I am completely rubbish, because I forgot that this blog even existed until just now when I had to link my CV and thought to myself – “I have it uploaded, somewhere”.
Basically since last June I have been working at an awesome place called Evolution Studios.
It’s pretty great.
I have been working on a brilliant game that has just been released as a professional problem-finderer - MotorStorm RC!
You can check it out here!
Yeti
x
Last week I officially finished the last thing I needed to do for my Third year at uni (possibly uni altogether might I add) by presenting my dissertation in some horribly wordy slideshows and talking for pretty much half an hour more than I should have, but it’s all good and I’m pretty proud of the project overall.
I’ll be uploading the final pieces in some form or another (either online or downloadable PDF) on here pretty soon, so those of you with any particular interest in MMOs or multiplayer RPG gaming in general might find it interesting to read.
So – with the daunting prospect of four months till the beginning of Masters year, what am I going to do to keep my hyperactive brain occupied??
Well – I’ve been applying for some jobs, it’s all a bit hush hush atm, but depending on what I hear back from those will depend on whether I’ll be in Stafford next year or off adventuring in some other weird and wonderful place in the UK. Only had telephone interviews so far, and all in all I’m not entirely sure how they went (I tend to get nervous and stumble and forget EVERYTHING 
) but I guess we’ll see what happens.
I’ve also been filling my time with practising the use of Unreal since I love level design but have struggled to implement designs on a practical level so far, and also been attempting to get better at ZBrush, and more specifically the use of Z Spheres and re-topology, since I’ve only used sculpting tools before, and find it really interesting 
Finally, I’m excited to say I’ll be doing some writing for the awesome crew over at Crush! Frag! Destroy! – mainly gaming news and reviews and such (If they don’t get fed up of me 
), but putting into practice some of the skills I learnt last summer while reviewing in my own time. They’ve got some awesome stuff going on over there, and you guys should check it out!
My first bit went up yesterday, a little news piece on the announcement of Super Scribblenauts, which sounds awesome!
Apart from that, I wanna catch up with some gaming, I’ve been playing The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom with a view to reviewing it when I’ve played it some more, and I really want NIER, even though I haven’t heard/read much about it. I think the trailer has subliminal messaging. Anyone out there played it and have some thoughts on it? What are you playing at the moment?
Gimme a shout, I get lonely sometimes ;P
So you might, or maybe not, have noticed that I’ve been a little absent from the internetz for quite a while – I’ve not been doing everyone’s head in tweeting all day, and my trend of almost-daily blogs kinda went down the toilet.
But I didn’t die, honest – and now I’m back >;D
This semester has been a very busy one, with some hardcore modules to juggle with the dreaded dissertation – which I started off being very passionate about and ended up hating more than life itself for keeping me awake for so long. The topic I covered was “Dynamic Design” – I’m saying this again, I can’t remember if I talked about it in another blog, but hey…and yeah, basically I designed a dungeon for a MMORPG environment which encouraged deep narrative, interesting and exciting player experience and player interaction at all times. I used a Dungeons and Dragons prototype of the dungeon to show how it would work, and all in all I think it worked pretty well – even if two documents of more than 10k words each don’t sound very exciting. I would have loved to do much more concept art for this document, but by the time the deadline reached, I kept finding more and more problems to deal with, and finally caved at around 60-70 hours of being awake.
My computer and work station in general has changed a few times, I have a new case now – but the new motherboard I bought is being annoying and wont give my processor enough noms to run it…so I’m bitching at overclockers till they give me a new one which actually works. I have a new monitor too – after surviving three years of uni with the 17inch one that my ex boyfriend gave me, I decided I really should stop being so stupid and just BUY A NEW ONE ALREADY!! haha. The one I found was super cheap on eBay, and is technically a 1080p TV rather than a monitor, so I can use it to play Xbox on too ^-^
I’ve updated my gallery page a little, theres some new videos up there and some real pictures, including a real scary facial model of me that I hate to look at – but I’m going to be uploading some writing work that I’m much more proud of over the next few days, and an updated resumé.
