games - Ina Disguise

Games in Development

August 29, 2017 51 Comments

OK I was just having a look at Wild West Online, which looks promising, although I will not be participating as I am too busy, and realised that I had not extensively described the ones I am actually working on. There have been significant delays with the game projects, as I had hoped to send some work to the Gambia, but as this was not possible I had to take care of all of it myself

Best Adventure Ever is the one relevant to the David Wolfe project, and will be suitable for PC, Mac, tablet or mobile. Although the visual novel is not the perfect format for the original story, I felt this was a good idea for maximum coverage since I am a noob to the games market. I have not decided on whether to attempt to make any actual money on it as all the work on the Wolfe project is intended to gain reach rather than profit.

It is the separate story of Kira and Sam Redwood, who in terms of graphics freakishly resemble Wolfe and I, in a sort of self hating kind of way, and their progress through a series of dating episodes. Sub-choices are made via consumption – what you choose to eat, drink and do moves the story along. As you can see, the graphic quality is rather nice. Without giving too much away, the game is intended to improve the knowledge and confidence of the player no matter how they feel about themselves, and so I think it is a worthy project. I don’t know why I still care about doing this for nothing, but never mind.

Mood Machine is a steampunk adventure set in London, and tracks the friendships of young people making their way in a mysterious society where people have, for a variety of reasons, disappeared or died. This one is more about psychology and how people interact with one another, and contains rather a lot of nice bits of economic history.

The two games are intended as entries into the games market with a view to creating the game I really want to make, which is a much bigger job and will also feature Wolfe. (this family thing is most inconvenient in terms of game character building, Wolfe) Although this was also intended to increase his reach, I think I will have to offer avatar selection for this game, and so I may include Icke and Robbins as possible selections and widen the games outlook. Gamers have been awaiting a decent cult builder for a long time, so I think this is a nice back scratching way of serving the market.

In terms of hold ups, I could do with some technical discussion and I need to build up some more skills to get to this third and most important game. I have the courses available, but have been significantly delayed in getting on with them, and all of this is secondary to clearing the studio, which needs to happen fairly soon. I think the first priority is to complete the visual novels and see how that goes. If it goes well, then full steam ahead with Best Guru Ever.

There is also the risk that Wolfe will object once the game is complete, since he chooses to ignore everything I am doing. I haven’t hidden any portion of what I am doing, so I suggest if he has any objections, he gets on with making them before I put all this work out.

FYI – he will not. I do not know why he considers it a good idea to ignore work that is being done. The rule in these circumstances is ‘do it until they stop you’ but it is really a waste of everyone’s time. Extremely frustrating if you are trying to make things happen and very disheartening.

creativity, economics, games

The Gamebia Project Update 2 and Boris Johnson

April 7, 2017 No Comments

I know I haven’t been posting a lot recently. Mother has been in hospital and I am a bit stressed about a forthcoming court appearance as I continue to attempt to run a family of exceptionally stupid and vindictive people who seem intent on making people unhappy just because they can.

The furniture is significantly held back by lack of funds at the moment. The hazard of making more expensive items is that they require more money to develop. So far I think I have the new principle about half right, but it will take another £600 or so to finish the first few pieces and free up space for the next six, never mind finish them.

The distraction of the Gamebia Project has meant that I have not started working on the book for Boris as yet. I have some background reading still to do, although some of the biographies are less than flattering so far. I can see why Boris withdrew authorisation from one of them, as I find myself liking him and Stanley, in particular less and less as I read it. Not my cup of tea at all, but then I am wildly unsuccessful at social climbing or making money, unlike them. It apparently pays to be a cold and selfish fish.

I am selling off the detritus from the Gamebia Project as progress seems to be exceptionally slow. I am still being updated by my former friend, although I suspect he is only bothering because he thinks he will get more stuff that way and I have lost interest entirely due to the very slow pace of development. People often think films have to be epic slogs, but when you need to put out two a day you have to be a little bit more pragmatic. At the rate he is working, he will never make any money from youtube, and he has not even attempted to create the project on fiverr, which on my schedule would have started paying for his rice by now.

