Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's a story and some musings
St. Patrick's Day was kinda funny. I'm just gonna rip the story from my latest e-mail to Kate after she asked to hear it:
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Okay, so Chris came up to Merrimack on St. Patrick's Day to hang with myself and Kev. So the 3 of us decide to pack into my car and head up to Manchester to go get some drinks at Margarita's if my brother James and/or his girlfriend Caitlin were tending bar. Sure enough they were, but we had to wait outside because it was full at the moment. So we waited and chatted a little bit with some girl who asked Kev for a smoke and then tried to drag him around the corner to make out with him. Kev was awesome and didn't ditch us. We didn't have to wait long before being let in. We got in and I found James and got him to take care of us pretty quickly. Kev ends up making pals with this group of guys that he later on ends up doing an Irish car bomb with them (with aplomb, may I add).
The funny part was more due to this group of three women and one guy that was with them. Somehow they knew I was related to James, even though I don't even think James really knew them. But they basically were hitting on me hardcore all night. Kev drank one of their shots for them. Apparently Kev was a baby face, one of them thought Chris was cute (she didn't tell Chris that it was because he reminded her of her ex), but it was apparently mutually agreed upon that I was the hot one. So they're basically climbing all over me and playing with my hair (which is kind of long now) and complimenting me and whatever while I'm just sitting there at the bar enjoying my Guinness and my Manhattan, not fighting them off but not giving them much more than an inch to leave them hanging on a bit. It was kind of an alpha male moment right there, which makes me laugh a lot. It's like that line in "United States of Whatever": So I went down to the beach and saw Kiki and she was all like, "Ahnnnnn" and I was like, "Yeah, whatever!"
Anyway, that's the gist of the story. A lot of it was kinda've a "you had to be there" thing, but I dunno... I thought it was funny, Kev and Chris thought it was funny. I also got a free drink from Caitlin, tasted like a thin mint. It was good. I also had a good talk with Chris about our goals as musicians and everything like that afterwards. I only got like 3 hours of sleep before having to go to work, so I went to work with a major headache. Folks were all like, "hungover?" and I was all like, "sleep deprivation."
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That talk Chris and I had basically was him admitting that he isn't exactly happy with his job and wants to actually take music seriously. Not just with the band but everything, from audio engineering to composing scores and things. Basically, he's about as obsessed with music as I am. With that came a boost in motivation, a renewed energy to get things done. I recorded a few tracks not too long ago. Pretty stoked to get them in, but I also have to do some work on my platformer video game, which is also exciting. I got a drawing tablet to make things easier for me when making graphics for the game.
My platformer game that I've never talked about on here! So basically the idea is that violence is not the answer. You can hurt enemies, and they can hurt you, but the goal of the game is to make everyone feel better, cheer everyone up. The working title is "Happiness", and you play as a little boy or girl trying to cheer up his/her depressed father but unable to figure out how to. So the game is going to be the boy/girl trying to cure all the bad feelings in the world in an attempt to make his/her father happy. The stages are going to be themed around causes for bad feelings or specific types of bad feelings, like loneliness, loss, jealousy, anger, and so on. Your vitality in the game is measured as your happiness. If anyone gets hurt, you grow more sad, but the more good deeds you pull off the happier you get. If you get too sad then you start crying and can't go on (going for an E rating here, so no suicide!). The art style is a sketchy cartoony style, and the characters have an overall cuteness to them that's more along the lines of Mario. I'm trying to make it an all ages thing, where it's acceptable for children but 25 year olds won't feel embarrassed while playing it. I'm also looking to make it for mobile, making the controls touchbased. Right now I'm trying to finish the graphics for the boy character and refine the mouse/touch controls.
Some of the problems I'm running into with it: trying to come up with a way where hardcore gamers are discouraged from making "acceptable casualties" in attempts to speedrun the game, thus ruining the point of the game. I don't however want to make them feel boxed into a corner by punishing them for trying. The trick is to trick them into not making those kinds of choices. Maybe if I make some sort of grimace animation if anyone dies or gets hurt on screen so that it effectively slows you down? But that means that cheering up enemies the normal way (via hugging or gifts) needs to be quicker than hurting them to bypass them more quickly. I dunno, things to think about.
Another problem is testing touch control since I only have a flip phone. Good thing I know people with fancy phones!
I'm probably racking up a hefty bill with all these international texts. I can't help it, especially when Kate enjoys them so much. She sent out a letter to me on St. Patrick's Day! Now I just have to wait about 4 weeks for it to arrive... oh snail mail, ride a jet engine please.
