THIS IS A TEST

WEW WEW WEW WEW WEW WEW don't panic, Mr Mainwaring!

For some reason, Blogger has stopped sending my posts to my Facebook page, so this is a test to see if some fancy Internet magic I've worked actually, er, works. TALLY HO!

In perhaps not un-related alarming news, I keep thinking I've got bugs on my skin. I don't think it helps when weird tiny flies appear in my room and try and get in my ears. That actually just happened, I'm not going nuts.

Imagine if everybody started to think they had bugs on them? That'd be weird. Have you seen BUG, the William Friedkin film? I can't remember if it's based on a stage play or just feels like one, but it's incredible. It's about a former soldier who's convinced he was part of an experiment involving bugs in his blood. You know as the viewer that he's nuts, but...he's so convinced this is true that you get the sense he's actually starting to make it true. It's a fascinating study in paranoia and insanity - what I love about it so much is that it's about how the power of belief is a very powerful thing, and that madness can be spread in different ways.

I watched a new film recently called POD that is supposed to touch on similar ideas ie a solider convinced he was involved in weird experiments and who now claims to have something in his basement. It's enjoyable, but lacks the nuance and sheer storytelling mastery of BUG. For example, in POD, the soldier is all twitchy shouts and incoherent rambling; in BUG he's all fierce intensity and unassailable certainty. I know which one I find more frightening.

Something else that POD made me think about is how it's part of this trend (I'm calling it that, but I don't know if it actually is) of new/modern indie films - usually horrors - that are decent films hiding a really good film inside. Typically, they give you a bunch of ideas or start to lay the groundwork for something impressive, then kind of give up and go an easier route. Or, to put it more simply, they feel like they need one or two more script revisions.

POD is enjoyable and has some cool ideas, but doesn't spend time on real suspense or tension. Every conclusion feels like it's arrived at pretty quickly. If, for instance, the crazy soldier had been portrayed as more grounded and remarkably serious, it would make it a lot more creepy and unsettling if he's saying "There's something terrible in the basement, but you can't see it because I can't risk letting it escape." That's reasonable. So what is it? "A monster." Right. But I can't see it? "No. It might escape." And you caught it? "Yes, but I think it wanted to be caught. I think I'm still part of a military experiment" etc etc etc.

WE ARE STILL HERE is another one. In it, a grieving  couple move into a haunted house with a dark link to the nearby town. All the really interesting 'history' stuff is rushed through in the film and shown through pretend headlines at the end. Surely it would have made for a more effective scare/growing sense of unease if the main characters did some digging and came to the slow realisation that something is terribly wrong in the town, not just their house?

And lastly, I'm inclined to mention STARRY EYES. In it, a desperate aspiring actress gets involved in some freaky movie cult and undergoes a drastic change. It has a creepy/disgusting build-up to...a bit of an anti-climax. Then a sort of 'real' ending that really feels like it could go on another half an hour and be better for it.

These are all films I enjoyed, but left them feeling like they could have so easily been a little better. Honestly, it's like GHOST SHIP all over again.

WEW WEW WEW WEW panic over! Back to our regularly scheduled whatevers!

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!