since June 2008. They develop games for various platforms and related technologies such as real time and non real time 3D Applications, using an engine that is currently being developed in-house. Apart from ‘Monsta Choppa‘ they are also currently working on various Online Flash Game projects.

connect@animationxpress.com"

Source: AnimationExpress.com

I'm truly Disappointed ......

2008-10-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

The self-titled debut album of my EX-BAND named 'Prachir' which was originally called 'Arko(TM)' got released a few days back in Kolkata. But to my surprise, they didn't even mention the name of any of the old members' name at even a single corner of the packaging. It's my opinion on ethical grounds that they should have at least put something along the lines of "Thanks to all the old members of the band" or something that sort.

The 'Bengali Band Scenario' started with a true sense of community once upon a time. But this event really shows how suffocated the scenario really is right at this moment of time. All the people who were involved in the band in the past are:-

- Nilanjan Sen.
- Sayantan Biswas (me that is).
- Sourayan Biswas.
- Shankhayan AKA 'Babumoshai'.
- Anwesha Gupta.
- Swagato Kar AKA Bappan.
- Uma Kanto AKA Umz.
- Vikram.
- Somedeb AKA Tutul.
- Aninda AKA Laltu.
- Nilanjan Paul AKA Pappu.
- Palash Da.
- Debdulal Das AKA 'DD'.
- Debashish AKA Potla.
- Tirthankar (though for a very few days).
- Debankan (I was noted quite late that he'd been in the band for almost 10 months).
- Sayan (not sure about him though).
- Prodosh Da (almost forgot about him).

Now if they claim 'Prachir' is a fresh setup, they might as well have got rid of the numbers 'Porichoy' and 'Hotash Prithibi'. Anyways, what is done is done. I don't want to crib so much about it. This marks a sad day for Bangla Rock and Bengali Rockers.

Edit:- This whole issue just flashed so many old memories in my mind. I just thought of sharing 2 very old pictures with all of you.

This is a photo of one of the Arko line-ups(really really old):

This is a photo of the 'first' Prachir line-up:
An old Amadergaan Forum Thread about Arko and Prachir respectively

Apparently Mister Indro (the present keyboardist) claims me and Sourayan haven't played a single show with the name of 'Prachir'. Comedy time? Yes it is. BWAHAHAHAHA. :D

Indro you seriously didn't see this coming. Right? :P

----- Sayantan.

Trying to settle down

2008-06-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well if you know me, you must be wondering what's taking me so long to still settle down. Thing is I'm not one of those 'happy-go-lucky' person. So just as I expected, things didn't really go quite like how I planned after I moved back from Mumbai to Kolkata.

Things that went according to plan:-

- Met all my relatives
- Bought a Vacuum Cleaner
- Went to see 'Aamir' with my mom and dad
- Had been able to fix my brother's PC completely(virus-free as well as system config issues)

Things that DIDN'T go according to plan:-

- Above all other issues, my PC got broken, while I had couriered it from Mumbai(curse those DTDC people). I'm happy my 8600 card as well as my Hard Disk is at at least alive.
- I haven't got a Kolkata-based SIM card yet because of time constrains. Yep, I'm still on 'roaming'. So don't try calling me now. I'll not be picking it up. :(
- I'm still not done with the 'revamped' electric wiring in my room. Hopefully the electrician is going to come today
- Still haven't joined the 'Clay Modeling Class'
- Still haven't joined the Driving School
- Still haven't gone to 'British Council' for that English course

Anyways, wish me luck so all these bugs get debugged very soon. :)

Ghatothkach Review by an Environment Artist

2008-05-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

I’m not really a guy who writes reviews. But I couldn’t stop myself from writing this; mainly because I’ve kind of known about this project for over a year now. Moreover I thought of writing this to speak out how lots of small things make or break some project. Anyways, these are all my personal views and opinions and don’t reflect my company’s views.

