My Life: In Transit

My original plan to post more often remains, but I've been busy actually improving my life instead, or at least making an effort. For one thing, I finally have a roommate! We seem to get along okay, so hopefully we can be friends with time, but at the very least my first financial problems are over.

Secondly, I had a bit of a...project this week. I can't get into the details, but it could really energize me, life-wise, should it work out. At the very least, I learned new skills I should have learned years ago, and as a result I discovered that enjoyed some artistic designs far more than I expected. As a result, I'm far more confident things could change for me sooner rather than later.

No luck on the relationship front, but at least I got to hang out with friends more often. I even did one of those bar trivia nights today. We won four out of seven rounds, but our final score was just a bit off of the gift certificates. But it was an impressive first showing.

Of course, the next two weeks will be busy for two other reasons. First, next Tuesday is election day. Will I say who I'm voting for here? No. I will say that I'm extremely nervous, though. I don't trust these things until the polls are closed. Secondly, Nanowrimo starts up on Saturday. I'm actually still not sure I even will do this year's National Novel Writing Month, what with all the busy changes and projects. But damn it, I'm gonna at least try. I'll get more on that one in a future post, though by definition it exceeds the "100 page maximum" rule of details. But I'll do what I can to talk about it.

My Ideas: The Distrubing Freudian Elements Not Included

All it took was one vision.

Earlier this year, I played Persona 3, which managed to inspire me creatively more than any game this year, at least until Megaman 9. Like Symphony of the Night and Final Fantasy Tactics in the generation before it, I made two conclusions after playing it. One, it was a seminal, exceptional game among the most fascinating I've ever played. Two, I could do better. I could, at the very least, try. Persona 3 combined two of the most addicting game genres; the self-improvement, dating game and the semi-random dungeon crawl. By alternating the two and making the success in one essential to improvement in the other, it increases the desire for the one you miss. The game's time limit loomed over continuously. You had a month of game-time to prepare for each inevitable boss and less than a year of game-time to not only beat the game, but maximize the relationships with as many people as possible.

But the game always defied both your assumptions about how much time you have and suspension of disbelief. In most of the game, you could improve relations both when people call you, asking you to hang out on weekends, but for months on end, near the end of the game, this option vanishes. Other times, you get even less of a warning; your month-long plan could be ruined when your dorm-mates force you into summer school, for example. Meanwhile, while your friends are perfectly free to call you whenever the game allows it, you can never call them. As for the relationships themselves, they were too primitive at best and frustrating at worst. The game encourages you to "max out" as many relationships as possible, except five of those relationships are with women you date, meaning you have to basically cheat your way through multiple girlfriends at a time to actually succeed, which is made even sleazier when three of them are dorm-mates and members of your party.

Apocryphal Junction was an attempt to create my own, semi-Westernized interpretation of the same concept. The first thing that had to go was the Persona series' use of mythological creatures, from demons to gods, as allies. I'm already hitting too close to home for my comfort; I couldn't steal that as well. I started working with other themed monsters while still maintaining my original plan to make monster relations the same as human ones. "Date a succubus" was part of the original concept, after all. I eventually decided on the four elementals (earth, fire, water, and air) and combined with a completely different origin than mythology. Instead, psychology ruled the world of this game, and creatures were a combination of one or more of the above elements and the four conflicting identifications of the Myers-Briggs test, which I had recently tried out myself at the time.

The game took place in a typical small town in America with the secret that parts of it (and all of the high school) actually inhabited the alternate plane of reality called Apocryphal Junction, an amalgam of many other planes absorbed into a much larger community. The Earth is being considered as a candidate towards joining this united society, which the characters and many other factions have to decide about. There is no guarantee that it's a good thing. As for the high school, its rooms are actually no physically connected. Instead, they are scattered across the other dimension, so leaving school from various rooms will get you to different locations in the Junction. This serves as one of the ways that having better relations will improve your abilities, as it gives you access to other rooms in the school after hours. Similar, having friends and/or lovers from the Junction with appropriate powers will let them help you travel faster; a friend with wings will let you fly over obstacles, for example.

