A Little Housekeeping

I have combined this blog with what used to be at http://micsideas.blogspot.com/, and imported all of the old posts into this one.

The Illusionext blog is still up and running.

Most of my personal stuff can be found on my Facebook page. I'll continue to post on here, but it'll actually be more about any ideas that I have.

And just in case you were wondering, I'm open to discussion on any of the crazy ideas I throw out. Personally, I believe that Star Wars was as good as it was because people were willing to point out flaws in the plan. I'll take all the suggestions I can get.

How To Make A Superman Game

I'm going to cover a couple games here that have been out for a while, but bear with me. I'll get to the point.

When I first heard about Justice League Heroes, I was pretty excited. When I actually played the game, I was actually a bit disappointed. I did enjoy some of the game, but I think I can sum up my thoughts with one little tidbit about the game. It seriously has an escort mission, in which you have to keep Superman alive. Yeah, you heard me right.

I haven't actually played it, but from what I've heard the Superman Returns game was pretty bad as well.

There's been a bunch of other Superman games, but you get the idea.

So why do Superman games suck? I can't seem to find the article, but I read somewhere a while back that the problem with Superman games is that in order for them to be accurate to the character, you would have a single button. It would be labeled "Win." In order to present a challenge to the player, Superman has to be dumbed down and weakened. In the case of Justice League Heroes and Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe, it also means making mortals like Batman even stronger than they would be otherwise.

So how do you get around this? Well, I see two solutions. The first would be to go ahead and give the player their God Mode. Let them feel what it would be like to actually be Superman fighting against mortals. If more game designers put fun as a priority instead of challenge, this would be a no-brainer. Obviously the whole game can't be like that, but it should be part of it.

The other solution would be to not make the game about Superman. Make a game about Lois Lane. Superman would be an NPC. It would actually create a lot of suspense in the game if the player had no idea when or even if Superman would come rescue their character. It would make a great game if the story were about Lois finding out Superman's secret identity right at the beginning of the game (so the player and the character both have the same information), and then trying to figure out what to do about that knowledge.

Come to think of it, that's a game that I may even be able to make. :-)

A Proposal

I would like to propose a new emoticon, in honor of the high amounts of traffic on my site.

...@

It's a tumbleweed.

This is Good Stuff!

There's a free game design course online right now. There's apparently about a thousand of us already signed up, with a waiting list for more, so if you go to sign up, it might take a bit. But if you are at all interested in making games, I would highly suggest taking a look. He does require a book, but it's pretty inexpensive. All the requirements are listed on his blog. So check it out. You can't beat free, right?

My Kids Are So Spoiled

This is the new bed I built for my son. I think he likes it.

Watching a Friend Chase Her Dreams

This is a friend of mine from work, Mysti. For those of you who don't know, we do tech support. She looks a bit out of place there with the rest of us nerds and geeks in our strange t-shirts, but she's pretty good at what she does. The problem is, she doesn't want to do it forever. She wants to be a model. Not too long ago, she decided to stop thinking about it and start doing it. She's been taking classes after work and doing whatever it takes to bring her dreams to life. (There are a bunch more photos if you're curious.)

That's the way to do it. Stop dreaming. Start doing. That's why I bought my cheap little camera and started figuring out how to film things.

So to Mysti, I say congratulations. You're on your way.

To everyone else, I say this: Stop making excuses and start making things happen.

Because I'm Bored Too Often

I've found this silly little game that I've been playing, and I thought you guys (if it's still plural!) might want to join in. Head on over to http://eltriant.mybrute.com and create a character. Your little dude will do all the fighting for you. It's simple and addictive, but really doesn't take that much time.

Okay, okay. The real reason I'm blogging this is because if you sign up under me I get experience points.