Tag: video games

You have no idea…

…how happy this makes me:

At some point this year, I want to put together an album of original 8-bit music. I don’t really care if it’s good or not, I just want to do it. Apparently, there’s a growing chip tune scene, mostly centered around New York and Tokyo. I saw this documentary the other day about it, and it looks really awesome.

The only thing is, I have no idea where to start. A lot of these guys use the actual NES and Game Boy hardware…yeah, I don’t think I’ve got the technical knowledge for that. But some kind of music editing program…are there any good freeware ones out there? I don’t have a lot of money to drop on this, though hopefully that’ll change soon…

Anyhow, this post is mostly to say that 8-bit music is awesome, and I want to start writing and composing it soon.  Expect to hear more about this in the future.

Confessions of a delinquent blogger

Man, so much has been happening, but now that I’m working an eight to five job, I never have the time to blog about it.  It’s 2am and I’m running on only four hours of sleep from the previous night.  Oh well, it’s a weekend.  Here goes.

I passed the 50k mark for the rewrite of Mercenary Savior. I’m surprised how much I’m changing the draft.  I’m especially finding a lot of slow chapter beginnings and thinly veiled expository lumps–not of scene descriptions so  much as  worldbuilding.  Gotta remember the iceberg concept (to only include about ten percent or less of your worldbuilding in your story’s narrative).

I interviewed a few more people for the article on the “class that wouldn’t die.” Good stuff, all around.  I met with Cara O’Sullivan today, and she had a very interesting comment about why there are so many LDS writers of science fiction and fantasy.

In her opinion, Mormon literary culture tends to push the more talented writers into sf&f because of the extreme lack of freedom in other genres of LDS writing.  In mainstream and literary LDS fiction, there are so many expectations for the writers: for example, that the story will have a clear message, or that it will contain a certain brand of Mormon sentimentalism, etc.  In science fiction and fantasy, OTOH, there’s much more freedom; therefore, LDS writers tend to gravitate that way.

I also had a phone interview for the wilderness job last Thursday.  I think it went well, but we’ll find out at the end of the month, I suppose.  Questions that caught me off guard include: “how do you define success?” and “how would you respond to something you heard secondhand about an employee from another shift?”

Finally, I recently got hooked on an old abandonware DOS game called Princess Maker 2. It is so freaking awesome. Basically, you are the father of this ten year old girl, and you have to raise her from childhood to adulthood.

There are so many possible ways to do this: build her fighting skills and send her on adventures, build her artistic skills and have her win dancing/painting contests, build her refinement and send her to court to build her social reputation, etc etc.  There are over 70 different possible endings, including some really weird and crazy ones!

And yes, I know, it seems strange that I’d go for a game this girly–but dude, you have no idea until you try it out.  It’s like being a father, but with magic and knights and dragons and stuff!  So totally awesome!

The flipside is that I spent almost the entire day playing this game.  Yeah…still got in 2.5k words, but I was hoping to put in somewhere around 6k or 7k.  Man, I haven’t been this addicted since Alpha Centauri. Will it last?  I don’t think it will, but then again, I don’t know.  The bigger question is whether this is a game I can play in moderation (like Star Control II).  I certainly hope it is, but I don’t know.

In the meantime, I’ve got five weeks to write 70k words.  Lets go!

Forward to new ground

A couple days ago, I finished writing through the material I’d written for Worlds Away From Home back in 2008 before I dropped the project.  For the first time since March, I find myself drafting entirely new material.

It’s a little bit unnerving; I’m a much better reviser, I feel, than straight up writer.  Revising is awesome because I know that the book is getting better, whereas drafting is frustrating because the written story never turns out as awesome as it was when it was in my head.

At the same time, it’s really fun to play fast and loose with your book.  Need a new character?  Throw him in!  A new romantic subplot?  Go for it!  A new planet for the characters to visit?  Sure, why not?

I will say, though, that it’s much harder to keep up a steady writing rate when you’re drafting new material.  My daily word count has fallen to about 2k, give or take a few hundred words.  In order to finish this by August 15, I just need to do 2.2k per day, but I’m sure something will come up and I’ll find myself in a crunch by the end.

