Interlocking Squares: Ching Juan (6)
Friday 13 January 2006
I've had requests for financial aid from Nigerian VIPs of dubious provenance. I've had ecstatic notifications from purported lottery organisers telling me I've won the grand prize. I've even had exhortations to enlarge my penis by XXX inches in XXX days!!
What I've never had before is fan mail.
Sort of fan mail, anyway. It's from someone called David, Vincent's roommate. At least he says he's Vincent's roommate. These days you can't be too careful. He might be a geriatic sixty-year-old from Arizona for all I know. Or a CIA agent who's on my trail because I sent Selina an Osama bin Laden joke the other day. Or a Special Branch operative who's running background checks on me because Tee Siew actually did what he threatened to do and sent in that anonymous letter denouncing me for being a security threat. Or maybe...
All right, stop, stop. This David is probably the genuine article. I can't imagine being classified as a security threat, unless I end up making a game in which... in which... ah, got it. A game in which you play a terrorist (or freedom fighter) scoping out the area and trying to decide on the ideal spot to set up a suicide bombing. Points will be awarded based on... erm, better not go into too much detail. Who knows who might be monitoring this journal entry? Okay, it's encrypted (sorta) and I'm not online, but still... Big Brother is watching you!! Nononono, run away run away! 2 plus 2 is four! Four, you hear me?!
Okay, enough. And this time I mean it. Where was I before I sidetracked myself... and no sidetracking myself further by wondering if it's logically possible for you to sidetrack yourself... okay, right. This David probably is who he says he is. I mean, he's got a copy of the game. Got it off Vincent, he says. Well, unless he is a CIA agent/Special Branch operative/random spy for random organisation (cross out whichever is not applicable) who hacked Vincent's email... all right, enough is enough is enough!
Anyway, it's just a few lines saying he liked the concept and the levels he's played so far, and it's only a bit rough around the edges in terms of control and movement and stuff. Although the background music was a bit lame. Now that I agree with, but it's hard to find good free music online, and I'm no composer. And also some of the sprites looked suspiciously like recolours of sprites encountered earlier. You know, Not-So-Dangerous Red Critter, Rather-More-Dangerous Green Critter, Swear-worthy-Near-Impossible-To-Kill Blue Critter... Well, of course they do! It isn't easy finding good free sprites (hm... free elves/gnomes/goblins? Free 7Ups?) online either, and about the only thing I can draw, whether digitally or... or... analog-ly?... is the classic stick figure.
It's kind of weird. I mean, Collector wasn't meant for public dissemination – just for me and the friends to have some fun with. Well, except Ming Jien, who complains that everything 2D is so last millennium. I keep reminding him that he was born in the last millennium, but it never seems to register. Selina keeps nagging me to put it up for download, but the idea of it – and me – being subjected to scrutiny makes me squirm. Yes, yes, I know in the unlikely event I do become a game dev, I'll have to put up with reviewers ripping my games apart on a regular basis, but well... I'm not a dev yet, am I?
I suppose part of the reason I sent the game to Vincent was 'cause I knew he wouldn't really play it, or even if he did, he wouldn't know enough to tell whether it was bad or good and how. And then this roommate of his suddenly goes and plays it and sends me this email that's unexpectedly complimentary. I mean, I know I'm miles behind all those indie programmers who've been writing code since they could hold a mouse. I mean... Darwinia. Need I say more? As for the concept, I can't take full credit of it. Citadel is the combined inspiration and insanity of me, Selina and Alex, and as for the rest of it... frankly I'd have said it was pretty generic platform-y stuff. Jump around, dodge monsters, kill monsters, collect things. Although I do think having the collectibles be story fragments was a good touch, not that I can take full credit for that either. I mean, it's the Citadel of Tales! What else is he supposed to collect, rings?
Suppose I'd better reply David now. Only polite, after all. And maybe if he finishes the game and still thinks it's fun, then maybe, just maybe, I'll put it up for public download. Hm, wonder if he's gotten past that horrible mathematical problem disguised as a rope-platform-lever puzzle on level seven yet...
I've had requests for financial aid from Nigerian VIPs of dubious provenance. I've had ecstatic notifications from purported lottery organisers telling me I've won the grand prize. I've even had exhortations to enlarge my penis by XXX inches in XXX days!!
