Ninjas! Yarrr!

A few of you will already know that some friends and I are bringing some games to market.  It's been a lot of fun for us, seeing them start out as Biro scribbles on napkins, becoming lines and basic shapes on a screen that fall apart and disappear on collision, and progressing up to physics driven engines with a setting and a personality, bonuses and power-ups.  I'm going to talk mainly about the more advanced game we've been working on, we're hoping people will have as much fun playing it of course, and I'll keep you posted on when it's out in the various mobile app stores and wotnots.  As you might guess from the title, you play a Ninja, and you spend most of your time swinging about the place getting from target to target, while obstacles and dangers chip away at you.

We're basically working on the menu layouts and settings at this point.  There's some awesome graphics coming for those parts too and some pro cut scenes being built by people with more graphics skillz than I have, but what's there already has us pretty excited - it's just good to see ideas take actual form.  Well.. virtual form... you know what I mean.

Anyway, here's a little sample board.  These graphics aren't final copy but it gives you a sense of the elements... maybe.  Next time I update on this I might be brave enough to add some screenshots.

That's right - it's got Ninjas, it's got bombs, it's got cannons.  What more do you want in a game?!  What?  Sharks?!  Ohh... go on then, just a little one...


Be good!

Phil
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All I need is a tall ship, and a star to sail her by...

If you could have a starship... you know - find one (or a way to one) that no-one new about in an underground cavern by some crazy series of events tomorrow afternoon or something... what would you want it to be like?

There's the small crafts, like X-Wings, Tie Fighters (Star Wars), Shuttle Crafts , (wokbee?), Star Fighters (Star Trek) and so on. You might go so far as to include runabouts and Raiders... nah - we'll put them in the next group. These small one or two man ships are usually short - mid range, relatively low top speeds. They can fly in atmospheres and space, easy to find a parking space or hide away, and of course - they mostly look cool. Usually built to one purpose (fighting/scouting/bombing/ferrying) you'd have to pick from the range carefully - but you'll be independent, and get good miles to the gallon.

Next up, your small freighters. Serenity (Firefly/Serenity), The Millenium Falcon (SW), Starbug (Red Dwarf), we said we'd put runabouts and raiders (ST) in here. D-12's would go in here too (the really small Klingon Bird of Prey's - ST). These things usually have a bit of character to them. Rickety barges, these ships can be crewed by a handful of people and host many more in emergencies. They're a little more adaptive in their purpose but still not really covering every base. Needing a crew, you're not so independent as such, but the crew as a whole don't need much in the way of supporting infrastructure so you wont exactly be tied down either. Atmospheric flight and longer range/higher speeds - you still wont be beating the larger vessels for raw power but you can boast of your tweaked focused performance areas. Good for freight and long term adventure - you have to know your limits, but these things can be a lot of fun. Oh, and if you're not into slumming it on the Serenity or Falcon - Star Trek brings you the Nova, which brings you a nice clean feel option to this size class.

Now we're getting into the big boys. The Defiant (ST) can be staffed with a crew of 50, but there's not much leeway on that number. Tactical Small Cruisers, Large Freighters - the Voyager (ST) is probably at the larger end of this group and in between you have the Klingon K'Vorts (ST), Corellian Corvette's (SW) and... okay I'm not really sure of that many ships in this class. Quite a lot of Trek options but I'll need help to name ships outside that verse.
They're geared to particular function but they don't do to bad at covering all the bases. Those geared for combat are fast and punchy, usually way overpowered for their size and built to live fast die young. Do the damage - survive if it's convenient but make sure you do the damage. The freighters in this class have massive storage capacity for planetary scale deliveries. The exploration vessels are disgned for fast efficient long range travel and everything people need to be self sustaining for several years if need be. They do need maintaining though - of the kind that a handful of people can't provide, and you *will* need a proper crew to get it to even move. They can be fast, and while they can't sustain very high speeds over long distances, they have decent cruise velocities. (And these often look damn sexy too).

