tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62095678115683261252024-03-12T21:40:18.569-05:00Spider TeethA portfolio of ideas and creations, as well as a dumping ground for the ordinary and the irrelevant. As a side note, spiders do not have teeth. They have fangs.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-1262356457194215232012-09-12T21:19:00.000-05:002012-09-12T21:19:19.702-05:00Deadline: OctoberI am now giving myself a deadline for the game I'm making. It's what I'm calling <i>The Race to the Pink October.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPh9A2JQO05ywsB40kzfJQsykP9wweLnXxalCqEfY57mp_VmnZgb75ZpLZe9tGDH5UOEFQfES6woVQ_kSRP2S36UqrVPItSBUs_s3eZC5pVaE0tjOspG1pvVKMitvKTbI17ri7eLddZ90/s1600/RPO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPh9A2JQO05ywsB40kzfJQsykP9wweLnXxalCqEfY57mp_VmnZgb75ZpLZe9tGDH5UOEFQfES6woVQ_kSRP2S36UqrVPItSBUs_s3eZC5pVaE0tjOspG1pvVKMitvKTbI17ri7eLddZ90/s320/RPO.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a>The game I'm making right now (its called <i>Bearer, </i>by the way) is super simple. It's moving, jumping, picking up and dropping objects, and using those objects to open doors and reach new areas.<br />
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<i>Super simple.</i><br />
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Since I started working on this back in May, if I had been even slightly dedicated to keeping a schedule, I would easily<i> </i>be done by now.<br />
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<i>Easily.</i><br />
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But I wasn't dedicated. July and August were dead zones of freaking the hell out about my living situation and not much else. So I'm way behind. But I am now back in the groove, working on the game hard. Might post a video or something showing what progress there is soon, we'll see.<br />
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I also have this interesting idea for how to release the game, which is another reason why I want to hit this October deadline. I'm thinking about releasing this game in conjunction with a charity drive... sort of. I haven't figured out the details of exactly how I would do it, but since the story of the game is related to cancer (breast cancer, especially), it would be down-right <i>fitting </i>to release the game during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Which is October.<br />
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So starting now, it's BEAST MODE. I'm going to try my damnedest to get this game done before October so I can release it and promote BCAM and give to charity and just rock some faces. I'm getting pumped. Pumped enough for<br />
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<i>italics.</i><br />
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But you shouldn't be getting pumped, because the game is actually going to be quite sad.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's kay, S-Conn, don't cry.</td></tr>
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<br />Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-51990220033910902712012-08-31T18:40:00.002-05:002012-08-31T18:40:49.267-05:00Robot VacationI'm on vacation right now. In fact, I'm so much on vacation that I'm not even sure where I am right now, exactly. Somewhere in Montana, at least several hours away from Yellowstone, and I think near Canada.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I've been having a nice time. Seeing the sights part of the time, powering through <i>Final Fantasy III </i>the rest of the time. Anyway, I got an idea for a game and thought I'd post it. Being on vacation isn't very conducive to getting real programming work done, but I can still do paper design and writing.<br />
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So here's the idea. I really like robots. Probably half my ideas for games involve robots in some way, and half of those are robots in space. This idea isn't robots in space, though, it's robots in folklore. That is to say, if every character, creature, and race in folklore was replaced by robots.<br />
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The game would take place in the future, I suppose. It wouldn't really have to be the future, just a world where people and animals don't exist anymore. All traces of human existence disappear, except for one supercomputer AI and a series of video games. These video games would be something along the lines of an old-school role-playing game, like a <i>Dragon Warrior, Ultima, Final Fantasy, </i>or even one of the early <i>Elder Scrolls </i>game. Essentially, generic fantasy game with all the usual fantasy tropes.<br />
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So the super computer is the last working, thinking thing in the world, and it only has these fantasy, lore-based games to play. The super computer decides to rebuild the world, using these games as a reference to how the world used to be. The super computer begins building robots to take the roles of the characters and creatures of the games.<br />
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Fast forward hundreds of years, and there is a huge, sprawling fantasy world, only everything is robotic. Robot knights, robot wizards, robot goblins, robot unicorns, robot griffins, etc.<br />
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The gameplay of this game would be a side-scrolling brawler, as the player takes the role of a young robot hero out to save the world (duh). You can use a sword to break apart evil robot creatures and harvest their parts for "potions" and upgrades. You can use a bow and arrow (with an extension cord) to drain enemies of electricity or control them. You can defend yourself with a magnetic shield, used to push or pull projectiles or enemies. The magnetic shield is probably my favorite part.<br />
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Yeah, anyway, I really like robots. Now I'm going to think of what a robot vacation would be like.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-29586869042157512252012-08-23T00:23:00.003-05:002012-08-23T00:24:38.322-05:00Card Games? Card Games.Haven't been up to too much lately, except hating stuff.<br />
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There's been a whole lot of uncertainty on where I'll be living and what I'll be doing over the next few months - and, by extension, <i>years</i> - over the last month and a half. It has left me less prone to working on things and more prone to stuffing my face with donuts and watching Batman cartoons. Not kidding either. I've gained like 10 pounds in two weeks, or something. (Back on a diet, for sure.)<br />
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But excuses are like donuts: delicious, easily consumed three at a time, and make you feel better in the short term, but will always leaving you feeling guilty in the long run. Excuses may also cause weight gain, I think science should be back with an answer on that one any minute now.<br />
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<br />
So, like I'm quitting donuts, I am also quitting excuses. I've been a lazy unproductive slob for far too long now. Will be back at it soon.<br />
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Weird transition: I spent a few days making a card game prototype.
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Ah, see, I wasn't <i>completely </i>inert for the last two months. While some of that time was being spent playing <i>Parasite Eve, </i>I was pretty interested in the fact that it was a horror RPG. The thing was, though, that even though it was a pretty good game, it wasn't all that scary. When your moves are all metered out for you and there isn't a whole lot of danger or uncertainty, it tends to undercut the horror.<br />
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So I started to think about what it would take to make a horror RPG that might actually be scary for the player. I thought that the fear of "uncertainty" would be a big part of it. Not knowing if what was happening was real or not can be very disarming. The fear of overreacting or under-reacting to a threat would be the main drive of the experience.<br />
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I was envisioning a real video game RPG system, but those can be hard to create, and since I was dabbling in some uncharted waters here, I decided to paper prototype it first - I attempted to make a card game version of the system to save time and effort.<br />
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What I ended up with was a game I call "Evil in Shadows." The idea is that the player is trapped in some dark place. Maybe its a haunted house, evil hospital, abandoned ghost town, nightclub bathroom, whatever. All around the player, shadows are moving closer and closer. The shadows might be a real threat (a monster, demon, whichever you like) but they might just be nothing, just a shadow that looked like something. The player has items with them that they can throw at the shadows to find out if they are a monster or just their imagination.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgvvxmSqVoe9cSSnwhVdeYj4yW6VzTMPMEYDwvalr7BlhtCPkoL9m7V_w7_eLP3mQqmjS_Dj9R_Fjopn-TEIbymtrApzN8oeRnLFG70tnXWiRBFX1cdvzdg_YhaYBET2FPhKAg5dB-E1A/s1600/DSCN3435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgvvxmSqVoe9cSSnwhVdeYj4yW6VzTMPMEYDwvalr7BlhtCPkoL9m7V_w7_eLP3mQqmjS_Dj9R_Fjopn-TEIbymtrApzN8oeRnLFG70tnXWiRBFX1cdvzdg_YhaYBET2FPhKAg5dB-E1A/s320/DSCN3435.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blurriness is a side effect of all the horror you're feeling right now.</td></tr>
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At the beginning of the game, the player flips over an Event card, which essentially gives the player a goal. Something along the lines of "Survive three waves of shadows" or "Find a specific item in the Item deck." That card will tell the player how many Shadow cards to place on the table. These Shadow cards could either be enemies or just shadows; the player won't know until later. The player draws five Item cards, and then gets to work. Finish the goal on the Event card, draw another one. Finish three Event cards and you win.<br />
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The player can choose to attack the shadows when they're far away or let them get closer, but each option has its risks. Attacking a shadow from far away can give the player a head start on killing them, but if the shadow isn't a monster it causes the player character to lose grip on reality. Letting a shadow get closer can relive the player character of some panic, but is dangerous if the shadow really is a monster. Pretty simple.<br />
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At first it seemed like the system was working really well and I started thinking about just making into this a legitimate card game instead of just a prototype. So I started doing that, and then I noticed things really weren't working that well, and even when they did work well, it seemed like maybe this wasn't such a great idea.<br />
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After some long math-involved sessions of counting numbers and dividing things, I realized that this system might work really well if a computer was handling all the background numbers for the player, but it was too much for a player to do. And there really wouldn't be enough room on a reasonably-sized table to fit enough cards needed for all the facets of the system I wanted, either.<br />
