You Should Probably Play This: Mark of the Ninja

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: You can't spell awesome without ninja (it's hiding).

Woo.  Woo.  Woo.  Prepare yourself for gushing.  Bring an umbrella.

Pretty Scenery In Miasmata

I'll be reviewing this gem of a survival game once I finish it, but until then I thought I'd rip off Jefequeso's idea and share some pictures I took, because I have SO MANY.  Although it has fairly rough edges, it's a really pretty game, especially the lighting and sky effects.  And the whole thing was built from the ground up, engine and all, by two guys.  Anyway, onwards!

Album Review: Shadow Circus: On A Dark And Stormy Nightf

Okay look.  I know I just reviewed Shadow Circus' last album a little while ago, but is it my fault they just released a new one?  And that it's really awesome?  No.  No it is not.  So shush and let the Red-eyed Man hypnotize you...

Lineup:

David Bobick - Vocals

John Fontana - Guitar, some keyboards

Matt Masek - Cello, Bass

David Silver - Keyboards
Jason Brower - Drums

You Should Probably (?) Play This: Stay Dead

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: I made my own cardboard cut-outs of sound effects to hold up when punches connect.

So you know how hardcore gamers hate long cutscenes?  And you know how hardcore gamers hate QTEs?  Well now there's a game to annoy the insufferable hardcore gamer in your life.  That game is Stay Dead, a somewhat hilarious rhythm fighting game by BRUCEfilm.

The NaNoing: Table of Contents

This here is a handy-dandy directory for my posts concerning NaNoWriMo 2012.

-NaNoWriMo Approaches
-Day 1
-Days 2 & 3
(Then I forget to post for 22 days)
-Day 25
-Day 27
-The End

The NaNoing: The End

50,022 words.  Done, done, and doner.  My story ended up wrapping up nicely as well.

The NaNoing: Day 27

46,666 words done!  Yes, it's a very specific number.  I promised an excerpt, so here we are.  As usual, completely unedited.

“The White Forest?” Benedict said. They had met back at the house and had told Benedict what the Arcanists had told them.

“Yes,” Abigail said.

“Well I suppose you should go, then. Be careful. You should get going immediately, I’ll make you some food.”

“Perhaps we could request some help from the Inquisition?” Abigail said.

“Yeah, they don’t like me, but I doubt thye could justify not helping me,” ROland said.

“NO!” Benedict shouted. “No... I told you the Inquisition can’t be trusted. My investigations are making me more suspicious of them than ever. DO NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING.”

“Well...” Roland said nervously. “Into the White Forest alone.”

“Well, not alone,” Abigail said.

“Right, sorry. What I mean was defenseless.”

By this point Benedict had left the room.

Roland looked around quickly. “Abigail,” he said, “Benedict is... making me a little nervous. His behaviour oesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“He’s just... he’s just emotionally invested. That’s all it is. Emotionally invested.”

“...If you say so, but I-”

Benedict burst back into the room carrying two backpacks. “Good news!” he said jovially, “I found some spare packs to carry your stuff!”

“Yay...” Roland said wanly.

He handed the packs to Roland and Abigail and then effectively pushed them out the door.

“Well,” Abigail said, “Putting on her pack. The White Forest.”

“The White Forest,” Roland said. “Funny that it’s coming back to the White Forest again. I’m getting the feeling we’ll discover something important in there.”

“Or die.”

“Or die.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“LEt’s go.”

“Right.”

They walked out of the city, in the opposite direction of the docks. There was no gate around the city, the Red River on one side and the White Forest on the other provided enough protection. The buildings simply became smaller and smaller and t hen... stopped. It was about mid day.

They stepped onto the grass where the cobblestone path out of the city stopped. Ahead of them only a shrot distance was the forest.

“I don’t, uh, suppose you’ve ever been inside?” Roland said.

“Of course not,” Abigail said, “No one is allowed free pass in the White Forest.”

“Because it’s dangerous.”

“Yes, so they say.”

