Monday, June 29, 2015
Izak Smells - Hayden's Stag Do - Ep16
It's been a while since an episode came out, but I was privileged to record Hayden's entry into marriage. What wasn't recorded was us trying to make Xbox's talk to each other so we could play Halo and a drunken walk to Wendy's.
We were supposed to go into town, but there was no way we were going to be allowed anywhere.
It should be noted that the marks my saggy white body got are still clearly visible and have now been renamed "scars".
Monday, June 22, 2015
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Aloy - Horizon: Zero Dawn
E3 2015 has seen a decent lineup of Female Protags this year. Ass Creed, Recore, Beyond Eyes, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst and Dishonored 2 are all notable entries. Shouldn't take me long to draw them all.
Horizon and Recore seem to have similiar themes. And by themes I mean, post apocalyptic world with robots and kick ass girls.
Friday, June 19, 2015
PyxelEdit and some Little Running Dudes
I haven't done a proper post about PyxelEdit yet. I started to early on and then dropped it into drafts. I'm glad I did. My knowledge about the program at the time made me look like an idiot. Perceived flaws and problems with the program were only due to my own ineptitude.
Anyway, as I fiddle around with it I'm starting to build up quite a nice little spritesheet of pieces you could use in a Platformer. I'm thinking it may make a nice resource for new indy devs who want to get something whipped up quickly. No doubt cases of this already exist, but having a little choice never hurt anyone right?
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Hyping Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Here's some recent screenshots I've taken of Mirror's Edge, to pad out my fan trepidation and roundup of recent hype.
So it hasn't been hard to guess that we'd see more Mirror's Edge at this E3. The last two E3's have had teasers, so at the very least we'd get another little developers diary. But there was no way. ME appeared for pre-order a while ago (albeit without legit or finalized box art) and the EA financial statement listed ME as a breadwinner for next year.
The current state of things has Mirror's Edge: Catalyst as being listed as playable on the showroom floor and the official site saying "Thank you for your incredible passion and your patience. I'm excited to tell you that it's paid off — by this time next week, you will have finally seen more of the game at E3."
So at 8am on Tuesday morning I expect I'll be on a bus, burning through my data like I was that time last year. However my enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that this time last year Sara Jansson's words were "I know many of you probably wish we would show more of the game, but we’re still pretty early in development". The DICE team was also held up during the release of Battlefield 4 which was released in a horribly buggy state. They (reportedly) put all hands on deck to fix it, including teams working on other projects. It's unconfirmed how involved the ME team was with all this, but how long does it take to produce a solid triple A game? Is a game that's in "early development" fully playable a year later? Can a creative vision be realized in the time-frame set by bean counters and financial quarters?
Can EA through DICE fuck a game I've been hyped for the last 6 years about? Yes. But I hope they don't. Edit: DICE, you pulled through, the game looks amazing. You've done us proud! And no guns, holy shit. 0_0 nice!
So it hasn't been hard to guess that we'd see more Mirror's Edge at this E3. The last two E3's have had teasers, so at the very least we'd get another little developers diary. But there was no way. ME appeared for pre-order a while ago (albeit without legit or finalized box art) and the EA financial statement listed ME as a breadwinner for next year.
The current state of things has Mirror's Edge: Catalyst as being listed as playable on the showroom floor and the official site saying "Thank you for your incredible passion and your patience. I'm excited to tell you that it's paid off — by this time next week, you will have finally seen more of the game at E3."
So at 8am on Tuesday morning I expect I'll be on a bus, burning through my data like I was that time last year. However my enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that this time last year Sara Jansson's words were "I know many of you probably wish we would show more of the game, but we’re still pretty early in development". The DICE team was also held up during the release of Battlefield 4 which was released in a horribly buggy state. They (reportedly) put all hands on deck to fix it, including teams working on other projects. It's unconfirmed how involved the ME team was with all this, but how long does it take to produce a solid triple A game? Is a game that's in "early development" fully playable a year later? Can a creative vision be realized in the time-frame set by bean counters and financial quarters?
Can EA through DICE fuck a game I've been hyped for the last 6 years about? Yes. But I hope they don't. Edit: DICE, you pulled through, the game looks amazing. You've done us proud! And no guns, holy shit. 0_0 nice!
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Sakuya - Ōkami 8Bit
I've got a new pixel drawing app (which I'm probably not going to use to draw my pixel girls, just purely for consistency) but I'll probably go into it later. It's called Pyxel Edit for those that care.
Here's a song from my teenage years of playing Burnout 3.
#Zeroplace Chapter 2
I was stoked with the support I got for chapter 1 (which you can read here) that I'm back with the second chapter, their first actual adventure on the road. This is all a hodgepodge of true stories and events.
Hope you like it. I'd just like to also thank Matt and Jo for being mint enough to source me the real life images of the actual locations. The chapter 2 image was taken by Matt in Whananaki and Jo took the signposts shot.
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