I finally got some good developments in creating the little towns that exist in the world of “True King.” This was kind-of done earlier, but I made some improvements (I think) to how it looks, and also to how the towns are used via the game context.
Comparison to update of town visuals in “True King”
I’m making progress on my video game, I swear! Anyway, it’s been almost 4 years since I first purchased my beloved Surface Pro 3 tablet (my initial review can be seen in this blog article), and after the screen finally cracked, I found myself upgrading to the new Surface Pro (2017) model around March 2018. I also just purchased and have been testing the new Oculus Go, a standalone device from Oculus and Facebook that doesn’t require a high-end phone, computers, or cables to allow a user to experience virtual reality. I have thoughts on my experience using the Surface tablet for four years, thoughts on the new version of the tablet, and thoughts on the new VR headset.
I got some buggy new toys…
It’s silly that I felt the compulsion to write my own opinion on whether or not video games can qualify as forms of art. Even after almost two decades of convincing arguments in favor of it, one can still find new articles written by seemingly everyone online bringing up the argument; few people are still against classifying games as art, so these arguments are likely brought on by people wanting to make a point, even if it means making the point to an inanimate brick wall. The reason I bring up the subject now (in 2018) is because, by chance, I was able to attend a local academic symposium dedicated to whether or not games are art, and examples of their role in society. While I thoroughly enjoyed the event and learned a lot from viewpoints I typically don’t get a chance to converse with, the conference actually took me a step backwards in my thinking rather than forwards towards their thesis.
Should games be shown alongside paintings?
By chance, I stumbled across two different new toolsets (one for Unity3D, one for Blender3D) that could really change the game for animators. One is a Unity3D package called “Scene Track: The Game Media Exporter” (made by E*D Films in Montreal), and the other is a in-development Blender feature called “Eevee.” I encourage you to click on the two links or Google the project names for videos and screenshots to understand what they are, but I’ll discuss them a little more in this blog post.
For all of 2017, and even part of 2016, I’ve had a serious problem focusing on making games. Most of my time was spent making a living like a proper adult, but that was no excuse. I think this can be attributed to just generally poor time-management on my part: instead of spending every waking available moment I could on my games, I found myself exhausted at the end of each day, defaulting to TV or Internet, or else going straight to bed.
So I made a serious resolution for the New Year’s of 2018: to better organize my time and work more on my games. It’s February now, and so far, it’s working.
Keeping a timesheet and sticking to it can be a great motivator.
