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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve updated, so some things have happened. I went back home to Canada for Christmas and New Years, which was fun, if a bit cold.

Grin has announced another game recently, Bionic Commando: Rearmed. This is a 2.5D remake of the original game, which follows the design and layout fairly closely. It will be available for download on Xbox live and on the Playstation network. It will be release a while before the main Bionic Commando game, to generate some interest around the whole project. You can see the trailer here: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29800.html or the HD version here http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29799.html I’m not working on this game, but the team that is has been doing a fantastic job.

Last night I went to a design workshop being hosted by Scott Hasen (www.iso50.com) He talked about his work, and gave a demonstration of how he created one of his pieces. It was a quite inspiring and informative talk. There was a raffle for some prizes at the end, and I ended up winning a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium. Needless to say, I was quite happy at receiving that. After the workshop was over everyone had a chance to mingle, and I talked a little with Scott. I bought a poster from him as well, now I just need to pick up a frame.

I made this poster thing today, using some of the methods that Scott demonstrated.

I’ve moved the content from the portfolio part of my website into here. I really need to make something new to put up. Unfortunately I haven’t done any personal work since I started at Grin, but that may change with all the time I’ll be spending inside over the long, dark, Swedish winter…. I’ve still got to think something up for photos, but for now just look at my flickr page.

Hurray! The game I’ve been working on here at Grin over the past few months has finally been released. It’s a remake (sort of) of the NES game Bionic Commando. You can find some more info at the following sites. There’s going to be more screenshots and info released over this coming week, which will be updated at Gamespot. Grin’s site has just gotten a makeover to go with the new announcement. Let me know what you think of it.

http://www.gamespot.com/event/live/bionic-commando/
Visit for interviews, articles, and gameplay videos.

http://www.bioniccommando.com/en
The official site for Bionic Commando.

http://www.grin.se/
The website for Grin, who is developing the game, and where I work.

HD Trailer

Gamla Stan Storm

I’ve added a new tutorial about how I made the volumetric lighting in my factory map. Read it here.

I also think that I will keep adding a photo with each post, even if it has nothing to do with it. Check out my flickr page if you’d like to see more of my photography.

Reading

Well, some interesting things happened this week. I got my personnumber in the mail, which is sort of like a social insurance number. You need it for opening a bank account, getting a library card, etc, etc. So today I opened an account. Now I won’t have to be paid in envelopes of cash anymore, which will make me feel less like a fugitive.
I was going to apply for an ID card at the bank as well, but the photo I had was too large. I don’t see why that matters, I don’t imagine they paste that actual photo onto the card, but do some sort of scan and print thing. So that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I went to one of those automatic photo booths, and took some photos to use for the ID card. Then after getting out and waiting and waiting, I decided to try again. When I got out there was one set of photos in the tray, but on the first photo I’m looking away from the camera, and I was doing that for sure in the first round of pictures. So I waited and waited some more to see if the second set would appear. I decided to go home to use the washroom and come back to see if the second set was there but there wasn’t anything. So either the machine has some issues, or someone is walking around with 4 photos of me looking as neutral as possible. Or perhaps they were tossed out, but that’s not as fun.

Today I went to the Moderna Museet, the Museum of Modern Art. It is located on the island of Skeppsholmen (the ship island). I took the metro to Gamla Stan and walked the rest of the way. There was a bunch of people fishing, which is still surprising to see in the middle of a large city.

I started off with a photography exhibit which I didn’t care for much. On the whole it just consisted of random snapshots. Following that was an exhibit of paintings from roughly 1910 to 1945 done by Swedish artists. This was also fairly uninspiring. Things really picked up when I moved onto the other part of the gallery, into the more eccentric pieces. One really nice piece was a 5 meter long metal 6 sided cylinder hanging from the ceiling. It was open on one end and tapered towards the closed end. It had mirrors on the inside surfaces with the small end being lit up. When you looked into it, it gave the illusion of seeing a large sphere made of glowing, hexagonal pieces.

In another room there was a 6 meter long glass tube on the floor, with two wires running along inside it. An electric flame was sent between the wires along the length of the tube. When the flame reached the end, another was generated. It gave off a nice high voltage buzzing sound.

After that I went to the Architecture museum which was in the same building. It was just one large room with a bunch of scale models of buildings around Sweden, nothing too interesting. I then had lunch at the restaurant there, looking out over the water. The island connects to Kastellholmen, a small hilly island with a small castle built on it. Just around the corner of one of the buildings there was someone taking a crap…in full view of anyone walking along the path.

I then started walking back to downtown, and started seeing a couple people in running outfits. A few had numbers on their shirts. Then more and more were appearing, going in all sorts of directions. It seemed to be the most disorganized marathon ever. When I reached Kungsträdgården there were thousands of them. All the traffic lights in this area were blinking yellow, so there was a large traffic jam, with a huge mass of people in running outfits weaving in and out of the cars.

I was then headed up towards Sergelstorg when I came across what appeared to be a rally for emo kids. Right across the street from them, on my side, was a man taking a pee in a flower bed….at 4pm, in the middle of downtown Stockholm, with people all around. My god…..

I figured I had enough insanity for one day and decided to head home. I’ll get some photos sorted out and upload them tomorrow.

