Club Design: 2

Well, Tao in the Venetian and Geisha House in Hollywood are two of my favorite venues. The venues are beautiful and project a an upbeat sophistication, even when the crowd sucks. Well, what kind of venue could you make with these venues?

Tao:

The Geisha House:


Indigo's:

Club Design: 1

For all the people that know me, they know my vision of my existence is defined by the world I create. My closest friends and family will attest to my desire to create institutions that define Charles. One of the things that I have cooked up is an idea for a restaurant and lounge. I'm a connoisseur of leisure. I love scouting out the best vibes and atmosphere in all the cities that I visit. Believe me, I've visited a plethora of cities from this side of the Atlantic Ocean to the Far East and even to South Asia. I'm serious about my desire to create the perfect restaurant and lounge. I know two things must be in place to pull off such a feat.

(1) Atmosphere of the lounge must create an alternative world for the end-user aka the customer. (think in terms of the holodeck made famous in Star Trek: The Next Generation).

2) The entertainment must be top-notch. That is your cast from the doorman to the glasses that people sip their sin juice bellows superiority.


You want people to know that you are in the business of great working environment to create a great leisure environment. Your cast for your entertainment into this alternate dimension is the valets, doorman, cashiers, waiters, waitresses, host, hostesses, coat checker, table bussers, chef, line cooks, kitchen cleaners, decor, technology, cutlery, glassware, music, lighting, scents, decor, restroom attendees, signage, in uses brands (food, music, alcohols, cigars, etc.), dancers, musicians, performing artists, artwork, and the venue itself. I have seriously carved out what I want to do in my lounge and restaurant.

I am currently compiling ideas of things that have been done or are being done. I will post some of my findings online. But, until I launch my lounge and restaurant, you have yet to see perfection.

This is the Blue Frog. The Blue Frog Club is Mumbia's premier live music performance space. The club is 6,000 square feet of the best opulent ambient design in India. The excellent acoustics support the consistent stream of international artists that play some of the world's finest jazz, blues, funk, soul, and afro/latin to electronic, club, rock, and folk. The pictures speak more than words, so pay close attention.

Games, Dames, and Lames: The Difference a Day Can Make

Awesome is almost halfway through the Pre-Production phase of our final game project. I am going to share some insider knowledge on our progress for the Cardinal of Zephyr , an airship battle game. Every Thursday, Team Awesome presents a status report to Executive Producer. The EP is the gatekeeper for keeping a project online. The moment he or she feels like your project is a waste of time or money, then the house of cards built by your development team will come crumbling down to fall into the fiery pits of hell.

Rule 1: Keep your Executive Producer confident in your ability to complete your game project. It may sound rudimentary, but you will be surprised how many games crash and burn because the EP has no confidence in the project.

Thus far, we have been able to successfully relay our vision of the game to the EP. Without fail, week after week, Team Awesome moves forward on Cardinal of Zephyr. Here are few more rules that I've learned by working on the best game development team this side and the other side of the Mississippi River.

Rule 2: Construct a rigid flexible schedule. Yeah, I know that sounds like an oxymoron. But, you want to make sure that your team can adhere to realistic deadlines, but flexible enough to shift dates around if necessary.

Rule 3: Trust your teammates to do what they are good at and encourage them to perfect their passions. This is quite tricky because some of your teammates may not know what they perform well. They may also assume they're distinguished at doing a task, but they are not that proficient at it. Even worse, their assumption may be their passion. This can be detrimental to the team's overall performance if this person's ability to complete the task is the weakest link. In order to avoid such misjudged mishaps, the leaders need to do a skill assessment and skill utilization management. While assigning tasks, the leaders need to zealously encourage their teammates to be passionate about what they are good at and build new passions around their strong skills. Sure, feelings may get hurt and egos may get bruised, so reiterate how important they are to the team and their skills are detrimental to the teams overall performance.

Those are enough rules for today. I'll give you some new ones in later posts.