Monthly Update: December

http://motherfuckingwebsite.com

Here is a funny link all about simple web design.  The last time I designed a website, it was in HTML 5, it was a Ryouga Hibiki Shrine on angelfire and was WAY too image intensive.  Granted, I was accessing with a 14.4k modem, but this taught me to design to my access speed.  I learned the basic lessons so hilariously described in the above link, and have occasionally remarked with incredulity at the super complicated websites of today.  Even though my access speed is now, something like 1000 times faster, website designers have managed to make things load almost as slow as the giant pile of P-chans that was my first website.  

Anyhow, that background helped make this silly link a lot funnier.  That and all the swearing.  Man, I'm surprised it took me this long to talk about Ranma 1/2 on this blog.

I just found out that Hiroo Isono, visual artist for the Seiken Densetsu series passed away this year.  Just about one year ago, I found out who he was, when I did cursory research for the Secret of Mana box art (possibly my favorite box art of all time).  His name has been very nearly the most popular search term bringing people to this blog.  And his art was really cool!

Links:
http://www.art-licensing.com/artists/Hiroo-Isono-Forests-and-Landscapes/biography.html
Official-seeming-site

http://www.realmofgaming.com/news/Hiroo-Isono-1945-2013/1811.html
brief eulogy

http://shinigamilist.com/2013/06/13/illustrator-hiroo-isono-passed-away/
another brief eulogy

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hiroo-isono
lots and lots of art

I recently read an article arguing that the Mario Bros movie 'wasn't that bad.'  Well, I decided to finally watch it.  It's pretty bad, but it's a kids movie, afterall.  And they do a great job of putting in a bunch of game references in a movie that is, visually, radically different from the games.  Look out for snifits, fireballs, and an allusion to the last fight in Super Mario World.  And frankly, the acting is fantastic, Dennis Hopper, in particular. The sum total is a mediocre movie, not a terrible one. 

http://www.destructoid.com/why-the-super-mario-movie-is-an-underappreciated-masterpiece-29694.phtml

destructoid does a pretty good job of laying it out.

http://bottomlesswit.com/in-defense-of-the-super-mario-bros-movie/

this one's pretty good too, though I still don't think it's the one I read.

I'm between games, so nothing to talk about there.  I'm reading Haruki Murikami's book 'Wild Sheep Chase.'  I really like it.  The flow can be very strange, moving quick at times, slow at times, but I really like the lead character/narrator, and when this book is good, it's really good!  

The job search isn't going all that great, but it might help if I had any idea what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Except write for this blog.  Masters Degree?  Teach?  Desk Job?  Who knows.  Eventually I'm going to be tired of staying on couches, that's for sure.  Which reminds me, hey Jaconian and Conklederp...

Alright well, I hope I've wasted enough of your time.  Have a wonderful December!

-D

P.S.  Secret of Mana and the Mario Bros movie both came out in 1993.  But I wasn't making websites until '95, I think.

P.P.S. I almost forgot!  The Humble Story Bundle!  13 days left! Yeah, I bought it.  8 bucks.  I sometimes think I might like to talk about video games more than play them.  And this collection is just perfect for that tendency.  I'm pretty excited about it, but I wish they were physical copies, and not digital downloads.  Maybe if I owned a kindle I could split the difference, but alas, I do not.  

Game Design Idea: Narrative Walk Through : Statement of Purpose

So, as I mentioned before, I can't seem to crack into any of the supposed game design software I've seen on the internet and read in reviews and even have seen attributed to games that I like (Anodyne).  Yet, my mind persists in imagining what it would be like to design a game.  And I think this stuff makes for a great game design idea!

For example, I think it would be great to design a game, where the levels progress with programming milestones.   Like, the first screen is just a crappy looking block guy, moving around -- success!  Then the next screen maybe you can slash a sword!  And then by the third screen, maybe you can cut down a bush! Hooray!  Then there's an enemy.   And then, by then you might have the hang of it enough to have like, a whole series of screens, with a treasure box at the end, hooray!  

I imagine a narrator the whole time, describing the process of creation to the little character on screen.  The challenges, and progressions.  Creating a weird meta-fiction author dynamic.  Did I mention I love meta-fiction?  I've noticed this stuff is pretty big these days as well, with games like Thomas was Alone and the Stanley Parable Demo.  Also, with the regular use of the term 'meta' to describe things.  But being a fancy English major, I've been familiar with the term for some time.  

Specifically, I was introduced to meta-fiction with the book 'At Swim Two Birds' by Flann O'Brien (pen name Brian O'Nolan - meta!) .  It's a book about a guy who's writing a book.  Meta level 1.  Then the characters in that book decide they don't like what's going on in their story,  Meta Level 2, and they go to to the authors house to talk some sense into him.  Or some such thing.  It's a lot of fun, and very old, published in 1939.    

Further Meta ideas come from the 'fourth wall' concept in theater, whereas the actors aren't supposed to acknowledge the audience, and when they do so, they're breaking the 'fourth wall.'   I've always loved to play with that, though.