“You don’t believe them?”

“Well, it is a forest, but why would it be more dangerous than any other?”

“Strange creatures? Fae?”

“Perhaps, =but then why have we never seen themm. It’s right nect to the city. No, I think the Council knows the there are valuable things in the White Forest, abd they want to keep us from them.”

“How optimisti. Are you just saying that so you’re not nervous about being eaten by monsters?”

“Possibly. Let’s go.”

They stepped up to the forest. The trees were, of course, white. Thin and towering, with white, and orange, and green leaves. It looked dark inside.

Roland pulled up another ball of light, and they stepped in.

It was hard going. There was no path, simply lots of undergrowth and bramble.

“How could they get a caravan though tthis?” Roland said.

“It’s enchanted, presumably,” Abigail said, “Perhaps it floats.”

Roland looked over at Abigail and noticed that today she was wearing simple pants and shirts, as opposed to her usual regal dressed. Good choice.

Finally, they started to beat their way throug the brambles, Roland hacking with his sword, and seemed to see a place ahead with less in the way. They tried to make their way towards it.

As they stepped into the clearing, the whole clearing suddenly lit up with a bright blue light, and Roland’s light went out. The light appeared to be coming from the large mushrooms surrounding the clearing.

“Wow,” Roland said, examining one of the mushrooms. He poked it and it wobbled friendlyly. The mushroom continued to wobble back and forth and spin.

“Roland,” Abigail said, “Are the lights over there... spinning?”

Roland stood up. “Yeah, are they-” But he stopped as he saw they indeed were. The lights were spinning rapidly, faster and faster, around and around and around and around and around and around and around adna around.

Roland closed his eyes.

When Roland opened his eyes, it was dark. He couldn’t see anything. He tried to summon up a light, but nothing happened. He stood up. But he was already standing up. He looked around.

Black. Black. BlACK.

Roland heard something, a scrabbling, up down left right. He looked around          up down left right.

He heard the scrabbling again

       up down left right

Roland saw something moving

    mov

ement

 App

roa

      ch

in

  g

barefeet

  Soft

                     GENTLE

for some reason, Roland could only see the

f e e t

                         The ankles disappeare dinto dark ness

darkness the ankles disappeared into.

He heard a           GENTLE

l

  a

    u

     g

      h

a            gigglekind

                                        affectionateloving

Light

                          LIGHT

light

                                              Light

Shone

No

Dark

But he

      began to

see more

      light moved

moved

  moved

up the

                                ankles.

He could see the clothes

White

   Red

      Green

The arns

 the stomach

   the neck

                                  the face

the... face

         ...face?

                      THE FACE

there was something

                                                 ..about

              ...that

mother?

Roland looked at his mother and the world around him seemed to resolve. He was standing in a fine house he did not recognize. It looked middle high class. Certainly better than how they had actually lived. His mother was wearing a beautiful dress of white, red, and green.

The NaNoing: Day 25

So.  I, uh, kinda forgot I was supposed to be updating this here blog with NaNo progress.  Sorry about that.  Currently at 41,670 words.  I think I'll probably go over though, at least how I'm currently seeing my story end up.  Could change, you never know.

NaNoisms!

“Oh, they are. They are turhleess, cold, calculating, cruel, and other things thet beging with c and are disparaging. Wait, I didn’t mean for that to sound like thjat START THIS SENTENCE OVER.”

Yeah, so I started writing this sentence, knew it was stupid halfway through, but didn't mean for it to end up accidentally offensive. So yeah. Also spelling errors, but whatever.


"An ancient, fowl race. Similar to us, but far fowler."

Oh homophones, where would I be without you to confuse my brain? Also: Redundancy!


“Surely we could at least use the seers?” andraoma said. [Ugh headace, here’s what that line should actually say because I don’t feel like rewriting it:] “Surely we could at least scry for her friend?”

Writing when sick: Always good for a few extra words.


“Good. Abigael, we are the council of sex."

