E3 2009 : Day 1

So, the annual big bash is upon us, and MS have been the first of the console manufacturers to impress upon us with their 'Media Briefing'. As expected, it was the usual bunch of self-congratulatory, nigh-on-masturbatory collection of charts and sales figures, with one small difference from the same crap they spin every time.

It was actually nothing like that. It was, in fact, the single most impressive spin I think I can ever remember!

First off, Rock Band The Beatles was announced, including the Live exclusive "All You Need Is Love" DLC, with all proceeds going to some Dr. Charity thingy. That was a good start, and it got better when Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison popped on stage. They left, to be replaced with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr! Regardless of how obvious a publicity stunt this was, it certainly set a pretty good tone.

Next came the promise that there would be no sales figures, just games. "Show, not tell" was the mantra. And they shew!

Tony Hawk Ride was both interesting and ridiculous, Modern Warfare 2 looked nice, Final Fantasy XIII looked like the other 12. From that point on, everything was 360 exclusive. And, it was one hell of a list!

Some Gears of Metroid Live Arcade thing from Epic started things off, followed by an 'Avatar Adventure' called Joyride, which appears to be a free-to-play MMO Racing game with premium DLC additions. Could be good! This was followed by some MONSTER titles.

Forza 3, which makes me tingle. Crackdown 2, which makes me hard. Left 4 Dead 2, which makes me cum. And they even managed to show some footage of Alan Wake, which makes me believe that this one might finally appear after all. (I also still believe that Duke Nukem Forever will one day exist, though.) And amongst this, some dude from Bungie came on stage to show us footage from Halo 3 2, as well as announcing Halo 3 3! (ODST and Reach, respectively.)

And then, came the BIG reveal. Hideo Kojima walked onto the stage to announce MGS : Rising. Apparently, this is not actually 360 exclusive, which is a bit naughty of MS to try and make people think it was. No footage, no details, just knowledge that the series is finally on the 360 will be enough to make several thousand Sony zealots cry into their forums for the next 2 months.

So far, so best keynote ever. Surely they couldn't end on a higher note than Kojima-san?

Try again. This was the point at which they revealed the motion-camera that people have been talking about for some time. Project Natal, as it is called, really does look incredible. It basically reads your motions, and transfers them to the screen. So, you literally are the controller. It is the logical extreme of the Wiimote idea, and it actually appears to work really well. Seemingly, it also has voice recognition software built in, as well as things like face recognition. I will be able to sit in front of my 360, it will turn itself on, and I will then navigate through the dashboard like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, and say 'Play game' or 'Watch movie', or maybe even 'Tweet this' since facebook and twitter interactivity was also announced. Along with last.fm, and Sky TV, I really should never have to switch my 360 off again in theory.

Top marks, MS. Absolutely stunning stuff. Everything that was asked of you in previous years was delivered in this speech. Nintendo and Sony have a HARD job ahead of them today. They will need to announce a cure for cancer or something to beat it.

FIGHT!

It was back in 1991 that my whole world changed. Hell, everybody's world changed! Because, it was back in 1991 that Capcom unleashed Street Fighter II : The World Warrior on an unsuspecting population.

It was a sequel to a game that was of little note, except for having huge rubber pads instead of buttons, basing the power of the on-screen moves around the power with which the buttons were hit. This was meant to develop skill, but in effect just meant that the best players were huge guys in puffy jackets. Street Fighter really was nothing of note. So, when Street Fighter II first appeared, I giggled at it.

I still don't know for sure what made me play it. I think it was possibly due to there being an entire bank of the machines in the arcade, instead of just the usual sole cabinet. And all were busy! I remembered seeing the original game left empty after about a week, as everybody realised how useless the "Smack it harder" system really was.

