A Message From Home, Part I

As many may know I am the owner, and enjoyer, of a PlayStation 3. I am also a big fan of its Second Life-esque free program, PlayStation Home.For starters, if you also play Home or PS3, feel free to add my PSN accounts - AllisonInk (for pretty much all games), and NAL-USA (which I use for Home because the American Home is better and the people I know go on this version too). If you don't go on Home though there's really no need to add the latter.So, today, I spent a while having a bit of fun doing the usual - exploration, free gift whoring etc. I also decided to get the camera out and take some pictures detailing this, so here it is, a little "story" kind of thing, featuring 19 pictures taken from Home. Click pictures to see them in high resolution.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 17-43-18

My miniature adventure began in the most recent of two Irem locations, Seaside of Memories, a pretty little oasis-like area featuring a beach, a bit of greenery you can't really explore, some ocean and a bunch of huts on piers containing mini-PS Stores with some inexpensive clothing for purchase. Yesterday I'd had a slight explore, but today I decided to go a little further around. I noticed no boundaries leading out to the sea, so I assumed some kind of invisible wall would cut me off. Wrong. You can actually go fully underwater, bringing up a breath meter and allowing you to go not too shabby a distance before some kind of fish netting halts you. There's actually an item underwater, marked with a sort of shining effect. And I promise I didn't pee underwater.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 17-44-45

I didn't see much throughout the rest of the exploration. As mentioned I'd already had a gander at the shop area - nothing much, just a few beds and sun loungers to sit on and a few things trying to wrangle 99 cents out of me in exchange for a tacky virtual hat. Though one other thing I did see, as illustrated (quite small), was a group of four friends, all dressed very oddly. It was disappointing that the cut off was so quick to come, the grassy, foresty part of the level looks both pretty and very explorable. Alas, no. There's one seemingly open gap, but it's just a bus stop to provide you with a quick route to Irem Square.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 17-47-57

So, with the bus providing a nice, easy route to the Square, a place which from prior experience has always been chock-full of free goodies, I took off. Irem Square is a very pretty-looking place. Set in a Japan-ish area, and packed with lights and a rather nice background track, it immediately sets a very pleasant atmosphere. I couldn't bring myself to run around. I had to walk. The picture shows what it's like from the ground level (click it to see what the caption is on about). But, yeah. Having a wander around showcases all the freebies available. If, when entering the level, you head left and move clockwise around the area, you see these.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 17-49-06

Firstly, there's a guy that gives out masks. Different mask each day. I've collected three, six different ones are on display though so I presume I still need three. They're annoying to wear because you can't have them on your face (they rest on the side). Then there's a food vendor - just for decoration of rooms. A shooting minigame is next, in which you can shoot off prizes to win. Easy peasy. Prizes are all decorative, though the L block acts as a seat. There's then a row with nothing but a money shop, then a stall in which you can win four decorative fish, including one I actually have two of myself - the ranchu. Was easy enough to win all four, though I couldn't play the game particularly competently because the stupid net thing kept breaking on me. After that it's mostly just decorative stuff for homes. You can also go up onto the bridge, which has a shady dealer which gives away shirts every day, and a really pleasant view of the village you irritatingly can't get to.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 17-54-40

The next stop was relatively short - a trip to the socialite paradise Singstar room. I'd not been here much before purely because it's so small and eventless - a few seats, a lot of lights, and a TV with music video extracts on (along with a thingy that lets you vote for which extract you want to see next. Sickeningly includes Amy Winehouse). But it is a pretty place. Infact, the entire neon aesthetic's beautifulness is second only to the Proclaimers - the Scottish singing duo whose song I Wanna Be (500 Miles) can be played (well, a short extract of it), on one of the walls. Try as I might I couldn't get a picture of them. Seems the camera dislikes video feeds.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 19-03-04

Next was the MotorStorm room, a place I'd yet to see. Shame really, as it's actually one of the bigger places. It's also probably the most varied. As I entered I was immediately greeted with none other than a dancefloor. It was fairly populated, with a plethora of people doing a total of about four dances. There was also a nice little eavesdropping opportunity - a girl giving a guy a lecture on why "hi, wanna cam?" is a pickup line second only to a death threat on the success scale. I didn't stay in this part of the Motorstorm area long, and presumed that it had little else to offer. I was proved wrong.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 19-06-14

After a nice trek over an odd path made out of wreckages of cars, pieces of sheet metal and all stereotypical junkyard stuff, I came across (innuendo block) a really rather stunning view - helicopters were flying past, a distant volcano was spewing smoke (topical!), a number of spotlights were shining into the air, and ships were sitting in the ocean. For such a mechanical site it was really quite compelling and had me staring for quite a few minutes, just trying to pick out each little detail featured in the landscape. When I broke away from the view I also went on to find a hidden area with a set of bright blue arcade cabinets containing a Motorstorm minigame I was entirely useless at.

