Monthly Archive

Well, the New Year is fast approaching. The end of 2006 has been marked by the execution of Saddam Hussein, the Patriots heading to the Superbowl Playoffs, and EB games having PS3’s but no Wiis, which most would consider to be the opposite of the norm. I suppose I should resolve to do something like be less of a jackass next year, but I’ve only recently become a jackass and the idea of the resolution is not to turn back around. No, the idea is to resolve to do something NEW. So for next year, I resolve to start doing VLOGS for this site! That’s right, I said it. Video blogs. Why? For the hell of it and it’s a good way to show off what’s happening with development. No promises when the first one will be, but it will be at some point early next year which starts in… 3 hours. Crazy isn’t it?

Happy New Years everybody!

Merry Christmas everyone.

I’ve started writing the first NightRise novel, currently entitled Causation, which will detail the events leading up to NightRise. I’m mostly just going to be picking at it over the next few years, and, as I said, each of the stories will be up in a section of theNightRise website at some point, with the full book hopefully published at some point after all three chapters of NightRise have been released. Keep an eye out for more news on Causation and NightRise itself.

There will be MORE sketch art up very, very soon. And hopefully some preliminary 3D models within the next few months. Joy!

Well I had planned to make an update at the 500th view, but 499 is pretty good and I’m about to go to bed so I bet I’ll miss #500. I’m glad to see the blog is finally starting to garner some attention. I’ve gotten some great comments and I’m really excited about the directions the game is heading in. I never predicted when I first started designing it five and a half years ago that it would take such a solid form and reach the point where it’s about to become a reality. Thank you to all who have read the blog, helped me out, listened to my ramblings, and inspired me to keep going. And a special thanks to a man I shall only refer to as OEM for obviously being NightRise’s #1 fan. If you want to compete with him for the #1 spot it’s your own death. I’m giving it to him so deal with it. Goodnight ya’ll. Hope to see you all again when we reach 998.

I’ve recently realized that the backstory to NightRise is at least as important as the story ingame. The backstory, which explains the thirty-ish year period during which the terrorist regimes rose to power, has never been worked out to a point where I’m entirely happy with it, but now that may all change. My friend, who is a Poly-Sci major at Boston College, is interested in helping me develop the backstory at some point soon. My plan has always been to write the backstory in a collection of short stories. What I’m thinking is that as the stories are written they will be put up in a “History” section of the NightRise webpage (coming soon), and then later in book format. I’ve actually had a few books in the works as semi-side projects for a while now, not to mention the possibilities of a future fiction series’ ala Halo or Warcraft. So we shall see where these ideas lead.

May I just say that I have been slightly less than enthralled with music of this past year? There have been a few exceptions, specifically Breaking Benjakin’s Phobia, Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere, and Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor. Interestingly, I have noticed a decline in quality of rock music as of late, as is made fairly obvious by radio stations still playing Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun (which I have always considered to be my least favorite Soundgarden song, I’d rather hear Spoonman any day) and old Alice In Chains songs from 1994. What most upset me recently was the breakup of one of my alltime favorites, Cold. But now I am pleased to see Cold’s frontman Scooter Ward making such an immediate return and not letting the breakup of Cold keep him down. And his stuff is good. REALLY good. It’s got the dark undertones of Cold without being extremely heavy while not being weak like their 2004 album A Different Kind of Pain. I’m really looking forward to this and am hoping rock can revitalize itself in 2007.

Will have an actual NightRise update soon. I promise. I know it’s been a while and you’re all tearing your hair out waiting for one. So I will have it soon.

Jack Bauer. 7 months of torture and silence at the hands of Chinese. May I just say that he is a BADASS. As many of you may know, 24 is a large influence for NightRise, so I cannot wait to see where they take the sixth season, especially after watching the prequel. I’ve seen all the season prequels they’ve done (4, 5, and 6) and I wonder if doing something like that for NightRise would be a good idea. At least something along the lines of it. I’m not going to do one for Chapter 1, but it might be a good idea for Chapters 2 and 3, since a bit of time does pass between each chapter, and it would be a good way to tie things together. I’ll think some more about it, definitely. Doing that kind of trailer works as a very good setup for what’s to come.