So much for trying to help people that cannot be helped. The subject of the project apparently only sees one word in ten that I write, and so he has no idea how the project has to be managed. As he has now stopped pestering me online every time I am on, as he did before he got the equipment, I cannot even repeat the same information ad infinitum to put him on the correct track.

So, I think the next affordable bit of product development is going to be the range of shoes I was planning, which has an initial outlay of about a hundred pounds or so. The Gamebia has, due to cashflow issues, left me without even that for the forseeable future, so I am understandably nervous about going ahead.

The games project and the writing then, since it costs me nothing. I could have farmed some of the work for the game out, if my Gambian friend had paid any attention to what I was saying, but I am having to do it myself.

Getting very bored with pacing myself for normal people. It seems piteously slow. I guess that is how my former muse, Wolfe felt. Nobody sees your vision like you do, and anything else seems like a distraction if you don’t pay attention to the lesson you are learning.

creativity, economics, games, motivation

The Gamebia doing very well

March 4, 2017 No Comments

The Gamebia Everipedia Page

So far, this project has cost a lot of time and money, but I believe that my efforts have not gone in vain, since I have about £600 quids worth of equipment almost ready to head out to the Gambia and another £600 quidsworth awaiting my attention. All for as little money as possible, since I do not actually have any.

The Gamebia facebook Page

At this point, the project is in profit, and has made about £100. This is subject to change as the capital equipment gathering can be quite costly, although my salvage skills have proved extremely useful. So basically I have saved money by learning how to fix a few brands of computer and encountering standard problems that other people do not apparently bother to learn how to fix. You would be extremely alarmed to know how easy it is to break into your computer, for example. You might want to look at that.

The Gamebia google plus Page

Trying to explain social media to somebody who has only seen it on a mobile phone is also odd, especially as I decided fairly early on that social media was of limited use for Ina. I have amassed a bit of knowledge along the way though, although losing the old blog was a tremendous blow as I was storing a lot of information on it. Even if you are paying someone to manage your material, you still have to back it up because people are stupid.

The Gamebia linkedin Page

Also, trying to explain to the future owner of The Gamebia that this stuff is not actually mine, is quite interesting since I have set it up so far. There are things I cannot do, but what I have done I have put into his name, since I will be letting go of the project once it is into a good and hopefully profitable routine.

In conclusion, the project is thus far going well and attracting some enthusiasm, although we cannot get started on the actual work until the first package arrives in the Gambia. There are a few more things I can do, such as putting a cat video on the Gamebia youtube page to get the partnership sorted out, but mainly I seem to have taken up computer salvage so far.

Catching up with artwork for World of Interiors is high on the priority list right now – I will be in April’s edition, which will be out this month.

creativity, economics, games

New Project – The Gambia

February 3, 2017 24 Comments

I just opened the studio after a three week hiatus whilst I got the computer games off the ground, only to find I had left a heater on. Not good.

Family stress is likely to be intense over the next six months as I try to preserve my mother against all odds due to the most unreliable friend I have ever had. The fact that this ‘gentleman’ was supposed to be a pillar of the community has just made his common-as-muck behaviour far far more expensive.

Being me, I have decided to make this the springboard for yet another project. It is a salvage operation which is designed to help generate some future income for a community in the Gambia. Not strictly a charitable act, since if the games are successful, this will give me an enthusiastic crew of people to work on future pieces of work.

For those who don’t get it – this is how to make the most of the world the way it already is, and make it sustainable for a population across the globe to actually survive. The ‘liberal’ sentiment that has you demanding more refugees to reduce your income apparently does not understand the concept of ‘labour specialism’ or the benefits of economic variety.

