Symptom of a Greater Cure

Frost Giant

2011-01-14T22:47:00.002-07:00

Moving blog... again...

2010-07-12T06:05:00.002-07:00

I've decided to move my blog to another site due to blogspot's tendency to eat comments.

The new link is:
SoaGCure.Psychochild.org

Sorry for the inconvenience.

An Explanation of the Groundwork

2010-07-08T20:10:00.001-07:00

I realize that a series links can seem ultimately uninformative of what I was really trying to get across, so I decided to go back and write some explanation for the groundwork.

--------

Schools Kill Creativity: We have enormous human potential. We waste almost all of it.
Drive: Incentive structures don't work for creative tasks. What does work for creative tasks is the fact that people WANT to do well to begin with.
Secret Powers of Time: We perceive time differently based on culture and personality.
Empathic Civilization: People are naturally empathetic, if we see someone else in distress we are biologically hardwired to feel their distress as well.
The Four Act Structure: The four act structure is a system of organize a stageplay into 4 acts, intro, everything goes wrong, hero overcomes the setbacks, final battle and resolution.
Ira Glass on Storytelling: Storytelling is best done in broadcast as anecdotes, a series of acts connected by causality, and with questions that it is infered you will answer during the "moment of reflection."
How to Start a Movement: A movement is not solely about a leader, in fact most people in a movement are not following the leader directly, they are following the first or second follower who tend to be the engine of teaching others how to enter the movement.
Teaching One Child at a Time: Don't wait until you can do everything before you do what you can. If you do what you can, what you can do will increase. In fact it's very rare for what you can do to increase at all without you already doing something.
Flow and Counter-Flow: Contemplation is not anathema to games, it's an element for use at your disposal. Just as great musicians know that silence is also a tool in a musical composition.
The remainder of my articles: Never assume that I'm talking about things in the context of present games, I'm simply not. As someone so marvelously revealed to me, I've had a chicken moment (http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/realid-around-the-web-the-future-will-be-written-in-chicken/) and I don't necessarily expect everyone to always get what I'm saying. Still, I already have a concept of a compelling non-combat mmo, of a societally heavy game that has pvp without becoming a wolf vs sheep dichotomy. These may not have come fully into being, but I have the road maps to those points available to me, I accept them as possible destinations for the industry. On the single player side... well I'll be talking more about Pax Imperator in a bit.

So what does this all mean? What narrative am I weaving out of these points of thought?

First I want to get one point of philosophy out of the way. It is my belief that sentience and tool usage is the final pinnacle of evolution. The reason is, we can now evolve ourselves. If we find that we have, say, a terrible gene that is killing us, we can intelligently act to remove it. Should we find that we cannot communicate fast enough, we can do research and find a new faster form of communication. This is somewhat of a simplification, but overall the point stands, we CAN BE anything we WANT TO, so long as we are willing to make it the priority and put in the work required for it to happen.

Given that, the most important resource to our future survival is how well we leverage human potential towards a desired future. What scares me is, we are terrible wasters of human potential. The good news is we're better than we've ever been, the bad news is we've never previously been anything besides completely and utterly inept. In order to move forward in that field we need several major paradigm shifts. Three factors play the largest part in making that change possible.

First is the creation of systems for the communication of important information. With the advent of the internet we are crushed by an ever growing constant torrent of information. So much so that very few systems are able to keep up with this flow of information and turn it into something people can use, and as far as I can tell all of them have been invented for the sole purpose of handling the internet. Wikipedia, it's entertainment cousin TVTropes, google maps, search engines, etc... and so forth. Second is education, I don't think I have to go out on a limb to declare that our education system both in America and around the globe is starting to show serious signs of structural failure. Now I actually do see a lot of value in something like a college degree in that it provides me a level of certainty as to the kind of foundation a persons learning has. The problem though, is that we are spending 18 years of education to prepare for college that a massive number of students either won't go to or won't graduate from, and that won't really be worth that much once they have graduated 4-6 years later. On top of that, we are sticking to the worst parts of our educational institutions analog roots and finding that they simply fail to have any impact at all with children who are growing up in a digital age, and often rightly realizing that their mastery of digital mediums will be far more valuable in the long run than their ability to sit still in class for 8 hours. The last is organization. We have more and more organizations popping up all the time, still only a very small percentage of that has any goals or plans over 10 years. We need more long term organizations, and more people who know how to be effective in the tasks of organization. Also in the modern world, it's not a matter of solely local organizations, there are many fields where global organizations are required in order to make the most of it's membership.

Modern games are at the crossroads of these three issues. A game designer is a systems designer with a sense of fun, I always say, and it is in fact our job to generate and communicate information efficiently and such that the important information is understood immediately. Learning is one of the key elements of fun, and games are definitely teaching machines even if we haven't decided to teach anything all that important just yet. Finally, for online games we have thus far been leaving our communities basically to their own devices, I don't think that's good enough. Note, I'm not advocating some sort of authoritarian dictatorship of your community, I'm advocating that we channel our community resources into equipping our players with the tools, information, and training they need to become effective organizers.

There are also some points I'll be going into in later posts about things I've learned while making my games. About work ethics and the power, or sometimes the lack thereof, of ideas, and some of those speeches I link speak to details about those that have come from other fields. In order to be effective, we will need new metrics. What we measure now is not going to help us get better so we need new measurements and systems of collection. On the matter of storytelling, the ability to tell stories is a key component of people's lives and it would be to our shame to abandon that in favor of pretty explosions. Our gameplay needs to connect with higher parts of people's mind, and the only way to do that is story, written, spoken, ludic or otherwise.

#53

2010-07-08T07:23:00.003-07:00

Lucius Mummius commander in charge of the Roman force that broke Corinth and conquered Greece.

Some Groundwork

2010-07-07T05:05:00.004-07:00

I'm going to be writing some new stuff on games and game making. However there are some fundamentals that I really want to get out of the way before moving on to serious discussion.

Chip Conley: Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile
Michael Sandel: The Lost Art of Democratic Debate
Sir Ken Robinson says Schools Kill Creativity
Drive: The Surprising Truth About Human Motivation
The Secret Powers of Time
The Empathic Civilization
The Four Act Structure
Ira Glass on Storytelling
Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement
Shukla Bose: Teaching One Child at a Time
Flow and Counter-Flow
The Specific Problem of Game Ecology
Intercession Tanking

I've tried to talk about making games several times, but at the end of the day it tends to wind up bogged down in attempts to explain the context in which I'm speaking. These are all designed to create a context, a framework of ideas and philosophies to hold more specific items in place.

At it's core, only work has value. All ideas are individually meaningless. However, their position in your framework modifies the value of your work. Better ideas make a stronger framework for more valuable work. A better communication of that framework, leads to more productive conversation on items within that framework, so hopefully this will help to illustrate the framework that I've built.

#52

2010-07-07T05:01:00.001-07:00

#51

2010-07-05T20:21:00.002-07:00

Since it's on my mind:
A correctly run scientific experiment does not attempt to prove a theory. It attempts to disprove the theory, on the grounds that the truth is impossible to truly disprove.

#50

2010-07-03T02:52:00.001-07:00

To the dipshits who call out the Signs aliens

2010-07-02T13:43:00.002-07:00

"What kind of stupid people with an allergy to water land on a planet where not only is 70% of the surface covered with water, but the shit falls from the sky!"

We are. Us. Humanity. We fight on submarines at pressures that would instantly kill us. If given the chance we'd fight in space, where we cannot survive for more than a few seconds ANYWHERE. Hell, we even developed a way to fight 30,000 feet in the sky... watch that first fucking step.