One thing that might throw a kink in the works is getting a new job.  Being underemployed really sucks, and I want to move on to a new job by the beginning of August.  Easier said than done in this economy, right?  Well, there are some options open to a young, single college grad in my position: namely, a wilderness job.  I’ve been holding out on that because eight days in the wilderness for every six days off seems like a lot of time away from other pursuits, but the more I look at it, the more appealing it seems.  Six days completely off, with no money problems…hmm…

Which reminds me: would it be lame to put up a donate button on this blog?  One that said “buy me a (non-alcoholic) drink” or something like that?  I don’t want to ask for money, but if you guys feel like throwing it at me, who am I to hold you back?  I don’t expect it to earn much, but something is better than nothing, especially these days.

An interesting concept

Last night, I was hanging out with a friend of mine and a couple of girls in the apartment complex where I currently live.  We got to talking about books, and one of the girls said something really interesting:

Every book needs to have one thing that the main character knows that the reader doesn’t know, and one thing that the reader knows that the main character doesn’t know; otherwise, it’s too boring.

That’s a fascinating concept.  I know that both things are important, but I’ve never connected them together.

When the reader knows something that the main character doesn’t, it can make for great suspense.  A good example of this is this scene from Xenogears, when the characters are trying to hunt down a monster in the sewers (skip to 6:37):

It’s harder to pull off having the characters withhold information from the readers, but it can be done. I think a good example of this is the scene from Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back when the Millenium Falcon arrives at Bespin and C3PO gets shot:

Granted, nothing really vital is withheld here, since by this point Master Yoda has seen Luke’s friends in danger, and Bobba Fett has clearly followed them to Bespin–but the audience still doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, and so it creates suspense.

In terms of Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient, this would definitely fall under the “information” component of stories. In Brandon Sanderson’s class (and in my own reading), I’ve focused a lot on character, setting (milieu), and plot (event), but I haven’t thought a lot about information.

I wonder how my own novels measure up to this principle. Let’s see…

In Genesis Earth, there are a lot of things that Michael and the reader doesn’t know, but not much that one knows and the other doesn’t. There are, however, quite a few things that Terra knows that the reader doesn’t. Those all come out in the middle, though. In terms of information withheld from the reader, I suppose you could count Terra’s feelings for Michael, in the buildup before the climax, but that’s about it.

In Mercenary Savior, the reader knows a TON of stuff that James doesn’t know–it’s a major source of the suspense in that novel. In terms of things the characters know that the reader doesn’t, there’s much less, but I can think of a few things Danica knows that are kept mysterious until a key climax. Those aren’t foreshadowed until maybe 50 or 100 pages before the reveal, but I suppose it still counts.

Thinking WAY back to my first practice novel, Ashes of the Starry Sea (which I will probably never publish), there is, again, a TON of stuff the reader knows that the characters don’t. Basically, every character is clueless in some crucial way, and the resulting comedy of errors drives the plot. In terms of information withheld from the reader, though, there’s not as much. There is a point where Ian runs off without an explanation, but I’m not sure if that’s just my own poor writing. I could probably pull it off in a revision, but I don’t know when or if that will ever happen.

So yeah, I suppose I’ve done that in my own writing. I suppose it’s much easier to do this in third person, however–Genesis Earth is entirely in first person, and there isn’t anything Michael thinks about that the reader doesn’t see. He is an unreliable narrator at times, but he’s not the character withholding the information–and if he was, I don’t think it would have worked very well.

In any case, it’s a very interesting principle. I’ll have to keep it in mind.

Newsvomit

Alright, before I collapse from exhaustion and call it a night, here’s what’s up.

Today, I wrote more than 3k words in the revision of Bringing Stella Home (I’m going to change that title soon–I’ve got a new working title, but I don’t know what I think about it).  The whole time, though, it felt as if I was pulling teeth.  I was constantly distracted with one thing or another, and didn’t feel productive at all.  Blegh.