Were I to want to move to Africa, so far I would move to Morocco, which is a bit like the Europe of the 1930s in terms of economy. Ironically, I was made more welcome there than I was in London. As a Scot, this is not entirely surprising but it goes to show that struggling people are a whole lot more welcoming to certain people than people who believe that they have earned the right to be mean-spirited, self protective and bad mannered.

As someone who has worked hard all my life, to so far have next to nothing, with what I have left about to be taken to pay for my comparatively secure mother because of the inaction and snobbery of a lazy old man, it would seem strange to most people that I would choose to use my remaining time to benefit a community in a country I will probably never be able to afford to actually visit. My friend found this very strange, until I pointed out to him that it is in my nature to be practical and helpful before I think about my welfare, at which point he remembered that this is indeed the case.

From an economic perspective, it is most interesting already how people can be financially oppressed by something as simple as lacking a postcode or secure mail service. I am having to come up with ingenious ways of getting around a system in which you can send ten mobile phones in secure parcel, only to find that only three are in the parcel by the time they arrive.

As for the costings from this end, there is a subtle bidding war between parcel companies that has expressed itself via facebook and twitter. The cost of sending my parcel is going down by the day, via adverts that look as if they have randomly appeared on my timelines. We have even automated bidding wars.

Anyway the first two games are going well. I have a strong concept for both, and I think Wolfe, in particular, will be delighted at what I have come up with in terms of infogaming. It is a lot of work for one person.

Ina

creativity, games, games

Creating visual novels

October 21, 2016 No Comments

Creating visual novels

First look for renpy or buy yourself a builder. There are around five or so free builders online, but having bought one, I can tell you that this is a great option for adding bells and whistles.

Visual novels are particularly popular in Japan, but they are catching on everywhere as the ideas are often quirky and interesting.

From a user perspective, I personally find hitting enter over and over again pretty tedious, but then I cannot understand the fascination with comics and comic based art, so I am not a great example of a fan. I am more interested in it from the perspective of structure and branching storylines.

Do not involve an artist in your early dabblings, either you will waste weeks, or in my case months, for them to even pick your first picture and make it ‘perfect’ or you will waste the same amount of their time on ideas that you do not necessarily want in your finished product. Far better to look for an approximate image online and use it as a stand in until your ideas gain some finesse.

One of the many good things I am learning from doing this, is the nature of scripting and how instructions have to be broken down to create scenes. This is why I am doing it, so I am not quite so lost in the fog of learning to script. I think it is a worthwhile thing to do.

In terms of the money you can make, there are a few kickstarter projects requesting tens of thousands of dollars for creating great artwork, and potential customers seem to be throwing money at it based upon a few visuals. If that is your bag, this is probably the best way to raise yourself some capital before you even finish the project. Hardened visual novelists put out three or four a year to make a living, so at an estimate, each one is bringing in $300 or $400 dollars a month once their marketing gets going. Certainly beats writing, which brings in nothing at all for years and then if you are very fortunate, you might scratch a living for five more before you either hit the big time or fail.

I am going for a different option, which is to see what I can do without assistance, and then punting it on Steam if I create a good enough product. Steam has two layers of prequel creation, Early access, which costs around $100 or so to put your product on there for perusal and purchase, and they have a hidden section for trialling ideas, which if you have a few graphics ready, is a good way of gauging reactions to your efforts.

As far as I can see from my brief bits of research, fans of the genre like great graphics more than a great storyline. They are comic fans, after all, so far, but I have seen extended versions, such as 80 days, which are a bit more fulfilling in terms of story, and heavy on style rather than detail in terms of graphics. I hugely enjoyed 80 days, and so I am leaning towards this stylistic method of putting out a product.

Thereafter, I will return to learning to script whilst doing a couple more. In the meantime I am working hard on the furniture line with a view to getting the photography done and the products sold off to pay for more products. Thankfully I have found a great supplier in India for my chosen weaponry in terms of originality.