The original concept was good, but it didn't pop. That didn't happen until I had a dream about a much older, harsher school located on a land mass separated from the area by chasms. From what I remember, the dream's school was built like an ancient building, with thick stone walls and noisy pipes everywhere. It even had an indoor pool that looked like something out of an ancient castle or mad scientist's lair. I won't even discuss the bathrooms.

The strange thing is that the school/castle was full of anachronisms. It had strange mechanical bridges it always was struggling to use and connect to the world, but it also had an anime club! It even had a strange underground tunnel to a modern mall. Now this was a mystery that needed solving. Why was this school separated from the real world and yet connected to Anachronism Junction? What did its administrators know and want from its students?

The game Anachronism Junction will use a real-time system. Instead of using a complex schedule, you watch minutes and hours pass as soon as school ends, and you can only accomplish as much as you can get to in time. This returns to the use of school power and alliances to move faster, and the dangerous terrain in both worlds makes the travel much more dangerous.

At the very least, that's all I got so far. A game this ambitious requires something a little more, but the sense is there. At the very least, I'd much rather explore this one than Cataclysm by now. But as always, suggestions are welcome. Oh, and I also have made a decision. Barring disaster or a much busier new job (I'll talk about that later,) I'll at least restart this thing on a weekly basis, even if the posts get more personal.

Reviews: Yaaay! Super Fighting Robot!

As everyone who reads this thing knows (all none of you,) much of my last few weeks/months have, by and large, SUCKED. I am still panicking about my missing roommates, I lost money in a scam (and I just learned that the police have more or less given up on pursuing any potential crime, so I guess it's time to find a good lawyer for the civil lawsuit,) I'm depressed about being always single, and so on. But as much as my life sucked, the world occasionally does something that nonetheless makes me happy. For example, two weeks ago, Capcom released Megaman 9.

Megaman 9 is a sequel of one of the most sequelized series of the last 20 years. There were six games for the original NES, one (and a half) for the Super Nintendo, and one for the Playstation. And that's just the original series! There were eight games in the X spin-off series, two and a half for the Legends series (ironically, the only 3D series,) and four spin-offs that produced another 20 or so games. Also, there were two arcade-based fighting games and even a soccer game.

But despite all the sequels, most people think that of all the 30 or so games, the entire series peaked at around games...2 or 3. Oh, there are individual popular games, but many of the later series and the later games of the original series are considered to be formulaic at best, lazy at worst. New characters and options were though to be prioritized over balanced game play. So as the series stagnated and Capcom worried that the series' profitability was failing, they tried something new; they tried something old.

Megaman 9 was intended to go back to the roots, when the series was at its most celebrated. The graphics are intentionally as simplistic as the original Megaman 2, there are no elaborate cut scenes or tons of secrets to explore, and even Megaman staples like the abilities to slide and charge your attacks were removed. Instead of releasing the game in stores, it was downloadable for every of the current three systems. And the game's only $10, about a fifth of what the original Nintendo games cost, but since it cost about 1% of what a modern, triple AAA game with state-of-the-art graphics costs, it's probably a good deal for them.

But enough about the business side, what about my stance of the game. After all, one of my first posts was about me and my deep love of the series, which more than any series inspired me to be a game designer. So I was wary, despite of course getting the game on day one.

And I LOVE it. After playing it for weeks now, I beat the game three times and am working through the game's achievements (which we'll get to later.) Now, as a huge Megaman fan, I loved many of the later games, even the ones often derided by others. But playing this one helped me realize just how polished some of the peak games were. It also is easily the hardest game in the series, at least since the original, but it's fair enough to earn it. Case in point, some of my first experiences with levels was one of utter horror-spikes everywhere, enemies that dropped you into pits if you get hit once, and the horror that is the spinning platforms of Tornadoman. But after playing through it a few times, I feel like an expert. The game teaches you, and you will learn. Even the boss fights are perfect. Without the right weapon (this game, like nearly every Megaman game, has a series of weapons you earn from defeating bosses and a cycle of weaknesses, so each of the eight main bosses has a weakness to another bosses' weapon,) a boss fight is always hard enough that it's nearly impossible to beat it flawlessly, but it can fairly be defeated with some luck and enough skill.

