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Not really much to say about this.. someone was talking about Ouija boards and videogames. Due to phonetics, this popped in my head and I had to make it. I’m betting the joke must have been done before by now..
After hearing the Game Grumps mention that someone should make a fan game with Makar dressed like Mario, I had to do it. So far, I’ve spent roughly a two weeks working on it and it is coming along fairly well.
In order to capture the feel of the Zelda games, Mario games, and Makar’s character, I’m mixing up some game mechanics and creating original level designs to suit them.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get a sponsor on FGL. It was not a completely wasted effort, as I did get feedback that improved the game, but after over a week without any new views and most of a month without bids I decided to stop bidding and publish.
So far, it has mostly pretty good reviews, though its score is only a little above average.
Just a working title, as usual. While Bob the Archaeologist is up on FGL, I decided to start working on another new game. This one will be about a young monster hunter, making a business out of slaying troublesome beasts.
As you earn money, you will be able to purchase upgrades to your character and base. The main character wears brass armor, despite using magic as her primary weapon. Her default spell is a short range spectral sword to swing towards her enemies, though finding certain items will allow her to cast other spells.
So, after a pretty long time waiting on the last voices for the game before finishing up, I have Bob the Archaeologist 2 just about ready. I’ve done a pre-review on FGL, and made adjustments based on that feedback and have it up on FGL to see if it is good enough to be sponsored.
Once I have the final FGL score, I will decide if it would better to release it on my own, or put it up for bidding on FGL. Generally, a score of 7+ is a good chance of getting a sponsor, and 6 or less are a snowballs chance in Vegas.
So, last weekend was the Ludum Dare. A challenge to see if you can make a game in 48 hours. I found out about it Saturday night though, so I had more like 24 hours.
Nonetheless I went to work on a fairly simple game, and managed to finish it before the deadline. The game is called “Burn a Moleman”
You can find the game here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=37029
I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments about it, so that is encouraging.
Starting out your journey in Azure Dreams, a retro game from the PS1 era, the first monster egg you find is on the first floor, and is always a Palunpa. This monster with no magic, and critically low stats in every category is literally called the weakest monster in the world by the in game monster book.
The idea that the Palunpa is not even worth hatching is ingrained in new players from their very earliest moments onward. Infact, some players joke about the idea of a Palunpa only self imposed challenge.
However, you would do best not to throw away that Palunpa egg you get at the start of the game. Don’t hatch it right away; but do not throw it away either. The humble Palunpa is actually one of the more useful monsters in the entire game for a a couple reasons
1: Availability. The Palunpa is always in the egg you receive the first time you enter the tower on the first floor. Assuming you can get out alive on your first trip you are guaranteed to have a Palunpa. Additionally, you will get a Palunpa egg from town related events later on as well. You cannot say that about any other monster in the game. A dragon may have great stats and powerful magic, but you might reach the top of the tower before ever finding a dragon egg.
2: Magic. I said earlier that Palunpas have no magic. This.. is only half true. All monsters have magic, but for many monsters, their magic is hidden. For these monsters, you must fuse them with another monster lacking magic to unlock it.
Fusing another monster into Palunpa unlocks it’s hidden magic Deheal. Healing magic is only found in three other monsters, all three of which are much harder to get your hands on than Palunpa.
If you keep your Palunpa until you have reached floor 12 and located the Blue Collar, you will have easy; and guaranteed access to DeHeal. While you can simply take this magic and fuse it into a stronger monster to act as your healer, I think Palunpa needs a little bit of credit. That little guy has a good bit of hidden potential.
I finally got around to seeing frozen, since it became available on Netflix. I’m a bit too big to fit in the tiny seats at my local theater comfortably for hours.
I am actually kind of glad for that, as it would have been an even greater disappointment if I had spent the money to go out to see it. Perhaps my expectations were set a bit high? What with all of my friends telling me how it totally lives up to all the hype.
It doesn’t. It is contrived to the point that it can only really be enjoyed by mocking how predictable the plot is. I guess they spent all their money on their 3D models and didn’t have enough to actually pay writers to work on the thing.
