Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts

Monday, June 30, 2008

POWERPLANT

Between working, playing GBV songs for Bob Pollard himself, and playing way too much FFXI, this weekend I was able to churn out two new songs for my latest HCMJ project, known as 'POWERPLANT.' The album started as a massive concept album about a rotten corpse missing the lower part of his body, dragging himself one handful of radioactive dirt after another across a post-apocalyptic horrorscape. While I still hope the album is able to follow some sort of abstract narrative form, it has definitely started to deviate a little from the original intentions.

Most of the time I'll write the songs first, then watch as an album sort of 'finds' its concept. I'll listen to it all and think "what is this really about?" But POWERPLANT is the first time I went headfirst into making an album knowing what it was going to be about, what the 'story' was, and how some of the narrative would play out. But as I start recording more spur-of-the-moment inspirations and start laying down Julee Cruise-esque vocal tracks on some of the songs I've already recorded, I find that more and more it's becoming a vague expression of my own personal fears and insecurities.

And they aren't even played out in an exactly 'clear' fashion. No more of that "I will always love you" or "you are so beautiful" bullshit - now it's all about the twisted creatures crouching in the well lit hallways of my youth - and no matter how long I cowered in the corner, when I looked up it's right fucking next to me. Or the half-dead being, decaying next to me in my bed at night - back turned to me, facing the wall. It's all been just exploding these last few days, these new hyper-visual daydreams. The terror I hoped to capture before with POWERPLANT was almost superficial, more haunted house that actual gut ripping horror. Now I can see the album finally crystalizing into this depiction of the horror at the core of human insecurities - or my own personal insecurities at least.

This is probably coming off as extremely pretentious, but I swear my intentions are honorable. Maybe one day I'll actually finish the album and you'll have a chance to hear what I'm talking about. (lol)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Extended MMO Dabbling

I've been fairly busy lately, but I always try to make time for my favorite form of entertainment media - video games. Lately it's been everything from GTAIV, Final Fantasy V, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, even a little Phantasy Star Online. But I've been hearing a lot about another MMORPG, and once I had my misconceptions about this game put to rest I knew I had to at least try it. If only to see if it really was the game I hoped it was.

First, a little history. When I was in middle school I played an amazing piece of Mac shareware called Escape Velocity. This space piloting sim/RPG had you flying a little shuttle craft across a seemingly endless universe, jumping through hyperspace between systems and carrying out different missions. You could never leave your ship and walk around, but you could dock at different planets, moons, and space stations. There you could trade commodities, get the latest news and gossip from the space bar, buy and upgrade weapons and other ship upgrades, or buy a new ship all together.

It was such an ingeniously simple game. Run currier missions, ferry passengers, and horde as many credits as you could until that wonderful day when you could finally purchase a bigger ship. I melted away my adolescence in the many following incarnations of Escape Velocity, and at one point was even building my own campaign utilizing the insane number of user-created scenario editing tools.

That's where this new MMO comes in. Chuck, new friend and road wizard/dungeon master of The Sailing, has been talking to me and Kirkland a lot recently about the game EVE Online. Now I've known about this game for a long time - and knew only that it's basically an MMO in outer space. But that's all I knew. For whatever reason I was always turned off by this game. Maybe it was the banner ads floating around that showed really ugly, ordinary people transform into even uglier 3D avatars. I probably thought something like "ewww, that character design is so American, so nasty looking," or, "haha, looks like an ad for a low budget Sci-Fi Channel miniseries."

But what I never thought was, "Wow, a space ship MMO. That could be a lot like the Escape Velocity of my dreams." During one of his first 'mmo-pitches' to me, Chuck had mentioned rather quickly that it was like "EV Nova," and kept talking like no one in the room caught what he was talking about. Then it clicked.

"Wait, this sounds a lot like this old shareware game I used to play called escape velocity..."
"Yeah, like I said - it's a lot like EV Nova."
"Holy shit."


Meet Chase Pritchard. After 4 or so hours of play I can say yes - IT IS THE ESCAPE VELOCITY OF MY DREAMS. Plotting courses through hyper space, eliminating pirate vessels, mining astroids, upgrading weapons, buying ships, docking and getting missions, everything; it's all there, in tact. Whether or not I have enough time or motivation to really put in the time to be extremely awesome in this particular MMO world is yet to be seen. For now I'm just "playing playing" it - as in playing it because it's fun to sit down and play, not because I feel like I have to put in the time in order to achieve some lofty far-off goal.

I do have a (leniently enforced) 2-MMOs-at-a-time limit, so after the first month of EVE it's either cancel the subscription or suspend WoW or FFXI. I guess we'll see how it goes. Just to tantalize your imagination I've included a few screenshots of a couple of my first n00bular kills. It has one of those great UIs full of data and clutter - makes you feel like you're doing something important (one of the reason tactics RPGs kick ass).




