Is FTL in our Future? (part 5)

Essentially, objects inside the warp bubble are not moving faster than light, so they do not violate the laws of relativity. Therefore, objects with mass (like a spacecraft) inside the bubble are not subject to the effects of moving faster than light speed, such as time dilation. One problem previously believed to stand in the way of the Alcubierre drive is that the amount of energy required to achieve all this would be impossibly large. How large? A minimum amount equal to the mass-energy of planet Jupiter! However, new calculations by NASA scientist Harold White suggest that changing the mass into something similar to the shape of a donut could power a warp drive with a mass near the size of the Voyager 1 probe, and the intensity of the warps could be oscillated, which would further reduce the energy requirement! Little by little, the impossibility of FTL is being chipped away by new discoveries and theories. It is no longer looking like an impossible dream for humans to leave our solar system, and someday, even our own galaxy!

Is FTL in our Future? (part 4)

Recently, an experiment was performed in the vacuum of space where laser beams were shot into the resonance chamber of an EM drive. Light was resonated to increase in intensity inside the drive, and it was discovered that some of the beams of light seemed to be moving faster than the speed of light constant. In theory, this impossibility was explained by the presence of a warp field—a pocket in space-time. If that pocket or bubble could be formed in front of a rocket or spaceship, space-time could move around the vessel faster than the speed of light. The craft itself would not violate the speed of light, but the bubble would essentially contract space-time around the vessel. Essentially, the ship would be stationary as the bubble moved space-time past it. Rather than searching for ways to violate relativity itself, the focus has become bypassing it. The warp bubble itself relates to the concept of the Alcubierre drive, which contracts space in front of it and expands space behind it. This would allow the warp bubble to appear in flat spacetime and effectively move at faster-than-light speeds! But how does this work?

Is FTL in our Future? (part 3)

If you have not heard about NASA’s EM drive, it is the current center of speculation regarding the possibility of FTL. An EM drive, or Electromagnetic drive, is a new method of powering a rocket through space. Traditionally, past methods of powering rockets have been designed to use something as a propellant to push the rocket through space, but the EM drive eliminates that altogether. The basis of its design involves bouncing microwaves around inside an enclosed chamber, and its success apparently violates Newtons 3^rd Law: everything must have an equal and opposite reaction. Yet the EM drive does not behave according to the law, which would involve it propelling something the opposite direction. Amazingly, the EM drive produces light as exhaust. Many are saying that the EM drive could get astronauts to our moon in an hour, and to Mars in a month, which is three times faster than the speeds we're currently capable of. But you're probably saying, a month is still a long time to Mars, so that certainly doesn't sound even close to FTL speeds! The key to all this, though, is something discovered with the EM drive...

Is FTL in our Future? (part 2)

Yet is it possible to travel faster than light? Einstein’s theory of relativity says no. Where c represents the universal constant for the speed of light, there are a variety of theories and experiments that have been done to challenge Einstein. For instance, one such instance is something called the Cherenov Effect, where light behaves differently in a dense medium such as water or glass. In these environments, light actually slows down, and it is possible for particles to travel through these mediums faster than light. However, when we talk about FTL, we’re talking about moving faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, where c is a constant. And there’s no debating that outer space is the vacuum in which we are hoping to achieve FTL speeds. There are many other theories and discoveries that suggest traveling faster than light might be possible, however. For instance, many have suggested that the speed of gravity itself is at least as fast as c (the speed of light), and may even be able to exceed it in gravitationally bound systems. In quantum field theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle suggests that virtual quantum particles can move faster than the speed of light. The EPR Paradox—published in 1935 by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen—is another example of a theory that is still very controversial, which shows instantaneous interaction between two separated particles. There are several other examples where relativity is challenged, but these paths don’t seem to be the direction we’re headed now. Instead, we may be looking to move around relativity rather than through it…

Is FTL in our Future? (part 1)

I'm always reluctant to talk about this topic, because it's difficult to understand, difficult to explain, and is all still largely theoretical. Plus, once in a while someone knowledgeable on the topic will punch holes in my statements as if I'm claiming to be an expert, which I'm certainly not. All that being said, I think it is an exciting topic: there has been talk that NASA is seriously looking at the possibility of Faster Than Light (FTL) speed travel. FTL has been a standard in most science fiction for decades, but for almost as long, it has been considered exactly that—fiction. Star Trek, Star Wars, and other popular scifi TV series and movies have all relied on the concept of FTL, because without it, space exploration would be rather dull, limiting human-kind to a few planets in our own solar system. The idea of moving far beyond our solar system and even our own galaxy has opened up the imagination to the possibility of alien contact, the discovery of new, habitable worlds, and travel to even the supposed edge of the universe itself. Humankind has always had an inborn desire to explore, and though early explorers such as Magellan had their sights set on the horizon, we’ve set our eyes on a much higher goal--the stars.