For those of you who aren't looking for the weekend away or gap year options - and if you have a few hundred friends on your MySpace tally - you might consider a real Starship.
This becomes a lifestyle - it's huge community ship. Battlestar Galactica (BSG), The Enterprise (ST - if you know to ask which one, you know the answers yourself), Star Destroyers (SW), Red Dwarf (RD), and the Alliance Cruisers (FF/S). These things are cities in space - they do everything from schooling and restaurants to battle and research. You *need* a large crew, regular services, a secure fuel source and much more - owning one of these things is no walk in the park - but you do rule the stars. No where's too far, no where's unreachable. If you want to stare down a space monster or the fleet of hostile patrol/scouting ships - this is the thing you're going to need. Holodecks, spacious quarters, and power. Yup - there's definitely an attraction to being a player in this league, but it'll come with a price of some responsibilities and a need for many many others.

Me... I think I'd like the Defiant, the K'Vorts... that sort of thing. One that can handle atmospheres and cloaking would be a great feature to have. Having said that... needing 50-100 people to make it usable is just inconvenient. I'm going to cheat! I want the voyager, with a Delta Flyer style shuttle - for those times you need to just nip out to the shops on your own.

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Phil

P.S. I love star ships :-D Go on... geek out!

New Pets

Recently, in the World of Warcraft, I have refined my selection of beast companions, who help me quest and fight.

 

Firstly, Snowswift was set free.  I'm afraid Snowswift and I never really hit it off - I don't even have any pictures for you, but he was a Great White Owl from the mountains of Winterspring.

 

This left me with only one pet, Rupert, who has been a loyal companion for some time.  He too is native to the snowy peaks of Winterspring, and is a Polar Bear.

Here's a pic of me and Rupert visiting the King of Storwind.  Don't ask why the Kings Protector has his fists raised to me... it's a long story and the other Elves would prefer me not to speak of it again :-P

 

And here we are on the game load screen, in which Rupert appears a little smaller than in game, but you get a better look at him...

Actually Rupert was a good deal younger when that picture was taken too... but fro the first pic you can see that these days he's a pretty large and menacing bear - he serves well as an intimidating damage tank while I can stand at range and use my marksmen talents.

It is all the happy memories that made my second decision difficult.  Rupert is to be made redundant, and will be set wild again once his replacement is up to scratch.  His replacement?  BurlyTurle.

You might be thinking a giant Turle is no match for a fierce Bear!  And if the purpose of the pet was to deal damage to those I hunt, you'd be right - but this is not the case.  The job of the pet, is mostly a decoy.  It is to keep the attention of the mob while I pick off the targets one by one.  The biggest concern is therefore, staying alive, and poor Rupert has taken a lot of bruises in his time with me.  Burly is slightly better tuned to be a 'tank'.  So much so - he's attracted some attention in raid groups. Raids are serious things - they take organisation, planning, and usually between 20-40 players to gather toegther and combine their skills to complete a dungeon.
It is the general opinion that only dedicated players designed for tanking, can tank the baddies that lie in raid dungeons.  Paladins, Druids, Hunters, and pets - just don't cut it.  Only Warrirors possess the stamina and agrovation skills great enough to match these monsters.  In a raid on AQ20 (some old ruins) the other night with around 19 of my fellow adventurers, Burly seemed to be doing the job of a seperate party member, bring much comment from my guildmates along the lines of, "That f**king Turle's tanking everything!"  Indeed Burly often tanked not one but two of the dungeon mobs, and even held the aggro off a boss for a few seconds while the warrirors had been stunned and the priests and magi were vulnerable. 

In no way of course, can Burly be a main tank, but pets aren't usually seen as much more than low level damage bonus.  Burly can show people that as an off-tank (a unit who assists, steps in to replace, or catches those mobs when the main tank fails to keep them), he can be awsome.  I'm not really 100% sure if the fellow raiders thought Burly tanking was a good or bad thing... in a sense, he was taking agro away from the dedicated warriors or at least, being an unexpected factor in the carefully planned battle.  But it was the source of much ammusement at least and I know for a fact he saved a preist on more than one occasion *just* before a monsters fist squashed them into the sand.

