Archive for July, 2008
New Overworld Theme
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
The first anthem will be Tobias’s theme, and the second countermelody will be Rile’s theme. Let me know what you think.
Tuning Up RiftMaker 0.9
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Click here to try the latest demo.
I’ve made some adjustments to RiftMaker demo 0.9, adding auto-moves (Rile attacks the enemy selected with space bar, Tobias heals the party member selected with space bar), and generally streamlined the combat interface. Basic attack moves start at the “1″ key rather than the “`” key, enemy selection migrates to the left rather than the right when enemies are destroyed, an enemy is selected at default, basic heal is now implemented (without additional graphics or sounds at this point).
RiftMaker Demo 0.9 - Attacking!
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Check it out! Characters can now actually attack and kill enemies! Enemies can’t fight back yet, and no other skills are implemented, but this is a big step on the way towards making RiftMaker feel like an actual game (if I do say so myself).
Next steps include:
- Attack sound effects
- Gold, experience, and treasure collection post combat
- Enemy attacks (big)
- Implement spells - heal, fireball, kick, freeze, bash, etc.
- Battle animations for Tyche
Let me know what you think so far.
WALL-E
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
I saw Pixar’s latest creation, WALL-E, today, and I’m sort of flummoxed that the reviews seem so superlatively positive. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I have no particular desire to see it again - a good movie, but not THAT great.
I feel about it the same way I felt about Ratatouille and Batman Begins. Both were excellent movies, certainly. Both were clearly written by intelligent, witty folks with a human heart. Both did everything “right,” intellectually speaking. There’s not necessarily any criticism of the movie that should justify not falling completely in love with either - but you don’t. Because it’s not merely enough not to do anything wrong. You also have to make a connection with the audience - and that’s more haphazard, more difficult to achieve (and also varies from individual to individual necessarily).
Most of the movie is done entirely in mime - the robots are just anthropomorphic enough to
garner your sympathy, but not enough to really interest you as characters, apart from the wrenching sadness of their plight. Although you’re never bored, and you’re never turned the wrong way, you never really connect with Wall-E or EVE (the “girl” robot) beyond the sort of superficial “connection” you might have with a picture of a starving orphan or a three-legged puppy saying “I can make it on my own!” It’s awfully moving. But you feel kind of distant from the whole thing.
I still think back to a story told about Walt Disney’s response to some writer’s worries about the Jungle Book’s story not working. Walt dismissed their concerns and basically asked “Why should I care about this?” He wanted gags, moments - emotional connection with the audience. A story in-and-of-itself may be a way of emotionally connecting with the audience, but it can also be a puzzle-solving exercise or a useless weight. So how is the connection to be achieved? The story can’t simply be well told - it has to be a story about something worth telling. Is it inspiring? Shocking? Frightening? Thrilling? What is the emotional connection?
As best as I can tell, WALL-E primarily serves up pathos. Apart from the usual self-conscious attempts at zany slapstick, there’s not a lot of humor. The “romance” was effective as a source of pity, not as romance itself. While there’s certainly a lot of “commentary” ladled around, it’s not especially provocative. The movie didn’t strike me as having lots of intellectual layers to peel off (Ratatouille, at least, had a few). With a few exceptions, there’s no real suspense - even though I was never really sure how it was going to end (the great films now to generate suspense even with full knowledge of what’s to come). The stakes never seemed high enough, perhaps. It never once felt dull or trite, but it never really felt clever either.
So the question “why should I care, really?” remains largely unanswered.
Meghan’s Drawings Reposted
Friday, July 4th, 2008
I thought I’d go ahead and repost these drawings of some characters from Disney’s Haunted Mansion: the Musical, as they represent my very first receipt of “fan art.” Meghan Plott drew them, and you can read her blog here.
Reasonings Open for Business
Friday, July 4th, 2008
I’ve started another blog called Reasonings, where I will be keeping my theological and political postings. The separation of themes is important, I believe, for keeping people who might be interested in only one thing or the other coming back. Check it out here.
Update on RiftMaker
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
I’ve been continuing to work on RiftMaker, albeit fitfully. I’ve drawn icons for several of the spells for the toolbar, and I’m most of the way through loading the spellbook XML file, which contains definitions for possible spells (what they do, who they target, how powerful they are, who can use them, etc). No changes to actual gameplay yet, although I’ve corrected a few bugs (hopefully including the strange bug that caused folks to get stuck in the overworld after emerging from the desert/house) and reorganized some of my code to make development easier. (Or, if I were writing a formal computer science paper, to “facilitate development.”)
More news to come as it develops.