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So I started to simplify the game. I doubled up the use of certain cards, broke some logic for the sake of simplicity, and tried to make it as easy as possible. This succeeded at completely breaking the game. I looked at the problems from every angle, and got this tug-of-war without a victor: make the game balanced by making it too complicated or make the game understandable by breaking it. When considering both options, neither of which I wanted, I realized an even larger problem with this game.<br />
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It's a single-player card game. What the hell kind story-based card game would someone want to play by themselves? So really, the whole thing was folly to begin with. It still functions as a paper prototype for this RPG system I'd like to make, but as a card game, it is total garbage. I'm thinking I might redesign it from the ground-up as a multiplayer card game soon, though. I like the idea of horror card games as well.<br />
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Weird transition: I'm also currently paper prototyping a strategy board game about bunnies. I'm actually quite excited about this one, but I'll leave that for another post.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-46638175883175971322012-07-01T22:43:00.000-05:002012-07-01T22:43:19.439-05:00I did it.Seeing this little message is the highlight of making games.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdZvjBtqj1KrDL2TBht2e1FXtZbxp1mOXQUl0w4BYIui5WqbMngDPA_-60qR-y7auTyCIrna5LdjSJJvz6-6z9EgSJJHYfRXilhhjmCaS4KOsEcdws8bMFexYUB6mSIky5TaC82HW-24/s1600/I+did+it..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdZvjBtqj1KrDL2TBht2e1FXtZbxp1mOXQUl0w4BYIui5WqbMngDPA_-60qR-y7auTyCIrna5LdjSJJvz6-6z9EgSJJHYfRXilhhjmCaS4KOsEcdws8bMFexYUB6mSIky5TaC82HW-24/s1600/I+did+it..JPG" /></a></div>
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This is the mark of success. The damn thing did what I wanted it to, and that's all you can ever hope for.<br />
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So this is a progress report on <i>Bearer, </i>the game I'm making at the moment. I'm doing it solo, mainly because the project is so small that I don't really need anyone else helping. Also, I need to practice up on all aspects of making games, not just the parts I"m already comfortable with.<br />
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So I usually post a screen cap of the game, but it hasn't change visually since <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2012/06/back-in-action.html">last week.</a> But the code is taking leaps and bounds, people, <b>leaps and bounds. </b>One of the main systems of the game, probably the system that I anticipated would give me the most trouble, is the player's ability to pick up and carry around certain blocks. So when the player is about to pick up a block, I need to make sure that the area where the character is going to carry it (the area right in front of them) is clear of anything else.<br />
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I figured this would be one of the most challenging parts of coding this game. Not that hard in the grand scheme of coding, of course, but the hardest thing in this game (it is an incredibly simple game). But it's almost <u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">done.</u> It's so almost done that done had to be <b>bolded, </b><i>italicized, </i>and <u>underlined</u> in that last sentence.<br />
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So next up, I need to actually put the block in the character's hands and make sure he can move with it, turn around with it, and all that.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-6276379192415042522012-06-17T21:25:00.001-05:002012-06-17T21:25:51.140-05:00Back in ActionWow, what a <i>terribly unproductive two weeks I've had.</i><br />
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<a name='more'></a>Haven't touched Unity in two weeks, my portfolio in even longer. I could use excuses like, "Last weekend there was a wedding I went to!" and "The weekend before that I went to Milk Days!" and "I've been working a lot!" But whatever, I know the I have been actively choosing to not do any productive independent work. I have been seeing a lot of movies and reading a lot of books, however.<br />
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I should be ashamed, but I guess I'm going to stop worrying about being so mad at myself for not working. Being mad at myself doesn't make me work more, it just makes me enjoy not working less.<br />
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But anyway, I have worked on things a little more tonight. Tonight's screencap!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_d8ugjCISx11JsF_tVoyZ_O73ZmBmBQyURp4jwV4pWthG16jReGdW7PpadBoXyC05yLnB4q8j3CzBaOPLyv1z6HTKWxnnNrtQY2HWFoCSZ9QBmkgwYHKi7k2xEu_weZ4qnIwsvH4FBXY/s1600/June17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_d8ugjCISx11JsF_tVoyZ_O73ZmBmBQyURp4jwV4pWthG16jReGdW7PpadBoXyC05yLnB4q8j3CzBaOPLyv1z6HTKWxnnNrtQY2HWFoCSZ9QBmkgwYHKi7k2xEu_weZ4qnIwsvH4FBXY/s400/June17.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As you can see, I did add that promised yellow color. However, I did turn off the blue lights because they were annoying me. You take some, you give some. <b>Yep, some very important, earth-shaking decisions I'm making.</b><br />
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Also I made the little player character kinda look like a dude in a suit instead of looking exactly like the environment. Whatever, I'm slow to get back into a working mode, but I will get there.<br />
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But hey, DID YOU GUYS SEE <i>PROMETHEUS</i>?Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-68809835659902535192012-05-25T18:39:00.000-05:002012-07-01T22:44:59.632-05:00Progress on My CubesLook, progress! So you don't have to punch me in the face, as <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2012/05/beginning.html">I said here.</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See, more cubes.</td></tr>
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As you can see, I made a little test area for this little game I'm working on. It's going to be a side-scrolling game, so that's why everything looks pretty two-dimensional. No Z-axis movement in this game, no sir.<br />
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Most of the progress I've made so far is progress that can't really be shown in a screenshot: the controls and player movement. I spent a <i>long </i>time trying to get the jump to work right and feel right. The most basic jump I had to begin with felt more like a teleport because it would happen so damn quickly. I fixed that, and now I have a jump that feels really nice. So now I have a little guy that can move around and jump and fall and he can turn around whenever you switch directions.<br />
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But I also made some progress that you <u>can</u> see in the screenshot. Look, I added the color red to the scene. If red isn't progress then I don't know what is.<br />
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Look forward to an update next week when I make certain cubes yellow.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-57035480907095268042012-05-23T12:21:00.001-05:002012-05-23T12:21:19.703-05:00Wandering Stars<br />
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Last night, I was reading and got an idea, as I so often do when I'm reading someone else's work. I wrote out the idea, entirely, and now I don't know what to do with it so I'm putting it here.</div>
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The stars never stick around. The constellations keep moving, and every one of them is recorded. But they don’t stick around and they don’t come back.<br />
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This is an intrinsic part of life, something that every child grows up knowing before they can walk. The sky is blue, two plus two is four, dogs and cats don’t get along, and the stars never stick around.<br />
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Long ago some imaginative fool looked up to the night sky and saw a figure there amongst the dead space. A hard line formed between two stars, these two dots that could have been shining gods or jewels in a vast dark ocean, and then another line formed, followed by two or four more, and soon he was looking at the eye of God, looking back at him.<br />
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The constellation this fool saw is remembered. The fool’s name is not.<br />
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The man’s name was burned away from the annals of history, along with the annals and history itself. Book, shelf, and hall – all destroyed because, after a few years of star-gazing, a universal truth spread itself across the globe: nothing remains. Nothing perseveres. Nothing sticks around.</div>
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When the fool saw this eye, up there past the abyss, seemingly winking at him from behind the charcoal clouds, he was sure to write it down. He drew it out, gave it its name, and showed everyone he knew. A fervent phase of constellation-spotting followed. Everyone wanted to find a new set of stars and give them a form, a name, and an everlasting legacy.</div>
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Look, a cow. There – an axe. A flower. A hand. A dying tree. Dozens of constellations were found and recorded by the scholars, all official-like. The world put their hearts and their creativity into the expanse of space, and hung their souls on the imaginary shoulders of mythical icons. </div>
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Soon the sky was full, jam packed with the dreams of the people, whose feet had never left the earth but whose thoughts traced blinding lines in the heavens. The stars in the sky may be beyond counting for any one man, but every man, woman, and child working together stand a pretty good chance. Years passed with no new constellations. Of course, this was to be expected. But people still received joy whenever they looked up to the sky and saw, there! That’s the Dancer. I found that one. </div>
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Until one day, the Dancer wasn’t there. The scholars had, of course, seen the Dancer, with her waif-like 6-star figure, moving across the sky to the eastern horizon for several years now, but that did not strike them as unusual. “Planetary alignment might cause that.” “She’ll drift back towards center in the next decade.” “Asynchronous orbits could be a factor,”… you know, galaxy stuff. The whole world just watched her dance her little imaginary figure right off the sky’s stage, and she never came back. </div>
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Soon people started noticing that all the constellations were moving. All of the stars in the sky seemed to be falling off the eastern horizon, never to return. People noticed that the Dancer wasn’t the only constellation missing. Others had gone. The Two-Headed Eel was being sucked helplessly towards the east – or swimming straight towards it, it was hard to tell which. The Half-Dead Tree was only half there. The Bull was stampeding right towards the horizon’s cliff. No eye on earth could find the God’s Eye anymore, forever blind to us and us to it. </div>
