T w e n t y S i d e d
Beckoning Chasm has moved into some new wordpress-driven diggs. If you’re the bookmarking sort, then I suppose this would be the point at which you update them.
He also has a few new posts in the Telephone Girl series, which I mentioned before.
The painting is a tough one. Now, aside from using fingerpaints as a child, I’ve never painted in my life, but I can still recognize the process he’s going through. I follow a very predictable cycle when undertaking a project, and I bet a lot of people will find this familiar.
- Enthusiasm: This is going to be my best project ever!
- Unease: Hm. This is getting tough.
- Dismay: This is impossible! It’ll never get it!
- Defeat: What a waste of time. I must destroy this project and erase all traces of it so that my lack of talent is never exposed to the world.
- Grim resolution: I’ve come this far. I might as well finish it, even if it sucks.
- Hope: You know, I’m starting to get it. I might pull this off after all.
- Elation: I did it!
- Hubris: That was easy! Next time I’ll do something twice as difficult!
I’m somewhere between steps 5 and 6 on my current project, which is making a character animation engine. (In videogames, this is what makes those 3d characters move and bend their limbs instead of sliding around like statues.) I enjoy it anytime I can see someone make it all the way #8.
How I Plan To Rule This Dumb Industry
Here is how I'd conquer the game-publishing business. (Hint: NOT by copying EA, 2K, Activision, Take-Two, or Ubisoft.)
Why Batman Can't Kill
His problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.
MMO Population Problems
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Tenpenny Tower
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.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Many, many thanks again for the kind words. There should be another Telephone Girl update later today (sessions four and five).
In the meantime, I’ve been taking out some frustrations with TG by making progress on another painting which even I’m starting to find disturbing. (It probably doesn’t help to have horror movies on in the background while working.)
I enjoyed reading this article. It seems that you are a great source of information. Keep them coming.
Geez, I always stop at #4. Maybe that’s the reason I’m such a loser?