Tuesday 28 March 2017

An Update for this Blog that Everyone's Forgotten About

Hey! It's me! You know, that blog you read maybe once or twice and then forgot about! Wait, you don't remember me? You mean that leaving a blog for 6 months (yup, it's seriously been that long) means that people DON'T remember who you are? Well, isn't that a shame. Well, since you're here, I may as well catch you up on things. So, many of my 2 readers are probably wondering "what ever happened to that small blog that ranted on for multiple paragraphs about things totally unrelated to the topic?" and they'd be right to think that, though likely they're thinking about something else at this point and don't remember that this blog ever existed. Here's the rundown of it all:

  • I got a job that wasn't game design (which I don't like)
  • I got a game through Steam Greenlight (which is unfortunate because it was a project that I don't really like)
  • I've now entered a partnership with Valve (yes, the Half-Life/Portal kind of Valve) for various things, such as distribution agreements, access to the Steamworks API, and other cool goodies that I'm not supposed to talk about
  • I forgot about this blog
  • I've gotten into writing short stories, of which I keep to myself for plot references for future games.
  • That's about it
So, that about covers everything. What's that? I wasn't very descriptive and you're still confused? My dear reader, allow me to do like any good writer would do, and do a hot steaming dump of explanation for you. You know, I came here to write about writing satisfying stories and a good narrative structure example that makes for a good overall plot rundown, with tips for decent villains and interesting characters. Remember when I wrote earlier about ranting on for multiple paragraphs about things totally unrelated to the topic? Oh, how I've missed writing this blog.

So, let's work our way down the list, starting with point one: the new job. Well, there isn't much to say here. It's in a cinema, being in a role called a "team member", though despite the name you'd be forgiven if you accidentally called it "worker exploitation in dangerous workplaces". On the other hand, it pays, so I've managed to get some cool things that totally distract me from the dead end job that I'mm now stuck in. I guess it's progress of some sort? Not much to go on ab out for this point, it just kinda sucks, plus it pales in comparison compared to the other points.

One of those points being point two: Steam Greenlight, and my game which passed through it. Ok, so at first glance this could seem a bit whiny, and make me look like I'm spoilt. Let me be clear that I very much appreciate that I'm a lucky man to have something pass through Greenlight, even if it was after a couple of months. The fact that some of the worst video games I've ever seen come from Greenlight may lead some people to believe it is easy to get a game on steam, but that is truly not the case. So many great games don't ever see the light of day because they're buried underneath the huge pile of asset flips and of-the-trend games, and it's such a shame that it's come to Valve having to remove the entire concept of Greenlight and replace it with a whole new service.

Following this, let's address the main bulk of the second point: the fact that I don't really like the game that got through Greenlight. This is a bit of a tricky issue, because I imagine a lot of people are saying "well, why did you upload it in the first place you absolute sock-spoon?" And they'd be right. To be honest, it was only meant to be an experiment. I wondered what kind of quality of game I could make were I to try my hand at a horror game. The answer is that you get a repetitive generic first person horror game that relies on jump-scares more then anything that could pass as actual horror. Quite tragic.

The game that I produced lacks any form of imagination, it's set on a grey, dull space ship with grey, dull robots hunting you around, with unintelligent AI that you can go for hours without ever coming across because it's totally lost elsewhere. The map is all grey rooms, making it very repetitive and easy to get lost in yourself. All in all, it sucked. and the worst part? when you completed the first level, it's basically repeated with differently modelled robots with the exact same AI for the next 5 levels. Very tragic.

But, John enjoyed it when I gave it to him to have a mess around with. he suggested that I upload it, so I thought "why not?" Turns out, why not is because it might actually get somewhere, then your first impression on the world of Steam is a boring first person horror game the same as a million others out there currently. And the Steam reviews are NOT going to like it, what a good CV piece that'll be. Exponentially tragic.

In light of this, I decided that the game, in concept, was fine. The story for the most part was decent, at least for a short horror game  cheaply priced. The gameplay itself was alright, though very basic. So, I began to iterate on the concept, adding in new ideas, coming up with different robotic nightmares to haunt you as you roamed the halls. different maps for each one, that complimented their mechanics, each with their own objectives. But then I started writing.