Oh what a difference one letter makes. It was supposed to be the council of six!



I shall post an excerpt on the morrow!

Album Review: Peter Gabriel: OVO

Gabriel-era Genesis is one of my favorite bands.  They're just so full of awesome songs (also ridiculous outfits).  That being said, I'm a fairly casual Peter Gabriel fan.  I like his first album, and then basically a few songs from most of his albums after that.  Still, there's this one album of his that could use a bit more consideration.  That album is OVO.  No, not an owl smiley, but as in eggs.  Okay, so the genesis (har har) of this album is a little unusual.

You Should Probably Play This: The Journey Down - Part 1: Over The Edge

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: Here be Jamaicans.

Go here if you want to listen to the music, it's not on YouTube.

An adventure game?  Heavily stylized 3D graphics over 2D backgrounds?  Jazzy music?  A thematic world based on the traditions of one culture?  A main character with an unexplained marking on his head?  That's right, it's Grim Fandango The Journey Down!

The NaNoing: Week 1 (or so)

9 days now, up to 15,400 words, which is slightly ahead (goal for today if 15,000).  No particularly goofy typos this time around, so!  Excerpt!  Again, totally unedited.

The NaNoing: Day 2&3

Hey all.  Forgot to post yesterday, but I don't really plan on posting every day in any case.  Only when I have some interesting stuff saved up.  Up to 5,078 words now, right on track.  Day 3 went smoothly, but Day 2...  Well, my fingers sort of dissolved into paste (not literally.  No finger injury, just lots of typos).  Some NaNoisms:

"He wondered what Marilyn would think f fthat. ProbABLY MAKE SOME snarky omment"
I hate how the capslock button is right next to A.  Why can't it be somewhere else?  Like across the room?  Also: Typos.

"And how do you even know what I’m a suspect?”
This is a small one, but I find it amusing that Roland appears to have suddenly become cockney.

"Taking a deep breath, ROland entered the small receeded... Sunken door thingy that served as an entrance to the warehouse."
So you know how sometimes you have stairs down right in front of a storefront so the store is sort of underground?  That's what I was thinking of.  Far from the worst description fail I've made in NaNo (two years ago describing the Oval Office as "ovacular", and last year describing the sun beating down as, "Like an abusive father with a baseball bat").

"Roland groanded for the thousandth time today (seriously Roland, I know your situation sucks, but stop grumbling)"
One thing I do a lot in NaNo is leave little notes to myself.  Editing during NaNo is bad, but sometimes I want to specifically mark a part I want to come back to afterwards.  Sometimes these notes get kind of derisive, though.  Also: groanded.

"As far as slums and back alleys went, Hadrian’s turf was decent. After all. Hadrian was classy. There was hardly any trast, and the only gangs that roamed the steets were those approved by Hadianvfna’lkrv,ved,..."
Another common NaNo thing.  My fingers refused to type Hadrian for the thousdanth time, so I just kind of ended up randomly hitting keys before moving on.

These were all from Day 2, Day 3 went much more smoothly, quality-wise and plot-wise.

The NaNoing: Day 1

So, day 1 of NaNoWriMo is now over!  Went pretty smoothly for me, nothing much to note, so this is going to be a pretty dull log.  Wrote 1,701 words out of the 1,667 goal, I'm gonna try and get ahead by at least 1,000 tomorrow.  So, uh, yeah.  I've honestly not got much else to say...  Have an excerpt!  And keep in mind all excerpts I post will be entirely unedited!  Wee!

There was a figure on the side of the clock tower. Dressed in black and grey, a stark disguise to blend in with the great clock. But there was more to the tower than the clock, and the figure had no particular interest in the time of night. No, there was a much more tantalizing plum for the spooks and ghosts who dwell in the shadows of the city. Tonight, in the ballroom, the Baroness was having a grand masquerade ball. All of the city’s most important people would be there, and a noble and his jewelry are easily parted.