The reason for all this being sorted out is mainly because of GradEx – last week at uni this took place – the “Graduate Exhibition” – where we show off our final pieces and stand there and look pretty and get really scared every time a judge comes near you. Sadly I didn’t win anything (there was some damn good work there) but I did get to have some really interesting conversations, mainly with Howard Tomlinson of Astraware and Tim Browne of Codemasters. Speaking to lots of people in industry really inspired me to get going, and I sorted out my CV and examples of work properly and applied for some jobs. Not really sure what I’m going to do, since I’m supposed to be doing my masters year next year, but if I get a job offer I’ll just decide what I do from there I guess.
Since all my work was in, I’ve just been chilling out really (after recovering from being ill after staying awake for so long) – playing some games that I haven’t had a chance to for a long while, and I went to see Iron Man 2 last night (which was awesome – hilariously funny) and wandered around today looking in charity shops and buying blueberry muffins. Charity shops are so awesome – I got a Sims 2 pack and a Hardback ed. of Terry Pratchett’s “Thud!” (which I’ve never read) for less than £2 each! Woop!
Got lots planned for the summer, along with getting some part time work for money, depending on whether I get a “real job” but theres one thing for sure – I’ll be online a lot more from now on! xD
Yeti
xxx
Okay so anyone who knows me IRL atm will know that I’m doing lots and lots of research for my dissertation
So yeah, this means reading HUNDREDS OF BOOOKS and watching lots of videos of guys talking for two hours.
One thing that I’m obsessed with atm is a term coined by Blizzard – “Directed Gameplay”.
Here is the video if anyone is interested – it’s kinda tedious, just Kaplan’s sexy voice over slides, but it’s real interesting if you can stick it out
The general idea of Directed Gameplay is how – using quests, narrative and other devices such as achievements – the designers influence the player’s actions while still making them feel as though they have free will in an open world.
Really quite relevant for my research area XD
I’ve found lots of interesting stuff while doing my research, I’ll probably link more stuff when I have more time but right now I’m so busy I haven’t really been online all that much 
I’ve even been staying away from twitter! XD
But yeah, internet detox for me atm, but I’ve been making lots of lists and getting all organised and I’m already making lots of plans for what to do with my time in the Summer (I’ll be staying in Stafford.). Most of this includes lots more reviews which I’ve been DYING to do since before xmas, but haven’t had time/chance to do, but also some really interesting stuff to do with MMO narratives and maybe some quest designs, inspired by both my FYP research and my narrative for MMO modules.
For Gradex (presentation of final year projects) I’ve bought some map tiles and lots of D&D models, and I’m planning to create a campaign for some friends to run through to show off my sexy dungeon
So yeah, even though it’s super nerdy I might be DMing for a while
So here is a little update on my super boring life xD Just so you know I haven’t died. I’m just busy, yo.
Plus now I’m doing a masters year loads of AWESOME jobs come up. FFS. Not necessarily that I would have a chance, but yknow.
OH OH OH and I’m beta testing APB when I get home and get the chance to download it
I’ll tell you how AWESOME (or dissapointing) it is
Peace&Love
xxxxxxxxxx
Something we’re doing in our Narrative for MMOs classes atm, which I’m finding really interesting, is Role Playing Seminars. It’s really cool to actually have a proper go in a decent environment where it’s a perfect balance of new role players and experienced, so you don’t end up with people being silly, and you don’t have the extreme elitism that you can find on some servers in WoW.
Since we all had WoW accounts, it was done in WoW – and we had to come up with a Character, with a real bio, a back story, and some sort of quest for that character’s life journey to be heading towards.
It’s probably not that interesting lmao but I thought I’d post up my Bio here, and see what you all think. I’ve gone for a Troll this time (How I resisted Forsaken I’ll never know) but I did succumb to being a rogue, although I’ve been desperate to do a real role playing rogue since I first started playing them!
Anyway here goes:
Character Bio
Full Name: Lilíth Du Valle
In-Game Name: Lilíth
Nickname: Lil’
Guild: None as of yet.
Affiliation: Darkspear Tribe, Horde
Race: Troll
Class: Rogue
Professions: None as of yet.