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People grieved for their babies, the great icons they made all on their own. The great likenesses in the expanses, made out of only a person’s imaginations with a pinch of stars, were leaving them.<br />
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Years passed by, the stars kept passing through, and people passed on. Some people died before their constellations left. Others saw their creations leave decades before they left this world, hoping, year after year, that their constellation will come back. “Soon, my Galleon will come back. It will sail up from the western horizon… the first ship to sail around the world…”</div>
<div>
<br />
It never did, but of course new stars were coming in from the western horizon all the time. As the old stars left, new ones came in. This constant movement, coupled with the stuttering of the day/night cycle, created the effect of a cosmic zoetrope, with the earth spinning helplessly in the middle of it, watching the should-be stationary images move without them. New stars meant that people started finding new constellations again. Scholars began recording the new constellations as well, careful to make certain that these new star formations were not repeats of the old. None of them were. They were all new.</div>
<div>
<br />
And so it went on. When new stars appeared from the west, they were named, drawn out, and recorded by the scholars, before they fell off the sky’s edge in the east in about a generation’s time. But everyone kept the secret burning hope that the old ones might come back some day. The original spotters of these shapes were long dead, but their descendants wished to gaze upon the form of the Dancer with their own eyes. These hopes slowly faded into only glimmering embers, but never completely died out.</div>
<div>
<br />
After generations, the scholars had to call it: The stars never stick around and will never come back. This statement changed everything. This idea spread itself across civilization. Where ever there was a doubt or unanswered question, this mantra washed in and filled it like high tide filling a crevice on the shore. “Nothing sticks around. Nothing ever comes back.” The world became centered on fatalism and immediacy. Entire religions were created and proliferated themselves on the idea. It became fact, and then it became more than fact: it became nature. It became law.</div>
<div>
<br />
Governments took this idea to the extremes. Nothing would be recorded anymore. All recorded history or knowledge, anything made to stick around, would be burned and destroyed. So it was. Great flames burned across the land as townships and city-states set fire to their libraries, their museums, their record halls. The history of the world burned brightly, as bright as any star, and to anything above the earth it must have looked like a great constellation had come to rest on the earth for the night.</div>
<div>
<br />
When the embers pulsed for the last time and the fire’s heart beat its last silent beat, the people had nothing left to burn. That is, except for the stars. The scholars kept the records of all the constellations. Their names, their positions (before they left), and what they looked like. But everyone agreed that these would be left alone. Those records would be the only thing they would keep. They would persevere. They would keep record of the stars, and only the stars, so that they may remember why they did what they did. There was, also, still a lingering, secret hope that the constellations would still come back, because there is a distinct difference between history and hope, besides the obvious ones: History burns once, and then it’s gone. Hope is always burning and is stronger for it.</div>
<div>
<br />
So that’s how it is. The stars don’t stick around, but they are remembered in black and white images on the page. The people still don’t know where the stars are going. They still don’t know if the stars are moving past them or if they are moving past the stars. Will the sky ever run out of stars? Will this giant negative film reel ever run out? Who knows? The people have finally made some kind of peace with it. The stars will not stick around, but their forms, on those pages, will. The people’s names will not be remembered, but their icons will.</div>
<div>
<br />
So the constellations, those massive likenesses ranging from the everyday to the mythical, live on, in a fashion. They are not still there, way up there, but they are down there, on the page, with them. People start to realize that this is an amazing thing, especially considering that these figures in the sky were never actually there in the first place.</div>
<div>
<br />
The stars are beautiful, like they always have been, and then they disappear. They find a new life in history and memory, less vibrant but just as elegant, and the people wonder if a similar fate awaits them when they disappear. Perhaps they, too, will be recorded, far away, in a different form for everyone to see.</div>
</div>
</div>Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-60162077372375996132012-05-20T21:10:00.002-05:002012-05-23T11:44:12.205-05:00The BeginningAnd in the beginning, there were blueish-grey cubes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFfuq4NsekgFrVo16fqRn0MXLWTVG1dQgB-3j60u_d-N5F-SaoAJvt62yi-uDqEwoQD8vHr1r9Z1TqpuXMNbRArJII-13l5BU78nqVB0qfGaxK74Y_22oKp2hs4iKi8p62kPvvQQzAMg/s1600/May20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFfuq4NsekgFrVo16fqRn0MXLWTVG1dQgB-3j60u_d-N5F-SaoAJvt62yi-uDqEwoQD8vHr1r9Z1TqpuXMNbRArJII-13l5BU78nqVB0qfGaxK74Y_22oKp2hs4iKi8p62kPvvQQzAMg/s320/May20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Even though I spent most<i> </i>of today playing <i>F.E.A.R. 2, </i>I'm getting off my ass and doing a little real work too.<br />
Although, I am actually still on my ass. Most of this job is sitting, after all.<br />
<br />
Hopefully I will keep working. If I don't post another screenshot within the next week showing some progress (like, at least 20-30 more blueish-grey cubes), somebody punch me.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-3615411823225266412012-05-18T21:37:00.000-05:002012-05-23T11:43:06.815-05:00My Summer is Off to a Sluggish StartThe summer, it drains all motivation from me.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The first week after I graduated, <i>man, </i>I was off to a great start. I was working hard on <a href="http://brendanjjgilbert.com/">my website</a> and stuff, and I was doing things, and it was great. But then it set in. You know, <i>IT. </i>That feeling of, "Hey, I don't need to be anywhere today, why don't I just watch TV shows and play video games and not wear clothes, all at the same time?"<br />
<br />
And it hit me hard this last week. Work on my website has come to a stand-still, but I promise I will be back fixing it again soon. (Who exactly am I promising right now? Myself? I never keep promises to myself.) I stopped blogging (again) for like a week. And I promised myself (seriously why do I keep doing that?) that this would be the summer of production! The summer where I worked and made games the whole time, games that I could show off and put in my portfolio release on the internet for free to the masses! That's been a little slow coming too.<br />
<br />
But maybe I just needed a break. Going straight from the final stretches of <i><a href="http://wateralofttheridge.com/">Water Aloft the Ridge</a> </i>to graduation to full blown portfolio/resume/website work might not have been the best idea. Maybe I needed a break. Maybe I'm taking that break now.<br />
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Also, maybe my huge backlog of bought-but-never-played games was nagging at me too hard to ignore. All this year I've been buying games like crazy whenever they were on sale, but didn't have time to play most of them. So right after graduation, I started up <i>inFamous 2 </i>(which I bought back on Black Friday but never even opened) and powered through that one in probably less than a week? Maybe a little more. Who cares.<br />
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The same day I beat <i>inFamous 2, </i>I decided to start playing <i><a href="http://www.colibrigames.com/">The Tiny Bang Story</a>, </i>an indie adventure game that was part of some adventure game sale on Steam a few weeks (or months) ago. I'm really glad I played it, too. This game was less like a traditional adventure game and more like an interactive I Spy book with some devious puzzles mixed in.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacMyU1idTMrnIfTSxjPb4zVyC52RX0f-ExWOFWYJrOqsl1ttSTNQkZ14qT7hqZV5IE5CNu4CTtg3BJWSQvLXOhog8TTMZG6vlG5mAegZ61h91Cj1lenZmjHqQDSSvVa7pdcTs5xfT8Nw/s1600/screen04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacMyU1idTMrnIfTSxjPb4zVyC52RX0f-ExWOFWYJrOqsl1ttSTNQkZ14qT7hqZV5IE5CNu4CTtg3BJWSQvLXOhog8TTMZG6vlG5mAegZ61h91Cj1lenZmjHqQDSSvVa7pdcTs5xfT8Nw/s320/screen04.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How many hidden jigsaw puzzle pieces can you find? No seriously, that's like a majority of the gameplay.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Aside from some <u>seriously desk-punchingly hard puzzles,</u><i> </i>the game was really simply and just, overall, cute and enjoyable. A great relaxation game.<br />
<br />
After finishing that game in a day and a half, I went to another game that was part of the same package,<i> <a href="http://machinarium.net/demo/">Machinarium</a>. </i>A little more traditional of an adventure game, it was still really enjoyable. And I got through it a little easier than <i>The Tiny Bang Story. </i>I only had to look up the solution to <b>two </b>of the puzzles for this game! I would have been more, but some of the puzzles in <i>Machinarium </i>were almost exactly the same as ones in <i>The Tiny Bang Story. </i>Weird.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBcZMoxBw_jU698qmlbL8viX6rSRG2yHlrG0237Dzig3jyxUgulVeCe8LdHqQItubM8_9QTaxg9qNKUGbkKVW_YxsyB1o0ZnrddeF9HQDEJh2bB0bAVLX10yIWas-6M5x4zseiNvsQSM/s1600/ss_e8ffbb499a86c0ec08bf3d9b6b56852d2ba129e1.1920x1080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBcZMoxBw_jU698qmlbL8viX6rSRG2yHlrG0237Dzig3jyxUgulVeCe8LdHqQItubM8_9QTaxg9qNKUGbkKVW_YxsyB1o0ZnrddeF9HQDEJh2bB0bAVLX10yIWas-6M5x4zseiNvsQSM/s320/ss_e8ffbb499a86c0ec08bf3d9b6b56852d2ba129e1.1920x1080.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All of the art and animation in this game is ridiculously good.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I busted through <i>Machinarium </i>in one big, fat, lazy day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Except for that fucking Bird on a wire puzzle. Fuck you, bird.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEfplgkXI6Pl4BP250e-oJpl6YoAYj4OSyxVO4IP4wEkAW1WuwjXBSYdOZlmN_oRofZk2UNjYMsFroI-AUpNDHJW28XZtoivY3TR09lJqhwt1W9f0HJze5u6DHo0QruJmtbUPA7Cx9EM/s1600/robo+bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEfplgkXI6Pl4BP250e-oJpl6YoAYj4OSyxVO4IP4wEkAW1WuwjXBSYdOZlmN_oRofZk2UNjYMsFroI-AUpNDHJW28XZtoivY3TR09lJqhwt1W9f0HJze5u6DHo0QruJmtbUPA7Cx9EM/s1600/robo+bird.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You're cute, but still go fuck yourself.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The day after I beat <i>Machinarium </i>(uh, I should just say today),<i> </i>I started playing <i><a href="http://wadjeteyegames.com/gemini-rue.html">Gemini Rue</a>. </i>This game was also part of the same indie adventure pack as the previous two games. This game is old school as hell, and I mean that in the way that I dislike the most.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIdR9Yf_Vw6iBzaw1tHyuk2m9SFDEumnSaetKDzK5dSIpvLD47n4mccHpDy28_Jj70kPjhV_PmabYnIWJJ7ouu3tr4i0zhUd0fsSqAuO4nTImHh2uLa2ZcnKfhiW4bocH0i5awi3rYJc/s1600/Gemini-Rue-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIdR9Yf_Vw6iBzaw1tHyuk2m9SFDEumnSaetKDzK5dSIpvLD47n4mccHpDy28_Jj70kPjhV_PmabYnIWJJ7ouu3tr4i0zhUd0fsSqAuO4nTImHh2uLa2ZcnKfhiW4bocH0i5awi3rYJc/s320/Gemini-Rue-4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dem pixels.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unlike <i>The Tiny Bang Story </i>and <i>Machinarium, </i>where one click interacts in whatever way makes sense, in <i>Gemini Rue </i>you have menus. Lots of menus. Its a game where you have to click on something, and then click on what you want to do to that something, only to have your character tell you they don't feel like doing that right now. One of <i>those </i>games.<br />
