The Steamy End of the Year…

…and the beginning of a new one.

Today is the last day of 2011. I’ll admit right now that I struggle with the proper importance of moments like these. It’s typical, I imagine, for one to write about ‘how the year went’ and ‘what I hope for in the New Year’ and all that - but I know you’ve all read crap like that before. Not that I’m trying to be ‘Mr. Original’ here, but I just feel tired with every ‘New Years’ related sentence I try to write down. So instead I thought I would take this moment to talk about something …steamy.

And no I don’t mean I’m going to talk about my sex life!

The sizzle and pop I refer to is an application called Steam. Wikipedia defines steam as:

a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation.

Essentially it is a downloadable client that allows you to purchase and manage PC and Mac games. I discovered Steam early in 2011 when I desperately wanted to give Dragon Age a try and stumbled upon a sale Steam was having. Traditionally I have been a console gamer, dabbling here and there in the PC game arena. Then I found Steam, created my profile (Sagejester) and purchased Dragon Age – I was blown away. Now I realize that Dragon Age was available on the 360, but not instant like a simple download, and not for that price. It got me hooked on Steam.

 What makes Steam tic? Here are some details prefaced from the site:

• Online library of over 1,100 games
• Steam community with groups, friending, chat and tournaments
• Game auto updates
• Special offers including seasonal sales

So I picked up Dragon Age, Torchlight and a few other games for pretty cheap; how could I lose?  Soon other titles would follow and I fell in love with PC gaming. With the right graphics card, I discovered a level of gaming that I couldn’t get on the console. This is not to say anything bad about the Xbox 360 or PS3. In fact, Steam got me back into video games in general. I began to look for the best of the best titles on the consoles to try to match the experience I was having on the PC. I wanted better graphics, better sound, better game play, better stories, better characters; I found myself analyzing every aspect of the production of the games I was playing.

This leads me to a bit of insight about 2011. I got into Steam which got me into gaming more which in turn (through my analysis) stepped up my expectations of what I wanted out of school. Steam introduced me to games like Dragon Age, Bioshock, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum & City. For the first time in school, I really got excited about what I might be able to accomplish when I graduated; I saw a place for myself. Although I had a hard time getting through my classes this fall, I stuck with it. Steam was a distraction, but it also helped too. So I guess you could say 2011 was pretty steamy. Hopefully 2012 will be so too.

I see a place for myself designing characters and monsters and models and assets for games and animations. I started at AAU concentrating on VFX but 2010-11 has marked a changeover to Animation with electives focused in illustration. Looking ahead to the spring semester I will be taking intro to anatomy and hard surface modeling. 2012 should be great for classes and developing my abilities.

Oh. Look. I lied. New Years crap. Well, make it a happy one, folks and put some steam into it!

Comments

[Kathryn]

I need to get me some Steam! Nice find. I do love me my Torchlight and Bioshock. Both games having a bit of "steam"-punk edge to them. Coincidence? Can't wait to see your future work! Hint hint.

[Sagejester]

Yea Torchlight is from some of the same developers that did the Fate game you liked that they used to have preloaded on some (HP?) PCs. Bioshock has been fun. I have number 2 but haven't dived into that one yet. It's interesting I am also kind of working on a story that has some steampunk elements to it too. As for artwork I like doing different things for this blog with each post and I hope I can keep that up.