The Workings of a Gamer

2016-01-25T08:00:00.001-08:00

This is a test

Nicol Bolas

Have I become like most people?

2010-09-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

I no longer buy a game just for it's single player, I want to make sure it has a thriving online community as well. Is online now the future of games? Is single player eventually going to fade away into oblivion?

Let's take FPS games for example. Modern Warfare 2, the single player portion was probably 3-4 hours long if you didn't suck and didn't bother trying to get all the hidden objectives and achievements. That is not long at all, but who really bought MW2 for it's single player? Exactly, most only wanted the multiplayer/online aspect.

I'm not saying this is bad but as the internet grows more popular so too does our desire to connect and be with other people even in a virtual reality. Games such as MMORPG's are becoming more prevalent in today's gaming society. Console games are almost having to be sold with some kind of online attachment. Same with handheld games as well.

So, as it stands probably like most people I get very bored with just a games single player and just look more forward to interacting with others on the games online portion. How about you guys?

Metroid Other M

2010-09-07T11:49:00.001-07:00

I'm not even that far into the game and I'm already meh...

I was very excited for this game as I never could get into the Prime series. While the gameplay is ok, the story was cool at first then it becomes a wtf? I really hate that Samus cannot use her powers because she has not been "authorized". Screw that!

Other than that I'm going to retry the Prime series to see if it brings back that Metroid feeling of exploring and mystery and not so much melodrama.

Next Generation Gamers

2010-09-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have two kids, both girls one is 7 and the other is 14 months. My 7 year old is of course turning into a little gamer like I am and has her own DS and we have a Wii for her to play as well (I don't let her on my gaming PC or my PS3/PS2). She plays mainly girly games (like barbie horse adventures or dream salon) stuff we would have never had as kids growing up.

I like to consider myself a decent gamer as I've been playing since I could remember. Our first system was an Atari 2600 and shortly after the NES. I feel fortunate enough to see the complete evolution of the gaming genre from 8-bit to what it is today. I almost feel sad for gamers today because they will never experience what we did such as the evolution into 3D gaming (such as going from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64). That was a huge step! Or the first time seeing FMV's in games. Now it seems like kids expect that sort of thing, a lot of them feel more like interactive movies than anything. The last console games I play was the God of War Trilogy, and while those games were very fun it felt like playing a movie. Sometimes I wonder if game designers are losing their way to make their games more hollywood? Sometimes I just want to sit down and play a game and not have to watch a 30 minute intro or long exposition scenes.

So I think that brings me back to the magic of gaming I feel is lost now a days. Do all games made now have to have that "epic" feeling? Such a deep storyline that messes with your head and leaves much unsaid to make you "wonder" if this or that is true? Yes games like those can be fun but as I mentioned before what happened to just turning on a game and playing it? I turned on Battletoads for the NES the other day and skipped the story part and hit start and went straight to the action. Not knowing what the story was didn't hinder my progress at all I was having a blast kicking some toad butt!

I know these are just ramblings but when I look at games today I feel very uninterested. I love the lineup for the Wii this coming holiday but Nintendo plays more towards Nostalgia, which is nice but I want something new.

How do some of you feel?

Gaming funk

2010-08-30T19:54:00.001-07:00

Have any of you ever been in a gaming funk? I am a big Blizzard Gamer so therefor I play a lot of WoW and recently SC2. The only time I enjoy WoW now is during raid nights and of course that's mainly enjoying playing with my friends (real life ones). When not raiding I get very bored and end up playing FPS or some Wii games.

I hate when I get in these funks that every game I play bores the crap out of me...

Game time?

2010-08-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's getting to the point where my game is ready for beta testing, I have everything prepared and outlined as far as rules go and the games story and all that. I just need people in my area to help but it's hard. Maybe one day I will get back into it and put more effort into finding people and it will get published? Who knows...

Been a while!

2010-05-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

Wow so it's been awhile since I've posted in here huh!

Here is an update to the game as recently in the past few months I have been working on it:

I feel the game itself is in a pretty good form and it's ready for some beta testing. I have some beta testers and we will probably start next month. We have nixxed quite a few features as we feel they would prolong production of the game even further and feel they may be better suited for an expansion or add-on to the game.

I will post more news of the beta testing and the stories it followed. SO stay tuned!

What is it about?

2009-08-03T13:09:00.001-07:00

So I was going through the previous posts and I noticed I never really described the game...well here goes nothing.

You have the choice of choosing 1 of 12 races along with being 1 of 20 Unique Job Classes. Each one differs in the way your play style will be. Some will just be main damage dealers while others will have to stay in the back and cast magic or heal or brew some concotions.

You will have the freedom of deciding your fate. Whether it be saving the damsel in distress or perhaps getting into a barfight with the locals and then later killing some Zombies in a dungeon. It's up to you. The way you shape the world is in your hands.