I began to grown fond of the idea of short stories, small snippets of a much larger universe that had a focus one one character, and them overcoming a problem with a satisfying resolution. I began writing some, keeping them to myself, and started getting a little better at it, and began to learn the theory of writing good, satisfying short stories. This, in retrospect, what was would allow me to come up with a fantastic plan, which doomed this project to fail.

The plan for the game was changed. You were no longer on a spaceship repeating the same level with different robots, you were now progressing up the floors of a space cruise ship, a place of luxury that had suffered a horrible fate at the hands of it's own robotic workforce it had so happily been exploiting for years. Each level was given it's own enemy, and structured to the effect of a short story. each level would follow the same basic flow of story through 7 steps. The final level would then take a different approach, and subvert the player's expectations of where the story would go and the structure it would take.

Level layouts where had drawn and refined, scripts were written, I spoke to some about doing some voice acting for me, I looked into composing a full orchestral soundtrack using the Philharmonia Orchestra and their library of sound samples, I even began implementing some of the new mechanics into the game. It was all looking up to be a promising game, with fun gameplay with a good atmosphere, and actual horror elements. It was all going just great. And this is where my newfound motivation died off.

The project became to big, too quickly. It began to be far beyond my abilities,m not through size, but because I had set standards for myself and this game that neither could ever live up to. Even now, all the prep work is done, even some of it implemented, It's just waiting for me to put in the rest. But this is as far as that train goes, for now at least. And no amount of steam achievement implementation will keep it realistically sized in my head. there's always a way to make it bigger, and I lack the self-control to keep it as exactly that; Something smaller.

I have recently gotten into the habit of writing short stories. They're only maybe 3 chapters at most, and only split up as such as to divide it into roughly a 3 act story (even through 3 act stories suck eggs and there's a million better structures to use that far outclass this outdated one). However, they all share two thing in common: They're all connected, by being in the same universe and having recurring objects and things appear throughout that subtly tie them together. The other thing in common? By linking them together, this makes all of them too big.

Welp, that got off topic real fast. This is actually an addendum, as the original post finished after that line, but a short while after scheduling it for release (I always write these ahead of time in case I need to amend something), I realised something important; I didn't finish explaining my points! Well, since I know you're all so eager for more of my mind's little internet leaks, I'll be kind this time, and finish this post off. Bear in mind that this is about 2 hours after finishing this post, so I've completely lost my train of thought from whatever I intended. Whoops.

Point 3: the partnership with Valve. Well, this sounds like a biggie, but it really isn't. It's basically a two-way agreement that comes with getting a game through the Greenlight process. I realise I never actually explained what Greenlight is, so if you don't know, look up Steam Greenlight on Google. Long story short, most of it isn't to be discussed, but it allows them to sell my games on my behalf and give me an amount of the money received. In addition to this, I am given access to certain Steam features, like Steam Achievements, Statistics and Trading Cards, to name a few.

Point 4: forgetting about the blog. Well, that's not really true, I didn't forget about it as much as I was mainly too busy to write for it. I was no longer working on Project Time Warp at the time because I was focusing on other things, and I therefore felt it unnecessary to write about other things here. Turns out that even when I did stuff with Project Time Warp, I didn't write it here, so it kind of got left. But I'm back now, so you can stop worrying like I know you clearly are!

Point 5: Writing short stories. No, I will not share them with anyone. They are my works for my enjoyment, and I'm using them as a learning curve for writing better short stories, as well as how to write interesting characters and villains, and how they should interact. Also, it's teaching me an important lesson on how to have elements cross stories without them either being too vague and unimportant, or being plot-vital. Both of these have problems, because to faint and nobody will notice it, or worse, nobody will care. To prevalent, and people who don't know of the other story will be lost and lose enjoyment from the story, maybe even not like it. Bad news there. It'll touch on this in the future, as I'm a big fan of writing a story and having it overlaid over a solid gameplay mechanic or concept.

Point 6: Well, this one was just daft.

So, in conclusion, I'm back. I know you're excited to see what I've been working on, and I recently crossed the 300 line for the amount of Unity projects I have so there's plenty of things to talk about there. but that will have to wait, unfortunately. Next time, we'll probably talk about something else unrelated, or maybe do a bit of catch up with Project Time Warp. Maybe I'll tell yous some of the story I have planned for it, but then again maybe not. We'll see what happens. Until next time!