And then, onto Zul Gurub we travelled.  Passing through Stormwind to get there, I placed Burly in stables along with Rupert, and met the other raid members at the Troll Fortress we were to attack.  For many in the party, loot was their goal.  Others wanted reputation and gold.  Me?  I'd come here to tame one of the infamous Zul Gurub Bats.  They're big, they're bad, and they're frikking fast.  Bats can not take a lot of hits, they are poor tanks and poor decoys.  They do however, put out a considerable ammount of damage, and they can fly pretty fast - so when I order an attack on a fleeing mob, they can catch it and bring it down before it gets too far.  In raid groups where we have say, 6 dedicated warrirors, Burly is something of a surpless to requirements, as awsome as he can be when we're short.  In these situations, Burly is nothing more than a very low damaging nusence to the bad things we fight, and adds little to the group.  If I'm going to use a pet in those situations, it may aswell be a damage dealing pet, so to make a decent contribution.

And this is the beasty...

And it's size in comparison to me...

The only trouble with the bat is... it scares the hell out of my team mates - they keep thinking it's a monster coming to attack them, especially if they turn round and it happens to be flying up behind them.  I'm sure they'll get used to it though.  Speaking of 'it', I'm trying to think of a name for the bat.  All suggestions welcome. :)
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Phil

Narby Narby Narby

Been playing a bit of WoW this week - mostly as my character Narby.  He's a 3ft Mage with green hair.  He was stuck on level 31 for ages and now he's lvl 34, going on 35, and that's a good feeling.  Any day now he can be an expert (Artisan?) tailor.

Other than that, flirting on the web, working, and watching a few DVD's has been my lot.

Ok - this entry is crap but I'm just taking a quick break so I might edit it later.

Cya's

 

--- Edit --

And here I am.  Only another quick break but let's see how far we get.  Narby is now level 35 btw, and indeed, his tailoring skills are on the up once more.

Got into a tight spot in the badlands the other day.  they don't call it the badlands for no reason, and it's no place for a lvl 35 gnome to be going alone.  But I had a package to deliver there and figured I'd just keep runnning through - if I don't stop, maybe I'll make it.

So run I did, and trailed behind me a conga line of angry dwarves and hungry tigers.  I eventualy reached the guy I had to deliver the goods to, but I was running very low on health and mana by this point.  Two tigers hot on my heals, and a hundred more lurking about the area - I had little option but to turn to fight them. 

I turned one into a sheep and after a cstly battle killed the other, using my last potion to give me a health boost, and mana stone to give me a few more spells. 

Now I had little mana, almost no health, tigers to the left of me, dwarves to the right - here I was stuck in the middle with this big cat, who broke out of the sheep spell almost immmediately after I'd defeated the first. 

I turned him into a sheep again and ran to the guy expecting the goods, who of course made me satnd there while he bored me with some monologue asthough there was no rush at all.  By the time he was through, the tiger had asserted it's carniverous form once more, and in true 'What the hell can I do' fasion, I re-sheeped it.  Conscious that this spell would not likely work many more times on the same cat (each time you do it the targets resistance to the spell builds), I quickly whipped out my hearthstone and began the old (not to mention slow to cast and eaily disrupted) 'teleport to the other side of the world' trick.  The sheep became a tiger once more and ran over to me, and as it swung it's hefty claw at my little pokey body, I dissapeared in a dispaly of lights and symbols... materialising safely in Theramore.  That's right Theramore - don't ask me why I've got my home set there. What?  The swamps not a good enough view for you city boy types?

Anywho - on appearing in Theramore, I can't tell you how good I felt.  I know - I need to get out more - I'm working on that.

 

I know this is a crap update.  It's not that nothing's happened in real life - it's just Real life is kinda... foggy right now.  I'm not sure what I have to say about it exactly.  Definately lots to say, but I've not got much of a perspective on anything.

For now I will say this - Love life is looking more alive than it has for a long time, work is having a few ups downs (and late nights), and friendships are finally getting a bit of attention.

More on all these things in future entries but for now... Gnome eating tigers are way more exciting anyway

 :-P

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Phil