Of course, my idea of a video game about its own creation is silly for a couple reasons.  One is that I still don't actually know what the process is like.  I'm just guessing.  And whenever I read interviews with game creators, they always describe all sorts of things they weren't expecting.  So I expect that would happen to me too.  Expecting the unexpected, I'm so ready!

Anyway, I think the process would be to work on different concepts, enemies, items, procedures, etc.  And make careful note when something interesting happens.  Then, when I've got the hang of the whole programming thing, go back and fake it.  There's no need for my authentic practice screens to be in a game, just something resembling them.  Throw a kookie narrator with a british accent on the thing, and I'm set!  

Man, I love my own ideas!  And it's so much easier to write about them than to actually push them through my metaphorical loins, spank breath into them, cut their metaphorical umbilical chord, hold them close and feed them from my metaphorical teat!  I'm unemployed, and *still* that sounds like too much trouble!  Maybe it's the way I described it...  Actually, wait, this reminds me of the conclusion of the play "Slag" that I saw in college.  My girlfriend was one of the three principle actresses, and her character gets miraculously pregnant, but her character was insane, and it was actually just a food baby.  (Oh man, I am *such* an English Major.)

Anyway, I realize I spoiled the ending for you, which is a high crime, but don't worry - the enjoyment of that play came from the performances.  Three fantastic Actresses with really great chemistry.  The plot wasn't really very important, and I saw it more than once, I think.  It was performances like that that gave me a love of the theater.  And has subsequently fueled my curiosity about the connection between theater, film and video games.  Specifically around minimalism - I love how fantastic some performances are with minimal set design.  I can't help but wonder if a similar elegance can be applied to game design, programming and execution.

http://www.andysowards.com/blog/2012/70-epic-map-design/

When I was young, I wanted to create epic fantasy.  Nothing but.  Alright, maybe an occasional side-scroller.  But, the biggest piece of my creative pie was taken up with 50+ hour Role Playing Games.  And the reflexive version:  novelizations of already existing RPGs.  High Fantasy, Tolkein and Dungeons and Dragons ruled all.  And the bigger, longer and more epic, the better. It is still like a security blanket or a favorite stuffed toy.  I can go back there just by closing my eyes and relaxing.

However, in these days following the Box Office and Academy Award domination of the Lord of the Rings movie Trilogy,  it seems pretty damned clear to me that the High Fantasy World is covered.  You can't throw a stone without hitting a two to three hour epic something.  I missed riding that wave, and now I'm wonder when it will subside.  

These days, I am most interested in minimalism, in peeling back all of the glitz and the glamour and the huge set pieces, to find out what's in the core of genre, theater, creativity.  I want to take a chisel to the edifice of the modern High Fantasy Blockbuster and see if there isn't something beautiful underneath it all.  I believe that minimalism is more raw, and prompts the viewer to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.  More than that, it is much, much more inexpensive to produce.  And therefore can be done with a smaller team, which allows for much more creative control and input by the principle few.  And that serves my starving little creative ego, I think.  

Hmm, caffienne high is faltering.  love of my own ideas is waning.  autumn is passing into winter.  power down. boooooooop.  

-D


P.S. follow-up question:  does this need to be published?  Our blog quality standards aren't like, super-high or anything, yet I have a bunch of ideas that are important to me here, and I could maybe turn them into something real.  But if that's the case, what does it matter if I publish now or later?

P.P.S.  Mine the brainy gamer for theater-game connection.  I think he's really into that.

P.P.P.S  Interdisciplinary study called 'Performance Studies' at UCD, Berkeley.  Looks pretty darn close to what I'm looking at

P.P.P.P.S Adaptation and American Movie are both examples of movies about the making of movies.  Adaptation with much more creative license - and a big favorite of mine!

P.P.P.P.P.S. I think I'll just keep all these post-scripts.  Why not?  I'm feeling silly.  Also, I heard that there was a game that progresses through the history of RPGs.  That's sort of what I'm talking about, but not the same thing.

Where I've Been And What I Signed

I didn't make a post last Friday (11/22/2013) because I was doing something that I said I would not talk about.  As in LEGALLY cannot talk about.  There were a lot of words in a Non-Disclosure Agreement that I electronically signed, which is a legit/legal form of binding.  I also cannot say whom I was with as I think that would violate said NDA.  That being said, or not, I did the thing and now we're here, back in the real world.  Come to think of it, I should also be receiving something else unrelated in the mail that I said I wouldn't discuss or talk about and I sort of signed an NDA of sorts, so I won't be talking about that either.

So what do I talk about on this glorious of Mondays before myself and the rest of the civilized Western god fearing world gives thanks for this plentiful land?!

Well, the Xbox One came out. . . at some point.  Friday?  It's pretty much the same situation that I typed about last week regarding the PS4.

What is it then that I can talk about?

