Where in Ivalice have I been?

The last two weeks have been a gauntlet of lows and highs with productive results. I survived another semester of finals and as that chaos drew to a close, family arrived to spend quality time together.

While my brother was visiting he kindly purchased an early birthday present for me, an electric keyboard. Endlessly tapping away on the monochromatic keys has developed strange new muscles in my forearm. The development of these sinewy muscles causes me no discomfort, unless I purposesfully press upon the tender area. I'm having a wonderful time becoming acquainted with the keyboard and may possible have recordable rewards in the near future, or at least be able to play Still Alive fine.

I'm also feverishly working on my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. My approximate goal of completion is next week. The groundwork is completed with the small blanks left to filled, which consequently D&D usually amounts too, the miniscule details.

Sadly I've only made small progress in my Maya. At this stage I understand only the basics of the provided tools. This will change as the summer progresses.

As of late my literary activities have been more focused on the reading of stories, not writing them. This is primarily because I have checked so many books out of the library, that if I don't hasten to read them I'll have quite a few fines. But I still plan to complete my first short-story before May draws to a close.

In more exciting news, I'm planning to create a website in the very near future! After toying around with HTML for the last couple of weeks, I can say in confidence that I am capable of hosting a website. What would I place on this site? This is the bit that excites me most. I hope to create a website that hosts a substantial database to gaming news and information. A virtual hub to the most popular gaming sites, blogs, forums, podcasts, and so on. Another feature I plan to host is full video playthrough of games with commentary and reviews. Not only will I review titles, but I will also host my entire gameplay experience from start to finish. Players curious of any software title will be able to witness the entirety of the title in full.

My older brother recently expressed interest in gaming podcasts and he asked me to use my impressive videogame knowledge to select a few prime choices- I'm so very humble. Just below is my fine selections.
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GFW Radio
Posted on: Wed. or Thurs.
Basis: Weekly
Lenghth: 90-120 min.

The Bombcast
Posted on: Tues.
Basis: Weekly
Length: 90-100

1UP Yours
Posted on: Fri.
Basis: Weekly
Length: 90-120 min.

Player One Podcast
Posted on: Sun.
Basis: Weekly
Length: 80-100 min.

Hardcore Gaming 101 Podcast
Posted on: ???
Basis: Monthly
Length: 30-90 min.

Retronauts
Posted on: ???
Basis: Bi-Weekly
Lenght: 90-110 min.
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That's all for now!

-Ciao

Breathing In, Breathing Out, Finals Over!

Two very stressful weeks have reached their end. I've successfully passed another college semester much to my relief. Monday will mark the beginning of my summer plans, but for this weekend, relaxation.

-Ciao

Context Sensitivity: Leaping Forward in Gaming

These last couple of years have been a fantastic period of innovation for videogames. One of my favorite innovations in game design is the trend of simplifying overly complex actions into simplified context-sensitive controls. A general rule of game design is, "The less the player has to manage, the more fun the gaming experience will be." Context-sensitivity champions this concept and is leading a new era of gaming.

A great demonstration of the evolution of this gameplay mechanic can be found in the classic videogame standard of the jump button. Ever since the days of Donkey Kong, players have hopped their gaming avatars across digitized levels by pressing a button, but as industry grew so did the need for more buttons to manage more actions. Developers wished to give players more freedom and discovered that the one or two button controller configuration wasn't enough.

Sega in response to this growing issue creates a novel equation to solve this issue, more buttons equals more actions can be mapped to the controller. Thus the six button controller is born. Years later the formula devised by Sega has led to numerous console controller inventions, such as the Super Nintendo's addition of left or right shoulder buttons and Nintendo 64's analog stick. Standard console controllers today, excluding the Wii Remote, feature the configuration of; four face buttons, two analog sticks with corresponding buttons, four shoulder bumpers with varying degrees of sensitivity, and a pause button or console menu button.

Even with the retail space afforded by such controllers, developers are facing the question once presented to them in the Nes days, "How do we fit complex game mechanics on such a limited control scheme." There has been numerous methods devised for such an issue and context-sensitive actions is one incredible byproduct.

Returning to the analogy of how jumping has changed over time by ways of context-sensitivity. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I believe, was one of the first video games to feature automated jumping. The player loses the ability jump with a press of a button and instead merely needs to move beyond an edge for the character to leap forward. This isn't quite the same as modern day context-sensitivity because the player has zero input on the action, but it marks the beginning of reducing standard videogame avatar actions to an automated system.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with automated jumping.

