Feliz Año! If I don't include the tilde above the 'n' this post heading would mean 'Happy Anus'.

We're now 17 days into 2020! As noted back in September, I had a bunch of irons in the fire...so what's going on right now? As often happens, I end up doing a bunch of creative stuff so that one or more things fall by the wayside (due to time, mainly). However, I've been full steam ahead with Cardboard Dead Boy the last few months. 

MUSIC

My music isn't on Spotify etc any more because of the cost, but once I've got enough new material I'll be flooding the internet with CDB again YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE IT.

I've mostly been REMIXING. This gives me a) a chance to practice writing jazz beatz and b) brings my music to a new audience. If you'd like to be part of that audience, point your eyes and ears HERE.

WRITING

The main reason I started this blog way back in, I think, 2009(!) was to showcase any and all stories I had published. I haven't had a lot of time in the last few years, for various reasons, to focus on writing, but that doesn't change the fact I've had almost thirty stories published - many in anthologies. Click the Amazon Author link over there --> and you'll find a bunch still available! 

My current plan, and one I've been very steadily working on, is to rewrite/clean up a bunch of my previously published stories that are now out-of-contract, and stick them in a new collection. I don't have a deadline for this, but probably should so it lights a fire under my arse. So let's say...February 29th 2020*. If we're living in a leap year, might as well do something a little weird on that extra day.

One thing that slows me down in this regard is, ironically enough, a writing job I've picked up so as to bring a bit of money in whilst I'm a stay-at-home dad. It's articles, on a variety of subjects, and it is pretty interesting. Just yesterday I looked at the legalization of marijuana, and last week I researched NFL injuries. Two things I couldn't care less about, yet I still found something interesting about them both.

This job entails running articles through various services to check grammar, etc. One of those is Hemingway. I know these kinds of 'writing style' apps have gained more popularity in recent years, but I hate them. They grade your writing on an arbitrary scale that does not take into account your writer's voice, language and grammar differences (and believe me, after teaching English as a foreign language the last few years, there are plenty of differences to take into account).

*the thing that slows me down the most is that I want to include a brand new novella, but it's not finished and may not be for a while. I'm writing it with very little planning, to see what comes out. So far, some really weird stuff and I think it's shaping up nicely. I'm also looking at self-publishing a novel, but I kind of don't want to do this until I can get a solid marketing plan into action.

The other thing to take into account when submitting stories is that it takes a while. Ideally, you should give yourself a full day to research and hit up a bunch of suitable markets. It becomes a full-time job in itself. I'm also aware that, when I started getting things published, I was caught in a perfect storm. I joined a couple of really supportive networks (Cafe Doom and the Library of the Living Dead) and benefited from that immensely. Both those networks technically still exist, but time has done what it must to all things and weathered them away to a shadow of their former selves.

Anyway, before I start getting maudlin, let's have a look at:

GAMES

I haven't worked on any video games since September last year. To be honest, I think I needed to give myself a bit of break from this because I was pouring a ton of time and effort into it that I really should have used on music/writing. 

Again, the aim is still to have an actual game finished and (hopefully) available in various online stores, but I'm going to really take my time with this one. My writing should and will take precedence. 

And that's your lot!

A WHOLE YEAR!?!?!?!

Honestly, I'm as surprised as you are.

I originally started this blog so I had a regular place to talk about all my creative endeavours, especially writing. Over the years, I also talked about music, travel, films...all kinds of things. Since moving to Colombia at the start of 2017 to, quite literally, start a new life, my writing had to take a backseat to my day job (teaching English). I still did it, but not as much (it 'helped', that before Colombia, I was largely unemployed for two years, so time to write was a luxury I had).

Then, last March, I started a different teaching job with substantially more hours. My writing basically dried up, not because I didn't feel creative, but because my creativity was being channeled into making videogames and music - and also trying to find time for writing would have been too much to take on. So writing faded into the background.

BUT NOW! My oh my. I recently had a baby. I mean, I didn't literally pop him out - you can thank my partner for that - but I helped make him. I'm looking at becoming a stay-at-home dad, at least for a bit. This means, for the first time in nearly three years (and somewhat ironically, given that newborn babies are a handful and supposed to take up a lot of your time), I'll have time to spend writing.