Well (2x this post), there's this guy that I found out about through one of the few facebook ads  that I came across about 7-8 months back (I think it was from a facebook ad?, or maybe it was through Drunken Moogle?) that was relevant to me.  It was a guy (and his cat) who goes by the moniker Smooth McGroove.  He does acapella covers of video game music, all with himself (and occasionally his cat) in multiple frames with footage of the game in the center.  Like this:

He'lll post videos every so often.  Frequently enough that you wonder how long a session/song takes.  Regardless of those thoughts, the videos are pretty fun to watch.  That's the key though for me, the watching.  I've tried a couple of times to just "listen" to the songs without watching the video and they kind of loose their charm/appeal.  I start to feel like I'm listening to actual video game music and not someone singing acapella.  Which I guess is a testament to his abilities, but that's not always what I'm looking for.  One thing that I really like about Mr. McGroove, is that he doesn't do only the traditional covers you see video game cover bands do, such as "Bloody Tears" or "World Theme from Super Mario Bros."  Sure he does do those too, but he has also covered possibly less familiar songs such as the theme from Lavender Town from the first Pokemon and "Corridors of Time" from Chrono Trigger.  In short, the guy is good.

Happy Monday.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Buph-buh!

Stressing The Right Moves

cool box art

Today I was wondering about how complex computers are, from the ground up. And how, just to make a simple chess game, there are procedures upon procedures.  To get the display down, and then all the rules, all the if/then/else statements.  

Then I thought of a funny idea:  a computer chess game that does not have any of the rules programmed into it.  Really, it's just a simulator of a chess board.  So, the players have to be the ones to remove pieces when they are taken, or to call check, or to make sure the other is moving the pieces appropriately.  There's something I really like about this.  I guess it plays on my expectations of what a computer-game of chess would be, what the computer will handle and what I have to do myself.  It's a world simulator, with a chess board in it.  

This train of thought sprung, fully formed while pondering my frustrations working with game making software.  In this case, it's Flixel that's giving me trouble.  This is the program that Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka of Anodyne used, and I left that game saying to myself:  I wanna make a zelda clone too!  I still do.  But boy, I couldn't even get started with Flixel.  It's like my adult onset ADHD kicks in, and I can't seem to follow the instructions.  Or, look for new, better, updated instructions.  Every game design software I use is just too complex.

This is also frustrating because I'm not a complete stranger to the world of programming.  In High School, some fifty years ago.. wait, no.  fifteen years ago, I took a computer programming class.  I loved it!  We used a program called Pascal, which was text-based, and later, Delphi, which had a graphical component.  Pascal was great, most of the terminology was intuitive, and Delphi was just Pascal with graphics!  

So, the first thing I did, of course, was to produce an RPG.  Well, a battle game anyway.  It was fun.  There was a party of four, (whom I named after the members of the band Pearl Jam) and they battled miscellaneous enemies.  Bats, goblins, kobolds and the like.  I think the menu options were 'fight' or 'special' and each character had a different special move.  Double strike, attack all -- stuff like that.  And they could gain experience and raise levels.  pretty entertaining.  I really liked programming.

In college, we had to use C++, and we didn't even have computers in our lecture hall.  We had to do it all at home.  I hated C++, found it to be not intuitive at all.  Perhaps I was spoiled by Pascal.  I also was out of the house for the first time and prone to... distraction.  Anyway, I switched to an English major at the end of that year, and the rest is, as they say, history. 

So, is it folly to think I could get back into programming?  I can't tell.  But I do miss it.  Most especially, I miss creating systems, and interlacing them.  I never pursued graphics, but I was really happy to make the numbers move around in fun ways.  To give input and receive an output.  And to come up with an idea, and work out how to execute it.  It's a really cool frame of mind, programming.

Oh well. Whether or not I make a return to programming, you can be sure that I will write about it.  

hasta pasta,

-D

QWOP and proprioception

I recently heard a really cool episode of the radio show Radiolab.  If you don't know Radiolab, I recommend checking it out.  This episode on body-mind connection is as good a place to start as anywhere. The portion I'm referencing is a story on a man with a condition called proprioception.  His body is alienated from his mind - he has no sense of touch. This man has to teach himself to move without the use of the body-mind connection.  Has to teach himself how to make every single, minute movement of his body.  He has to do this using only visual feedback.  It took him a long while, but he got really good.  For more details, give the episode a listen.

Listening to this story reminded me of the game QWOP.  This is a game where you control the movements of a runner by pressing buttons to move his joints.  The results are hilarious, then frustrating, then hilarious, and so on and so forth.  The exercise in unplayability that is QWOP has always been an interesting experience, but catching this Radiolab episode really brought forth a real world example.  I can't help but wonder if QWOP resembles, even a little bit, this man's experience at moving his body without the sense of physical feedback we take for granted.

-D

Play QWOP

Play CLOP (the unicorn based sequel)

Listen to Radiolab episode 

Watch an actual successful run of QWOP!

All The Things Here Have Been Happening

So the Playstation 4 dropped um, some few days back.  I don't really know because I wasn't one of the umteen thousands that did pre-order one.  I also didn't pre-order an Xbox One either.  I don't think I've ever pre-ordered a system, ever.  I'm the guy who waits until a system is (typically) under $100 before I will buy it, although that didn't hold true when I bought the DS and 3DS; although I did have $125 worth of gift cards and such when I bought the 3DS.  Maybe I prefer to wait and see what kind of library a system is going to have before buying the operating system.  That being said, I will have nothing to add to news about the Playstation IV.