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Its also very slow and, after playing <i>The Tiny Bang Story</i> and <i>Machinarium</i>, both of which had no dialogue, kind of boring. The one thing that might keep me playing is the fact that this game has combat. An adventure game with combat is... so weird, I want to keep playing to see if it works.<br />
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But, I probably shouldn't keep playing. I'm kinda adventure-gamed out, and I should probably do some <b>real </b>work.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-76748374453909593622012-05-08T12:44:00.000-05:002012-05-23T11:41:53.705-05:00WebsiteMan, do I hate making websites a whole lot. It's been a couple years since I've touched HTML and CSS, and now I wish I had kept up with it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The more I mess around with it, the more I remember, but it's frustrating work.<br />
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That's all I wanted to say. BrendanJJGilbert.com will be coming soon, if I don't go crazy first.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-34643185964090316072012-05-03T08:45:00.002-05:002012-05-23T11:41:26.122-05:00Business type thingsUpdate: Ok, I already hate what I have for this business card.<br />
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Went and got 100 of them printed, and not only did I find out that gradients look <i>stupid </i>when printed on paper, the blueish hue really turned into more of a purple.<br />
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So I think when I make a larger order soon, I'm going to go with this slightly different version:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCtghxrq2zP7lsms6ZeDpFcobiWxYcvntp4peIbiCY4ex6qj7TUJL0DaFl6Aa7U2PqnuEE8RHcIuiuDJXNjEPgUpAhvq8POey09wwvSe9OySRj-l9SFuZCP88oCLntrr87e1MK6t4J4A/s1600/BusinessCard2.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCtghxrq2zP7lsms6ZeDpFcobiWxYcvntp4peIbiCY4ex6qj7TUJL0DaFl6Aa7U2PqnuEE8RHcIuiuDJXNjEPgUpAhvq8POey09wwvSe9OySRj-l9SFuZCP88oCLntrr87e1MK6t4J4A/s320/BusinessCard2.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
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The background is a flat color (although I should make that color even lighter/more blue to avoid the "purple problem") and I added some lines under my first and last names.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><b>Original post:</b><br />
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This is what I'll be doing today:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPP1NOUfcqJUvjk3d__udp7rEKeI0vkfn8QZq-LWgvxUBqs9JI4RFpnqKqqave65JiZ79XH_qelXD4BLlaXAmBnOZjWls8iP8zCXstsyelHnI18MzCB1R6Acg1qOtzpRIO2PJLgdPXcU/s1600/BusinessCard.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPP1NOUfcqJUvjk3d__udp7rEKeI0vkfn8QZq-LWgvxUBqs9JI4RFpnqKqqave65JiZ79XH_qelXD4BLlaXAmBnOZjWls8iP8zCXstsyelHnI18MzCB1R6Acg1qOtzpRIO2PJLgdPXcU/s320/BusinessCard.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finding a place to print off this business card I made in the wee small hours of last night and the night before. Also be redoing my resume, which is probably the thing about life that I like the least. I can't even explain how much I don't like making resumes.<br />
<br />
Plus, it sucks trying to make a serious, professional resume when the only jobs you've had before are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Landscaper</li>
<li>Factory hand at a book bindery</li>
<li>Shipping loader</li>
<li>Target, for God's sake</li>
</ul>
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But oh well. Let's adult life go!Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-23007078166243374382012-05-02T09:52:00.001-05:002012-05-23T11:40:17.415-05:00BraggingSo I know what I can blog about for now. I can brag!<br />
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There's a website called <a href="http://www.gamecareerguide.com/">GameCareerGuide.com</a> that is rather helpful for people in my field, and every three weeks or so they run a sort of contest.<br />
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They set up some kind of idea, outline some rules, and then ask all their prospective readers to make a game pitch. For instance, they could say, "Design a game meant to be played and completed in under 20 minutes," or something. Then anyone who wants to enter whips up a document describing how they would design the game with the specific specifications in mind. You get 500 words and three images to pitch your idea. A week after the submission date, the websites picks the five or six best ones and posts them on their site for all to see.<br />
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I've known about these contests for well over a year, but only just recently started getting serious about entering them. I entered once or twice a long time ago, to no avail.<br />
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Now, however, I've been featured in the "best of" showcase three times in the row. (I believe that's called a threepeat. Although I hate that word, I am temporarily using it for this instance of bragging only.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmP_9qlJ78pD5LyltUccAm5HxhRBz78jFHaZaW_7OS6i4AhUsr-GpYLX1ZKbbC8sMnTwAArKw7X2M-jY2jE41Qk_7jkpMcsk47A4Jd7MnxTbKbrVKlsBatcunCh_sPU3G5_dUNu26kyE/s1600/Knockback.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmP_9qlJ78pD5LyltUccAm5HxhRBz78jFHaZaW_7OS6i4AhUsr-GpYLX1ZKbbC8sMnTwAArKw7X2M-jY2jE41Qk_7jkpMcsk47A4Jd7MnxTbKbrVKlsBatcunCh_sPU3G5_dUNu26kyE/s320/Knockback.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How do you like your 16-bit RPGs? Derivative or incredibly derivative?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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So yeah, they just posted the winners yesterday, and my submission was front and center again. Pretty cool. You can check that out, as well as my other, past "best entries" right below.<br />
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<a href="http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1075/results_from_game_design_.php">Results from May 1, 2012 - Design an RPG Battle System</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1066/features/1066/results_from_game_design_.php">Results from April 10, 2012 - Design an Asynchronous Game</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1059/features/1059/results_from_game_design_.php">Results from March 20, 2012 - Bring Back a Dormant Series</a><br />
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And that's all the bragging I feel like doing right now. I mean, I didn't technically win anything besides validation and a good feeling, but I'll take that. Also, just because my submissions were featured first on the last two contests does not mean they were technically the best. I think I've gotten that coveted spot because the images I've been making stand out more than the others. Actually, in the Asynchronous Game challenge, I was the <i>only </i>one to make images. That probably counted for a lot for putting mine first, especially since all the submissions in that challenge were essentially the same game.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-78781739238376743762012-05-02T00:27:00.002-05:002012-05-23T11:31:49.845-05:00Oh BoyOh Boy, do I need to get back into blogging! And boy do I need to fix up this site!<br />
I mean, just look at that navigation bar over there to the right. You can't even read anything on it!<br />
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Well, there should be a lot more stuff on this site over the summer and beyond, because I'm going to be working on stuff all summer. And, you know, I'll also hopefully be working on things beyond that. But just one season at a time!<br />
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Anyway, promise there will be more soon.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-40507500391778915542011-10-17T23:32:00.000-05:002012-05-23T11:31:15.356-05:00The Short Bus<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Well? You can take it, can’t you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
The farmer stood back a ways from his old wooden fence, arms crossed over his hefty torso. His wife watched worriedly from the kitchen window. This type of fence is the kind that is made out of old, dark wood, cut thick and round, like miniature logs, laid longwise. For the most part there were only one, maybe two pieces between each post, tilted diagonally. They have little practical use beside decoration, except that they’re good for keeping out things that are big, stupid, and slow.<br />
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Now it kept in a zombie, awkwardly shifting its body weight to stumble this way, fall that way, and occasionally hit the fence with one of its forearms. It was making noise, far too much noise for something this slow and dead, by kicking through the mountains of dead leaves, stepping on broken branches. The forest was normally a haven of silence, now spoiled by a terrible and unnatural ruckus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
The farmer watched the zombie with an annoyed look, as if this person – what used to be a person – was a large pest that buckshot could easily remove, if it were not against the law.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard answered the farmer’s question.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Yes. Yeah, we can take this off your hands immediately.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