A lot of my complaints are going to be about the story, so beyond this point, expect spoilers in mass. So, here we go.
First: The Perfect Amazing Epic Boyfriend of Perfectude. Obviously, when you see this guy with the main female lead, they are too perfect and happy together to POSSIBLY not have something go horribly, horribly wrong. I was honestly hoping he would die, because the only alternative would be a bland, stale, “turns evil without any foreshadowing at all” situation.
In case you didn’t guess already; they went with the second option. When Anna comes to him in need of true love’s kiss to not die, he turns evil more or less at random just to add conflict and to resolve the “but this other likable character had more screen time together with her” issue.
He claims that he orchestrated their accidental meeting. How? The movie is pretty clear on Anna never getting to leave the castle. He would have to be psychic to predict that she would, on that day leave the castle early at all. Much less dance and sing her way over to the specific peer that he was waiting at.
Aside from that; he kept up his nice guy ruse around people he had no need to be nice around. Why did he need to give away tons of blankets and food to random people at the frustration of his future trade partners? Why did he go out of his way to stop Elsa from being murdered at risk of being shot himself by a crossbow when murdering her was a necessary step of his plan anyway?
Speaking of plot holes though. Why couldn’t Anna know about magic? It is implied early on that the damage done to her would return if she was reminded that ice magic was real. But then, when Elsa accidentally reveals her magic absolutely nothing happens to Anna.
If Elsa did not want to have any attention, and was afraid of being around anyone, why didn’t she just forfeit the throne and give it to Anna? Why did Anna even have to be locked up in the castle at all if she didn’t have any powers?
Most questions about the plot have basically the same answer: “Because the plot demands it to be so”. Perfect dude has to be evil because they needed conflict for the final act. Anna had to be grossly misinformed about everything and locked up because they needed conflict for the first act.
So, the actual plot though. Basically, Elsa is Rogue from X-men, if instead of draining everyone’s life, she turned everything into ice. She is told she’s dangerous and must hide her powers at all cost, until the stress of being around tons of people, being coronated, and an argument with her sister (who is conveniently ignorant of everything) causes her to flip out and cause an accidental apocalypse.
The rest of the movie is just Anna trying to apologize to Elsa to stop the apocalypse. No quest, no artifact to help bring her powers under control, just.. people running around in uncoordinated circles until they finally realize at the last minute that “true love” fixes everything.
And then true love fixes everything. And then the movie ends.
I’m really not sure what to make of this movie. It seems like a big pretty waste of time. The visuals are good, and probably took a lot of work, but the story makes no sense. Things just happen, and characters just do things for no reason beyond that it has to happen that way for the plot not to fall apart.
Additionally, the song are terrible. Most of the time people just sing. Not about anything specific they just sing. In Beauty and the Beast; a movie this one is compared to often enough, the songs make sense. They are being sung to other characters. “Be our guest” is being sung to welcome Belle and to introduce the manor.
Here.. the characters just start singing whatever happens to be going through their heads at the time. There is no real point to it beyond just to make it a musical. I am genuinely surprised there wasn’t a “I’m riding a horse right now” song for one of the characters.
Overall, I think this movie had only one goal in mind. To look good. And it does; visually it is very well made. I’m sure whoever worked on it poured thier hearts into this thing. But it seems like literally everybody else didn’t care.
Yesterday and today’s lessons in the You can draw in 30 days course were about cubes. After three days of circles, its nice to draw a straight line. Then again its curves that give me trouble so maybe I should draw more of those.
In the meantime, I finished lesson 5 today, a cardboard box and simple chest.
A friend referred me to a lesson set called “You can draw in 30 days” a couple days ago. It consists of a daily exercises which should, in theory, teach all the basics of drawing by the end of the 30th lesson.
I have for a long time struggled to gradually learn how to draw decently, so I figure this might be a good experiment to try. Most other tutorials and lessons I have tried in the past seemed to be more instructional for drawing the exact thing on the page rather than actually learning why you draw it that way.
So, for about a month or so, I’ll be posting pictures of what my drawings look like at the end of each lesson to keep track of my progress. I figured it would probably be less intrusive on my blog than to post it on deviantart and flood out my gallery.