Desert Bus for Hope is on again and the people at LoadingReadyRun will be playing towards their goal of 139 consecutive hours.  Presently they're at 71 hours, so they still have two days 16 hours-ish left.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it a bunch of Canadians playing a game where you drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada (409 miles) at a max (only) speed of 45mph.  It's basically a hit-a-thon of sorts with all the proceeds going to Child's Play, a charity that is better described on their own site.

Earlier today I just finished watching everything that was on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition blu-ray.  Conklederp and I have been going through the two new Appendices discs (titled Appendices VII & VIII to coincide with the Appendix discs from the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings movies) and I finished the commentary this afternoon before heading off for work; you know, when I should have been writing this.  I come from the camp that liked what Peter Jackson and company did in The Hobbit.  I went in not expecting a play-by-play of the book as it is "based" off of J.R.R. Tolkien's work.  I personally don't mind that the movies are expanding on the events in The Hobbit that were referred to elsewhere (The Lord of the Rings and included appendices).  I also understand that while some things work in a book, such as Gandalf disappearing when the Dwarves are captured by the Goblins, when the audience would find it hard to believe, knowing what we already know about Gandalf and instead have him stalling the Elves in Rivendel and catching up with them later.  I could write a lot more about this film version of The Hobbit, but that became a post all of it's own and I rambled while trying to state that I enjoyed the movie, which I have already said.  Lastly though, I will say that in the 13 minutes of additional content added to the movie, are two songs, one by the Dwarves while in Rivendel and the other by the Great Goblin.  Basically, pretty much every question I had regarding decisions that deviated from The Hobbit book were answered in either the commentary (sadly of which there was only one, that being with Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens although they do do a great job, I would have liked there to have been more commentaries) or the nine hours of behind the scenes documentaries.  Basically, I'm very happy with the extended cut and the special features.

In other gaming related news, I'm heading back to Infinite Space after a bit of a frustrated hiatus at not being able to defeat a particular series of enemies culminating in a boss fight.  I'm going to need a bigger ship. . . and bigger guns. . . and bigger shields.  I also figured out a way around dwindling stats in Morrowind and the tactic there is called BUY ALL THE POTIONS!!!  I've also put Dead Island on hold for a bit, but that's really just Morrowind's fault and I will get back to Torchlight II, you know, when I'm no longer trying to save the world. . . again.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Nothing More To See

Full Review: Anodyne

Read the First Impressions

When talking about Anodyne, I can't help but say a little more about the ambience.  I want to compare it to a free-to-download indie favorite of mine: Eversion.  This is a little indie game that isn't afraid to get creepy.  It also vibes a bit Earthbound, for the SNES.  It's visually like Earthbound as well:  Anodyne is just between 8-bit and 16-bit style.  It sort of plays like the Game Boy version of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Like Zelda games, there is a great variety of puzzles to solve.   Unlike Zelda, there are not a lot of equipment upgrades, however, the designers do a great job innovating new and different puzzles as the game progresses.  They also take care to make each stage or region look substantially different from the last, keeping the atmosphere strong, and reducing a sense of repetitiveness.     

The designers were ingeniously courteous in the way they designed the world maps.  They corral you into different winding corridors on the map by the use of locked gates.  However, as you progress, you double back and unlock the gates from the other side.  I don't know if you can beat the game without unlocking the gates, but that would make for one hell of an achievement.  The game itself seems to be only vaguely exploration based.  That is to say, I feel like I am covering every inch of the map in order to progress.  However, that said, I beat the game with 12 undiscovered Cards.

The game comes with a charming little Card System.  You collect various cards throughout the game, which correspond to the different characters and enemies.  Each card contains a caption and an image.  It's pretty cool,  I mean, pointless cards are nothing new, but this game has such a strange storyline, that I'm always very eager to see what the caption is on the cards, even if it's just a throwaway non-sequitur.  Also, the programmers decided not to make the cards pointless: there are locked gates that you can only get through if you have enough cards.

I beat Anodyne in 5.2 hours.  A little underwhelming by the end,  that is my only complaint.  And hey, it might just be my attention span.  There are 12 remaining cards and a secret stage that I haven't yet been to.  I always love these little easter eggs, however, I have not held myself to 100% completion before writing this review.

Is it worth ten bucks?  Well, that's like a trick question, since I got it in a Humble Bundle and also - I generally try to get games on sale, so I usually pay about 7.50 for a game, or even 5.  So, with that context, I still think it's probably worth ten bucks, but I recommend getting Anodyne, or any game, when it's on sale.  Bottom line is that this game is a labor of Love from a tiny team of 2 designers, and it shows.

-D


P.S.  Okay, now I went and reviewed it on Metacritic.  I gave it an 8.  My username is FeaxPotts.  Always nice to have a typo in your username :P  I think I want to go back through all my game reviews and review them on meta critic.  Especially those ones with metacritic scores that I disagree with.