Let me state clearly beforehand that I’d like to write this review thinking I’m an anonymous guy. I do belong to the same company who’s the producer of the movie, and I might get a bit biased. Hence to prevent that the best way is to write as if I DON’T belong to the company:-

Story: Very Enjoyable. Very Hindi-Filmy. Very Masala. I liked it. Though after the interval the pace of events went up too high to consider a few things so fast. Children might not like to understand things so fast.

Screenplay: Okay.

Characters: There were a few characters in the movie which lacked proper visual conceptualization. I wouldn’t like to pin-point. Those characters could have been made to look much much more interesting. Loved the look of Ghatothkach though. Clearly shows that time was spent to visualize him properly. Though didn’t like his dhoti for some reason. It felt like a ready-made dhoti with a waist belt fitted on the inner-side of the dhoti. But I must say the child Ghattu and child Gajju were TOO cute and cuddly.

Environments: Loved the environments. It was a mix of what I had always thought of the Mahabharata era and that of a dreamland. Wonderful job in there.

2D - Key framing: It was okay. But forms and shapes of everything was changing like anything. I mean if you see Ghatothkach in one sequence he looks like something. If you see him in another sequence he looks quite different. I’m just waiting for the day when a sculpture of the character will be made as a start. Then all the artists study the form of the sculpture and then start animating. This makes sure all the keyframe artists are on the same page. Moreover the movie badly needed some more in-betweens, at least twice. It was very jerky at times.

2D - Inking: Okay but I don’t know why it didn’t look that smooth. There was a slight rough look in it.

2D - Coloring: Yeah this one I really liked. No idea if it’s because of the color correction or not, but the end result was very nice. Beautiful scene composition.

3D - Modeling: It was looking very different from the form and shapes in the 2D animated scenes. Other than that, it was okay.

3D - Texturing: Okay, quite decent. But the textures would have fitted more if it was a bit more flat without so much of ‘burnt tones’ on places.

3D - Rigging: The weighing was all smooth but I don’t think it was good. Something was really wrong with it. Speaking of the faces, it was rigged very badly in my opinion. It just wasn’t working how it should have been. I really disliked the rigging of Ghattu’s dhoti. Either that, or the dhoti model wasn’t made to get rigged properly.

3D - Animation: Though it was all MOCAP-ed, I really didn’t like it that much. It made me feel it would have looked better if it was animated manually. Also the moves weren’t matching with the beats of the songs. It was kind of ‘lagging’.

3D - Lighting: Beautiful Lighting on the 3D part. It completely hid all the super-flaws of the 3d sequences.

3D - Rendering: Again rendering was very satisfying. I felt fresh.

Composite FX: Nice ones. Nothing more to say. Nothing was over-done or under-done.

Overall Compositing: Nice, but the scenes where it had a mix of 2D and 3D elements seen together, things were looking out of place. Usually in these situations, the 3D elements are brought one step inferior and the 2D elements are taken one step higher (with much rich colors and shading) so it goes along with each other.

Voice-overs: Loved it.

Music Composition: Loved a few numbers. Others were time-pass.

Background Music: Loved it too.

Sound FX and Foleys: Better than any other animated movie ever released in India.

Choreography: Don’t want to talk too much about it, as I really disliked it.

Ending Title: There was a nice royal feeling in it. I loved it. The only problem I saw is that when the ‘Playback Singer’ section shows up, the words are almost unreadable. At least I couldn’t read a single word there.

Overall Presentation: The overall presentation was quite satisfying.

Anyways, so that was my personal take on how I felt Ghatothkach was. It’s 2:03 of morning already and I have to go to the office at around 10 of the morning. So I’ll pack up my ‘rubbish-writing’ right now.

Moreover, don’t comment. I know you might not like what I wrote. And similarly I might not like what you comment on this. We are all different with different tastes. So it’s better to stay in peace and not talk about each other’s likings.