The cup of coffee almost flew off the small metal ledge towards Richard’s legs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Jesus, Menka, take it easy with the turns!” Richard yelled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Why don’t you take it easy with the complaints, I am the one driving ‘the short bus’,” Menka replied while she spun the wheel this way and that to change lanes. “The short bus” is what Menka liked to call the Plague Control transport. Similar to an ambulance, it was a little bit longer to put some space between the driver and the afflicted passengers, of which there was currently one: the zombie found in the woods. Menka found the similarities between the passengers of a short school bus and her own passengers very amusing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Well, both of us back here are very proud of you, but how about you drive like a sane woman when we pick up our rookie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“The rookie will need excitement on her first day,” Menka stated simply.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Yes, clearly. Transporting a zombie to the CDC on her first day would not be exciting enough without fifteen near head-on collisions, would it?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“I can aim for twenty, if you like.” Menka checked her rear view mirror for any hint of a smile. However, Richard was sitting on the bench with his back to the driver’s seat, facing the zombie. She couldn’t tell if he appreciated her humor or not; she never could. Richard slowly reached for the cup of coffee. Menka’s eyes drifted to the zombie’s through the reflection. For a brief moment the zombie’s eyes seemed to lock on hers – tendons tightened and icy needles rose from her neck – and she quickly refocused on the road in front of her. Soon they would be at the hospital.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Julie stood at the drive-up, outside the bright glass doors. She tapped her pen against the metal cover of her notepad. Her hair kept whipping across her face as she turned her head this way, and then that way. The call had come suddenly. “You’re up. They’re coming with one now.” Her first ride-along, really taking one of the plague victims to the CDC. It was such a rare thing now, with the sightings so limited, the attacks almost non-existent…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
And then the plague wagon was driving around the circle and was there. Julie’s breathing was a sputtering machine. A fair woman sat behind the wheel, looking both amused and severe. The side door opened and a thin man with short-trimmed hair leaned out, holding himself in the vehicle with one arm while the other extended forward. “You Julia Sawicky?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
She took a second to realize what was being asked. “Yes. Yes, that’s me,” she beamed up at him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Great. Get in here already,” he replied with a broad waving of his hand. He slipped back inside of the wagon and sat down on the small bench. Julia eagerly climbed inside. “Close the door…” started Richard – Julie pulled it closed behind her – “…and sit down, Ms. Sawicky.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“You can just call me Julie.” Julie’s face was nothing but a smile, as she sat next to Richard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Excellent,” Richard spoke into the lid of his coffee cup like a microphone. “I’m Richard Thurman, the driver is Spomenka… uh, Zerr?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Zore,” came the reply from the front seat. “And do not call me that!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard nodded. “Right, just call her Menka, she hates the full name.” Julie nodded seriously in reply. Taking his time, Richard carefully unsnapped the top of the coffee cup and took a sip. “Oh, and that’s a zombie,” he added, pointing through the glass partition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Julie steeled herself and turned to it, the creature that was once a man. No, she thought to herself. He is still a man. They are all still people, in need of help. That was her job now. She looked at the zombie’s – the man’s – graying skin, his lolling eyes, chattering teeth…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Is he cold?” Julie asked Richard.<br />
Richard raised his eyes above the rim of his coffee cup. “Who, the zombie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Um, yes. His teeth are chattering.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
A chortle emanated from the front of the wagon. Richard ignored it and answered her. “Probably, but there’s not much we can do about it. The zombie often has a lowered body temperature, so a cover won’t do much to stop his chills. Besides, you want to try to put a sweater on him?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Julie laughed a little. Richard didn’t. “Oh, no, I guess not.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard nodded and concentrated on his coffee. Julie leaned forward a bit and looked out the windshield. Menka was driving aggressively, and they were headed out of town. Des Moines had the closest CDC Plague Housing, and it was a good two hour drive, even on the freeway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Sitting back again, Julie looked at the disheveled man behind the glass. Jesus, something about him looked familiar… “Do we know the man’s name?” Julie spoke up, her notepad held studiously between her thigh and her writing hand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Hah! ‘The man!’” Menka shouted from the driver’s seat.<br />
A look of embarrassed confusion landed on Julie’s face. “I’m sorry, all throughout my training and internship they told us to refer to the plague victims as you would normally talk about any healthy person, and not as a different type of being.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard gave a little exhale. “Don’t mind Menka, she’s rather harsh on our passengers. She had a little trouble with them back in <i>the old country</i>.” Richard actually grinned a little as he said the last part, looking up at Menka. Menka did not turn or react in any way. Julie noted that Richard had a nasty, cruel-looking grin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard let the smile drop and turned back to Julie. “But yeah, you’re right. It’s true we’re supposed to treat them like people in every way, so the CDC can take care of them in hopes of finding a cure and so forth, but honestly, I doubt that’s going to happen any time soon. So the fact of the matter is that these people are not normal or healthy. They are zombies and they will hurt you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Julie gave a little diffusing smile. “I’ll still call them people if I can.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Yeah, of course.” Another sip of coffee.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“So where was he found?” Julie looked back to the man behind the glass. Something was brewing in Julie’s stomach, a warning or premonition about something and her mind was running and a realization was rising because the resemblance was so uncanny…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“He was found on a farm on the other side of town. Apparently missing two weeks, he had gone hunting in the woods and showed up again today. Oh, you asked about the name, it’s-”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
“Brad!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard looked up at the outburst. Julie had dropped her notepad. Her hands covered her mouth, her eyes wide and terrified above her fingertips. “…Bradley Struthers,” Richard finished. “Julie, are you alright?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Julie shook her head silently. The effort of it seemed to make her eyelids quiver. Her hands moved down to her lap. “I know this man,” she said quietly. “We used to date.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
Richard looked up to the zombie. They always had this nasty way of looking like they were about to fall asleep or be sick. “You’re shitting me.”</div>Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-35422428914780679362010-08-03T22:31:00.000-05:002010-08-03T22:31:09.959-05:00SheI'm no longer sure why I started this blog. I started it during a ferverent period of my life when I was ridiculously productive (one whole year ago!), thinking that I would keep up that pace. That didn't happen. I keep questioning what direction this blog should take and, to a larger degree, what direction I should take. Originally a place for all my game-related creations, the contents of this blog have become less focused, more varied, and increasingly rambling. So I think I should just put all the cards on the table. Maybe if I get everything out of my head and onto some concrete manifestation, like a page or a screen, I can see what I can do. I'll see where I want to go.<br />
But I don't want anyone to think I'm having some sort of breakdown. I'm doing ok. Right now, if you didn't know, I'm in Los Angeles, enrolled in a Semester in LA program through school. It's really fun, and although nervous at first, I can tell this is going to be great after only two days. And I'm doing ok. Great, even. But it has me guessing, thinking about what, exactly, I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. Maybe it will be a little of everything. Maybe not. But that's ok. <br />
<br />
When I wrote this, I wasn't ok. This is a pretty rough piece. Again, kind of like the last post, I don't really know what to say about this one. But the last ones were creative bullshit that I needed to get out and wasn't really sure what to do with. This one is real, that's for sure, but... I wasn't ok when I wrote this. I purposely left it out of the last post because I thought it was too heavy. And the last post wasn't exactly a bowl of sugar. It was a nasty summer. But I'm glad I said it, all of it. I needed to see it all written out, I think. So please, don't think I'm clinically depressed when you read this; I'm fine now. Suffering, if nothing else, is a new experience.<br />
<br />
So on that uplifting note, here is "She," a bitchfest about my bitch problems.<br />
<blockquote>She is mystical. She isn't anything I want except when I don't know anything about her. She destroys my hope when she is around, and fills me with anticipation for our next meeting. She makes me feel like dirt with every thought.<br />
She is better than me. She could finish me. Her intelligence is godlike when compared to mine; she explains with infintisimal detail while I stammer.<br />
She is greater than I in every way. At times I truly hate her, she fills me with a level of self-loathing that is unbearable.<br />
She is faster.<br />
She is well on her way. I look on, thinking I am on the same level as her, when she is actually lapping me, passing me by for the second time.<br />
She is magical. She brushes off my advances as if they were unpleasant breezes. She tells me of her day and doesn't bother to ask about mine.<br />
She is an enigma.<br />
She is a book written on two different kinds of paper. Yet she is more likable than me. Even strangers can relate to her. I wonder if I am the wrong one, and I only have to be in her prescence to realize, yes, I am wrong. Because she is always right. It doesn't matter what I try to do, she has already done it.<br />
She is never impressed. Never caring. Her cold eyes search me for worth, and I clamp down, an oyster with no pearl. As if I could keep it from her. She knows I am worthless, talentless, futureless.<br />
She is incredible.<br />
She is shining, blinding judgment. She makes me hate myself. She brightens my day. She smiles when anyone but me talks to her. I am a dark cloud on her sunny days. And I hate myself for it. I flail around, trying to impress her, and I only succeed in annoying her. She hates me, and I hate her, but more than hate, I want her, and I hate myself most of all.</blockquote>Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-18019134901478250182010-06-15T00:10:00.000-05:002010-06-15T00:10:11.744-05:00Short WritingsDon't feel like saying much about these. These are two short stories, although the narrative is weak in both of them. Really, these stories are what happens when you have 7 terrible weeks in a row and come home from a soul-crushing, repetitive job and decide to do some quick and nasty free-writing. These stories are anger and depression incarnate, occupying the space between stories, poems, and nonsense.<br />
