Steam Backlog is Finished

  Took only about 2 and a half weeks.

  I learned a lot about what makes a game not fun.  Take the critically acclaimed adventure game Gemini Rue for example.  It didn't even work on my computer so it felt bad.  This is not the developers fault - it is a failing with Adventure Game Studio and certain drivers.  However, the problem is relatively rare.  So I learned that troubleshooting is NEVER truly over.  There is always someone who the game won't work for.

  I also learned that novelty goes a long way, even in a critically poor game.  This time I'm talking about E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy, which has a Metacritic score of only 60, but I really like it.  It's hard, fast, you get plenty of unique abilities which aren't often used in FPS and the sound quality is very good - good as in it correctly works on my 9.1 surround system, something even Battlefield 3 doesn't do.  The translation is quite schizo though, with the characters randomly jumping from perfect politeness to gutteral cussmonger every other line.  A fan translation project is underway, which just goes to show that sometimes you just need to hook a niche of loyal followers.

  Lastly, I also learned that not everyone will like a game even if it is very highly rated.  In this case, The Elder Scrolls V:  Skyrim, which I really just don't care for.  Sure, it's an improvement over Oblivion, which is an improvement over Morrowind, but I didn't like either of those in the first place.  Well, ok, I liked Oblivion somewhat - hunting for nirnroot and crawling through the tall grass.  Did they just miss me as a demographic?  Nope, because lots of people I know like the game... a lot, they Game of the Year'd it.  Basically, I learned you can't please everyone no matter how hard you try.

Projects

  Lately I've been thinking what kind of palette/colour scheme I want.  My main project is a homage to Zelda 2, so maybe I should do a Blue/Orange/Red triangle.

  I still don't have any staff so I have to learn everything from scratch every time I move to a new concept (like audio/visual dynamics)...  which is annoying since there's no schools around here who teach anything remotely like this.

Gaming

  I'm burned out from 3 weeks of Steam.  But mostly I'm playing AI War: Fleet Command and E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy.

Other

  I've recently been struck with paranoia about the safety of my family, even though they're near by and I can check on them any time.  Maybe related to not sleeping.

Sleeping, Lok