Visual Novel Progress (part 5)

Sometimes it helps to get perspective and get away from the computer screen. Even though I have everything sorted out in my head and I was able to write an entire scene in a vertical word-processor, I decided to check all the branching paths away from the computer. So, I printed out the 16 pages for that scene, taped them up on my dry-erase board, and then drew lines for each of the choices to their appropriate tags. I followed each one through to make sure that the story and dialogue still flowed well, which was especially important considering that some of the options occur as a result of whether you choose to bring along a certain someone, or not. After tracing each option through, it was great to see that I really did have everything sorted correctly in my head, but it never hurts to double and triple check before entering everything into the program!

Visual Novel Progress (part 4)

I've recently signed a contract with a new artist, and he will be designing some of the interior backgrounds. We've started with the inside of a human colony dwelling, and he has been doing some preliminary line art while we communicate the details. One thing I immediately realized as soon as I saw his sketch was that anything in the foreground was going to end up behind the character sprites that I have to place over the top of the background art. I do know of a way to avoid that for this background, but after realizing that, I asked him to make sure none of the other backgrounds have anything in the immediate foreground—that will save me a lot of time so I don't have to pull off my graphical programming trick to give the background some depth the character can move behind. We've planned a few minor adjustments to his line art, such as swapping the location of two areas, but other than that, his first shot was really close to being a great template for the final piece. I'll be honest, I love working with artists and seeing our ideas come to life and take on a unique look. Every time I see an email waiting from one of my artists, it's more exciting to me than getting a package from Amazon at my doorstep!

Visual Novel Progress (part 3)

This past week, Solar Echoes artist John Fell has started work on a few new characters that will be in the visual novel. One of them is a female human that you, the human male protagonist, will interact with throughout the game. I won't spoil much of her art, but I've included a screenshot with a hint of what she looks like. One decision I had to make (and am still toying with) concerns her hair color! Originally, she was blonde, but the color scheme of her uniform had enough yellow in it that I decided to change her hair color. I'm probably going to have her as either a brunette or a little bit of a red-head. What's your favorite? Another part of the process with John last week was going back and forth with ideas about her uniform and how it should look. I looked at a lot of photos of military uniforms for women, and designed a few ideas in Photoshop, which I sent to family and friends for feedback. Some of my friends didn't like the idea of a skirt—they felt women should wear pantsuits in the future, but I couldn't agree. Just because a lot of recent scifi like Mass Effect or Star Trek trends have featured pantsuits, I don't want to assume that today's trends will necessarily be popular in the future. So, John and I went with a skirt and leggings as part of her uniform: still feminine but showing a lot less skin. I sent John a number of different ideas I sketched and colored, and he was able to bring the best parts together with his own great ideas. We tweaked it a little more after that, and I'm now happy with the uniform we finally decided on.

Visual Novel Progress (part 2)

As I've shared before, I've been using a “Draw” program--found in the free OpenOffice.org wordprocessor—to map out a flow chart of the dialogue choices you'll have in the game. It has helped me organize things a little, but I've also developed a method of writing this character script that mimics what I'll need to do in the visual novel software. It's all very vertical in the text, so I often have to scroll back up to the last set of choices to find the next choice in line, write all of the text for that choice, then go back up for the third choice. It can get confusing when I'm writing out the text for choice 2 and more choices come up just for choice 2. I then have to make sure each one of those branches is addressed and flows well. Writing a story this way is tricky, because you have to imagine a number of branching timelines that stem from each choice you make along the way. Some choice branches converge, but many go off on their own tangents. Ultimately, I want a story to be told, but things can happen differently along the way so I'm really writing multiple realities. In the end, you won't notice it much while playing the game—unless you decide you want to play through again or reload from a previous save and try a different option. The biggest challenge for me is making sure that it's a great story throughout, no matter what choices you make!

