All Things Andy Gavin

Canon 5D Mark III – Finally!

March 2, 2012 | 4 Comments

Finally, after 3.5 years, the Canon 5D Mark III is here (or at least on the way)!

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This biography is primarily a character study. It seeks by detailing the man’s actions to try and quantify and qualify the traits that made him the iconoclast that he was. The hero of this book is not a particularly likable man or even that rational. He was a fierce demon of passionate opinion, amazing taste, and an extraordinary instance of talent at the intersection of technology and art.

Video Game Page & Book Status

December 4, 2011 | 2 Comments

I deployed a new video game topic page yesterday. This was a good chunk of work. I use a modified iThemes Builder child theme and so continued to use their custom layout and variable widget systems to build out a special page…

New Book Pages

November 16, 2011 | 1 Comments

Continuing the big upgrades on my website, I’ve built out new pages for my books: The Darkening Dream and Untimed. These pages are an attempt to look less bloggy, more like typical author and book sites. I’ll, of course, be continuing to refine and add. One of the nice things about using Wordpress is that it’s easy to continually modify. I’ll add reviews and promotional information. Sample chapters, etc.

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Website Upgrades Coming

November 6, 2011 | 7 Comments

Since I’m waiting for both my line edits on Untimed and my proofreading on The Darkening Dream, I’m researching website construction. I have to morph, upgrade, or supplement this blog with a genuine author website and I can’t bring myself to hire someone…

Lispings ala John McCarthy

October 25, 2011 | 17 Comments

Yesterday, John McCarthy, the inventor of the LISP programming language passed away. It’s been a bad month for computer guys. First Steve Jobs, then Dennis Ritchie, creator of C, now McCarthy. LISP was one of my early great loves in programming languages….

Foodie Photography 101

October 9, 2011 | 23 Comments

As is fairly obvious from my umpteen food reviews, I take a lot of pictures of food. For such a static target, for a number of reasons, the plate isn’t so easy to photograph. Mostly this comes down to light…

Steve Jobs is Dead :-(

October 5, 2011 | 4 Comments

The creator of so many of our toys and tools has passed away. He may have been controversial, kooky, and perhaps a pain to work for, but he was undeniably brilliant and touched all our lives. Probably his fundamental product genius was…

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 5 – The Method

September 11, 2011 | 29 Comments

This post is presents an algorithm of sorts for learning to program. It applies not only to the fundamentals, but to all aspects, including the acquisition of small component skills. Thirty years after learning, I still follow the same basic procedure. To tell the truth, modified, it works for leaning most things.

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 4 – School

September 1, 2011 | 15 Comments

There are two basic approaches: home training and school. Personally I’d recommend both.
Let’s talk school. In my day (1980s) pre-collegiate computer classes barely existed, and if they did they were mostly about Pascal programming and data-structures. They often used p-System pascal, an old-school predecessor to Java!

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 3 – Getting Started

August 30, 2011 | 17 Comments

Some kid is always asking me, “I love video games, how do I learn to program them?”
First of all, a warning. Reaching the skill level to be a professional video games programmer takes years. There are no shortcuts. You can not possibly go from nothing to professional grade skills in less than perhaps 2-3 years — and for that you’d have to be an uber-genius — usually it takes 5-10.

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 1 – Why

August 29, 2011 | 14 Comments

This post is a sequel of sorts to my How do I get a job designing video games. The good new is — if you’re a programmer — that nearly all video game companies are hiring programmers at all times. Demand is never…

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 2 – Specs

August 28, 2011 | 39 Comments

There are a couple of broad categories of programmers working on video game teams. If programmer is your player class, then the following types are your spec. Programmers are all warlocks and mages so instead of “demonology” or “frost” you can choose from below. This is the real world however, and many programmers dual (or even triple) spec — i.e. they handle multiple specialties.

Eyeborg – Resistance is Futile

August 27, 2011 | 3 Comments

As my friends who’ve known me since the 80s will recount, I’ve always been an enthusiastic advocate of upgrading the human race. In fact, before going to M.I.T. to start my PhD (aborted after two years to make Crash Bandicoot),…

Crash Bandicoot – Teaching an Old Dog New Bits – part 3

March 28, 2011 | 154 Comments

Part 3 of a journal article I wrote on making Crash in 1999.

Crash Bandicoot – Teaching an Old Dog New Bits – part 2

March 27, 2011 | 5 Comments

Part 2 of a detailed journal article I wrote on making Crash in 1999.

Crash Bandicoot – Teaching an Old Dog New Bits – part 1

March 26, 2011 | 18 Comments

Below is another journal article I wrote on making Crash in 1999. This was co-written with Naughty Dog uber-programmer Stephen White, who was my co-lead on Crash 2, Crash 3, Jak & Daxter, and Jak 2. It’s long, so I’m breaking it into three parts.

iPad 2 – Less is More

March 25, 2011 | 10 Comments

Being the consummate gadget man, I succumbed to the iPad 2 upgrade. In fact, I even ordered it at 1:01am, only 1 minute after they went on sale (at the Apple online store). Despite my jumping on the bandwagon, it…

Making Crash Bandicoot – GOOL – part 9

March 12, 2011 | 112 Comments

I’m always being asked for more information on the LISP based languages I designed for the Crash and Jak games. This post is about GOOL, the LISP language used in Crash 1, Crash 2, and Crash 3. GOOL was my second custom language. GOOL was mostly interpreted, although by Crash 2 basic expressions were compiled into machine code.

Scrivener – Writing the old way is crazy

February 25, 2011 | 6 Comments

For my first novel, The Darkening Dream, I started in word and then switched to Scrivener about 60% of the way through the first draft. I’ve never looked back. Scrivener is a specialty word processor designed for those who write…