It's looks really nice as well.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Another Turning Point (of Sorrow)

Few games have seen a development cycle as long and ridiculous as Chronicles of Sorrow. I'm kidding of course - Lord of the Rings Online (amazingly great game that I highly recommend) was in development for over a decade, Duke Nukem Forever was getting gaming mag cover stories over ten years ago and is still yet to come out, and of course there's Spore - Will Wright's vaporware masterpiece. And obviously I'm kidding, as all of those are 'real' games, and Chronicles of Sorrow is merely a hobbyist's fantasy of mine.

It started as a massive project involving most of the people who lived in the once-great-now-baron Van Buren Village. There were weakly meetings (maybe two of them total?) talking about style, characters, overall story, etc - but nothing ever really came of them. Then Tech, Keith, and I started writing an 8-bit soundtrack for an RPG that never was - the soundtrack of Chronicles of Sorrow. This project actually produced quality content, with full on overworld, town, ship, and several dungeon themes written and recorded (in the 3-note at a time NES style).

After all of that cooled off CoS began the cycle of failed game design experiments as detailed in this entry. And now it's turned a corner once again. This time it's truly for the best! I'm set on the idea of creating a MUD, and had been (since the writing of the 3/17 entry) working towards this goal via a website-based, subscription fee loaded "fill in the blanks" web application. It featured a world editor, in depth class/skill/spell controls, a quest system, a rudimentary system for communicating and interacting with NPCs, and so on. The only problem? A completely restrictive development environment.

Let's say I wanted to create a locked door that you needed to find a key for in order to get past. Using this web-software this would be impossible, as doors were something not built into the 'template' so to speak. Now I'm no master coder by any means, but i understand Java to a certain extent and have a fair grasp of object oriented programing. Basically, if I needed a locked door, I could figure out how to modify the MUD's code in order to make one. This 'fill in the blanks' site allowed users zero control on the fundamental code that ran the game mechanics.

As easy as it would've been to just continue making more rooms, more areas, more monsters, more NPCs, more spells, more levels, etc - they would've all been trapped inside of this restrictive environment with no hope of ever transcending the mold of a 'cookie-cutter' MUD. So I began searching for other options. There are basically two ways to start building a MUD - from scratch in a code editor, or using a 'codebase' (jargon for an open source uncompiled game engine the user can shape into an original design, and then build a game on top of). I straight up don't have the programming chops or networking knowhow necessary to build a internet based RPG from scratch. That would be ridiculous.

So I started browsing the different MUD codebases out there, looking for one that would be fairly easy to jump into. And boy oh boy, did I ever find that codebase! It's called CoffeeMud, and it will be the engine that runs Chronicles of Sorrow. What makes this codebase so much more appealing than just about every one I came across is the fact that it was written in Java - a language I'm already familiar with, and a language famous for its cross-platform compatibility. I was able to get the apache-based server up and running with my Mac booted in Windows and running DOS (and I hope to repeat the feat Mac-side using OS X's Unix foundation). This means that after a little editing I was able to actually connect to my own computer - acting as the MUD server - and interact with the first few rooms that I can added to the main codebase.

It was truly a wondrous site - one that I'll be sure to post a picture of once I find my way back home - to see the old "Chronicles of Sorrow" welcome screen pop up in a PuTTY telnet session KNOWING that that information was being delivered from my very own computer acting like a web server. This means that I'll be able to host the game (as it's an online game that requires a running web server to operate) on my own machine while I develop the game world, and one day it should all be easily transferable to a large scale MUD hosting site like mudmagic or the likes.

Most MUDs that are coming out today are merely interactive fan fictions, usually taking place inside of IPs like Star Wars, Kingdom Hearts, DBZ, X-Men, etc. It's really quite pathetic and quite sad. Hopefully the all original world and story-dependant progression of CoS will help to set it apart from this seemingly 'ultimate-nerd' sub culture. There are still great, original MUDs like Medievia floating around out there - and I hope to (some day) see Chronicles of Sorrow added to the list of original text-based adventure games worth playing (now that it's 20 or 30 years after the genre is outdated and irrelevant).

Monday, March 17, 2008

Chronicles of Game Design (Sorrow)

I tend to drift from one obsession to another, many times not fully finishing the job. Making video games has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid. It started with little space invader like shooters and point-and-click adventures (a la Myst) , then in middle school I graduated to first person shooter modding - doing a total conversion of Bungie's Mac-only masterpiece Marathon Infinity. But what I've really been wanting to make my whole life it seams, in one form or another, is an RPG. I tooled around in RPGMaker 2K3 for a while, trying to make my own 8-bit looking RPG by modifying graphic tiles from other NES games. I had two fully animated characters, a complete overworld, a handful of dungeons, and even a few scripted scenario events.