 

 

Visual Novel Progress (part 1)

I don't know how many updates I'll really be able to give on the Solar Echoes visual novel video game, because from here on most of what needs to happen is a lot of work that can't be reported on without spoilers. Much of that will consist of the writing, the coding, having the artwork done, and putting everything together eventually, but there has been some progress this last week that I can share. Last week I spent some more time trying out different ideas with the visual novel software I'm programming with, and I've been able to get it to do some neat things. I won't spoil anything, partly because I'm not even sure some of what I'm doing will make it into the final game, but last week I figured out how to bring video into the game program. Most of you have probably seen my “Solar Echoes RPG Video Comic” on Youtube, so you already have some idea, but here's what I managed last week: I designed 18 art frames of a planet with moons rotating around it, animated and recorded the video, brought it into the game, put the video in an infinite loop as a background, and then added over the top a starship graphic moving across the screen. I also added in the typical visual novel text with a few branching choices, and finally added on a character sprite, all while the planet and its moons continually rotated in the background. Although I won't be using any of the art assets this experiment in the final game, I know better what the program can handle now, so the experiment was a success!

The New Human (part 5)

As in my science fiction short story, “The History Lesson,” the war with robots and AI will not be fought on a traditional battlefield. It will be fought on an economic and personal level. Robots are already lined up to replace a huge percentage of workers in the world, and companies are poised to replace the burden of paying employee wages and health insurance coverage with lower-cost robots that will not need sick days, maternity leave, or even a single vacation day. Yes, there will be some new tech jobs that open up for workers that can keep the robots updated and running properly, but this will not offset the massive layoffs that are coming, even for specialized workers like accountants, pharmacists, insurance adjusters, paralegals, installers, repairers, healthcare social workers, and many more. What are we most likely to do if we have to compete, especially after spending years of our lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to be educated for these professions? There's a disturbing truth behind the old saying, “If you can't beat them, join them.”

The New Human (part 4)

If you are unfamiliar with the term “transhuman,” it is not referring to anything gender-related. Transhuman can refer to a human that has been integrated with technology—a cyborg. The current wikipedia definition of the term is as follows: “Transhumanism is an international intellectual movement that aims to transform the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology.” This can also include genetic improvements, not just technological, but currently, technological developments seem to be advancing much closer to commercial levels of human use than genetic enhancements. It seems logical, too—neuroprosthetics can enhance the brain to prevent Alzheimers and even increase intelligence. Mechanical replacements for body and organ parts are already widely in use. Everything is beginning to converge as we humans become the new canvas for technological improvement and integration. And why not—many would say—if it means healthier, smarter, longer-living bodies?

The New Human (part 3)

Already, neurological interface can be achieved through simple receptors placed on your body. Originally designed for prosthetics, this technology can activate linked mechanical equipment by thought alone with devices that scan your brain waves and interpret the signals. As an example, a person with a few of these receptors could cause a linked robot arm to make a fist, release, move around and pick something up by doing the same actions himself. Remote operation of robotics through thought is already working technology, and it isn’t a stretch to imagine where we will go with it next. Robotic “Power Suits” are currently in use in shipyards and factories where workers have to do heavy lifting, assisting the worker with loads much heavier than a normal human can carry. The next step is seeing humanoid military robots being remotely operated by soldiers safely hidden away—we already have been using flying military drones operated the same way for many years. If things do not progress this direction, then we may instead see soldiers equipped with powerful robotic arms and legs in robotic combat suits. But the inevitable, along these transitional stages, is something chilling…

The New Human (part 2)

Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are terms that are becoming more and more common today, and will continue to increase as a presence in our every day lives as the equipment to use them become more user-friendly, portable, and integrated into things we commonly use. AR glasses are already reality, and someday it is likely that even contact lenses will have these capabilities. A world viewed through digitally-enhanced lenses allows for the digital realm to be overlaid upon our vision, much like a “Heads Up Display” used in various high-end vehicles already. Imagine the future where you are looking around the room and see AR advertisements on the walls or notices flashing messages in the corner of your vision when walking through the supermarket. A digital icon may appear in your vision to notify you of an incoming message, spoken by a distant friend and delivered as text right in front of your eyes. Perhaps these messages will even be delivered through subcutaneous implants in your ears so you can hear the message without having to read it. Communication in the near future will be much more streamlined than it is today.

