I looked in on my Strawberries on Sunday, then again today, five days later. It's been raining a lot lately and what with the unlikelihood of them ever sprouting, I just forgot about them for a while.
And then this:
Symptoms include leaf death, wilting and a generally blurred outline.
One of the weaker ones is completely dead. Like, dead as a door nail.
The other four plants seemto be completely fine, with just the two being affected. After the melonpocalpyse I bit the bullet and bought some pesticide, so I've sprayed them all down and bought the sufferer indoors. I have no idea whether it'll survive, but I'll keep an eye on it and hope for the best. I wonder if I should feed it too? We'll see how it goes.
So I went along to the Tokyo Game Show this past weekend.
It was an absolute blast.
The event itself is as big as ever, with 270,000 people attending over the four days. The first two days were business only which means the vast majority of the quarter of a million people attended on the Saturday and Sunday.
Having said that, the big publishers avoided the event as much as possible, with the obligatory enormous stands and almost nothing else. Now that the Japanese game market has collapsed the big breaking headlines happen elsewhere, which makes sense, but is still disappointing for attendees.
What Japan has in abundance is mobile games. So many mobile games. If you're after something to play on your phone then this is the country for you. The largest stages were reserved for Sony, playing live concerts and whatnot, but almost all the second tier stages were mobile publishers and streaming services.
Turns out there's a lot of money in phones these days, who would have thought.
Anyway, my favourite section was definitely the stage/indie/dressup hangar. The main area was unbelievably loud and incredibly crowded on the public days, so much so that I had to retire to the other half of the show on several occasions. I'm not one for loud spaces in the first place (nerd) but it really was unbearable.
So in the (slightly) quieter building I met a ton of really cool independent developers showing off their software.
I played a few really fun games, a few challenging ones, and a few in VR.
I met someone who worked on Dungeon Keeper, one of my favourite games ever. He's working with his wife on the mobile game above and it was a treat to get to chat to them. I was probably destroying their chance to advertise to the crowds, for which I apologise (not that they'll ever read this).
I didn't play it because I'm shocking at actually playing video games, especially puzzle games, but as long as there's an easy mode for me to try out I'll jump in when it's released. It'll be interesting to see how it does because they're still working out how to make money from their games. It's a tricky proposition, especially with the amount of free dreck out there. Convincing someone to pay money is something everyone was talking about. Unless they're creating in VR, because the assumption is that if you can afford 1,500gbp of PC and 800gbp of VR equipment then money is no object.
Another game I checked out was this one:
It's really hard. Like, really really hard. It's a fast moving platformer that will appeal to anyone who likes perfecting lines and speedrunning, and anyone that doesn't mind sending a Rude Bear to his death over and over again. The interesting hook with this game is that every death leaves behind a body that will cover spikes, block projectiles and so on, meaning your next run through it slightly easier. No matter how bad you are at the game you can eventually finish it with enough perseverence.
I also love the music. Every stage has its own unique track, and I didn't hear a single song I didn't like. It's all filthy, grimy and industrial, and sits well with the overall design and aesthetic.
It's too difficult for me by far, but it's still great. (Also, I was chatting to the dev who took the controller off me because I was so bad and started playing while barely looking at the screen. My guess is that he's playtested every one of the levels quite a bit.)
So a lot of indie games are 2D, sprite based platformers or RPG's with a fairly limited scope. This is due to money, basically, and it means that when a team does end up aiming higher, they can crash and burn (cough cough No Mans Sky cough).
This game is a 3D adventure, and I tried it out in VR. It's not an adventure game in the style of an old Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle, but more in the modern style of a Gone Home.
To be honest I'm not sure whether it's an adventure game at all, but I don't really have any other way of describing it.
You walk around and experience the life of the main character, interact with those around you and generally, if you're me, make a nuisance of yourself by throwing basketballs at people and turning lamps on and off incessantly.
It's impossible to get a sense of whether the story is compelling or not in the space of a demo in a booth, but what I can say for certain is that the VR works, just sit down while you're playing. This game uses a controller which means you move forward and backwards like a normal first person game, but the sensation of moving forward throws your entire sense of balance off. It's even worse when you stop because you slow down really quickly and your body is expecting the normal forces involved in deceleration, which means you overcompensate, which means you end up leaning forward and nearly falling over.
At least that's what I found.
That aside I think the inclusion of VR in a game of this type is a smart move because it really does add to the immersion. It's one of those things that you have to try in order to see whether it works for you or not, just like the move from 480p to 1080p, or the upcoming move to 4K. Hearing someone wax lyrical about the tech does nothing to convey the feeling.
As a side note, I commented on just how fantastic one of the characters looked, and it turned out the character artist was standing right next to me. It also turns out she's from England. It also turns out she's living in Tokyo.
Small world.