Lets face it, if we found an alien planet with an atmosphere that was completely toxic to our simean asses we'd still be sending in marines and shitcanning them if they moaned about it. If it rained acid we'd just issue new tents and tell them grin and bear.

So no, that is not the question. The question is what kind of shit stupid alien race goes somewhere that has a toxic substance hanging in the air (humidity) and decides it's best to just walk around NAKED!

And now back to your regular schedule...

#49

2010-07-02T03:40:00.000-07:00

#48

2010-06-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

#47

2010-06-29T01:47:00.002-07:00

It probably isn't working, but I just felt the desire to play around with neon green and orange for some reason...

#46, NSFW

2010-06-28T06:11:00.001-07:00

"Return with your shield, or on it."

#45

2010-06-25T13:09:00.004-07:00

The Deal
I draw or paint 300 Spartan themed sketches, paintings, and illustrations.
I take donations for the glasses, tablet and monitor I need, with anything extra going to Child's Play.

The Status
Over $300 dollars raised so far...
I have the glasses and the tablet, next is the monitor.

#44

2010-06-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

#43

2010-06-23T00:05:00.001-07:00

The original frenemies.

#42

2010-06-22T09:31:00.002-07:00

"I'm certain they thought to break our morale by using the grotesque corpses of our fallen brothers in such a manner. Instead they had the opposite effect. Where as once the men had been held together only by their soldier discipline, with no interest in the welfare of this land so far from their own homes, now they fight with a new purpose. Now they feel this fight is theirs, that it's personal, and for that alone they are fighting as though ares walked among them."

#41

2010-06-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

Spartanasaurus Rex.

#40

2010-06-19T21:46:00.001-07:00

I recently watched a great presentation on character design, if you're wondering why my style has changed so much.

#39

2010-06-18T22:34:00.001-07:00

#38

2010-06-17T19:25:00.001-07:00

Hopefully these two have a bit more personality than my last attempt at Spartan/Persian pairing.

#37

2010-06-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

thought I'd go with something more 3d today...

#36

2010-06-15T14:11:00.002-07:00

So Monday was a total clusterfuck on the project I'm currently working on to keep myself in house and home, and in the process this kind of slipped my mind. I'm just going to shift and end this week's selection on Saturday rather than Friday, hopefully life will be returning to normalish next week.

Flow and Counter-Flow

2010-06-14T05:32:00.002-07:00

I've been in many game design discussions, and one of the big things to come our way in the last decade or so is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research on flow. We know, through artists and athletes that flow is a very activity based feeling. It presents itself as we do things and apply ourselves against the world under the right conditions.

Now Csikszentmihalyi's work and thinking is backed up by scientific studies and research, whereas what I'm about to talk about has no grounding other than my own limited life experience. What I want to talk about right now is what I'm calling counter-flow due it's very opposing nature to the traditional conception of flow.

So if flow is our optimal state for pressing ourselves against the world, then counter-flow is the optimal state for the world to press against us. You could use the terms contemplation or meditation, but those are to me activities not descriptors of a state of being. Much like flow, counter-flow only appears under certain conditions. First, you need to have lots of free floating information, second, you need focused time. It's important that time not only needs to pass, but it also needs to be focused, either by being contiguous or by being spent on related activities, but not the same activity.

Counter-flow is not inspiration, but when in a state of counter-flow you will be inspired. The best way I can explain it is that you will find yourself traversing a web of connections which you have definitely before observed, but never before noticed. Problems which had previously been too large to handle will have their solution simply slide into place. Unlike flow, counter-flow will not necessarily make you happy. Depending on what you discover, it may make you angry, depressed, ecstatic, anxious, or really any of a large range of very powerful emotions. However no matter the emotion, the experience from within the state itself will always be one you cherish, and make a part of you.

So why am I talking about it? First let me get it out of the way that there are some people for whom counter-flow is the real high, who go out of their way to find these experiences wherever they may be. You may have seen them around art galleries, museums, libraries, monasteries, or turn based strategy games... Though the numbers have turned against them, there is still a core of gamers who seek out this kind of experience in their own games. They submerge themselves in slow moving overwhelming walls of information, taking breaks to read up and discuss the vagaries of their recent experiences. On a larger scale though, in my hubris fueled opinion, every great work that is not primarily utilitarian in nature contains both flow and counter-flow.

#35

2010-06-12T00:00:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that I managed this one in a time frame that made yesterday's pixel art look downright laxadaisacal.

#34

2010-06-11T01:23:00.001-07:00

oops...

WIP - Brawler Cast

2010-06-10T01:17:00.003-07:00

#33

2010-06-09T22:45:00.002-07:00

#32

2010-06-08T21:45:00.001-07:00

Fever dreams.

#31

2010-06-07T22:56:00.001-07:00

#30

2010-06-04T18:45:00.001-07:00

#29

2010-06-03T20:00:00.001-07:00

#28

2010-06-02T23:33:00.001-07:00

kind of screwed over on my current project, hopefully I'll be able to make it up to you on #29 or #30

#27

2010-06-01T21:40:00.002-07:00

I really wish I could have restarted this one and gone more into exploring the pottery inspired pose of the Persian, or even just done something far more focused on the Persian. Unfortunately, today there just isn't a lot of free time in my schedule, so I only got one shot and this is what came out.

The Hard Truth

2010-06-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

The "Hard Truth"... if you have ever wanted to get into the game industry as a designer, I probably don't even need to tell you what that means. For everyone else, it goes a little something like this.

"Hey I have this great idea for a game!"
"Well the Hard Truth(tm) is that nobody wants your bleeding idea. You'll either need to get a job in the game industry, you lazy bum, and wait out the three to twenty years of being an executive's ass wipe or pour blood sweat and tears by the bucketload into making it by yourself. Oh and good luck finding anyone to help you, nobody wants to work on other people's ideas, they have their own."

The trouble isn't with the core message, 'it's not that easy', it's that every time someone broaches the issue they're always in some sort of sadistic competition to be even more cynical and condescending than the last person. Obviously these peons simply didn't get how wise they were when they were level headed about it, and now it's time to remind them all what useless pinheads they are.

Now I'm not an industry insider, in fact I'm an amateur indie developer, but I have something to tell everyone whose ever read a Hard Truth(tm) put down. They aren't wrong, but they aren't actually telling you anything useful either.

So what is the useful information? It's simple, if you want to get involved in making games, you kind of have to actually like making games. If you either can't be bothered to learn the software for a mod kit, or get an office job, or just hate those activities with a passion, then maybe game design isn't for you. It's probably not something you'll ever like being a part of, and in the end you may come to hate your own idea because of burnout. But that's only side A. If you love getting involved in modding, if you love programming, or working as a hiring person, or game testing, or writing, then boy are you in for a surprise... You're actually welcome here. Okay so nobody is going to trust your pitch with the ten million it needs to become reality, but that's okay, because you know what you get to do in the mean time? Have a lot of fucking fun doing something you love.

If you're a writer, write. Get out there and write a book, you may not have an in to get hired as a writer straight up, but maybe you'll get to write a book for a game. Then do some writing for the next game, or if your book gets that popular, maybe they'll approach you wanting to make a game for YOUR book. If your an artist, take your time, nail that portfolio, work in movies or comic books, hell print ads are excellent for learning composition. Then guess what, you'll have a portfolio and people who think what a swell person you are, and all while doing exactly what you loved doing.

The fact that your idea is going to have to mature before it actually gets made shouldn't be a horrible disgusting truth that must be borne in order to enter the club. It's a chance to get some experience, get better at what you already do best, and most importantly, relax and have fun. After all, if you screw up, at least it wasn't your idea.