The New Human (part 1)

Many worry about a scenario in the future where AI and robots will threaten humanity, but I have a very different theory. Several years ago I wrote a short story based on the idea that, though we do face a future full of robots and AI, we will not be fighting a war against the machines as depicted in movies like Terminator or The Matrix. Instead, I think that we will not even notice what has happened. We won’t even see that our humanity and individuality has slowly been eroded away. I think we won’t even realize that we will have adopted the ways of machines ourselves. It will start small, in fact, it already has. As Elon Musk puts it, “We’re already cyborgs,” because we communicate more digitally now than we do verbally. Consider how many texts and emails you exchange every day. We’re already transitioning…

Working with an Artist (part 5)

After the artwork is finished and paid for, keep in mind that your relationship with the artist you hired is symbiotic. Once the art is finished, even though the contract is fulfilled and payment was received, there is a now a responsibility to advertise the artist along with your use of his/her art. As you may have noticed this week, I've mentioned artist John Fell a few times, because not only do I love his artwork, he is great to work with. I want to show my thanks to him every time I use his artwork in one of my products, or use it in promotions such as the youtube “Solar Echoes Video Comic” or the “Comic Shorts” featuring his artwork. Depending on your contract, artists may also want to display the work they've done for you in their portfolios and online accounts like deviantart, which helps to advertise you as well. Artists are trying to get their names out there as much as you might be with your own business, so make sure to advertise them and use their artwork at every opportunity!

Working with an Artist (part 4)

A few things to keep in mind when starting to work with an artist is that they are usually free spirits. What I mean is that artists work at their own pace, don't like deadlines, and often aren't great at communicating through email. One of the roles I've had to assume at Corefun Studios is “art director,” because I need to make sure that the different artists I've worked with all stay within my vision for Solar Echoes. This requires communication with the artist, and it's important that they are receptive to feedback—after all, I'm the one paying. Believe it or not, I have worked with a couple artists in the past that didn't seem to understand this entirely. They insisted on pushing their artistic interpretation or ideas over mine, and it often required extensive emailing to get them onto the same page. One artist actually said in an email that he'd consider changing something, “if he felt like it,” despite me having already given him clear details and reference artwork to work from that he'd ignored completely. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence, but if you're looking to work with an artist, I'd recommend having decent art skills yourself—or at least specific reference material--so you can accurately describe to the artist what you want. I also recommend establishing with the artist that you'd like to see samples of the progress. For instance, ask to see the line art (the uncolored drawings) before he moves to the final stage of coloring it. Otherwise, it's not fair to the artist if you tell him to change the entire thing after it's finished. Basically, communicate with your artist, as much as necessary. John Fell and I have established a good rhythm of communication during a project, so I have expectations for that with other artists I work with now.

Working with an Artist (part 3)

An artist can really make or break a project, so it's very important to do your research and come to an agreement. I don't like asking anyone to sign contracts, but it's a necessary part of business and it's not just for me—it protects and insures the artist's rights, too, by stating payment details, giving a deadline for the project, clearly defining how the work will be delivered (and in what form), how the artist will be credited, clarifying rights, and by giving a clear understanding of the relationship between the two parties, among other details. My first experience with hiring an artist was unrelated to game design. Back in 1999, I was only a couple years out of college and was putting together a CD recording of me performing my own guitar compositions. I went with a recommendation for an artist through a friend. I really didn't know what I was doing and I had no clue about what reasonable pricing was for a project like that. In hindsight, the artist charged me far too much for a few photos and 1-page CD interior art, but that wasn't the worst of it: after doing all the work we'd verbally agreed to, only a few weeks before I was about to go on a short tour and sell my CD's the artist called me to say he'd been thinking. He said he felt that since his art was on each of my CD's, he wanted a royalty cut for each CD I sold. I told him absolutely not, and I'd drop and replace him in an instant if he didn't follow through with our original agreement. Thankfully, he backed off, delivered the art and I paid him his fee. I had no further dealings with him, but that taught me the importance of using contracts so everything is in writing, before the work even starts!

