New Year's Eve

So, another year draws to a close and we're all a little older and, hopefully, wiser.

The gaming industry seems to have gone a little crazy with overloaded hype that perhaps led us to believe that some new games might be a little better than they actually were. We were also shown that greed makes some ride roughshod over their employees for the sake of profit. We also saw the same company buy a large share in a rival company, which does not bode well at all. More small developers were forced out of business or had to make many of their staff redundant as they try to adjust to soaring development costs.

The world at large has seen its own share of disasters, from man-made ones in Africa and Iraq, to natural ones like the recent tidal waves around the Indian Ocean. My heart goes out to the families of those who have died and to those who have been injured, are dying, or starving as a result of the tragedies that have unfolded. With constant reminders, too, of the continued increase in global warming, I realise just how precarious our existence is at times.

Let's hope that 2005 proves to be a better year for all of mankind.

Christmas Day

Well, another Christmas has come and nearly gone. I'm stuffed with turkey and mince pies and sitting at the computer writing a few words before working on some artwork in Photoshop. Such is the drive of my creativity that even on this most festive occasion I find myself drawn to do something.

I went to see my sons and my grandaughter this morning before returning home to cook lunch. We had my parents round, my brother and one of my uncles. I was really pleased - it was the best Christmas lunch I've done so far. All in all, a most pleasurable time was had.

Here's hoping that you all had a good day, too.

Have a Jolly Holiday

Whatever you believe, or not, I hope that the holiday season is one that you will enjoy.

To view my specially created card in full, click here.

Personal projects

Thinking that this week would be mostly preparing for Christmas, I find that I've been spending the last few days on a couple of personal projects. With the possibility of some interest in GN12, I have been working on condensing it down into a one-page overview. As it's been a little time since I visited the design, I was rather pleased that I believe it still works well. So often it can turn out that ideas you once thought were wonderful turn out not to be the case further down the line.

Also, after talking with Tony Warriner of Revolution, I've been revisiting my SC1 design with a view to creating a proof-of-concept demo. I've also been looking at a couple of engines and am evaluating some 3D software that I may use to develop the backgrounds.

So, busy, busy, busy...

Consoles - Bad for Development?

Here's an interesting quote I found over at Idle Thumbs:

With the introduction of next-generation consoles such as the Xbox 2 and PS3, software design houses will be required to put more manpower and capital into developing new games to cope with demand. So I think that there will be no room for small-scale design houses to survive in the software market for these consoles.
-Hisao Oguchi, Sega Chief

I see this as leading to an increase (if that's possible) of licenses and sequels for the consoles and the PC could be a hotbed of innovation. All the small studios will be forced to develop for the PC only and will likely need to be very original in order to succeed.

Sitcom

Quite some time ago I started on a sitcom and when I turned freelance I used the opportunity to finish off the script and start sending it out. I received some very favourable responses, but so far no one has taken it up. Being busy with other work has meant that I've left it alone for some time.

Then last week I spotted an item that said Channel Five in the UK were looking to develop a new sitcom. so, having a spare day today, I took the opportunity to polish up the script (based on the feedback I received) and have just been to the post office to send it off to them. Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me.

Comics, games and "show, don't tell"

I was reading the latest issue of the Nightcrawler mini-series (it's great having a son who buys comics) and something hit me about the way the story was unfolding - the writer keeps having characters tell us what's happened instead of showing us it happening. In such a visual medium like comics you'd expect that the writer would be more than happy to write some action Or is it a sign that he likes to get as many words onto the pages to justify his position as writer. Showing action, after all, means you don't get to write the dialogue that explains it. I think that sometimes a writer can forget that it's the story-telling that counts, not the words on the page.

Similarly, I'm not a fan of games where you continually discover items (notes, journals, letters, etc.) or meet characters that tell you something that's already happened instead of showing it to you as it's happening. Sometimes it can be as trivial as a character saying that his boss is mad at him, but it would heighten the drama if you'd walked in on the two of them having the fight.

Sometimes, though, budget or time constraints stop you from showing every event in a dramatic way, but surely there are better ways to tell a story than to have a convenient journal lying around where you can't help but pick it up.