This game captured my love of the series all over again. Every level felt like a gift, every challenge an inspiration. This is a game I will play again repeatedly and study. This is a game that, if you understand it well enough, will make you a better designer.

And the game is not all about nostalgia and pure game design. There are some concessions to new features. In time, you can download new characters and features, and while there are complaints that you have to pay for something as minimal as harder difficulties, the basic concept is welcome. The other addition are achievements for tasks as simple as beating the game once to complex one likes beating it under a certain amount of time, killing all types of enemies, defeating bosses using only your default weapon, or even beating the game without ever dying or taking damage!

Oh, there are some complaints. While the graphics are deliberately primitive, the music doesn't even live up to the standards of the old games. They're fine technically, but none are as catchy as the classics like Airman, Flashman, and the first Dr. Wily's Castle music from Megaman 2, which was so good lyrics were added to it and turned it into a Japan-wide phenomenon, complete with full orchestras or rock concerts (just search okkusenman on youtube. Trust me.) Second, there are some later additions tot he series that I did like. The slide and charged weapon are largely unnecessary here, but they still feel iconic to me. I even wish Bass, Megaman's rival who wasn't introduced until Megaman 7, showed up. If nothing else, I love his music, which brings us back to the first point.

The only other issue is, well, incredibly stupid. In Megaman 2, which is the game this is most modeled after, when you select a level, there is a brief introduction showing that level's boss around a starscape. If you press a certain button, there is an easter egg where the stars turn into little birds. In Megaman 9, you get the boss intro and the starscape, but no easter egg! Why? Why disappoint my fingers every time it instinctively makes birds?

So if we’re still doing this thing, I’d definitely give the game an A+. If you like action games, platformers in general, anything from the NES era, and especially anything Megaman-related, this is a must buy.

My Life: Is In Panic Mode

My life continues as normal. If by "normal," I mean I'm terrified out of my wits, or at least anxiety beyond belief. Most of my problems are ongoing. Still no girlfriend and crappy social life? Meh, I'm used to it. I hate it, but it's not immediate. Job not creative fullfilling? Also true, but not really problematic so much as dispiriting.

My main problems are financial, actually. My roommate was only here for a summer internship. In late August, he went back to school and I'm alone again. That was convenient at first, but now I live in a two-bedroom apartment while only using one bedroom. In other words, my rent just doubled. And I can't afford to pay for this for long.

So my hunt for a roommate continues. I tried Craigslist, but so far all I got were spam from people in other countries, claiming they want to live here but looking for a convenient banking scam. Roommates.com worked for me last May, but so far it's only come up short, and this one costs money for failing. And I'm not quite sure what else is even out there. There are a few other things to try. I'll look at both the apartment complex's own laundry room and the local libraries, and I heard some theories about trying Fermilab's newsletter. But I'm not sure what Plan C is here. And what happens if I can't find it? I have few options, none looking good. I may have to start hunting for single-bedroom apartments, which could take forever and lead to an inconvenient and costly move, and the whole thing still costs more than my normal apartment when I have a roommate. Beyond that, things look even more dire. What'll I do? Find a new job even though I couldn't for years? MOVE IN WITH MY PARENTS?

You can see I'm nervous here. If anyone actually reads this still, I really could use advice here. Do you have interested people? Are you interested? Do you simply have new ideas to search? Let me know. The place isn't bad here. I'm a nice, quiet roommate, the place is under $500 a month in a nice neighborhood, and nearly the entire place is already furnished. Well, that's about it. I'll write about the short story I'm working on later, but this is really not the right time for me, mentally.

My Ideas: A Game About Time, Which I Have So Little Of

I'm running out of my obvious ideas, but I won't stop this blog until at least I complete entries for all qualifying games of the original sixteen. Today we will cover Epoch, another game created in my college era and another of my "character" driven games, a classification more historical than accurate compared to my modern ideas.