Age: 24 – Young to Middle Aged Troll.
Sex: Female.
Weight: Around 190 pounds. Strong muscles.
Height: Around 6’6”
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral – she is a free spirit who caters to her own needs and looks after herself before others.
Personality: She is a very shy and quiet character, who is suspicious of everyone. She also dislikes magic users, due to incidents in her past, and suspects that all magic users may eventually turn to necromancy. She especially dislikes Blood Elves, as she sees their thirst for magic as weakness, and prefers the Orc mentality of a thirst for blood. For this reason she is much more likely to become friends with an Orc – or of course a fellow Troll, but in both cases she is more likely to trust a Sword-wielding character over a Magic user.
She doesn’t like to talk all that much, and would rather fade into the shadows and look after number one.
She does have a few friends, however, and to those she is fiercely loyal. Her friends all claim she is very tiresome, since at least once a week she will turn on them and accuse them of things they haven’t done – although it could be said that is all part of her charm!
She is named after the Mesopotamian Storm Goddess Lilith – named after the wind since when she is hunting her prey she is so silent one could mistake her for a summer breeze. Furthermore she is said to bring Illness, Disease and finally Death – her swift slices and crippling poisins mean no-one is likely to survive once she has them in her sights.
History: When she was a child, her parents, both members of the Darkspear Tribe, were taken against their will as members of the army of Zalazane – a witch doctor who used dark magic to rob Trolls of their free will and enslave them on the Echo Isles – an area of Azeroth which used to be sacred, a safe place allocated for the Trolls by Thrall himself. For this very reason she is now suspicious of everyone and everything – but especially magic users, fearing that they may turn to necromancy at any time.
Lil’ managed to escape, only just, by being swift and silent – the traits which have allowed her to survive all this time. As a child roaming helplessly through the unforgiving jungle, Lil’ became proficient at hunting beasts and repairing her wounds – which have resulted in her battle hardened exterior that she now has.
Her parents are long dead, and Lil’ has since found her way back into the World, once again taking her place as an honorary member of the Horde, but she remains forever bitter about the events of her past.
Because of the events of her past, Lil’s first Quest is to become strong enough to take on Zalazane ((Level 10)) and beat him in his hideout on Echo Isles. Although this may seem a small aim, it is a strong feat for Lil’ – who has had her life turned upside down by the evil troll since she was a child. Zalazane, however, is only a small fish in a big pond, and Lilíth’s biggest wish is that she could rid the whole world of Necromancy before she passed on to the next realm.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So far these sessions have been really useful, since I’ve learnt so much about Warcraft Lore and Narrative which will be helpful in both the assignment and my (dreaded) FYP.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh
Good times xD
Peace, Love and Necromancy
Sorry I’ve not updated much, but I’m currently in e6 at Staffs Uni, participating in the 2010 Global Games Jam!
It’s awesome!
Got lots of photos, I’ll upload them when I’m done (:
Hope you’re all ok, and good luck to anyone else taking part <3
xxx
I finally completed Bayonetta last night, and (even though the story was slightlyyy predictable) it totally had me all like *gasp* at the end, and I got really really mad when fighting Father Balder and Jubileus! Father Balder (Or Baldy as I like to call him, despite his abundance of hair) was actually pretty easy, I was expected a super epic boss fight tbh when I saw him inhale Cereza with a quick om nom nom and I must say I thought “Ohhhh crap.” The only bit I struggled with really (and rather annoyingly) was the directing the bullet into his head, and although it should’ve been super easy I just kept rebounding the bullet off bits of broken glass and missing him entirely! GAH
Jubileus was harder, and provided a real challenge, and even though the theory of how to beat her is pretty easy, I kept getting sucked into the stupid black hole thing, and it took ages…haha…
But yeah, I’ve unlocked hard mode now, and yeah…it’s pretty..um…hard… XD
I also read this article on Kotaku this morning about a possible sequel/spin off – and although the obvious thing would be to do a game totally based on Jeanne, I’m not sure they’re gunna go for that angle…after all, Bayonetta is pretty unobvious XD
You can read the article on Kotaku here.