Oh, and...
THE MUPPETS ON DVD TOMORROW?!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Okay, so Chris came up to Merrimack on St. Patrick's Day to hang with myself and Kev. So the 3 of us decide to pack into my car and head up to Manchester to go get some drinks at Margarita's if my brother James and/or his girlfriend Caitlin were tending bar. Sure enough they were, but we had to wait outside because it was full at the moment. So we waited and chatted a little bit with some girl who asked Kev for a smoke and then tried to drag him around the corner to make out with him. Kev was awesome and didn't ditch us. We didn't have to wait long before being let in. We got in and I found James and got him to take care of us pretty quickly. Kev ends up making pals with this group of guys that he later on ends up doing an Irish car bomb with them (with aplomb, may I add).
The funny part was more due to this group of three women and one guy that was with them. Somehow they knew I was related to James, even though I don't even think James really knew them. But they basically were hitting on me hardcore all night. Kev drank one of their shots for them. Apparently Kev was a baby face, one of them thought Chris was cute (she didn't tell Chris that it was because he reminded her of her ex), but it was apparently mutually agreed upon that I was the hot one. So they're basically climbing all over me and playing with my hair (which is kind of long now) and complimenting me and whatever while I'm just sitting there at the bar enjoying my Guinness and my Manhattan, not fighting them off but not giving them much more than an inch to leave them hanging on a bit. It was kind of an alpha male moment right there, which makes me laugh a lot. It's like that line in "United States of Whatever": So I went down to the beach and saw Kiki and she was all like, "Ahnnnnn" and I was like, "Yeah, whatever!"
Anyway, that's the gist of the story. A lot of it was kinda've a "you had to be there" thing, but I dunno... I thought it was funny, Kev and Chris thought it was funny. I also got a free drink from Caitlin, tasted like a thin mint. It was good. I also had a good talk with Chris about our goals as musicians and everything like that afterwards. I only got like 3 hours of sleep before having to go to work, so I went to work with a major headache. Folks were all like, "hungover?" and I was all like, "sleep deprivation."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
That talk Chris and I had basically was him admitting that he isn't exactly happy with his job and wants to actually take music seriously. Not just with the band but everything, from audio engineering to composing scores and things. Basically, he's about as obsessed with music as I am. With that came a boost in motivation, a renewed energy to get things done. I recorded a few tracks not too long ago. Pretty stoked to get them in, but I also have to do some work on my platformer video game, which is also exciting. I got a drawing tablet to make things easier for me when making graphics for the game.
My platformer game that I've never talked about on here! So basically the idea is that violence is not the answer. You can hurt enemies, and they can hurt you, but the goal of the game is to make everyone feel better, cheer everyone up. The working title is "Happiness", and you play as a little boy or girl trying to cheer up his/her depressed father but unable to figure out how to. So the game is going to be the boy/girl trying to cure all the bad feelings in the world in an attempt to make his/her father happy. The stages are going to be themed around causes for bad feelings or specific types of bad feelings, like loneliness, loss, jealousy, anger, and so on. Your vitality in the game is measured as your happiness. If anyone gets hurt, you grow more sad, but the more good deeds you pull off the happier you get. If you get too sad then you start crying and can't go on (going for an E rating here, so no suicide!). The art style is a sketchy cartoony style, and the characters have an overall cuteness to them that's more along the lines of Mario. I'm trying to make it an all ages thing, where it's acceptable for children but 25 year olds won't feel embarrassed while playing it. I'm also looking to make it for mobile, making the controls touchbased. Right now I'm trying to finish the graphics for the boy character and refine the mouse/touch controls.
Some of the problems I'm running into with it: trying to come up with a way where hardcore gamers are discouraged from making "acceptable casualties" in attempts to speedrun the game, thus ruining the point of the game. I don't however want to make them feel boxed into a corner by punishing them for trying. The trick is to trick them into not making those kinds of choices. Maybe if I make some sort of grimace animation if anyone dies or gets hurt on screen so that it effectively slows you down? But that means that cheering up enemies the normal way (via hugging or gifts) needs to be quicker than hurting them to bypass them more quickly. I dunno, things to think about.
Another problem is testing touch control since I only have a flip phone. Good thing I know people with fancy phones!
I'm probably racking up a hefty bill with all these international texts. I can't help it, especially when Kate enjoys them so much. She sent out a letter to me on St. Patrick's Day! Now I just have to wait about 4 weeks for it to arrive... oh snail mail, ride a jet engine please.
Oh, and...
THE MUPPETS ON DVD TOMORROW?!