Good grief, February already?

Well, I've been slow, haven't I? Fortunately, not a great deal has been happening. He says.

There's been the Bake Sale, which has been a roaring success thus far, and has included THE RAIL (seen in previous posts on here), among the various games. I've ended up employed, which has slowed my game productivity considerably (sorry), and I've been throwing various plans about for things. At the moment, "The Adventures of Nancy the Happy Whore" is going to end up being my next project, and I've still got grand plans for Technobabylon in the (very) long term.

I've joined on with the AGS Summerbatch project. Imagine the Bake Sale, but with less inclination towards charity. Yeah, it's something like that. So, I'll be introducing Nancy to the world through that, which at the same time completely destroying any chance the Summerbatch had to be a family-friendly pack.

I'm also engineering the guide to "four-week adventures", in the same way I made The Rail. After all, I plan on using the same theories to make Nancy!

We're off to see the wizard...

...or a whole bunch of them, anyway. AdventureX is tomorrow, so I'll be climbing aboard my train-machine, and trundling my way to Didcot to see what kind of humans are involved with this whole AGS malarky. Looking forward to seeing you all there! (if you're going. Otherwise, nuts to you.)

Also, The Rail is completely finished, and will be shown for the first time at AdventureX - you'll be able to see what I'm capable of doing in a four-week burst!

The Rail...

Well, I've finally made the announcement on the AGS forum, so I guess I'm committed! Then again, it'd be pretty daft not be at at this stage, seeing as the game is essentially finished. So, here it is.


On a tidally-locked world, the only way for resources to be moved under the deadly sun is by high-speed train. The management refuse to automate it entirely - after all, then there'd be nobody to blame when things go wrong - and it's been your uneventful duty for the past several years to see the train back and forth along:

THE RAIL

So naturally, things are going to go wrong on your watch. Things like, oh, maybe hijacking? And bombing? And all of the above?







A positive reaction so far on the forum, and a few people have already volunteered to playtest. Having started this four weeks ago, I'd say this is a vindication of the four-week plan I've been able to formulate for game production (and a further indictment of my terrible work-ethic). I'll get this finished, and it'll be ready for AdventureX next month. I'll release it to the general public after AdventureX is done. After all, who could possibly pass up the chance to play this?

November already?

Well, I did it, I finished up Technobabylon 4, based on my timetable...only problem is, I'm not at all happy with it. Similar to how it was last time I tried to make it, it feels...slapdash, rushed, the rooms feeling somehow wrong, with some areas undershaded, others over. In any case, this is going to take some pondering, and I'm sure people are not going to be happy about the delay.

On the other hand, I'm already about a quarter through making a different game to get some ARGH out of my system, and which I aim to have ready before AdventureX in December. Since it's not something I care quite as deeply about, not one of these ideas that's been gnawing in my brain for years, I feel like I can be a little more casual about it.

So, keep an eye out for "The Rail", coming soon. Also, if you're coming to AdventureX, ask me for my business card!

Hmm, I wonder why it has a hole in the middle?  :3

The perils of the real world...

Don't you just hate employment? Thanks to the magic of nepotism, I found myself with a job at the Commonwealth Secretariat for the past five weeks. All I can say is, they certainly didn't get their money's worth from me, and that Mozambique uses comic sans for all of their diplomatic correspondence.

Thankfully, that brief taste of work has reminded me just how much I want to avoid it, and given me a burst of work ethic. As a result of that, I've set myself a definitive, functional schedule for getting Technobabylon 4 completed. My original attempt at making it, way back while I was still in Korea, was an experimental burst of three days of concentrated production - ho ho ho, what crap that would have produced.

Since I've now gone and gotten a prebuilt framework for future episodes built, it should take at least a week of the drudge stuff out of future episodes. And, as a result, I can present: The TIMETABLE! This list demonstrates what I aim to accomplish over the next two weeks. As long as I can keep to it, all of these goals can be completed within these days, meaning a testable version before the end of October. And, if I can prove to myself that it works, it means a considerably faster turnaround of episodes.

Also, Technobabylon is over a year old now, I realise. I find that thought terrifying.

Lao's Office...

Conceptualisation...

Because I'm planning on the future of Technobabylon being a bit more high-def, I've been doing concepts of the faces of the main characters. It helps to have a better idea of what I'm drawing when I have a reference behind it, don't you think? So, here's Doctor Regis...

Granted, I've still got tweaks and improvements to make, but the idea is already here. Tired, middle-aged, subject to blackmail, overworked, grumpy - hence why I've made him look a bit like my Dad.