Monthly Archive

So for about the past week or so, every night, we’ve gotten Chinese Food. True sesame chicken is delicious, but oh my freaking gawd how much can I have before I start throwing it up? Meal plans aren’t even worth spending when there’s no good food to spend them on. I get 2 meals a day average with my plan, and I’m lucky if I use one. SCAD should just pay me to get Chinese Food every night. Then I wouldn’t be complaining. But when I’m spending $6 a night on this stuff, what is the point? I wanted pizza. The other guys voted chinese food. One of these days I’m just going to order a pizza when they order chinese, just to piss them off. Dominoes is my hero.

So I’ve pulled my first all-nighter of the year and I’m beginning to feel caffeine sickness… or whatever you call it. You know how when you’ve drunk too many beers and someone pours you a cup you’re just like, “Noooooo.” This is how I’m feeling right now, and there’s a cup of coffee right next to me. Delicious Dasani and Choc Full o’ Nuts coffee. I highly recommend it. Quite a clean coffee taste. But still, that would be like my sixth cup of the night. I really wish my game design class was an 8 am class so I could get it over with, come back, and sleep, but instead it’s an 11 am so I pretty much have to stay awake for the next SIX hours doing nothing because I know if I go to bed I will oversleep. As it is I won’t be able to sleep until after 3D Design tomorrow, the project for which I have also been working on all night, as well as the drawings for Digital Design “Ass”thetics.

About an hour ago I started feeling sick from the caffeine, so I figured the best thing to do would be to go get some fresh air. I grabbed my bass, which I just got today, and went to a bench in the courtyard and played it for an hour, watching the beginnings of the sunrise come up over the horizon. If you’ve never seen a Savannah sunrise, you’re missing out on something spectacular. Sunsets moreso.

Goddammit I’m passing out in my chair. This really isn’t good. My body has reached the point where the caffeine receptors are shutting down and it’s PAINFUL. Goodddd I want nothing more than to curl up in bed right now, but I’ll have to wake up at 8:30 to do my final sketch then get breakfast and go to class, come back by 2, finish my wire shoe (you have no idea how much of a pain in the ass project it is), go to 3D Design at 5-7:30, then stumble back and THEN I can sleep. So basically I have to go another 13 hours and 45 minutes without sleep. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG THAT AMOUNT OF TIME SEEMS RIGHT NOW?!

Let me give you a hint. In that amount of time, I could watch all 3 extended editions of “Lord of the Rings.” I could definitely watch all six “Star Wars” movies. I could play through a single disk of “Final Fantasy VII.” I could SLEEP. But no. Instead, I am stuck here, writing in my blog and waiting for the sun to come up so I can do my final drawing and not wake up the roommate. Last year when I pulled an all-nighter, so did my roommate. This year, different roommate, different attitude towards work, i.e. if you don’t get any, you don’t do any. He used hacks to get his classes I swear to god.

Ok, here’s an idea. I can take a three hour nap. Then, when I wake up, the coffee will be right there next to my bed already… I think I have to. I need to let me caffeine receptors recharge. Plus, after all that, I’ll still have time to do the last drawing. Okay, I’m going… DAMMIT. Ugh. This kind of plan always fails. Especially with me. I love sleep too much! I’ll just end up spilling luke-warm coffee all over myself and I’ll fall back asleep. Unfortunately I do not see another way out. My alarm is set. My coffee is ready. Away I go. Wish me luck. Maybe I can finally get this whole concept of a “nap” down.

For those of you who have visited the DeviateSoft homepage, still located at www.danavisiongames.com until I get around to purchasing a new domain, you may have noticed there is a page reserved for something called dStore. I spent the entirety of yesterday starting to make dStore a reality. dStore is going to be the main way DeviateSoft games will be delivered electronically to you. After a quick, free registration, people will be able to buy dPoints for $0.50 apiece. Everything for sale inside dStore will be worth a certain number of dPoints. For example, most full games will be worth 60 dPoints, the equivalent of $30.00 American.