K what’s all this I hear about global warming? I’ll take some of that right now. With a side of beach and sunlight and a pina colada. Bring on the goddamn chloroflorocarbons. Screw hydogren power. We need OIL. Let the sun bake the planet, how much do we really care? We’ll be leaving it within the next thousand years anyway, science be praised.

I FINALLY got my hands on a Wiimote for the first time at GameStop in the Prudential Mall. They had ExciteTruck set up, and I was NOT about to pass up the opportunity to use the Wiimote. After remembering that you have to hold the Wiimote sideways in that game, I got RIGHT into it. My friend Julia was watching me the whole time as I kept crashing to get more boosts. I lost, but it was the MOST fun I’ve had playing a video game in a long time. Now I’m certain I want to develop for that console. Nintendo has done what I never thought was possible. I think I may have thrown my shoulder out a little bit, or that may be from weight lifting. No idea. But I want a Wii. Right now. And ExciteTruck. I figured I’d want that game, now I know I do.

My thoughts on the new Halo 3 trailer… too damn short. Something like this needs to be stretched out to at LEAST a minute. Yes, it’s awesome. Yes, Chief talks, which is badass, as usual. And we get to see what the overshield actually looks like. But it was so fast paced and so disorienting that I definitely need more to fully understand it. Why is it so short? Hasn’t any work been done on it since E3? I like seeing Kid Chief in the beginning, before he entered the Spartan project. That part was definitely mysterious, makes me want to read the books. But then it’s just like BAM BAM BAM and done. Hardly worth watching in HD since it’s 20 seconds of kids and 10 seconds of Chief. Not what I want out of a Halo trailer, I’ll be honest. I’m just glad the Assault Rifle is back.

This post is only to bring in traffic via RSS feeds. I’m evil like that.

So I’ve reread most of Chapter 1, trying to familiarize myself with the plot. I’m happy with what I’ve got now. Third draft of a script sounds about right for knowing where you want the story to go. It’s got a no BS intro, just hits you with the action right from the start, which I’m definitely happy about. I hate any kind of action entertainment that takes forever to get going. I made sure to keep the action constant in this one, but also retain some focus on the adventuring and puzzle-solving. I think it should translate well over to a game, and hopefully there will be 4 to 6 hours of gameplay time in the first chapter. That may not seem like a lot, I know, but with Chapters 2 and 3 being about the same length, if not longer, I’m hoping there will be around 15 - 20 hours of total gameplay time, NOT counting time spent leveling. That’s going to be very important, and if you try to level up every stat and weapon in the game you’ll need somewhere in the vicinity of 36,000 EXP as of right now. I’m sure that number will change if I decide to add in more weapons and such, which is likely to happen.

There’s some cool scenes, especially in the beginning, which I can’t wait to see finished. It starts out on a dark and stormy night. How classic is that? And yet, for some reason, rarely done in gaming.

But I got one for DeviateSoft/NightRise anyway. Go check it out.

Can someone explain to me why they let me register it with a typo in the email address?

Well, it’s the moment at least one of you has been waiting for. The first concept art from NightRise is now available for YOU to look at! I may ink these in Photoshop when I get a Waacom tablet, but for now credit goes to my good friend Ethan Cobb, who hopefully will stay on as the concept artist for the whole game. So, here are some images of the main character, Fuego Arrancador, for your viewing enjoyment.

There should be more at some point in the near future. I’ll make sure to keep posting ‘em when I get ‘em.

So my friend Kevin suggested I get some concept art up. So, I shall do that indeed. Probably tomorrow because I just realized they’re on a backup CD somewhere and I don’t want to go digging for them.

Meanwhile, just a quick question, what is up with malls? Is there a reason why they cut out the cookie stands and the book shops and just replace everything with designer women’s clothing? There’s like ONE men’s store at what USED to be my favorite mall and now it’s all J.Jill and Bloomingdales and god knows what else. The whole place smells like a page from Cosmopolitan Magazine. I got there and I was like, “… Okay I’m ready to go.” That should not happen at a mall. Mall’s are not supposed to be male exclusive. We demand CD’s, DVD’s, HD-TV’s, XBox 360’s, PS3’s, Nintendo Wiis, Long and Short Sleeve Tee’s… is that SO much to ask from a mall? A place that used to be an all encompassing hangout spot but is now restricted to jewelry, women’s designer clothing, and furniture? I am ashamed of how far society has sunk since the early 90’s.