<blockquote>A vast and terrible desert lies between them. This expanse is home to only the worst of human emotions made real: blood sand, bitter rain, deafening clouds, piercing winds. Although they cannot see each other from across the legions, they see eye to eye. Their temples pump intuned. They know each other, but don't. They are the same, but aren't. They have never met, and never will. They feel it, for a moment, a single moment where they know that if they could see across the continent, they would be looking straight into the windows of another person's soul and they would see it matches their own. They both feel it, at the same moment. The man feels like the wind has blown straight through his chest, and he stops walking. The woman feels her hair wrap around her face like a hand covering her mouth, not in anger. And they both feel it. They look up, into the empty desert of hateful, tormentious nature, and they experience their life changing moment pass them by thousands of miles.<br />
<br />
The Single Moment has been felt before, by many other people who they have never met. It's something that they never forget. It is the moment when they realize that their lives have come to a peak, a gut-churning feeling that precedes the long and terrible drop into the depths of life-envy. Every person who feels the Single Moment thinks they are alone in its experience. They are not. Although it is impossible to tell how many people have felt it, it is certain that they cannot be alone. It has been accounted for, but rarely admitted to, for the Moment is a frightening thing, a thing that is far more terrifying than the thought of death or monsters, rape or murder. The Moment chills much deeper than the bone. It is Spiritual Death, the moment when one's soul simply gives up on the body, realizing the vehicle it has chosen is a faulty one. The soul gives up, leaves, dies.<br />
<br />
Across the vast and terrible desert, the two shells did not see each other, but the souls did. The souls saw one another across the endless expanse and the curvature of the Earth and they recognized their plight. They recognized their own pathetic circumstances in each other, and when they left, the shells felt it. They felt the Single Moment. They looked at each other, and then shuffled their feet through the dust as crystalline vines of ice filled their insides. They would never meet, and even if they did, their conversation would sound like empty aluminum cans being dropped on one another.<br />
<br />
Some blame the desert. Most blame themselves. The rare realize that there is no blame to give. Perhaps if something had been different... but what could be different? There are only so many things a person can do. They close their eyes, and hope a door will appear in their darkness and they will unwittingly step through it. But when the next foot drops, they are still walking on the same surface. They pray that when they open their eyes again, there will be another pair looking into theirs. And the fear of being wrong, the fear of walls without windows in empty landscapes keeps their eyes closed.<br />
<br />
Forever.</blockquote>So that's that. And now this is this.<br />
<blockquote> "I'm Going CRAZY Crazy. Crazy!" He screamed at the wall, the night, the everything that wouldn't listen. He was going crazy.<br />
"Listen to ME!"<br />
<br />
She listened to him. She could tell he was going crazy.<br />
"I'm going CRAZY!"<br />
"The trones will kill me too!"<br />
<br />
Everyday, the trones would occupy his computer screen. It was a stationary portal to a mobile weapons platform. It was making him crazy.<br />
Let me tell the shit to you like this. They all had guns.<br />
<br />
A million gigabytes away, trones were killing people. Real people.<br />
Real people had real bullets lodged in their ribs, because of trones.<br />
And he controlled one of the trones.<br />
<br />
In between the instant-Cheez and party talk he killed people.<br />
Sticky keys with worn out lettering.<br />
W, W , W, W, w w w w w w wwwwwwwwww killed real people.<br />
<br />
Now he huddled, far away from his computer screen. The camera ran.<br />
He didn't see the camera, but it ran on him. He heard the whir.<br />
It whirred in his sleep. In his waking hours. Always the whir.<br />
<br />
But when would the gunfire come? When would his ribs slip apart?<br />
When would the lovely bullets stick to this lungs?<br />
I'm going crazy.<br />
<br />
It was his day job. IT WAS ALL OF OUR DAY JOBS.<br />
Everything else was just something else. "Gotta put in the hours."<br />
Hit those computer keys.<br />
<br />
I saw it too. I killed those People. Some people. Not all of them.<br />
But enough. I would come home, after friend time party fun, take over my shift.<br />
<br />
"Here is your trone."<br />
"Treat her well."<br />
"See you tomorrow."<br />
<br />
And they called it love, the marriage of technology and war.<br />
Citizen and soldier.<br />
Freetime and wartime.<br />
<br />
We killed people, we fought a war, from our computers.<br />
With the taps of a keyboard.<br />
W, W, W, W<br />
<br />
But now this guy went crazy. He went crazy because of the war that he never went to, only sent emails too.<br />
A million miles away, he went crazy.<br />
<br />
He killed dozens with thousands of keystrokes.<br />
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder meets Repetitive Stress Disorder.<br />
And they called it love.<br />
<br />
All OVER the place. Everyone did it. It's the norm.<br />
The status quo became status updates on the status of the combat unit.<br />
Social wetworks.<br />
<br />
He shakes, screams about digitized battlefields he has never stepped on.<br />
Only the treads, the tendrils, the camera and the gun.<br />
Things he has never seen. But utilized.<br />
<br />
And she watches him, in his room. His safe room.<br />
He is protected in the room. No harm will befall or become of him when he is in the room, because he is removed from the harmful things.<br />
<br />
You see, he is safe. She will watch him, because she feels pity for him.<br />
Hopefully, no one else will go crazy because of the trones.<br />
They will watch and hope it doesn't happen, and if it does...<br />
<br />
They they will put them in a safe little room and watch them so that they are safe and removed from the harmful things.<br />
For now, things are good.<br />
<br />
People are happy citizens. They have fun, and do their favorite things.<br />
At night they sit in front of computers and kill people across the world.<br />
And they called it love. I call it crazy.</blockquote>Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-25962718626332720962010-06-02T22:23:00.001-05:002010-06-02T22:25:14.091-05:00Don't Eat the SunSchool has been out for over a month, but for some reason I have not uploaded anything related to my final projects to my blog yet. Is it because they are bad? Awful, even? Am I ashamed of them? Were my final projects really so terrible that I don't want to share them with the world?<br />
<br />
It doesn't matter, because if I have learned anything from the internet, it's that <i>nothing </i>is too terrible to share with the world, so I'm going to show off my final projects anyway. Although, honestly, I don't think they're bad. All I'm showing off today is my Animation final and an image I had to create for my Semiotics class.<br />
<br />
For my Animation final, my instructor pretty much said, "Do whatever the f you want," so I did. If you happen to remember <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2010/04/midterms.html">my last post</a>, for my midterm, I animated a Native American mask turning into a Macbook. I stuck with the Native American theme for my final. It's a short story about a snake who eats the Sun. I had fun with it. I also tried my hand at some new animation techniques, like blur animation, which looks really cool. The pencil version, followed by the color final, are below.<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nGFP2sIZAuY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nGFP2sIZAuY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vTIOJSGnKgY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vTIOJSGnKgY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
And, just for the hell of it, I'll show off a little image I had to make for my Semiotics class. The assignment was to interview 20 to 30 people on what they thought of a subject of our choosing, and then make a visual representation of the responses I got. The subject I asked people about was "scientists," and this is the visual I made.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcpwIAxrFriFddsbtMJPN_H4hnNTN5xUTXCdpewLmj0u1RyLAHbHrwGxqNUwJQL71ISXfJDfwJNneC-oIe8f9WldfvosvqR7oKlj6itgv42A9N6-txRTs9xwx_rDMV0wSAkHvOQk5hxc/s1600/Visual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcpwIAxrFriFddsbtMJPN_H4hnNTN5xUTXCdpewLmj0u1RyLAHbHrwGxqNUwJQL71ISXfJDfwJNneC-oIe8f9WldfvosvqR7oKlj6itgv42A9N6-txRTs9xwx_rDMV0wSAkHvOQk5hxc/s320/Visual.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Behold, the extent of my Photoshopping skills. But really, I did think this image was kind of funny. And that's all for now. I also have another gameplay video from my Engine-Based Design II (read: videogame-making) class, but I think I'll upload it some other time.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-63968550350607736142010-04-02T22:57:00.004-05:002010-04-02T23:21:19.231-05:00Midterms!Midterms! Are usually not fun, or worthy of an exclamation point. But this time, they are. Mainly because these midterms that I'm going to show off were actually kind of interesting, to make at least. Also, midterms usually don't fit into nice little Youtube nuggets, but these ones did.<br /><br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3WtSWANXdpE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3WtSWANXdpE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br />This was my midterm level, for Engine-Based Design II, AKA the one class I'm taking this semester related to my major. For the midterm we had to make a single-player level with multiple AI bots running around, who would shoot you dead if they saw you. Which I totally did, thank you very much. Sometimes it would take the bots a minute or two to respond if you shot them with a rocket, but that's cool. They're silenced rockets. Or something.<br /><br />Note: I didn't make the weapons, characters, or mechanics or anything like that. I built the world, the buildings, and programmed the bots. And I added some sweet music over the video, because I thought it would be HILARIOUS.<br /><br />Also, the instructors make us use those ugly-ass color cubes, so don't be gettin' on my case that my level is ugly. I know. I did my best.<br /><br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ne00AeEgkd0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ne00AeEgkd0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br />So I'm kind of an idiot and didn't upload the color version of this one to Youtube yet (I'm doing it now) but enjoy this choppy, hard-to-see black-and-white version instead, until I can edit this post and add the color one, which was the actual midterm for my Animation 1 class.<br /><br />This assignment was a morph, basically changing from one object to the other. Whichever object we started with was our choice (I chose a Native American Haida mask, because I am cultured, damnit), but it had to morph into whatever object the person sitting next to us chose (a MacBook, because he is trendy, damnit).<br /><br />There isn't much else to say about it, except fuck my ability to draw.<br /><br />Edit: Oh hey look, the color one is done.