Anyway, the concept itself is much easier to explain. The game revolves around time travel, though technically the main character travels back in time only once. The initial setting is an alternate Earth in the near future. Technology levels are actually all over the place. There are space stations, but space exploration is otherwise minimal, robotics technology is little better than it is for us, and society itself is mostly unchanged. On the other hand, government-run bio-engineering is the standard for some careers, including the use of biological energy weapons. Oh, and they created a prototype time machine.

The last one becomes useful immediately when aliens invade the planet. Their invasion force is overwhelming, but the people of this world had a chance at least of repelling it until it was discovered that more of the aliens lived under the surface of the planet, breeding and developing for millions of years. The combined force of the two armies attacking from opposite sides proved too much, and the planet was doomed immediately.

Fortunately, they had the time machine. Unfortunately, it was currently in a space station under attack by the aliens, and the entire original crew for the ship was dead. Instead, the only person who reached the machine without mortal wounds is Aurora "Aurie" Oliverio, a bio-engineered cop turned police detective. She readily agreed to the mission to save her planet, but her C+ level knowledge of history won't help, especially as the history books she took with her were blasted out of the time machine just as she left, causing them to be lost throughout the past.

Aurie's mission is two-fold and initially simple. The machine will take her to nine distinct time periods, including the one she just left, and spend two years in each one. In those two years, she has to use whatever help she can get from the locals to find any underground alien strongholds and destroy them. The time machine is immobile in the first three dimensions, so she will have to rely on each time period's transportation; thus, each later time period gives her a wider range she can explore. On the other hand, the strongholds get stronger with time, so the earlier she can find ways to destroy them, the better.

But that's the easy part of her mission, and her I have to make a convession about my design methodology; I have a strong tendency to overkill my concepts. This game is the best example of this. In addition to the alien strongholds, Aurie has to worry about the time stream itself. Due to a convenient quirk in quantum mechanics, Aurie, the time machine, and everything else in it are "paradox-proof" and thus can't be rendered nonexistent should Aurie, for example, kill her own grandparents. Everything else can be affected, so Aurie could alter the course of history, setting it back millennia or advancing it so the world she ends up with is advanced beyond her own comprehension. It's up to her to determine if she should make the world more advanced, even if it means unmaking everything and everyone she knows. Making matters worse are the risks of her screwing up due to her own ignorance and the aliens, should they learn of Aurie's success in destroying their bases, and their own plans to drive that civilization back.

So you can see why it would be a tough game to make. Even with the limitations I set, like limiting each era to only two or three major variants and using a reincarnation system that lets some playable characters potentially exist in multiple eras and circumstances, that's a lot of planning. It gets even worse when it factors in game play. There are obvious ramifications; for example, available weapons and armor changes based on the technology level Aurie helps civilization reach. I introduced other complexities as well, though. For example, Aurie can choose to invite people into her time machine and jump to later eras, which will remove them from their earlier historical roles, or even become romantically attached to some of them. Aurie and other time machine users get power ever era from satellites she launched at the start of her journey. The satellites absorb power for thousands of years and let these users, who synchronize with their power over the years, use special attacks at times. However, if she lets people stay behind, they can leave descendents with all the powers of their ancestors, plus enhancements due to generations of development. It makes for a tough decision for every character.

And the character focus is what makes this game qualify for the "character" category. Part of that is thanks to Aurie herself, which I arguably consider my first character with a real voice. Sarcastic, cynical beyond her years, and pragmatic even when casual, she remains well aware that the mission well out of her league, but she perseveres anyway. I planned on giving the player many ways to develop her, from chances for her to mature as she ages (remember, she gets 18 years older by the end of the game; when's the last time you saw a video game character, or at least an adult female, age?) There are even amusing quirks; she starts out a heavy smoker well aware that she'll spend years in time periods before her addiction of choice wasn't even invented, and she can either grow manic trying to speed the process along or learn to cut back or quit.