Street Fighter II was different, though. For a start, there were 6 buttons. Sounds like nothing today, but it was a jaw-dropper for me. I imagined how it would work ; A flurry of light punches, leading into a couple of medium, followed by a heavy to finish it all. I put in my coin, picked the character my cursor happened to be on, and was immediately taken out of the mundane everyday world I existed in and instead dropped into a surreal but beautiful nightmare.

My karate dude was up against a man that stretched his arms to hit me from the other side of the screen! Not only that, the bastard could also breathe fire. How unfair! Naturally, I picked stretchy dude when I died. Only, I couldn't spit the fire like the CPU could. So, I lost again, to the original karate dude I had picked who obviously was the worst one. So, I picked the soldier this time.

Once again, I lost. But, I somehow won a round this time! It was clear to me that this 'Guile' character was the way forwards, although if I could just figure out how to make karate guy do that magic attack then things would be different. After some experimentation, I discovered that moving the stick backwards, down, forwards, and pressing 2 of the punch buttons made the fireball appear. (Little did I know how I was overcomplicating things at the time!)

I was hooked. Along with the entire world. A new breed of arcade game now existed, and you were no longer judged on your single player abilities. Now, everything was about how well you could stick it to the other guy. Tournaments sprang up, everyone was fighting evevryone else, and the impact of this one game reshaped the entire face of gaming forever. It would be safe to say that no fighting franchise has had the same effect as Street Fighter did. And whilst subsequent incarnations have upped the technology, the style, and the complexity, they have not SHORYUKEN'ed the public consciousness in quite the same way.

Until now, that is. For now, we have Street Fighter IV. A game that has the potential to do to your home consoles what it did to the arcades of the world 18 years ago.

There are games that create a buzz. There are games that bring something new. And then, there is Street Fighter IV. What it has done is to somehow remind us all of those heady days of the early 90's. Days of tournaments, of battling prowess, of practising your combos for hours on end so that when you next fought in public you would have something to show your opponent, and your audience. Days that had seemingly been lost forever. Oh, sure, there is still a healthy tournament scene, but it is reserved for the specialists.

Street Fighter IV is bringing it all back into the public domain. By welcoming new players into its arms, and removing some of the barriers that have been built by years of tweaking to perfection, suddenly being the best doesn't seem so far away. Only, rather than having to go to an arcade and face the wrath of large guys in puffy jackets, all you need to do now is face the wrath of high-pitched annoying 12 year old Americans over XBox Live or PSN. Just insert the disc, start up, and prepare for the onslaught of an endless supply of Ken players hitting the Fierce Dragon Punch on you. By including the ability to let random players challenge you whilst working through arcade mode, Capcom have captured the feel of arcades at their best.

Feel is where this game particularly shines. Without ignoring the quality of the graphics, which are simply sublime, they are not what fighting is about. Fights need a flow to them, and a way of seperating the good players from those who just aimlessly mash. The new 'Focus' system ensures that there is always an option available to punish the mindless mashers. Hit focus at the exact moment an attack hits, and you absorb the energy of it, replenishing your health. Your opponent is also briefly stunned, which allows you to get your own attack in. And, yes, it is possible to counter a Focus with a Focus of your own, leading to back and forth battles. Charge a Focus long enough, and your opponent crumples to the floor. Nicest of all is that there is no requirement to build up any kind of meter to do this, as there are already two meters to keep your eye on anyway!

First is the standard 'If you hit them it will come' meter that when full allows you to unleash your Super Combo. New to IV is the 'Revenge' meter, which fills as you take damage. Once it hits halfway, you have access to a highly damaging and spectacular looking Ultra Combo, making for a rather nifty catch-up mechanic. Far from being the 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card that it sounds like, this system guarantees fights remain exciting until the end, as hitting someone with your Ultra charges THEIR meter, allowing them to retaliate should they survive.

