Upcoming Promo Video (part 5)

Putting all this together was an interesting task, because it's hard to really decide on what needs to be first. For me, having the narrative in mind helped structure the scenes I needed to show, but once I had those scenes put together, the narrative voice-over needed to be timed with those scenes. I adjusted the pacing and length of the scenes, but didn't want to prolong any part of it because of the narrative subject, so therefore needed to create more video scenes to keep the pacing of the cuts consistent. On top of this, I added in camera movement, using slow zooms and pans, and that synced well with the music, but I also needed to time certain parts of the music (while composing it) to fit with what I'd put together with the video and narrative. It's all very convoluted, but it came together nicely and I'm happy with the final version. To top it all off, I also created a short intro with the logo for my company, Corefun Studios, and added some sound that I matched to the animation. I'm very excited to share it with you, and if you don't want to wait to see it when the Kickstarter begins, sign up for the monthly insider updates at the link below—I'll be sharing the unlisted Youtube link with my insiders as soon as the video is finished.

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Upcoming Promo Video (part 4)

Sound design for the video was very important, and it needed to include the voiced narrative, appropriate background music, and even a few sound effects to highlight some of the moments. An explosion, the hum of a cyberweapon, and the sound of loud metal clanking were a few of the sound effects I inserted under the soundtrack and narrative. The musical soundtrack itself needed to feel like scifi music, but I also wanted it to convey a sense of urgency and excitement. Using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), I composed a very upbeat, exciting piece of music that sounded like something you might dance to at a rave. I used an assortment of synthesized sounds that evoked a scifi atmosphere, and assembled everything with multiple layers. I then had to time some of the pulses to what was happening in the video (and vice versa) for emphasis. Finally, I had to adjust the volume levels of all these parts, making sure the music didn't drown out the narrative and the sound effects could still be heard over the music.

Upcoming Promo Video (part 3)

There were too many options at the beginning of this video design process, and it can easily feel overwhelming. It's like creating anything—you have to narrow down a few parameters so you have a better idea of your workspace. Otherwise, you'll be paralyzed by indecision by the huge variety of possibilities. I wanted the video to highlight many different features of the game: it has an epic story, RPG-like choices, multiple paths, possible romance, the potential for combat, encounters with alien leaders, and beautiful artwork for the backgrounds, characters and CG's. I came up with a fun way to present all this, and it was through the initial mission you'll be offered at the beginning of the game. The character, Sarah, presents the mission to the protagonist, Trey, and talks about everything that will be involved. She tries to sell it to him as being an amazing opportunity and a chance to see the universe, and assures him no danger is involved. I've hired a voice actress to speak some of those lines for the video, while at the same time, I show what really happens throughout the game, kind of like a contrast to her promises. During the video, you get glimpses of the different places and people Trey will encounter, in addition to the challenges and hardships he'll face along the way.

Upcoming Promo Video (part 2)

Putting together a promo video to advertise the Star Legation was a lot of fun, but it was also a challenge, because I've only finished programming 5% of the game—the demo. Thankfully, I have most of the background art and all of the CG's in the game already finished, so I was able to simulate some parts of the game that I have yet to program. I went to a few scenes in my script and programmed some of those moments exactly as I plan to when I actually arrive at those points in the programming process. Then, I recorded the gameplay of those moments and made short videos. I then brought those short videos into my video editor and cut them to highlight a few moments, adding in some slow panning camera movement. For example, the encounter with the Chiraktis Queen was set up exactly as it will be when Trey is ushered into her throne room. At several points in his conversation with her, Trey will have choices about what to say. I programmed a scene with 3 choices, and linked one of the choice buttons to the text that Trey will actually speak in the game, and then I recorded myself “playing” that scene, selecting that choice and seeing the resulting text emerge. Nevermind that the other two choice buttons didn't actually lead anywhere yet—they will when I get that far in the game, but for now, my intention is to give you a clear picture of what the game will look like so you can decide if it is something you might want to play when it's finished.

Upcoming Promo Video!

Last week was an exciting week as I spent some time away from programming and focused on putting together a promo video for the upcoming Star Legation Kickstarter campaign. I have some background in film, so I really enjoyed planning out the details while seeing some come together as I went along. I completed the video this weekend, except for the voice-acting. I'm auditioning two voice actresses for the part, so once I have both auditions in, I'll plug in their voices with the video and see which I think fits it better. After I decide and the voice actress completes her part, the video will be ready, and I've got to say, it's really pretty fun! I sure hope you like it, but there are only two ways to see it: wait for the Kickstarter campaign to launch (date not yet determined, but fairly soon!) or...subscribe to my insider email list. I send out updates on the game once a month to my insiders, and if you're on the list, you'll get an unlisted youtube link to the video when it's done. This week, I'll talk about everything that went into designing the video.