I’m also watching a load of ScarboroughFair guns on ebay, I really want one, but they’re pretty expensive atm..wish I’d preordered it to get it, but then I didn’t know I’d love it this much! Theres also talk of Bayonetta figurines (see here) which is gunna be pretty freakin’ awesome
But yeah, now I’ve completed the story at least I can get on with playing some of the other games I bought in the January sales, including Golden Axe, and Resi 5 XD
Awesome awesome awesome I’m really glad I’ve got back into the whole xbox gaming scene, I was a bit meh, ’cause I’ve been using it for a long time only as a media server! Good times…
Peace, love and Father Baldy
xxx
Today I have been playing Bayonetta. That is all. Well I bought two new Neil Gaiman books, but yeah. Bayonetta. It’s awesome.
Also for all you games dev/modelling people, I found this super awesome blog with wireframes/zbrushing and stuff, and ofcourse modelling her super sexy bottom. Yup. She’s amazing, and I want her glasses.
You can find the blog post here.
Very, very lovely.
So yeah, even though I’m supposed to be working tomorrow I’m guessing I’ll be playing lots of this, even more so since me and Nath have now made a super awesome office with both our PCs in. Good Times.
Peace, love and kickass gun shoes.
xxx
It is true that every year we look forward to the next, wishing that next year’s games were this’s – making us somewhat under appreciate what we already have.
2009 has brought with it some top titles packed with lots of excitement and drama – and despite the so-called “Credit Crunch” we seemed to find money from somewhere to fund our habit. XD
Perhaps trade-ins aren’t so bad after all, despite the ridiculous mark up…
Anyways, despite this being my last year of uni, I have found time for some (albeit guilty, stress-filled “I SHOULD REALLY BE WORKING”) gaming – and this year perhaps more than any other I have found that my interest in games has spread across more platforms than ever before. Since I got my lovely computer, PC has been my main gaming platform, but I suppose working in a game store where all the staff are Xbox gamers was bound to alter that slightly.
I’m not a total raving Xbox fangirl now, however, I still do pretty much use my 360 for a media centre, but I guess in a way it has opened my eyes.
Okay so what I’m gunna do is give a countdown of my favourite (exclusive) games on each platform!
Then I’ll undoubtedly have decided by then what my favourite game is XD
So here goes
First up, Xbox 360!
LEFT 4 DEAD 2
Okay so I know it’s not strictly Xbox exclusive (it’s on PC as well), but if you know me at all you’ll know I’m a massive L4D fan girl. Gotta love them zombies. I was a bit dubious when the sequel was announced. I loved L4D so much, played it constantly and made loads of friends online. I loved the original line up, and was a bit worried that the new one would be rubbish, especially the girl – Zoey was amazing.
But it was all awesome! Theres something quaint about the way everyone yells “ROCHELLLLLLLLLEEEEEEE” everytime I friendly fire, or the patronising way Nick says “Stop shooting me, sweetheart..”
Yes, the game is basically the same as the first but is that necessarily a bad thing?
And chopping zombies’ heads off with a samurai sword is particularly awesome.
Next: Playstation 3!
Okay I’m going to resist going all girly for Eyepet on this one and say: UNCHARTED 2
Although to be fair, choosing Uncharted 2 is not really resisting the girly-ness all that much, with totty like Nathan Drake on the cover. It’s like what we’ve been waiting for all this time – a Lara Croft for the ladieees.
Neither is it much of a surprise to see it up here as the favourite for 2009, it is, even ignoring all gameplay, a beautiful game. When I saw it at Eurogamer 2009, when I finally managed to cram my head in a gap between two sweaty guys to see it in all its splendour, I let out a little gasp. It’s the first high end game I’ve seen in a while which doesn’t use too much Bloom.
I HATE BLOOM.
Anyway yeah, again carrying on with an already successful franchise, but in this case making it much much much better, Uncharted 2 is deservedly my favourite PS3 game this year, simply for doing something really well and perfecting something that was always there but we never even thought about.
