Well, it had to happen, and lo! It does! Muggins here has been working from 8.30 AM Monday all the way through to 8.30 AM Wednesday with only a 3 hour short nap. Insane? Well, my insanity was also inclusive of Andy, Greg, Nick, Gareth (most of the time!) and occassionally Ernie. But thank God the E3 demo is now sorted out. I was falling asleep sometimes for mini-naps during the daytime on Tuesday, which is bad news when your boss is behind you. Oooop.

It was a pretty strange experience, because as a development team, we hit the pinnacle of pizzas, Red Bull and after-hours Quake III playing. I kept on saying it was absolutely insane, and of course I was right. Last morning, I woke up after getting some of the level completed to find Greg looking at me saying that they needed the parts of the demo level completed for the last GD burn. Nick had gone home, so I had to see what stuff Nick had changed, what stuff I had changed (I had the fortune to fall asleep on the level I was working, so I could see what to do). When you've just woken up and you notice your computer and three other completely knackered people, then you know you're in the games development business!

What else? Weeeeell, going home was weird. It was like I had worked the night shift and as I was returning home, people were going to work. Very strange, and also outlines the fact that I really have no social life whatsoever outside of work. Which kind of suits me fine.

I was planning on having myself a holiday next week, but there is talk of getting a demo sorted out for Dream On's demo disc next week and I feel like the holiday is about to be put on hold.

Still, at least I got this afternoon off....

Some of the Jester management are busy gorging themselves on the freebie and blokes-in-costumes parade which is E3, while the Hellgate team are busy working out what to do next. It's strange after all the push for getting the demo completed, it feels like there is nothing much going on after all our physical exertion, but really it's one big lie. Next Thursday is Doom Day again, as one of the head honcho suits from Rage is coming to see the all-new-singing-dancing and completely tarted-up Hellgate demo. It is looking rather solid now the vertex lighting has been added, and really it's a matter of getting everything looking nice for Thursday. Late nights might beckon, depends on the situation, but it feels like I'm on top of it. The church section has been re-jiggled to look even more sexier, and the fact that 3DS Max's claim that "it can animate anything" has been proven wrong, after I tried to animate something as simple as vertex colour, and fail miserably. All hail Kinetix!

What else? Burt brought us all in for a meeting, reminded us that demos can seriously mess up your schedules and figured out what levels are done and by a percentage. The city level just needs more texture work and vertex lighting, plus the rather serious matter of shoving the whole thing into the Dreamcast. PVS could be a factor here, but really it is rather the need for better collision data. There is a lot of complex geometry going on in that level, and it needs to be addressed. John has taken a back seat breather from Hellgate for the moment to work on a Doctor Who spec with (ulp) the Liverpool office. The all-new Monolith level (again) will be ready soon. It did need restructuring, because there were too many tunnels.

The ice level is currently non-existant, and the swamp level is almost half done. I was working on the other half before I was drafted into the demo (and work hours) from hell. The lava level is our ace-in-the-hole because Andy has produced almost all of it. The graveyard level is taking shape, with John already finishing the geometry for a haunted hotel - a feature probably needed in the graveyard level. It'll be hard to get some sort of look to it without going all stereotypical. Graves? Doh!

Publishers were first greeted to Hellgate with this image...

I'm just a little disappointed to the lack of coverage Hellgate is getting at E3, only because the Jester management are showing the demo disc off to prospective publishers, and not making too much of a song and dance about it. I kinda like this, because it means that we still have very little pressure from the media in getting the game delivered, though Burt has already been caught revealing the fact Jester are producing "a top-secret Wipeout/Quake game" to various Dreamcast magazine editors. Yipe.

We are halfway through the project, and just about halfway through the game. Which isn't back going at all for a bunch of newbies. Still, the fact remains that something like Metropolis Street Racer gets an unbelievable amount of development time compared to our measly 8 months. The talk of producing/shipping out the FMV has also raised it's head, and it's something which I can't really comment on much because it would be better to spend the extensive time in-house producing FMV on the game instead.

Still, what do I know? I've only been a Lead Artist for 4 months, and I've yet to enjoy the pleasures of even more late nights, Red Bull and major 3DS Max failings.

The fun has only just begun...

Let it be known that the life of a games developer consists of late nights, Red Bull, unsocialable hours and the ability to slowly grow a huge gut. Trust me, I can see my gut getting larger each day. Anyone who states that producing games is the coolest job in the world needs to have an 8 month taster of it.

The tone of my entry, you can guess it's deadline day soon! Some top suits from Rage are coming down to the humble Jester offices to partake in seeing a much more yummer version of Hellgate for their perusal. I think we've got it in the bag, because the Deathmatch level which Andy amended from my revamped hub is looking amazing. It's cool what vertex colour can do. The week has been spent trying to make things look pretty so we can get the go-ahead from men-in-suits. It should be fun.

Our new marketing geezer reckons we should all wear our Jester "corporate whore" T shirts for the arrival of Mr. Rage, but I just think it would make the whole room look a little unnatural. We've already gotten into a very comfortable state of development, without having to remind each other of what company we work for. I've revamped as much as possible, and tomorrow may well be a late night/all nighter to get a final level build for the Rage geezers. It should be interesting.

We now have rocket kickbacks, a better Deathmatch, plus Greg has found out how we can have PROPER split-screen instead of just using the top left and bottom corners of the screen. Ernie is not impressed. Which reminds me - I need to do a "Damned!" graphic for when you get fragged on Deathmatch. John is working on the graveyard level, and Toks has finished polishing up his bikes/bikers for the Deathmatch front end. Nick is still working on the bloody monolith level. I have a holiday planned for next week, which I'll probably spend admiring my spanky new (cheap) graphics card. At last, Max ain't uncomfortable to use at home! Unfortunately, I need more RAM for my overworked machine. Yipe.

Highlight of last week - I managed to play the 20th Century Fox drums using the machine guns. Possible cheat mode...?