What a start to 2020, eh?
I’ve got a lot to cover…
COMICS.
So, the entirety of Cold Reset 2 is now ONLINE. I’ve got some projects planned between now and CR3, but it’s all for the good of the series.
Was refreshing to see a few new faces picking up the comic and interacting a bit; that’s not something you see too often in most indie comics. Any plans I had for printing and networking have gone a little but tits-up thanks to the V-word.
UNI.
This is a ranty one.
Seeing as the nature of my Master’s course is essentially team-based projects, it’s pretty vital that one is in constant communique with their team and vice versa, and that each member is at the top of their game. This is why it came as a shock that, when the V-word drama picked up a great deal and things got dangerous, and even when the University was forced to close, the deadline was the only thing standing its ground.
With one member of my team in self-isolation due to flu symptoms, another member at home in Poland under two-week quarantine, yet another member at home in India with his family and suffering intermittent electricity and internet connection… well, it seemed unfeasible to hold current students to the standard of past students when it came to this particular course module. At least, that’s what logic would say.
No, with other courses all extending deadlines and trying their very best to “keep the learning going”, mine was the one that chose to dig its heels in and stay firm. They tried everything – emailing a survey to students to check that everyone had the technical requirements to work from home – tutors setting up feedback sessions over the internet – some elements of the submission checklist being relaxed (requirements went from needing external feedback to just needing University-based feedback, to being able to use feedback from classmates…)
Yeah, no holds barred, all stops pulled out good and proper. A noble effort to stay afloat when you look at it. But when neither of my tutors were responding to personal emails, and the University’s very “advice zone” took over a week to respond, and with the deadline looming ever closer, things got a bit chaotic. This kind of situation certainly takes its toll on ones work ethic. It was even more shocking to see that, when the University finally placed the ultimate decision on deadline-setting in the hands of the course leaders, the date remained stationary.
Resolving to accepting failure of the module, and resitting when all this shit had died down, I stopped working on my projects and informed my team of my decision. A week into this, they finally extended the deadline. But only by a month. Things didn’t look so grim now either way. So I got back to work.
And at the time of writing this, I’m working on it still.
You wanna see?
SLEEPER-9.
So this started as a daunting Uni project, focused on improvement through gathering feedback and testing prototypes. It meant I had to make a game from scratch entirely by myself for the first time. So far, I’ve just been the “art guy” who offered some feedback to the coders. While I’ve dabbled in basic blueprinting in UE4 in the past, this would be my first proper foray into it.
When the drama with the V-word happened and it looked like I wouldn’t be able to make the deadline no matter how much I worked on the game, I lost a lot of motivation. I didn’t even have any excitement towards my project. I’d doodled some guy in a gas mask and animated some basic Idle and Running animations for him, but the art part was more fun than the coding part, and that shouldn’t have been the case.
After a random burst of creativity in the shower a few weeks ago, I had a new idea on how to approach my game. And I thought tying it into my comics universe would make me a little more excited about it (cause after the Cold Reset 2 stuff, I was bursting with ideas, and all I wanted to do was work on comics!)
So this was really the best way I could look at it. Anyway, I have a new story in mind. I won’t be able to see it through, but I can at least play around with the mechanics ideas I had to go with it. And this is where the coding has gotten more fun.
Take a look:
Okay, so I got a little inspired by re-re-rewatching a bunch of Metal Gear Solid stuff, and some documentaries on Hideo Kojima… But he did the same thing with a bunch of other stuff okay?!
Kidding. I’m excited to keep working on this.
So what you’re seeing above is some stills from a few cutscenes I’ve managed to put together so far (getting those to play in between levels has been an absolute nut-ache) and then some screenshots of Level 1 gameplay.
I’ve programmed a bunch of basic movement and combat animations for the player character so far, as well as implementing an insta-death system. Hopefully everything I want for it is both possible and straightforward to implement… Or this deadline’s gonna be rough.
Stay tuned for the next post to see how this goes!
BAND STUFF.
Both of my bands have/had some interesting stuff going on. One had a bunch of shows lined up, including a headline single-launch gig with some great support. Our single launched anyway and can be found right here. It did super well, hit over 1000 streams in less than a week, and we got a bunch of messages from promoters and added to a few playlists across the world. Randomly enough, a DJ from some California station (that houses shows hosted by the likes of Howard Stern!!?) got in touch and added us to one of his playlists. All very exciting! Once the V-word fucks off, we’ll get back on track.
My other band competed in a Battle of the Bands thing and we had a blast. We didn’t win, which is fine, we played it cause we wanted to A: Have some fun; and B: Get our name out there a bit more. It kinda worked. We got a lot of compliments and the 50 badges I brought to give away for free all went. Stay tuned for more on that.
Here’s a little video of us in action – I’m drums, of course 😉
MUSIC.
This V-word situation has seen some interesting decisions by some bands. Live-streaming free live shows and posting endless Q&A’s, and just generally interacting with fans more out of just nothing else to do… It’s been totally surreal.
Here’s one I absolutely adored:
Metsatöll have always been a band I listened to in passing, but saw a lot of through my music circles. This performance of theirs really pushed them up there for me. I couldn’t help but donate to them for putting on such a good show – the guitarist even tossed his pick out into the non-existent crowd at the end! They threw in a CD and t-shirt for a minimum donation, I was all over that.
