To the Airwaves, AWAY!

I recorded my first ever pod cast on Monday night. Fun on the whole but quite nerve wrecking. It didn't help I was a bit tired, and suffering Monster Rehab rage*. Recording has been something I've pondered doing before, but been far too chicken. I think I'll build a little confidence and perhaps do my own thing in a few years with Kitty and Wyrdness, probably with some ironic name like "Shrink it and Pink It" as so many companies seem to think that's how we woman want gadgets (Honestly, pink is a nasty colour!)

Anyhow, it should be on iTunes tomorrow so I am quite apprehensive today. I'm really honoured to be invited on by @RobbieRoo28 and @Fen_man to talk on the MGP Night shift. Of course the black dog of StupidBrain raises its head, tells me I'm rubbish and that I will never talk on a pod cast ever again. Won't be able to listen to it myself because I'll be convinced that I'll sound like a retard, which is a shame, because on the whole the pod cast and its siblings are awesome. They talk about awesome things, have a fantastically active community and are generally good fun.

On the other hand, the game I'm designing resolves around that black dog, its become that much a part of who I am. It comes and goes, being a little irritating chiwawa to a giant slobbering St Bernard to a dangerous Rottie who has just lost a fight with a wasp.** Talking about my game was a scary thing. TBH its not something I've discussed with a lot of people, because I worried about the reception. Although I have the plot and structure straight in my head, I've yet to commit it to paper or consider the format. And if I decide to go down certain routes there is the cost implication.




* I think I'll never drink it again, it seems to give me really bad temper issues whenever I drink it. Which is a shame because it tastes so nice.

** Remember, kiddies, there is no such thing as a bad dog, just bad owners.

Best Spectrum Games

This is my list of best Spectrum games. Just type "Best Spectrum Games" into Google and you'll get loads of other lists, but since this is my blog you can all sit down and shut up.


Sabre Wulf

Rebel Star

Starquake

Wheelie

Chaos

Head Over Heels

Batman 3D

Jet Set Willy

Kokoton Wilf

Special Mention For Being Awesome

All the Dizzy games

Special Mention For Being Ballbreakingly Hard (even though I have none!)

Soul of a Robot

Special Mention For Being Banned In Our House

Daley Thompson Decathlon 

You all know this one. If you owned a Spectrum in the '80s then you almost certainly had this game. It was banned in our house (or rather my grandparents) because my Grandfather was sick of having to fix the joystick and 'n' and 'm' keys when Lil'Sis and I busted it. Ah fond memories.  

Now when I play Kinect Sports and I'm flailing around like a loon in various events and failing to get anywhere, I just think of this. Then KS doesn't seem so bad.

The Cube is Full of Bubbles

I'm not sure what will be in the middle of 22Cans Curiosity Cube and I don't think I actually care. 

"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end" - Ursula K. LeGuin

For those that don't know, and I know a fair few friends who don't have a clue about the project, Curiosity is the first of 22 projects/experiments from 22Cans, the company set up by Peter Molyneux. It hovers, 2001 monolith style in a white room that exists on the servers at 22Cans. At the time of writing (14th January 2013, at about 23:30) the Cube is 70 days old, with 159 layers removed. The current layer (a rather busy Christmas market at Winchester Cathedral) has 52,254,395 cubelets remaining. 

"Too often we are so preoccupied with the destination we forget the journey" - Anon

Mr Molyneux seems to be a man who teeters between works of crazy, and works of pure genius. Depending on how Curiosity pans out, I'm still not sure which side he is on that. After playing rather often the last few weeks, there is something rather humanising about the experiment; watching as little cubes pop off your screen knowing that another human is doing it, but that we will never know who that person is. Like the worlds biggest communal piece of bubble wrap. Slowly chipping away at the enormous cube is a cooperative effort, but barring a few people I know in the Real World, the chippers are anonymous.  I can't help be feel that the sketchy Facebook implementation is intentional, and all we are left with is tiny pixel toilet wall graffiti. Perhaps it is all a commentary on Social Media Games (pointless clicky clicky, I'm looking at you Zynga, you money grabbing pirate poopheads) 

"It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive" - CW Leadbeater

In various interviews that Molyneux has given in the last few weeks, he has hinted that there is more to this mythical cube that meets the eye. All of this data is going somewhere, something is crunching these numbers and looking at how each of us interacts with the cube. The data must flow... But what will we find out about the data; how the human collective can work together? How we still communicate, given such immense barriers? I'm interested as to what will be gleaned from this first experiment. Perhaps its all just a matter of perspective?

