I'm pretty happy right now though. Worked hard and didn't eat lunch until 4:30, unless you count a slice of bread, a slice of cheese and then a glucose tablet a couple hours later as lunch. That part wasn't good, but the work was. Hero's Journey is really coming along. There are a million miles to go but we've taken more than a single step. :)

I could talk about how much more awesome we are than other game companies, but would rather prove that with the game. We have a lot of attention to detail, and willingness to break rules that don't serve us. And awesome artists. 3D special FX is just a lot of trickery -- literally smoke and mirrors, heh -- and sometimes I feel like a charlatan doing it. Clever tricks (or just cheap dirty tricks) vs. artistic talent and lots of labor. I'm declaring it World Artist Appreciation Day, and if the rest of you don't celebrate, well, feh!

Also good = Morrowind. It has its ups and downs but I've been entertained so far. Even if I make a lot more money ransacking houses while their owners are downstairs than I do honest adventuring. Even if the merchants who won't deal with me while I carry illegal Moon Sugar will change their minds if I put it right on their countertop. Even if touching an item on a shelf in view of any other person carries with it an immediate death sentence. Even if the aiming system for bows is screwy. Even if you have no way to gauge an opponent's difficulty before it one-shot-kills you, or even to tell whether it's friendly or hostile until you get close enough that it comes after you. (Realistic maybe, but it detracts from fun a bit.)

But it's got huge areas, lots of NPCs, lots of stuff, cool areas, nasty surprises and cool ones, great character customization. Pretty nice looking environments though not up to HJ standards ;) and mostly awful looking characters, but it also has a healthy mod community. As a result, my Bosmer (wood elf) chick is a cute one. I was pretty torn between that, a sea nymph, a seraph (complete with wings and grim haughty expression), or an Argonian (lizard, thinner and longer limbed than S'Kra Mur or the EQ reptiles).

I went for a roll-your-own-class thing, a sort of magic/stealth hybrid. Marksmanship, light armor, short blade, shield, conjuration, alteration, alchemy, sneak, security, athletics. Seems to work pretty well so far... I just wish the aiming system for marksmanship was right. There's a reticle that marks the center of your screen. You shoot sort of towards it, but your projectile arcs downwards. How much it arcs is a function of the slope of the land, which is clearly wrong -- when shooting uphill you have to put your reticle under the target instead of above it. The upshot (heh) is that big slow creatures often die to my arrows, while vertically challenged ones may not even notice all my stray arrows before I give up and charge in with a blade.

Anyway, enough talk, more gaming! :)

Posted 07:33 PM CST [Link] [Archives] [Index]

Sounds like HJ is really coming along quite nicely. ;) Hopefully we'll get to see it soon.

As for Morrowind, I really enjoyed playing that game. Granted, I didn't played it to the end, but I did have a lot of fun messing around in the world, leveling my character, finding little quests here and there, and generally exploring the huge world. :) Having cool little "points of interest" really keep be enthralled in a game, as I just like looking at interesting locations and fighting the enemies who inhabit it. ;)

I've been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PC lately. It's really an enjoyable game (although some of the stuff in the game can be a bit over the top), and there's a lot of playtime in there (if you like driving around town, stealing cars, and just generally being a mean ole criminal). :)

I've of course been playing the Warcraft 3 expansion beta test (and I'm pretty good at it, too). The game is nearing balance, but it's not quite there yet.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough (and those are the only games I've been playing), so I guess I'm done now. :)

We're planning at showing off our progress so far at Simucon. It's a long way from a game, the engine and art are incomplete even for the areas we have, but we do have some things to brag about. ;)