Tuesday, October 20, 2009

SIGINT and YOU!

Now, aside from picking the brains of rocket surgeons and sailors and propaganda officers, I read a lot. We have this book store here in Detroit called John K. King Books. King books is a four story, two building firetrap used book store packed to the gunwales with rare, weird, obscure and arcane books. It's in two old buildings, a an old glove factory and an old elevator factory, on the west side of downtown and is heaven on Earth for a bibliophile like me. They have a huge militaria section, including probably 20 years worth of Jane's guides and all matter of history and technical manuals. They even have a huge section for field manuals from all branches of the service. I've picked up a bunch of books there that have helped me figure out the ins and outs and whys and wherefores of military life and technology.



For things I can't find, or can't afford, at King books, I turn to the internet. Two websites I use constantly for technological reference are Global Security and the Federation of American Scientists.
These two are excellent and accurate sources of information full of exhaustive information regarding ships, aircraft and all manner of military hardware. I also use Naval Technology, Defense Update, and Defense Tech. All of this info filters down through my brain and onto the page to give you all a little taste of real military life and technology mixed in with your giant robots and spaceships.

Now, for Robotech specific research, I used two very authoritative sources; Robotech.com and the spectacular Robotech Reference Guide. Robotech.com stands as the primary source of canon I use to stat out ships, mechs and vehicles. For things they don't have, and for expanded information on the things they do have, I turn to the guys at the Reference Guide. These guys have a fine site, packed full of hard technical info and trivia that helps me round out the guns and gear in the game.

All of this reading and web surfing doesn't include the hours I spent pouring over model sheets, art books, on the phone with Tommy Yune from Harmony Gold, watching Robotech DVDs, etc. You may think writing games is all skittles and beer, but it's not. There's a lot of eye strain and sore brains to go along with it.

So, that's a pretty brief overview of the kinds of research I do. Next time I'll probably talk about balancing verisimilitude and facts with playability.

1 comment:

Mikey97D said...

Great stuff Jason. Looking forward to your next installment on this subject.