This was something not entirely lost on Roland Denholm, as he entered the tower through the ground floor. Roland knew he wasn’t exactly top-class material, the king of thieves he was not, but even a petty Spook with marginal Talent could likely make away with an easy catch or two from a ball like this. And it was a masquerade ball, Roland thought, which means everyone would be wearing masks, so he didn’t even have to bother with a disguise. Well, except to try to make himself look presentable so he’d actually get let in. Roland grinned to himself as he thought this, he did always say he’d clean up nicely. Indeed, he’d managed to find a discarded old suit that fit him well, and he was able to wash his scraggly hair in the bursting banks of the Red River. Handily equipped with a mask he’d taken from a preemptively drunk aristocrat, Roland felt he could pull off the noble look pretty well. Granted, a two-bit noble, probably on the last rung of the hierarchy, but as long as he got let in. The smell, however, was a different issue... Of course, he’d only have to get close to people in order to take their belongings, so Roland personally felt it was a moot point. And he wasn’t about to go out of his way to fully clean himself anyway. So Roland, dressed as presentably as he could possibly manage, entered into the ground floor of the clock tower. Spying a group of chittering aristocrats, mostly women, he quickly stepped over to them and wedged himself into the middle of the crowd. They paid him no heed, barely noticed him. Roland was used to not being noticed, it was a blessing in his line of work, but it did feel like a bit of an affront in this case. All the work he’d spent dressing up and no one even noticed him.

You Should Probably Play This: Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: Visit scenic Enroth.  We have laser guns.  And puns.

NaNo Approaches (and an excerpt from my NaNo two years ago)

Hi there.  Starting on November 1st I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month for the fourth year in a row and, if all goes according to plan, winning for the fourth year in a row.  For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge in which you have to write a 50,000 word novel in one month: November (boils down to 1,667 words per day).  It's a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend doing it.  There's no real prize or anything besides accomplishment, bragging rights, and discounts on writing software, and it's very casual and friendly.  The site is this way.

You Should Probably Play This: Stacking

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: A game from DoubleFine.  Who are awesome.

Album Retrospective: Guadalcanal Diary

Oh hey, another one of these things.  I was originally just going to review one of their albums, but I figured they only have four so I might as well do a retrospective on 'em.

Guadalcanal Diary are an 80s jangle pop band from Georgia.  The best way to describe their sound would probably be: Take REM; turn up the rockabilly influences, add punky quirkiness, add some African rhythm influence, and slap Michael Stipe until he stops singing like he's been lobotomized.  So yeah, they sound like REM (though they formed the same year, so you can't really call them clones).  I actually like Guadalcanal Diary more though, as I've always found REM a bit boring. Guadalcanal Diary have more energy and a rather quirky range of subjects, from spiritual contemplations to references to the Three Stooges.

Line-up:
-Murray Attaway: Vocals, guitar
-Jeff Walls: Guitar
-Rhett Crowe: Bass
-John Poe: Drums

Video Game Storytelling: Examples of Good Stories

This is a side update to my storytelling series.  I thought I'd talk briefly about games that do good storytelling, or have interesting ideas but are flawed.

Contains spoilers for: Arcanum, Bastion, Braid, Fallout: New Vegas.

Note: I would argue that Civilization or Tetris has a story in the rise and fall of the player, but for the purposes of this article I'm talking specifically about pre-written linear narrative.

False Starts: Elvirus, Catwalk, and The New Order

The way I tend to write is by sitting at a computer, staring at the blank screen, writing whatever comes to mind, and then editing afterwards.  The consequence to this style is that sometimes I have ideas that don't pan out or that I just lose interest in.  These are some of them.  Somewhat amusingly, this one's actually a fair bit longer than a standard story update.


Elvirus Frankenscence Pizzaton:
I wrote the beginning of this story at around midnight during a sleepover at a friend's house.  So yeah.

A Different Old House Story

This was a story I wrote for an English class last year.  Perhaps not surprisingly, it was too goofy for my English teacher, so I got a somewhat lower grade than if I had written a story in which nothing happens except a guy listening to pipes go clonk and looking at the snow while thinking about how his life sucks and also lots of symbolism or something.