PlayStation®Home Picture 26-4-2010 19-57-07

For my final destination I went to an old favourite, the Resident Evil Studio Lot. It's not a massive place but there's a lot of room for exploration and it's well made. Highlights include a little meat shop perfect for hide and seek (if only your nametag got the fucking hint and went dark), a crappy minigame, and some really good-looking puddles (I'm not joking). Lowlights include this man, who appeared to be an OAP BDSM angel. Complete with a sparkler. And a bald customer. Yeah.

So that completes my Home story for today. Don't know when I'll be making another one but I'm sure I will one day. To see a complete collection of all the photos I've taken from it, including several from today I couldn't fit into this entry, please see the Flickr set here.

Until next time. See y'all!

Musical Tastes & Down With the Sickness

Kinda related segments to the title but not in the sense I'm planning on using 'em.

Recently I've noticed my musical tastes changing. I've got into a few bands I've heard and disliked in the past. Here's a few that I've become a fan of in the last month or two.

3OH!3: First heard of this band as a band from a friend. He has a taste for stuff like this - an odd fusion of indie rock, rap elements and electronicky bits and pieces. Upon first hearing one of their songs as he was listening to them, which was about two years ago, I immediately took a dislike to it and dismissed the band. However, recently, another friend mentioned them and linked me to another of their songs, which I recognised from the radio (I don't like the radio much, my mum does though and car journeys are always accompanied by it). I took a chance on their album, "Want", and slowly grew into even the rappier of songs on it. Personal favourites, excluding the two singles Starstrukk and Don't Trust Me, are Colorado Sunrise, I Can't Do It Alone, and Photofinish.

Crystal Castles: Same again. Heard it from the same friend, dismissed for exactly the same reason, and picked up a day or two again and started loving. I actually had a sub-stage in which somebody else tried to recommend me to them and I still wasn't a fan. But particularly their track Courtship Dating I now adore, and have their album, though have not really listened to it yet. Having said that, I still don't like the song I initially heard of theirs, Alice Practice. Also, I point blank refuse to get into Hadouken!. Just... no. o.o22-Pistepirkko: Though this isn't really one for the whole "musical tastes changing". Royksopp is a testament to my love of European pop rock. This one's mainly one track too - Just A Little Bit More. Or, in the band's Finnish accents, "Jus' a Leedle Beet More".

Black Eyed Peas: I gotta feeling... that every time I listen to this band I feel guilty for betraying myself. As well as I Gotta Feeling, I also regretfully enjoy Pump It. My enjoyment of the former song originates from a CollegeHumour parody of it.Infact, it seems parodies get me into the original songs even when I don't like them. I've found the following songs (well, found I like them) from parodies also:

Tech N9ne: In The Rain
Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind
Owl City: Fireflies
Estelle: American Boy
Plain White Ts: Hey There Delilah (another one I hate liking - ex related!)

So as my brain descends/ascends/goes leftfield/goes less leftfield/whatever into the enjoyment of what I can't really place so will simply call "scene music", as in "seems to be enjoyed by people into the scene style", I move on to the second part of the title.

Earlier today (FYI movement, cover your eyes) I was rather sick. As in, the literally keeled over being sick into the toilet. Worryingly, this has been mildly commonplace recently - I think I've probably been sick more during 2010 than I have 1991-2009 put together. I think my life really needs a reboot or something - less inactivity, better diet, less drinking that f*cking milkshake, less dwelling, more future. Not that I want to stop making games or anything.

I'd love to go to IGF one year - depending on whether the age limit is 18 or 21 (I've heard both) it's a goal for either 2011, 2012 or 2013 (the year I'll be 21 for March-April, my birthday's in May)... at least. That also gives me a good 10-11 months to improve, because at the moment I don't consider myself skilled enough in game development (ideas - probably, skill - nah, effort levels - pathetic). Perhaps a nice break from having this 17" screen sitting a couple feet away from my face all day would help my motivation... but I don't know. The village I currently live in is absolutely crap for getting out because you exit the door, and you're presented with nothing. Well, I could go and play on the toddler swings or walk around the nature reserve about a mile away and watch a bunch of horses do absolutely nothing. But that sucks. Lack of transport (it's an awful place for catching a bus) means I can't readily get anywhere better either. I'm hoping like crazy I can get that job in Dundee and start life new. If it doesn't happen, guess my best bet is to find something similar somewhere close but not Redgrave.

But, yeah. I think that's it... oh right... to be relevant to the very purpose of the blog for just one sentence, I made a game.

See y'all.

NAL  

The Purchase of the Weirdest Things

As I mentioned yesterday, today I went out. Me and my mother went to a town around 12-15 miles away called Thetford... and we bought things. Well, she bought things for me. Being completely skint I can't really afford my own stuff, just borrow money from her and eventually pay it back when I'm less moneyless.

So, here is the stuff I got today. Don't judge me.

PC Gamer May 2010 issue 213 [£5.99] - this isn't weird, I get it every month. Thought I'd list it for the hell of it though.

The Rise + Fall of ECW [£2.99] - from a charity shop, a 2-DVD set covering six hours of what happened to the old wrestling promotion ECW.