I'll still be working on videogames and music, but I'm learning to manage my time with these activities, too. For instance, for the last year or so, I've been hammering away at 'game jams', which are themed competitions (usually just for fun) that are designed to encourage creativity in a short space of time. I really enjoy doing these, but it would be nuts of me to try to keep doing them, so instead I'm going to focus on completing one or two games in order to release them properly (ie. retail, on sites such as Itch and Steam). You can eyeball everything I've done so far HERE! [Cube Road is the main game I'm working on right now].

Music-wise, writing this for games has itself been a fun challenge. I've steadily been working on new Cardboard Dead Boy stuff, which I'd like to release by November but we'll see how that goes. For now, you can stick your eyeballs HERE for new stuff (which there will be sooooooooooooooon).

And now back to the writing. I'm in the process of compiling details of all my publications to date, as well as reviews (of which I've had a very nice amount of positive ones). Before Colombia, I also edited/formatted novels/anthologies, so I'd like to get back into that, too. I'll update this blog soon with details related to this. Fiction-wise, I'm looking at dipping my toes into the murky waters of self-publishing. I mean, I've been self-publishing my music for years, so why not my writing? All my previously published stuff is now out of contract and/or (sadly) some of the publishers no longer exist, so the plan is to take a bunch of these, tweak them (since I now have a much stronger grasp of grammar, thanks to the day job) and include them with new stories. The theme(s) will be smalltown horror/interdimensional apocalypses/collapsing realities. More news on this SOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!

And that's ya lot FOR NOW. If you're a writer and/or interested in hiring me for editing, please email wayne(dot)goodchild(at)virgin(dot)net. Cheers!

RED EYE: A JOURNEY THROUGH HELL

Eagle-eyed readers will remember I occasionally mention working on video games. In truth, I don't have a lot of time to do this at the moment, but I still try and enter game jams (prompts/challenges) so as to give myself a kick up the bum to actually finish something. The latest one I entered was A GAME BY IT'S COVER, which tasks you to pick a fake Famicom game cartridge and create an actual game for it.

I choose RED EYE: A JOURNEY THROUGH HELL by Brent Ashe [Instagram / Twitter].

His description is pretty succinct and felt really easy to do, so I did it! --> 

An endless journey through Hell. You pilot an airliner between fiery rock formations as demons hurl pitchforks of damnation. Pick up and drop off your accursed passengers as you ferry them to their final destination. We love to die, and it shows.

You can give it a whiz via https://atomic-toilet.itch.io/red-eye either in your browser or by downloading to your computer. It's pretty difficult, but it is possible to "win", hopefully in a way that doesn't betray the whole 'endless journey' aspect. Hint: there are 30 Passengers, but you can't/don't need to save them all.

LIFE IN THE BAMBOO

Yoooooooooo. As I'm sure many of you know, I'm currently living/working in Colombia, as an English teacher. I've talked a bit about my adventures on here before, but the other day decided I should really make a dedicated blog about it all, for those who're interested in doing the same thing or are just nosey haha

BEHOLD! --> LIFE IN THE BAMBOO

I have four months to catch up on, so at the moment the blog is in 'flashback' mode. Have an eyeball if you're curious!

In other, creative, news: Regular eyeballers of this blog will know I've been churning out remixes, but cast your mind back to the end of last year and you may recall I was also working on some computer games. There's a teacher's strike currently going on which has gifted me with some unexpected free time, and I intend to use that to start back on the latter activity. I've committed to a forthcoming game jam to give myself that impetus to actually do something, so keep 'em peeled, peeps!

CREATIVE JUICES, MMMMMMM

HELLO, INTERNET. I'm currently being swamped by a tidal wave of creative juices, so here I am to share a bit of info on those things! No, you don't have to thank me; all part of the service.

A few months ago, I started teaching myself how to code video games using GAMEMAKER. I made a start on quite a few ideas/prototypes, but when my external hard drive crashed it took a bunch of my game files with it. SAD FACE. So this last week I got back on that particular horse and have been working on SPACE REX 2 (pictured above) and THE END (pictured below). 

The former has you controlling a disembodied tyrannosaur bonce unleashing cosmic energy roars in order to obliterate asteroids. Rex is mad, you see, since a gigantic space rock destroyed his friends, family and well, entire species. Help him get his revenge! But watch out for the cosmic horrors hiding/controlling some of the asteroids, oh noooooooooooooooo!