I never really liked big houses. So big and looming and threatening and... big. To be totally honest, they give me creeps more than my aunt Helga during swimsuit season. So, as you may imagine, when Billy Joe Williams challenged me to sneak into Old Man Grenard's house, I was not delighted.

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Table of Contents

This right here is a five part Let's Roleplay/First Impressions of the game FTL - Faster Than Light.  Fun times were had by all.

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

• Part 5

• Debriefing (Mini review and giveaway)

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Debriefing

Welp, that's that then.  Keep reading for a mini-review and another thing.

So, my overall feelings on FTL now that I've played it a bit?  Well it's pretty awesome, honestly.  Not a perfect game, but pretty awesome.  You may not have been able to tell from my static pictures, but the gameplay can actually be quite frantic, especially later on when you've got to deal with fires, hull breaches, invaders, enemy weapons, broken systems, oxygen management, and more!  Without the Baldur's Gate-style pause, from which you can issue orders to your guys, the game would be chaotically unplayable later on.

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Part 5

Let's do something a little different this time. I have FTL - Faster Than Light. I'd like to review it, but I need to play it more first. So come along on this first impressions/Let's Play as Captain Frederick Stevenson braves the treachery of space. I've played it less than an hour previously, so enough time to know how it works without having a lot of surprise spoiled for this. Part 5!

Captain's Log: Spacedate 1,411

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Part 4

Let's do something a little different this time. I have FTL - Faster Than Light. I'd like to review it, but I need to play it more first. So come along on this first impressions/Let's Play as Captain Frederick Stevenson braves the treachery of space. I've played it less than an hour previously, so enough time to know how it works without having a lot of surprise spoiled for this. Part 4! 

Captain's Log: Spacedate 1,396

Ugh, another nebula.  At least the Zoltan were pretty cool about letting us into their sector.

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Part 3

Let's do something a little different this time. I have FTL - Faster Than Light. I'd like to review it, but I need to play it more first. So come along on this first impressions/Let's Play as Captain Frederick Stevenson braves the treachery of space. I've played it less than an hour previously, so enough time to know how it works without having a lot of surprise spoiled for this. Part 3!  Also, sorry it took so long.  Next updates should come out much quicker.

Captain's Log: Spacedate 1,383

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Part 2

Let's do something a little different this time. I have FTL - Faster Than Light. I'd like to review it, but I need to play it more first. So come along on this first impressions/Let's Play as Captain Frederick Stevenson braves the treachery of space. I've played it less than an hour previously, so enough time to know how it works without having a lot of surprise spoiled for this.  Part 2!

Captain's Log: Spacedate 1,364

The Captain's Log of Captain Frederick Stevenson, of Space, Part 1

Let's do something a little different this time.  I have FTL - Faster Than Light.  I'd like to review it, but I need to play it more first.  So come along on this first impressions/Let's Play as Captain Frederick Stevenson braves the treachery of space.  I've played it less than an hour previously, so enough time to know how it works without having a lot of surprise spoiled for this.

Captain's Log: Spacedate 1,352

So, um, funny thing.  Remember how I said being stuck in one place all the time was boring?  And that I wanted to get out and see the galaxy?  Well the base got attacked by rebels.  Yeah, it sucks.  So we all split up and I ended up on this ship:

Album Review: Shadow Circus - Whispers and Screams

Album reviews are for, er, album reviews. Honestly I'm not sure what you expect me to say in this header. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Pst pst pst YAAAARGH pst pst pst YAAAAARGH

Video Game Storytelling Part One: Involvement and Affection

I'm not sure how long this article series will go on, as I'm not sure how much I have to say.  I have at least 3 segments planned, but I have a feeling I'll think of more while writing.  Also, this is a very long post.  But I think it's interesting! :D

Note: This post contains Bioshock spoilers if you somehow haven't heard about what the twist is.  There also Gemini Rue spoilers shortly after.  If you haven't played Gemini Rue, please avoid them because Gemini Rue is awesome and it'd suck to have the twist killed.