Note:  This game came with an Android version as well.  I gave it a shot on my smart phone -- I don't like it.  Maybe I need time to adjust to having touch buttons.  The biggest problem is the control pad.  It's so slippery, and it's located on the lower left-hand side of the screen, and I'd like it a big higher.  I find that when I lift my thumb, I always set it down on the top of the pad, rather than the center.

Long Overdue: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)

Disclaimer: The following article is written from the perspective of one who has only finished Skyrim and played parts (the beginning) of The Arena and barely started Daggerfall, so all judgements aside.  I would also like to disclaim that I am probably going to be all over the place and while this would normally fall under the "First Impressions" heading, after 35 hours, I feel like I've glided past First Impressions and moved to "OMG, here's stuff about how I've played the game," but that doesn't sound as classy.

I bought The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind sometime around the beginning of this year when it was X% off through a Steam sale (which is pretty much how/why I buy most/all PC games now), mainly because in the last year I've become a fan of the Elder Scrolls series.  I am also a fan of the composer Jeremy Soule, who a while back I found out was the composer for the Elder Scroll series, Icewind Dale I & II and the Neverwinter Nights series.

First off, So Morrowind was released way back in May of 2002 on both PC and Xbox, although I will only be referring to the PC release.  The in-game chronology takes place in 3E-421, whereas The Arena takes place in 3E-399 and Daggerfall in 3E-405.  For reference, Skyrim takes place in 4E-201 with the 3rd Era ending in 3E-433 after the events in the Oblivion Crisis (Oblivion 4E-433).  

Upon booting up the game, I was happily surprised that the Dragon Imperial logo was used here and I later found out is really the symbol for the Imperial Legion and Cyrodiil.  While playing Skyrim, I thought it was just a "oh, that's a nice coincidence that the Imperials have a dragon logo and LOOK!, there are dragons which have turned up for the first time in forever!"  That was my first thought upon starting up the game and I hadn't even played it yet.

With Morrowind, you can play in either POV or third person.  For me, most of the game I will play in third person but switch to POV whenever I use my bow (which isn't too often) or when looking through boxes for loot (the POV mode uses crosshairs).  The control scheme is pretty much identical to that of Skyrim, although I had to move a few of the keys around.  Since Morrowind moved away from the strictly POV mode that The Arena and Daggerfall followed, you now only have to "click" in order to attack and no longer have to drag the mouse to perform a specific attack.  However, you still have the option to chop/slash/thrust, which is determined by how you are moving at the time of attack.  Forward/back: thrust; left/right: slash; non-moving: chop.  Each attack, based on what type of weapon you are using bears different results and damage.  Like the previous and later games, you still have health, magic and stamina meters.

Now, for why you are all here, or maybe not, I now introduce you to my character the Nord, Valgrin of Markarth:

Hello there ladies. . .

His backstory is not very developed as I was not (and still am not) sure what the overarching story is here in Vvardenfell, the interior volcanic island in Morrowind, where Morrowind takes place.  You start out on a ship, travelling from the mainland of Morrowind to Vvardenfell and you are a prisoner, soon to be pardoned by Uriel Septim VII for reasons unknown to you and your parole officer.  The backstory I created, was that Valgrin was a prisoner in the Cidhna Mines in Markarth (in the Skyrim Province), possibly imprisoned for thievery; although chronologically this doesn't make sense, unless Cidhna Mine was used for prisoners before the Silverbloods took over after Ulfric Stormcloak retook Markarth in 4E-176, roughly 185 years earlier.  Because birth signs are an important part of your character, I will assume that Uriel Septim VII has been looking for someone born under a particular star sign and sending people off to Vvardenfell.  Maybe, I don't really know as I have yet to finish the game.

The first thing that I learned about Morrowind is that the game doesn't pull punches.  There's a cave right outside the starting town, I encountered a villain and was promptly killed.  I think I landed one blow on the foe out of many swings.  It turns out that my accuracy in hand-to-hand combat left something to be desired.  I quickly decided that I would play as a tank-like character, which was a good soul searching decision as that was how I set up Valgrin's attributes when creating him.

Unlike Skyrim, your character in Morrowind does not regenerate either health or magic.  Regeneration occurs only by consuming health potions, casting heal spells (which unless you have a decent Intelligence score, which is not below 30, you will fail casting your spell and thereby wasting your magic points) or resting until healed.  I'm sure a good portion of my time has been spent running out of a dungeon, finding a legal* area to sleep and sleeping off my injuries.  Every town I come to (which I'll get to in a minute) I always try to buy as many healing potions as I can.  And you have to be careful with those potions, as I have had potions "spoil" if I don't use them within a certain amount of time.  I think that's what is happening anyway.

*You can only sleep in legally designated areas, which means not on the streets of a town/village or within the near vicinity of a town.  If there is an inn or a guild that you are a member of you can sleep there

Another "no-holds-barred" example in Morrowind, is how often I have gotten stuck.  Stuck in multiple senses.  While climbing/walking over mountains, I have found myself in a rut that I couldn't get out of.  The only solution was to reload from a previous save.  I have since learned to frequently save before I go exploring.  I have been "stuck" in another sense when I was attacked by a blighted something-or-other.  I lost my strength, became encumbered and was unable to move.  I tried sleeping it off as I do with low health, but that didn't work, so I had to restart from a previous save.  Most recently (as in yesterday), I had to reload a number of times because an enemy I had to defeat so I could get to my bounty because he always summoned a creature that would drain my strength thereby making my carrying capacity down to 0.  After miraculously surviving the battle, nothing I used seemed to cure my ailment.  Reload.