It just didn't look good enough. In order to complete it I would've needed a team of artists and programmers to make it a reality. I'm simply not good enough of a 2D or pixel artist to make an entire RPG, end of story. So I took a step back and started working on an 'interactive fiction' (or text adventure') version of Chronicles of Sorrow (the RPG storyline that Tech and I developed). I built Simon Tril's house, and a little bit of the town he was from using the Inform 7 IF language/editor. Again, I was unsatisfied by the results, as this system was really built for non-violent puzzle based adventure games, and I knew I wanted serious goblin crushing in the game. So once again, I abandoned Chronicles of Sorrow.

That's when I got my hands on a 3D game engine, and set about building a 3D RPG from scratch. One zone map and a single 3D house later I realized the programming would be too difficult, and the overall results would again, look too poor to be worth while (even from an indie game standpoint). So I put my ambitions to rest again, and kept wasting more time playing FFXI and the like. But now, a new chapter is about to be written in the CoS's struggle to exist. I've begun scripting a MUD version of the CoS world. MUD stands for "multi user dungeon," and they were amongst the first online games to ever exist. It's basically a text adventure that multiple people can join in on, battle and level up in, and explore together.

The true beauty of a MUD is what an engaging and enriching single player experience they can be too. Yes, I'll have to pay a small fee to have it hosted on a server - but it'll be a fully expandable sprawling text-based RPG with PvE and PvP combat! Players from all over the world will be able to connect to the MUD, and access their character from anywhere there's internet access. Since all the player info is stored server-side, it will be playable even in a web browser across all platforms! This time I think I've finally found a fit for my aspirations of making Chronicles of Sorrow. It'll take a while before it's in a playable form, but i'll be sure to let you know when that day comes (if it ever does). Until then enjoy this ASCII logo I whipped up!



P.S. - If you want to try out a MUD for yourself follow these easy steps!
1) Download a MUD client - I recommend Atlantis for the Mac and SimpleMU for Windows
2) Set up a connection to the server eternalfantasy.org (IP: 66.150.225.61) and set the port to 3333
3) Make a character and start killing asps!

This is a MUD based upon every Final Fantasy game, I play it a lot in the background - it's pretty well written, and having been live for over 11 years now, it's pretty balanced as well.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

MMO Nostalgia

Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:03 pm Post subject: Anouncing! Finally! The Frozen Poets of Velious are coming!

"The Eternal Inspiration of the Frozen Wastes"

Ladies and gentalmen, I would just like to let you know that I've sent away the eMail to SOE concerning the creation of my guild- The Frozen Poets of Velious. Here's what it's all about-

Consider us a "Avant Garde Space Rock Guild." I will be the guild master, Uttama Razehl and Hate Plaugebringer will be my guild leaders. The only officer as of yet will be Cogline.

Why Frozen Poets of Velious? Well, when i was level 2 or 3 I was exploring the PoK- when i came across a interesting looking stone with "The Great Divide" printed on it. I will never forget my first trip to Velious- the first giant I ever saw, the Coldain Dwarves, the Velium clusters, the wurm cave, and of course that beautiful waterfall cascading down, shrowding the entrance to the Coldain city. And that was just one zone! I was instantly in love with the place. I knew that eventually, it would be my main base of opperations- I would always be found traversing the frozen wastes.

Why are we Frozen Poets? I have a certain facination with cold- and I happen to love winter far beyond any of the other seasons. Being a musician/poet, I wanted my guild to sort of run on the kind of "soul reflections" required by the arts. And so the dream of the Frozen Poets of Velious was born- to me and the drummer in my real-life band Uttama (who posts here as Monotone Rottweiler)

So what is an Avant Garde Space Rock guild all about?
1) Roleplaying isn't by any means required- but playing in character is encouraged.

2) This is a guild for those of an artistic mind. Artists, poets, and musicians will make up the large body of members. We are the one's who "Think Different." We want to be a guild unlike anything ever seen on Al'Kabor. We will have events such as expeditions deep into unexplored zones, many many fishing adventures, and photo essay competitions- with results posted on our website (still under-construction).

3) We will be a guild that caters to mostly the good of heart. Dark characters will have to be special considerations when trying to join the guild. Dark Elves are welcome (Hate being one and all). Iksar are also welcome (because of my personal apreciation for their heritage and their great works of stone). Trolls and Ogres, however, will be admitted only under my personal aproval (which will be hard for a Troll or Ogre to get ).

4) We will be a helpful guild- glad to help newbies on their way. This, of course, does not mean powerleveling. In fact, powerleveling is strickly forbidden within the guild.

5) The bottom line is, we want our members to feel as if they belong to something different, something important. It may sound pretentious, but that's the point. All art is pretentious by the nature of it being art- even EverQuest itself. So I hope the guild will be a place for people that would like to make an impact on the server.

Send me an eMail or in game tell if you're interested! We'll be looking for characters about lvl 15-25. I sent the eMail to sony today say it could be 1-5 days before i hear back.