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/isCyK1_0E0E&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/isCyK1_0E0E&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />That was quick. A little easier to see, I guess. But yeah, the same.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-40312269818388479682009-12-18T22:32:00.008-06:002009-12-19T02:40:39.779-06:00P.T.E.R. is D.O.N.E.<a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2009/12/pter-trailer.html">Last time</a>, I showed the trailer I made for my Intro to Machinima midterm. <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2009/12/pter-is-done.html">This time</a>, I've got the final thing done, uploaded to Youtube, ready for your viewing. Please do view it, and please do enjoy it. Immature Youtube comments about how I am a "faget" are not required, but appreciated. If you can somehow work Barrack Obama into your insult, bonus points.<br /><br />Part 1<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Og1BwvJcMnQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Og1BwvJcMnQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Part 2 (Yes, it is long enough for two parts. Go grab a sandwich if you must.)<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fW5PYmsBGnA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fW5PYmsBGnA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />I like to think that I am a really good judge of my own work. I know when I half-ass things. I'm aware when things don't work. And I can feel the difference between having to work on something and wanting to work on something. I definitely don't think I half-assed this project. I feel that it works really well in almost every area (almost). And I think that's because this wasn't a project that I was told to do. I chose to take Introduction to Machinima as an elective, and I got to choose what I would make. Even if I didn't have to make this film, I probably still would have. And I think that shows. I made this to see if I could, and I feel extremely proud of it.<br /><br />I came up with this story idea last semester, I think. It was definitely sometime last spring. And originally, I was going to write the whole story as a text document (not even Word, just plain text) from the point of view of the robot, and what his CPU was "thinking". So really the whole story would look like machine output and code. I thought it would be interesting to write a story entirely in program scripts, but it was incredibly exhausting. It just wasn't fun, to write or read.<br /><br />So when Machinima class came around, I dug it out of my Ideas folder and adapted it. Let this be a lesson: always put your ideas somewhere. Even if it's just a quick thought that you don't know what to do with, put it somewhere. Organize it. You never know when you might be struggling to remember that great idea you had once.<br /><br />I realize that I am now rambling, which is what blogs are for, I suppose, but I'm still going to wrap this up pretty quickly. I'll end with a series of thoughts about "PTER" that I don't feel like organizing into structured prose:<br /><br />-Before resorting to Second Life, this was going to be filmed in Halo 3. PTER was a monitor, Assets Protection was two characters (a Scorpion tank and a Hornet), and Clifton died from a shooter in the crowd of people (since everyone has guns in that game). It was going to be filmed in Orbital, for the most part, and Avalanche was going to be Hell. Avalanche was the reason this film ends with a snowy landscape.<br /><br />-I got rid of the shooter ending for 3 reasons. 1) If you hadn't noticed, this film deals with religion. Quite a bit. If one of the religious characters gets so mad that he shoots another man, the film would suddenly be about something else: religious zealotry. I didn't want this project to imply that religious people are violent or crazy or in any way prone to shooting people. I wasn't comfortable with it. 2) When I switched from Halo 3 to Second Life, everyone lost their guns. I would have to buy one and then buy a "shot" animation and ugh- I didn't want to deal with it. 3) I wanted to cut down on the writing. The script was getting pretty long by this point, and if there's a shooter, I would have had to establish this character, and then explain what happens to the character after the shooting, and I didn't want to. Exploding welders need no motive... Or do they?<br /><br />-Second Life isn't all that bad! I probably won't be spending my free time there (Second-living, if you will), by there are some incredible environments made by extraordinarily devoted people.<br /><br />-I realized about a week ago that my plot follows Shakespeare's 5 act structure almost perfectly. It kind of freaked me out, and I shivered.<br /><br />-Before I decided on the "PTER" story, my machinima project was going to be chess, with a story. I abandoned it because it's hard to find 3D chess games that let you zoom in. I realized I could just make it easily with a real chess board. I still want to make this.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-81718679150283540542009-12-04T21:24:00.007-06:002009-12-18T23:25:49.312-06:00PTER TrailerOh hey there, Blog. Haven't seen you in a while. I've been, um, busy. I know I shouldn't have neglected you, but things were out of my control. I started this blog as a digital place that I could access any personal projects I've worked on, a sort of unofficial portfolio I could access anywhere with an internet connection. Well, the problem is that I'm taking 15 credit hours of classes and often working 30-34 hours a week at my job, so that doesn't leave much time for personal projects, much less uploading them to the internet.<br /><br />Update on projects: None. I haven't done a damn thing that isn't directly related to work or class or homework or sleeping. My schedule has literally been face-fucking me since August. The only reason I'm doing this post is because I have some time while my video renders.<br /><br />Which brings me to the content of this post! I'm taking an Intro to Machinima class this semester, and the final project of the class is to, surprise, make a machinima film (machinima is cinema made with machines, like video games and software programs, by the way). I'm working on that right now, actually. For the midterm, though, we had to make a 1 - 2 minute trailer for the final project, which is what I'm presenting here.<br /><br />The story has to do with robots (in the future!) that can scan microscopic chips inside of people. Then they decide if that person can go to "heaven" or "hell". It's very highbrow stuff. Very existential and analogous and a bunch of other college words that I don't know the meaning of. It's got robots, ok?<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pxB4pMwyslY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pxB4pMwyslY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Please excuse the audio popping, terrible volume levels, and the fact that I sound more robotic than AT&T's text-to-speech program. I was recording this at 4 am with a shitty $12 Logitech Rock Band microphone.<br />Just... robots, ok?<br /><br />P.S. Oh, and the "Coming Week 15" part refers to the 15th week of school, aka the week the finals are due. But you could probably figure that out.<br /><br />EDIT: Forgot to mention that I didn't make that music. That music was created by Kevin MacLeod, whose website you can see <a href="http://incompetech.com/">here</a>. Mr. MacLeod is a fantastic musician who puts out incredibly high-quality for free use on the internet, so long as you credit him. Which I forgot to do. Sorry, Kevin! I love your work!Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-84854315901601737852009-07-26T16:32:00.004-05:002009-12-18T23:27:09.890-06:00Art Skills, and My Lack of ThemSo <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2009/07/adventure-games.html">last week</a> I talked about how I wanted to finish up that idea I had for an adventure game before another idea struck. Yeeaaahh, about that.....<br /><br />The problem I ran into with that was the problem I run into with every game I try to make on my own. I can't draw for shit. See <a href="http://spiderteeth.blogspot.com/2009/07/doodle-cloud.html">this post</a> for proof of it. This adventure game I wanted to make was about a guy who is about to die, and then his whole life starts flashing before his eyes. You would basically play through the biggest moments of his life, and then time would start flowing again and he would kick the bucket. From a gameplay point of view, that should be pretty simple. However, if you're flashing through this guy's life, each "flash" would require a new background, new characters, objects, sprites and animations for each tiny little segment. And these segments would only be like 30 seconds long each. And I had a list of 16 of them I wanted to make. When I realized how long it would take to make all those art assets (and how crappy they would look if I made them), I became disheartened. So that game is on hold for now.<br /><br />Now, I'm working on a new game. It's an RPG (being made with RPG Maker) set in the Metroid universe. This is a game I've been thinking about making for a long time, and now that I have the tools to make it, I thought, "Why not?" I also came up with a pretty ballin' story for it. Well, as ballin' as Metroid fan fiction could be, I guess.<br /><br />Now, the problem (again) is the art. Most of the art I'll need for this game already exists. A lot of Metroid art is out there already. Art for environments, items, enemies, and whatever else already exist in the Metroid games. There are also some more free-to-use assets on the internet. Most of what I need, I can get through no artistic effort of my own (gotta love this age that we live in).<br /><br />For the art that doesn't exist yet, art that will be unique to my game, well... I'm just going to have to learn how to not suck at art. I've already started, and so far... it's not bad. Here is a sample of what I've made so far, next to the inspiration I was working off of. Obviously, I made the guy on the right, not the left.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPT7F1bloydShW5iF_9z4xnBPmQCRunw98CPNy902o7XhVYZKNgIrIkYprJg4nc_TZxMl7shf1UimQJFr962dgahCUPzJ347XtcWrbtL_bY4F1qO4JrkEvxsnxgLPUxbePme3FNBHlzMQ/s1600-h/ChozoArmor.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPT7F1bloydShW5iF_9z4xnBPmQCRunw98CPNy902o7XhVYZKNgIrIkYprJg4nc_TZxMl7shf1UimQJFr962dgahCUPzJ347XtcWrbtL_bY4F1qO4JrkEvxsnxgLPUxbePme3FNBHlzMQ/s320/ChozoArmor.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362891892665188562" border="0" /></a>Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-87628535523312237242009-07-19T20:54:00.003-05:002009-12-19T02:54:46.827-06:00Adventure GamesIt has been entirely too long since my last post. I blame work and the apartment finding process. Good news though, my roommate Jon and I have found a place, and if everything goes according to plan, we should be the proud leasers of a nice 2 bedroom apartment! I'm very excited to have separate rooms, so we no longer have to constantly make death threats to each other just to entertain ourselves.<br /><br />Anyway, I've found myself in a position where I'm coming up with dozens of game ideas that I want to make, but not enough time to make them. It's really quite frustrating. Just in the last month or so, I wanted to make an RPG using <a href="http://tkool.jp/products/rpgxp/eng/">RPG Maker</a> (which was going really well, until I unexpectedly quit), I wanted to get back into Flash (so I don't forget everything I learned), I've been Forging a lot in Halo 3 (I'm up to 3 new maps, and I would be working on them right now if Jon hadn't stolen the Xbox!), and now I'm playing around with <a href="http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/">Adventure Game Studio</a>. Guh. That is way too much stuff. I will eventually write about all of these things (and hopefully make them, too!), but for now, I just want to talk about AGS.