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The Gaming Mind (part 4)

Playing a video game requires a number of layers (habits) to be built, in order to progress through the game. Those who don't have the patience to persevere through failure after failure won't experience the heightened skill development that results from this process. But ask any garner: if you keep trying, you will see improvement, and knowing you're getting better is the affirming knowledge that often gives us the perseverance to keep struggling ahead, no matter how slow the progress. Gamers feed off of each little crumb of confidence which eventually grows into a pride and certainty that fighting forward is going to get them to the goal. Musicians do the very same thing, day after day, practicing their instrument to build new layers of habits. And it's no wonder that both gamers and musicians are more likely to evidence resilience and strength even when they fail--they'll just keep trying, again and again, until they reach success.

The Gaming Mind (part 3)

If someone seems to truly be multitasking, there is actually something else going on under the hood. One of the tasks that person is performing is actually a habit. Give someone two entirely new tasks to do at once, and they'll falter at both, but ask them to do something new while doing something they've done for years, and you'll see a different result. We are capable of performing many complex actions simultaneously when we have built in layers of habits. Just look at a musician to see this in action: they move their hands and fingers entirely independent of each other while performing a complex series of entirely separate tasks, all while counting complex rhythms, maintaining a consistent pulse, even shaping the music using dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and other musical embellishments. The mind of a gamer has similar capabilities...

The Gaming Mind (part 2)

Micro and macro--managing the small details and the large. In a competitive strategy game, you know how dangerous it is if you lose sight of the bigger picture, but you also know that the people who win are usually those that are experts at micro-managing. Doing both is a feat, and some will claim they possess the ability to multi-task. But multitasking is not what we imagine it to be--our brains cannot equally focus on two things simultaneously. Multitasking is actually the ability to shift focus rapidly back and forth. Yet some might seem as if they truly can multitask, and we see examples of this in our everyday life, like driving while carrying on a conversation over the phone. Despite appearances, though, there is more at work here than you might think...

The Gaming Mind (part 1)

What I don't understand is why my wife doesn't like video games. Because she'd be great at them. Perhaps some of you know what I'm talking about--the ability to plan for the long game, negotiate through and navigate workplace politics, juggle multiple situations simultaneously, and manage it all while still maintaining a clear head without letting emotion get the best of you. Yes, these are the traits of a skilled gamer, but they are also the traits of successful people in life. We've already heard of the many studies that show gaming is good for you, but this week, I have something more to add...

Programming Choices in a VN (part 5)

Ultimately, I want The Star Legation visual novel to feel like your own experience based on the kind of person you think Trey is. He's not entirely open for interpretation, of course, because he is an active character in the game with a distinct personality, but you can decide how assertive he'll be, how sensitive, how reckless, and...how romantic. If you're not interested in flirting with either of the female human characters in the game, there is always a professional route you can take, though that doesn't mean the girls will completely stop showing their interest in you. And who knows, maybe you'll enjoy the game enough to play through it a few times and try out different options. There are skill choice options at the beginning of the game that are diametrically opposed, so your experience will differ on each playthrough. Chances are, you may miss a few routes that you'd like to try again, so if you want to unlock all of Aeghite's amazing CG art, that's even more incentive. Plus, considering there are 15 different endings, you may want to try for a better one (or see if you can really mess things up!) I have a very long way to go with programming the game—it took me 13 months to write the script, after all—but I'm really excited for you to go on this adventure with Trey and his alien crew!

Programming Choices in a VN (part 4)

As I wrote the script for the story, I wrote it as if I was conducting a role-playing game session for players. I imagined what the other characters might say, and I also imagined myself as the protagonist, Trey. Whenever a moment arose where I felt Trey would need to get involved or make a decision, I thought about the choices I would make for him if I was role-playing his character. I tried to imagine what different players might do as well if they were playing him, and this informed the decisions I made for how the story should branch. Sometimes, however, there were some obvious choices that would naturally arise but would create paths that were too divergent from the story I was writing. These paths were also problematic sometimes because they required more artwork than I had planned for, and ultimately didn't add much to the main story itself. If I simply omitted those choices, that would leave a glaringly obvious lost opportunity where players would cry foul and claim that they would have liked to see that choice as one of the options. So instead, I changed the dialogue and story events just enough so that those choices didn't seem like logical outcomes from the situation. This helped the story flow better without anything feeling out of place or contrived.

Programming Choices in a VN (part 3)

I've read a lot of complaints about visual novels that have choices that don't matter. These vestigial options offer the same results, no matter what you choose, so the seeming choice is really just a placebo to trick you into believing you had some influence over the story. In the Star Legation, I've made sure that all your choices matter, though some of the time, you won't be aware of the hidden variables that are recording your decisions, These variables are waiting for a moment later in the game, and only then will the effect become apparent. Yet some choices will open up new routes in the story, while others will allow for additional background content to be revealed. I've also designed the game so that some of these choices will only appear if you selected a particular skill for your character at the beginning of the game, though no combination of skill choices will prevent you from solving the game--you'll just have a different experience than someone else might. 