#26

2010-05-31T19:35:00.002-07:00

And Jules Verne leaped out of his time machine and approached the man sitting towards the center of the bar. "Are you the so called 'King of Rock and Roll'?"

"And if I am?"

"Then history needs you! Sparta needs a king!"

"Well, good thing I'm The King then."

And in the next second they were gone...

#25

2010-05-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Just under deadline by my clock...

#24

2010-05-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

#23

2010-05-26T19:46:00.001-07:00

#22 NSFW

2010-05-25T21:12:00.003-07:00

I don't really have anything clever to say about this one.

#21

2010-05-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

Just a drawing, having fun with the new tablet.

Progress Update

2010-05-22T14:13:00.004-07:00

Pax Imperator

So in the land of my current game project, I'm having some trouble changing the color of the background. On the plus side, I managed to take a quick proof of concept with a single planet, and extend it out to having multiple planets and a camera. Next step is probably going to be some basic UI.

Fallout 3 Modding

I recently picked up Fallout 3 and it's been an eminently entertaining diversion. I also have it modded to high heaven and back... So I decided that I might as do some modding of my own for it. This has thus far produced the texture recolors for the faction seen here, the pistol I posted last night, and a triple damage mod that actually doesn't make the wasteland much more dangerous, but certainly makes the main character much more deadly.

A bit of thought as to the background of the faction, they are essentially a matriarchal society that sprung up around the survivors of Fort Knox. They weren't a serious power early on due to an alliance of four major raider gangs controlling Texas and the surrounding area. However, a GECK in a nearby vault malfunctioned and rather than terraforming the area it instead caused the growth of a single enormous tree. The tree then became a symbol of hope in the wastes and a new religion sprang up around it as people came in from all corners of Kentucky and Tennessee to be near it. The resulting increase in manpower, combined with their already formidable training program from some former spec ops members among them resulted in their coming to dominate the area. During early encounters with the enclave they stole a great deal of tech. Their access to surpluses of gold has allowed them consistently stay ahead of the pack in terms of electronics manufacturing. This has lead them into many head on confrontations with the Brotherhood of Steel.

9mm

2010-05-22T04:43:00.002-07:00

Hopefully I'll get the chance to fix the texture, but otherwise, I'm kind of proud of this baby. 908 tris in all.

#20

2010-05-21T22:50:00.003-07:00

The big 2-0. This one took much longer than I usually spend, hopefully it shows...

#19

2010-05-20T22:48:00.001-07:00

Due to some forgetfulness on my part, today's Spartan wound up being a sketch.

#18

2010-05-19T20:41:00.003-07:00

Thanks to a very generous donation, the new tablet is in the mail and I'll be getting that eye exam here shortly. Yay ^.^.

The last item on the list is the monitor, and then it all goes to Child's Play after that. So we're only at #18 so far, plenty of time ahead of me on this.

#17

2010-05-18T22:07:00.001-07:00

more word-stuff next post, when, hopefully, my internet can hold a connection longer than five minutes.

#16

2010-05-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

#15

2010-05-14T21:36:00.001-07:00

#14

2010-05-13T21:13:00.001-07:00

#13

2010-05-12T22:41:00.001-07:00

#12

2010-05-11T22:45:00.001-07:00

#11

2010-05-10T21:01:00.001-07:00

after getting my ass royally handed to me this weekend, I've decided to switch to a weekday only posting schedule for the Spartans. Sometimes I just need days to veg after someone decides to drop major bombs on me, and the weekends seem to work very well for that.

#10

2010-05-07T20:16:00.003-07:00

"How can you tell he's a Spartan?"
"He's in the middle of the radioactive badlands trying to fucking shank me."
"And that makes him Spartan?"
"No that makes him the spokesperson for the god damn W-H-O. YES it makes him a FUCKING SPARTAN."

A bit late

2010-05-07T01:43:00.000-07:00

A bit late on it, but here is a laconian.

Some improv on the keyboard.

2010-05-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

A day

2010-05-05T21:36:00.002-07:00

So today has been a terrible day for me. It's got me working on a painting, but this one is going to be a long one, so today you get the bad joke.

Sons of Laconia: #7

2010-05-03T22:43:00.004-07:00

Every seventh drawing I'll reiterate the purpose here, in case someone has just come along.

From the original posting:

For the next 300 days I'm going to draw a Spartan a day in the hopes of receiving a $1US donation for each Spartan. If I collect enough to take care of [my eye examination/glasses, a new tablet, and a new monitor], then all excess afterwards will be donated to Child's Play.

The Rules
If you leave a note with the donation for a Spartan themed request I'll try and fit it in as soon as I see it and can get to it.
Spartan is more of a theme. If I have to draw 300 Thermopylae ready Spartans I'll go mad. Expect a smattering of sci-fi and other high concept Spartans.
If other artists want to take part in this, contact me and hopefully we'll be able to work something out. To be honest I won't feel completely comfortable accepting help until I've reached a point where all the money is going to charity.
Lastly if nobody is donating, I'll probably keep on trucking with this anyways. Probably.

#7: A Spartan Pays the League it's Dues

Shut Up We're Talking #62

2010-05-03T15:58:00.003-07:00

Common Sense Gamer: SUWT #62

I was recently a guest on Shut Up We're Talking. The topics were the sparkle pony and Ebert's comments on games as art. You can find the full show through the link.

#6

2010-05-03T00:54:00.001-07:00

#5

2010-05-02T01:00:00.001-07:00

Busy day led to less of a painting than I'd like. Good news is it's the first sci-fi entry.

#4: Loose the Elephants

2010-05-01T01:00:00.002-07:00

Here we are at the fourth entry. A pair of Spartans face off against a mighty elephant.

#4

#3: Still Life

2010-04-30T01:00:00.004-07:00

Going for a still life feel for this spartan helmet.

#2

2010-04-29T01:00:00.003-07:00

Here to help show off my woeful state of mastery in painting is Spartan #2. Getting ready for some good old fashioned Greek wrestling. Hopefully, 298 days from now I'll look back on this one and laugh and laugh and...

#2

Sons of Laconia: A Fundraiser

2010-04-28T01:02:00.003-07:00

So here is the deal, I needed money for new equipment, new tablet, eye exam/glasses, new monitor, and came up with a decent idea for raising the funds. You see the most expensive item on the list costs about 300$ and I mused to myself that if I could receive one dollar from each of those legendary Laconians it would be enough to pay for it in and of itself. Of course those Spartans are far beyond any hope of extorting for their precious iron bars, but I on the other hand being an artist can resurrect them!

For the next 300 days I'm going to draw a Spartan a day in the hopes of receiving a $1US donation for each Spartan. If I collect enough to take care of those three needs listed above, then all excess afterwards will be donated to Child's Play.

Hopefully, this way everyone wins. I get some new gear, nobody has to front tons of cash, and if there is any left over it all goes to a good cause!

The Rules
If you leave a note with the donation for a Spartan themed request I'll try and fit it in as soon as I see it and can get to it.
Spartan is more of a theme. If I have to draw 300 Thermopylae ready Spartans I'll go mad. Expect a smattering of sci-fi and other high concept Spartans.
If other artists want to take part in this, contact me and hopefully we'll be able to work something out. To be honest I won't feel completely comfortable accepting help until I've reached a point where all the money is going to charity.
Lastly if nobody is donating, I'll probably keep on trucking with this anyways. Probably.

#1

Destroyer

2010-04-21T08:52:00.002-07:00

The man sat in the middle of the room. His solid frame more than filling the chair. A slight red glow from his eyes casting an eerie glow on his face.

