Year of Luigi!
Megabyte vs. Bob Guitar Duel from Reboot
This is my current watch-from-end-to-end-during-meals show. X) Reboot was apparently not a show which took itself very seriously, despite the dire straights its characters often found themselves in. I couldn't stop snickering during and after this episode ending, a real Go-Karting with Bowser moment. X)
Hi all. Not a whole lot to report in terms of general life stuff for this past month. Work is a bit more moderate now. I'm going to a party with my college friends tomorrow. My costume this year is Luigi, because my sister gave me the cap for Christmas (probably just saw it in a store somewhere and thought, "Hey, that's so B.J.!") and this is, after all, the Year of Luigi. ;) Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any overalls, or even a shirt that truly matches Luigi's look. X) I'll just have to go in jeans and the closest shirt I have. Ohhhh well.
Forgotten Gates is chugging along as usual (which is to say, slowly). I'm just about done implementing lizalfos. Part of the reason this monster took so long was that I also updated the code in the middle of working on it, so that when a battle is started from in the dungeon, it calls the new "Initializer" monster groups.
For the Making Maps game design challenge, I was hit with a concept that wasn't as meta as using actual geography in a cell phone game (something which predictably was used by another entrant), but less thorny and much more entertaining in my humble opinion. It sprang from the map-associated phrase I used as a title, Beyond Here There Be Dragons. The idea is, there are legendary treasures hidden in not-so-secret caves, but to reach them, you have to pass through land where all manner of mythical monsters are hiding. So rather than risk your own conniving neck, you sell treasure maps to village idiots and observe the hazards they run into. X) By drawing different routes for the dupes to take and noting down where the dangers are, you can eventually determine a safe route to the treasure. The full write up is here. The next challenge is called Interactive TV, and I kinda doubt I'll be making an entry for it. X)
On TF, Einion and Xu got married! :D As per unfortunately usual with the west-coast crowd, I was only able to be there for the first few rounds of poses. X) I'm hoping a log of the full scene will be posted somewhere soon. Also, the plot involving Gonff has managed to stretch out a bit further. After being found guilty in court, Gonff escaped outside the Gerudo Fortress using his portal potions, and headed up the canyon back toward Hyrule Field. Knowing he couldn't outrun the Gerudo, though, he used his portals again to hide up on a rock shelf. The main force of Gerudo went on by, but Shemri and Itami stayed to puzzle over the pair of portals Gonff left in the ground to cancel out the ones he used to get up on the rock shelf, and eventually Itami spotted him. Gonff used the last of his potions to get a head start, and got to the bridge before being boxed in. Then he jumped in the river (perfectly survivable--even not that dangerous--in the game, of course, but he didn't know that), and Itami followed him. They washed up at Lake Hylia, where Gonff realized a newfound addiction for thrills (possibly triggered by the fact that he drank a whole bottle of his own pep tonic shortly before this). We're currently paused with Itami trying to keep Gonff still until the other Gerudo arrive to take him into custody.
On NMR, the current RP challenge is "Stars of Spooky", in which one is supposed to put one's chars in place of those from a well-known scary story. As Noab, I led a scene called Left 4 Shinobi in which we used ninja techniques rather than shotguns and bats to slice through the infected hordes. I used the opportunity to debut an experimental combat system I thought up inspired by Prose-Descriptive Qualities (PDQ). It was a very successful test run, both in that it was lots of fun and showed promise for the system, and in that it pointed out to me areas where it needs work. I also ran a scene as Sousa in which gremlins invaded Sunagakure. Not quite fitting the idea of placing the characters in the story, more taking something from the story and pulling it into our world, but whatever. Finally, at the suggestion of another player, I wrote a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven called the The Crowbird, portraying Jon in his youth trying to study to be a detective while Scruvo yaks about getting him a girlfriend. X)
I also started up a new campaign between Aburei and Mushi, simply because she wanted to RP one evening and my thoughts of what we could do led to an idea for extended plot. It started with a scene in which Aburei and Mushi run into each other in a small Land of Water village, having both been drawn there by a minor epidemic. The good news is, the treatment for the disease is known, and has already been ordered. The bad news is, the bottles of pills turn out to have been replaced by eggshells full of pebbles on arrival. o.o; So Aburei and Mushi are backtracking with the deliveryman along the route he took to find out where the medicine has gone.
Giana Sisters: Rise of the Owlverlord:
I've already reviewed Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, so all I'll really have to talk about here is the differences. Rise of the Owlverlord is almost just a stage expansion to the previous title, including its price at a mere $5. Regardless, it's sold as a standalone title. Interesting strategy. It irks me slightly to think that there are probably duplicate resources taking up space on my hard drive, but that minor flaw aside, it's probably a smart move. Why limit your potential audience to just those who've purchased the first game, even if you are essentially selling an expansion to it? As long as you're charging the same low price, those who have the first one won't much care that the "expansion" is standalone, and maybe people who wouldn't fork over the cash for the bigger game will get this one, then be convinced to invest in the original.
So yeah, it's a set of new stages, which are harder on the whole. They put the pressure on right from the start, the moment you break out of your cage in the first stage you're pursued by a wave of invincible enemies. X) It actually gets easier after that, but it's an intentional message: this game was made for veterans of the first. As far as new mechanics, they play with just a couple things related to the central mode-switching mechanic: enemies that move at different speeds depending on the mode, colored projectiles that are intangible in one mode or the other, that sort of thing. They also seemed fond of creating "hubs" with paths branching into different contained areas of a stage, which contained keys needed for getting through the final path to the exit. The stages are long and dense with challenge, but there's only seven of them, and the final one isn't so long, just a quick jaunt and then the boss.
Bottom line? It's small, but so is the price. Get it if you'd like a quick fix of oldschool platforming challenge.