The whole game emphasises this tactical element, rather than relying on intricate joystick movements to release the most damaging attacks. Fast-fingers are still needed, but they are no longer the only entry requirement. It is possible for a novice to inflict decent damage with mostly regular attacks, whilst the inclusion of EX versions of special and regular attacks (activated by pressing an extra punch or kick button), along with the ability to miss throw attempts, opens up fights from the tight manic action of earlier games in the franchise. Matches between veterans will still rely on the same setups, zones, and traps, but players who learn to accomodate the new mechanics into their armouries will soon find themselves borderline unstoppable.

There is no other way to describe it, Street Fighter IV is the complete package. Graphically impressive enough to catch the casual eye, accessible enough to catch the mainstream, and deep enough to keep hold of the core. Sometimes, what you have in front of you is simply a peach. Congratulations, Capcom, you have made me feel younger!

The shitstorm hits the lovingly-rendered fan.

I have tried to just let it pass, but I can't. I have been wronged, and I need to let it out somewhere. Here is the only place I really have, but it seems wasteful that nobody will see it. Oh well, so be it. It is a long, slow, and hard process to get respected, but it has to start somewhere.

So, Killzone 2 is the 'Great White Hope' for the PS3, and it really is setting new standards. Not for gameplay, or anything remotely good, but instead for rampant fanboyism. Honestly, the Sony Defence Force have been more active than I can ever remember them being. Mostly because of this review from EDGE online, which gave it a 7. Now, EDGE don't rate like everyone else. For them, a 5 is the average, and a 7 is very good. But, the SDF retards are up in arms because it isn't a 10.

SDF retard website extraordinaire PSXExtreme really took umbrage to it, and have posted one of, if not THE single most ridiculous piece of "journalism" it has ever been my displeasure to read. Honestly, this has to be some kind of joke, as no right thinking person could ever actually believe the rubbish that Ben Dutka is spouting there. EDGE is about as marquee name as it gets in games reviewing circles. They have been around for years, and whilst not the behemoths they once were, are still known and respected everywhere. For some upstart PlayStation branded site to accuse EDGE of chasing hits? It beggars belief.

I read the article, and some of the comments, and was staggered at what I saw. So, I registered at the site, and responded to some of the comments. No fanboyism involved, just correcting factual innaccuracies. An example is when notp posts "7 out of ten is A REALLY GOOD SCORE. It is significantly above average (average being FIVE, not SEVEN, sort it out)." Aftab responds with "If you take a true mathetical average on the score of all games, say on metacritic, you will see that a 5 is below average." Naturally, I had to correct him, and put something pretty much word for word like :

"Aftab, you need educating as to what an average is. 0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55/11=5. In a 10 point scale, the mean average is 5. This is the scale EDGE uses for rating. 7 is above average." I also then went on to post my own comment, in which I called out Mr. Dutka for having no journalistic integrity. I responded to one or two others, but my main post was 'awaiting moderation'.

Which of course means that it never reached the site! Mr. Dutka decided not to let my words out in case ... well, that's for him to say why, really. I know what I wrote, and one or two other people will have seen the other posts that have since been deleted. (Curiously, not all of them.) Interestingly, some of the site members are now suggesting that Mr. Dutka has become a power-crazed moderator, which is hardly a new phenomenom on the internet!

What have we come to here? I KNOW they are just a small and somewhat insignificant corner of the web, and that any reasonable and intelligent person just would not post there again, but I am wired somewhat differently. I take it as an affront that my post has been moderated despite containing absolutely nothing that violates the terms I agreed to when signing up. I want to go back and keep on posting, but they have actually deleted my account there! I kid you not, you couldn't make stuff like this up if you tried.

This is a new level of fanboyism we are seeing. It is a kind of evolution. Not only are the SDF getting louder, they are now actively silencing any dissenting voices. What next? Will they trace our IP addresses and come to break our fingers?

It's comedy of epic proportions, the kind of drama that makes you both loathe and love the internet. They are ripe for piss takes. Suffice it to say that Destructoid nailed it, and every single fibre of my being wishes I had written that!

