Plugging away on writing Stage IV… I’ve got til Wednesday to finish it… god I hope I make it…
Archive for April, 2008
Pokepolitics
Posted in Game Politics, Random on April 25, 2008 by sentimentalgamerFun gif animation… pretty clever stuff, especially if you remember playing Pokemon:
Source: http://www.gamewithabrain.com/2008/04/24/news/if-politics-were-more-like-pokemon, though they’re not sure of its origin themselves. Now if only it weren’t just a GIF and had that wondrous battle music…
Intelligent Design in Spore
Posted in Game Design, Spore on April 16, 2008 by sentimentalgamerHuh… this is from a 2006 NYT article I saw while I was looking for Spore info online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08games.html?pagewanted=all
” “I’ve had a few people ask me if I think Spore will help teach evolution,” Wright said, “and the ironic thing is that, if anything, we’re teaching intelligent design. I’ve seen a few games that relied on evolution — I’ve even designed some of them — and it’s just not as fun.” But, of course, there’s one crucial way in which Spore breaks from intelligent design. The universe of the game is not dominated by a single, all-powerful creator. It’s a universe governed by a million intelligent designers, each unleashing his or her creations to be fruitful and multiply, to conquer and befriend, to fly spaceships and fashion planets.”
Funny, because I was wondering earlier whether the game would receive criticism from intelligent design groups. Of course, just because Will Wright says it’s not about evolution doesn’t mean that it’s not (wow… negatives), but, something to mull over I suppose.
Man, I’m so jazzed to work on this.
Stage IV: 3 weeks (or so) and counting
Posted in Stage IV with tags Stage IV on April 13, 2008 by sentimentalgamerAlrighty then… so games showcase is in only a few weeks, so it’s time to recap how Stage IV is coming along.
Well, I guess it’s not where I’d hope it would be, but I can still make it 
. As we were required to give our game projects a “red/yellow/green” classification in class, I of course went for the yellow-green. I mean, that’s where I’d always hope to be. I think that’s the color equivalent of “cautious optimisim”; it’ll make it, but don’t slack now!
As far as the design is concerned, that’s all set in stone. It took me longer than I would have liked for it to happen, but I definitely learned a lot while I was forming it. Interactive, branching story = hard. Very. Hard. So, when it comes to design, I certainly got my share of surprises. But I think it’s helped me to better understand what’s possible now, what’s possible in the future, and how I can fit into it. More details on the final design details at a later time.
Now, implementation-wise… it’s almost there. The main code is completed, but it’s not polished yet, so still working that stuff out. Still a few presentational things to put in. With the bulk of coding done, I finally was able to help get actors lined up for the shoots. Two are down (for the Adam and Harper chars) and two to go (schedule this week… Christie and Dianna). Course, Sarah saved us by lining up two of those characters, so yeah I kinda let her down there, but… *shrugs*. Anyways, that’s moving along, and hopefully it’ll come together.
Which brings me to… the story. The textual meat of the game that’ll define whether it’s any good or not. Well, that… needs to go. Writing is hard. Writing about something that you feel strongly about is REALLY hard. I mean… let’s face it… I’m a programmer, not a lit major. I know that my writing won’t be anything to write home about (no pun intended). But I really hope that it functions well enough to get across the ideas that I want to show through. I don’t care if it’s awkward lines, inconsistent, etc… I mean I’ll try to make them good, but my real goal is communicating the ideas. If that requires making things a bit on the nose, well… that’s something I’ll just have to live with. Problem is that I just can’t get myself to write it… I’m so afraid I’ll goof it up that I can’t just DO IT. I’ve gotten some done, but not as much as I’d like. Last week, I sorta had a lazy stretch where I just sat there, couldn’t do it. That’s gotta change these coming two weeks. Either I get a nearly complete story by end of classes, or… I’ve failed this project.
Ok, end motivational self-speech. Onto actual work! Hope to update again when the game is near done!