Persepolis [£2] - a DVD of a film just a couple of years old, which I've been wanting to watch for quite a long time now.

Red Sky crisps [£2] - two big-ass bags of crisps, Cheese and Bacon flavour, which will be stored for later consumption. This is only the start of the edibles.

Bovril drink cups x24 [£3] - three packs of eight cups which you stick some hot water in to make an awesome drink that tastes nothing like the spreadable Bovril but is yummy nonetheless. It's kinda like beef gravy.

Smarties Easter egg [£1] - why be on time for Easter when you can be late and get an extortionately-priced hollow piece of chocolate for a fair alternative price?

Coconut Ice [50p] - the same shape and even the same colour as your standard piece of nougat. I'm not entirely sure if I'll like this or not but it looks yummy. I spent most of my life not really liking desiccated (sp?) coconut but recently I kinda got into it, so yeah. Plus it's full of sugar so it's automatically awesome.

Spicy Balti Mix [49p] - a packet containing a spicy version of what is essentially Bombay mix. Bombay mix + spicyness = my drugs.

Chilli Tortilla chips [79p] - will be saved until I can get my mits on some guacamole. That is the only way these can be consumed.

Mint Chews [50p-ish] - a four pack of mints that are basically Mentos - same shape, same flavour, same tube length - but not quite as good. Still good though.

Complimints [£1-ish] - a two pack of mints that are nothing like Mentos. These are more like those ridiculously expensive Smint things, but each pack is in a nice tin and contains rather a lot of mints that are small but powerful. Niiice.

Chilli-coated peanuts [79p] - self explanatory. Just to be "cool" and "original" they're branded as "Nutz". With a Z.

Milk Chocolate Mini Delights [50p] - one for the packaging gods, a card outer layer containing ten individually-wrapped chocolate "sticks" that are filled with a strawberry and cream kinda filling. Very tasty.

Disco Biscuits [49p-ish] - Biscuity bit. Chocolate bit on top. Then with some UK-Smarties-like sweets on top. From memory they get sickly fast but when they're not sickly... mwah!

Super Long Drinking Straws [£1.49] - 50 one-metre-long straws for long-distance drinkiery. Mum suggested they ought to be cut to size. I said no, I'll be using these puppies at full length!

Blow Bubbles [£1] - One pound, six thingies of blowable bubbles. They even have a wand each. I mean, seriously, sweeeeeeeeeet! Child at heart and PROUD.

So that's my little excursion's worth. Enough food to last weeks, enough toys to last days, and enough DVDs to last, like, as long as I like them. Will return to relative relevance with the next blog... maybe. See y'all!

Mad Once More

Thought I may as well blog since I've released an upgrade to the game which became a play count whore, madnessMADNESSmadness. This upgrade features a number of new modes and a few other features to make the game, in all, more enjoyable. I'll simply link to the Game Maker Community topic for it as that describes it perfectly adequately. The link

Anyway, there's some other stuff I'll say since my last two blog entries have been fairly mundane reviews of things. Therefore I'll try to make this more about both me and my GM usage.

I'm now not working on anything. However, I've plans, which I'm as yet unsure on whether I'll follow through with or not, to make a game which crosses gambling (not real money) with a game similar to Voltorb Flip from Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver. I have the puzzle itself, along with ways to implement online multiplayer, up and running, I just need to work out if it'd be worth making or not. If nothing else I'll probably knock up a single-player engine for it at some point and see what y'all think about it.

Lifewise, thinks have been a tad topsy turvy. Both my parents have had this week away from work, which has meant that I've been going out a lot to different places with them. I've another one to go to tomorrow, though now my dad will be returning to work it'll just be me and mum. Although I'm happy with my computer, it's been generally fun and it feels healthy to have such an abnormal-for-me level of fresh air as that. I hit a fairly low ebb about a week ago too, when something that really shouldn't've bothered me a huge amount (though it did) actually triggered the single worst mental breakdown I've ever experienced, leaving me completely inanimate for quite a while in my room on the floor crying. But hey, it's all in the past, I'm okay now and can laugh upon looking back on it... kinda.

I've been watching the Matrix trilogy today and yesterday, which is fun. I haven't managed to watch Revolutions yet, nor the Animatrix which I got yesterday during a day out on DVD for 75p, but I'm not really sure if I want to. I have seen Revolutions - it was a bit crap. Mind you, Reloaded was crap and I still enjoyed it. With the help of my mum's purse I've got several other DVDs, videos and things in the days out, including a set of four films on DVD including the Shawshank Redemption for 75p (the lot), a double VHS about "A history of Football" for 20p, and my personal favourite, a Mega Drive game called "Strider Hiryu" that's entirely in Japanese. It won't play in my old MD but it's funky to own, given my love of Japan and its language.

And coming in last, I've been playing a lot of LittleBigPlanet recently. Being a fan of odd vehicles and robots, particularly things like in Robot Wars, I've been trying to make the "perfect" vehicle, that can get across any terrain and survive anything. There's still hope, but I've not managed it yet. I can get something to drive up walls and across ceilings but things always manage to break themselves during the "course" I've set up. At some point I'll probably publish a load of the failed attempts (and, God forbid, any successful ones) so if you're interested, keep an eye on my LBP profile - my PSN ID is AllisonInk.