Another forefather to context-sensitivity is a gameplay mechanic known as quick-time-events, or QTE for short. The first appearance of this mechanic was in the Dreamcast title Shenmue. A quick-time-event boils down to an in-game cinematic that requires player input to continue gameplay. If a player fails to input the correct commands then the game ends or an adverse condition occurs. The videogame Indigo Prophecy uses this system extensively and is the core mechanic which drives the title's narrative.

Context-sensitivity was born from these two gameplay innovations and is a staple of modern gaming. Gameplay once deemed too complex to be adequately mapped to the limited interfaces of console controllers, can now be relegated to single-button presses with interactive Hollywood-quality cinematics.

Assassin's Creed demonstrated the depth of context sensitivity

This long diatribe is intended as a precursor to videogame trailer released a few days ago, yes I spent this much text for a single video, but you'll understand my reasoning after witnessing the trailer.

Every action in the above trailer was performed with two button presses. Developed by studio EA Blackbox, creator's of SKATE, is their latest game a Sci-fi parkour title known as Mirror's Edge.

I believe we're entering into a Golden Age of gaming.

-Ciao gaming compatriots!

Summer Dreams

As my finals approach once again so do the days of careless daydreaming that occur during summer, but this year I'll change this lackadaisical routine. Of course the best way to accomplish this is to arrange a workload with set goals, sadly though I have only a few ideas in mind.

One of my desires is to increase the amount of daily creative writing I complete, this number is currently hovering around zero, unless, of course, you consider my blog posts as pieces of art. I do... anyways, back to topic before your laughter ends in a hospital visit. Swirling about in my head are four stories that I've been dying to commit to page. Each of them are inspired by the styles of some writers I have been reading lately: Camus, Rand, Asimov, and Kafka.

Lo and behold, I also happen to have four free months of vacation, with no small amount of trepidation, I shall challenge myself to finish a story per month. Each of them will be short in length, from five to twenty pages, and my focus on each will be to express the central theme with as little additive fat as possible. Lean stories told in the most straight-forward manner as possible. It will be a good exercise in preventing my nature of layering sentences till the point of collapse.

One issue I must resolve is where to upload these masterpieces once finished. The template provided by this website is unsuited for hosting pages of story. This leads me to my next need.

By the time my required academia suffering beckons again, I hope to have learned enough html to build a custom blog, or even better, a site to host my projects. Searching the net I found quite a number of good html tutorials. The rest will be up to me, best of luck me!

I've wrote quite a bit without mentioning my videogame career goals. No worries because I won't neglect the sticky business a moment longer.

The top six goals I have are; play more games, obtain total mastery of Maya, develop basic C++/- fundamentals, write industry related articles, structure a D&D campaign, and create a card games for my portfolio.

1. Play More Games: As my youth slips away from me so does the free time I once had, and this has left so many titles I wished to play in the shadows. I truly feel saddened that I've yet titles like Beyond Good & Evil, Jak Series, Ratchet and Clank, Sly, Psychonauts, and so on till et nauseu. The main deficit in my gamer diet is platformers, as the previous list indicates so well.

2. Mastery of Maya: This is a tall order for a program with such depth, but I believe my conviction is strong enough to become an above average CG artist. I've already cleared the first 100 pages of my beginner's Maya handbook, so push on tenacious me.

3. Basic C++/-: A well rounded developer is the successful developer. Too bad math is my kryptonite and I hear them vidjagames run on those doohicky compooter langidges. I can already see my hunched form basked in the computer glow, eyes bloodshot, brain fried, and fingers aching from evaluating impossibly large databases.

4. Write Industry Related Articles: I'm sure my future employers would love to see evidence that I understand the business upon which I'll be entering. The ultimate goal is to gain a few of my pieces published on a site such as Gamasutra, or Frictionless Insight, or Kotaku. That sort of notoriety would simply be tops.

5. Start a D&D Campaign: Dungeons and Dragons is an absolutely phenomenal way for me to stretch my analytic game design muscles. Plus I can torture my friends in my creations. It would also be a blast if I could enlist my potential employer into my campaign. That really would be a cool learning experience to hear their perspective on my creation.

6. Create Card Games: I would love to meet a prospective employer, impress them in my professionalism, and when I leave provide a polished trinket for their enjoyment. The cards would feature some pleasant artwork, and God willing, would be honestly fun to play.

I've provided the best rundown I could muster on my summer plans. All that's left is the hard part, sticking to the posted plans. In the next two weeks I'll give some meat to this skeletal construct and then all missions will be go. That's all for tonight.

-Ciao Everyone

Blogidy Blog Blog

I am posting here to announce that I will be posting here tomorrow. End Post.

Short and sweet.

-Ciao