Exciting news! I am officially a Narrative Design Intern at Jumpstart – Knowledge Adventure, Inc. This company has touched my childhood with games like Mathblasters and Jumpstart 3rd grade. Recently, they’ve partnered with Dreamworks to make a ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ MMORPG, and they’ve also acquired Neopets! Everything seems to have come full circle. I can’t wait to see where this opportunity takes me.

Because of my new path, I am devoting more time to my Skyrim mod and studying storytelling in games. On Tuesday, I plan to attend an IGDA event called “Creating Meaningful Games with Jeffrey Yohalem of Ubisoft Montreal” in Santa Monica on Tuesday night. Jeffrey Yohalem is a lead writer at Ubisoft; he was part of the core writing team of Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I’m a huge fan of his work! My sketchbook will be at the ready as soon as he starts to speak.

Here’s another demo snippet of our Skyrim mod. We’ve put in all the characters and their dialogue. Now we just need to add in the last few voice over files, place the characters in their proper locations, set quest stages, and record: (please excuse the Facebook notification sounds and the temp voice over part!)

It has truly been an amazing week, just two nights ago, I got to listen to the legendary animator Glen Keane talk about his new film “Duet”, created for Google Android Devices. My notebook is filled with his inspirational quotes–I even managed to get an autograph from him on the back cover!

Although we’re a little behind on Madbots Beta and a tad behind on the trailer, the gaps in my progress are not that big. January will be devoted to catching up. Thankfully, all the important functionality is done and the art is nearly there. The only thing stopping me from a bright, fulfilling end to the project is myself. I’m so thankful for my hard-working team, my helpful professors, and my new job. I must harness all these good things and channel them into Madbots!

Here is this week’s paper concept. Now more than ever, I have to keep my mind brimming with creativity: ShizukaTeahousePaperConcept