As far as the story is up to you, the way your character grows is up to you as well. Do you wish to Tame Animals? Or perhaps raise the dead as a Necromancer? Maybe become one with nature as a Druid. Perhaps you'd like to do both raise the dead and be one with nature. You decide. Your actions and your deeds will decide who follows you.

Welcome to Espartia!

I had a bad roll

2009-07-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

So I had a bad roll today. My car died and other family issues going on. Besides that I'm trying not too hard to worry. My fiancee and I are going to start playing Magic the Gathering again. At least it'll help with trying to get back into the groove of things as far as designing the game goes.

So as far as my car crapping out how come I didn't get a saving roll?

BTW set up a new email address for us espartia@gmail.com

Where have you been?

2009-07-29T17:46:00.001-07:00

As I noticed this blog was getting rusty and very little to actually no updates I thought I should write a little update.

Both my colleagues and I have been sidetracked by life so we have had very little time to work on the game. My daughter was born June 12th and we have since moved and my day job has taken more of a bigger role and plus I have exams to study for so that leaves me little time for much else but things are slowly but surely coming back to normal.

As for my colleagues they had to suddenly move back to their hometown due to financial reasons so they too are limited on what they can do for the time being. But never fear, we will get working back on this soon!

A little taste

2009-05-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

As I promised I will give a little taste of some of the Job classes we have and 1 or 2 of their skills they can learn. So without further ado here we go:

Animal Tamer: One who tames all sorts of animals and creatures to fight along side him. Some will fight and follow him even in death. Can also learn how to play musical instruments to put his enemies at peace.

Skills:

Taming: Character has a chance to tame an animal within 3 spaces. Tamer has a 25% chance to tame an animal.

Veterinary: Restores a pet's HP based on half of the character's base strength.

Thief: One who steals. They can be very agile and very rarely caught. They also have a keen taste for alcohol.

Skills:

Backstab: If user is able to get behind enemy and attacks. It does x2 the damage. (Support)

Steal: Steal from an enemy. MP: 5

Necromancer: A practicer of the dark arts. Able to conjure the undead and curse his enemies into oblivion.

Skills:

Skeletal Warriors: Summons a skeletal warrior out of a slain enemy corpse. MP: 10

Weaken: Reduces an enemie's stats by half for 3 rounds, does not stack. MP: 20

Samurai: A warrior who lives by the sword and their honor. To disgrace their honor means certain death for you.

Skills:

Kyusho-Giri: Gives the character a 50% chance to deal 2x normal damage. (Support)

Kamikaze: Character channel's their chakra through the sword to release a burst of energy 5 spaces in a direction for normal damage. MP: 10

And that shall be all for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Rules and Databases

2009-05-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

As this is our first time really developing a game we start to come across some of the not so fun parts when putting it together. Namely database and data entry work. It isn't hard just very dull and dreary. It was very easy to come up with a lot of the creative aspects of the game but when it's coming down to numbers and math and the logical functions of it is where it has become boring.

We are working hard on getting everything into a database and it is about halfway finished. We are currently rewriting the player rules in a better looking format and almost done with that. once that is finished we will begin the DM rules.

I plan to hopefully post a screenshot or two of the character sheet, it is a rough draft of it and hope to make it better. It is still in some editing phases. Also very soon I want to post a preview of some job classes that players can be.

I will also lay out a project plan for us to follow and I hope we can get this done by sometime next year.

The beginning

2009-05-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

As I am working feverishly on this tabletop game some of us are creating I thought it best to write down what we have been working on and at what point we are on in the making of this game and record it for our records.

The game we are creating is a tabletop RPG game akin to D&D, White Wolf etc...It is a tactical RPG. The core gameplay and combat system is unlike I have seen in any other tabletop game. It mostly relys on percentages to hit and determining how much damage will be done. We have made it similar in aspect to Final Fantasy ala Job Classes but expanding on them more and making them unique.

In the following few posts I will give previews of what classes we have and some examples of gameplay. But I will discuss what we've been working on.

We had a meeting last night our topics of discussion were finishing up the Hero Skills. We are now done with coming up with the Hero Skills and just have to implement them and test them out and configure it for combat use. We have begun the most tedious part of creating and designing this game; database entry....We have started to put most of our stuff in an Access database for easier use and fleshing it out. I have started working on Crafting recipies and it is well underway. Monster and Pet databases are started to being worked on as well.

As we finish the database part is when we get into writing campaigns and fleshing out more of our fantasy world. We are saving that for last as that will be the fun part.

The one thing we have not come up with agreement is a name for the game. So far we have come up with Espartia or Telm'Nar. Yet cannot come to an agreement on which is better.

Our work is well underway and will post more when time allows.