(no subject)
Time for a positive entry!
I'm keeping my spirits up through a far-less-bad-than-the-week weekend. I haven't been home before 9 since Wednesday, cutting into my home-searching time, but Eldest Sister Sam just got back, so she is an option.
I've realized why I like Bradley so much- he's basically the only person down here I can fully relax around. I don't have to be the grown-up, nor do I have to be respectable & responsible.
He is also definitely the only entirely with-it, together man-into-men I've met- Apparently his two years in the Marine corps did lend some wisdom. Unfortunately, he's not that pretty- lighter than Tommy, & the same build. Plus, it kinda feels weird thinking of Mr. Money and a bisexual man at the same time.
I spent a few hours finally writing the actual dialog script for a videogame I've been making rough notes for, on and off, since summer of '06. I've got, all together, roughly 25 pages of crap (notes, dialog, characters, mechanics, and one subroutine programmed for the "staggered battle" that'll pop up about 80% of the way through.) It's comparatively easy to write a script when you know how everyone is supposed to act, what they're gonna do, what's gonna change, and why you want them to change. Comparatively is a very big qualifier, though. One note taught me exactly how much work goes into making it all work out. And it's fun to trace how many little ideas I kept following even after the reason for them disappeared.
"Make sure you only have Fire & wind during first Nessus fight- so Asphyxiate shows off."
Asphyxiate is the favorite spell I designed- basically creates a vacuum, until an atmosphere is reintroduced. Thus, no breathing (which seriously hampers most folk, but the big part is...), no combustion, and no medium for sound to transfer. And it seriously hampers anything that relies on wind power- the help they get from becoming able to breath more or less balances it out.
Nessus is... basically Nessus from Mythology. Big, wise Centaur with a really pretty shirt that keeps strong men from cheating on you- posthumously took down Hercules with Herc's own poison. In earlier forms of notes, I refer to him as "the exposition fairy". Then, re-reading Jurgen, I decided the Shirt of Nessus fit too well, philosophically, to leave out- the game's less about saving the world, then creating a world that doesn't need to be saved. So, I decided that I like a tight plot & keeping reoccurring elements, so I decided that, if I had to throw it in, I might as well make him "exposition fairy." He's also the source of Asphyxiate.
And... because I really liked the idea, and wanted it to stand out, I had to have some way to make sure no-one can just get spells that ignore it. I was already planning on splitting magic between party members, so I decided that I just had to shift stuff around so the only characters you have with decent offensive magic are the main (Mostly air & ... special stuff), and the pyro. And he had to "trade out" water ('cause it can reintroduce H2O vapor, which can electrolyze into H2 & O2) with some other stuff.
Why "trade it out"? Because, to prevent there from being one "best" party, I tried to make sure there were at least two, and no more than three, people with every general-purpose skill. And commonly-available counters for all of them. And make sure everyone had roughly the same number of talents (strange/unique skills don't really count, physical fighting prowess counts double if you're good at it). And for there to still be "you can't level up for this, it'll be hard because you lack certain capabilities" type battle.
As for tracking silly little things- I originally wanted Asphyxiate to be on two, and exactly two characters at any given time, so they could "counter" eachother. Then the game evolved to where having any sort of direct dichotomy would be inappropriate. But there's still two folk with it, because I kept it in my mind that it was important to keep it safe but rare.
I'm keeping my spirits up through a far-less-bad-than-the-week weekend. I haven't been home before 9 since Wednesday, cutting into my home-searching time, but Eldest Sister Sam just got back, so she is an option.
I've realized why I like Bradley so much- he's basically the only person down here I can fully relax around. I don't have to be the grown-up, nor do I have to be respectable & responsible.
He is also definitely the only entirely with-it, together man-into-men I've met- Apparently his two years in the Marine corps did lend some wisdom. Unfortunately, he's not that pretty- lighter than Tommy, & the same build. Plus, it kinda feels weird thinking of Mr. Money and a bisexual man at the same time.
I spent a few hours finally writing the actual dialog script for a videogame I've been making rough notes for, on and off, since summer of '06. I've got, all together, roughly 25 pages of crap (notes, dialog, characters, mechanics, and one subroutine programmed for the "staggered battle" that'll pop up about 80% of the way through.) It's comparatively easy to write a script when you know how everyone is supposed to act, what they're gonna do, what's gonna change, and why you want them to change. Comparatively is a very big qualifier, though. One note taught me exactly how much work goes into making it all work out. And it's fun to trace how many little ideas I kept following even after the reason for them disappeared.
"Make sure you only have Fire & wind during first Nessus fight- so Asphyxiate shows off."
Asphyxiate is the favorite spell I designed- basically creates a vacuum, until an atmosphere is reintroduced. Thus, no breathing (which seriously hampers most folk, but the big part is...), no combustion, and no medium for sound to transfer. And it seriously hampers anything that relies on wind power- the help they get from becoming able to breath more or less balances it out.
Nessus is... basically Nessus from Mythology. Big, wise Centaur with a really pretty shirt that keeps strong men from cheating on you- posthumously took down Hercules with Herc's own poison. In earlier forms of notes, I refer to him as "the exposition fairy". Then, re-reading Jurgen, I decided the Shirt of Nessus fit too well, philosophically, to leave out- the game's less about saving the world, then creating a world that doesn't need to be saved. So, I decided that I like a tight plot & keeping reoccurring elements, so I decided that, if I had to throw it in, I might as well make him "exposition fairy." He's also the source of Asphyxiate.
And... because I really liked the idea, and wanted it to stand out, I had to have some way to make sure no-one can just get spells that ignore it. I was already planning on splitting magic between party members, so I decided that I just had to shift stuff around so the only characters you have with decent offensive magic are the main (Mostly air & ... special stuff), and the pyro. And he had to "trade out" water ('cause it can reintroduce H2O vapor, which can electrolyze into H2 & O2) with some other stuff.
Why "trade it out"? Because, to prevent there from being one "best" party, I tried to make sure there were at least two, and no more than three, people with every general-purpose skill. And commonly-available counters for all of them. And make sure everyone had roughly the same number of talents (strange/unique skills don't really count, physical fighting prowess counts double if you're good at it). And for there to still be "you can't level up for this, it'll be hard because you lack certain capabilities" type battle.
As for tracking silly little things- I originally wanted Asphyxiate to be on two, and exactly two characters at any given time, so they could "counter" eachother. Then the game evolved to where having any sort of direct dichotomy would be inappropriate. But there's still two folk with it, because I kept it in my mind that it was important to keep it safe but rare.