I hate review scores, which is why review-me-do's don't have them. They lead to exactly this sort of childish behaviour. The simple fact is that you can not convey all that is good or bad about a game with a score. If that were the case, there would never be a difference of opinion on any game. And Shadow of the Colossus would get 10's everywhere!

Sounding the 360 death knell.

MicroSoft launced the XBox 360 a good year earlier than their immediate competitor, Sony's PlayStation 3. During this year, they managed to secure a sales lead that is still untroubled. At the same time, dealings with several developers led to exclusive titles on the MicroSoft console, and exclusive downloadable content for several of the multi-platform games. Finally, MicroSoft have developed XBox Live to be a system for everybody. From the hardcore gaming fraternity, right through to the family groups, there is a game for you to play, and most importantly content for you to buy.

Sadly, all is pretty far from rosy in 360-land.

The console itself is a technical powerhouse. Graphically, there are simply no complaints that can be thrown at it. The ease of programming allows developers to try many clever things, as they are confident with the system. Compared to the PS3, which is known to be tricky.

In terms of software, too, the 360 easily outshines its rival. The vast majority of all multiplatform titles are superior on the MicroSoft machine. This is due to the aforementioned ease of programming, as well as the one year lead. A lot of games found their home on the 360, and were rather under-subscribed by the time they eventually appeared on the PS3.

With all this in mind, what I say next may surprise you :

You should NOT buy an XBox 360!

I know what you are thinking. I know what the statement is going to lead to. I am ready for the attacks. But, I have to say what I believe.

The simple fact is that MicroSoft were in a hurry to release the first next-gen console, and in their haste they made a few mistakes. The most infamous of these is the high failure rate. Some 30% of all XBox 360 consoles in existence have so far greeted their owners with flashing red lights, otherwise known as the 'Red Ring of Death'. This is the consoles way of telling you it no longer works, and that it is time to phone MicroSoft and get them to fix it, or ship you a new one.

One in three consoles break. This is frankly a ridiculous figure, and one that no right-thinking company could be happy with. That MicroSoft have extended the warrantry to three years for this specific failure is a sign that they realise they have gotten things seriously wrong.

Only, it is not the sole problem the console has. Even if you have a console that somehow avoids this "general hardware failure", your DVD drive is not guaranteed to be a good one. Some of them have been known to destroy the discs inserted in the drive. Others simply fail to recognise that a disc is in it at all. Many people have attempted to play a game only to see a screen bearing the legend "To play this disc, please insert it into an XBox 360 console." Are you kidding me? Clearly, this is meant for DVD players. How is it possible that the 360 forgets that it is a games console?

These reasons would be enough on their own, but there is one further reason to avoid the 360. And that is XBox Live itself.

A recent update to the operating system of the console itself made the marketplace more visible, but has impacted negatively on the actual accessibility of the games. Upon loading the console, the user is greeted with adverts for content to buy. Sometimes, this content consists of content that you have already bought! If it were possible to customise the layout so that this 'spotlight' channel did not appear, then this would not be an issue. However, it is not possible. The user is forced to endure these adverts every single time they switch the console on. Considering that often the user will switch the console off and on multiple times in an attempt to actually read the disc in the drive, and you start to see the annoyance.

Naturally, making marketplace more visible has led to increased sales of content. However, whilst sales are going from strength to strength, something rather curious is occurring. Rules of supply and demand appear to be working in reverse, causing MicroSoft to raise the prices as more people buy things from them. Whereas themes once cost 150 MS points, (MS points being the fictional online currency used to buy marketplace content with), they now cost 250. And whereas games on Live Arcade were once priced at 400 points for retro re-releases, or 800 points for original titles. Since the launch of the New XBox Experience, however, 400 point titles are a thing of the past. 800 appears to be the new minimum, and 1200 is the new norm. This week, the Arcade title was R Type Dimensions, a compilation of the first two games in the series. Were they released seperately last year, one would have expected to pay 400 for each title. However, MS have decided in their wisdom that the cost should be 1200 MS points. Despite there never being an announcement that the pricing policy has changed, the official line now seems to be to charge as much as they believe they can get away with.