Programming Choices in a VN (part 2)

I've written and published many missions for the tabletop RPG, Solar Echoes, and the challenge I always faced was writing the story in a way that prompted the players to make choices while still keeping players within the somewhat linear flow of the story. It was impossible to anticipate every idea a player might have, but my adventures were designed to tell a story and to help the GM (Game Master) keep the story moving forward without getting too sidetracked by unusual player choices, while still presenting the players with the freedom of choice. As I wrote my visual novel, however, I faced a difficult problem: there is no way to improvise and adapt to player ideas because dialogue in a video game is finite and not fluid, fixed and not active. Choice options had to be set beforehand during writing and programming. I didn't want the players to feel like their decisions didn't matter, and I wanted the choices I presented to players to feel like options they would have thought of themselves.

Programming Choices in a VN (part 1)

I've been writing and programming choice-based stories for several decades now, such as the D&D tabletop campaigns I ran for friends, dialogue with NPC's for online adventures of Neverwinter Nights, tabletop missions for Solar Echoes, and now the Star Legation visual novel. Visual Novels often involve the player making choices periodically throughout the game, which gives the player a sense of ownership over the outcome of the story. Due to my background in writing and GMing many tabletop adventures throughout my life, I decided that I wanted the Star Legation visual novel to feel as much like a tabletop RPG story as possible. This week, I'll discuss how I approached the task of writing this epic adventure in a way that hopefully feels like an RPG experience.

Star Wars Fatigue (part 5)

Before I conclude things, I also wanted to mention the recent TV series release of The Mandorian, on Disney Plus. I waited until the episodes had all released, then used my free 1-week trial to watch them over my vacation. I do like the idea of a biographical-type movie about a particular iconic character (like Solo), and I felt it was intriguing to see a series about the solitary warrior known as the Mandorian (similar to Boba-Fett, the bounty-hunter from the original trilogy). However, even though I felt the series was better than the recent trilogy—which isn't saying much, in my opinion—it also fell a little flat for me. Perhaps making a series about a brooding character who never removes his helmet is not the best way to aim at capturing the Star Wars magic. Though there were a few characters that persisted throughout the series, so far, the first season of the Mandorian felt as lacking in character dynamics as “Mando” himself was behind his helmet. He did a good job as his character, but...any table-top RPG player could tell you this—playing a dark, silent, brooding character really doesn't give you many opportunities to shine as an actor. All of this being said, I don't expect resounding agreement, and I know some fans might even disagree vehemently. But for me, Star Wars has started to wander too far from what I think made it so special in the first place. I really hope that Disney will figure it out soon, because to me, this once-lovable space opera is really starting to lose its footing and slip.

Star Wars Fatigue (part 4)

I was disappointed with the Force Awakens on a number of levels, but I decided to try to reserve judgment and let the trilogy play out. After “The Last Jedi,” however, I'd made up my mind—I was done with that trilogy. Although my friends shared my disappointment and criticism of The Last Jedi, they have all been willing to see The Rise of Skywalker. I plan to rent or stream it someday, and I've told them to feel free and share all spoilers with me (something I NEVER encourage) because honestly, I don't care about any of the characters from this trilogy. I could go into all the reasons why I've disliked this trilogy so much, but one of the big reasons is the characters—they did not have the dynamic relationships and friendships of the original trilogy, and in fact seemed rather wooden and undeveloped to me. I wasn't excited to find out what happened to them, not only because the story felt poorly written and misconceived, but because these characters didn't feel like heroes to me. Unearned powers, thin backstories, and a lack of identifiable failings were just some of the reasons they really weren't very endearing.

Star Wars Fatigue (part 3)

George Lucas's prequel trilogy wasn't my favorite, but it did at least give us some clarity on how Darth Vader became the villain that he was. I think it could have been done better, but that's a topic for another day—the point is that it did achieve the goal of filling in that gap of Star Wars history and explaining why everything was the way it was in the original trilogy. If we're following a timeline after the first trilogy, we have 2 more pre-history movies before the original trilogy (episodes IV-VI), and those are (in opposite order of release) Solo and Rogue One. These two prehistory movies are my favorite Star Wars movies of the last three decades, and I'd really like to see more done this way. However, they are stand-alone for the most part so we don't see many of those characters returning, though their bonds are better established than I've seen across a recent trilogy. The bond between characters is what I think made the original trilogy the best. Then came Disney's “The Force Awakens”...

