ID:78319
 
Keywords: design
Apparently, I should have waited until Monday to update my Vehicle Wars status, because Sunday turned out to be a complete loss in terms of Vehicle Wars advancement. Instead, I took a 125 mile road trip. It took all day and I arrived home as exhausted as if I took a week vacation.

That said, it turned out to be a Christmas-day-born fellow's mid-year-replacement Birthday celebration, as my mother surprised me by shelling out $200-$250 between:
  • A Microsoft Wireless laser Desktop 4000 to replace my filthy old keyboard and somewhat-less-filthy mouse. Personally, I prefer wired input devices, but the plan is that having a wireless keyboard may make use of my PCGamerbike Mini easier.
  • Two excellent meals, one at a Rose's and another at a somewhat-less-exquisite but nonetheless savory Outback.
  • Two pairs of shoes, including some slip-on loafers, which are a new experience for me.
  • A fanny pack. Yes, a fanny pack -- for those days in which it's too hot to wear a coat to carry around my prerequisite cell phone, glasses case, comb, and idea sketch pad. Reaching for my sketch pad, I feel not unlike Kakashi reaching for Make Out Paradise.
All things considered, that I'm excited about these gifts leaves little wonder I scored a 93 on a certain homebrew nerd quiz. I'd probably have scored 102/100 if they had a "living at home with your parents at 32" option. Another thing that should be blindingly obvious is that I've really outgrown giving a damn how much of a nerd I may or may not be.

Banging my head against the futile backdrop of my unemployable existence...

It's not that bad, but there is a certain Macabre humor to looking at it that way.

Moving on into what I'll be doing this week, I've called the temp agencies and announced my availability. Though it may seem I've already been out of school for a week, the last day of class was actually last Thursday - about 90 hours ago. I've another 3-7 weeks until I'm back to school full time (depending on whether I'll be going to the college or university) and that means ample opportunity to put some work into my "Vehicle Wars" project.

I should probably drop some apps too, but it's difficult enough to land work normally, and a whole added order of magnitude of difficulty if your schedule is not completely available - a full time student's schedule is certainly not. Put another way, being a student is my job right now.

Being an aspiring game designer is a hobby that might grow into something greater some day, but it's a bit like planning on making a living being a writer: great if you can pull it off, but nothing you can bank on given fickle public opinion. It helps that I really enjoy making games. So, an extent, this potential path of future career expansion is, in fact, a large part of my recreation.

Alright, about my BYOND game design...

I think perhaps the most interesting thing about this project is that I seem to be committed to making sure everything is alive. I don't just have mobs staggering around under a Make_Random_Step() until an enemy pops into view, then charge them blindly. No, so far my NPCs all have an agenda, and the players are invited to step in and be one of them. Thus, this game comes off as a bit of a single player game with full multiplayer compatibility.

The balance is also rather interesting. If you play it alone, you should be challenged. If you play it with other players, everyone should be challenged. The factions are played against eachother in such a way that this should happen every game: the further you get, the more powerful the opposition becomes - to truly win the game, you have to have earned wining the game. The primary things players do is lend their ingenuity to a side, thereby introducing human intelligence into the microcosm.

What's more, I've thrown in a concept I've wanted to see added for awhile, and that is the idea of allowing the players' desire for accumulation to balance the game. The third faction is all about this: your whole goal is, in standard MMORPG fashion, to accumulate power for the sake of accumulating power, with the welcome addition that your main goal is to retire in opulence for a great high score. However, you only really benefit from opposing the current dominant side. Thus, this third faction is actually a mercenary faction of sorts - they may be in it for personal gain, but they're actually enforcing a fair balance between the two other factions. Even if everybody wants to play these guys (because the other two are more about communal advancement) the game should still be fun.

It should be interesting to see how it plays out. For now, I need to actually knuckle down and start adding more units and abilities to the game. I have a certain reservation to do so like an artist who is afraid of preventing perfection from being reached by daring to allow the brush to touch the canvas. That's silly - I think the whole point of art may be to allow the artist to conduct meaning, and imperfection is a vital part of that.