Working with an Artist (part 2)

Finding an artist was very difficult, but if you're ever in need of one, I'll mention how I went about it. If you're unfamiliar, there is a website for artists to display their work at www.deviantart.com, and I decided to look there first. I found my character artist, John Fell, through a friend at Johns Hopkins, but he also has an account on deviantart with his work displayed. When I started looking for a background artist, my first inclination was to just run searches for “scifi art,” but that opened up such a huge range of art to sort through that I narrowed my search to things like “scifi backgrounds,” “scifi starships,” and even “scifi anime,” since John Fell's art style felt a little bit like anime. I did find a few people this way, but quickly decided the best way to search was to let the artists come to me, so I placed an ad in the forums. One thing I mentioned in the ad was that I was only accepting artists from the United States. The reason for that is that legally, my contracts are invalid outside this country, and for payment, it can also complicate things. However, around half of the over 30 responses I received were from people outside the United States. It was hard turning down so many talented artists!

Working with an Artist (part 1)

This past week has been a busy one, but things are beginning to fall into place. My extensive search for a background artist is hopefully at an end, as I've sent a contract for the first part of the project to an artist I found online. He's already signed my NDA, so once the contract is in, we can begin the design process! We are going to start with the starship interior designs, since that is where much of the Solar Echoes Visual Novel will take place. I'm not going to give away too many story clues, but I will say that your time aboard the starship, interacting with the other aliens, is a very important part of the plot. The artist I'll be working with for the starship interiors has a style that is very compatible with my character artist, John Fell, whose work you've seen a lot of in other Solar Echoes products and social media. John Fell's character art is also featured in the Video Comic I released last spring on Youtube, under “Solar Echoes RPG Video Comic.” If you notice in the video, the backgrounds I used were a bit of a contrast in style, with more of a realistic look than the comic style that John uses. I designed all those backgrounds myself, compositing different photos together and then adding some details, lighting, coloration changes, etc. with Photoshop. I decided to avoid using that method again for the Visual Novel, because I'd much rather see the work of a professional artist for the many hours it will take to complete the game.

Game Review: Pixel Ripped 1989 VR

I learned about Pixel Ripped on the VRFocus.com website, where a video was posted showing the enthusiastic and charming Ana Ribeiro talking about her game. Here was someone who had grown up in the same era I did—the dawn of video games in the 80's—and her passion for video games was very evident in the video and the interviews I read. I was immediately interested in Pixel Ripped 1989, and pre-ordered it on the Sony PS4. I'm a very big fan of PSVR and was extremely excited to experience what Ana had imagined and brought to life. Monday night, July 30, I waited for midnight to arrive so I could jump in to the game that had already been pre-downloaded to my PS4, where it would instantly unlock at the 12 o'clock hour. Just the experience of being one of the “first” people to jump into the game reminded me of my childhood days in the 80's, waiting outside a store before it opened so I could grab one of the first copies and race home to be one of the first people to play it! At midnight, my PS4 headset was on, my earphones were in (so I didn't wake up my family!), and I was diving into nostalgic memories of the 80's, beginning with a 2D monochromatic introduction reminiscent of the Nintendo Gameboy—the handheld gaming system I spent countless hours playing and loads of hard earned cash on during my early high school years.

As I gazed down at my 2D hands holding a 2D controller, I rotated them around to see how paper-thin I was in an environment that felt like a black and white grade-school play, with flat 2D images positioned on a stage around me. I learned about the evil Cyblin Lord and my character, Dot, who needed to help a talented young 9-year old girl save the world. After my briefing with the strange, cloaked-figure ended, my character (me!) began to slowly lift up into the air, and as I looked all around, I saw my 2D self smiling back in a mirror to my right, moving in sync with my real-life movements. If there's something that I wish more developers were doing, it's exactly this—character immersion where you get to be somebody else! Ana and the other Pixel Ripped developers totally got this right, throughout the game, because I got to BE someone else, full-body avatar included. There's nothing that ruins my immersion in a VR game more than seeing my disembodied, floating hands, and there was none of that in Pixel Ripped.

