Exercise

One of the problems of working freelance from home is that there is always the danger that I could just be sitting down from morning til night every day of the week. In an effort not to become a complete slob, I've been fitting in a half-hour brisk walk each day (my squash days are long gone). I usually go at lunch time as I'm having a good break from work at that point, anyway, but today it was raining. So, only having a short lunch break, I promised myself that I would go out later when the weather cleared up a little.

In the middle of the afternoon, with no sign of the weather clearing, I decided to go for my walk. Typically, ten minutes after I came back, the rain stopped and now the sun is shining. If I'd held out until the end of the day my walk would have been much more pleasant...

First response - and it's positive!

Over on the Just Adventure Forums there is a new thread on the game Wanted: A Wild Western Adventure. It's the first response to the game in the US and I'm pretty pleased to say that it's very positive.

Randy, the forum administrator says: "I've just finished Wanted: Wild Western Adventure and it is truly fantastic. "

I know that the majority of this praise goes to the people who designed and created the game, but I'd like to think that my script editing played a little part in his enjoyment. :)

Paralympics

I've been regularly watching the Paralympics over the last ten days and have been thoroughly amazed and impressed at the high level of competition. My thanks go out to all those that made it so enjoyable to watch and to the organisers and support staff who helped make it possible. Brilliant work all round, guys!

Pro Gamers - a weird concept?

Over at RedAssedBaboon they have a piece on Pro Gamers having no support in the US. It states that Pro Gamers in South Korea regularly earn six-figure salaries. What made me think it was a weird concept is the fact that the people involved in the development of those games are highly unlikely to make anything like that. Somehow it doesn't seem fair. :)

Out of interest, do the companies sponsoring the events also pay the development companies a fee to use their games?

Juniper Crescent

My other site, which houses my cartoon strips, has undergone problems with the upshot that the URL is now www.juniper-crescent.com. My other blog, Life in the Crescent has already been moved and I'm in the process of moving everything else. If links do not work, please be patient. If you could drop me a line, too, that would help enormously. Thanks.

Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon hits Japan

And here's the proof. :)

The text has been translated into Japanese, but the voices remain in English.

Dane & Joe 39

A new Dane & Joe strip has just been published on the Just Adventure + site.

Developing Thoughts 15

This week's column has just been published on the Randomville site.

Dork Tower

This is so funny.

Demo frustration

Why do demos so regularly fail to portray the game it's trying to promote in the best possible light? For a while I was completely stuck in the demo of Shade - Wrath of Angels because to get through it involved something not covered in the tutorial and which I only stumbled on by accident. Besides this, I thought it was way too dark most of the time and my magical, glowing sword had more use as a torch than a weapon for large stretches.

Another Demo I thought I'd take a look at was the one for BeTrapped (who came up with that name?) as it's supposed to be designed by Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight). I downloaded it and installed it, but when I try to run it, all I get is a blank browser. Not the best of ways to get me to part with my money.

Played a demo of Juiced for the XBox and seemed to spend all my time skidding into walls. Frankly, I don't think it holds a torch to Gran Tourismo or Sega GT.

I want to enjoy the Second Sight demo, but find I'm getting killed too easily. Maybe I need ultra-easy mode... :(

I did play a little of the Blinx 2 demo and thought it was much improved on its predecessor. Must play it some more to get a proper feel.

WANTED - promo material

I was asked to help provide some promotional material for the game WANTED: A Wild Western Adventure, so I spent an hour earlier this evening putting something together. When it's announced exactly what that promotion is I'll be sure to let you know.

Interviewed

Gabby Dizon has published an interview with me over on his blog, 3rd World Game Designer.

Developing Thoughts 14

The third column on dialogue - and the last for the moment - has been posted on the Randomville site. It just happens to be on this page right here.

More woes

If the illness and the computer meltdown wasn't enough, I've been having problems with the hosting of my other site, Juniper Crescent. I realised that I should have renewed the hosting last month, but strangely I have had no reminder of this and when I try to contact them my e-mails get bounced back. Now my site has gone dead and when I try to contact the company through their website I also get problems. It looks like I may well have to move the site over to the company that hosts this domain.

On a good note, I've just sent off this week's Developing Thoughts column...

Bleeaaarghhh!!!

I'm on the road to recovery, but I've been ill since Friday afternoon. Also on Friday, my main computer decided to have a fit with the upshot that I've gone and lost lots of e-mails. Strangely, though, I don't think I've lost any of my contacts details. Managed to get the few files I hadn't backed up off the hard drive by plugging it into my other computer, but it was deteriorating pretty rapidly so I didn't leave it connected for long. Battling with computers while feeling ill is not the best of things to do.

Managed to find the energy today to complete an e-mail interview, but may have to have an early night to compensate. I'm hoping that I'll be much better tomorrow as I have a number of things I need to work on and complete before Friday.

The first episode of the new series of Early Doors was on the telly last night. The writing on this programme is just superb - clever observation and juxtaposition combined with a clever mixture of "ordinary" people. I heartily recommend Early Doors to anyone who has the opportunity to watch it.

Dane & Joe

A new Dane & Joe strip has just been published on the Just Adventure site.

Sorry

I'm afraid there will be no Developing Thoughts column this week. I have been too busy with other things to find the time to complete it. I'd like to apologise to those of you who have been reading regularly. Please check back next week.

PC demos need Attract Mode

Although I must find time to write up a proper report on ECTS/EGN (etc.), something struck me about PC games - the fact that they rarely have an attract mode. PS2 and XBox games are regularly set up to detect inactivity and then switch into attract mode - running a short trailer - to make sure that constant activity on screen draws the eye of the passer-by. I passed by a number of PC games at the shows where nothing was happening on screen and because of a lack of background animation or other on-screen movement, a potentially exciting game was made to look dull.

The Westerner renamed

It's now WANTED: A Wild Western Adventure. This is the game I worked on in a script editor capacity for the English language version. More details can be found at the Daily Game site, here.

Developing Thoughts 13

Second part of the dialogue series can be found here.