Direction In Game Design

When I was a kid I started several novels. I managed to finish only one of them, and that by gluing together several different pieces of writing I had done separately. I didn't fail because I couldn't handle the level of writing or storytelling required, and I didn't fail for lack of creativity. I failed because I would start and write half of a novel without knowing why. Once I was halfway through and directionless, the realization would hit me that everything up to that point had been nothing more than a bunch of disconnected ideas that I thought would be cool.

At this point, traditional wisdom dictates that I draw a connection with the reader by asking the question, "What does this have to do with game design?"

Why I Don't Love Fallout

I know it's not Saturday, and I know I've been inactive for weeks. I've been, like, busy, okay? I don't care about trying to stick to a set of specific set game analysis concepts to discuss anymore. I'm going to write about what I like, gun blammit. Maybe that way the content will somehow get less sporadic and stop bleeding to death.

Ahem.

So I've played a ton of Fallout: New Vegas. It scratches a few of my videogame itches really well. While it gives me a massage and provides me with mugs of melted dark chocolate to slurp. I definitely love the strategical aspects and the character building. I love exploring a big world full of interesting characters and choices. I love roleplaying different characters and having them all deal with these choices differently. I love the atmosphere, aesthetic, and depth of the game. But I don't like the original Fallout.

Chiptune EP Update

After a bit of deliberation within myself, I decided that my Chiptune EP would be stylistically modeled after the Commodore 64. This was partially due to the discovery of  bleep, an excellent VSTi that models the SID pretty well and has replaced Synth1 as my go-to Chpitune synth. All of the tracks on this EP will be recorded directly from bleep output, except for The Adventure Is Over, which is pure Synth1 output.

As you can see, I've got some nifty preliminary cover art. I've also come up with a rather fitting name for this EP, Beep Boop. The art was meticulously hand pixelled in GIMP by yours truly, including the 3D text, which was enjoyable.

I'm not sure how many tracks this EP will have or when it will be finished, but I know that 5 tracks is my upper limit and that I've got at least 1.5 of them done. Of course, I will keep everyone posted with any further progress.

    --LazerBlade