1984

Game Update

Steam sent me an e-mail to make sure I was ready for release on April 22, and that reminded me that I needed to test the build in the Steam Client. There is a section in Steamworks that designates where the files are located to execute the program as well as the data. I thought that the folders that I designated might be wrong. It turns out I had reasons to be suspicious as it did not work the first time. It was an easy fix however. I felt a lot of joy to see my game start up when I pressed the play button.

I also managed to implement a quick update to fix a bug. It was pretty impressive to see the speed at which it updated the files for the game. It occurred to me that after I get all the stages built, and the steam achievements implemented for final release I might want to have a classic version, and a plus version of the game that I can keep adding more features onto.

Last but not least I managed to get my very first two steam keys out to my number one beta tester (my oldest son), and my musician. He tried it on his Steam account and managed to download the game and run it with no issues. It was such a great feeling to see everything working properly. I can’t believe how far I’ve come.

Personal Update

This past week I had taxes on my mind most of the week. I had to pay for my Florida business licence which seems to be similar to how a drivers licence is handled. That’s interesting to me as in Texas there isn’t an annual fee to re-up the licence there.

I had to walk away from my computer all week as my office became a room for my girlfriends daughter, and her friends. They had their spring break this past week and wanted to visit the beach. They went to the beach every day which got a little tiresome for me. There was some additional drama which came out later, but overall I’m happy with how things went. This was a big test for my girlfriend and I and it was the first time that she met my boys.

After getting my office back I was able to push out some more work on Six Aspects, and I returned to my personal tax return. More problems occurred, and I’m working through them. I hope to have them resolved on Wednesday. If that weren’t enough my neighbors are annoyed that I haven’t cleaned up my leaves and so I have some yard work to do to get things back into shape. I suppose when it rains it pours sometimes.

I finished the book “Cash Flow Quadrant” and transitioned to the book “1984”. It’s kind of an odd choice for me as I typically only read self development books. It felt a bit indulgent to listen to something that’s for entertainment. Then again, the book is so dark that maybe it could be classified as more of a future warning.

So far I would say there are some parallels between 1984 and what’s been happening across the world after the pandemic. It feels like a lot of freedoms are being taken away from regular people. The book talks about the “Thought Police” and televisions that might monitor citizens while also pushing propaganda. I can’t help but to draw a parallel to what I see in social media, and some “fact checking” outlets. The idea of a crafted narrative seems to be very predominant in both cases to me. I pray that we maintain our freedoms.

If anything I would say that the book gives me an idea about how I might craft the Empire for my video game. Giving them some sort of tyrannical rule, and what that might look like. I’ve been toying around with the idea of a magical device like a TV or cellphone that could be used for propaganda. It could be powered with magical lightning.

Some of the ways that information is controlled in the book are interesting. The idea that facts and figures are made up, or even heroes. Having an entire propaganda army to push out a message. Controlling information by banning the ability to write records down. Erasing people just on the hunch of suspicion against the empire. That part reminds me of “V for Vendetta”, which I suppose might have had its start with “1984”.

I suppose the question is how far would I want to take this if I went with this oppressive of an Empire. Originally I was thinking of making the Empire a little sympathetic, but maybe it’s more interesting to go darker like this. I’ve been listening to story telling techniques and one of the things that I heard over and over was the idea of a plot twist or surprise that comes at key moments in the first, second, and third acts. The surprise needs to change everything, and so given the religious bend to Six Aspects I thought maybe I should do what Final Fantasy Tactics did. Maybe have the church controlled by a Demon or something.

I’m trying to remember some of the plot twists that stand out for me in video games, and Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind. (Spoilers ahead) I would say that the 2 that are highest on my list are finding out that Cloud (protagonist) is actually an experimental soldier and Sephiroth (antagonist) was also created in the same way, and when Aerith (love interest) is killed by Sephiroth. Both situations change the goal that the player is trying to accomplish.

Thinking some more about one of my all time favorites which was trending on social media this week. Chrono Trigger has some major plot twists that work well too. The first one would probably be the discovery of time travel. The second would be finding out the end of the world when the dormant alien Lavos destroys it. The third would probably be when Chrono (main character) dies and his friends have to use time travel and a dummy stand in to bring him back.

I guess I had a lot more going on than I originally thought, and so hopefully things will settle down soon so that I can focus on release and creating new stages for Six Aspects.