In which we punch the creepy Dr. Phil-esque guy. Because punching celebrity psychologists in the face, in a police station, during a kidnapping investigation / Verizon commercial is the thing to do.
Link (YouTube) |
The “bootlord” thing is a reference to Rutskarn’s LP of Dark Messiah. The kicking mechanic in that game was hilariously overpowered. (Or maybe just over-fun, in comparison to the rest of the gameplay?) So he spent a lot of the game kickin’ stuff.
At PAX this year, during the Q&A session at the Escapist Movie Night someone asked about Project Frontier. This is still a thing people ask about. Remember Project Frontier? That was this thing:
Link (YouTube) |
People ask me why I don’t work on it anymore. There are a lot of reasons, but the most important of which is: Because it was done.
It’s true that it wasn’t a game, and I occasionally talked and fantasized about making it into a game, but deep down my real driving goal was just to make my procedural generation ideas and prove they could work. I thought it might be nice if someone took an interest in the project later, and I always hoped it might lead to opportunity the way some of my other projects did, but at the heart of it was a desire to validate my ideas with a working proof-of-concept.
Once I’d gotten to the video above, I had 90% of what I was after. Sure, I could have done ten times more work to finish a game and get the other 10%, but I’m sure you can see why that route wasn’t particularly alluring. I had bills to pay and a book to finish, and so Frontier was shelved.
So almost exactly a year later, the programming bug has bitten again. I tried to ignore it so I could continue work on my next book. This resulted in me sitting with a blank look on my face, unable to write anything because I’d rather be programming. Which led to me closing the word processor and playing videogames, because I wasn’t getting anything done.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Octant Part 1: Introduction”
Link (YouTube) |
End of Episode 1.
I really have to hand it to Remedy. Their TV-shows-in-video-games are always a lot of fun. I remember stopping to listen to each episode of Lords & Ladies in the original Max Payne. While Dick Justice in Max Payne 2 was probably a better send-up, I liked the ridiculous contrst between Lords & Ladies and the Max Payne world. It was always funny to see that some murderous crime boss had a thing for sappy public television historical dramas.
I wonder if Rockstar is going to put a TV show in the background of Max Payne 3? That’s Remedy’s gimmick, but the shows are one of the elements of the Max Payne World. And it’s not like Rockstar is a stranger to pop-culture satire. Then again, maybe being set in Brazil kind of prevents this. If they lampoon Brazilian TV it might come off as mean-spirited. On the other hand, shoving American shows into the world of Sà£o Paulo might undercut the setting. Even if they watch a good bit of American TV, the average American gamer isn’t going to know that, and the result would feel off. (Kind of how an establishing shot in a movie will always show the strongest elements of the local culture, as opposed to a McDonald’s, even if they have McDonald’s there.)
End of Episode 1.
A while back, I sent a pile of signed copies of my book to The Escapist, and they’re now giving them away. Even if you’re not looking for a copy of the book, it might be worth taking the quiz. (I wrote it.)
Amazon.co.uk keeps selling out of The Witch Watch. This sounds like a brag, but the truth is they seem to only stock five copies at a time. Those sell right away, and then they’re “out of stock” for a month. So it’s not so much that Amazon.uk is selling a lot, they just don’t keep any on hand. Sorry. Nothing I can do about that.
On the other hand, I hear The Book Depository is a pretty good deal. Available in most countries, and free shipping.
Link (YouTube) |
That “The Shining” moment is a great illustration of how this game sets up something smart and then immediately blows it. In The Shining, the axe-through-the-door moment was one of terror and screaming. But here we have Alan Wake talking to us in his soothing voice as he points out the very obvious reference. How can I get emotionally invested in this scene, when the protagonist himself is so detached? Alan is just talking about what he’s seeing, which is like carefully explaining a joke before you deliver the punchline. It suddenly feels like the game designer is talking to me, and that he doesn’t think I’m very bright.
On the other hand, I think the narration works for the “adventure game” stuff. When we’re hanging around in town and talking to people it helps us get to know Alan. I actually really look forward to these sections.
Anyway, sorry for apologizing so much Mumbles. Including this one. No, that’s not true. I don’t apologize for this one. You’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with this apology. Sorry.
Link (YouTube) |
Geeze Alan. I hope you write better than you drive. Okay, so the manuscript pages are kind of stilted and awkward. Is this because:
Discuss.
Link (YouTube) |
In our meandering conversation, I took away this: This game was either intending to be scary and generally failed, or it created expectations of scary-ness that it never intended to fulfill.
One of the biggest sources of tension in Silent Hill 2 was that you never knew what to expect. The uncertainty creates doubt, which leads to a certain degree of suspense. It left you to figure things out for yourself. This flashlight explanation was not needed. Or if it was, it could have been reduced to a little text message like “aim the flashlight at the attacker”. I’m usually in favor of easing players into a game as carefully as possible, because learning under stress can lead to frustration. But this is one case where a little bit of confusion would have been fine.
The Ball of Light even greets you warmly. He’s friendly. He takes the time to say goodbye and lets you know you can have your dream back now, instead of just vanishing without explanation. He’s basically Alan Wake’s own personal Navi.
I like a lot of things about this game, but this opening is a major problem with regards to the tone it’s trying to set.
What does it mean when a program crashes, and why does it happen?
You know how videogames sometimes do that thing where it's preposterously hard to go through a simple door? This one is really bad.
A programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.
No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
There are two major schools of thought about how you should write software. Here's what they are and why people argue about it.
I teach myself music composition by imitating the style of various videogame soundtracks. How did it turn out? Listen for yourself.
This is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
An unhinged rant where I maybe slightly over-reacted to the water torture of Souls evangelism.
T w e n t y S i d e d
