Afterthoughts

The 3/2/1 rule.

I have no idea where this started but it's brilliant.

3 hours of sleep a day minimum
That's solid sleep not dozing off at a table or in the corner. Get at least a little REM, guys. This also goes up as you get older, but we older folks know that.
2 square meals a day minimum
A bagel and a cup of coffee is not a meal, neither is a bag of chips and a diet coke. Get protien, carbs, and some veg into yourself at least twice a day. Fiber helps too, trust me. It's also not all about the calories either, it's about taking a break and just feeding yourself while not going a hundred miles an hour.
1 shower a day minimum
Do I even have to explain this? You stink. I stink. We all stink. Get the stink off yourself, and change your fucking socks and underwear. Oh, yeah, and use deoderant. Use it.

This isn't actually a tip. It's a rule, a hard and fast one. If you break this rule keep your loopy stinky moochy self the fuck away from me.

It's that time of year. The time of year that we start using our McCain Christmas Story icon.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/man-marries-a-videogame/1376577

I mentioned this to a few people last week, but no one believed me. Really, I think this is pretty great. If someone wants to marry an interactive fictional character (or a non-interactive one, or a sandwich, or a sock)... well, why shouldn't they? That's awesome.

Except... maybe the character didn't really want to marry him? She probably couldn't say no. So it's kind of a forced marriage. Creepy.

What I really hope is that this is a step toward even more advanced virtual dating software. Not because I want a robot girl friend, but because this seems as likely a path to true AI as anything else. Maybe more likely.



Okay, not JUST because I want a robot girlfriend.

It ain't the turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it.

Hans called in from Portland so we and Mickey could have a chat about gamer community, compare and contrast to the religious community he grew up in, and get off topic all over the place, which always happens.

It was a fun conversation. You should listen to it here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/stabbingcontest/Stabbingcontestep031.mp3

Tonight is the end of my first week in the new studio. This has been a weird week. Sharing work space with a half dozen other people is something I'm just not used to, and it's taking a lot of effort to get over feeling very, very uncomfortable while I work. Over the last few years I've gotten used to working in isolation. No, that's a lie. The truth is I've always worked in isolation, even when I was a kid. I do my bestt work and I'm at my most productive when I'm completely alone. That's why I work at night. Anyway, being in the same room with 2-6 other people is difficult. I keep wanting to move my workspace to somewhere less exposed.

I sound like a crazy person, right?

I'm getting a lot done. This November has probably been the busiest month I've had this year. In addition to the usual freelance and commission stuff, I'm working my ass off to finish up my commitment to Bliss Stage, Right now I have the line art for about 18 illustrations done, and I'm going to be spending this coming week turning those into finished pieces. I'll probably do one or two more illustrations for the game, including a cover proposal. Then I'll be done. Finally. After 3 years.

Fuck.

So on top of this, Barry has asked me to color Hereville. He's running up against his deadline and has decided that it will be faster to have someone else color the 140+ page book then do it himself. I almost said no. I'm already so busy that I barely have time for anything but work. I haven't done any work on my personal projects for... I have no idea how long. At least a month.

Anyway, I agreed to do it. Mostly because I know that when I have a lot of work to do, I get a lot more done. I'll rise to the challenge. So far it's working out. I colored 18 pages of Hereville this week, finished my freelance project, did two commissions (both WoW characters), instructed two classes and had plenty of time to work on Bliss Stage.

The flip side of that is that I blew off the Gun Mage playtest, skipped dinner with some friends, gave up on the book I'm reading, let the batteries in my DS run dry and haven't returned any IMs all week.

Oh well.

Hunters of the Hundred Tyrants of Hangrabag (name currently in traction) got a real playtest last night with all four character types (thanks John, Jonathon, and Lukas!). It kind of worked; I got a lot of positive feedback, and they also had some excellent ideas on how to improve it. I may have to pump it up to a two pager, though I'm trying to resist the pull. My testers gave me the go-ahead for a font size reduction, so I may just try to eek out what I can with my current page budget. In the end, adding more pages would probably make a better game; you'd have room for notes, more monsters, and room to provide useful directions on how to handle narration, which could make the game more than a novelty. Also, I could put in ads again, which warms my black heart. Hmm.

I'm especially excited by the artwork that Andy has been turning out for the first page; it's classy. Once these changes are in, and the art is done, should have a free pdf up on CEGames.

So it's 2:45AM and I'm awake and listening to booming and thumping from one of the other apartments here. Sadly, I can't tell which one it is and I'm not going to go pounding on doors to find out. Not yet at least. This is becoming a problem lately though. Several nights a week for the last couple weeks, someone has had either TV or video games (it's not regular enough to be music) turned up between 2AM and 6AM. And everyone here does it, so I can't even make an educated guess about who it is.

I've tried talking to the managers about it, but all I've heard so far is that they're going to send "something official-looking" about it. If this keeps up though, I may have to involve the police. Let them pound on doors at 3AM and send a message to all the neighbors to keep their damn bass turned down.

At this point, even when it does stop, it'll take me a while to get to sleep because I'm so god-damned pissed off right now. I might just stay up and see if I can log into the work system at 4AM. Of course, by then it'll be someone else keeping me awake. But I'll take that complaint behind a friends cut.

What's more important anyway, a mechanic that's fun to use, or is simple, or has interesting tactical choices, or that influences character decisions, or that models the desired genre?

SPAZ Episode 002!

Episode two is here! This is the first SPAZ Radio episode, featuring eight songs by bands that have played at the Grn Strp Haus in Seattle. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

* 1:00 - "Crass A Nova" by Anchor Down, from Steel To Dust
* 4:53 - "Gentlemen Prefer Tea" by Destruction Island, from Preaches The New Wilderness
* 7:29 - "Rage Blackouts" by The Mark Sparkles, from Parking Enforcement
* 10:37 - "Full House" by The Sweet Revenge, from Creatures of Routine
* 12:45 - "Loose Teeth Don't Need My Help" by Like Claws!, from Prints & Things
* 14:40 - "My Boss My Hypocrite" by Marginal Way, from Marginal Way
* 17:49 - "Mind Eraser" by Shakes, from Shakes
* 20:31 - "Revolution Schmevolution" by Success!, from Success!