Seeing other creative works can be inspiring

I love it when i see something i enjoy. I love it in a special way that makes me ooze confidence about my own stuff. So when i see a creative work, i get all buzzy and excited about my own creative works.

Yesterday i saw the movie 'How to train your Dragon'. It was simply stunning. I had one complaint, and that was so very minor and covered up by the artistic desicion contingency plan.

I also got this feeling when i watched the new series of Dr Who, the first episode had to introduce a New Dr, a new Tardis, AND a new companion. It is astounding this was done, while telling any kind of story that did not feel too rushed. Excellent stuff. Again this gives me confidence in my own works.

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The Dragon movie made me feel happy and wondrous. I hope to make some of my upcoming games feel like this. My series of books also fall into this category for new readers, and their parents. It makes me want to write more. It also has the down side of showing me just how much more story telling my games need. But i am not sure that XBLIG and a part time job are the place for such lofty goals. Now if i can start making some money doing thee things, then by golly i will put more in, story included.

Dr Who is a series i have always loved. It tried so very hard not to stagnate. A lot of it's main elements help this. When the main character actor changes every few years, you know it is either the kiss of death or soemthing creatively special. Dr Whos new episode made me feel a nice connection to humour. This is fairly rare, but a difficult one to bring into a game environment. I would love to experiment more with this kind of thing. Guybrush Threepwood had this covered in his games Secret of Monkey Island. Though most games do not do humour.

There are other aspects of life i use as my Muse, but they are too many to list here. Maybe i will get some time to write a sequel to this post, explaining more of my muses.

Till then, Good luck, and see the possibilities all around you, most going quietly unnoticed.

laters

A youtube video of Pixels ?

Yeah, i have gone for a strange post tonight, as all i have been doing is solving bugs in The Midway and tweaking enemy layouts for my first 5 levels of A Shooter. Both not realy easy to get across what i have been doing. However someone linked this video, which i think is ace, only not HD, bah!

Video link

Yup, i liked it anyways.

So i have been working on my next gameplay video, but the night has worn on, and i have not finished it, so i am a bit tardy. I have to sleep now cos i have to get up in about 6 hours to go to Physio therapy. Geez, it's a busy time.

Hope you all have a good one, cya tomorrow

G'night.

ps. I am still in mourning for the loss of Captain black :(

Captain Black was caught by the establishment

This is a quick update to our last story... It seems the establishment caught up with our secret agent Captain Black. We do not expect to hear from him again.

Secret agent No2 has been despatched to The Midway, we hope he will last longer than finding out about one game.

Good luck Agent No2.... (watch out for the clowns)

The Midway in PS3Home - Play to win Guide pt1 - Rebound

Hi,

My real name is unimportant but most people just call me Captain Black (cos i look like a puppet it seems!).

I am going to spill the beans on an upcoming title for Playstaion Home. Yeah, that's right. It isn't even out yet, and i am here giving the skinny on it. I will get you an inside guide each week till i have covered all the games within the Space called The Midway. My guides will help you win the prizes Faster and Cheaper than you ever though possible. We have to get what we can, before the man catches us.....

Todays game is called Rebound. It is a skill game based on timing a little light that goes up and down the backboard of a basketball backboard. The game is easy to find, as it is one of the brightest in The Midway.

Once you have located the game, go stand in front of it, and stop watching other people playing it. Their playing can be a distraction, and you want all your attention focused on the task at hand.

Here you see me staring down the games name. Now press X already and lets get this game going.

Now we have our game started let me tell you what you will see on the screen. The HUD (or heads up display), tells us many things. Well ok, all the important things for this moment in time.
1. In the top middle you willsee the game Timer. Once this has counted down the seconds, the game is over.
2. Bottom left you will see how many balls you have available to throw. Infinite in this game.
3. Bottom right you will see a nice counter. The top of which tells you how many points you need. The bottom number tells you how many points you have currently.

The aim of the game is simple. Throw those balls into the basket and rack up a score good enough to win that level, and then advance to the next level and the next prize offering.
The game is controlled by pressing the X button when the travelling light is in a good place. If you stop the light in the wrong place, you will miss the basket. So listen up and i will point out the SWEET spots for making basket after basket.

Sweet spot #1

Sweet spot #2

Those sweet spots are right next to each other, this llows you some slop in your timing. There is a couple of other spots that can get ya a basket, but stay away from them. concentrate on hitting right under the basket rim with each light.

If you follow those simple instructions you will get your prizes with a fast and furious style. And will see lots of these Winner displays.

Good luck, and next week i will tell you all about the Easiest game to win prizes at.

now shh.. I hear someone coming, and it may just be a clown.....

Level 10 is done for A Shooter

ok, so when i say 'done' i should use air quotes or something. what i mean is it is now in Alpha-Beta state :)

Either way, i now have the first half of the game created. Tonight i solved bugs in the single and multiplayer games. I added some niceties that i probably shouldn't have bothered with, but i like them.

for example.
When you play as a single player game, you start the game in the vertical middle. Seems correct now.
when you play as a two player game, you are both offset from the middle by a nice looking amount.
Three player games are the similar vein. One in the middle and two spread nicely out to the sides.
Well i like it, so i guess that is all that matters. Stupid professionalism. bah! costs me time ;)

Anwyay, i got level 10 in, and then decided to play through all the first 10 levels again. To my dismay i got beaten up on the Boss from level 8 again. This is the 3rd time in a row now he has manhandled me. I may have to change him. Or just practice him, lol.

Maybe i should do anotehr gameplay video of just how nasty he is. He is the one that fires a stream of trajectory bullets that number... 65. Yup, he rapidly fires 65 bullets at you. It's freakin cool!

I really need to sort the audio out better, but i guess it's just on my list. Which is actually quite a short list after tonight. Mostly i have 10 more levels to do. then balance them all together. So far, the first 10 are pretty good.

I'll do another video of what's going on real soon.
G'night.

Mass Media Reunion sort of

I had a wonderful weekend just gone. It was wonderful because of the people that were in it. It was also a two day event.

Saturday i had my colleagues leaving party at the local bowling alley. We were gonna do some cosmic bowling and lots of waffling. Some ex-workmates of mine turned up for the send off, and some current workmates. also my colleagues sister was there. It is a lively bunch of lovely people. I had a wonderful time hanging out and bowling left handed. I tried hard not to give any advice (my oldy wisdom haha). But had a great time re-connecting to this ex-wormates, but primarily friends. Love them all to bits and it showed me how much i miss them.

Sunday i was visiting my friends down in Chino Hills, it was his sons 6th birthday. It is amazing how fast time can fly. I got to hang out with their friends and family, who are all so freidnly and warm it is great. I also got to reconnect to some other ex-workmates. So that was another wonderful time. again, it shows me how much i like these people, and how easy they are to get along with. There was never a lull in conversation. I also met a few new people, one of which works for blizzard. That was another easy connection.

So my weekend was busy with coming into work for the submission stuf for the PS3Home, but i had such a good time with friends and new people.

Sometimes it is good to get out, and sort of get away from work.

Love y'all.
laters
oh, and Good luck to my colleague Rachel, who is as i type this travelling to the Big Apple. I wish her all the success it is possible to have.
cheers.

2 hours for nothing but a Minor Digg?

So i didn't get to post yesterday, Even though i have lots to post abuot. the reason was i spent about 2 hours trying hard to setup the digg button per post (as recommended by knowledgable types).

As you can see it still does not work. all Digg buttons are for the whole blog, which is no bad thing. Still... i want more darn it.

more blog posts coming later today.

laters