"So you all want to learn how to be a destroyer. Well, I don't give classes. There is no training method by which you can become a destroyer. The only way of becoming a destroyer is public knowledge, go into Sardij's tunnels and bathe yourself in the blood of hundreds of dark ones.

Of course, you will die in the process. The only question is whether or not you'll let that keep you down. Stand back up, you're a destroyer. Stay down and you're just another fool looking for glory in all the wrong places.

Personal experience tells me it helps to be a hateful son of a bitch. I held on a damn long time just to spit on the corpse of the bastard that gutted me. On the other hand, whoever you went in as is doesn't mean to shit to who you'll be when you come out. If you ever come back out of that tunnel alive, you'll be a walking mass of emotionless willpower. If that's giving you second thoughts, it's best to just back out now."

Anti-hero?

2010-04-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

Things I Want to do as a Game Designer and Why

2010-04-12T04:11:00.002-07:00

Things I want to do:

Build a spaceship simulator that takes into account every physical factor effecting the ship. The pressure in the coolant pipes, the heat of the engines, the resistance of the wires, the wear on the bolts, all of it.

Create a virtual world that draws people in to play a game, but keeps them around to experience the world breathing and changing around them. To have a chance to see their own lives mirrored darkly in the world, and walk away with real emotions, honestly edified by the experience.

To allow others a brief glimpse of the world I see all day, every day.

Why:

Because it would be beautiful.

Is This a Poem?

2010-04-10T18:31:00.004-07:00

Random Thoughts for Saturday

2010-04-10T05:40:00.002-07:00

I've never understood why American television always has to work extra hard to explain everything that is going on it's plot. Even worse when a plot that isn't really trying to be difficult at all seems to leave people in an utter stupor as to what happened and why. Good writing shouldn't have to be explicit to get it's point across, but if the audience can't or won't bridge minor logical gaps it just makes it more difficult on everybody.

"How did they get to the car?" They walked. No seriously, one foot in front of the other. "Why was he there?" Chance. Had an invitation. Happened to be walking by at that moment. Try looking at the contextual clues, was he prepared to be there? Did anybody, oh I don't know, mention his entire reason for being there in a roundabout why?

Probably shouldn't complain, but it's just been that kind of week.

Lessons from the drafts.

2010-04-07T08:30:00.001-07:00

Always write the story first and the disclaimer second. Otherwise you wind up with a stub about a story that sounds down right riveting and no memory of what the story actually was.

3/14/09
Dragons
Before I post this, I feel that this particular story needs some amount of warning. Generally, I'm of the opinion that things should be left with a minimal filter, so I'm going to keep this story as it was originally intended. This means that this story will contain a number of graphic situations, and while I may not go into maximum detail of the situations they will be there. As the story progresses, murder, rape, torture and cannibalism all have roles to play in the overarching story. These are not used for the purposes of titillation or controversy, but rather because the fundamental themes of the story rely on their use to one extent or another. All that being said, I highly recommend you simply not read if you have an active imagination and a weak stomach.

Absence of Equilibrium as Specific Motivation

2010-04-06T21:45:00.001-07:00

In competitive or linear games we spend a lot of time trying to create play experience balance for players. The goal is usually to form a sort of equilibrium between the player and their surroundings. We strive to always give them every tool they would need to stand a fair chance during play. This is not true, however, of sand box style simulation games.

Whether you are talking about Football Manager 2010 or Mount and Blade, you tend to experience a near permanent absence of equilibrium. If we take Mount and Blade for a first example, you want to train a troop of tough and elite soldiers however those soldiers cost more in upkeep requiring you to spend more time trying to gather funds. As you go about the activities required to gather funds you will naturally increase the maximum troops you can command, requiring you to train more soldiers, creating more money sucking elites, etc...

There are two tricks to using this that allow it to function without getting on player's nerves. First the imbalance must rotate. Players will see the imbalance and set a goal of fixing it, that goal must be attainable. Instead the new imbalance should be a second order effect of attaining that goal. Second the game must encourage the player to be fundamentally self-motivated. In Football Manager 2010 for instance, if the player desires to go a perfect season, then they will overcome the rotating imbalances in order to achieve that goal. The same would happen if their goal was to become the top team of the top league, though the important imbalances may be different. On the other hand, if the final goal is dictated by the game ahead of time, the imbalances will seem to be little more than an attempt by the designers to be arbitrary and spiteful.

Emotional Ticks

2010-04-05T20:24:00.002-07:00

Shame: Expressed chiefly as a desire to distance oneself from those whose opinion matter to you. Avoiding eye contact, covering yourself, trying not to look at someone in case they show signs of agitation. The face may go flush, or might experience a mild case of nausea.

Joy: Expressed primarily through the eyes. Generally an upward tilt to the body as well as an increase in energy. Joy acts as a sort of unbound positivity, causing motion where there is none. Joyous people want to be around others, also preferring to look directly at them when possible.

Disgust: The language of hatred. A tick around the nose, tugging at the upper lip and furrowing the brows. Words tend to be spat out due to both the high emotion and the top lip not closing during full words.

Music For Creative Moodifying

2010-04-04T04:25:00.004-07:00

Just some youtube vids of music that can really help get you into the flow.

Nujabes - Mystline

Ennio Morricone FT. Nas - Ecstasy of Gold (Dj Erb)

Grandaddy - Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

Hate and Love

2010-04-03T15:40:00.002-07:00

"I hate the silence.

The way it crawls in under your skin, working it's way into your bones. Then my muscles start twitching. All the nerves on my spine prodding me about the phantoms watching me from the shadows. Every slight twist in the light, every half heard sound hinting at the existence of something dangerous just beyond my senses.

I'd speak, or hum, or scream, but then I wouldn't be able to hear. Some rational part of my mind chides me for how silly it is, jumping at shadows but refusing to turn on the light. Items and clothing discarded at the very edges of the shadows are functioning as Rorschach tests of my paranoia. Still I can't move, can't make the short trek to the light switch that would act as my salvation.

The tendrils of burning cold fear that had begun at my spine have spread their grasp to the muscles in my arms. Click, it's coming from the window, click, click. Branches I tell myself, my legs paralyzed but their muscles tensed. The silence returns but does not carry my relief. It's only natural, after all, I hate the silence."

"I love the silence.

The world which normally assaults me with all it's Technicolor sights and sounds is left at arms length. Here I am forgotten, alone, left to think without the interruption of the normal world. The silence envelops me, holding me close like a long parted lover.

Everything that I know should be around me has disappeared from my conscious awareness. Whatever may have been necessary out there, is now an afterthought soon cleansed from my mind. Peace. All around me, the gentle peace restores my bonds with that which I left behind in the loud and bright world. Protected by the silence I can let slip the barriers that force me to remain aloof and paralyzed in daily life.

I am relaxed. I am at peace. I love the silence."

April Fools

2010-04-01T11:08:00.001-07:00

Is not a day for blog posts that are intended to be serious. So there is going to be a rain check on the one I was working on for today. If you want my idea of an April Fools joke, check the last post about Trekkie crusaders.

The Crusades

2010-03-29T17:32:00.005-07:00

Star Wars Convention Under Assault by Star Trek Crusaders

The Los Angeles Convention Center before yesterday's attack.

LOS ANGELES - It was an otherwise bright and balmy day at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles yesterday. However, underneath the calm exterior, a far more sinister and brutal scene was taking place. At noon a group of extremist Star Trek fans assaulted the building in the middle of the largest official Star Wars convention, Star Wars Celebration V.