Shame Idon’t have my very own PS3 to play it on. Taking donations as of now
NINTENDO WII
Okay I’m not a huge fan of Wii, but I am a huge fan of 4 player co-op…so it’s gotta be…
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII
For my fave Wii game, this has just GOT to be it. It encapsulates everything the Wii stands for, but without being a douchey “Imagine”-esque party game.
This game is basically what it says on the tin. Classic mario. But with 4 players. I don’t know why this hasn’t been done before tbh. I’ve always wanted to push my friends down holes on Mario and make them rage
The only one criticism I have is the selection of the 4 players. Okay so we’ve got Mario and Luigi. Thats two. Then….erm….two toads! Yeah! That’ll work. No-one wants to be the toads, especially the blue one.
But apart from that its awesome, great fun, restores some faith into the dubious old ninty fans – although it is just a rehashed Mario game, so I’m not holding my breath.
NINTENDO DS
There have been some great releases on DS this year, some of which making me somewhat regret trading in my DS, but then again theres still alot of drivel still out there.
Was a battle between this and Professor Layton: Pandora’s Box, but in the end it’s gotta be:
SCRIBBLENAUTS
I’m not normally a fan of puzzle games (Plants vs. Zombies doesn’t count, damnit) but this is AMAZING. So much so that I’ve covered my laptop in stickers of items from Scribblenauts so it can make me smile when I don’t have the opportunity to play it.
Basically each level you have to solve a puzzle by summoning basically anything you can think of.
I loved it from the first time I played it when I had to summon something to make Santa happy, and I accidently punched Santa in the head and left him cowering in the corner. I totally didn’t mean to punch you, Santa! 
Another favourite is when I’m demoing it at work, and I whisper in the customers’ ear to summon a T Rex, like some crazy imnipotent devil on the shoulder, then watch their faces in glee as the T Rex noms everything on screen
Scribblenauts is awesome for that mischievous evil streak that lurks in all of us, but allows us to vent it without using one speck of fake blood, or any sort of “HEADSHOT!” nonsense.
Utterly. Awesome.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE
Okay I got this for Xmas and haven’t put it down since, so it’s gotta be:
LITTLE BIG PLANET PSP
When I asked for this for Xmas, I was slightly worried that the tiny PSP wouldn’t be able to contain all the love and happiness that had come with the PS3. I thought the creation tools would be lacking, if there at all.
I was wrong.
This game is so good, and as I said in a previous post, theres something about having your own mini Marilyn Monroe sack girl running across the screen, on the move, that makes it totally worthwhile.
The gameplay is essentially the same as the PS3 version, but the levels are different and yet transfer wonderfully over to the portable version of the game. Some elements are missing, but the main points of the game are so good, you hardly even notice.
The creation tools have been compacted into a tiny toolbox of fun, which, despite this, are no harder to use.
All I can say is, all the awesomeness of the PS3 version, but on the move.
What could be better?
OKAY
So those are my fave games of 2009.
What are yours? Disagree with mine? Lemme know
Still holding out my overall top, I’ve submitted them to the guys over at www.crushfragdestroy.com , and I wouldn’t like to spoil the surprise
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading,
Peace, Love, and Restored Faith in Nintendo
xxx
This weekend I’ve been playing:
This guy is super awesome, obviously
It’s been lots of fun, first game in ages (‘cept maybe L4D with the right people ) which has managed to hold my interest for more than an hour
Good times. I’m really shocked not more people know about this game, and the standard edition of the game is free atm! God you guys!
Gunna finish writing up what I thought of it tomorrow, a kind of little mini review if you will..if it works out okay, I might start writing more each time I play a new game, give me something productive to do with my time XD
It’s been a good weekend, first in a while I’ve been able to get some decent gaming in, even played a bit of Guitar Hero :O I am slowly building up my gamer score, honest! ¬_¬ Lots to play in the Xmas week, mainly games I need to finish haha…Borderlands, Arkham Asylum, Overlord 2, Dragon Age, and ofc some more l4d2.. :O
But yes for now I think it is time for some sleep.
Nightnight <3
Peace, love and yetimilk
xxx