So, part one of storytelling: Involvement and Affection.  It's a pretty simple concept and it's at the core of every single story in every single medium: Getting us to care.  There is not a single piece of media produced which does not care about involvement, because involvement is the end goal of every piece of media.  No matter what messages you have, no matter your characters, no matter your story, the true measure of success in a medium is involvement.  That's not to say those aren't important.  They're building blocks.  Together message, story, and character combine and build upon each other to involve the consumer as much as possible.

The Old Farmhouse

This story was an experiment in the use of a (very) active narrator.  The story itself is fairly inconsequential, but it was pretty fun to write.  I want to do something with this sort of narrator again sometime.




An old farmhouse is always the perfect place for any kind of story isn’t it? Mystery, horror, romance, fantasy, an old farmhouse can fit into any genre and any story. This old farmhouse, in my story, isn’t much different from any other old farmhouse you might read about in your literature. Still, I’ll entertain you with a vivid description.

You Should Probably Play This: King of Dragon Pass

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column.  In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention.  It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better.  This time: Steal cattle and crush the duck people beneath your heel, we're goin' to Glorantha

Frontier Tales: The Explorer and The Gunslinger

Another world building exercise, I do these a lot.  This time it was for "Frontier" a world that's a mishmash of non-medieval fantasy, light steampunk, and wild west.  This is a projected 8 story/vignette cycle, but only the first two are written at the moment.

Album Review: Eels Retrospective

Album reviews are for, er, album reviews.  Honestly I'm not sure what you expect me to say in this header.  It's pretty self-explanatory.

I thought I'd kick off my album reviews by doing a retrospective of the band/artist Eels.  Because I feel like it.  I was originally going to do The Decemberists, but I think Eels have more obscure albums so I thought I'd do them instead.  Because why do one big review when you can do a bunch of teeny ones.

Artist Profile: Eels are the project of one Mark Oliver Everett, more commonly known as E.  Some Eels albums are E on his own, sometimes he works with a band.  To a lot of people, Eels are those guys who wrote Novocaine For The Soul and Last Stop: This Town and then vanished in the late 90s, but they/he's actually had a pretty long career, and his albums are pretty varied for an indie rocker.

The Great Nose Of Knowing

This is a very silly, dialogue-centric story.  You have been warned.

Once upon a time there was a fine young fellow named Joseph Jeremiah Jickinson Jagger. Joe, being a fine young fellow, enjoyed the finer things in life: painting, cheese, and running around in his underwear singing Country-western tunes.


One day, the aliens came.

Creation Myths

This is something I did last year as a world-building exercise.  Essentially, fictional creation myths of various tribes.  I purposely made there some overlap between the stories to kind of imply at shared origins and the development of the tribes.

1. The Imei (Sons of Im): A hearty but rapidly shrinking tribe of people who live in the mountains and forests of the cold northern continent Ikai (they call it Iatai, which means Ia's land). They're one of the few remaining tribal folk in the area and, despite their numbers decreasing, still stand strong.

You Should Probably Play This: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column.  In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention.  It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better.  This time: Hijinks abound in a land of bullet-deflecting top hats and screeching monkeys.

Blog 2: The Resurrection

I keep meaning to write a blog.  I enjoy writing.  I like reviewing.  I like writing long pointless posts no one cares about, and I like sharing interesting things on the internet.  And yet, somehow, I keep not blogging.  I keep saying, "I should have a blog!  I am going to go make a blog right now!  ...and by right now I mean after gaining another level in Dungeons of Dredmor, writing an essay, and sleeping."  But this time is different!  I am going to make a blog right now!

But, uh, for real this time.

Anyway, in the next couple of days I'll be getting some actual content up so you don't have to stare at this cleverly disguised placeholder.

Au revoir!