Click to viewThis is my current watch-from-end-to-end-during-meals show. X) Reboot was apparently not a show which took itself very seriously, despite the dire straights its characters often found themselves in. I couldn't stop snickering during and after this episode ending, a real Go-Karting with Bowser moment. X)
Hi all. Not a whole lot to report in terms of general life stuff for this past month. Work is a bit more moderate now. I'm going to a party with my college friends tomorrow. My costume this year is Luigi, because my sister gave me the cap for Christmas (probably just saw it in a store somewhere and thought, "Hey, that's so B.J.!") and this is, after all, the Year of Luigi. ;) Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any overalls, or even a shirt that truly matches Luigi's look. X) I'll just have to go in jeans and the closest shirt I have. Ohhhh well.
Forgotten Gates is chugging along as usual (which is to say, slowly). I'm just about done implementing lizalfos. Part of the reason this monster took so long was that I also updated the code in the middle of working on it, so that when a battle is started from in the dungeon, it calls the new "Initializer" monster groups.
For the Making Maps game design challenge, I was hit with a concept that wasn't as meta as using actual geography in a cell phone game (something which predictably was used by another entrant), but less thorny and much more entertaining in my humble opinion. It sprang from the map-associated phrase I used as a title, Beyond Here There Be Dragons. The idea is, there are legendary treasures hidden in not-so-secret caves, but to reach them, you have to pass through land where all manner of mythical monsters are hiding. So rather than risk your own conniving neck, you sell treasure maps to village idiots and observe the hazards they run into. X) By drawing different routes for the dupes to take and noting down where the dangers are, you can eventually determine a safe route to the treasure. The full write up is here. The next challenge is called Interactive TV, and I kinda doubt I'll be making an entry for it. X)
On TF, Einion and Xu got married! :D As per unfortunately usual with the west-coast crowd, I was only able to be there for the first few rounds of poses. X) I'm hoping a log of the full scene will be posted somewhere soon. Also, the plot involving Gonff has managed to stretch out a bit further. After being found guilty in court, Gonff escaped outside the Gerudo Fortress using his portal potions, and headed up the canyon back toward Hyrule Field. Knowing he couldn't outrun the Gerudo, though, he used his portals again to hide up on a rock shelf. The main force of Gerudo went on by, but Shemri and Itami stayed to puzzle over the pair of portals Gonff left in the ground to cancel out the ones he used to get up on the rock shelf, and eventually Itami spotted him. Gonff used the last of his potions to get a head start, and got to the bridge before being boxed in. Then he jumped in the river (perfectly survivable--even not that dangerous--in the game, of course, but he didn't know that), and Itami followed him. They washed up at Lake Hylia, where Gonff realized a newfound addiction for thrills (possibly triggered by the fact that he drank a whole bottle of his own pep tonic shortly before this). We're currently paused with Itami trying to keep Gonff still until the other Gerudo arrive to take him into custody.
On NMR, the current RP challenge is "Stars of Spooky", in which one is supposed to put one's chars in place of those from a well-known scary story. As Noab, I led a scene called Left 4 Shinobi in which we used ninja techniques rather than shotguns and bats to slice through the infected hordes. I used the opportunity to debut an experimental combat system I thought up inspired by Prose-Descriptive Qualities (PDQ). It was a very successful test run, both in that it was lots of fun and showed promise for the system, and in that it pointed out to me areas where it needs work. I also ran a scene as Sousa in which gremlins invaded Sunagakure. Not quite fitting the idea of placing the characters in the story, more taking something from the story and pulling it into our world, but whatever. Finally, at the suggestion of another player, I wrote a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven called the The Crowbird, portraying Jon in his youth trying to study to be a detective while Scruvo yaks about getting him a girlfriend. X)
I also started up a new campaign between Aburei and Mushi, simply because she wanted to RP one evening and my thoughts of what we could do led to an idea for extended plot. It started with a scene in which Aburei and Mushi run into each other in a small Land of Water village, having both been drawn there by a minor epidemic. The good news is, the treatment for the disease is known, and has already been ordered. The bad news is, the bottles of pills turn out to have been replaced by eggshells full of pebbles on arrival. o.o; So Aburei and Mushi are backtracking with the deliveryman along the route he took to find out where the medicine has gone.
Giana Sisters: Rise of the Owlverlord:
I've already reviewed Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, so all I'll really have to talk about here is the differences. Rise of the Owlverlord is almost just a stage expansion to the previous title, including its price at a mere $5. Regardless, it's sold as a standalone title. Interesting strategy. It irks me slightly to think that there are probably duplicate resources taking up space on my hard drive, but that minor flaw aside, it's probably a smart move. Why limit your potential audience to just those who've purchased the first game, even if you are essentially selling an expansion to it? As long as you're charging the same low price, those who have the first one won't much care that the "expansion" is standalone, and maybe people who wouldn't fork over the cash for the bigger game will get this one, then be convinced to invest in the original.
So yeah, it's a set of new stages, which are harder on the whole. They put the pressure on right from the start, the moment you break out of your cage in the first stage you're pursued by a wave of invincible enemies. X) It actually gets easier after that, but it's an intentional message: this game was made for veterans of the first. As far as new mechanics, they play with just a couple things related to the central mode-switching mechanic: enemies that move at different speeds depending on the mode, colored projectiles that are intangible in one mode or the other, that sort of thing. They also seemed fond of creating "hubs" with paths branching into different contained areas of a stage, which contained keys needed for getting through the final path to the exit. The stages are long and dense with challenge, but there's only seven of them, and the final one isn't so long, just a quick jaunt and then the boss.
Bottom line? It's small, but so is the price. Get it if you'd like a quick fix of oldschool platforming challenge.