So, yeah. That's all for today/night. See y'all!

NAL

My Thoughts: GTAIV vs Saints Row 2

For this “My Thoughts” I'd like to compare two oft-compared games, released in the same year on the same platforms and with many, many similarities. I'll split it into several sections too. Grand Theft Auto IV, not the fourth in the series, is the numerical sequel to the game considered revolutionary in its popularisation of the entire 3D sandbox genre. Saints Row 2, the multiformat sequel to a 2006 Xbox 360-exclusive game, is a series that attempts to do pretty much the same thing.

Graphics

Both have good graphics, though they seem to take alternative directions. GTAIV's realistic graphics, Saints Row 2's cartooniness. Given GTA's fairly poor sixth-generation graphics it's a pleasant surprise that its graphics are so, so good. Although less colourful and slightly more dreary than Saints Row 2's graphics, GTAIV's to me are better.

Winner: GTAIV

Setting

Saints Row 2 features the city of Stilwater, upgraded but in many ways unchanged from its predecessor. It's a well-designed location with plenty of different locations. GTAIV features a renovated Liberty City, in the style of New York (with many familiar areas, including its own rendition of Times Square and the Statue of Liberty). Though GTAIV's location had to be researched thoroughly, costing millions of dollars, Stilwater's brighter atmosphere just about takes it.

Winner: SR2

Arsenal

An easy victory to Saints Row 2. While GTAIV's is more than adequate - a series of guns based on real life ones and the ability to throw things like coffee, hot dogs and other sidewalk debris, it's an overall step down from San Andreas' pool cues and brass knuckles. Saints Row 2 not only covers the realistic front, it also adds a fun factor to weaponry, with weapons such as defibulators, satchel charges (another item San Andreas had that IV didn't) and the "pimp slap", a big pink glove that sends its recipients flying into the air. Smashing.

Winner: SR2

Story

And an easy victory for GTAIV. SR2 was never about the storyline - it has some nice missions and a general story to go with - but GTAIV's is movie-worthy. It features twists, turns, user choices, and a real feeling of progression. Smashing stuff.

Winner: GTAIV

Online

Both games feature adequate online multiplayer minigames which are great fun to play, but SR2 also allows two people to play the entire story mode, and even wander entirely independently around the city, online together. Great stuff.

Winner: SR2

Cheats

Not the game-breaking health refillers, the ones which make playing about more fun. The PS2 GTA games were particularly brilliant at this, including cheats such as the ability to drive into other cars and watch them float away before your very eyes. Yet again though, GTAIV stripped a lot of these, leaving mainly the game breakers. SR2 has a number of funny cheats, including UFO spawning, low gravity, and pedestrian weather (where random civilians are spawned and subsequently drop from high in the sky, landing with a sickening thud). You can combine these with online two-player city exploration to create a number of unofficial minigames, including a personal favourite - low gravity grenade wars (low gravity + infinite health + give grenades + infinite ammo, find a nice high roof and chuck grenades at each other until someone falls off it).

Winner: SR2

Messing About

SR2 has an absolute plethora of outside-mission activities to do. These are generated from all the weapons you can toy with, the minigames, and all sorts. But GTAIV is slightly better thanks to its stunning physics engine. You can push people over things and watch them stumble/trip (even going so far as to pushing them down flights of stairs, Porrasturvat-style), into cliffs or anything of the sort. You can anger taxi drivers by slapping their car then run around toying with their angry selves, perhaps getting a few more, having them accidentally hit their angry companions and watching the ensuing fight. You can get yourself a helicopter, carefully back it into a building until its tail end falls off then try to land it as its damaged, smoking body rotates angrily in the air. You can go to the strip club and buy yourself a dance, or slightly more fun, jump onto their podiums and watch all the strippers become frightened and the guards become angry. You can log onto a computer, look up some child... naughtiness... only to be redirected to a police website and, off-computer, five stars added to your wanted level. You can get yourself a girlfriend on a dating site and take her for a booze-up, ending the date by drunkenly driving home and showing her what your interpretation of "coming in for coffee" is (hint - no sugars). Heck, you can even go and watch Ricky Gervais, voiced and motion-captured by the man himself, perform a genuinely funny stand up show!

Winner: GTAIV

Overall

In short, GTAIV takes it. SR2 is still cracking fun, especially when you've an online friend to play it with. But GTAIV continues its sandbox crime game dominance by providing a game which, amidst all the controversy and media stupidity, is genuinely brilliant fun. Yes, you can park up to a prostitute and watch her bang you one off in animated splendour. Yes, you can go on killing sprees. But yes, ignore all the shit around it and you're left with something that, in one word, is stunning. Oh, not to mention, but Saints Row is totally a rip off of GTA. ;)

My Thoughts: GMIndie Magazine Issue 8

Welcome to a new segment I call "My Thoughts". Every now and then I'll post my thoughts, either in a little summary or, in this case, as a review, on a non-game item. This will be a little like my old website "Talast". Reviews of games made in Game Maker will continue to be posted on the Game Maker Blog instead.