Jazz again

Nearly four weeks ago I posted an entry about my rising interest in Jazz. Thanks to Andrew Stern, who offered a couple of recommendations, I'm now starting to build up a small collection. Though "Stardust" is taking a little getting into, I love "Mingus Ah Um" and is exactly the type of thing that I'm interested in.

Having heard a few interesting tracks on the radio, I bought "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis (which is my current favourite album), "Midnight Blue" by Kenny Burrell and "Requiem" by Branford Marsalis. Love them all.

In a way, it's like being a teenager again and when I first got into music of any kind, discovering Bowie, Floyd, Queen, etc. (I know, my age is showing.) It's refreshing to find something that, in spite of being decades old - for some of the music above - because it's new to me it still feels fresh.

Half-Life 2 oddity

One thing I noticed, which I thought was really odd, was that objects you are holding cast shadows, but you/Freeman don't. The immersion dropped a notch at that point. :)

EA Bites Back

There is an interesting response to the whole "EA spouse" affair over at Joystiq.

"We haven’t yet cracked the code on how to fully minimize the crunches in the development and production process."

Must be something seriously wrong with their management practices if they can't work that one out.

Half-Life 2 - my thoughts

Having just finished Half-Life 2, I thought I would share my thoughts on what has become quite a phenomenon.

For those who have not played the game, please be warned that this piece may contain information that could spoil your enjoyment of the game later. Besides, only by having played the game yourself will you know to what I refer. Though it may seem that I’m being harsh in what I say, I genuinely feel that the game could have been so much more complete if they had handled some things differently.

I find I have contradictory feelings about the game. While it is easily one of the best – if not THE best – first person shooting games, the story was so disappointing.

There are so many cool and exciting things about this game – the vastness of the environments, the variety, the excellent opponents and gameplay, the cool environment manipulation, etc. – it’s a shame that the story was so flimsy and presented in a weak manner. For instance, I thought that the story was just showing signs of picking up when the game suddenly ended. Although I’d clearly reached some kind of climax, it felt more like an “Act 2” climax in many ways.

The biggest problem for me was that my character – Gordon Freeman – was only mixed up in the story by a series of coincidences that must have been signposted for the antagonist to read from the beginning. At no point was the player in control of the development of the story, or even a substantial part of it. The story seemed to be unravelling outside of anything I did and Freeman was simply a passenger.

The two appearances by the G-Man weren’t particularly good, giving the feeling that they were tagged on as an after-thought in order to give the impression there was some form of conspiracy going on. It felt very “gimmicky” to me.

Character development was virtually non-existent, so that you tended not to care about any of the characters in the game, particularly as all they seem to do was boss you around without really explaining what was going on.

You know, I’m still trying to work out what the story was really about.

There were many events dropped into the game that had no resolution and I feel as though they may have been created to justify giving Gordon extra power or equipment and not really part of the story.

One of the most frustrating things for me was the inability to be able to talk to the other characters. They just talked at me and told me everything I needed to know in a very convenient way. In a real sense, there was no true dialogue, just a series of monologues that sometimes came across as a little patronising.

Which brings me onto the character of Gordon Freeman himself. We all know what he looks like. Every character in the game constantly reminds us that we are playing the role of another character by referring to us by name. So why couldn’t they have gone one step further and actually given him a voice and raised the standard of the dialogue into what it should have been – something to match the superb quality of the rest of the gameplay? Instead of making me think that I was in the role, it simply made him look stupid. There were lots of times when I wanted Gordon to say something back to the other characters, or ask them a question, or get them to repeat what they said because I’d been looking around the room and hadn’t been paying attention.

I wanted him to convince me that he was a fully developed character, but he never did, and this contributed to the weakness of the story.

Doom 3, of course, was even worse in this respect. They shifted to a third-person camera and showed the player character a number of times, but still didn’t have him speak. In this case, it would have been far better for him to have remained a faceless, nameless character, which would have meant that the player became the character much more easily.

This sums up the story for me, though I don’t know the artist.

The "Party" was fun

Thanks to all of the people who came over to the Inventory forums, posed questions and made kind comments. It was good fun.