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

Plans And Possible Projects Of The Future

Now that I'm a college student, I need to carefully plan what other projects I'll be working on. I don't have all of this figured out yet, but I thought you all might like to know what I do so that you can at least guess how much longer this relative dry spell is going to last.

First, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get back to work on my Chiptune EP. Second, I've got a new album idea I'm thinking about. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work it into my schedule or how long it would be before it became officiated, but know that it's on the table. Third, I'm hoping that my webcomic creative juices keep flowing so that Cognitive Observation can become regular again. Fourth, Infiltrator will probably be going on hiatus. Infiltrator was a project that was mainly there for me to have fun trying to code and experiment with game development for the majority of its incarnations, so I kind of saw this as a likely ending for it from quite near the beginning. Fifth, I'm pondering the possibility of choosing 15 topics and doing a third Music Hacker season. This depends in part on my getting a better grip on my schedule, and in part on finding 15 topics I know I can do a good episode about. And last but not least, I'm not really not sure I'll be able to continue being a game analyst. Sure, I still love the medium, but since I don't have time to play games or spend enough time thinking about them to keep interesting content going, I just don't see a wealth of game design articles as a likely part of the content for the next while.

So yea, things are a bit up in the air right now. Thank you for bearing with me while I try to get this stuff sorted out.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #41

I know content has been a bit sparse. The way things have been going, keeping a weekly comic has been all that I can do. I finally have a way to work while I'm on campus, but we'll see what that leads to in terms of blog and YouTube content.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #40

I've had this strip in my head for quite awhile now. It speaks artistically to me on many levels, but I still think it's hilarious as all bork.

    --LazerBlade

College Get!

I started my college classes this week. I'm sure all of you are all dying to bug me with questions about what college is like, so here is something to save you all some time:

It was school. There were classes. With teachers, who taught things. There was homework.

With that out of the way, I can safely apologize for a lack of aricle content today without needed further excuse context. In accordance with the ritual I have formed around such occasions, here is a peace offering, consisting of another track from the Music Hacker OST:

    --LazerBlade