This is either going to be a very long or very short battle.

Fast travelling!  Until recently, there was only one way of doing this and it makes sense in-game.  In Vvardenfell, there are large insectoids call Silt Striders, which have been domesticated and used to travel from town-to-town for a small fee (usually 35 -50 septims).  Upon looking up information about how to complete a certain quest, I discovered that members of the Mages Guild can fast travel to other Mages Guild houses.  If you're not a member, you can't use this free service.  Personally, I can't see Valgrin even attempting to be a mage, despite him knowing spells (healing spells).  So, the majority of travelling I do through Vvardenfell is done on foot.  Coming from Skyrim, that doesn't sound too bad.  In Morrowind, "by-foot" might bother a lot of people.  Un-modded, and without a lot of skill points put towards fast moving, this is what over 50% of my time is spent like:

Sorry for the not-so-great video quality.  I don't have a capture card, just a cellphone.

Yes, you have two modes of moving.  Walking and slightly faster walking/running.  Thankfully, when you run out of stamina, you are still able to run, but your experience in "Athletics" no longer increases.  Honestly though, this doesn't bother me at all.  I'm one for looking at the landscape and general adventuring.  However, there have been times where travelling from one end of Vvardenfell to the other has been tedious.

As you might be able to guess, having put 35 hours into this game, I am very much liking it.  And, even with all that I have said here, there is a lot more that I haven't even covered, such as leveling up, the vast number of skills and attributes, the way you have to talk to/persuade people for information (the scripting for dialogue), wear-and-tear on equipment, the different components for dressing (pants, shirt, body armor, greaves, L/R gauntlet/bracers, L/R shoulder pieces/pauldrons, helmet) and absolutely no GPS on your map (someone says "it's in the south-western region. . ." you have to go explore the southwest region looking for a cave).

So if you are looking for another game in the Elder Scrolls series that isn't Skyrim and are interested in a challenge with a very steep learning curve (your hand will not be held), Morrowind might just be what you're looking for.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Saw The Coming of the End

And Now: A Dramatic Too Much Shit's Happening Selfie

The game ideas just keep rolling

Alright, so I was reading our local homeless newspaper.  You know, the one that people sell for a dollar instead of panhandling.  I don't usually read it.  Sometimes I buy it and then throw it away.  But today I decided to read it, and it was pretty interesting.  Given that I am without a job, or a lease, I'm approaching it from a 'there but for the grace of god go I" perspective.

I'm sure between the title of this post, and the first paragraph, you can get where I'm going with this.  Homeless video game!  You play a poor schizophrenic veteran, scrounging for nibbles in the wastebasket, swatting invisible flies and getting roughed up by the police!  What's not to love?  Alright, so my idea has a little more to it than that, but I think you can see that emulating this lifestyle would make for a challenging game.

I think there is more sense to have a game following the efforts of a person on the brink, so to speak. I imagine this game using a role playing game engine.  Two key stats would be Charisma and Comeliness.  Charisma being a measurement of your ability to effectively relate to others, Comeliness your physical attractiveness.  So, your character has limited resources, but is able to stay at the local inns or whatever, until your money runs out.  Then, exposure, bad rest, bad diet will degrade your Comeliness and Charisma.  Basically, you get uglier, smellier, and who doesn't have a harder time relating to people when hungry and on little sleep?

As these two stats go down, you'll note that townspeople are less responsive to you, and some will out and out ignore you or, worse, tell you to get a job.  Shop keepers will refuse to sell to you, and you'll have to go to the seedier parts of town to have an overnight stay at the inn. A key change from the standard RPG is that you couldn't just go kill rats to collect gold.  But you might be able to rob people, but then the authorities would get involved. Really, this model could go on and on.  

But, like any good indie game, it would probably be best to keep the scope limited.  So, I propose a game with about three towns, allowing you to migrate a bit in case you get in trouble with the law.  I still don't know what the goal would be.  To rescue a princess?  I don't know.  But if the system were properly skewed, it would be  very tough to play the role of the wandering adventurer.  And I think that is pretty interesting.  Feel free to toss out ideas in the comments, if you come up with anything.

-D

Origin Stories Part II: Aeliana of Chorrol

Back in June, I wrote a post about the process and subsequently created back story for a character I created in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the sole purpose of going through the Civil War quests on the side of the Stormcloak rebellion.  Shortly after I completed that storyline, I created another character so that I could do the opposite side of the Civil War quests and join the Imperial Legion.  This character backstory saw greater change from its initial conception.