When developers post in their own blogs that they are being forced to charge for content despite not wanting to do so, or when they complain about not being able to develop their own games without going through an unreasonably long certification process, then something is going wrong. MicroSoft are taking the power away from the creators, and instead putting it into the hands of the accountants. In doing so, they have disregarded the gamers themselves. A developer must be free to set their own price for games. If they choose to give content away, then they should simply be allowed to. That MS is dictating the policies is to no gamers benefit.

It saddens me that this has happened. For, the XBox 360 has every potential to be the best console of all time. But, when the competitors offer online gaming for free and MS insist on charging for it, when developers find their hands are tied, when your console can not be guaranteed to work from one day to the next, then the question simply must be asked by gamers : Why am I still going along with this?

Escape from Castle Gamerscore.

I have an achievment that almost nobody else has!

Sadly, it does not appear on my gamercard. There is no direct evidence that I have done it, anywhere. There is only indirect evidence, and even then you need to know what you're looking for before the connection can possibly be made.

So, what is this mystical achievment, I hear ... er, me ... ask? Well, I shall tell ... um ... myself! It is this :

For the last couple of years, I have willingly subjected myself to the torture of this overly annoying system. I have actively chosen to spend more money on a game purely because it has achievments! (Lego Star Wars II for 360 rather than the cheaper PS2 version.) I have also denied myself the opportunity to play some other games because they don't have trophies. I realised how stupid this was in the case of Ratchet & Clank : Tools of Destruction, which I am yet to play. I decided to wait for the trophy patch, and now that I have discovered that there won't be one I suddenly feel somewhat stupid.

Why have I done this to myself? Why has an arbitrary and even random reward system become one of the dominant factors in my gaming life? Why do I CARE that I have 910 on Halo 3 compared to the 760 that Mrobjob has? (User chosen because his total gamerscore is the next one I could pass if I were still playing that particular game.) Why do I allow that missing 15 on Braid to even bother me at all?

Having a higher gamerscore does not make me a better gamer than somebody else. I know this, and yet I still trawl through the gamercards of people to see if I can justifiably make the claim. "Ha, you may have 50,000+, but you don't have a million in Geometry Wars! You don't deserve your score..."

But, recently, I just stopped caring. It helps that the 360 can no longer be relied upon to ever actually read the disc that we put inside it. Eventually, you just tire of restarting, opening and closing the tray repeatedly, and instead switch to a console that works! Further to that, even if playing a Live Arcade game, and therefore not using the DVD drive at all, it still takes 1 minute and 13 seconds from switch on to moving your ship in Geometry Wars Evolved 2. Compare this to the 25 seconds from switch-on to Secret of Mana on the Wii, and you see why the 360 has taken the back seat recently.

Going a month without any noticeable change in gamerscore was cathartic! It freed me, allowing me to once more not care about what anyone else sees, just what I do. It has allowed me to dust off the PS2 once more, and play God Hand, which shall be getting a review-me-do soon enough.

I do still wish that the rest of the world could see what I am playing. I would also love for there to be a "Beat Fat Elvis without using Roulette" achievable, or "Spank 50 women". For now, though, I will content myself with the knowledge that I have done both, until some smart arse invents an all-format 'Achievment Aggregator' that tells the world everything in every game!

Little Big Planet review-me-do.

PS3 HOME is supposed to be the most amazing thing ever. It isn't. It is just a crass attempt to make you spend money instead of playing games on your games console. (Read : Media centre.) As a gateway to a world of new experience, it makes for an incredibly effective barrier. The whole community aspect is far too limited, and I can think of no logical reason why the bowling alley consists of 6 lanes that can fill. Yes, you read that right. I had to wait for a slot to become available to play a video game in a virtual space!