In a matter of hours, the combined force of cosplaying Klingon, Federation and Romulan fans had secured a little over half the premises. They had soon erected a 12' tall statue to Gene Roddenberry, also consecrating the convention center as holy ground in his name. Despite the fierce Trekkie assault, the Star Wars fans have managed to secure their own ground within the center due to an unprecedented truce between the imperials and the jedi.

Fighting continued throughout the night with many of the taller Trekkies donning Jar Jar Binks costumes for brave suicide raids on enemy defenses. Not to be outdone the Star Wars fans managed to erect a pair of large projection screens on the front lines, playing so called "reset" episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in an endless loop to break the enemy's spirit. Despite the efforts of both sides, neither has yet managed any sort of conclusive offense and the stalemate is expected to continue for some time to come.

The crack imperial cosplay 501st unit prepares to join the fray.

In the hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate, both sides have sent ambassadors to Los Angeles' anime community and online anime forums hoping to strike an alliance with the remaining fandom super power. So far there has been no word from the anime community, supposedly the gift boxes of Star Wars: Clone Wars have not been well received, while the 3 foot scale models of the Enterprise A may have won the Trekkies a critical diplomatic victory with the model makers.

The decision, however, largely hinges on the currently split demographic of Yaoi slash fic fans. A recent surge in high quality Kirk/Spock and Luke/Han doujins has completely divided the already fractured community. Proposals for an updated Chekov/Sulu pair, using the actors from the new J.J. Abrams movie as models, have become a popular hope for breaking the deadlock.

So I've Been Taking Time Off

2010-03-29T05:24:00.002-07:00

I haven't been posting here frequently. I know how good that is for my readership numbers... but I still felt the silence somewhat necessary. There is probably a feeling that I must not have had much to say, but that is entirely contrary to reality. In fact, there was a whole lot I wanted to say, but most of it was general life whinery and wanting to chew certain people out. The rest was that there were a lot of issues I wanted to take a wait and see approach to.

Now I'm planning on being back, so let's get down to business.

Latest Stuffins
I just uninstalled all the games on my computer. The truth is, I've been having this overwhelming feeling of ennui towards games lately. I look at my game list and just feel bored with it all. That sucks, and it gets me constantly wasting precious dollars on new, to me, games to relieve the boredom. Worst of all, I still wind up playing games rather than doing any of the things I really should be doing... especially the things that could actually result in my getting paid.

So here is my answer to the universe, I want to make games more than I want to play them, and it's just the temptation that gets to me. Temptation removed.

On My Mind
Dear MMO developers... WTF. I've been having high hopes for ya'll for a while now. Figured just give you some time and you'll really get around to wowing me at some point. Uggh, total failure. It's all more of the same crap. RPG trappings for no other reason than to have RPG trappings. Seriously, it's like making a spacecraft with wings for no other reason than aircraft have wings. You can make all the crap you want, but if you hold onto all the useless bits you'll never actually arrive at great design.

Vis a vis Cuppy vs. Game Designers and MMO Bloggers, what exactly is the point of all this? Okay, so some of the people who don't like Facebook games go a little too far in it, but can we drop the innuendo that people who don't see Facebook games as the second coming of Christ are all myopic dinosaurs begging for their own extinction. Facebook games are just another iteration of web games, and hey I liked web games. In fact one of my all time favorite games that I seldom shut up about, Neveron, was a web game. Still, it's just another iteration of an older concept, this time with a new audience. Some of that audience will stick, some of it won't. People who can't personally respect that audience and their taste in games really shouldn't be making games for them anyways.

Personally, I have some doubts as to the value of Facebook as a medium. Between the different monetization models and the extreme stratification between the winners and everyone else, it's hard for me to believe that a small company can really turn enough of a profit to stay in business. Doesn't mean I'd turn down an offer to work on one in exchange for fair payment though.

Otherwise, not much is really up. I still hate programming with a passion, and am still trying to program a game in XNA. The combination isn't working out very well for me, but I've had 3-4 different programmers up and disappear on me. The whole run around of not knowing whether their still working on my project or not, and my own timidity leading to my not busting down their doors looking for answers, is just too much for me. So I'm giving this a try on my own steam, which I expect to run out soon if it hasn't already.

Desperate Plea
I am really, completely, stupidly broke. I know nobody has ever used the Tip Jar over there, but really.. if you could spare a buck... or fifty cents or you know two bits, anything at freaking all, I wouldn't be above accepting it. In fact, I'll gladly grovel for it. And I know it says it's for Thetagamerz, that was a business I tried setting up a while back... it didn't work out.

If there is something within my skill set that someone would like to pay me to do, by all means throw me a comment or an email (sara.pickell at gmail dot com).

Just a Thought

2010-03-27T00:16:00.002-07:00

I'm thinking about trying out something new here in a bit. I've been thinking for a while that I would like to work with creating my own miniatures, but I haven't really been all that up on peweter and greenstuff modeling. So I was just thinking I could create a 3d model in Maya, print out the UVs and create a paper model using the UV layout.

Chase and Retreat

2010-03-15T17:30:00.002-07:00

The sound of the TV drowned out the muted chatting of the cafe's occupants. "KAT7 News covering this thrilling chase through downtown Las Vegas, the suspect in a black Camaro..." A diner who had been absorbed in a book looked up for a few seconds but soon returned their attention to their book. Sheila sighed as she leaned on the counter, staring out at the peaceful swaying of the bushes outside the cafe's large windows.

"I've been thinking about paying a visit to my sister up in Reno. Haven't seen her in a while..." She said without looking at anyone in particular.

"... In another strange turn of events it has launched off the overpass and is now taking the side streets."

"Heh, it's not like you're heading out of state, what's the big deal?" The waitress next to her asks.

"Well, we weren't exactly on good terms you know. I have no idea how she would react to my just suddenly showing up." An awkward silence began between the two women, while the tv continued chattering away. The sudden ring of the phone on her belt made Sheila jump.

"Jack, what's up, haven't heard from you in a while..."

"... Once again, the suspect Nathan Langer is wanted for a shooting in Henderson at a local dance school..."

"I thought you guys were in Reno..." Her gaze at the window in front of her changed from one of boredom to shock.

"... It looks like the police are about to take drastic measures. A spike strip has been set up."

A distant sound of sirens began to penetrate the small establishment. "Jack stay right where you are, I'm coming over there right now."

"What's up?"

"Janey... My sister..." despite her expression not changing tears began to roll down Sheila's cheeks. "Was killed." The final statement came out flat, but her legs seemed to give way and she sunk down to her knees. "Listen I need to go now, can you watch the shop?"

"Sure thing boss. You go and do whatever you need to do. We'll be fine here!"

"... Tires are blown but the suspect hasn't been stopped!"

Sheila grabbed her coat and walked towards the door, the sound of sirens outside was becoming deafening.

"The suspect is loosing control of their car, spinning out of control!"

Sheila reached out to grab the handle on the door and noticed movement out the corner of her eye. As though in slow motion her head turned to see a black Camero sliding across pavement and sidewalk towards her. The signal to move passed throughout her whole body, but too late, between second and the next the side of the car smashed through the door frame picking her up and pushing her in front of it into the small cafe.

"... Smashed into the front of a store bringing this terrifying chase to a brutal close. Word from the ground is that there may be casualties in the building it ran into. Our prayers are with their families tonight..."

Jack sat in shock in front of the hospital barely sparring a glance for the detective questioning him.

"And what happened then?"

"Then he ran out the front door. I saw him get into a car, a Camaro maybe, black. After that I was too busy with Janey to really notice anything else."

"Well, LVPD should have the bastard in custody now. Do you have anyone coming for you?"

"Janey's sister. She owns a cafe downtown..."

