Rhianna Pratchett Muses about Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

Rhianna Pratchett (yeah that Pratchett) writer of the original mirrors edge game has been tweeting since E3 about her thoughts on Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. I've recently turned into a bit of a ME:C apologist on the Reddit due to concerns about the games direction. It's kind of refreshing having an "official" point of view on the matter.

One of things I was most pleased about with the first game was coming up with the Mirror's Edge name (which is still there, so yay!)

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

One thing I was wondering about and Rhianna mentions, is the more grungy look that will rear up. Someone mentioned during their E3 playthrough that fans may not be used to the grungier look on the streets, so it's good to know that there were allowances in the original vision.

Interested with this open world look whether they depict the Old Town slums, which are outside the gleaming city.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

They appeared in the comics (a few trackers live out there) but never made it into the game.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

If anyone is so inclined the Mirror's Edge comics I wrote with @DCComics and @matthewdowsmith depict the story I would've like in the game.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 17, 2015

Because of her name dropping the comic I've gone and got my go-to comic book store to order me in a copy of the collection. I'll also have to pick up the one that's coming out for Catalyst as well when it's out.
And then there's the more obvious complaint that's popping up, that the city is to futuristic and not as near future as the last one. It's easier to be immersed in a world you recognize as being so close to your own. It's because of this game I gained such a love for architecture.

Interestingly Mirror Edge Catalyst looks much more futuristic than the original (which was meant to be very near future.) Quite Deus Ex-y.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

Would have actually preferred to go more futuristic with the original actually. Near-future is damn tough to write.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

You can never bend things as much as you'd like.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 16, 2015

Although far fewer fans have complained about this next bit. Guns. Most admit that they didn't use guns but they liked the choice. In ME:C the option has been dropped completely. I'm a huge fan of this decision.

BTW Faith was never keen on guns in the first Mirror's Edge. So dropping gun combat is Catalyst is completely in line with her character.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 17, 2015

Although we absolutely would have done things differently given more time/budget we built the narrative of the world Catalyst now stands on.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 17, 2015

I haven't addressed the slight switch in focus that the story has made, which a lot of people are unhappy with. But I will when I formulate some words worth reading. I just don't think that there's much of a difference between "faceless Totalitarian government" and "faceless Conglomerate of companies".

Images from Dead End Thrills

Faith In Journalism

There haven't been many articles I've read that have made me excited or passionate about something. I've just found one though. The articles have a distinct lack of bullshit, and are totally honest in their execution. The imagery is mind blowing, and that's saying something considering I've been staring at this game for over five years now. I really didn't think I'd see Mirrors Edge 1 in a new way any more.
It's good to be hearing about someone that was a part of the team, to hear a bit of the backstory, and not just some CEO or marketer who only gives you the nice bits. This way feels a lot more human, like talking to someone who's just done an amazing drawing but still says they hate it because something's a little off and it will never live up to the amazing image that was in their head.

Even the site design is great. It's one of the first I've seen doing the two column text grid. Weirdly enough it follows a couple of the trends I was experimenting with on my final design project at uni, Moxy. Two columns with wide images splitting the sections so the columns don't get overly long. Drop caps at the beginning of a new section so people don't get confused about where to start or how things are layed out. None of this lame "Go to Page 2" nonsense.

I had just assumed that the web design trend was going to stay on track with the overly large body copy single column stuff.

Obviously they've taken it to the next level with the 100% width of the article and better text size to take full advantage of any screen though. I'm sure if I was actually an intelligent web designer I might have considered that a better option rather than locking myself into specific widths which will only deprecate with time.

Anyway, Go read the article, go check out the others. Follow this site forever. I know I will be.

Adventure Time Background

Click to see a large 1920x1080 version.

Thought that this recreation of Jake the Dog & Finn the Human from Adventure Time deserved a post of its own. Requested background by a user over on G+. I'm really covering old ground lately. Also did a quick whip up of Faith from Mirrors Edge. DICE! EA! Anybody! Make a sequel. I don't have money at the moment. But I'm sure I have some vital organs that really aren't that vital but someone else wants really bad.

Question. If you don't have an arm, can you still go in the regular Olympics? Or do you HAVE to go in the Paralympics? And won't the Paralympics be cool in the future when people are half robots, being able to jump over buildings, run as fast as cars, and lift a metric butt ton? Yeah, me 'n Becky get onto some pretty tangential subject lines.

Link - Skyward Blob

This is for all you Legend of Zelda fans. I took his costume from the latest game, Skyward Sword. But to be fair, he's been wearing the same costume for 25 years now.
Apparently there are two camps of Zelda fans. One seems to like the "real" looking Link while the others like the cartoony Link. I'm gonna have to side with the cartoony guys on this one... I probably side with the cartoony guys on everything tbh. I'm probably the only person who quite liked the animated cut scenes of Mirrors Edge.
But try and tell me Wind Waker doesn't look awesome. Blobby Link would probably fit in there quite well. He would be the runty Link that's always having trouble keeping up with the big Links.

Twice the Crumpet

Just a random line that I had rolling around.

Solar Fields recently released a new album. A little more chilled out than his earlier work. I'm not sure if the video is official or not. I recommend you go draw or something while listening to it. Ambience is background music, not foreground entertainment music. Solar Fields is the artist that created the music for Mirrors Edge. A game that needs a sequel badly. Seriously Dice, You can do this. Please.. please.. please.

Izaks wittle job intiview

Well. Before I ellaborate upon the title of this I would just like to give a summary of me at this current moment. its almost 1Am. I'm trying to be as quiet as possible, tuning down for the night with relient K's "The lining is silver", "You'l always be my best friend", "In like a lion" and "The thief" All great songs. Check em out.

Anyway, today I had my job interview with EB. Fortunatly, Emma (my interviewer) lost her notes on what she was gonna ask, so I got to take the bull by the balls and get kicked in the face. After that I realized I got the saying wrong and decided to keep going with my anicdote.

I was pretty tense when I got in there. Laugh politely whenever I see her face crack into a smile, that sorta thing. She said as introduction "Oh wow, your right on time. There was meant to be another girl coming into today but she never showed up." "Oh that kinda sucks." I say sympathetically. The guy minding the counter laughs "Awww man, that sucks so bad that she didn't arrive." in an outrageous "woe be me" type fashion. I reply "Yea, man it REALLY does SUCK. I'm gonna have to take her job and stuff now.. Stink."

She asks if I smoke. I, realizing that this is the first test go "ew! No way, smoking is as bad as pedophilia, I would never do that in a mall." Turns out she smokes. And that last comment never happened. Anyway, were walking outside to pedophilize and we get onto the topic of which mall we would use during a zombie appocolypse. I respond that malls are a bad choice, since it only takes one old lady who thinks her dog is important to compromise the entire mall.

Anyway, we chatted about the importance of ninjas and pirates. Talked briefly about my weaknessess "Well, I can tend to be forgetful, but it means I can't hold grudges."

Talked about the big wednesday loto money. lolled at her comment "Man, What I could do with that much money... Buy a PS3."

Bought ice cream, frollicked, laughed together, spun around on swings.

"Im sorry I can't hire you." "AH F**ge!! Hey! F**ge isnt a swear word! Its like a safe alternative."

And the moral of this story is, Buy mirrors edge. Because it could possibly get you a job! (I dont find out for ages whether or not the interview went down well. It'l probably go down worse if she does a background check on me with google and stumbles over this blog. Ah well. My post came out as more a trip to fairy land than an actual accounting of events.