Sony have made a pretty huge mistake there, because despite HOME and its over-powering restriction, there really is the potential for a great community on the PS3. The proof of this pudding comes in the shape of Little big Planet.

That it is the best 2D platformer since New Super Mario Bros. is enough for me, I would buy the game on the strength of the single-player alone. Platforming, when done right, is still one of the most satisfying genres out there. And Media Molecule have gotten some of it EXTREMELY right! From pixel-perfect jumps, to timed chases, to seemingly unreachable rewards, all the required elements are in place. Things are made so much better, though, because of the style. Sackboy is such a simple idea, and yet is full of charm. The world in which he lives is a direct extension of this, and is all the more enjoyable for the enforced cartoonishness of things.

The real genius, though, is the clever usage of physics. Items can be moved, bounced, burnt, sploded, broken, and interacted with in countless ways. Some things are light enough for Sackboy to grab and drag in order to get access to areas he can't jump to. Sometimes, you need to find other ways past. So, you might grab a sponge on a string in order to swing across a chasm. Or, you might have to drive a rocket-powered car at it fast enough to smash through. Or, you might need to carry explosives toward it from a jetpack, through perilous rocky outcrops. All the kind of stuff you just don't do in more real-world based games.

And then, the piece de resistance. Or, more accurately, the first of two.

You get the opportunity to create your very own levels. In the past, this has amounted to some limited "Place one of these few blocks in one of these few places." Not so, here! Here, you get to create the very blocks that you are placing, as well as what they do, what they react with, along with where they go. You can create locales, traps, enemies, vehicles, even the very backgrounds. You define how they look, how they sound, how they are lighted, and how they react, along with what they react to.

Then, you get to upload it to the community. Which is quite possibly the trump card. I swear, rather than making adverts with generic Australian 'comedy', and stressing that you can play with anything, Sony should be showcasing the idea that ANYBODY can play with anything you made!

I came across a level called 'Vanessa Feltz in the Cheeky Temple', which speaks for itself. Even if the level is awful, somebody took the time to create something like that. Let's examine this for just a couple of seconds here.

Vanessa Feltz is ... there is no nice way to put it. She is a joke. Her short-lived career as a broadcaster is well and truly over, she only gets to appear on TV these days when they remind us annualy of her Celebrity Big Brother meltdown. Any aspect of seriousness she once held has been stripped away in a loop of reality TV and sitcom cash-in appearances. And, most people in Britain know this. She belongs to that special class of celebrity who exist these days because we like to laugh at those less fortunate than ourselves. To her credit, she does somewhat accept her fate, rather than try and act like she still has any kind of relevance.

So, when 'Divalicious' got his or her hands on the tools to make ANYTHING THEY COULD IMAGINE, they imagined a fat has-been for their ideal mascot. I have yet to play the level myself, but I don't need to. I can already imagine the level of hilarious it entails. Divalicious is clearly a person with whom I could have a great laugh. At time of writing I am unable to access the LBP servers, but as soon as I can I will 'heart' them (add them as a favourite creator of levels) without hesitation. Such is the potential of this title.

From my own point of view, I have in my hands a tool that will allow me to try out ideas, and test them on the public at large. By refusing to join in with any forum-based "Let's heart each other for the trophy!" shenanigans, and just releasing my own levels to see how they do, I will know that if I get enough people hearting me that I am doing things right. If I don't, then I am not. This is wonderful, publishing without the need to buy a license!

All of this goes without mentioning 1-4 player local play, and up to 8 players online! Replayability is built in due to the quite frankly scary amount of items to collect in each level, some of which are VERY well placed. Some require co-operation to get, and thankfully all players receive the reward when they reach these items.

The real community consists of gamers, not customers. People are what they make, not just what they buy. HOME has been made by marketing executives, whereas Little Big Planet has been made by artists. I will leave it up to you to judge which one is more likely to be a success.

New year, new game.