However, something that has not been mentioned up on the current website is what else will be for sale at dStore. The plan is to make dStore the electronic hub for independent entertainment across the globe. This means we will be distributing music, games, and movies from independent artists, not that anyone can just upload their stuff to dStore to sell it. Whatever they submit will be judged based on specific criteria for quality. If it’s worth it, your media will be announced no less than two weeks before its release to the public, with either an audio or visual sampling of it for people to get ready and excited for it.

What does this mean? This means that if YOU want to sell your stuff on dStore, you can! When the store itself is heading toward the end of development, I will announce dStore’s submission opening and details of the submission process. In the meantime, if you are interested in dStore or have any questions about it, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment.

To anybody who doesn’t want to read some political ramble, I suggest you turn around now.

I just read an article at the Washington Times that is about a bill just passed in the House that will make it mandatory to show proper Photo ID when going to vote. To this I say, good. This is how I look at it. I’m nineteen. I get carded everywhere. Bars, super markets, even the goddamn bookshop. Why? Two reasons. One, identity theft/fake ID’s. Would YOU want somebody buying $300 worth of god-knows-what on your credit card? And second, illegal immigrants. They are NOT citizens of this country. They are still citizens of the country that they ran away from, therefore they have not earned the right to vote in our elections. It’s a matter of principle. At SCAD, if you go into a class you’re not registered for, you get kicked out, even if you want to take the class REALLY badly, or even if you’ve taken it already, and I pay to go here. I pay a LOT to go here. In all fairness, though, why should someone who hasn’t registered for something be allowed to do it? That’s right, they shouldn’t. I don’t see your name on the invite list, therefore you are not allowed at this party. The article states, and I quote, [the bill] “would place an insurmountable burden on voters and infringe upon their voting rights.” How?! If you’re a registered voter, and a real citizen of this country, why in you’re right mind would you view flashing your driver’s license as an infringement of rights? I’ve yet to see anybody throw a tantrum when a cashier asks to see their ID. This is exactly the same deal. We’re making sure that the people voting are allowed to vote and are saying who they are. I can’t complain one bit. I can only call the people who oppose this bill dumbs and ask if they actually want the millions of people living in this country illegally to vote in OUR elections. It’s not like they want us voting in THEIR elections.

So check this out. Josh comes back last night and is like, “Dude, you have to check this out!” He then proceeds to flip my stool over and instantly transforms it into a garbage can.

Take that, Optimus Prime!

Chris owes me some sketch work he’s done for the game. If you’re lucky maybe some will be up here very soon.

Meantime, class in, like, now, so I gotta get going.

So I have this assignment for my Digital Design Aesthetics class. We have to design a game controller. So one of my concepts is, “What if Apple designed a game controller?” So basically my current design for it is a flat ovoid thing with two click-wheels on either side, an iPod screen in the middle, and a third click wheel under it. So far I’ve been told it fits Apple products perfectly: looks are better than functionality. Basically, imagine an iPod Nano with two half ovoids and a click wheel on both sides of it. Then imagine having to sometimes use the center/bottom clickwheel to play games. Totally wouldn’t work but everyone would buy one. Why? Because Apple made it. Can anyone explain what it is about Apple that makes everybody prefer to use them? Their mice have ONE BUTTON. They have 2 USB ports AT MOST. And the iPod itself? Don’t get me started. When the final one is done I’ll post a picture up here.

Well, the third draft of the script is done, clocking in at 99 pages. Mind you, this is only 1 chapter out of 3 for the game, and the longest chapter I’ve written so far for this game. Usually they’re about 50 or so pages, but if I had stopped at page 50 I’d only be half way through the chapter and only at level 6. You don’t only want 6 levels do you? That would be a VERY short game. So, luckily, you’ll have a full 11 levels of glorious, NightRisey goodness to look forward to.

Oh, and ChaCha is the best website ever. People actually HELP you with your search. Look at this:

Status: Looking for a guide …
Status: Connected to guide: VenitaD
VenitaD: Hi there. I will be helping with your search.
Me: hi! =D
Me: I want to adopt a koala!
Me: xoxoxo they are soooooo cute!
VenitaD: Ok…is this a program through a local zoo?
Me: I run an animal shelter
Me: I think a koala would be good for attracting business
(website was here)
Me: ARE YOU ****TING ME?! OMG I LOVE YOU!
VenitaD: I hope those help!
Me: omg you are the bestest! xoxoxo
VenitaD: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me: koala recipes
Me: just kidding!
Me: =D
VenitaD: Hope so
VenitaD:
VenitaD: Well thanks for using Cha Cha! Have a great day
VenitaD: Please RATE ME when you see the five stars. Thanks for using ChaCha.
Status: Session ended.