------ Sayantan ‘Satan’ Biswas.

Time to Turn the Page

2008-04-16T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yep. Just about time. My level of resistance has crossed a month back. I've had just enough of 2D. It's high time to get back to 'my world'. The world which pushed me to become a professional. I'm getting back to 3D. Yes I am.

Resignation on the way ... MUAHAHAHA. :D

Maiden ..... At Last ......

2008-02-02T05:10:00.000-08:00

At Last I saw the gods with my very own eyes, that also playing all the favourite numbers. Thought of sharing this small experience of mine. Yesterday I saw the Iron Maiden Show held at MMRDA Grounds, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai. They literally ROCKED the crowd. There were almost half a million people (could be slightly less). First time I saw so many Maiden fans all at once. We banged our head to death. They performed some of my favourite numbers. The crowd response was mindblowing. Everybody were humming numbers exactly where needed. The band was DAMN TIGHT. Dickinson was as good in show-offs as was in his vocal-ing job. The stage was HUGE with artistic elements and there were HUGE painted backdrops of each album's theme when they were performing from each of these albums. Moreover Dickinson was dressing up a bit different for each album's numbers. STEVE HARRIS was the man yesterday (as some of you might know my inclination towards that instrument and that I'm a fan of his). Those bass-lines were really really impressive.

Anyways to conclude it all, I'm a Maiden Fan since I was in my IXth Standard. Never could I imagine a day would come I'd be even seeing a Maiden show. This is an experience of a lifetime. If you haven't seen a maiden show in your life being a metal-head, you are missing out a BIG part in your life. There were loads of merchandise to buy. T-Shirts were 600 bucks (my good lord, have mercy) and caps were 300 bucks. I ended up buying a cap as it's very rare. Maiden T-Shirts can be bought from any T-Shirt shop (kind of over-rated since a long time now).

OK, lets see a picture now. I thought it would be risky to bring a digi-cam up there so showing you a photo from the net only. Trust me or not, the crowd was very much crowded like in that pic only. And even the stage was 80% similar to that one in looks as well as size.
Rock On Guys! :D

Here I come .... Iron Maiden Tickets ...... MUHAHAHA

2008-01-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, if anybody is wondering, this is the Iron Maiden Ticket. I just can't wait to go there finally. I've been a Maiden-Head since my IXth standard. I never would have imagined this day will come. Anyways, here is the ticket:-

Now that you're jealous, please go do your job. :D

Boss Is Gross ...

2007-11-14T05:34:00.000-08:00

Why do bosses just have to act like they are bosses .... always?? Can't they maintain the respect the way their employees maintain towards them? Don't they feel the behaviour they throw at people, at the end of the day, they get it back? Good Kings throughout in the history were not seen with good eyes just because they were great warriors, they also had to be noble and kind towards their own country people. You can never push yourself upwards if you try to push your fellows downwards. Or should I say it's an illusion they feel they're going higher when they push their fellowmen downwards??

Argh ..... I don't know. Don't even wanna know. Just placing my thoughts. Maybe it'll make me feel a bit lighter ..... maybe. :-/

Gary Lawyer himself ...

2007-09-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

I never could believe a day will come when I'll be able to see Gary Lawyer
himself performing before my very own eyes.

Yesterday was the second day of the "Independence Rock" in Mumbai. I was
slightly late. Checked a few handful of bands. But to my surprise, the show
ended with a surprise guest. Yep, right you are. It was none other than Gary
Lawyer. The voice that used to make me forger everything when I was in my
8th and 9th standard.

Anyways, so here's a peeky pic I took of him. :)

Few of the ‘key problems’ of the Indian Game Development Scene

2007-09-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

Firstly, yeah I know it’s been a long time I had updated my blog. But I was a bit busy with my ‘real life’. Getting a job, doing a job for 6 months is a lot you know. ;)

[Note that this blog post is all about my ‘very’ personal thought, idea and feeling in staying somewhat close to the scene for the last few years and from my little working experience in a certain company(still working) as a game artist. These words might not reflect the reality of neither the scene, nor the company, as I could be one of those guys who survive on steroids and always have these vague idea about things I shouldn’t.]