I am effectively extending the current themes, Jazz, Beach and Sheep in wolf’s clothing, although I kind of have Boris in mind whilst I am doing it. You will see for yourself how this pans out in terms of a visual feast towards the end of next month, barring accidents.

games

Virtual Reality is coming

April 20, 2016 No Comments

So, two computers are now complete. I have taken a piece of garbage, which I kind of bought by accident along with a monitor and souped it back up to respectability for storage, and I have added some rocket fuel to my now somewhat elderly retired server. I am now awaiting two pieces of equipment to build a VR ready machine for around £300. If anyone is interested, I will post some instructions on how to get VR ready and mildly futureproofed for under £1000.

Why do I need a VR ready machine when I have little time to play games? Because I plan to make some.

For those who question the usefulness of VR – here are the basics from wikipedia- What is VR

I think it is going to revolutionize education, personally, but I do not plan to leave it in the hands of dull witted educators to make a mess of it. Learning is an adventure, not an excuse for a bunch of browbeaten and unimaginative people to access grants and hold interminable meetings.

How can I be so confident that I am capable of making VR games? I spent a lot of time in Second life, and they are making a nice medium for me to work in. You can read more about it here Linden labs – Project Sansar

For this reason, I am aware that a lot of the products being launched this year are not quite as future friendly as they might appear on first glance. Looking but not touching, or using traditional gamer’s tools such as playstation controllers, for example, are things that will mean that you have to replace your expensive equipment within a couple of years

Playstation VR – looks very trendy but no thanks

Google Cardboard – a cheap way of seeing whether you like the idea of being blind and looking around a cartoon without much functionality. The good thing about this is that it makes VR extremely cheap for smartphone users.

HTC Vive by far the best mainstream option as it at least enables you to wave your hands around a bit but no. I forsee a lot of peripheral footpads etc.

Oculus Rift I would like to be supportive but no.

Without some definition in terms of your real life body, VR is all floating hands and the novelty of watching things move about. Limited in terms of long term value, but oooooooooh the potential.

Tesla Suit: Feel Virtual Reality With Your Body

Touch in VR goes in a predictable direction: VR sex suit sells out in hours

I can tell you that although these might be fun investments, and certainly the idea of a full body suit is far better than things that restrict you to visual or floating hand versions of VR, once Project Sansar is launched, it will be a matter of weeks before somebody posts instructions on how to make a far more comprehensive VR sex suit with a bit of old hessian webbing and a few improvised sensors they picked up on ebay.

Second Lifers are obsessive, they cannot be bothered with the real world, as the one you have more control of is a lot more interesting and colourful. Rather than you spending all your money on commercial products, I would hazard a guess that if you choose instead to ensure that your computer is ready, you have a couple of monitors and you await developments from Sansar, it will take probably under a year before DIY VR becomes normality. They are also rather keen on virtual sex, so if that is your thang, keep an eye on Sansar.

I have always been known as a rather uptight and foul tempered Second Lifer, so I am likely to create something more cultural, obscure and a bit surreal. I do like things with an educational edge, although I am much more interested in alternative reality methods of presentation. Roll on Sansar, and hurry up with the VR already.

games

Gaming psychology

April 16, 2016 No Comments

Well, there has been a lot of stress in rebuilding the computer room, and I am sure there will be more, but we are nearly operational again, with a bonus computer that I did not expect nestling between the two beasts (they sound like aircraft, I dread to think how much power they use)

As the plan is a personality driven series of games, I had a look around at game psychology. Alter Ego is a very old text based game, but those interested can play it free. I am shooting for something a little more delicate and fun, but I have trawled for something that goes in the same direction, and I think I might be onto a fairly original format for several different possible directions. There is no reason why it cannot be done, and yet it has not been done. Why not use your urge for entertainment and instant gratification for the purposes of self development?

So, I look up ‘personality driven games’ and I find the following personality tests for gamers.