The latter sees a lass trying to make it across a city during an invasion by inter-dimensional horrors. When she sees them, she goes nuts and explode-mutates into one! It'll be peppered with little chunks of (semi-random) flavour-text-as-encounters, because why not.

You can keep up-to-date with such things HERE.

I'm also working on what might be another novel, this time featuring the return of my favourite character/creation, private investigator Jack Green. I wrote a ton of stuff featuring him and his exploits uncovering eldritch terrors, but never made them widely available (even though they've been read by quite a few people by this point), so I'm seriously considering dipping my toes into the murky waters of self-publishing. I figure a bunch of my writer chums do well this way, so why not give it a go? His adventures actually pave the way for a whole bunch of stories I have had published, so they'd tie a load of things together, which (all modesty aside) I reckon would be pretty cool.

I'm also still in the process of trying to find a home for my apocalyptic sci-fi/horror/doomed love/metaphysical/Greek tragedy redux novel, which, when I put it like that, probably explains why I haven't found a home for it yet. COMPLEXITY!

And last but not least, I'm also working on some new music, like THIS! -->

https://soundcloud.com/thismusicishaunted/cardboard-dead-boy-red-madness 

THAT'S YA LOT! Stay tuned for more, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!

WHITEDAY: YOU GOT SILENT HILL IN MY KOREAN SCHOOL!

There are a whole bunch of wildly different things I'm going to post about, including my thoughts on STRANGER THINGS (I loved it!) and MONSTER TOYS (I love them!) but for now, here's a quick bit of guff about WHITEDAY: A LABYRINTH NAMED SCHOOL (I love that title!).

WHAT IS IT?! 

It's a Korean survival horror computery game from 2001 that was never released. So how did I get my hands on it? C'mon, this is the internet; you can get ANYTHING on here. A new version of this is currently being worked on, but for now those with the gumption can (pretty easily, to be fair) find the original.

But WHAT IS IT?!

You're a Korean schoolboy (I called my character Jimmy Jimjams) who pops to his school at 10pm with the intention of returning a diary belonging to a girl he fancies (she drops it near him in the intro cutscene). And also to plant chocolates in her locker or on her desk or something. White Day is March 14th, and is basically a second Valentines Day, which explains the chocolates, but not why little Jimmy Jimjams is doing all this at night time like a mini Korean Cadbury's Milk Tray Man.

The instant Jimmy steps into the school, someone OR SOMETHING WOOOAAAHHH locks him in! But, levelheaded and realising things will probably get quite weird pretty quickly, I sent Jimjams into the toilets to open all the stall doors. Maybe someone would have left something useful in one of them, because video games. But no, all I found was flatly painted floor-toilets:

Shortly after this, I bumped into two female classmates having a giggle. Why were they in the school after hours? I do not know. They didn't seem very impressed by Jimmy's presence though, especially when he started asking them about the girl he fancies. However, all this was cut short by the sudden blare of the fire alarm. One girl legged it, the other hid by a vending machine and covered her ears. I don't think Korean schools have the most effective fire evacuation plans. Being the incomparable Jimmy Jimjams, I used a stepladder and wirecutters to enter the air vent in the ladies bathroom, through which I crawled like Tom Cruise in all the Mission: Impossibles until I reached the room with the fusebox. Which was full of scrap and looked all rusty until I turned the alarm off, then it magically turned spacious and neat. UH OH SPOOKY STUFF.

Oh yeah, and when Jimmy was in the vents he saw the janitor beat the shit out of a man and drag him into the stairwell. STRANGER DANGER.

Jimmy rightly felt like a hero and the girl by the vending machine...didn't really treat him like one. Nevertheless, she did tell him how to get out of the school and gave him a key to aid in his utterly ridiculous quest. But terror reared its bald head! The janitor reappeared and chased Jimmy! Luckily, the girl who'd legged it grabbed Jimjams and pulled him into a hiding spot. Once the coast was clear, the girl did what she did best and ran off again. I was all alone. Jimmy was all alone. We were all alone.