Tomorrow, all that momentum I built up today will probably start to kick in. Unfortunately, I’ve got so much other crap to do instead.  I’m flying out to Utah early Wednesday morning, so I’ve got to pack, do laundry, get a father’s blessing, finish as much schoolwork from Washington Seminar as possible (aka finish the portfolio)…the list keeps going.  It’s going to be a hectic day.

Anyways.  In unrelated news, Duke beat Butler by a measly two points.  The game was so epic even my parents watched it.  Somewhere in an alternate universe, Butler made the half-point shot as the clock ran out.  I’m thinking life must be a lot more exciting in that alternate universe.

In news unrelated to the unrelated news, I found something awesome on the internets last night: the end theme from Jurassic Park for the game gear!!  

Ah, the memories. The beautiful, 16-bit memories.

In other, somewhat related news (related to the writing, that is), I have a new working title for my novel: Mercenary Savior. What do you think? I kind of like it, but it feels like something is missing–something like Mercenary Savior to a ______, or Mercenary Savior in a _____ universe. I dunno.

My dear, trusted alpha readers, what do you think?

FF6 Werewolf Tribute: fifth day

[NOTE: this is part twelve in a series of posts lifted from the quark message boards where I recently GM’d a game of Werewolf.  The theme was Final Fantasy 6, one of my favorite RPGs.  To see the other posts in the series, click here.

WARNING: there will be spoilers here, and lots of them, so if you haven’t played Final Fantasy 6, do yourself a favor and play the game before reading on!]

Shafts of light from deep within Kefka’s tower break through as the walls and floors begin to break apart. With Kefka dead, all magic passes from the world in a great and tremendous storm. The magicite shards of the Espers disintigrate into thin air. Kefka’s tower, held aloft only by magic, begins to collapse.

Cyan makes a mad dash for the Falcon, but when he gets there, he realizes that without Setzer to pilot it, he’s lost. The upper floor of the tower collapses into ruin, and Cyan falls with the Falcon to his death.

At least he dies knowing that he helped save the world from annihilation.

The “innocents” lynch Drakon, the last surviving innocent!

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the tower…

SHADOW (to INTERCEPTOR): Go on, Interceptor. Take care of yourself, boy…

SHADOW (to self): Relm, Strago…….it looks like I can finally stop running…

With everything collapsing all around him, Shadow leaps from the highest parapet of the collapsing tower, falling to the earth, to his death…

But as he falls, a familiar presence envelops him…the presence of a young girl, barely ten, and an older girl, not entirely human…

With the last of her ebbing magic, the ghost of Terra wraps her glowing arms around Shadow’s body and lowers him gently to the ground. The ghost of Relm, who has followed Shadow through the power of the Momento Ring which he wears, summoned the Esper girl’s spirit to his rescue. With the last of her strength, she saves him and gives him a chance at a new life.

With Kefka’s evil, draining presence gone from the world, the clouds begin to break up, allowing the sun to shine through once more. Life and color returns to the ruined world, and with it, hope…for life, love, hope, and the promise of rebirth.

Before Relm’s spirit departs to the Phantom train with the others, her presence lifts the darkness from Shadow’s troubled heart. He takes off his mask and resolves to return from his self-imposed exile from the world and leave his dark past behind…forever.

Victory for the Assassin!

PLAYER ROLES:

Avulsion: MAFIA
Baggins: NECROMANCER (Bannon)
Barigirl: INNOCENT (Edgar)
Caysyka: INNOCENT (Sabin)
CptSqweky: INNOCENT (Gau)
Drakon: INNOCENT (Cyan)
Drek: DETECTIVE (Terra)
Fredward: INNOCENT (Celes)
Jerle: MAFIA
Locke: INNOCENT (Locke)
Lunesar: MAFIA RECRUIT (Setzer)
Onlera: ASSASSIN (Shadow)
PharaohsQueen: INNOCENT (Relm) DL ASSASSIN
sunstarr12: MAFIA
ZeroMoon17: INNOCENT (Strago)

FF6 Werewolf Tribute: fifth night

[NOTE: this is part eleven in a series of posts lifted from the quark message boards where I recently GM’d a game of Werewolf.  The theme was Final Fantasy 6, one of my favorite RPGs of all time.  To see the other posts in the series, click here.