Real Life Sucks

It would be nice for my life not to go belly up every month or so. To give you an idea of the up and down nature of December; Cambridge and back to deal with a family death, Scotland and back to deal with direct family death, then Wales to celebrate the New Year with friends.

When we got home on the 4th January, I firmly told everyone that I was not going anywhere in the next month, or at least no more than about 45 minutes on the train. So sick of travelling this month.

But I'm back and full of writing beans, and interesting things! Oh yes! So bored of life messing up my schedule of life. I've also added a little donation button so that kind people can clicky and put a little towards me not starving. All good in the long run.

//Commlal

ZXX Review Lego LotR

My lovely other half bought me this for my birthday this year. A thoughtful gift since I love Lego, their games and Lord of the Rings. How was he supposed to know that it was a buggy bag o' shite!

I knew going in that there would be bugs, it is a Lego game after all. I played it most of its release weekend so I didn't hear about the game breaking glitches until later in the week. OK  to be fair it's not game breaking completely, more Achievement broken, which is just as serious a crime as game breaking in my eyes. I have now relegated it back to the shelf until TT decide to release a patch, which may be never. Is it just me or top releases getting buggier every year. Dear game producers out there, can you answer this for me? So it's a little ruined for me and this makes me sad as on the whole it's a fantastic game and a clever interpretation of the movies. Sam Gamgee smacking things on the head with a frying pan, and stomping up Isengard as Treebeard. Oh and the disco ball, how I love that.

Note to self: Get as ringtone for phone.

If the game wasn't buggy, I'd have 100% on my achievements and finsh it with a feeling of satisfaction, instead, I feel slightly used and dirty like a tissue. This makes me a little sad.

As a programmer, and as a human, I have an almost OCD obsession with perfection (which does not extend to spelling!) which means I won't move on with something unless it's up to my standards. A stupid thing to do as it leads to project destroying ruts, and I know perfection is impossible. Every time you think you have it, something else glitters slightly less perfect and the perfect thing drifts out of your grasp again. It's knowing when to let go when it's good enough but not too soon because it will be shit. Of course this does not apply to last minute uni essays, which if you know you know fuck all about it, go balls to the wall and just prey you pass.

No, that's not a metaphorr for my university career, but certainly reflects on my progression as a human and learning to let go and move on with projects. I'm having Sunday off after dealing with family stuff this week and barring some technical reading I shall be finishing Assassins Creed 2: revelations. On Monday I will be writing business plans and scouring the web for info.

Wish me luck!

//commlal

Back on the Ball

Well that was a mad few months, and not in a good way *sadface*

After working 65+ hour weeks and not getting much back from it (apart from a bit of money and some skills) I packed in my job yesterday.

I have too many plans and projects on the back burner and watching them fade made me sad, so I made a decision and went back to trying to get this blog and my other projects back on the go. Like pulling an old plaster from a wound I knew it was going to be tough, but I manned up and did it. It will not be easy from here on in, but when is anything in life just handed to you on a plate. I'm a woman trying to break into an old boys club, and from there I'll be tearing down established ideas and building anew.

Oh and I moved house. Still in Kent, like a stubborn beast it will not let me go. At least we live much closer to the station than before!

On the gaming front I've been playing AC:Revelations with a bit of Lego:LotR on the side. I've a rant brewing about that, something I need to write about in the next few days when I'm in sunny Cambridgeshire helping my pseudo sister with family stuff. I also have a backlog of HumbleBundle and IndieRoyal stuff to get through too.

But it certainly is nice to be back.

Remember, don't be a dick.
//commlal

Normal Service will Resume Shortly

This has been a busy few weeks! Mainly due to Diablo 3 coming out, thus I've been gaming a lot of the time, between doing house stuff and studying.

I'll have more interesting things to talk about in a couple of days.