I explored a few rooms and found a few ominous notes concerning ghost stories tied to the school. Ten minutes into the game and I'm already convinced this place is more haunted than every castle in England combined. The sound design also does a good job of giving you the willies, as it's all non-musical eerie effects and whooshy low-pitched loops. But I, and Jimmy Jimjams, will soldier on and brave this creepy, near-empty building in the name of...infatuation? Slightly creepy junior love? Misguided romance? Yeah, let's go with that. 

However, the next thing standing in little Jimmy's way is this suspiciously dark hallway:

I just know there's going to be a spooky noise at some random point along here. I just know it. 

Until next time, here's this:

I AM ALL ENDEAVOURED UP

Ahoy-hoy! I'm positively bursting with creative endeavours at the moment, so let me talk about them before I explode. UUNNGGHHH.

1. SPACE REX 2

RAWR!

When Clive the T-Rex witnessed his beloved wife Brenda and all his friends get wiped out by a gigantic asteroid, he developed an instant and severe hatred of all space rocks. As he then perished in screaming rage, he swore his spirit would never rest until all space rocks were wiped out of existence. At that moment, he was Clive no more, but SPACE REX!

Now you can take control of his disembodied head and vomit cosmic energy laser breath across the final sector of space to still have space rocks in it. But beware - it turns out asteroids are being controlled by cosmic horrors, so you'll have to laser them to death too.

SPACE REX 2 will be my second computer game. It's about 50% complete and will be FREEEEEE to play once it is finished. For deets, eyeball THIS LINK.

2. THE END AND THE BEGINNING

Is it normal size and on a tree, or gigantic and on a cliff?

This is a YA novel by G. G. Neilson I'm currently editing. It's about a teenage boy who discovers he can communicate with birds. I know I'm biased, but it's really enjoyable. I think it'll be out in a month or two. More deets via Belfire Press HERE.

3. A WRETCHED PLACE

This is the actual book I have, ooo fancy.

And THIS is my latest novel. It's influenced by the Theban plays, quantum mechanics, Jeff Vandermeer and Lovecraft (with a sprinkling of Raymond Chandler). It's now complete, after been critiqued by beta readers, and I'm going to fire it off to a publisher this weekend. Fingers crossed for THAT. It's about a husband trying to save his estranged wife, against the backdrop of a world in the grip of monstrous gods. There's time/reality travel, giant monsters, weird cults and themes of buried truth, repetition and unavoidable fate. I'm really, really pleased with it and seriously hope it finds a home somewhere because it's the fucking business.

And the last thing I'm endeavouring about, is music for SPACE REX 2. I've had some feedback from CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT that the soundtrack is "epic", which is really nice to hear. You can hear that music, and something from SR2, HERE. They're only short tracks and are minimalist electronica.

And that's ya lot!

CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT

Have you ever wanted to pretend to be the reanimated burnt corpse of a cowboy? Have you ever fantasised about being locked in a hellish high-noon/midnight quickdraw with your hated enemy? Have you secretly longed to experience these things within a limited colour palette? Then oh boy, is CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT for you!

Relive the fight that inexplicably caused your body to self-combust across several weird levels that culminate in fighting a mountain. If you make it that far.

CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT is my first publicly available game. I've made it for Low Rez Jam (64 x 64 pixel games) and it incorporates a lot of stuff I like/do, eg horror imagery and industrial sounds. But in a cute way, possibly. It's FREE and can be downloaded from here: https://atomic-toilet.itch.io/charred-corpse-gunfight

YYEEHHAAAWWWW!!!!!!

I AM MAKING GAMES

Oi oi.

In my last post I revealed that I'm teaching myself how to code video games, with my main focus being a ninja platformer. I'm taking a slight break from that, though, as I'm entering LOWREZJAM 2016. It's a Game Jam, which happen all the time, and always feature interesting themes. This one is games that are only 64 by 64 pixels in size. My entry is almost done. This is what it's called:

It's a two player game that is both about dead burnt cowboys locked in a high noon gun battle and not about this at all. I'm currently adding daft little touches like being able to shoot the other player's hat off and an idea for a sort-of secret ending.

Ah yes. The ending. A good video game is like a good book - it should have a beginning, middle and end. It also shouldn't plateau early on - there needs to be development of some kind, such as extra abilities or story elements or what-have-you. CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT is likely going to have around 7 endings, some of which it's feasible no one will ever actually reach haha. UNLESS they're crafty and patient. But I've already said too much...!