WARNING: there will be spoilers here, and lots of them, so if you haven’t played Final Fantasy 6, do yourself a favor and play the game before reading on!]

The battle continues…

The four friends come to the second tier of Kefka’s monument to nonexistence–a pillar of half-embodied beasts and humans, melded together in chaos. Cyan, Sabin, and Shadow prepare to fight the terrible monster, but a glossy-eyed look comes over Setzer, and he holds back…

SETZER: Phew… I don’t know if I have it in me anymore…

CYAN: What are you saying?!

SETZER: I’m just a gambler… I just want to be left alone… This
world is too chaotic for me. What’s worse, I’ve lost my wings…

SABIN: But before the world collapsed you fought with all your heart!
You were absolutely fearless…

SETZER: That was then… We can never have that world back!

Setzer’s eyes roll back in his head, and he reaches for his magical cards, but before he can turn on his friends, a shuriken strikes him square in the face, right between the eyes! Blood trickling across his pale skin, mingling with his silver hair, he falls end over end to the Earth below, dead.

Assassin kills Lunesar, a mafioso!

Working together, Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow defeat the monsters of the second tier of Kefka’s monument, and progress to the third. Shrouded in clouds, this one consists of a decapitated goddess’s head floating above a muscular, reclining man, surrounded by torches. The three survivors fight long and hard, but the monsters refuse to give way.

In desperation, Shadow throws one of his skeans at the decapitated head, and it shatters into a thousand pieces–but a magical implosion sends out a shockwave that knocks Sabin off of his feet and sends him careening to the ground, far, far below.

Assassin kills Caysyka, an innocent!

Alone, Cyan and Shadow rise above the destruction to face…FINAL KEFKA.

Angel wings sprout from his back, and his skin has turned a pale, sickly purple from unnatural levels of infused magic. His face is contorted into a permanent smile, and his eyes are pale and lidless. His muscles bulge with pure energy, and every movement seethes with hatred.

KEFKA: Life… Dreams… Hope… Where did they come from?
Where are they headed? These things… I am going to destroy!

At the sound of his voice, despair floods over the minds of the two surviving warriors, pulling them down, urging them to give up and die. But deep inside their hearts, hope shines through the darkness, hope for a new and better world, compelling them forward! They have long since given up every care for their own lives. Now, they fight on for the memory of those they love–and the love of those who still live!

Kefka readies his final attack, the consummation of his depraved monument, the explosion of pure magic that will annihilate all existence forever…

KEFKA: The end comes… beyond chaos.

At that moment, Cyan leaps into the air, and with a mighty, piercing scream, hurls the Atma Weapon at Kefka with all his strength!

Kefka screams and disintegrates into a thousand pieces!

PLAYERS:

All dead, except:

Drakon
Onlera

DAY

FF6 Werewolf Tribute: fourth day

[NOTE: this is part ten in a series of posts lifted from the quark message boards where I recently GM’d a game of Werewolf.  The theme was Final Fantasy 6, one of my favorite RPGs of all time.  To see the other posts in the series, click here.

WARNING: there will be spoilers here, and lots of them, so if you haven’t played Final Fantasy 6, do yourself a favor and play the game before reading on!]

Sabin, Setzer, and Cyan make their way to the Falcon, an airship that Setzer reconstructed many years ago for a friend. On their way, they meet up with Shadow, who offers his assistance. He, too, has decided that with nothing left to lose, the only course of action that makes sense in this ruined world is to take on the godlike Kefka.

Using the Falcon, the party makes an aerial drop on Kefka’s tower and fights their way through a series of impossible traps and monsters. Working together, they make their way through, until finally, at the heart of the hellish dungeon, they come face to face with…KEFKA.

KEFKA: Welcome, friends! I knew you’d make it here, so I’ve prepared
some suitable entertainment for you!

CYAN: How long are you going to let the destruction continue?

KEFKA: I’ve tapped into the ultimate power. Observe…!

Kefka levitates Setzer.

KEFKA: Such magnificent power! You are like insects to me!

Kefka lifts Shadow into the air with his magic and throws him against a wall.

