Possible disruption

I'm planning on moving the blog to a Wordpress blog over the weekend. I'd have done it this evening but I'm waiting on some server stuff to be sorted before I can. So if you find that everything is screwy then this is the reason.

Although I've been reasonably happy with Blogger, some of the things I've had to do to make simple changes area real pain and just a small tweak to the template file took ages to update. From what I've seen of WordPress so far it's going to be much more flexible and give me more opportunity to control the layout of the blog and the posts.

So, fingers crossed...

Blogger Changes

Having just changed the look of my blog, I now find out that Blogger are going to end FTP support so I'll no longer be able to host my blog on my own site, which is a pain. I'm not keen on the changes so I think the best thing would be to change to a different system.

Does anyone have any experience with other blogging systems and which of them allows hosting on my site? Do they have systems in place that allow for the easy migration of my existing blog? Are they easily updated?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

The Lost Game - a scene

I decided to pull out one of the scenes from the "never to be published", Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End. This takes place near the beginning of the intended game. Emily has taken car keys belonging to her father, Michael, and her new friend, Jacob, is waiting for her.
___

Emily leaves the house with the keys in her hand and her backpack slung over one shoulder. She holds the keys aloft to show Jacob, who’s been pacing impatiently up and down the drive.

Jacob: You don’t have to do this. What the Professor said about Innsmouth scared you, I can tell.
Emily: Then it’s time I faced my fears, don’t you think?

One of the house windows opens and Emily’s father pokes his head and shoulders through, shouting after her.

Michael: Emily! Don’t you dare take my pickup!
Emily: Shit! Get in the truck, Jake.
Jacob: You stole the keys? Cool!
Emily: He treats me like a kid. I’m twenty two for Christ’s sake!

Emily fires up the engine, slips the truck into gear and bullets out of the drive, narrowly missing another car travelling in the opposite direction. The other driver is forced to swerve to avoid a collision and Jacob looks back to check that the car hasn’t come to any harm.

Jacob: Your dad looks really pissed.

Emily looks in the rear-view mirror and spots her father running into the road, having escaped from his temporary prison.

Emily: I’ll worry about him when I get back.
Jacob: He had it coming.

Emily gives Jacob a look.

Jacob (smiling): It was kinda obvious.

At the end of the driveway, her father has stopped running and stares after his truck, fuming.

Michael (shouts): You stupid, little...!
Michael (to himself): Why is it you never listen to me?

___

Top Ten Games I Worked On

I was sorely tempted to add Beneath a Steel Sky to my list of Top Ten games in the previous post, but I think that would be bad form because I worked on it. Although I didn’t do any of the writing and design, I still think it’s not something I should put on a list like that. So here is my top ten list from the games I've worked on.

• Beneath a Steel Sky
• So Blonde
• Broken Sword – The Sleeping Dragon
• Broken Sword – The Shadow of the Templars
• In Cold Blood
• Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso
• Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado
• Rhianna Ford and the Da Vinci Letter
• Wanted: A Wild Western Adventure
• Call of Cthulhu: Destiny’s End

Again, the order is not a concrete one.
I put the last one on the list because it was turning into one of the best games I ever worked on and was eighty percent complete when it was cancelled. Perhaps one day I’ll post some of my favourite scenes.

My Top Ten Games

I was waiting for my blog to update with the latest changes (it always seems to take so long...) and thought I'd create a list of my top ten games. Although I've created a list, the specific order may be a little varied depending on my mood.

1. Day of the Tentacle
2. Portal
3. Grim Fandango
4. Psychonauts
5. Final Fantasy IX
6. Knights of the Old Republic
7. Heretic
8. Dark forces
9. Quake
10. Tomb Raider Anniversary
11. Beyond Good and Evil
12. Full Throttle
    

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I have twelve games in the list. I struggled to get it down to this many and still have a number that I'd want to include but thought I'd gone far enough.

So, my top twelve games...

New Look!

As you'll see, I've given the blog a bit of a makeover. I got fed up of the old look and the size of the font was a bit on the small size. I'm not fully happy with this yet, so there may be more tweaks to come, but I think it's a vast improvement.

GFG comments from Jurie Horneman

Jurie, one of the organisers of GFG has posted some thoughts about the conference in his blog. I'd like to thank him for being so kind about my talk.

This is indicative of the high level of respect and friendliness everyone who attended showed.

Writing Industries Conference

I've been invited to appear on a panel at the Writing Industries Conference and the Programme has just been annouced. As you'll see, the day's event is packed with great discussion panels that are sure to interest a wide range of writers. The programme schedule will appear shortly.

The panel I'm appearing on includes Graham Joyce, the writer on Doom 4, and Richard Birkin of Pixel Lab. As I've not had the pleasure of meeting either of these guys before it will be as enjoyable for me as I hope it is for the audience.

If you attend the conference, please do say hello.