Needless to say the characters look amazing, even when you get right up in their grill. I was probably the creepiest dude on the planet at the exact moment where I was millimetres away from this characters face studying every detail.
If you're interested I found a portfolio of hers here.
Those were some of the things that stuck out to me at the show.
After I've written up the article (the reason I was there in the first place) I'll put some of the rejected photographs on here. I'll also get a video of me messing around in VR put onto my youtube, and onto here.
So I had a whole day off yesterday, so I decided to do something computer related with it.
I also did a few pages of editing (read: copious amounts of deleting) for my book, so that's still ticking along (about 1/3rd done with edits).
Anyway, I decided to do this:
I need a name for this blocky mess.
It's a little game I made. I found a program called 'game maker,' on humble bundle, bought and downloaded it (15 of your us dollars) and started messing around.
So it's all programming which is unfortunate, because I have no idea how to program. Luckily there's a decent sized community, and I know just enough to change up the bits I need to when two tutorials conflict.
In the screen you see above, the green box is the player. The red box is an enemy that moves back and forth as it runs into walls. The pink box is a portal of sorts that sends you to the next level.
If you land on top of the red box, it disappears, simulating the banishment of said enemy.
If you land next to the red box and it runs into you, the scene resets, simulating the unfortunate death of a green box (the player).
The basics are there with this setup. The player jump height varies depending on how long you hold down the key, up to a maximum height, and the player has a nice momentum to it, so you're not just at 100% speed when you move left and right. There's also a decent feel to the gravity.
Some other stuff I want to add: enemies that detect edges, so that they don't need to be boxed in and they won't fall off ledges.
A player attack that affects what would be the equivalent of a square in front of them in this design.
Pickups, that show text on the screen. I want the player to walk over a box and for it to pop up text, to tell a little story.
Spikes, but that should be an easy thing to make as I already have the red box code.
If I get all the done, then it's just a case of making a metric boat load of art to take the place of everything. Art for backgrounds, art for the characters, art for the enemies. So much art.
The only problem is that I cannot art to save my life.
Oh well. We'll cross that bridge should we ever come to it.
So as we all know, fun is dead. No one is allowed to have any fun anymore, what with the news shoving constant drudgery down our necks (I haven't watched, read or listened to the news in a very, very long time, with the eception of what makes its way to my facebook page. Regardless, I am confident that I am correct in this assertion, and that the news is still a parade of misery) and everything being just the worst at all times.
On a more personal note, Summer Holidays (tm) have ended, so I'm back at work.
That is the real tragedy.
Also, my school has bought in a new load of laptops which have, after close inspection with a ruler, 12 inch screens. 12 inches. In a laptop. They're fully laptops too, the screen doesn't unclip like a tablet, all the connectors are in the base. And they have touchscreens.
What on earth.
Someone at the municipal service for education was scammed (see: bribed) into buying these shit sandwiches.
The keyboard is miniscule. I can cover half the keyboard with two fingers which makes typing a nightmare. The screen is god knows what resolution because who can tell as everything is tiny. WHO WOULD USE TOUCHSCREEN ON A LAPTOP WHEN THE MOUSE IS RIGHT THERE?
The whole thing is a terrible piece of deign.
So now you're thinking, 'what's the point of this little rant?' To be honest I haven't thought that far yet.
Anyway. My second book is coming along nicely. This one might actually see a release. Once I'm at the final editing stage I'll start looking for an illustrator to do the covers (I draw like a four year old) and I'll start the self-publishing process.
Unfortunately I have a pretty solid idea of what I want out of the whole thing, which might make the self-pub system somewhat more annoying and substantially less accommodating.
My big target, my life goal, is to sell a hundred copies. I want to sell a hundred books in my lifetime. That is my aim. If it takes me writing fifty books and getting my mum and dad to buy a single copy each then so be it.
Digital or physical doesn't matter, just one hundred books.
Is there any way a touchscreen laptop with miniscule keys could help me in writing? I'm struggling to find a connection... No, I really can't think of one.
Anyway, in other news, I went to the same festival I went to last year. You might say I'm a regular, now that I've been twice. Last year was incredibly disappointing in terms of pictures and this year was only marginally better. I've started the process of editing them and have found a couple I like so far. I don't know whether they'll go into the 'best of,' folder I keep, but they're decent enough to stick on here at the very least. (Truth be told one or two of them might go onto the Japanese calendars I make for Christmas, but don't tell anyone).
Those updates will come about when I get home and don't immediately fall asleep on the sofa. We've just installed new aircon and it's glorious. It also uses 3.2kw/h at peak load, so it's very much a luxury that should not be used every day, but almost always is.
Frugality is not my strong suit.
On an entirely unrelated note, I really, really need a new PC now. This one is huffing and puffing and often refuses to boot. It's being a real pain in the derriere which wouldn't matter if I were a millionaire, but I'm not, so it is.
