Chronique:BWU 15/08/2008

Posted by lukems at 8/15/2008 4:09 PM PDT

The Penny Arcade Expo

In regards to our booth at Penny-Arcade[Aug. 29-31 in Seattle] (we'll be sharing a mechaplex-sized booth with the eyes-wide-tight crew over Red vs. Blue), the schedule for events is slowly emerging from the mist. As previously mentioned there will be a handful of daily opportunities to play Bungie for a chance to win Recon. Once you've had a shot at glory, that's it. In addition to the already-announced team of Shishka and I, some new challengers stepped into the fold this week. Calling themselves Team T&T (Shishka and I are Team Free Recon), Joe Tung (a Producer by day) and Luke Timmins (network engineer) are teaming up to take part in the Recon Challenge.

Tung's first question: Can I talk trash to the fans?

Followed immediately by: Can I call them -blam!- dumpsters? The schedule is taking shape though and we can confirm that Jen Taylor AKA the voice of Cortana will be spending some time in the booth signing autographs. Again, once we have a firm schedule - we'll post it publicly so that PAX attendees can plan accordingly. Also, start saving those pennies, we will have some sweet exlusive limited quantity shirts for sale - in addition to upholding our promise of "making it rain with prizes."

From the Mouths of Babes

It's all so hush-hush right now. But a bunch of folks sent me some examples of what they are currently working on here at Bungie. What does it all mean?

Automating ventriloquism.
David Aldridge, Network Engineer

Throwing some shapes, urban style
Sam Jones, Art Lead

Future development for the win.
Mat Noguchi, Developer of Awesome™

Baking keys, merging clips, and curve cleaning so his turns will be silky smooth.
Joe Spataro, Technical Designer in Animation

Doing my part to shape and direct the future of the Experience.
Shishka, Multiplayer Community Designer

"I'm Romeo!"
Dan Miller, Mission Designer

Generating pathfinding... again
Lars Bakken, Designer

I'm looking forward to playing more Braid... also Luke is distracting me with silly emails.
Niles, Designer

Gleaming the cube.
Jason Sussman, Environment Artist

Just zipped up.
The Webmaster

I'm giving out tanks to gold medal winners.
Paul Lewellen, Network/Gameplay Engineer

SWIG, import, crash, repeat
Seth Gibson, Maya Technical Artist

Counting the minutes until my iPhone arrives and plotting out my plan to accessorize and applicate it since we don't have any projects we can announce.
Brian Jarrard, Director Community and PR

Moving markers.
Josh, Production Engineer

Player hands
Scott.S, threeee-deeee.

Making sure she's got balls.
Pat Jandro, Cinematic Animator

I've got a few things going on at the same time. Some have "sheets." Other ones have "feet." And "teeth." But all of them have "color."
Lorraine McLees, Pixelsmith

Readin', writin', and a touch o 'rythimitic.
Kurt, Sin-o-matic Designer

Buying clouds.
Steve Lopez, IT Overlord

Sharing, banpuppies, and per-hopper ranks.
Michael, Engineer

I'm moving numbers around, which frighteningly affects people's lives for months to come. Trust me, I'm focusing on what matters.
Jonty Barnes, Director of Production

Getting hired, getting fire.
Andrew Davis, Graphic Designer

Setting up a mail filter to protect me from Brian Jarrard's iphone lust
Eamon McKenzie, Assistant to the Zoo Keeper.

My left hand is banning some people who should know better by now, and my right hand is working on something that will be as cool as the Party system was.
Tyson Green, multipurpose designer

I'm bugging Luke about when I'll be on the Podcast
Vic DeLeon, Senior Environment Artist

I am syncing.
Christian Allen, Design Lead

Dropping metal donuts from the sky.
John Gronquist, Effects Artist

Serious, I am doing concept art.
Frank Capezzuto, Environment Artist

Hunting. Killing. Eating.
Harold, President

Continuing my slow crawl toward infinity.
Disembodied Soul

KEEP IT CLEAN!
Joseph Staten (Classified)

Bothering Lukems with mundane and necessary tasks.
Matt, Fun Destruction Committee Chair

Building a coffee table out of telescope parts.
Roger Wolfson, Theoretical Physicist

Preparing to hand out iPhones today (finally!)
Brent Abrahamsen, CFO

im creepin by the kirkland teen center on a tailspy offerin recon for handies
skip weasel, intern

I am scouring a landscape of network data awesomeness, and looking for pebbles of suckage for some mighty smart engineers... and contemplating my bagel-related future.
Nick Gerrone, Network Test Ninjaneer

Connecting the dots.
Robt McLees, writer

Filleting Pipe
Cameron, Environment Artist

Skipping work so I don't have to play Luke in Halo 3
Chris Gossett, Web Dev Lead

Arguing about xbox cryptography
mpriest, producer

Solving the biggest problem with user generated content on bungie.net.
Tom Achronos, Bungie.net Overlord

Making rough calls about how pouncy they should be.
Chris Opdahl, Lead Mission Designer

Building demolition. My desk is a hard hat zone.
Steve Scott, Effects Art Lead

So much time spent on such a seemingly small issue...aDoes it really have to be 2 new #UNDEFINED_STRING# or can we just stick with the 1 #UNDEFINED_STRING# plan we have been testing?
Domenic Koeplin, Test Lead / Release Manager

Making data more fun.
Aaron Lieberman, Tools programmer

New heap.
Drew, engineering

I am Engineering
Max Dyckhoff, AI Engineer

I am in a Disneyland hotel in anaheim, taking a break from the sun, having a snack in an airconditioned room and checking to see if there is any cool email before heading back to ride the teacups.
Dave, UI

Mangling crunchy trees
Chris Tchou, Optical Orgasmist

Taking a drive on the beach.
Alex Pfeiffer, Mission Designer

Preparing to drop in the executive suite
Chris, Mission Architect

Being nice to the goose.
The Elder, Audio Director