I could even imagine the ads. Many of them were "what if she had to fix our world" hypotheticals, where she would suddenly appear at, say, the Gettysburg address or next to Genghis Khan, and she would either completely ignore them while preparing to attack a nearby alien den or calm recite a list of instructions to the legends of the past, happily apathetic to their growing outrage or terror. It would have been beautiful.

The other characters were less developed, at least by the time when I stopped working on the design document, but it inspired me to grow up thematically at the least. Potential storylines included a years long, Columbus-style voyage by sea where Aurie traveled with one of the few historical figures she both admired and knew about, only to watch her disappointment as she learned of his faults. It explored the consequences of war and its aftermath, and it offered countless versions of the idealism versus realism moral debate, like whether it was right to let an evil tyrant rise to power if it meant preserving history. It featured my first gay and bisexual characters. Hell, the game even featured an alternate-planet version of Jesus! This was an old idea, and it's definitely one that that needs revision before I even could get started again, but I'd love to give it the treatment it deserved one day. All I would need is time.

My Life: Needing a Vacation From Vacations

On one hand, I feel like a jerk for complaining about what I'm about to complain about. On the other hand, this has not been a good month for planning, preparation, or advancement of my life. Of course, it is summer, so some of this should be expected.

I'm talking vacations, from my home and/or my normal life. I had the Wisconsin Dells/wedding extravaganza at the beginning of the month. I had one normal-ish week. I then had Gen Con last weekend, lasting from Wednesday until Sunday. And then today I went to the Renaissance Faire. Well, that covers all the normal things I like doing in the summer. I just wish it didn't all happen on one day.

We'll start on the vacations themselves. Gen Con went well after nearly going horrifically. Our badges and all event tickets were lost in the mail. So we (me and my father, this being our annual vacation together,) drove all the way to Indianapolis before we could even know if we could get replacements. And if my dad didn't talk to someone higher up that promised we could get the tickets printed, we wouldn't have. What made that especially infuriating is that it was all their fault; there was an error in their web site that erased our addresses. So we could have had a Gen Con without events, which would have been...

Ah, but I probably should explain what Gen Con is, huh? It's a gaming convention and one of the biggest "geek conventions" in the country; probably the biggest before Comic Con went insane and Penny Arcade got involved. Primarily, it's for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, but it includes every popular game. Board games, card games, and all kinds of miniatures are also included, as are anime, video game competitions, costume concepts, and one big ass exhibit hall. It's heaven. Well, it's heaven when you have event tickets, because otherwise you're out of luck and have no chance of getting any games you actually want to play. Also less than heavenly was the Colts, a local Indianapolis sports team, opening their new stadium on the same weekend. So it was 30,000 geeks and 70,000 Colt fans in the same 3 block area. The city's lucky it's not on fire.

Today was something simpler. An hour and a half of driving and a friend of mine and I traveled 500 years into the past, or at least an alternate one with freezers and flushable "privvies." Nonetheless, even if the people weren't, the setting at least emulated authenticity. Electricity was in short supply save for the occasional food hut and indoor light, making the woods the Ren Faire is located mostly in as entrancing as most of its guests would want. Okay, many jokes were made at the "Ye olde pizzae store" and the inexplicable ability to get tempura in medieval Europe, but it was close enough, damn it! An early start meant we could see more of the shows than I have for years, from close seats to the local comedic swordsmen to the mud show. Mine you, just because I could see a grown man eat mud doesn't mean I don't want to unsee it, but I knew the risks. And I watched a joust. But I always watch a joust.

Well, it was fun, certainly, but now I'm pooped. And now I have a lot of things to think about. I have no new job coming up, which means no new apartment or plans to move to the city. I also have no roommate as of yesterday, so I have about a week to find a new one or this will also become a problem. For now, though, I'll try to enjoy the parts of summer that were nice. And get over the parts that remain utter bull shit. But I'll have to deal with those soon enough as well.

My Life: That's About It, Just My Life

I'll do a full "My Ideas" update this weekend, at least according to plan. For now, I'll just focus on how things have been for this week. It was...a busy one.

