Little bit, eh?

It’s been quiet round here lately and not because I’ve had nothing to say, but because I’ve been too bloody busy doing stuff. Like seeing my family, or Hannah’s family, or working or making a computer game in my spare time. Check the other blog, Lonely Gamer, for all that shizzle.

I’ve been busy today in fact - I went out to a BBQ at Ben and Miriams last night, stayed over, then went shopping today with Hannah. We went out for a meal too. I had mussels.

I tried to buy a phone too - I really like the 02 Cocoon that my brother has, but nowhere had it in stock. Bummer.

I did buy a book though. Can you guess what it is?

Gee, I guess actually I don’t have anything to write after all.

Out, Joe.

We’ve been sitting on this article for a week or two now while we move in to our new offices, but we’ve just published it. Written by Mark Morris of Introversion Software (DEFCON, Darwinia), the article is part of a series which will examine how to start an indie games studio from scratch. This first part examines how to generate ideas for games.

It’s quite good. Read it.

“I’m not an industry analyst so I’m not going to compare different business models or analyse case studies, but I’m going to dig into my mind, and the minds of my pals in the industry, and try to build a guide to ‘doing it the Introversion way’. That’s not because I think we are a perfect company or that we’ve ‘cracked it’, but because I know everything about Introversion and I think we’ve done well for three guys who started out with a small stash of left-over beer money and one potential game idea.“

You can read the article here and Digg it here.

Joe, out.

I went to an event today where I met Al Bickham again, one-time technical editor for PC Format and now PR man for Take-Two. Because of the time the event finished I ended up going straight home rather than heading to the office for an hour and then heading straight home. It really is remarkable how different the experience was of walking back at 3:00 PM rather than at 7:00PM.

At 7:00PM, I’ve been working hard all-day. I’m hungry, tired, my shoes hurt, my shoulders ache and all I want to do is have a whiskey and a burger - speaking of which, I tried a bottle of Connemaragh 25yr single malt recently on my fathers recommendation. It was good, but not as good as some I’ve had frankly. Tastes clear though.

At 3:00PM, I’m idling instead of charging and my meander gives me time to stop and listen to the birds, look at the ducks and smile at cute little babies being taken home from playgroup. There was one baby I saw with a stick in one hand and a Mars bar in the other and who took a bite out of the wrong one - a sad indictment of our confectionery industry.

On the other hand, I’m cooking tonight. Trout in Cream with Pasta balls.

Things I need to do: Smile more, read my own copy more closely, stop being a grumpy arse, find new stories to tell. The last one is the most important - there really aren’t ever any good parties going on round here unless Ben and Dom are in the house.

Joe, Out.

That unless you have it as your homepage then you tend to forget you have one. Then one day you remember and you think “Oh, yeah, I gotta write in that soon”. Then you start looking for things to put in it, but then you realise that you don’t have a very interesting life and then you question the point of your blog. You could question your life at this point, but if you’re the type of person who has a blog then you’re probably so lazy that you don’t want to tackle the big questions unless someone is paying attention to your emo rantings.

We’re moving offices right now, so I guess I’ll write about that at some point. Not now though.

I wrote a feature about indie and experimental games yesterday, rounding up my favourite games of the last month or two. I think it’s quite good and I’ll probably contact a few of the developers at some point to ask them if they want to do columns. Until then, you can read the feature here while I go have a poo.

Out, Joe.

I’m writing this post frommy new Eee PC 4G, which is pretty cool.

The keyboard istaking some getting used to though…

Joe, out.

I wrote a column a few weeks ago following the death of Hannah’s grandfather. It’s possibly a little odd that in response to his tragic death I wrote a column about computer games, but those thoughts were the honest reaction this his death provoked in me immediately and I wanted to write and share them.

The column has just gone live and serves as an invitation for gamers to share stories about why they got into computer games and what is the root of their passion for games.

“Now, I don’t believe that our loves and losses are preset in life. I think we make our own choices even though we rarely understand the choice we are making and can never fully predict the effect. So it seems to me that hardcore gamers are people who once made a choice to play a single game that hooked them. They aren’t programmed from birth to be geeks, they just happened to stumble across something once that they latched onto for the rest of their life, dooming themselves to a lifetime of constantly trying to recapture the horror, humour or fascination they unearthed so long ago. The fact that one experience could potentially shape someone’s entire personality is something which fascinates me.“

You can read the full column at bit-tech right now and I’d appreciate any feedback or comments that people might leave.

Out, Joe

The world has orbited the Sun once more. It is my birthday. I am now 23. Yes, an achievement. Whoop.

So, please, leave your well-wishes and what not here so that I can ignore them all in one place. No facebook messages or texts. No emails or phone calls. There are only a few people I’ll forgive for such annoyances and you aren’t one of them - they don’t read this blog and I’m seeing them all tonight.

Right. Thats it. Piss off now.

Oh, and thanks to Hannah for the fried breakfast in bed this morning. I’m not sure which I prefer more - the poached eggs and beans on toast or the cool firesteel she got me. Either way, I’m full to the brim and looking forward to a weekend of going through my survival stuff and re-reading Ray Mears.

Out.

I did a five page, in-depth preview of Spore recently and it seems to have gone down kind of well. Major diggage, slashdottage and a link on Penny Arcade - even though Tycho didn’t read it.

Yeah, this post was pure boast. I struggle daily to try and keep my ego in check, to stave off the inevitable transformation in to Mankini Man, so I think I deserve this one celebration. W00t, etc.

And it’s a bloody good thing I never finished writing that nasty column about Penny Arcade, Digg and Slashdot…

Joe, out.

I’ve had two pancake days this year and they were both excellent. The first was ad ho, at ours, with Hannah, Bindi and Hiren. The second was planned, yesterday at ours with Hannah, Jo and Elliot. This was only the second time I met Elliot and it went further to proving the theory that men have a special bond unknown to women. While the girls made chit-chat and played Crimson Room, Elliot and I ranted at each other for ages about Marvel Civil War, Zombies, how to survive the imminent zombie apocalypse and computer games.

It was great and we agreed on everything. There was a moment, etc.

I did a review of Devil May Cry 4 recently which got some flak because I complained about parts which people think make the game great. I could say more on that and rant about what does and doesn’t equal good game design and how the big sites like GameSpot, IGN, 1-up etc are essentially the really guilty ones for using a 7-9 rating scal, giving in to fanboy pressure and not actually looking at the merits of the game, etc. But I think I’ve already said all I really should on the matter.

Still, it’s good to see that Eurogamer agrees with me and that Videogamer were able to phrase their points in a way that made me reconsider my arguments for a bit in a rather good review.

Ah well - no biggie. I think all games reviewers have fallen victim to their own fanboyism sometimes. You should see how often I find myself laying praise on Beyond Good and Evil or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time which, while certainly warranted, is perhaps a bit hyperbolic.

What was I talking about anyway? Oh yes. Pancake day. We tried banana, lime, nutmeg and chocolate pancakes. They were excellent. I suggest you partake at the next opportunity.

Out, Joe.