Star Wars Fatigue (part 2)

Upfront, I'll share my Star Wars preferences to at least give some context about where I'm coming from. I liked the original trilogy, a lot. I felt that all 3 movies (episodes IV, V, and VI) fit well and maintained an overarching story. They were my favorites, so I've definitely been accused of having expectations based on my nostalgia. Whether that is true or not, there are elements in the original trilogy that I feel have been lacking in subsequent iterations, namely the synergy of characters. The original iconics--Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C3PO, and R2D2—these characters were the central focus of the movies. We had other scenes, but throughout, it was obvious that the movies were mainly about their story, and the story of the antagonist, Darth Vader. Everything was extremely character-driven, and we felt a connection with these heroes. Despite the character-driven story, however, underneath it all was also a very engaging story that challenged and changed the characters throughout the trilogy. Since then, however, I feel that the Star Wars movies were more about the story than the characters. And sometimes, they were more about the special effects than anything else.

Star Wars Fatigue? (part 1)

Recently, I've been having a few discussions with 3 of my friends about Star Wars. To give some context, the first Star Wars movie I saw (actually the very first movie I EVER saw) was the original Star Wars IV, a New Hope. Yeah, I'm that old. But since then, we've seen 3 entire trilogies, a few extra movies, video games, and now even a TV series on the Disney Plus streaming service. Lately, my friends and I have been discussing our feelings about Star Wars in general, and some of us are at different places. I think I'm probably the most negative of the group, but don't take that to mean that I've lost my interest in George Lucas's space opera. All of us have different levels of fandom, and I guess for me, Disney's acquisition of the Star Wars IP has been a mixed bag. Sometimes I feel the original magic of Star Wars has been waning in recent years, and my friends and I are debating whether that's due to unmet nostalgic expectations or a general “Star Wars fatigue.”

Game Review! Knights of Pen and Paper II (part 3/3)

The standard part of any game could spoil clever innovations, but this is not the case in Knights of Pen and Paper 2. Everything is done well, and on its own, just as a simple RPG framework, the system works and is fun. You level up fairly frequently and get to choose where to invest an ability point in one of 4 special abilities, raising damage, effects, etc. with each point. The abilities are varied and interesting: attack entire rows, affect adjacent enemies with additional effects, inflict different debuffs, passively boost your character, and more. Items are both a mix of standard and creative, and you can even start crafting some of the lesser items into something more unique when combining them with other items. You'll mix and match, save gold for something special, and store items in a safe to free up inventory space. When on the overland map, a D20 is rolled when you travel to determine if you have a random encounter. When you camp away from the cities, the D20 determines if you're attacked at night. And just like a real Pen and Paper RPG, you'll find yourself making all kinds of goals for your characters as you advance and explore. Finally, the overall presentation of the game is appropriately retro, with a simple 16- bit feel reminiscent of the Ultima and Wizardry games, using music in the style of early 80's chip-tunes, with similar arcadey sound effects. Overall, this is a fantastic little game with a lot of character! 

Game Review! Knights of Pen and Paper II (part 2/3)

The comments made by players and the DM really were the best point of Knights of Pen and Paper 2 to me. For example, at one point in the game, the DM says, "You spot something shiny in the bushes," to which one of my players responds, "Is it a vampire?" This is immediately followed by the DM doing a facepalm in frustration. Little moments like these are throughout the game, and even the NPC's and monsters make meta remarks, for instance, I once encountered a troll that complained about the game edition we were using. In addition to all the fun dialogue, the game itself had comical choices. When deciding on one of my characters, traditional races like human, elf, or dwarf with standard classes like paladin, thief, mage, warrior, etc. could be combined with cheerleader, rocker, lab rat, surfer, jock, goth, hipster, and rich kid. Each has different attributes of course, making the high initiative cheerleader great for a thief (or the ninja class I unlocked. ) As you play, you can pay gold to add a new character to your party, with a total of 5 chairs available for players at the table. Of course, when they arrive, they make a real-world explanation for their lateness, such as, "sorry, I got caught in traffic."

Game Review! Knights of Pen and Paper II (part 1/3)

I bought this little game on sale (PSN), not noticing that it was a sequel until after I'd bought it for $6.50. I figured, oh well, game sequels are often improved versions of the first release, so I hoped it was standalone and wouldn't require any previous experience. I was very pleasantly surprised by this game--I've played a lot of old-school dungeon RPG's, but the concept here was truly unique. My characters sat at a table with their backs to me, across from a DM with the imagined monsters and places appearing behind him. The DM would deliver quest dialogue, and the NPC's encountered would appear behind him to add to the dialogue. Although a lot of the game elements were standard RPG fare, the truly fun and original spin was the dialogue between the characters and the DM. Side comments, jokes, stupid questions, etc. that you'd experience at a real D&D session were all there to really make this game feel like a true pen and paper, tabletop game. And that meant I couldn't wait to play my next game session!