Despite earlier statements that the magazine would be coming to an end to make way for one of a new purpose by the same team, GMIndie Issue 8 was released earlier to the public. At 18 pages it’s much larger than previous instalments, which have generally clocked in at around eight. Given a note at the start of the magazine claiming a new release schedule of “Every 3 weeks” it would appear the move is permanent.

The magazine contains reviews of RC Aerobatics and The Wizards Apprentice, which are kind of well written, though hold the occasional misspelling/grammar error. Oddly, the introduction to the review for “The Wizards Apprentice” is the same size as the rest of it, and contains no capital letters whatsoever. Something that made me giggle was Frederick’s statement embedded in that review: “My favorite is the snow level with the snowmen that throw snow balls and ice at you.”

Following the reviews comes a slightly poor full-page advertisement for self-rating system TIGRS, then a page devoted to an eBook called “Game Maker Geek”, which did nothing to catch my attention other than perhaps nicking the avatar YoYo Games moderators use for banned members.

Another review afterwards, for “Western Shootout”. Just noticed that there’s no mention on the page of who made the game, though it clearly states who wrote the review. Again, it’s a fairly simple affair that gets its point across with some unnecessary mild swearing and no conclusion.

Then comes the interview with Landon Podbielski (superjoebob on the GMC amongst other places). The interview is thorough and well written, which makes a change from some of the previous segments where all the interviewees’ text speak and misspellings were left unedited. It’s a two pager and covers a lot of interesting ground.

Following the interview is a massive seven page tutorial in learning online multiplayer. Knowing absolutely nothing about creating this I took a look at the tutorial – it seemed complicated but in general will surely benefit some people. What I didn’t like is the way they announced it would be continued in the following issue – they did it mid-sentence. The beginning of a chapter was just four lines before the cut off point so it would’ve made sense to end it a tad earlier.

A small segment comes after this, which is poorly written (whoever wrote it needs to learn that, being a name, “Game Maker” takes capitals, and that calling something a “nice cool feature” really doesn’t work). On the other half of the page is a fairly unfunny comic in which whoever is writing demonstrates exactly why emoticons have no place in a written publication. The final page is an outro where said emoticons become abundant (all but one of the paragraphs have one in) and a final statement “Much regards from the GMIndie team” before a nice chunky GMIndie logo is put in.

On the subject of the magazine’s design – although it’s generally consistent and looks good enough, I find the constant use of seemingly random WordArt effects for titles ugly and unprofessional. Although the magazine is very, very Calibri-heavy it’s superior to slapping fonts around like crazy. In my opinion, if they ditch the odd and inconsistent titles the design will be very pleasant.

On the whole, GMIndie Magazine Issue 8 is definitely an improvement over its predecessors. It appears to have greatly benefitted from the lengthened development time and, though still certainly holds room for further improvement (no emoticons, proper English at all times, fix the design of article/review titles) it’s a magazine worthy of your download. Hopefully in three weeks’ time Issue 9 will be released and take the torch from the seemingly finished bodies of GMTech and MarkUp.

Download GMIndie Issue 8

I Won't Forget To Sleep If I Blog

Title comes from something I mentioned in the Sinfully Delicious chatroom (I'm there a lot so if you fancy a chat with me or one of its several other frequenters feel free to come), where Rebecca (needs no introduction to anyone that's been reading this blog for a while) suggested I should sleep then blog when I wake up, to which I basically replied "I'll forget to blog if I sleep. I won't forget to sleep if I blog...".

Anyways, a few things have happened since the last entry, which was a week ago thanks to my severe laxness in writing stuff.

The most relevant one to the blog is that I released a new quickie game, created in 1-2 hours (it was within the space of two hours - 10pm to midnight, but I was chatting during that period so it wasn't all game work). The game name is Acid R[ai/eig]n - a play on the fact it contains acid rain, which ends up reigning. You prolong the life of your plains by growing a curly, branchy tree, which should cover as much horizontal ground as possible. There's more description given on its YYG page, which you can find here.

In other game making news, Ne Touchez Pas 4 on YYG is a downrating magnet. Many of these people are actually entrants into the competition. I'm not so much angry at the fact they're hurting NTP4's rating (temporarily - my YYG moderator friend is always on hand to tell me who did it, remove the downratings and punish as necessary) as I am disappointed the human race simply can't play fair.

Offshoot topic - about Competition 05. I maintain that I'm not in it to place. A "best of the rest" or whatever mention would be nice, but I'm not one for high hopes so if I don't make the list I'm not too concerned. But another thing I dislike - the cockiness of many entrants. I've seen so many people that seem to think their entry is definitely going to place. The vast majority of these are games that clearly aren't... even some of those that must've taken a lot of effort pale in comparison to some of the better entries. My personal favourite entrant is Blackfoot, though.