So here it goes:-

Hands in the Socks, Feet in the gloves

The usual workflow of the management in the scene is something like:-

- Get a contract job (anything related to gamedev, irrelevant of the requirement or the capability of the team).

- Appoint the job to the employees in the team who are somehow related to the job without even bothering about if that would be the employee’s field of expertise/specialization.

- The appointed employees have to spend 50% of their time on RnD as it’d be a job the employee never expected he’d have to do.

- When the employee is ready as far as RnD is concerned, the team realizes it’s quite late. Development is then rushed to the maximum extent.

- In the end, either the project is really, well, ‘bad in terms of productive efficiency’ like most cases; Or they are just scrapped, which is better from the point that it doesn’t go on being yet another sample of the negative publicity of the Indian Gamedev Scene.

In my very personal opinion, it should be something like:-

- Form a ‘proper team’, even if people are less. Quality is what matters. But have atleast one person in one specialized department. Game Development didn’t start with a herd of sheep. It started with these two three guys who had some brilliant skills and ideas to be put to application to form a so-called ‘magic’ as we say.

- Spend at least fifteen days with the team ‘only’ discussing what all the people in the team likes about games. Different genres. Old-School Favorites. GameDev Idols, etc.

- After those fifteen days the team will be pretty much capable of deciding on their own what kind of a ‘really small game’ they should go with, keeping in mind what working area revolves around the skills of the individuals.

- The project could be a small one, it could take twice the time it should’ve. But I believe the team would learn a lot and also their enthusiasm would still be intact, because they did something they exactly intended, and that they finished it with the exact look n’ feel they wanted for it. This is a satisfaction only a developer can understand and not one of the, well, management officials, ahem.

Art for Artists, not for Programmers, nor even for thy Management

There were times when I asked god why did you give eyes to these visually tasteless people. And I still wonder how can a gamedev company survive without even having an ‘Art Director’ for god’s sake. What happens then you ask?? Well, the management comes in barging within the artists to direct how they want the art to look like. What could be better than such a golden moment??

Please management, programmers, and, well, owners; Artwork is for Artists. Please leave that space to us. Think about it like this. Artists are artists since their very childhood. You can’t beat the hell out of a guy who’s not an artist and make him an artist. I can understand that when you reach a position of higher authority you feel like utilizing your childhood scrapbook painting skills, and decide on colors over an artwork some artist is working on. But you do forget that that specific artist is dedicatedly used only with deciding colors for the last few years, plus that he was born being an artist.

Reach for the sky, and you’ll be falling before you even know

Over-ambitious. I have NO idea why ‘still’ Indian Companies are so over ambitious with their projects. There have already been almost half a dozen projects in the scene I know which got canned because it was trying to reach too high. History is for learning. To learn how to not fall in the same known pit. To blacklist a path they know is a ‘sure-failure’. Then why do these people do the same mistake?? Ah well, no more whining on this.

I think I’m done with this post, or a rant-post you can say. I’ll add up more as I think of more. Stay Cool People. Life is not about getting the highest-paid job and earning loads of money. It’s about re-discovering yourself. ;)

Regards,

Sayantan

Satan

Sate

Sanantanan (:o)

Miltu

Milta

Gullu …. And whatever all you people know me with. :P

Funny Stuff!