"I see, well take care then." The detectives final words were drowned out by the sirens of arriving ambulances.

Belated announcement

2010-03-13T03:51:00.003-07:00

This is coming a bit late, but with the problems I've been having on the other blog's comment's section, I'm canceling the current play test for Twin Rivers. I'm going to have to find another venue anyways at this rate, since I'm having a hard time explaining everything in twitter and skype anyways.

My Top 5 games of the last decade.

2010-02-06T08:49:00.002-07:00

Props to The Escapist's feature on the Bioware founder's top 5 games of the decade for getting me thinking about this. I've been wanting to stretch out and do something a little less serious for a while.

5. Morrowind (2002)
In all honesty, I think Oblivion has the clearly superior combat style, but Morrowind wins for shear openness of world. Oblivion's world always felt somewhat homogeneous and confined for my taste. Morrowind also has more after market mods than you can shake a stick at, while it's graphics, with the horrible exception of faces which seems to be Bethesda's kryptonite, have aged well enough that you can still stand to look at them.

4. Dragon Age (2009)
I still have some reservations in the ways in which Bioware has decided to attach a bottle rocket to the difficulty curve of their toolset, but in all other ways Dragon Age is the consummate Bioware game. A great story with segmented storyline bits to tackle at your discretion, a decent but not overbearing character customization routine, character backgrounds that have in game effects, and combat that makes you simultaneously reminisce about tabletop D&D and want to kill every member of your party personally. Add to that the full spectrum of romance options, and I find myself a wee bit giddy to be honest.

3. Dwarf Fortress (2006)
They may be @ signs, but they're your @ signs... kinda. Dwarf Fortress is probably one of the best management sims ever made, if you don't mind things actually being difficult for a change. It's obvious from the first time you play DF, and have to wait as it runs a world building simulation, that these guys are serious about good, detailed, simulation. It's not perfect, but it is a refreshing change of pace from some of the more shallow simulations, like Spore.

2. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (2006)
I think I summed up my thoughts earlier on here at SoaGCure. I don't have much to add to that, other than I think it's a little tragic that Western RPG developers seem to have completely missed what it could have taught them.

1. Portal (2007)
Portal is about as close to perfection as any game could possibly be. They refined down their core mechanics into a heavily distilled package of fun. Then in complete understanding of just how far outside the norm they were they made sure to give the players a significant tutorial. That the tutorial was entertaining in it's own right sets it apart from the many, many, terrifically boring tutorials littering gaming culture. It's only knock is that it is short, but then that could just be a byproduct of the distillation process.

Discuss.

Cyber Goth

2010-01-30T02:59:00.001-07:00

Twin Rivers Play Testing Sign Ups

2010-01-23T08:54:00.004-07:00

Well, I'm all ready to get this show on the road and start some testing. Mmmmm, testing.

All right, so here is what you need to know before hand:
We'll be playing by blog (I have another one set up just for this), every round-half will be it's own post as I'll be manually updating the map to reflect the movements during the turn. Turns will be taken by leaving a comment, keeping to turn order, with your actions. Questions for myself or others can be asked at any time in the comments section. I highly recommend that you come up with some form of relatively synchronous communication for use in diplomacy negotiations.

As a final thought, testing isn't like regular play. It's slow, and things aren't always going to work out. On the other hand, you'll be right there helping to not only explore the rules, but to refine them and create them. Testing is more about the feeling of reward at the end when something you had intimate involvement in is finally ready for the world at large, then any moment to moment fun. (Though hopefully there will be some of the latter as well.)

What You'll Need:
Print out a few of these minimaps, they should fit on 8.5x11 landscape or a sheet of a4. You'll need to form a shorthand to mark them with, but they will be invaluable in keeping up between official board updates.
A notebook, a stack of lined paper, or a word document, whatever the format may be keep a journal of how the game strikes you. It's best to keep this on hand while making turns so you can immediately jot down anything that stands out, positive or negative.
A gaggle of ten sided dice... okay you don't actually need them but they're great stress relievers when your entire army gets bludgeoned out of existence.

Stuff to make your journaling more useful and my life much easier:
Whenever you deal with a unit for the first time, record in your journal the unit and a numbered ranking from 1 to 5. 1 being completely useless, 3 being perfectly balanced, 5 being overpowered to godlike proportions. Then a few rounds later revisit this ranking and update it with your current opinion on how it's ranked.
At the beginning of a round, write down what you expect to accomplish during that round. At the end of the round, write down how your prediction differed, what you think caused it to differ, and how you feel about the differences.
We're going to be moving slowly, especially as it's play by blog, so just take your time and write things out as they occur to you. There is no such thing as too much information at this stage in development.

We'll need six players to start a game, if you want to participate just leave a comment with e-mail address and preferably an im handle below. If you want to participate but aren't comfortable leaving your email in a public place, just send me an email at sara.pickell@gmail.com

Wargame Usable Pieces

2010-01-22T21:45:00.007-07:00

With the addition of the ruleset, 'this wall of text', this is almost everything you need to play. All that's missing is a turn order, and the exact pre-game setup which is relatively simple. (Place one village within 4 hexes of your castle.)

When Night Fell

2010-01-21T16:35:00.003-07:00

Context:
Wintertime Soldier
Greatness
A Grave of Red and Black

A poem broadcast throughout the Twilight fleet before embarking on a mission. Also oft recited by human mercenaries before embarking on their own missions.

When Night Fell
The dawn is furthest, and the night seems darkest just after twilight.
The sentinels stand at watch, the certainty of danger keeping rest at bay.
In the corners and behind closed doors is muffled weeping.
Family all, departing into night's sweet fold, mourning those they leave at twilight.
The trappings of empire, the artifice of ancient hubris, now touching in their defiant stands.
As though to reassure, that though hard to see, dawn comes always after night.
Light remains even when we can't see it.

With care towards the coming night, the prayers of all are united in sorrowful discord.
With hope of meeting again in those sweet fields of promised youth.
Of the rest from care, and weariness to which they shall depart before dawn may shine.
Filled in peace as they prepare for one final moment of strife.
Greatest and final moment of beautiful glory, in it's terrible repulsion.
Such sorrow their duty, so painful their honor, inconsolable their sacrifice.
Death's debt assuredley paid.

Go we now before them, from twilight into the dark.
And from the night we seek the dawn, in our honor resting their memory.
In our hearts, their souls, in our souls their beauty, our cup filled.
We know not from whence our roads may travel, or if our paths cross again with twilight.
Yet fear shall not o'ercome us, nor anxieties overtake us, fears shall lay to rest.
Though the weight of worlds may rest on our shoulders, their courage shall give us strength.
Strength to tread towards the light.

Sharing a video.

2010-01-21T16:05:00.001-07:00

An impressive bit of CG work with great musical composition.

The Third & Seventh

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

via Abduzeedo

Wargame First Draft Ruleset

2010-01-19T19:13:00.004-07:00

Victory Conditions
When no more than 2 mutually allied City States remain.

Defeat
A player who is destroyed is defeated.
A player who surrenders to another power is defeated.
A player who surrenders may be allowed, at the decision of the player they surrender to, to maintain control of their City State and forces as a subject of their conqueror.
Subjects are considered to have a permanant alliance to their ruler, but are not counted towards victory conditions.
Subjects may be deposed of command at the whim of their ruler.

Round
The game is played in rounds.
Within a single round every player has 2 turns.
A round is split into halves.
During the first half, a player's turn consists of the first two phases, 1st Management and Movement.
During the second half, a player's turn consists of the last two phases, Attack and 2nd Management.
At the end of a round, the turn order is rolled to the right, in other words the last becomes first, first becomes second, etc...