VenitaD, you are amazing for putting up with my boredom, and I gave you the five stars you deserve. If you ever read this, props to you, whoever you are.

I was aiming for around 50 pages of dialogue for the first chapter of NightRise. Now I have one last scene to write and guess what page I’m on? 93. All I can think is, “Goddamn, I was trying to SHORTEN this thing!” I guess that isn’t happening. I’ve been writing nonstop for these last two days, with my first break being today so I could play pool.

Pool is fun.

But yeah it’ll probably push 100 pages in the end. 98 at least. But now, I must watch Eddie Izzard, and then I will finish up. Peace.

So Josh and I are all moved in. My dad was worried about the kind of shelf space we’d have. Well, dad, check this shit out:

Can you believe the cafe was just throwing this away?!

Oh, and the couch as recliners. Stick that in your fife and smoke it.

No NightRise update. Deal with it.
Well I’m back in Savannah, a.k.a. THE BASE OF OPERATIONS. Martini, if you’re reading this, I need those sketches asap.

So it’s hot as balls outside. I got my laptop setup, am leaching off someone’s wireless internet, despite the fact that the room has ethernet jacks. SCAD internet is not working. And on top of that, the dining hall was closed for dinner. This pissed me off because I literally have not eaten anything all day. I am very hungry. And they were like, “You gotta go up to Turner for dinner.” Eff that. Have you ever HAD a Turner dinner? It literally consists of snot covered poop on a paper plate. Worse than Cafe SCAD’s late night. When he said dinner was at Turner (but, of course, wasn’t going to start for another hour), I had a flashback to what a dinner from the Turner Sub Shop looks like. Like a cheesy sitcom cutaway. Imagine this: One soggy hash brown, runny eggs, uncooked bacon, and 5 tater tots. I really wanted to tell the guy to go eff himself, but I have more self control than that. However, I refuse to eat a real meal at Cafe SCAD ever again. Besides the fact that their food is terrible, they didn’t even have any terrible food to serve me when I was hungry to begin with!

So I went up to Turner to see if the Sub Shop dinner might have been subs. Low and behold!… it wasn’t. Crap on plates, just as I had suspected. So I went into the convenience store and bought a Yoplait Strawberry/Banana yogurt. Props to Yoplait for being able to hold off my hunger for a few hours. But now it has returned… somewhat. Though nowhere near as bad as before. Still, I don’t crave any one kind of food. There isn’t anything amazing within walking distance. Mr. Pizza’s pizza is insulting. Their wings are okay, but I’m cutting back on wings this year and watching my girth VERY closely. Thank god I worked out over the summer, that’s all I can say.

I know it sounds conceited but the more I think about it the more I feel that NightRise is bound for success. I’m listening to Gamespot’s interview with John Romero, and as much as I’ve made fun of him in the past, he does know what he’s talking about when it comes to games and the steps toward innovation games need. Specifically, revitalizing the adventure, strong storylines, episodic content, and doing things differently. Honestly, he’s right. That’s why I’m making NightRise, and that’s why everyone who hears about it gets interested immediately. It’s got the story, which both confuses and interests everyone who hears about it. The game itself IS an adventure, in its story, its look, and its throwbacks to classic adventure gaming. I’ve always viewed the years of 1993-1995 as the pinacle of gaming achievement. During those years, you’ve got DOOM 2, Full Throttle, Hocus Pocus (which I still consider my favorite side scroller of all time), and I’ve been trying to develop NightRise as a game that would have been developed back then but with the technological capabilities of today. Those years were the Renaissance of gaming, where everybody was creative and came out with amazing, interactive artworks. These days, as Romero has stated in this interview, a lot of new designers in college or out of college just want to do Halo or GTA clones. Now that there are, what I like to call, Template Games, you can make clones of those really easily and make a few grand really easily. I don’t care for doing something easily. When you play a game on easy, people scowl at you. Life is a game. If you live easily, you don’t get the full ending (ala Megaman X8). If you play on hard, the result is MUCH more rewarding. I will say this right now. NightRise is not a clone of anything. There are aspects of other games in it, such as classic, LucasArts-ish adventure game interaction, Devil May Cry like fighting, an intricately woven and controversial storyline, and episodic content. The more I think about it, the more I feel that NightRise, or at least the concept of it, encompasses the best aspects of games back then, and some of the best aspects of games these days. Not that I’m aiming for a mishmash of “best.” When you do that, it ends up terribly. All I’m aiming for is making a great game, and when it comes out, all I can hope is that you love it as much as I have loved developing it, and will continue to love developing it until it is finished.