KEFKA: I will exterminate everyone, and everything!

SABIN: People will keep rebuilding the things you take from them.

KEFKA: Then I’ll destroy those too. Why do people rebuild things they
know are going to be destroyed? Why do people cling to life when they
know they can’t live forever? Think how meaningless each of your
lives is!

CYAN: It’s not the net result of one’s life that is important. It’s
the day-to-day concerns, the personal victories, and the celebration
of life…and love! It’s enough if people are able to experience the
joy that each day can bring!

KEFKA: And have you found your “joy”, in this nearly dead world of
yours?

ALL: Yes!

CYAN: My family lives on inside of me.

SABIN: I have come to experience anew the love of my brother!

SETZER: My friend’s airship…and her love!

SHADOW: I know what friendship is…and family…

KEFKA: This is sickening… You sound like chapters from a self-help
booklet! Prepare yourselves!

KEFKA: Now, for my next trick, I will make you all…disappear!

SETZER: Kefka, you don’t know what you’re doing! Stop!

Kefka sends the Light of Judgement on the southern coast ot the
southern continent.

KEFKA: I command the greatest power in the universe! You are all
helpless before me!

Kefka rises on a tower, while other party members do the same.

KEFKA: I will destroy everything… I will create a monument to
non-existence!

CYAN: Life will go on! There will always be people, and dreams.

KEFKA: No! I will hunt them down. I will destroy it all! Destroy!
Destroy! Destroy!!

SABIN: We will not allow you to harm another living thing!

KEFKA: Hee, hee, hee!! But what fun is destruction if no “precious”
lives are lost!

Kefka sends another Light of Judgment on the northwest continent.

SHADOW: It’s over, Kefka!

With those words, the fight begins!

The ground on which Kefka stands suddenly lurches upward, and a host of monsters appear. Cyan, Sabin, Setzer, and Shadow fight their way through the first tier, a frighteningly monstrous beast with bulging muscles and a powerful physical attack. Working together, they defeat the monster and progress to the second tier!

Innocents lynch sunstarr12, a mafioso!

NIGHT

FF6 Werewolf Tribute: fourth night (continued)

[NOTE: this is part nine in a series of posts lifted from the quark message boards where I recently GM’d a game of Werewolf.  The theme was Final Fantasy 6, one of my favorite RPGs of all time.  To see the other posts in the series, click here.

WARNING: there will be spoilers, and lots of them, so if you haven’t played Final Fantasy 6, do yourself a favor and play the game before reading on!]

On a small, desolate island in gray, desolate world, Setzer, Cyan, and Sabin meet up in a bar in the city that was once Maranda. The world has been reshaped by Kefka, and life is slowly ebbing away. The skies are overcast, the flowers refuse to bloom, and the few survivors of the Kefka apocalypse barely struggle to survive amid the ruins of the fallen world.

An enormous tower of stone and magic looms over the barren landscape. From atop this tower, Kefka rules the ruined world, annihilating those who oppose him with the Light of Judgment.

Off to the north, a following of the lost and despondent has come together to worship the god of the World of Ruin. Known as the Cult of Kefka, its practitioners study the arts of dark magic and the powers of destruction. Soon, their following grows to encompass a sizable portion of the survivors…

The mafia recruits a new member!

[OOC] NOTE: For gameplay purposes, this event was factored before the other events in the night. However, for the purposes of the story, I chose to wait until now to include it.  [/OOC]

A year has passed, but in the bar in Maranda, the three friends still recognize each other. With nothing left to lose, they decide to take on Kefka and end his reign of ruin!

PLAYERS:

Avulsion (mafia)
Baggins (necromancer)
Barigirl (innocent)
Caysyka
CptSqweky (innocent)
Drakon
Drek (detective)
Fredward (innocent)
Jerle (mafia)
Locke (innocent)
Lunesar
Onlera
PharaohsQueen (innocent)
sunstarr12
ZeroMoon17 (innocent)

Among them: 1 assassin (Shadow), 2 mafia (Kefka and one follower of the Cult of Kefka)

DAY

Feeble creatures, GO!!