The Multiplayer Psychology Profile aka the Bartle Test 1996 – I am an anti-social achiever and explorer
The Four Player types test an alternative based on the Bartle Test – I am an innovative strategist

Then I try ‘gaming psychology’

Cognitive Benefits of playing computer games
The Psychology of Great Game Design
The Psychology of Video Game Play – low hanging fruit

This is not really hitting the mark for what I am looking for. I did catch a fabulous BBC documentary on the psychology of gambling a year or so ago. Did you know that gambling addicts are addicted to loss, rather than winning? They believe that a series of losses makes a win more likely.

Having tried to be a gambler, and dismally failed due to my aversion to risk, despite playing a gambler’s game daily, I can say for sure that I do not have the gene for gambling addiction. I have an unfortunate love of learning new things, and getting bored very quickly, however, which is why my life has been quite so complicated. I am extremely useful, however, due to the ever-increasing skillset.

I then thought that gamification might be a useful thing to look up, and signed myself up on yet another course, only to find that it does not refer to educational gaming at all. It is just another business buzzword for making marketing more appealing to millennials. Sigh.

So, it looks as if I have a truly original idea. So far, so good. This should be fun. I was concerned about the lack of combat, and realised today that combat is really used as finite conversation in most games. Only one percent of gamers are in it to kill other players, according to Bartle, the volume of killing is merely a quick easy reward system for avatar development and progress.

As my game will involve a lot of social interaction with NPC characters, I forsee my having to be a bit inventive with objects and progression. I particularly dislike heavily story driven games, so I am likely to go for more of an organic, open scheme, which is going to get very complex with point allocation and reward/level progression. To this end, I will be building a tycoon style game in the course of my self-training.

I think I have played sufficient relevant games to have a style in mind, and a clear idea of how the structure will work. So now I just have to sit on my ass and learn languages and make games until I am ready to get on with it.

In the meantime I have an awful lot of research to do, so I am a happy, happy bunny.

Fact or fiction – video games are the future of education

Educational gaming commons

The educational benefits of video games

Gaming in education – gamification?

Teaching resources – educational games

Gamestar Mechanic

games

Tantric super vegetable guru

April 1, 2016 No Comments

Dear David,

Note – this is the working title. I am absolutely not going to be making a game with this title, although I am sure it would sell very well, and if the game is played a certain way, I am sure you could manage to create a super tantric vegetable guru if you wanted to.

Making a game involves playing a lot of games, I have wasted a lot of time investigating what I am shooting for this week. The idea I have in my mind is little to do with cults, but I have been looking at how cults are handled this week with a view to making the real idea work well in terms of gameplay.

Clockwork Empires is my favourite at the moment. A city builder with Lovecraftian elements, it has factional warfare and potential for your own cult, but the developers are still having tremendous fun with process tree work at the moment, and it will be a while before it will be ready in terms of frictional behaviour and AI. Lovely idea, but I do not think a city builder is right for the game I want to make.

Super Cult Tycoon 2 Deluxe A lovely little game which you can play free of charge, this is a simpler city builder which is extremely funny. Basically you have to kidnap as many acolytes as possible before the FBI shut you down.

Evil Cult is a game for people who miss Dos. The manual is an education in itself, however, and you can also play this one free

Pathologic is an old game which has been reworked in HD. It is a little old fashioned and a bit too scripted, and even in HD, I do not think this is the look I am going for.

This one looks as if it will be ideal, so I will be purchasing this later in the year, although I see it retains the traditional American fear of socialism. You aren’t all unemployed millionaires you know. People still starve to death in the richest country in the world.

I am bouncing around a couple of ideas at the moment, which may or may not intertwine, depending on how development goes. The first part of the game is basically a career/management game, but since the course of becoming a guru and creating a cult run along similar dynamic lines, I think it is appropriate to look into how people handle AI, resource management and community.

It will not be a violent game, although it may have a mature rating, for the purposes of incorporating all these hot and horny health food fans.