The immersion continued, as I found myself in a classroom, seeing the world through the eyes of a 9-year old. The desk before me felt large and the room around me even bigger, but the towering adult teacher—perhaps a little exaggerated in size for effect—really conveyed the world from a child's perspective. Memories of my 7^th grade English teacher, who was an ex-nun ex-PE coach and a real terror—rushed through my mind as the elderly teacher yelled at the class in the game. In Pixel Ripped, when I got in trouble for playing my handheld video game during class, the teacher slammed her hands down on my desk and leaned over to yell at me. That mean, angry teacher was just asking to get hit with my spitballs when she turned her back. And that I did, because my handy spitball cannon was ready and loaded. At first, I thought that my own puff of air was causing the spitballs to shoot out, but after a couple shots, I was disappointed to realize it was on a timer—this would have been an added bonus for immersion (like blowing smoke from a cigar in the London Heist game from VR Worlds), but was still fun despite the missed opportunity. The best use of the spitballs, though, didn't seem to be pegging the teacher in the back of her head, but firing at different objects in the classroom to cause a distraction. Shoot the TV with the boring educational program she was making us watch, and the channel suddenly changed to PSVR Frank, the Youtube aficionado of all things PSVR. Or shoot the trash bin and a basketball jock would rush in the room and run around. There were many other distractions available, and they were all perfect for gaining some gaming time on the handheld, which was how to advance in the Pixel Ripped game itself—you needed to complete the levels on the handheld to get closer to the final boss fight with the Cyblin Lord. It wasn't long before the Cyblin Lord and his minions began to leak into reality...

I know people are out there reviewing this game and have mentioned that it's short, some saying only 2 hours long, but I played for 3 hours and still haven't finished, though I made it to the last stage and fought the Cyblin Lord some, I had to get to bed because of work Tuesday...I hadn't intended to stay up until 3am! I spent a lot of time trying things out and will definitely put in more hours because there are all kinds of hidden surprises throughout the game, including hidden game cartridges you can collect. One of the things about Pixel Ripped that makes it so fun is discovery—it doesn't hold your hand and tell you what to do at every step, but things are generally intuitive enough that you figure it out as you go. I'm still wondering about some of the things that happened in the game, such as one of the teacher distractions that turns my handheld into a kind of AR device and the teacher looks like a dragon when viewed through it. I can't wait to go try out a few ideas to figure out what else I can do in the game. There are all kinds of little Easter Eggs throughout the game with homages to the 80's generation, even a special and strangely familiar “code” you have to input through your controller for an in-game bonus. The designers behind this game remember the 80's well, because back then, developers often hid all kinds of special bonuses throughout their games, and in those days before the internet, it was more rewarding searching for the secrets yourself and sharing the stories with friends, rather than watching a Youtube walk-through suck all the magic out of the game.

Describing Pixel Ripped is like trying to explain a digital dream—it really is all over the place, but in a good way. Apparently, Ana herself said that her idea for this game was based on an actual dream she had, so I'd say she did a fantastic job of converting her dream into such an enjoyable and nostalgic abstraction. The gameplay throughout Pixel Ripped is quite varied, and though a portion of it involves playing a fun little platformer on the handheld, this bleeds over into reality at different points, where you even have your little digital avatar, Dot, jumping on schoolbooks and staplers in reality. But then, it isn't even reality, it's technically virtual-reality outside the digital game world. This is not only a game-within-a-game, but an artistic blend of contrasting art styles and dimensions. There's the 2D pixel game world, the 3D virtual world, and even moments of our own real world shown on TV in the virtual classroom...and all this is in VR!

Something else I think bears mentioning is the mechanic of my little avatar, Dot, degenerating into fallen pixels when damaged was a fun way to encourage pixel collection, which would reform and strengthen her for the challenges ahead. This reminded me of the classic Ghosts'n Goblins, a game I played in the 80's on my NES like a fanatic until I'd solved it (yes, even the second run-through!) I remember the avatar, Sir Arthur the Knight, losing his armor when hit, and when I saw him make a cameo appearance in Pixel Ripped, I realized I wasn't imagining the reference. Thankfully, you won't need the insane patience and determination of an 80's teen to solve Pixel Ripped, but that's not to say that it isn't challenging. There are plenty of areas, especially the boss fight at the end, which will test your dexterity and resolve like the 80's games I remember. Every element of this game—right down to the retro 8 and 16-bit music and sound effects some of us fondly remember from the 80's and early 90's—feels pulled right out of the past. I lost track of time playing Pixel Ripped, and found myself smiling and even cheering several times. I'm really hoping this is just the beginning of my favorite nostalgic videogame trip to the 80's. Hopefully we will see more from Ana and the Pixel Ripped team again in the future! In the meantime, I'd like to thank Ana and the team for their work on this game; Pixel Ripped 1989 really makes me smile!