First, I started off with a general idea of where I wanted the character to come from.  In the Stormcloak quests, there was a mission to infiltrate an Imperial camp to deliver false reports/orders.  This is where the kernel of the new character was created.  I thought it would be fun to have a female soldier be chosen because she's a woman (but also happens to be a very capable warrior/soldier) in order to seduce an officer to wreck havoc in whichever camp she's infiltrating.  While it's true that on both sides, not all officers/generals are male, I found this idea to be amusing (albeit somewhat clichéd).  Thus began the process of creating a female character that would fight on the side of the Empire, how she found herself to be in the Skyrim province and most importantly, how she managed to be captured by the Imperials and threatened with execution at Helgen.

Since I wanted my character to be a supporter of the Empire and since I hadn't ever played as a native of Cyrodiil yet, having her be an Imperial was an easy starting point.  I also needed a city/village for her to originate in and not having played Oblivion yet, I had to do some research on the cities of Cyrodiil and find the right city.  Additionally, knowing that the citizens of Cyrodiil have Romanesque names, I felt that my character should have a name that at least sounded something akin to Latin.

The first story that I had concocted, was that the character (then unnamed) grew up in the city of Chorrol and when she was 7-8, she joined a local thieves guild and was involved in a robbery turned murder, left behind by her guild members and was arrested.  Due to the fact that the people who had been murdered [a noble-ish family (second cousins to the Countess) consisting of three children, a mother and two maids], she was sent to prisons of the Imperial City.  The girl was not executed due to her young age.  My idea was then to have her act as a patsy for a noble, but somehow "performed well" and was sent to a minimum security ward and every so often, she would perform "dirty" jobs for various nobles who needed things taken care of secretly and couldn't be traced back to them if she were to fail.  Eventually she would be offered a pardon if she would travel to Skyrim to help quell the ongoing rebellion there.

So where does the name come in?  I had wanted to have her forget her original name and be given a name while in prison.  Not knowing much/anything about Latin, I thought something like "Broken Child"  or "Lost One" Latinized would be cool sounding.  Alas, that was not the case.

As you can tell, the top half of the page was spent writing out the meanings of various words into Latin and a lot of what I was coming up with, not only did not sound very name-like to me, I also felt that I could not alter the names enough and still have resemble Latin and have a meaning similar to what I was aiming for.

Eventually I settled on the name of "Sola Rupita."  The "Sola" still meaning one or only, but I'm not 100% sure what "Rupita" was a conglomeration of, just by looking at what I had written down.  Perhaps the "Ruo" from "Fall" and the "Cantita" from "Broken?"

Either way, we all know that Sola Rupita ended up not being the name that I decided upon, as you can clearly see from the title of this post.  I'm not sure where I found the name Aeliana, but it is infact a real name, being the feminine form of Aelius, possibly derived from the Greek word for "sun," "helios."  This name, I apparently, and actually still do, find to be a better name than what I was coming up with.

The next stage of development was deciding that Aeliana would be in the Imperial City with her father, but still maintaining the fact that a family (now her family) was murdered.  In this iteration, Aeliana had always been angered that her family's murder was never avenged.  Aeliana and her father then lived just outside the Imperial City (why would they be in the Imperial City in the first place?) with Aeliana joining the city watch.  Basically the Kate Beckett story.  (I like to have a reasonable explanation as to how/why your character knows how to proficiently use weapons and fight in armor and this avenue gave me a good explanation for her abilities at the beginning of the game).  Her father then decides to marry her off to a pseudo-wealthy land owner.  Not wanting that life and the chance to avenge her family's death, she hides among a caravan headed for the Skyrim province; which doesn't then make a whole lot of sense.

The final iteration I wrote up, I did while at work and took some paper that we normally use for labelling washing machines and dryers.  I maintained that Aeliana's family was killed by members of a theives guild, but this happened while she was somewhere else (I guess I still never came up with a reason why she wasn't killed.  Successfully hid from attackers maybe?)  She was then sent to live with her Uncle who was known to have lived just outside of the Imperial City; Aeliana was around the age of 12 at this time (4E - 200).  At 14, her uncle deemed her too ugly to be marriageable and was allowed to join the city guard (in an auxiliary role).  When she was 15 (4E - 203), her uncle found a boy for her to marry (a young 11 year old boy who had a sickly mother and dead father) as he wanted to expand his own land and holdings (element continued from previous version).

I thought then that she would disguise herself and escape to Skyrim upon a caravan, which is where she befriended a girl from Chorrol (hence all the backstory now belonging to someone else and does not apply to our character), but I didn't ultimately like that idea.  I felt that being given the "okay" from a captain/sergeant from the city guard to leave with a regiment to Skyrim rather than be married off (as he felt that she would be too good of a soldier to lose to marriage).  The captain/sergeant knows of a regiment heading for Skyrim to assist in the ongoing rebellion and thinks that after a year or two, she can return to Cyrodiil and continue the life that she not only wants, but one that he can see that she excells at.  

I then changed the story so that the decision to have Aeliana as part of the regiment was a last minute decision, her name was not added to the "official" roster.  The caravan/regiment was then ambushed by Ulfric Stormcloak, seeing it as a way of helping to furnish the Stormcloaks and harm the Imperial Legion at the same time.  Ulfric then was ambushed himself and taken to Helgen.  This then gave me an explanation as to why your character's name is "not on the list" at the beginning of the game when you are about to be executed with the Stormcloaks.

