Imagineering!

As you might have figured out, we're big fans of Disney parks and the imagineers here at Mr. Boss' Design Lair.

ImagineeringDisney.com is a fantastic blog that shows lots of behind-the-scenes of the making of Disney magic.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Mickey Moose?

Mr. Boss goes international!

For those of you who missed me at GDC, I will be presenting "Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned From Disneyland" at the Montreal International Game Summit on November 16th in the Westmount Room at 16:00 (that's 4pm for you Americans)

Make sure you drop by and say "hi"!

This has nothing to do with game design, but...

As many of you know from this year's GDC talk, I like Disneyland.

I won't embarass myself by telling you how many times I've been to the Magic Kingdom this summer alone (more than most people go in their lifetimes) but tomorrow I go for a special reason. It is the (un) official 40th anniversary of my favorite attraction: the Haunted Mansion.



Built in 1964 and finally "populated" by ghosts in 1969, the Haunted Mansion is the easily (IMHO) the world's best dark ride. It serves as a constant inspiration to me as a game designer - the way it uses space, sound, lighting and simple but effective effects to bring its 999 grim grinning ghosts to life. But my favorite phantom isn't even in the ride.



This the infamous Hatbox Ghost. This fine fellow appeared only for the first month of the ride's life and was quickly taken down because his effect - which gave the appearance of his head disappearing from his body and appearing in the hatbox - never worked correctly. Here's what he looked like... actaully, this is a full-sized reproduction - an item you can bid on at the upcoming D23 expo - isn't it gorgeous? If only I had the money and space...

Anyway, rumor has it that the Hatbox Ghost will be returning to the Haunted Mansion during the 40th celebration. Well, I just can't missing welcoming the old boy home if it is true. So tomorrow night at midnight, I will be crusing along in a doombuggy, hoping to catch sight of a hatbox clutching ghost.

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it...

This Friday, I have been invited to present my "Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned at Disneyland" talk to Disney's Imagineers.

As a life-long Disneyland fan, this is a HUGE honor for me - but I can't help worrying that they already know everything I have to say. After all, they built all of it.

Wish me luck!

Talk video up at the GDC Vault!

The moment you may or may not have been wating for has arrived!

The video (with corresponding slides) of "Everything I learned about level design I learned from Disneyland" is now up at the GDC Vault.

However, I don't know if acces to the video is limited to those with all-access passes.

Anyway, here's the video!

Enjoy!

Lectures are even more awesome in Japanese.

I've officially gone world-wide.

The Japanese gaming site: Inside for Business has put up a review of my GDC talk. And if my website translator wasn't broken, it's seemed to be a pretty favorable review!



And yes, that is me wearing a pair of mouse ears. See what you miss when you don't attend these things in person?

You can read the untranslated article here.

You liked it. You really liked it.

I thought I'd share a few more links to blogs and nice reviews from around the interwebs about my GDC talk.

Penultimate Level Design's Tinkergirl didn't actually attend the talk, but she obviously ended up at the Design Lair! Her (?) review is here.

Terminally Trivial twittered that he (?) attended and enjoyed the talk. Still waiting for that review though!

...and Stephen Jacobs (definitely a guy!) gives my talk a shout out on the Gamasutra Blog in his "Class Acts of GDC."

Thanks guys and gals for all the love!

I guess I DID say that...

Joystiq, one of the better video game related blogs I actually read, has printed a very complimentary article about my GDC talk. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/28/gdc09-disneylands-the-haunted-mansion-is-a-first-person-shoo/ - in which I am quoted as saying "The Haunted Mansion is essentally a First Person Shooter" - I was talking about the way the omnimover directs what the guest sees in the same way that the environment should direct the player in a FPS.

This article is already starting to make the rounds to all the news feeds. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a HUGE Haunted Mansion fan (I proposed to my wife there, but that's another story), so having my name and the Haunted Mansion actually be a searchable topic on Google is pretty darn cool!

Speaking of a Haunted Mansion FPS, check out this rad Counterstrike mod on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnFekqVATLU

Mr Boss goes BOINGBOING!

BoingBoing is a very fine blog.

Not only do they update their blog far more often than I do, they also have impecable taste - which is why Cory Doctorow wrote a very flattering article about my GDC talk. He also takes great notes (now I know who to sit next to in class) and has a very cool business card.

You can read his write-up about my GDC talk here: http://boingboing.hexten.net/2009/03/27/gamedesign-lessons-f.html

And if you are visiting Mr Boss' Design Lair from BoingBoing, Welcome!

Everything I Learned About Game Design I Learned From Disneyland

As promised, here are the slides from my GDC talk. We had a "sold out" crowd and I got to meet lots of nice people after the talk. Please share these with your friends and co-workers. According to show officials, video and audio will be available after the show. I'll post more info when I know it. Enjoy!