Downing's Basement

Hey guys, sorry it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything over here, but it’s been super crazy!

The Ouya portable has officially become my second biggest success, and my largest video on You Tube. Second of course to The Cross Plane, which though the video on my YT only shows about 6K views, the Kickstarter page is over 60K and on Jon’s YT, is almost 10K.

But anyway, that’s not what it’s about, it’s just fun to measure it up to other accomplishments!

Speaking of accomplishments, on Sunday June 1st, I had and interview done on me via Skype by a moderator known as [KillSwitch] over on the OUYA Forums. They are one of the coolest forums I’ve been a part of, much because of their open and constructive attitudes. Not to mention, they go right to the top with the OUYA Brass which helped push this project into the lime light.

Over the next few days I’ll be making a few small updates to the site and adding some of the press coverage to the “Projects That Made Waves” page and can read what others around the net had to say about it.

The Interview can been seen below. Note that my Internet connection crapped out in spots and it becomes unwatchable for a minute around the 31 min mark, should anyone actually get that far into the video. hehe. It was a lot of fun to do though as I’ve never had an interview done before, so it was a cool experience.

Also, here is a partial copy of the email that started this whole thing. Word got to OUYA corporate about my project and they put it in their weekly newsletter! I thought that was really cool!

Partial copy of the Weekly Newsletter sent out a couple weeks ago.

But alas, this ends on a somber note. On June 2nd, my wife and I lost our beloved Boston Terrier Te-Te. She had to have been in her early teens, we rescued her from a puppy mill about 6 years ago and was one of the hardest goodbyes I ever had to do. It was the right thing to do though, but it’s never easy.

Yesterday was an amazing experience. Aside from the delays and otherwise ill feelings toward the Newark airport who delayed every flight I had, I had my interview at Oculus and got a chance to see first hand what my old modding buddies were up to.

And let me tell you, the experience was nothing less than amazing!

I’d never in my life used any sort of VR equipment, unless you count that one Wolf 3D experience they had at Fun Spot back in 1995…which means…yeah, I’ve never tried VR before. On top of getting to meet the founder Palmer Lucky and getting to hang out with him and my old pals from the DB meet-up back in April, I got to check out the 1080p Rift first hand and finally got to see what all they hype was about.

It’s a very new and very unique type of platform. The real-time feel and the ability to explore all around you simply by using natural movement was a pretty crazy experience and even that wasn’t the best thing that I saw while there. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what the best thing I saw was but I can say that it will take VR to the highest level it’s ever been and it was humbling to be able to try out cutting-edge technology that is the best in the world and only a few have experienced first hand.

So with that said, what’s next? The interview went very well. Not quite the type of interview I’m used coming from the uptight East coast business practice, as the California lifestyle here pretty much requires everyone to be laid back but with a strong case of ADD. “…and that’s what we’re going for ya know, a nice even work flow and….woah man…it’s my wife’s birthday tomorrow…” You get the idea.

But that aside, it feels like I’d fit in quite nicely here, though I may need to learn to chill out a bit…yeah, me. haha!

So today, I’m going to take a bit of a walk down Bristol Ave and get a feel for the area a bit. I don’t have a car so I’ll be limited in my travels, but tonight we’re planning on going to Beta and Aux’s new place that’s not too far from here for a video game night and just a chill relaxing evening…probably drunken evening, but either/or works for me.

There is a lot to still consider though if a position is offered as I will be not doubt having to relocate and do a lot of back and forth travel from here to NH. But the sad reality is that there is nothing on the East Coast that will let me do what I really want to do. If I was here when we released the Cross Plane, with the contacts I already now know about, I have no doubt it would have been a different story. It’s just a shame it has to come with such a price tag, more lifestyle and location than money. But everyone I’ve talked with says I’d be stupid not to at least give it a try and I agree…I just always thought my life would be in NH, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to actually get out of it for a little while.

So, I’ll be updating more about this weekend should anything actually worth writing about comes up. Gonna go take my walk and see what I can see!