by ·Comments Off on Technically Officially Published

After having probably the most jaw dropping working day I have ever experienced which consisted of me continuously repeating the phrase “people are getting paid to do this” over and over again as I was playing a computer game as part of my working day, I technically finished last Friday as a published writer.

Nothing terribly ground breaking, but this and this over at  Bit-Tech were written by me.

The review I wrote might even be going up early next week unless I’ve made any assorted stylistic faux pas.

by ·Comments Off on New Research and Gaming

I often pick up a copy of the Metro in the mornings these days and one jumped out at me this morning declaring “Gaming Children ‘unfit for school’”.  The article was a short piece about primary school children falling asleep in class, missing meals (although if they’re missing meals in school I’m not sure that’s entirely their fault) and being unable to concentrate.

The reason for this, as declared by one particular teacher, is that they are addicted to gaming.

This may well be shooting fish in a barrel but let’s dissect that a little.

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by ·Comments Off on Collecting Compulsion

I’m not interested in frogs.

Frog. Not interested.

That is, I’m not interested in frogs until you give me a green one and a brown one and tell me there are more to collect.

This compulsion to collect things is something that a lot of ordinary geeks have and something that affects almost all of us at some point in our lives.  If you have two of something and there’s a third that’s in the same set, it’s almost impossible not to want it because you feel like the items “belong” together, and that getting two and not the other is somehow like splitting up a family.

In terms of gaming, the desire to get 100% completion of a game can sometimes overwhelm an individual, but this is a slightly different issue:  This is more to complete a collection.  To get a full set.   The confusing question that you will ask yourself shortly after completing a collection is obvious, but only obvious once that condition is triggered:  What happens next?

The answer is most of the time simple and a little distressing:  Nothing.

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by ·Comments Off on CTS: Making background art and textures

Chaotic Tortoise Studios (CTS) is an indie games development studio that exists largely only in my mind.

I like this sprite. This sprite is not a problem. I will probably post this sprite a lot because I like this sprite.

I’ve always appreciated that to make a video game it takes a lot of work and mastery of several different disciplines.  Despite this, I’ve discovered that I never actually really appreciated just how much of this work and mastery goes in to making even the crummiest of games.  Never again will I outright dismiss a title as bad or worthless without first spending a bit of time checking the small minor details that I have overlooked. 

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by ·Comments Off on CTS: Chaotic Tortoise Studios

Despite being on the cusp of launching into my career as a profeshnul riter, I’ve been doing more work on fabricating my own computer games.  Putting the two together, I intend to therefore keep an ad-hoc log of my development process / journey / odyssey.  

 I’d like to say this is with the high-minded intention of helping other no-hope-want-to-be-developers like myself, but to be honest, it’s probably because I just like the sound of my own typing.

 Additional Notes:

All development-diary-like entries will now be included under the category Chaotic Tortoise Studios, and will be prefaced by CTS, because three letter acronyms (or as I call them, TLAs) are brilliant and everybody loves them.