Phases
-1st Half-
1st Management
Movement
-2nd Half-
Attack
2nd Management

1st Management
If resource or population loss from last round dropped the amount of resources or population available below that needed for army upkeep, the player must disband units of their choice until their balance is restored.
If any unit you own is within 3 passable hexes of water, an allied village or allied castle, it's dehydration counters will be removed if necessary.
After those two actions, the following actions may be performed in any order.
Diplomacy
Trade
Hiring units up to the maximum capacity allowed by your current resources.
Upgrading towns up to the maximum capacity allowed by your current resources.
Placing any unused collection tokens.

Diplomacy
Diplomatic States:
May/May not allow negotation of trade routes.
May/May not allow passing through ZOC.
May/May not allow attacking each other's units.
May/May not allow using each other's villages and towns as water sources.
If player's have given full allowance to each other, players may then choose to formally ally allowing them to have joint victory.
Players may make any agreements they wish, pertaining only to in game concerns, but they must explicitely define in their agreements if they wish to change between diplomatic states.
Diplomatic agreements can only be broken during the 1st management phase.

Trade
After you have agreed to allow trade with another player, you may establish trade routes.
Trade routes may be established between towns of different owners that are at most 8 passable hexes from each other, are connected by a contiguous body of water, or are connected directly by roads.
A trade route may only be 1 resource for 1 other resource, even mutliples of the same resource require multiple trade routes.
A village may maintain 1 trade route per level.

Movement
A unit may move as many hexes as they have MA.
A unit may move only once per turn.
A unit may attack an enemy unit so long as it is within it's MA.
A unit cannot end it's move on top of another unit.
A unit may not enter an enemy zoc without stopping on that hex.
A unit that starts it's turn in an enemy zoc may move so long as it's first unit of movement takes it out of enemy zoc.
A unit can cross one unit of water per turn like a normal hex so long as it's move does not end in water.
A unit that, for any reason, does end it's move on water is destroyed at the end of the player's turn.
A unit that, for any reason, does end it's turn on another unit is destroyed immediately at end of move.

Attacking
The attacking player declares an attack by a unit.
The attacking player then declares which special abilities they may have that require declaration.
The defending player may then declare any special abilities being used by the defending unit that require declaration.
The defending unit then takes wounds equal to the attacker's attack score.
If the denfending unit takes wounds equal to it's defense score it is destroyed.
If not the defending unit deals wounds equal to it's remaining defense score to the attacker.
At the end of a full round, all wounds are removed.

2nd Management
The player may hire more units.
The player may establish more trade routes if possible.
As the final action of their turn, players add dehydration counters to any unit more than 3 passable hexes from a water source, and remove any unit with 3 or more dehydration counters.

Big Damn Hero

2010-01-18T02:16:00.001-07:00

Seems like everyone else heroically ran away...

Twin Rivers

2010-01-16T08:43:00.004-07:00

Working on a new tabletop wargame, it's just about ready for it's first round of testing. I'm planning on doing a play-by-blog game for it's test-flight, so drop me a line here if you're interested in getting in on it.

Goerth

2010-01-13T13:28:00.003-07:00

Drawing LOTS

2010-01-12T20:47:00.004-07:00

She couldn't help staggering slightly as she walked to her quarters, the slight variations in artificial gravity created the sensation of the ground rising and falling beneath her feet. Finally the nameplate 'Mira Androveka' came into view, marking her destination. Briefly, she took note of the nameplate resting above it, 'Goila Eckert', before opening the door and staggering inside the dark room.

The dim glow of various pilot lights kept the room from being pitch black, but still it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. There were two sleeping racks on either side of the room, one was already pilled high with blankets and eliciting the sounds of steady breathing. Goila, she presumed, as she slid her duffel underneath the empty rack and practically fell onto to rack hoping to relieve herself of the unsteady ground. Too late she realized her mistake as the up and down motion spread to her entire body.

A few hours later.

She couldn't help still feeling a little queasy as she sat in the mess hall watching her new roommate eat. The cause was now in some debate though, she wasn't sure if it was the movement of the ship or the way the blonde girl was tucking away her food like it was going to be her last meal.

"You going to eat that?" The young blonde asked, grinning wide.

"No thanks, I'm not so hungry at the moment."

"Cheers!" It took only moments for the first dish of the newly appropriated rations to disappear. "Must be your first time in FTL travel. Works the same on everyone, you get over it eventually. So where ya from?"

"Etegria, this is my first time off planet." She forced herself to give a mild smile, though it was less than a second before her grimace returned.

"Galactic fissure, huh. Yeah, I guess you probably don't get many ships headed that ways anyway. Me, I'm a Navy brat, used to have to run all over the galaxy chasing my dad." The girl looked a bit sad, then brightened and turned back. "You must be a big fan of the former empress though, getting your face done up to look just like her and all that. My dad was in the Koyobi when it went down protecting her. He even got the Imperial Medal of Valor despite being just a regular gunnery sarge."

Mira gave an awkward smile, "actually I haven't changed my face at all, I've always looked like this."

The girl paused for a moment then gave her a serious look, "you ain't a Unionist are you?"

The awkward smile was now permanently imprinted on Mira's face, "actually we don't hear much of outside politics on Etegria, so I don't really know what you're talking about."

The girl gave a heavy sigh and leaned back in her chair, "you're wandering out into space without even knowing this much. You'll get yourself killed like that, y'know. Listen, after the civil war eighteen years ago a bunch of the reformer fleet just upped and retired. Since the new government didn't have the military to hold the peace on it's own they had to reinstate almost half of the Imperial fleet right then and there, and while they may have disbanded the nobies on paper, most of them kept all their military and economic power as well as most of their lands. So right now the political factions in the empire are roughly divided between the Unionists who want the nobies to give their armies over to the cabinet, and the loyalists who are generally in favor of the nobies staying right where they are, thank you shittin' much."

"Ahh, I'll try to keep that in mind then, thank you." I don't really get it, she thought.

"So where you headed, your highness?"

"Your highness?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, with your face like that, it totally suits you. Although, given your home planet you might have to settle for empress of the sheep!" The blonde girl guffawed over her own joke for awhile before catching her breath and continuing, "but seriously, what brings you this far from the homestead?"

Mira rolled her eyes and started absentmindedly playing with a lock of her black hair. "I've been enrolled in military academy on Orpheus."

"Wouldn't happen to be Luphi Officer Training School would it?" Goila gave a mischievous half smile at that.

"Yeah, that's it exactly. Are you going there too?" For the first time in the conversation felt herself give a real smile.

"And that's a direct hit! I know dad was always talking about me being some kind of intellectual, but I just can't imagine nothing but Navy life, so I thought, for him at least, I could try and make officer. At least do that much to make sure he can be proud from the other side, ya'know." Mira couldn't help but admire how the girl was able to put so much earnestness into the last bit only to finish with a completely mischievous grin.

"Well, I don't have any great reasoning like that, I just wanted to get out and see the galaxy, you know. Mom, just happened to have an old buddy who could get me in, so I decided to go. Besides, my mother went there when she was younger but she doesn't talk much about stuff like that so I was curious."

Goila laughed, "I hear ya, but careful there sheep empress, Navy life ain't to be underestimated. Still, you never know, it may turn out better than you think, gonna be a lot of hard times 'fore that though, I guarantee it."

"Well then I'll just have to make some friends to ride out those bad times with." The two girls laughed together a while longer.