I've designed the cover for the second of Rebecca Clare Smith's Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow novels. This is a rare instance of me doing something graphical - I keep what little design skill I have away from game making because the two always seem to clash horribly. You can find this piece of graphical design here. If you'd like to comment on it I'd recommend posting on that blog entry, not this one, as she's likely to reliably tell me about the comments. I'm forgetful and my brain is mushy. Of course, if you want to post it on both entries then a virtual cookie your way. Even a real one if you're willing to go out and purchase it yourself.

Wednesday = shopwork, and I spent most of the day, having had my iPod touch suffer from an odd problem that now means it won't accept any applications (bastard), playing Pokémon HeartGold on the Nintendo DS. My verdict of it so far is that it's average. Gold and Silver were so long ago I've forgotten all the bits and pieces from it, so the nostalgia factor is gone. All that's left is a passable Pokémon game. Come on Game Freak, I'm sick of all these half-assed games with only about 60% of the roster actually catchable in-game. Release one with all the areas, all the Pokémon and all the awesome you COULD get out of the franchise!

WrestleMania 26 was on Sunday, and despite most critics calling it average, I still loved it. Bar the odd slightly poor match (Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon, that freaking pathetic diva tag team match ft. Vickie Guerrero) it was stunning stuff, particularly the final match of the show. I'm also loving their NXT program, though I'd like to see four of the rookies get into the main WWE roster (Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater). Mind you, that may still happen, despite them only saying one would.

Anyway, it's 12:30am. That's half an hour later than I'm normally awake, and the last thing I want is to return to my old stay-up-to-7am days. Feeling crappy thanks to sleeping fail - does not want. Gotta be up as early tomorrow to witness the failure emanating strongly from all the weak, predictable, boring April Fool's jokes on all the GM websites.

G'night all!

Allie

Top Ten Music Videos

For something a little different, I'd like to post this to show you all what my top ten music videos are. Should probably have mentioned "favourites" but these are chosen because, to me, they enhance the music they're played to, and are very original.

#10 Beck : E-Pro
Watch

Kicking off the list, a strange yet brilliantly done music video in which Beck is in a world full of vectors. Cue what must've been either incredibly embarrassing or freaking hilarious for him to film as he navigates the world, doing many different things such as digging and jumping atop a series of musical notes. The ending is fairly unexpected too.

#9 Gorillaz : Stylo
Watch

The first of two Gorillaz music videos to make the list (they've always had excellent music videos), Stylo sees the crew in a newly CGIed form, which manages to stick amazingly faithful to their cartoon forms, being chased by first a large policeman, then a Bruce Willis. Amazing stuff.

#8 Fischerspooner : Get Confused
Watch

There's always a brilliant quality to Fischerspooner music videos, I find. Unfortunately, some of them tamper with the songs a bit too much in the process (Emerge is particularly affected by this). Get Confused remains relatively intact, though, and the music video itself is great.

#7 The Prodigy : Out Of Space
Watch

Some of The Prodigy's videos are kinda samey - Liam Howlett shouting at the camera and doing an odd dance, occasionally with added black & white. Out Of Space benefits from being an old song. The music video, which is about as '90s as '90s can get, is different... and a couple of dances performed in it are to die for!

#6 Gorillaz : 19/2000 (19-2000)
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The second of the two Gorillaz music videos in my top ten shares some stuff in common with the first - the band is in a vehicle on a single road. Yet this and Stylo are ten years apart. 19/2000, possibly Gorillaz's most well-known track and often misquoted as "Got the Cool Shoeshine", "Shoeshine" or similar thanks to its distinguishable Noodle-sung segment, has one of the most memorable music videos out there. It even has a flash game made after it!

#5 Fatboy Slim : Weapon Of Choice
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Christopher Walken dancing in a deserted hotel. Yeah. As a sidenote, "Right Here, Right Now", also by Fatboy Slim, would have made the list had it been a top 11. Had it been a top 12 "Praise You" would probably have also made it.

#4 Franz Ferdinand : Take Me Out
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AKA "how you make an entrance". Stupidly addictive song, stylistic, memorable music video. Obscure, yes, but brilliant nonetheless.

#3 OK Go : Here It Goes Again
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Single shots are always gonna be impressive. OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" is a music video filmed in a single shot in which the band do an impressive "dance" on a set of treadmills with alternating directions. Apparently it took them 17 takes to do right - a figure that's actually fairly good. Another one for the memorable pile.

#2 Röyksopp : Remind Me
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A video displaying a woman's average day in the style of an informative/instructional video/booklet/whatever. The video is done axonometrically and is, in general, fantastically made. Either a downside or upside depending on which you prefer, though - the version of the song is actually a remix, not the original tune. Whereas the album version of the song (and presumably the single version too) is a fairly downbeat, sad song, the video version is upbeat and jolly.