I've got a ton of other ideas on the go, too. I am focusing on the ninja game and this one, but because I enjoy programming but need to take a break from these games every so often, I work on other genres. I've got a couple of different real time strategy prototypes on the go, a mini giant monster simulator called TYRANT REX (after one of my toy/sculptures) as well as a tiny platform game called INSIDE AN ANGRY WIFE. Also something that might be an RTS or a tower defence game, I'm not sure yet. All I know is it's going to be one of those ambient/minimalist type affairs and use these weird cubes:

So that's it. I love learning new stuff and figuring out how things work, and coding scratches both these itches. I'm particularly enjoying working on CHARRED CORPSE GUNFIGHT because the remit is limited and forces creative thinking/design - I might well make a bunch of daft 'tiny' games, as they're quicker to work on than a full-scale one, then see about bunging 'em on an app store or something. We'll see.

Until next time, chums!

THE ONE WHERE I TALK ABOUT CONSTRUCTIVE USE OF TIME AND NINJAS

And decide to abandon the FRIENDS naming convention for future post titles.

So it occurred to me that, out of all the various creative things I do, the one I haven't mentioned on here yet is GAME PROGRAMMING. As in COMPUTER GAMES!

I've been unemployed for bloody ages now, which is extremely disheartening. To try and ease the misery of having stupendously rotten luck, I've been finding things to have a go at. Regular (or even irregular) readers will know that two things bubbling away in the background are monster toys and my latest novel. The toys involve sculpting (something I've been keen on but never given much time or effort to before) and the novel is, well, finished and just waiting on beta reader feedback. The stuff I've had back so far is extremely positive, and everyone thinks the ending is excellent, which I'm super chuffed about.

Now, writing is the secret passion I gave form to the last time I had a stupid amount of time on my hands, and I've done pretty well from it so far (I've also been asked to edit someone else's novel for Belfire Press at the moment). Three weeks ago, I decided to teach myself how to make an actual video game; like plenty of people, I always have/had a ton of ideas, I just decided to finally actually do something about those ideas.

There's no point doing something unless you can utilise a suitable amount of discipline - without it, whatever momentum and focus you might have when you're first excited about a project can soon fade away, either through frustration, boredom or simply choosing to do something else. When I first decided to take writing seriously, I set 7pm - 10pm aside every single night for writing. No TV, films or trips to the pub. Well, maybe the occasional trip to the pub. Some nights I didn't even write anything, but I thought about writing and worked out a lot of plot points etc in my head.

With making a game (I'm using GAME MAKER STUDIO, a free and remarkably versatile piece of software), I decided to methodically learn and work through various ideas, in a bid to create a platform game involving a ninja. After three weeks, I now have I suppose a game that's 40% complete. I've created a robust movement engine for the player character and coded the fundamental parts of enemy behaviour so that, realistically, I do actually have a finished working game. It's just not interesting enough. What's the point of doing something like this if you're not going to challenge yourself? With this mantra swirling through my noodle, I've started to refine and tweak what I've coded so far.

Honestly, I'm rather pleased with myself for making constructive use of my time. I'm also rather pleased with myself for using what I've learnt after following a bunch of tutorials to figure out how to code certain things. For instance, the ninja can now use a sword to chop enemy heads off, complete with a short death animation. This is very much a case of 'now I'm doing it I can appreciate how much work goes into something even as simple as a pixel art ninja platform game'.

I have no idea how long it's going to take me to have a game that fits the idea in my head, but I doubt it'll be a three or five year magnum opus like BRAID or FEZ. I'm making something a bit daft and fun, not reinventing a genre or anything. My next game, however...

So that's it in a nutshell. Once I have something a bit more solid, I'll start to divulge proper plot/game mechanic details. Also, once I'm in a position to start properly promoting it I'll reveal tidbits of art etc on here, like a proper game dev blog haha. What I will say for now is, I'm finding that by refining and/or adding one thing, it tends to muck up something else that worked fine before. Which is frustrating but not unexpected. It's also likely because I'm jerry-rigging a lot of code; I bet if a seasoned coder had a look at my scripts they'd have a stroke.

I will now leave you with a slice of truly excellent wonky electronica. This comes from one of the best albums I've heard in a long, long time. Stick it in your ears!