UPDATE (No spoilers): I just solved Pixel Ripped 1989 this afternoon, and that boss fight was epic! Patience and determination, plus some old 80's strategy and observation will win the day against the Cyblin Lord! I earned "The Adventure Begins" (Complete the Game) trophy, and I'm so excited for a sequel now! In the meantime, I'm going to play this again a few times to discover a lot of the secrets I missed, and to collect all the game cartridges I missed!

Future Predictions (part 2/2)

I think that wifi is here to stay, and I also think at-home monitoring is also here to stay, whether we like it or not. My prediction is that wifi will soon be something you don't have the option to turn off. Google has already been offering free wifi hotspots in several places around the world, and the area of coverage will no doubt continue to grow. Why would Google do this? It's simple—the more people they gather onto their service, the more they can monitor and sell that information to advertisers, research groups, the government, etc. Information is a commodity, especially specific info gathered about each of us. With all the devices we use in our daily life that are now connected to the internet, it will be nearly impossible to avoid being monitored. Many of us are already ok with this—it seems innocent enough--why should I be concerned with advertisers knowing my habits? But it's much more than that, as we've already seen through lawsuits leveled at Google about their culture of hostility and oppressive behavior towards conservatives. Whatever side of the political spectrum you consider yourself, it should be a concern that free speech is under attack by powerful organizations like Google. And consider that our own government now has a proven trail of monitoring private citizens to advance its own agenda—whatever political party is in power, this kind of abuse of power is unacceptable. Our present and our future: Your private conversations at home are being logged by some “smart” device and reviewed by AI programs that flag certain words. This information may be used against you someday by an administration that feels threatened by any dissent, ready to pounce on anyone that uses “hate speech,” which can simply be saying something they disagree with. Sometimes I wonder if George Orwell's “1984” is being used as a guide.

Future Predictions (part 1/2)

As I was driving to work yesterday during my long commute, I heard an ad on the radio about Alexa, the AI device people are placing in their homes. Yes, Amazon and Google (with their device, called “Google Home”) archive all of the conversations you have near these listening devices, https://www.wired.com/2016/12/alexa-and-google-record-your-voice/ I was thinking about our options these days. We know that the internet is not private, and that Google and Facebook track our every move and click online, but the sanctity of our own homes and private conversations is easily violated by “Home Assistants” such as Alexa or Google Home. The simple answer—don't buy one, but it doesn't end there. Most recent TV's, now known as “smart TV's,” are connected to your home wifi and they do the very same thing—they listen in. There are options to supposedly disable this, but how do we know it really disables the function? The only way to be sure is to turn off your wifi. All of these devices require it, and if you want true privacy, then their connection to the outside world must be severed. It's rather troublesome, but you could disable wifi and hook up your router and use a Local Area Network (LAN) set up, with LAN cables connecting to the devices you want online. But can we really escape wifi...?

Navigation in Space (part 6)

Ultimately, what I write in a science fiction novel or video game visual novel about navigation in space needs to be something my readers can follow. It is fiction, after all, and Solar Echoes is what we'd call “soft scifi” (as opposed to hard scifi) because it involves things like FTL, aliens, and starship dogfights. Still, I like to mix believable elements into this universe because we can suspend our disbelief only so far, if the recent “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” can be an example; bombs “falling” downward in space out of a bomber or Princess Leia entering a spaceship from space without the vacuum of space sucking everyone out into it...well, that's a bit too far of a stretch for me, even though I know it's a soft scifi space opera. Writing a story is very similar to making a game—you may want things to be as realistic and believable as possible, but in the end, they still need to be fun, understandable, and not prevent the audience from enjoying the experience. Although my visual novel is a very long way from being finished (think, next year maybe?), I've taken this learning experience about space navigation and included it in a way that gives you all a sideways wink. Hopefully it will make sense and maybe you'll get a little bit of a laugh from it, too! ;)