Archive for February, 2006

GDC, here I come!

Sunday, February 5th, 2006

News on the GDC front — my application to be a Conference Associate has been accepted! I’m beyond excited — there is no way I could’ve afforded to purchase a Giga Pass for this year’s GDC. A tip for those applying — don’t take the essay too seriously. :)

In other news, I’m writing this from my fancy new baby Mac Mini, which I’ve just purchased for porting Blobyrinth to Mac in the near future. Yay for… Safari… and “Dock”… and stuff. pff. Mac. I love this keyboard though… so very smooth compared to my old PC one… so velvety super smooth.

In other other news, I’m honored and pleased to say that Mr. Michael Huang has just agreed to take on the task during the month of February to create the musical stylings behind Blobyrinth. I have every confidence that his touch will only make Bloby a better game than it would’ve been otherwise.

In other other other news, my partner and I have now signed our Articles of Incorporation — Ghost Ship Studios, Inc. has become an official entity. You games-related folks will likely see us as Ghost Ship Games, which is a registered trademark of Ghost Ship Studios… :) Had to leave ourselves open for non-game business… you know how it is.

In other othe… anyway — I’ve got to get back to working on AI scripts for contract stuff, before my compatriots on that task have my head on a stick. The up-down and the left-right are ok… but the snake… the snake is not ok. NOT ok.

Cheers from the land of the cheerful.

-Tim

Posted in Indie Game Dev | 2 Comments »

A Touch of the Madness

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006

OK… so I’ve given a couple of updates on the Indie… but what of the Madness?

I’m on a path to make and release games — downloadable — but why? The answer, in as few words as would be reasonable, is money. Make the games, take in some reasonable amount of income from it, and move toward days lined up for the pursuit… of what?

Games are an end in themselves, to be sure. This Molyneuxite has long made a mental career out of world-creation-for-the-sake-of-world-creation. This… obsession, is deeper than the desire for money, though it may be even less healthy. All trivialities laid aside, the desire to create worlds is the desire to become a God. Gods are the creators of worlds — not men.

It started with the oral tradition — the telling of tales — on through print and film; our tools grow ever more-sophisticated. Our purpose, in the end, remains the same: We create worlds. We show that there are alternatives when it comes to choosing a reality for the moment. We play God. It is an expressive delusion of grandeur. Madness?

The current projects I’m entrenched in — these are not “worlds”, or even reasonable myths unto themselves. They are mere amusements, built with some hope of financial independence waiting in the wings of the path of least resistance. Is the hope really so vague? There is money to be made — line up the right partners, play the “games game” well enough, and there is little need to worry over financial failure in the long term…

However — given some amount of financial success… even the bottom of what amounts to a remote possibility — if freed up to create as only the designer and Myth-maker in me wants to create… what is it that I want to create? What is it that I want to become? Some day, perhaps, I’ll cling to something like an answer to these questions. For now, the quest is the goal, and there’s fun to be had in the process of learning.

Sorry ’bout the mess.

-Tim

Posted in Madness | 4 Comments »