<br /><br />I got the idea to mess around with Adventure Game Studio a couple months back. I've heard it mentioned a few times before, as you tend to hear about these kinds of things when you're in a game design major at art college. But I really got interested in adventure games when I was at a used book store and, for some reason, they had a used copy of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey there. I didn't buy it, but it got me thinking about the adventure games I used to play, like Myst and Carmen Sandiego. I realized that, unlike a lot of other game genres, I had no idea where adventure games had gone in the last ten years. I hadn't played one in God-knows how long. I had no idea of what kind of advancements or improvements they've made over the years. It was like I had ignored a whole side of gaming for the last decade.<br /><br />So I decided to make up for it. I got a copy of The Longest Journey (the first one, not Dreamfall) and I started to play it. And its good. I found myself being surprised how captivating a point-and-click adventure could be. I felt stupid for neglecting this genre for so long. And I promise I will get around to finishing it sometime. Around this time I also downloaded AGS, as well as one of the most critically-acclaimed user-made games for it, <a href="http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=269">5 Days a Stranger</a> (made by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame, oddly enough). Not only was 5 Days a good reintroduction to adventure games after my 10 year absence, it is an excellent example of what someone can create with AGS.<br /><br />After that, I kicked some adventure game ideas around in my head for a while, but didn't do anything with them. But THEN, a few days ago, I heard about another indie AGS game (is that redundant?) called <a href="http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=1182">Heed</a>. This game is... weird, honestly. But a good weird. It's visuals are fantastic. The soundtrack consists of distorted lounge music from the turn of the century, as in the late 1800s-early 1900s. The music gets annoying after a while but creates a wonderfully unsettling atmosphere. It's light on the puzzles, which is really the only gameplay that adventure games offer, and the story could be interpreted in a few ways (if you're into that). Overall, it was definitely a memorable experience. And it spurred me into full AGS use.<br /><br />Now I'm working on an adventure game, with the hope of making a short, reflective experience like Heed, and hopefully I'll get it done before some other idea strikes!Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-5501546889445359392009-07-15T20:57:00.011-05:002009-12-19T02:55:59.886-06:00Forging My Own Fun: Battle StationsLately, I've been playing a lot of Halo 3. Perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps not. My friends twisted my arm into finally buying the new map pack (called the Mythic Map Pack) by basically saying they wouldn't play with me until I bought it. Pretty childish if you ask me, but there were about 7 of them and only one of me, so they were holding all the cards. I folded.<br /><br />Included in this map pack is Sandbox, an exceptionally bad map with one good thing about it: you can Forge the hell out of it. All the structures on this map (yes, all TWO of them) can be removed or altered with Halo 3's in-game map editor. And then you can use their large but finite list of objects to make whatever you want. As a young child, I was fascinated with LEGOs. Forging in Halo reignites the same kind of creative spark I had back then. You can only use whatever blocks that the designers saw fit to give you, but half the fun is in trying to accomplish your goals using only the limited pieces. I've been Forging pretty much since Halo 3 came out, and now, with Sandbox, I've gotten back into it.<br /><br />But I haven't finished anything on Sandbox yet. I'm in the middle of two new maps, but nothing ready to show off. However, since I have this blog here, I figured it would be a good place to pimp out my previously made maps, screen shots of which can be seen <a href="http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Screenshots.aspx?mode=pinned&player=DMXneon">here</a>. And if these maps look like they might tickle your fancy, <a href="http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/FileShare.aspx?gamertag=DMXneon">download them</a> for yourself and murder your friends on them. And if you do, please tell me how they play. Most of them haven't been play tested at all.<br /><br />Battle Stations<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhpkpDJ6lAqLqVqA8um5PDJ0KE4Lr7zaS6y0awmpBQQM9TDPspT0bkbU1Y1DNM3I1lKigAwRE5sf26va3hSYRMv7xxGSAjzE4fo82H6XDv9hwzjz0SNNOesB70Ht031ZrOR73Tp7nyxg/s1600-h/86362929-Medium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhpkpDJ6lAqLqVqA8um5PDJ0KE4Lr7zaS6y0awmpBQQM9TDPspT0bkbU1Y1DNM3I1lKigAwRE5sf26va3hSYRMv7xxGSAjzE4fo82H6XDv9hwzjz0SNNOesB70Ht031ZrOR73Tp7nyxg/s320/86362929-Medium.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358874975630986434" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The first map I made in Forge, on Foundry (actually, all the maps I've Forged are on Foundry, with the exception of these new ones on Sandbox). It uses all the space Foundry has to offer with it's symmetrical battle grounds. Originally, the concept of this map was two equally-sized sides that would be separated by a large, nearly impassible wall. The teams would fight long-distance, hurling grenades and power drainers over man-cannons to the other side. It was supposed to be a little like naval combat, I guess. You're stuck on your ship, fighting another. You can't really get at the other ship, but you can shoot at it. And you can hurl stuff at them. And maybe, every once in a while, someone would board your ship for some close-quarters combat.<br /><br />This <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRuKgU-fQeOt4mhaJBSrwI2FT9Mtrlf3HjNtIx5vL5mcJvJSalPZj0eda5cSLr7MgzB52RUvgjXX8bCD4XJF2xx3eF-ULbC8rXk3OVoFXu4sNrV80Dc6kM0WqahiPn6AAhjWxJ9uH1_Y/s1600-h/86363179-Medium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRuKgU-fQeOt4mhaJBSrwI2FT9Mtrlf3HjNtIx5vL5mcJvJSalPZj0eda5cSLr7MgzB52RUvgjXX8bCD4XJF2xx3eF-ULbC8rXk3OVoFXu4sNrV80Dc6kM0WqahiPn6AAhjWxJ9uH1_Y/s320/86363179-Medium.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358876728233371458" border="0" /></a>didn't really pan out because it wasn't very fun to stay in one place. People get impatient when they aren't shooting things, especially in a game where it screams out "Killing spree!" whenever you fell five foes. Eventually people would just go over the man-cannons themselves, which broke the flow of the map and made it unbalanced. Also, sending trip mines and power-drainers through the man-cannons was terribly ineffective. So the man-cannons were removed, and the big wall was altered to be a little easier to get over. It's been tweaked and refined over a course of almost two years, and this is the only one that has actually been combat tested, to my knowledge. I still think this is my most polished map to date.<br /><br />So if it sounds interesting, give it a look, play it a little, and shoot me some feedback. Also, if you clicked those links up there, you now know my Xbox Live Gamertag, so we could potentially play it together. I think I would enjoy that.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-62655036819160095342009-07-14T11:48:00.006-05:002009-12-19T02:57:46.400-06:00Doodle CloudToday I'm showing off a Flash game that I made. The very first Flash game I made, in fact. But first some history. Back in October 2008, I was forwarded a link from one of my professors. The link was <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/labs">this one</a>, for the Labs at Kongregate.com. Located on this site are a series of delightful tutorials, called "Shootorials", that can teach anyone how to use Adobe Flash to make a simple side-scrolling shooter. I highly recommend these tutorials for anyone who has thought about using Flash for game design purposes. The tutorials are extremely easy to use, understand, and follow along with.<br /><br />Using these Shootorials as a guide, over the next six months or so I made my own side-scrolling shooter. What came out of those six months is Doodle Cloud, featured below. It's not incredibly fun, nor is it entirely balanced, and there is at least one glitch that I don't know how to fix, but goddamnit I'm still proud of it.<br /><br />Arrow keys to move, space bar to rain... and that's it. I would tell you the goal of the game, but you can figure it out. I believe in you.<br /><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="https://sites.google.com/site/wetgsfdw/eryj/CloudGame.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="300" width="600"></embed><br /><br />More than anything else, Doodle Cloud was an experiment. I had no clear idea of what I was making at first. I just chose a cloud because they're easy to draw. I chose the "child-like drawing" aesthetic because I have the artistic talent of a child. And since I was learning how to make side-scrolling shooters, it follows that the cloud would "shoot" rain. Downwards, naturally. And the rain could grow flowers. That's pretty much how it happened. The rest of the game mechanics just came out of what-ifs: What if you had no defense against the enemies? What if your score was the same as your health? What if I kept the interface clean during gameplay, and how could I still show the necessary information? Pretty soon I had something resembling a game, and that was good enough for me. It was all an experiment, without a hypothesis. I'm glad that it ended up as good as it did. The only thing I didn't do was the music and sound effects, which I got off a freeware site called <a href="http://www.flashkit.com/">flashkit.com</a>.Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209567811568326125.post-51456774365220428202009-07-14T02:27:00.000-05:002009-07-14T03:01:53.264-05:00First postWell, here we go. Time to jump into the world of blogging. I'm only about, oh... 8 years late? Whatever. I'm like the fat kid who cannonballs into the pool when everyone is already crammed in there together like chlorinated sardines. There's no room here, in this metaphorical pool, but I'm jumping in without regard to the other swimmers.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Brendan Gilbert and I'm a game design student in Chicago. I created this blog as a sort of online place to gather and share all of my work. Facebook wasn't really doing it for me anymore (but I still want to be friends, Facebook). In addition to projects, I might be posting some general thoughts and ideas. And probably a few rants and raves. This is the internet, after all.<br /><br />This first post is just to test the engine out, see how everything looks, and so forth. Basically, if you are reading this, then it worked, and all is well.<br /><br />If you were wondering about the name of the blog, "spider teeth" is an old inside joke that is barely worth explaining. I really just thought it sounded good, in addition to being unique and memorable, so I chose it for the blog title. Cool story, right?Brendan Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912696763276511642noreply@blogger.com0