I see from Rulers of nations, that I could actually just use David’s image after all, since he is now a public figure. I do not think he would like this, however, although you never can tell with David. He will freak out at the sight of a paperclip on some days, and be totally laid back on others. Much like the rest of us, I guess. It seems wasteful not to, on one hand, but he is never quite sure about my sense of humour, so it may be best to have an avatar and let you choose for yourself. The plan is to make the topic variable also, with an emphasis on educational development in the course of a sweet looking game.

I am swithering as to whether to make a facebook style app to promote the 3d version, since the purpose of this is not strictly to make me money.

I think maybe do a relatively simple app first, and work on the more interesting 3d elements of the final piece of work later. I have an awful lot of work to do.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to bounce an idea at me, feel free to use the comments.

Ina

games

So you want to make a game?

March 16, 2016 No Comments

As a developer, I would not call myself highly experienced, but here is my take on building games.

Longer term readers will recall that I made a fairly extensive game in Second Life just after my father died. My father was a fan of Patrick McGoohan’s Prisoner, and as I knew he was dying, just when some cheeky swine was attempting to remake/ruin his legacy, I decided to make a tribute island for him in Second Life. As it turned out, he actually visited it with his grandchildren, so the creative exercise was worthwhile. The letter from the family was sufficient for me to make a full working model of the entire series, with the help of a couple of more computer savvy friends doing the scripting.

It took quite a while just to psych myself into thinking in a more linear, and yet less sequential, way to make this happen. My friends patiently waited for me to figure out that I had to drop the idea of story and concentrate on objects and what they do, and how they move you on within a game context.

So, for your first game I would advise that you do not do it alone, although at times it will feel that you are waiting forever for something very minor. The more people you can involve the better, particularly in the later stages when you need them to test your idea without bias. Some people who get involved will just appear to be sticking spokes in your wheels, but even this input is useful.

Knowledge of the following is desirable:

The games market – do not waste time following every blog and trend. It is far easier to look at the shops and reviews to see what people actually enjoy playing, and what demographic goes for what game.

Artwork – it is helpful to have more than one person on 2d artwork, and some experience of machinima, as well as photoshop; and texturemaking is useful. Do not pick a perfectionist to work with until you are bored with fiddling with your game, as they will just hold you up and waste your time. Spend some time in Second Life and practise machinima and building to get better at this yourself. It is amazing what you can do just messing about.

3d modelling – A thorough knowledge of the marketplace before you start is helpful. I recommend you spend some time in Second Life or similar, as there are alternatives to the mainstream programmes that are far easier to use and cheaper. Anyone who has spent any significant time with Blender will agree that there are much more pleasurable ways to die.

Game engines – Get to know more than one, so that you have some options. Take careful note of what they expect in the way of recompense’licensing. Look at the games job sites to see what skills are most marketable before you decide which one to learn. Again, spend some time in Second Life, since many of the skills you can learn from classes in there will stand you in extremely good stead with Unity in terms of building, texturing etc.

Scripting and Coding – If you have a friend that is good at this, bear in mind that they need very precise information to give you what you want. You need to list your requirements, not necessarily in order, and then wait for them to figure out how to make it happen. Scripters are amazing, magical people.

Game structure and dynamics – You will get better at this the more games you make. It is a bit like making films. Do not worry terribly much about your first ten. It is more important that you get something done, so that you know what you want the next time.

Animation – there are many ways to go about this, I am mediocre at best, so I will refrain from comment at this time.

Shaders and lighting – considered by many to be the difference between an amateur and professionally made game.

Music – a handy composer is always helpful

I have a very specific idea of how the game I am planning is going to work, but I plan to do it all myself this time, so it will take a while to acquire the relevant skills.

In the meantime, here is my early coding lesson for you to amuse yourself with.

Futile tribute to David Wolfe Caution – does not work in Chrome

The latter build in Second life