I was lucky enough to be invited along with my family to Southern California for the premier of a couple of video games, a personal tour of a video game design studio, a live martial arts show, and a private screening of soon to be released movie…
D3Publisher invited Kristin and was even nice enough to allow the whole family to attend. They flew us in to SoCal and provided us stay at the Loews of Santa Monica, CA. This was a nice beachside resort with walking access to shopping, the beach, and the famous Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.
Papaya Studios
We started the next morning after a good nights rest with a trip to Papaya Studios in Irvine, Ca. We were given a tour and broken into groups for face-to-face time with the developers and designers. They explained to us the processes in game development and showed us a little on how they graphically make them. It was cool, to actually see the raw development, and to think that one day all of it will be put on a disc and playable in my Xbox 360, Wii, or Playstation 3. They explained the importance of working directly with the cartoon studios that actually make the shows that the games are based off to keep the realism between the show and game. We were also given a chance to try their new Ben-10 (this link also has one of our excellent hosts for the trip, Fernando) video game which will be available for all major video game systems.
House of Champions
After this we were taken to the world famous House of Champions to see a martial arts demo with Matt Mullins from Kamen Rider which airs on Cartoon Network. There was a hiccup in the trip at this point, so they had to cut the martial arts short. We got to see a couple of big kick flip moves and such which was cool to see. By this time I think a lot of kids were needed some calm time so it worked out.
Dick Clark Studio
We were then shuttled to Dick Clark Studio where we were introduced to an executive producer of the game Astro-Boy. He gave us some insight on the game and how they tied the game into the movie and how they also added to give a more to adventure into. After this we were given some time to try the game then we were ushered into a private screening room to present Astro Boy. I had been wondering up till this point if Astro Boy was related to Mega Man. I am sure there is history that connects them somewhere and it would be interesting to find out. We were then explained that Astro Boy had been around for over 50 years which can be seen by the way he looks and acts. He does have that Big Boy image, and very polite manners. Life is interesting, when things connect. So we watched the movie and I thought it was great. I was into it, and the kids were to. This is good because I got to enjoy it with minimal distractions. Its a great story and had good humor.
That concluded our tour. We were also provided with food, video games, entertainment, and a good time.
We went back to the hotel and let Kai play with her cousins in the pool till bed time. We woke up the next day and went and spent out remaining time at the Santa Monica Pier amusement part. We got in a good 5 hours till it was time to leave for our flight. Talk about a good time. This was a great trip and what more could one ask for. A trip to a beautiful place with a whole day of exciting and awesome things to do.
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