#1 Coldplay : The Scientist
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Sometimes when making lists I'll struggle to choose a #1. Not here. The Scientist is a saddening, perfectly-done look at how a couple, driving in their car, had to swerve to dodge oncoming traffic, were swept off a cliff, the woman killed in the accident and the journey of the man, played by Chris Martin, subsequently. The catch is that the entire thing is shown backwards. Martin learnt how to sing the entire song backwards so that, in the reversed video, he was still apparently singing along to the proper track. A beautiful song with a perfect, fitting video. For a slightly haunting take, but to also make full sense of what exactly is happening, here's a reversed version, which of course shows the actual shot footage the right way round.

Anyway, that's it. Feel free to comment on my choices, music videos you personally love etc. Until the next entry.

This 'Box Ain't Made For Walking

This morning, I went to the Banham car boot sale. Was supposed to go last week but there was a Formula 1 match on. I couldn't give a crap but my dad always watches them. Seriously, I don't "get" F1. So much monotonous "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEHHHW!".

Anyway, I both love and hate Banham. My hate comes purely because I never leave the place with any money. I love it for pretty much the same reason though - as well as being cheaper for stuff than eBay or second hand shops, I always find stuff I want, even though most of the time it's on impulse and turns out to be utter junk. Today, that was not the case.

Around a year ago, I got a Gamecube there. It cost £10 with two controllers and was the lovely black model, not the icky purple one. Since then I was looking to complete the sixth-generation set with an Xbox. And today, I found one.

As with the Gamecube it's not the original colour - this one is a lovely transparenty silvery one. Came with two controllers, one official and one unofficial wireless piece of crap that will only ever be used if I'm wanting to play with someone else. It also came with a DVD remote which will likely go unused, since DVD watching will remain a PS3 thang. All that cost an acceptable £15. I then also, not wanting to go without something to play on it, got a dodgy copy of Fable: The Lost Chapters for £2. It stutters every few seconds and, every now and then, throws up an error about how the disc is dirty or damaged. It works though, albeit with the need to save regularly, and is worth the £2 it cost. It also provides a nice stopgap untiiiiiil......the other six games I just bought for it arrive. Costing a grand total of £19.95 (I had £20 left from Banham somehow!), I got the following:

Burnout 3: Takedown because I obsessively love Burnout. I used to own 2 on PS2 (want it back), and I still have Revenge on PS2 and the absolutely stunning Paradise on PS3. I've borrowed Takedown on PS2 from a friend in the past and feel that, if I'm going to complete my Burnout collection, I may as well simultaneously bulk out my Xbox library.

Crazy Taxi 3 because Crazy Taxi has a place in my heart. It was the first game I owned for my PS2 (I sold it stupidly but have since rebought it). It's also attached to one of my all-time favourite memories from my entire life - going to a motorshow in Birmingham in 1999. When I was a kid I was absolutely mad about cars, and seeing all these stupidly awesome futuristic things in real life was like a dream come true. They also had a bunch of Dreamcasts with Crazy Taxi set up on, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But yeah, s'why I got Crazy Taxi 3.

Halo because it was under £3. It's enjoyable, though I don't see the big fuss, so thought I may as bloody well!

Midtown Madness 3 because, as with Crazy Taxi, I have good memories of the original. The original, which I still have on PC CD, was once upon a time installed on all the computers at school. Cue multiplayer city wandering every lunchtime, with swear words scattered randomly in the chat box to start off giggling around the room. I was unaware there was a third instalment (I wasn't even really super-aware of a 2) until it was mentioned by a friend... all the memories came back and, when I finally got the Xbox (MM3 isn't available on any other console) I knew I had to nab a copy.

SSX On Tour because, as with Burnout, CT and MM, I love the series. I have Tricky and 3 on PS2, and used to own 1 (want back) and On Tour (wanted back until I got it again). They should really bring it to Generation 7... specifically PS3 (no, that crappy Blur instalment for Wii doesn't count o.o).

XIII because it was £1.21 and brought my total up nicely to £19.95. Plus I own it on PS2 - I guess it's handier playing it on Xbox because of the whole hard drive thang it has going on!Apart from the Xbox and stuff mentioned before the six games, I didn't get much else from Banham. I wanted a quick drink though, so I... I impulsively bought 24 cans of cola for £3. Sigh!

My dad's also an impulsive spender at Banham. He bought a Polish Scalextric knock-off and a violin. Quite a nice violin too. Not that he can play it... and he'll not ever bother learning! He'll just pick it up now and then and deafen anyone in the vicinity of its screeching.

Anyway, apart from a few piccies of the Xbox and stuff, that's all I have today.

See y'all!

Pushing People Down Flights of Stairs... Repeatedly

11 days since my last blog? I'm returning to my lazy ways, goddamnit!

Anyway, this is a blog a little about me but mostly about an aspect of game making, similar to a blog entry I made several months ago, highlighting some ideas I have. If you want to provide feedback on any of them, feel free to - I'll be more motivated to make one/some of these if I know there will be fans, and conversely will be happy that I'm steering clear of making them if everybody would hate them. So, here goes:

Beelzebox

This is an idea I had which goes with my wanting to improve my 3D modelling skills (see below this segment). Basically, it'd be a first person lighting-powered shooter with a freaky red dude, Beelzebox. It'd include elements from bullet hells, with Beelzebox shooting fire from all orifices, with other FPS-like devices put into place. As well as furthering my modelling skills it'd be nice for it to also help my FPS-making grow. Both of these will be needed for when I start the coding aspect of Frosted Glass, basically a game in a novel, of which the novel and all of the design direction is provided by Rebecca Smith.