Wednesday! The last night before a vacation. Laundry was done. This...is why I don't do a daily blog about my life. Though, really, who can? Even Neil Gaiman has "Today I folded my underwear" times.

Thursday! This is more like it. My family went to visit Wisconsin Dells as part one of a trip to Minnesota for a wedding. The assumption was that since we had to travel for hours anyway, we might as well leave a day early and enjoy a water park. So we did. I was going to go with my parents because carpool is econominic and environmentally friendly, and who wants to drive for three hours when you can sleep and listen to your iPod.

My parents planned to get to my apartment and leave around 9:30-10. About 11:30, we left. I did additional laundry around 10, because I know my family. About the time we left my town, my brother, sister-in-law, and niece, who live much further away south than us, told us they already hit Wisconsin.

Friday! This was "Do everything you can in the Dells" day. We planned to get an early start and then do everything. We finished breakfast around 11 am. Again, I know my family. Afterwards, he did the Ducks for the first time. The Ducks, for those who don't know, are former military vehicles capable of going on land or sea and now mostly used for these sort of tours. That was fun, at least for my two year old niece. Afterwards, my parents took the toddler for nap and other activities, letting the "young-ish" adults have their fun. It was the first time I hung out with my brother like that in a long time, and arguably the first time I could just hang out with my sister-in-law Rose for almost an entire day. It was fun. Even if I was a bit of a third wheel in romantic terms, it was comfortable. Best of all, it was a real friendship. It's not hard to love your family members, but just having fun being with them is a rare thing, especially the ones you don't grow up with.

Saturday! Not so uplifting. More depressing really, which is not a good sign since that was the wedding. The wedding was 3 pm. We had a four hour drive. We left about 11:30. My fam...eh, you get it. It wasn't too bad. We had to stop at our hotel for a desperate clothes change, and in the end we were 15 minutes or so late. It could have been worse. We missed the introduction of the wedding, but we caught the vows, which was really the point.

The reception, on the other hand, was not the slightest bit enjoyable for me. It was all my introversion issues coming together with the always pleasant experience of being a single, dateless person at an expression of perfect love between two theoretical soul mates. When I was just hanging out with the usual extended family members and food consumption, it didn't matter. And I actually found the best man's speech to be interested (mostly because I gave the one for my brother and was eager to compare,) but by the time we got to the photos of the family, I started getting a vague and increasingly despairing feeling of isolation. I started to fear, or even grudgingly accept, that I won't ever get that experience. No happy montage of me with the woman of my dreams by my side; no little quotes on the wedding programs about how I'm special and what about me makes her happy and visa versa.

And then the dancing. Oh, Lonny, the dancing. I already dislike dancing, being shy, awkward, and having no experience or natural rhythm whatsoever. But what people don't realize is that I don't mind dancing. I'd LOVE to dance when I have someone to dance with. But I had nobody, so watching everyone, from married cousins years younger than me to older couples with decades of experience, was too much. I literally had to leave the room and couldn't go back. I never came that close to a public nervous breakdown, at least not recently. It wasn't so bad, though; I calmed down later that night, and nothing permanent resulted. But it was pretty scary.

Sunday! We drove back. Except for the fact this took seven hours, it wasn't so bad.

Monday-Wednesday! Work, writing, yabbade yabbade.

Thursday! Today was a bit anticlimactic compared to this weekend, but it was notable. The big thing about today was a friend who was stranded in another state and who needed for me to wire some money. That wasn't a big deal, except that it took TWO HOURS for me to call and get the money wired. The lesson here is that if you want to use Western Union, do so in person or online. Otherwise you have to wait for someone to call for your validation, which takes forever, and if you call to check on it they send you to the back of the list again, so you never know when you actually can give your increasingly hungry and desperate friend enough money for food and gas. It was a rough night, in other words, and I was late for my writer's group as a result. But at least I could do a nice thing, and even if no good deed goes unpunished, it felt nice to at least make someone else's day less unpleasant.