It occured to me that I have not yet posted anything about the making of games in this thing. Which is something that I should do, as it will help to seperate the blog from all the other 'This is what I played today' blogs out there. Also, I don't expect there are too many other blogs out there in interwebland that are discussing games that I am making at the moment!

The plain brutal ugly truth is that at this precise moment in time I am not making ANY games. Or, to be more honest, not physically making any. I am working on several ideas, but none of them have gone beyond the theory stage. This has to change. It is 2009, and I think my New Years Resolution should be to have a completed game ready before this year ends. A completed NEW game, which will hopefully stop me from going back and just adding more to the games I have already done. Should anybody reading wish to see any of them, they can be found at the Wee Games website, although this concept has been put on hiatus for now. I do have plans, but they are plans. It turns out I am GREAT at planning, but fucking awful at putting them into action.

A perfect example of this displacement activity that I am World Champion of is 'Untouchable', and my treatment of it so far. It was an idea that I happened upon, expanded, and made into a game for a first year University assignment. It garnered me a first-class pass, AS IT SHOULD HAVE DONE, and I decided that there was almost certainly room to improve upon it. To that end, I spent some time thinking about additional modes, and even have a name for the sequel : Untouchable Retouched. Here is the plan :

1.) Convert Untouchable to Flash, and have it on the site.
2.) Make Retouched, and have it on sale.
3.) Get the free Flash game out there, so that people can play it and love it and hopefully buy the superior 'real' version.

Here is the action I have taken so far :

1.) Learn a bit of Flash.
2.) Think a LOT about Retouched.

Now, I know that a lot of the creative process is the thinking about it, but there has to be some action. This is the bit I am not so great at. Also, I suffer from inspiration. Or rather, I suffer from brief periods of enhanced inspiration, when every single thing I lay eyes or ears on gives me another great idea. At times like this, I find myself coming up with several themes, most of which are doomed to just remain as prototypes IN MY OWN BRAIN.

Right now, there are multiple ideas floating around. Some of them include :

• 2D platformer where the hero can temporarily affect gravity.


• Simplified strategy/boardgame where the units are geometric shapes, and combat is decided purely mathematically.


• FPS Robotron. (Best thing I can think of to call the idea for now.)


• Exploration based platformer set in the darker side of fairy tales.


• 2D top-down vertical shmup, with the gimmick that the game exists in more than one dimension at the same time, and the player can phase between them. Some enemies become weaker in some dimensions, and the scoring is affected by this.


• Forces of Nature. Puzzle game akin to The Lost Vikings.

This is on top of actually finishing 'Doodlebugs', making 'Untouchable Retouched', and finding some use for my blob engine. Oh, and converting 'Untouchable' to Flash. (And somewhere in there perhaps converting 'Doodlebugs' to XNA and releasing it onto XBox Marketplace as a Community Game.)

All in all, quite a busy little time I have ahead.

I think what I need most of all is a partner, or even a team of people to work with. I think 3 people would be enough, although ideally I would like to go as far as 5. Myself, a dedicated programmer or 2, a dedicated artist, and a dedicated musician/sound effects guy. Of course, this would bring with it additional headaches, but I have always found that having people to lead brings out the best in myself.

The main problem I foresee with recruiting a team is that they would bring their own ideas to the table. I am not saying that I am some kind of all-knowing facist who would refuse to accept the input of others. No, I am merely saying that I don't want to add even more ideas onto the 'Stuff I want to do someday' pile. I am trying to complete something, not give myself even MORE reasons to procrastinate!

For now, I need to work on my motivation, and set myself a timetable that I WILL STICK TO! If this means less time playing games, then so be it. A sacrifice must be made, as I do fully intend to live the dream.

I guess what I need to do is find someone to brainstorm with, or at least to get some idea of what would be the best thing to focus on from. This person could actually exist purely online, but I would rather it be someone I could spend face-time with. It just so happens that I now have some friends who may just have the time, so perhaps I should take advantage of circumstance.