As anybody who has a brain knows, the way a game starts is with an idea. This idea then evolves into what we like to call “The Design Document.” A lot of design documents that kids in my first game design class at SCAD wrote were maybe 2 - 5 pages, 10 at most. I ended up writing a 35 pager which continues to grow as we speak. That’s the interesting thing about design docs. Technically, the entire team is supposed to work off of the design document. Yet, the lead designer keeps adding and detracting from the design document based on his own and the team’s likes and dislikes inside said document, not to mention suggestions, revelations, eureka moments, and even just slight alterations we feel are necessary. It’s a wonder that any game ever gets finished at all. True, the 35 pages that are currently written will serve as the backbone for the game, no doubt. However, at what point after you’ve been adding thing after thing to the document does your team get pissed at you? In the world of game design, is there a true limit? I know that in movies, theatre, and the like, if someone has an idea and it’s generally accepted to be good, it goes in. However, in terms of megabytes, kilobytes, and compatibility with the rest of the game, it’s trickier than just saying, “Do it.” Every little thing added in has the potential to affect the rest of the game. Is a game designer allowed to say, “Enough is enough,” even if new suggestions have the ability to imrpove the game vastly? How much leniency is there in adding cool stuff, and at what point can you not add any more?

CliffyB, Tim Schafer, even Miyamoto-san, if you’re reading this, please give me a response.

So the folks took me to iHop this morning (it’s not IHOP anymore. It’s iHop. Emphasis on the H). I could barely wake up so I was like “Ugh why don’t I have any caffeine mints left?” Then I discovered that there are, in fact, SEVEN Foosh Mints left in the tin. I thought I had finished them a looooong time ago. So even though it’s gray and dreary and rainy outside, I am very happy because I still have my caffeine mints. And I had a Belgian Waffle for breakfast. Strawberries = mmm.

Real update later.

That or the lack of caffeine. All I’ve had today is a cup of coffee and a coke. Where are my caffeine mints that made me go hyper in English class first semester of last year?

I seem to get into this habit of never updating my blog when I start one. Like my Livejournal, way back in the emo days of high school (which was a period between end of freshman to beginning of sophomore year, summer not included). Afterward I would only do a post every once in a while, usually to say something like, “I saw such and such movie today,” to get a reply from someone who always wrote, “God why are you so depressed? Go kill yourself,” or some crap like that. I would always be like, “Uh, all I’m doing is recommending Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Go stick a cactus up your asshole.” Aren’t people so polite to each other on the internet?

So in lieu of that - which I hope was the correct expression to use - I will keep trying to update this blog once a day. Once every other day is not good enough. Twice a day is good, like I did for my first day of posting. But really, the first post was at 1 am, the second at 10 p.m. That’s a completely different day in my opinion, but who am I to argue with science?

“ACTUAL UPDATE ON NIGHTRISE” ALERT: Chris has informed me that he has the sketch art he’s done sitting right next to him. This excites me because I cannot draw. If I could then I wouldn’t need sketch artists on the team. But, luckily, I have two: one up here, one at SCAD. Brad and I should be laying down some ill tracks next year, and I’ll hopefully have the script for Chapter 1 done very soon (only 3 more scenes to go). Then all that’s left is modeling, sounds, the levels, the fmv’s, gameplay… okay well there’s a lot to do, but it will get done. Just you wait.