I’ve recently had my work permit extended to the end of December of next year. This was quite a relief as my first permit was only valid until July 25th. Now I can relax and start plan things in the long term.

Work is going good, I’m still enjoying it. We had the yearly Kräftskiva last weekend. This is a party where you eat crayfish and drink something called Akvavit. You also wear paper hats, and in our case plastic bags, paper plates on our ears, paper teeth and plastic cups over our eyes. If you can manage to imagine that, good job.

I got off the subway a few stops early this evening and took some pictures. It rained and hailed a bit and I saw a pirate ship. You can see the pics here: My Flickr Page

Well, I’ve just moved into my own apartment, quite near the Hornstull metro station. It is on the north west tip of Södermalm, near quite a nice park area. So far I have just been settling in, so I haven’t had too much time to wander around and explore the area. Check out my Flickr page for some new pictures.

I visited the tall ships that were coming in to Stockholm for a weekend on their way to Poland. It was quite interesting, but very crowded. I got to go onto one of the ships, the Europa.

I had promised a list of odd people, and here it is so far:
- A guy wearing an “Athens 2004 Olympics” flag or towel as a cap, complete with laurel wreath on his head
- An older man in a suit, with a note sticking out of the breast pocket that said “Monkey reject the moneky”
- A man on the subway who came up to my group of seats, made a little speech, then moved on to the next group to repeat it (the speech was in Swedish, so I don’t know what it was about)
- And last, but certainly not least, Horst, the harmonica man of Sweden, who is faithfully out on the same spot every day Video

Well, I’ve been in Sweden for a while now, so I had better write something about it.

The trip over had a bit of a rough start. I first noticed something was odd when the plane had taxied around in a complete circle and came back to the gate. It turned out that someone was having heart problems, and had to be taken off the plane. This caused me to miss my connecting flight in Toronto to Ottawa, and my bag was delayed. I got the work permit and went back to the hotel for the evening. The next day I did some sightseeing, including Parliament Hill, the Canadian War Museum, and other places in downtown Ottawa. It’s quite a nice city, lots of green space and interesting architecture. You can see some pics here.

After that it was off to Stockholm through Heathrow, which went off without a hitch.

I’ve been living at a temporary apartment for the past few weeks. It’s one that the company has for people who are just arriving. For the first week I had some people from Spain staying with me. It was quite nice to have some people to hang out with and help me get acquainted with the area. One interesting thing from the first few days was a restaurant that included garlic in every item on the menu, even the beer! I didn’t have any of that, but someone who did found it quite disgusting.

I’ve managed to get an apartment lined up starting on August 1st. It’s still in Södermalm, and right near a metro station. It has quite high ceilings, something like 3.5m, as well as a TV and DVD player, and all the utilities are included in the rent, including internet. I can’t wait to move into it.

Work has been going great, making games is so much more fun than TV commercials. I can now use the skills that I have in the way that I really enjoy using them. It’s also really nice to work with a bunch of people that share my interests and creative passions.  It’s also really quite nice that my boss actually has a clue of what I do now, and how long these sort of things actually take (there is no “make good now” button).

The weather has been cooler, and with more rain than back home in Saskatoon, I’ve heard that it was getting up to 32 there, and it’s somewhere around 20 every day here.  It’s quite nice living in a larger city, there is a much greater variety of things here, and the metro system is quite nice, it only takes a couple minutes to get to work from the station near where I live.  The old town, Gamla Stan, is a very nice area.  It has a bunch of narrow, winding streets, some only 2 meters wide.  It is also where the palace and parliament buildings are located.

I’m going to try keeping this updated more often, as there is always something going on with me. I’ll have to write up my list of odd people I’ve seen around town, it’s getting quite extensive…

 Well, everything has finally come together and I’ll be heading off tomorrow.  The flight leaves at 6:00AM, so I will have to be getting up at around 3:00AM, what fun.  I’ll be stopping in Ottawa overnight to pick up the permit.  I’ll then be on my way to Sweden at 6:30PM Tuesday, and arriving at 2:00PM on Wednesday. I’ve sent off some boxes of things to Sweden, like my computer, guitar, and clothes. All that’s left now is going to come with me in a suitcase.

Someone at work has lined an apartment up for me for two months, so I can look for a long term place for myself.  I think this will work out much better.  I will be in the area of Södermalm, so I’ll probably have to bus or take the T-bana to work, unless I’m on the north part of the island.  I was there briefly when I visited in February, and it looks like a nice area, I’m sure it will be even better without snow.

 In non-Sweden news, my bike that was stolen back in early November last year was found by the police!  It was stolen from just outside my apartment in Saskatoon.  They had removed the front wheel that was locked down and took the rest of the bike.  Last week I was in town and I received a call that it was at the police station.  There was a front wheel on it, some pegs added, and the pedals where swapped.  It was also scrapped up fairly bad and coated in dry mud, but it still worked.  Apparently the police had caught someone doing some unrelated crime and had checked the serial number. Luckily I had the number written down and had told the police when I reported it. The officers working were surprised that it was a positive ID, so write down your serial numbers! I got it home and put the original wheel back on and cleaned it up a bit. Too bad I’m moving, but at least I can leave it at my parent’s place.