Bleed

This is one I came very, very close to making/starting today. This is bullet-hell-esque action in which numerous maroon-coloured patterns would fill the screen in a very pretty manner, their colours sticking to the screen with either surfaces or the old Don't Draw Background Colours trick. Collisions would not be measured in the standard way; instead, the colour of the pixel behind the player (who would likely just be a 1x1 pixel, PixHell style) would be found and if it was maroon, death. You could, of course, happily run over colours that aren't maroon, including slightly lighter or darker shades of it. It would be eye candy, yes, but I think it'd be kinda fun too given the potential for tens of different patterns (it wouldn't just be bullets, there could be lines, geometric shapes and even sprites getting in on the action).

Dreaming On N

Ugggh, I'm torn between making this and not making it. Dreaming On E basically split people down the middle - I was surprised there were some people that really liked it. But the idea of a sequel is that it would look better, incorporate new 3D skills I've accumulated in the last year, and perhaps even tie all or some of the scenarios together (the plan is to start the game with a revisit to Scenario 1 from DoE).

Remaddening

Or mMm2. I'm wanting to do this some day to, as with the first Innoquous, correct the wrongs. This would mean including more than one level, a procedural generation mode, other types of gameplay, and a far greater level of polish. I'm unhappy with quite a few aspects of madnessMADNESSmadness, but I really wasn't expecting it to take off quite so rapidly so I never bothered perfecting it.

Trivia Giants

This would be a cross between a boss rush and a trivia game. The idea is this - you're on a 5x5 grid. Somewhere either in this grid or out of it (more likely out of it) is the boss. The boss asks you a question, gives you a few seconds to think about the answer. Then, as you move about the grid, giant letters appear on it that spell out the answer. So, for example, if the question was "7+3", a vertical line of squares would turn red or whatever on the grid (1) then that would clear and the outer squares (0) would do the same. The idea is to either avoid, or get into, the lit squares. After each question or whatever you'd take an automatically-handled swing at the boss and, after a set number of questions, the boss would be replaced by a better one that asked more complicated questions.

So they're a few ideas I've had. Really not sure what to do about them - knowing me I'll come up with a new idea in a few days and make it in two hours! Here's some other stuff I may as well mention while I'm in the blogging spirit though.

I finished Ne Touchez Pas 4. It made some people very happy, others very sad. It contained no new levels and was generally seen as very uninnovative, but others (mainly those new to NTP, I think) really enjoyed it. It was mostly made for YYG Competition 05, in which you're allowed to use old stuff in your entries - perhaps I would have been better calling it 3.5 or something. Either way, though, it's not the worst self-cloning in the competition, I've seen at least one entry which is simply a downscaled port of a previously made game.

Another thing I've finished, but in a different way, is Shadows & Ghosts, the second instalment of the Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow series written by somebody I've already mentioned in this entry, Rebecca Smith (this time I linked to her blog).

Now, to the blog title. I've been playing a lot of GTAIV recently. I've finished most of the game, though I've still got Brucie's secondaries to do (boring) and a lot of stunt jumps/pigeons to find. I'm having a ton of fun with it, partly thanks to its physics engine, which is pure brilliance. The guns are boring in the game when you can simply push somebody down a flight of stairs or off the kerb of the pavement (which shows how good the engine is - pedestrians' feet are two separate entities so if one slips off something they fall over sideways, or if you trip them up in the same way they may stumble or trip). You can also have fun throwing things at people, which does very little damage but does look funny. There's the art of going to the second island, where taxis are abundant, and hitting the taxis to annoy the drivers. They get out and start trying to attack you. If you do this multiple times without harming the drivers, then jump onto one, they start angrily hitting the car. Sometimes they miss, hit EACH OTHER, then start fighting. Childish, but fun to watch!

Then, my achievement on Monday - I ran around Alderney, the leftmost island, in its entirety. It took three real-life hours, during which I got a wanted level twice (was not caught on either occasion), didn't die (though had to divert to a hotdog vendor now and then), and never took a mode of transport other than Niko's own feet. You'd think it was tedious, but to be completely honest I enjoyed it due to the game's prettiness (my favourite experience of its prettiness is waiting until it's dark and very rainy, going to the GTA version of Times Square and seeing all the lights perfectly reflected in the wet roads).

Last subject - the wanting to get better at 3D modelling. As earlier mentioned I'm making a game with Rebecca Smith called Frosted Glass. This will require me to kit out a house, at minimum, in 3D with stuff like beds, sinks, sofas, chairs, chests of drawers etc. So, in an aim to prepare myself for this, I've started getting properly into the program Maya. I've not much else to say on the subject, so I'll end this blog entry on a different note: a picture of the bed I made in the program.

Until the next blog, goodbye!