A little sick today

2010-01-07T14:13:00.004-07:00

Not only am I sick today, but I've been working my ass lately. Then I had my dad getting pissed, ironically, at my not working, that is working within his acceptable bounds. (Yay manual labor!) So the stress and all that has kind of been getting to me. Anyways don't really like the arm on this, but the rest is about as good I could have asked for.

By the way, that was done from reference of a photo by Runolfur Gudbjornsson. (http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/magical-metamorphosis)

Bonus Item: Priest

Just some Modest Mouse for now.

2009-12-30T01:23:00.002-07:00

More to Come Soon

2009-12-24T22:31:00.002-07:00

Hopefully I'll get back to actively writing on here soon.

Until then, enjoy some good music.

Intercession Tanking

2009-12-24T20:49:00.005-07:00

In order to run an intercession tank you don't really need much prep work. You'll need +3 speed and +2 strength in order to unlock the intercession skill, and from there it's all a matter of making the other skills work for you.

The most important part is the Shield's skill cloud. It's abilities are as follows:

Name - Description - Stats Requirement
Block - For the next round, your shield takes 50% of the damage directed towards you. - No requirements

Intercession - Move between a nearby ally and enemy at melee range of each other, knocking both away from each other by 2 meters. - +3 spd, +2 str

Clipping - Swing the shield out in front of you for a chance to knock back an enemy 2 meters. - +4 str

Shield Smash - An overhead attack with the shield that hits for double the critical damage on a critical hit. +1 spd, +2 str

Burrow - Push your shield under an enemies guard to open them up for attack, enemy gains -20% armor for 2 rounds. - Body size must be at least one level lower than enemy's, +6 str

Long Yard - +33% intercession range for 1 round. - +4 spd

Double Body Blow - Use the edge of your shield to punch the enemy's body twice in quick succession, deals 2x normal attack damage. - +7 spd

Dual Shields - Allows you to wield two shields at the same time. - Medium/Large body size

Dual Block - Requires Dual Shields. Block with both shields at the same time for 2 rounds, each taking 50% of the damage intended for you.

Dangerous Impediment - Swing your shield(s) around in front of you to ward off enemies, lasts 2 rounds, knockback anyone within range 1 meter and makes 1 meter of ground in front of you impassable. - Medium/Large body size, +3 str, +2 spd

Crashing Symbols - Requires Dual Shields. Attack with both shields at once swinging them from opposite sides for +100 damage and a 36% chance to stun for 1 round. - Medium/Large body size, +5 str

Wall of Flesh - Open yourself up entirely to physically occupy as wide a space as possible, all attacks taken automatically ignore 50% armor. - Large body size

Crushing Blow - An overhand attack with both hands for 250 damage. - Large body size, +6 str.

Interceding Step - So long as two allies within intercession range are being attacked at melee range, intercede both enemies in the same round. - Large body size, +6 spd

The bull's head is also an excellent choice for a tank as it adds the hard head skill.

Hard Head - Head butt an opponent knocking them back 3 meters with a 20% chance to stun for 2 rounds.

Tanking Styles
There are two main styles of intercession tank, the knock back tank and the zone of control tank. Kb tanks focus heavily on strength, the idea being to intercede an enemy then physically remove them from the fight long enough for your back rows teammates to move out of the way or change the flow of battle. ZoC tanks on the other hand should be constantly moving. Obviously though you'll need to prioritize correctly so that you break enemy damage dealers off your squishier members, while not interfering in your damage dealers taking out their squishier members. Both are highly tactical positions, but the kb tank is more likely to make a single weighty decision every few rounds, while the ZoC tank is going to be constantly attempting to adjust the situation.

ZoC tanks are also very good for protecting sniper nests since the highly specialized units need to take almost no damage in order to survive. Kb tanks on the other hand are really at their best against other tanks, they can temporarily shut down a ZoC tank, or run merry havoc against cannoneers by preventing them from firing a loaded charge.
Both tanks benefit from size increases, though the strength based kb tank can also benefit from being smaller than an opponent due to burrow.

Combo Setup
In terms of combo rotations, you'll really want to set up a first track of five very quick abilities starting with intercede. This way you can run a cycle against a single opponent then go back to the start to intercede another player. Kb tanks will want their second track to focus on knock back abilities, and third track to focus on utility, and maybe an extra intercede just in case. For the ZoC tank the second track should be all intercedes (you can change the first ability on the first track), and the third track should be utility and especially Long Yard.

Things to Keep in Mind
Make judicious use of Block. While there may not be any healers, there are channelers who can repair your shields in the field. Any damage directed instead to your shields could be a major advantage in a fight.
Bring spare shields. You never know when a huge attack is going to whallop your shields into submission. If you can pull out a new one and get right back in the fight, all the better.
Don't suicide lightly. Wall of Flesh can prevent a whole lot of damage from reaching your team, but it's not wise to throw yourself under the bus if you're the team's only or main tank. You'll have to weigh the effects of this particular barrage of damage, against how much you could save your team from by not taking it.

What I've been up to

2009-11-29T10:54:00.004-07:00

Cleaned out the garage.

Beat Dragon Age: Origins twice.

Having some fun with League of Legends.

Gave up on partnerships and started programming Ronin Beat myself in XNA.

Started playing Darkfall.

A lot of drawing that I decided not to keep.

Sleeping, lots of sleeping.

This caught my eye.

2009-11-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

main road|post showreel 2009 from Arman Yahin on Vimeo.

Primary Source care of Abduzeedo

Showreel from a group named road|post

The Sound of Gaming

2009-11-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

An Argument for Studying Music in Relation to Gaming Rather Than Film

Get ready for some heavy listening.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Bunny Hop
In the clip above Julie Andrews character is teaching the children using a system called solfège. The notes are sung aloud at the proper tune using a solfège syllable, do, re, mi, etc...

Unfortunately, game design doesn't seem to have any direct analogue to solfège, though any individual genre within games could probably create something close. Fighting games especially, fore, back, left, right, punch, kick, block, jump. Indeed, if you open up the dojo in Virtua Fighter 5 you may see that very notation attempting to teach you the various combos.

At it's core, solfège exists to give voice to the fundamental basics of musical graphing and notation.

A concept not wholly unfamiliar to game designers.

Bare Metal Mechanics (Ludology)
Any time we attempt to discuss games in relation to films or novels we are immediately caught in discussing the narrative(narratological?) issues of games. While not necessarily a heinous act, it creates a problem quite similar to discussing music purely in terms of lyrics.

For instance, if you watch the first couple minutes, of the next two videos, then the third for at least the first four minutes or so, you'll notice something about the relationship of lyrics to music.

The narrative of a game has, I believe, almost exactly the same relation to games. In music, the tune of a song can be expressed through the voice as an instrument, or the lyrics can simply be a layer applied over top of whatever music is playing. Similarly the narrative of a game can be built with interesting choices, becoming itself part of the game, or can be layered over the existing game play as something completely separate.

I'm not saying that lyrics are bad, it's just that as lyrics are not in and of themselves music, narrative is not in and of itself a game.

What's more music is, at it's core, an abstract set of rules applied to sound to create something our mind recognizes as more than simple sound. A game is much the same, an abstract set of rules applied to a space such that our mind recognizes it as more than simply a space. What's most important, I think, is the abstraction. To use a somewhat famous example, a film can show you a peach in detail, a book can describe it in detail, but a piece of musical notes cannot go into detail about the peach. In order to express a peach in musical notation, you must call upon the emotional underpinnings, on connections in our ontological basis. So it is with games, the rules of a game cannot describe a peach in detail, so it must attach itself to the mechanical and emotional associations of how we interact with a peach.

Sling that gun for great justice!

2009-11-09T20:31:00.006-07:00