With all of that in mind, I present to you Aeliana of Chorrol.

Yes gentlemen, here's a lady who's not afraid to get her hands dirty:

Marriage Material?

I plan on playing her as a staunch believer in the good of the empire.  While I might have her go through cities that side with the Stormcloaks, I won't have her spend money in those cities as she might feel that doing so supports the rebellion.  She's that kind of a person.  I could easily see her story becoming one where she sees the "dark side" to the empire, but that's not the story I want to tell with her.  Aeliana believes that what she is doing will help to preserve the good and the stability of the empire.

Unlike Gherard of Farrun, I don't see myself altering Aeliana's appearance as she grows as I don't think she needs to grow visually as Gherard does.  That's not the part of her story that is important.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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Full Review: Gone Home (PC)

Gone Home is an story-based exploration game developed by The Fullbright Company based out of Portland, Oregon .  The story is set in a town/suburb near Portland (not that that matters, but it does pseudo-explain why it's raining the entire time when the game takes place in June) and takes place in 1995.  I feel that's all I can tell you without giving anything away.  I knew practically nothing about the game before going into it, aside from all that stuff about the game being developed using the HPL Engine and was planned as an Amnesia mod.  That along gives certain expectations as the Amnesia is a POV survival horror series.

If you do not want to know any spoilers about the game do not read further as I will be talking about certain aspects of the game which may very well contain spoilers.  So before I get down to it, I highly recommend playing the game before reading any further, unless of course you have no plans to play/experience this game.

~*CONTAINS SPOILERS*~

The story in Gone Home takes place in 1995 and I feel half of the game is reminiscing on that very fact.  While playing Conklederp asked me if the setting and amount of detail in the game for 1995 made me miss that time (I was 15 in 1995) and I said that while I didn't necessarily "miss it," seeing 1995 portrayed as Fullbright was showing us, it made me happy.

Samantha is the main character, whom we find out about through diary entries, notes between her and other students at the new school she is attending and teacher notes home.  All of the diary entries are read to the player by Sam, voiced by Sarah Grayson.  There is so much emotion and genuineness in her voice throughout the entire game that I cannot watch trailers or videos of the game with her voiceover and not have some kind of an emotional response.

The POV is through her older sister Katilin/Katie who has just returned from a year long trip around Europe, presumably shortly after graduation and she comes home to an empty house (that her family has moved to since she left for Europe, hence you the player not recognizing the "family home").  

The library we all wish we had growing up.

While exploring the house, you start finding items/notes/documents detailing your family's past, again presumably that the character of Katie may not have known, such as your father's failed book career from the 70's; his book career doesn't seem to be the hidden fact, only the fact that neither of his two books sold very well.  Or information that the house that the family moved into belonged to your pseudo-estranged uncle and was willed to your father after the uncle's death.  There are also hints that there's something wrong with the house, which you discover through diary entries from Sam and crumpled up notes found in trashcans.

When the game starts, you have access to both the bottom floor (with one door being locked) and the second floor.  Being who I am, I explored the ground floor first although I could have begun on the second floor, potentially "ruining (??)" the flow of the story.  Ah the story.  By starting on the ground floor, the story of your family begins in the 1970s with notes about your father's failed authoring career and how he lapses into alcoholism and an unfulfilling job of writing music equipment reviews.  You're then plunged into 1994, shortly after your family first moves into the new house and waves of nostalgia from the mid '90s flood your senses.

This, seriously, was what my Fridays looked like for most of the mid '90s.

There is so much that I can and want to say about Gone Home, but 1) There isn't enough "time" to give a play-by-play synopsis of everything that happened, and 2) The game is best experienced.  It really is like a 3 hour interactive movie of sorts, without any cut scenes.  There are no monsters to run away from, no jump scares or scare chords and only a few instances where you take a cassette and put it in a tape deck. You don't have to, but why wouldn't you?  The entire game is spent going from room-to-room, picking up slips of paper, receipts, notes from school, notebook entries, reading them and forming a picture about what has been happening with your family while you have been away.

Believe me when I say that you really feel like you know the family even before the game is over.  At one point, I turned to Conklederp and said something along the lines of "Jan [the mother] wouldn't do that, she's not like that at all. . ." and then realized I was talking about a person I had only read about for the last two hours.  I was very much emotionally invested in these people after only two hours.

Near the end of the game, I had this enormous pit in my stomach about how the game would end.  I didn't want what I thought what was going to happen, to happen.  I was emotionally afraid to find out "what happened."  I had been with this family for nearly three hours, seeing a family nearly torn apart by varying forces and start to bring itself back together and if what I feared were to have happened, I have no shame in saying that I think I might've lost it.

Instead, the "climax" happened and I had this immense wave of happiness, joy and relief wash over me.  I can't even compare what it would be like as I know that any analogy I used would include something about how the game actually ended and I would at least like to keep that partly a surprise.

The only way I know how to end this post, is that Gone Home is a beautifully composed experience wrapped inside of a video game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental