Wednesday, November 29, 2006
posted 1:58am
"On Step Back"
Writing has always been a challenge for me. Not picking up spelling and grammar in school didn't help, but the worst part of it is not reading. The simple fact is you have to read quite a bit before you can pick up writing. So I'm taking a few months off Across The Stars to polish up my writing skills. I've been working on my grammar for a little while now, and I think it's starting to pay off, but writing descriptive prose of a science fiction settings is another thing. I think I can handle dialog, so I've started to read a descriptive heavy sci-fi book. There are a few more lying around here that I'd like to get through over the next few months, trying to refine my style, properly expressing what I want to say. I've always had a love of story telling, going back to writing twisted little tales in my high school's newspaper. I think it's about time I really learned how to tell the tale, and do my game justice. I think telling a story in a strong prose is very important, and I've recently ran across one. I don't want to say too much about it because it's a game I've beta tested for someone, but I did come to the realization that my own game needs to have strong literature that it stands upon. After all, it is Interactive Fiction. Can I really do this? I don't know, but I have been given a starting point with the help of Peter Mattsson. From here I will carry the game to the next phase of development and hope that I can get him in on the next round of beta testing.

Until then - D








Tuesday, November 14, 2006
posted 12:01am
"The Latest RPG On The Block"
Neverwinter Nights has a sequel. Neverwinter Nights 2. It was released on October 31, and in the stores at the first of this month. I got really lucky and found a copy in Pontiac, I guess RPGs aren't the hit out there, and started playing it that night. Not to digress, but to digress, I can remember a conversation early last year when someone asked me what I was doing. I said I was playing older video games looking for ways that they told their story. Why some of the great games were considered great. I've finally finished the first act of NWN2, and I can tell you that this is a great game. Obsidian has done an outstanding job of telling their story, and how it will end will probably be up to the player. There seems to be a lot of freedom, giving you plenty of choices to choose which direction to go in. You can accomplish things along a good or evil path. I choose the good path due to being disappointed to coming to a Neverwinter that had fallen under ruin with corrupt police. Maybe it also had to do with today's political atmosphere. But I wanted change, and I wasn't going to promote the corruption any longer. Which is pretty funny because I'm playing a Pale Master Wizard. I have to be of non-good alignment. So every now and then I throw in a bad deed. Lying to people, extorting for money, it's pretty hilarious. Like I said, Obsidian did a pretty good job, and in the end they've helped me along the way tell a better story. For me, that's what it's all about.

On that note, we've finished writing the first draft of the first movie that we are going to produce. It's going to be a short, right now coming in at 23 minutes. It could easily be extended, and this will be looked into during the rewriting process.

Besides that, I'm still working on Interactive Fiction. There's still a lot of work to be done with Across The Stars, but I do work on it on a regular basis. Hopefully Peter and I will start cranking out more of the game pretty soon, probably after the comp is over.

With all that I have been doing I haven't done a lot of videos this year. Last year during this month I came out with the Lord of the Rings video. No blog entry went up that month, and that video should have been talked about. Since then I've tried to come up with something for the blog whether I had something to say or not. I always tried to give something, a link, something new. But I don't sit around surfing the web looking for new stuff. I'm the happiest when I'm creating. Creating something that I can share with other people. Creating something that will hopefully take them away from their lives, forgetting for a moment who they are, where they are, and just enjoying the art. There are a few different types to choose from. :)

And on that note, take a look around. Something will pop up, it always does - D