2007-02-16T11:46:00.000-08:00

I think you people do remember the infamous tiny screenshot of Duke posted by 3DR at Gamasutra as just a graphic piece. So many guys at the 3drealms forum made their own version of funny DNF pictures. Denz came up with a very nice animated version of the screenshot with the hand moving making it look like he was shooting. It was quite impressive I have to say, but my personal thought was that it was lacking a few things. So I requested him to send me the Photoshop PSD file so I could do the modification. This is what I came up with, and trust me the result was quite satisfying to me. :P

'Half-Life 2: Episode 2' Delayed

2007-02-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

[Rant Start]

About 6 months back the 'buzzword' in the gaming market WAS 'Episodic Gaming'. And for a couple of weeks the buzzword has turned into 'Episodic Gaming is a Failure'. First Ritual was acquired by MumboJumbo as their 'precise' plan of Episodic Gaming didn't work. Now Valve is putting more and more delays for it's release of EP2.

Here's my very personal take on this very issue:-

"Episodic Gaming can only be maintained if it can be served to the consumers IN TIME. The developers have to forget any previous ideologies of 'W.I.D.' when they are working on episodes. Either you do it this way, or you DONT do it at all".

The main problem in episodic gaming is to strike the quality with such tight deadlines. On the other hand if the developer is strictly maintaining the deadline, the quality would be something like one of those episodes of an 'Ekta Kapoor TV Series'. I do not completely dislike episodic ideologies, but there are things that needs to be maintained. Maybe it would take some time for developers to figure out the perfect balance so it can be maintained. [pun]But when the day will come, Gabe Newell will swell even more like a balloon and burst someday like a nuclear weapon devastating the Valve office.[/pun]

[/Rant End]

Anyways here's the source of the original information which is a bit old by now.

A Good News

2007-01-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

Again a 4 days old news.

FORTUNATELY 3drealms has released it's very first screenshot for the legendary game "Duke Nukem Forever" which is still in development.

UNFORTUNATELY it's just a small 200 x 125 pixel picture.

But it's nothing for the fans to not whine about, including me.

Here's the image by the way:

A Bad News

2007-01-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

Although this news is about a week old, MumboJumbo, a company on casual games has acquired "Ritual Entertainment". From now on Ritual will produce casual games along with MumboJumbo.

Source: http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/012407_mumboritual.x

What that really means is that No more episodes of "Sin:Episodes". This is one of the most sorrowful news for the global action game development scene, and a shame indeed.

Ritual motivated to float ...

2006-12-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

It seems like Ritual is just not ready to die so easily. Just today earlier, it seems like they have filled up the empty positions 'completely'. But the question still remains would the next episode of Sin be able to sustain that quality as it had before??

Anyways, here's the link: http://www.ritual.com/index.php?section=inside/tribe

Best of Luck Ritual. Make us more good games in the future.

Ritual is on the way to become just a ritual

2006-12-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Words are flying(most are confirmed) that Ritual Entertainment, the proud developer of titles like Sin, Heavy Metal FAKK 2 and Counter Strike: Condition Zero, has been turned into a sinking ship as developers are jumping out of it like rats. The last piece of information about developers resigning are stated as follows:-

Doug Service, Director Of Technology Development.
Steve Nix, CEO.
Vitaliy Naymushin, artist.
Michael Russel, QA Manager.
John "HAL9000" Schuch, Level Designer.
Tom "ParadoX" Mustain - Director of Development / Vice President, co-founder
Shawn Ketcherside - Lead Designer.

It has been almost confirmed that the guys are heading at the following companies as their next nest:-

Doug Service, Still Unknown.
Steve Nix, iD Software.
Vitaliy Naymushin, iD Software.
Michael Russel, Still Unknown.
John "HAL9000" Schuch, 3D Realms.
Tom "ParadoX" Mustain, Still Unknown.
Shawn Ketcherside, Still Unknown.

I wonder where these other guys would be heading. All I know is that they are "big moving assets". Thanks to the guys haunting the 3drealms forum from where I collected and summed up this information.

2006-12-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

2006-12-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

2006-11-29T04:45:00.000-08:00

2006-11-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

Hence am here

2006-11-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

Just signed up with this thing. Plan to keep you people as updated as possible.