What I've never had before is fan mail.
Sort of fan mail, anyway. It's from someone called David, Vincent's roommate. At least he says he's Vincent's roommate. These days you can't be too careful. He might be a geriatic sixty-year-old from Arizona for all I know. Or a CIA agent who's on my trail because I sent Selina an Osama bin Laden joke the other day. Or a Special Branch operative who's running background checks on me because Tee Siew actually did what he threatened to do and sent in that anonymous letter denouncing me for being a security threat. Or maybe...
All right, stop, stop. This David is probably the genuine article. I can't imagine being classified as a security threat, unless I end up making a game in which... in which... ah, got it. A game in which you play a terrorist (or freedom fighter) scoping out the area and trying to decide on the ideal spot to set up a suicide bombing. Points will be awarded based on... erm, better not go into too much detail. Who knows who might be monitoring this journal entry? Okay, it's encrypted (sorta) and I'm not online, but still... Big Brother is watching you!! Nononono, run away run away! 2 plus 2 is four! Four, you hear me?!
Okay, enough. And this time I mean it. Where was I before I sidetracked myself... and no sidetracking myself further by wondering if it's logically possible for you to sidetrack yourself... okay, right. This David probably is who he says he is. I mean, he's got a copy of the game. Got it off Vincent, he says. Well, unless he is a CIA agent/Special Branch operative/random spy for random organisation (cross out whichever is not applicable) who hacked Vincent's email... all right, enough is enough is enough!
Anyway, it's just a few lines saying he liked the concept and the levels he's played so far, and it's only a bit rough around the edges in terms of control and movement and stuff. Although the background music was a bit lame. Now that I agree with, but it's hard to find good free music online, and I'm no composer. And also some of the sprites looked suspiciously like recolours of sprites encountered earlier. You know, Not-So-Dangerous Red Critter, Rather-More-Dangerous Green Critter, Swear-worthy-Near-Impossible-To-Kill Blue Critter... Well, of course they do! It isn't easy finding good free sprites (hm... free elves/gnomes/goblins? Free 7Ups?) online either, and about the only thing I can draw, whether digitally or... or... analog-ly?... is the classic stick figure.
It's kind of weird. I mean, Collector wasn't meant for public dissemination – just for me and the friends to have some fun with. Well, except Ming Jien, who complains that everything 2D is so last millennium. I keep reminding him that he was born in the last millennium, but it never seems to register. Selina keeps nagging me to put it up for download, but the idea of it – and me – being subjected to scrutiny makes me squirm. Yes, yes, I know in the unlikely event I do become a game dev, I'll have to put up with reviewers ripping my games apart on a regular basis, but well... I'm not a dev yet, am I?
I suppose part of the reason I sent the game to Vincent was 'cause I knew he wouldn't really play it, or even if he did, he wouldn't know enough to tell whether it was bad or good and how. And then this roommate of his suddenly goes and plays it and sends me this email that's unexpectedly complimentary. I mean, I know I'm miles behind all those indie programmers who've been writing code since they could hold a mouse. I mean... Darwinia. Need I say more? As for the concept, I can't take full credit of it. Citadel is the combined inspiration and insanity of me, Selina and Alex, and as for the rest of it... frankly I'd have said it was pretty generic platform-y stuff. Jump around, dodge monsters, kill monsters, collect things. Although I do think having the collectibles be story fragments was a good touch, not that I can take full credit for that either. I mean, it's the Citadel of Tales! What else is he supposed to collect, rings?
Suppose I'd better reply David now. Only polite, after all. And maybe if he finishes the game and still thinks it's fun, then maybe, just maybe, I'll put it up for public download. Hm, wonder if he's gotten past that horrible mathematical problem disguised as a rope-platform-lever puzzle on level seven yet...
8:04 PM, May 17, 2006
hahahaha...
romantiknye...:P
i see a love triangle in the offing, it's heading dangerously towards there.
david's one of those lovable rogues, no? top
12:31 AM, May 20, 2006
David's not a lovable rogue, he can be a bit of a prat sometimes. :) And he's playing a far bigger and more disruptive role than I planned for him in this story. top
11:23 PM, May 20, 2006
prat? that reminds me of someone, not very lovable though....hehehe.
david, oh david, wherefor did you spring out from? top