TV.
This season of Better Call Saul is absolutely its best yet. Every single episode has been captivating – not that that isn’t usually the case… Just, especially so this year. That year they took out totally paid off.
The Walking Dead did a weird thing thanks to the V-word. They chose to delay the season 10 finale until later in the year, and also delay the new spin-off show. Basically, the world’s been a bit delayed… but TWD couldn’t finish post-production on the final episode in time to air it, so it’s just kinda ended on a massive cliffhanger, and not especially at any sort of high. It was written to be a penultimate episode to the season. Gonna be a long wait to see what happens there.
Tiger King was some kind of global phenomenon (majorly thanks to the timing of the V-word). I don’t think the makers of that show quite expected what happened – tons of people shut at home with nothing to do all day… A captive audience.
Not that the show wasn’t a thrilling watch (and by god, it was!), it’s just amusing that of all the shows, THAT was the one that exploded. I remember the Louis Theroux documentary on Joe Exotic from a few years ago. It barely scratched the surface, but it was enough to just be an utterly bizarre glimpse into that world. It was more interesting than I expected to take a deeper dive in. Can’t help but feel that Carole Baskin is a murderer, and that those guys who stole Joe’s park also framed him for murder for hire. He’s gonna be in jail for 20 years unjustly…
Bet he got quite the paycheck for this.
MOVIES.
Surprisingly, it’s been quite hard to get stuck into movies, despite having all the time in the world now.
There was a bunch of stuff I was looking forward to this year, but it’s all been delayed now. The last movie I saw in the cinema before this lockdown was Bloodshot, Vin Diesel’s latest supersoldier action movie. Gotta be said, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Although I did predict most of the twists before I was supposed to… I don’t think that was supposed to happen.
I caught The Invisible Man online a few nights ago – holy god damn, I enjoyed it so much. I went in expecting a psychological thriller, which, sure, it was for most of the movie. But when that scene in the asylum cell happens… it just turned into a crazy superhero movie, with no superheroes, just one supervillain and a bunch of tiny little humans. Was on the edge of my seat!
I’ve been wanting to watch Uncut Gems for a long time. It was only out in the indie cinemas over here, and I never got the chance to go see it. I’ve always loved Adam Sandler in stuff. He was a big part of the movies I watched growing up, so it’s very hard to hate him with the passion that others seem to. But holy bananas. He was unrecognisable in this. That ending crushed me though. I only wanted good things for him, damn it.
GAMES.
My list of games I have ready to play keeps growing. From Horizon: Zero Dawn, to Doom, to Monster Hunter World, to fucking Crash Team Racing! I have them all already, just sat in my room, neglected. Younger me would be embarrassed. But there seems to be some phenomenon hitting people my age. I can no longer sit for hours on end and just get lost in a game. In the back of my mind, I’m always feeling guilty because there’s other stuff I should be doing – Uni work – comic work – something creative. I should be making stuff like this, not playing it!
I dunno, maybe that’s a me problem. Or maybe it’s an artist problem. Or any sort of creative. Talking about it with friends, it seems to be a common thing.
Anyway, at the moment I’m working my way through Death Stranding (finally) and I’m loving every second of submerging myself in a totally unchained Kojima’s world. When this deadline is over with, I’ll commit to sitting on my ass and just playing it all day.
Maybe this is how I finally get through my huge game list. Maybe the V-word did this.
POKEMON?
I got weirdly back into Pokemon. I saw… something… I can’t remember. It was a month or two ago. And it kicked me into rewatching the old anime, the episodes I grew up on. I managed to get through the whole Kanto League, all of the Orange Islands, and I fizzled out about 10 episodes into Johto. But I got my fix.
I also got back into Pokemon Go, after like a 3 year break. I remember when I first got it, when the craze started, I just wanted to get Gengar, my absolute favourite Pokemon, and then I’d put the game down and let it be. It never happened, cause you need a stupid amount of Gastly candies, and Gastly never spawned for me. I got one or two from eggs but all hope was gone. In an update in the years since, you can now walk a Pokemon, and earn candies for each 3km walked! Passively, over the course of a few months, I got my Gastly to be a Haunter. And a few days ago, I did it. I realised my 2016 dream. I got my fucking Gengar. He now follows me around the map whenever I want him to, and I can feed him berries. Just the way I always imagined it!
And now I’ve been watching hours and hours of the happiest man on Earth opening Pokemon cards. Just look at this guy!
I love him.
MUSIC II.
Another band that’s really stepped up during this V-word thing is my fave – NOFX.
I think I talk about them a fair bit on here, but they are my all-time favourite band – my happy place. And during the V-word crisis, they’ve been putting out a ton of content for people stuck at home. And not even stuff coming up off their new album, but just random stuff, including a haunting acoustic version of one of their old songs, about the world being wiped out by the flu. Or something like that.
People are stepping up their games and showing their true colours, in both good and bad ways.
All thanks to this super surreal time we’re going through, straight out of a movie. A time where, when we look back on it, will seem even more surreal than it does now. Like it never happened. Like it was all just a dream.
Who would have thought that one man in a tiny little Chinese food market could shut down the world on this scale…
I have more to say, but that’ll come in the next post.
Once we are rid of
this
fucking
VIRUS.
…
SONG OF THE DAY.
dincorta 