Since I care lots about xmas and stuff I figure I'd better change my avatar to a snoaman for now I don't know why I made a whole post about this i figured it would be really important to posterity when the time comes you know like just in case you know? People will see it will wonder "why did he or she or whatever it is change it to a snowman?" and the answer is because it inspires soooooo many people. I really did it to dedicate it to my friend true from the #rockman crew. He's probably really happy and stuff. Just look at how happy Teta is..

I have to go find my shoe cloaks and go to work now.. Good luck

It's been about 5 months since I released the first demo for Oh Man Go Time: Gaiden, so I figured it was overdue for a new one. There's actually a lot of new content that wasn't in the old demo; in fact, the game goes right up to the very beginning of Drugs' evil lair.

I'd also like to announce that I'm taking bit of a break from working on this. Now don't worry, I'm still planning on completing this (someday), it's just that for the time being I'd like to focus on smaller Knytt projects. Making stuff for Sergio's one-room competition has made me realize that I work better with smaller, concentrated levels than bigger, sprawling levels like this one. This doesn't mean I won't try to make more epic-sized levels in the future, just that I'll work in a couple bite-sized levels in between them.

In ZZT nothing is quite as it seems and rarely does it get a game that is just what is advertised. Smooth graphics, nice flow.. Good Storyline albeit bare basics.. Everything about this game oozes finesse. I mean, we're talking a hot little adventure.. It may be a little short.. This is no game of length. It is quick to play and easy in impressing. I don't know if the audience appreciated it as much as I did when I first saw it, but when I looked at it I saw Opportunity. It was almost as if someone looked in my head and said "what would he want to play if he was playing this?" and it was created simply to amuse me.

It's similar in to my style, but the lettering and graphics look a little more like what the company Dirrco (another day another description) would produce. This is really an adventure to impress all ages. It was also created in the course of a weekend and the time was well spent. When I was "competing" for the glory of the best entry I was doing the 24 hour ones.Who knows if Bummy is a pseudonym as this was his only release, but here we see a little bit of his chaos projected onto screen for the sake of entertainment. It's few times like these a background story would've been nice so I could have met up for his post-game meet n greet. Bummy, whoever and wherever you are, this Bummy's for you.

Alas, I'm still couch surfing and job hunting and hating being homeless. I wish I had a car but I don't have a license and this story of woe wouldn't exist.

Around the end of June I managed to get a callback for a job and I took it. It was a sales position for a security company. I went door to door, saying the same spiel over and over and no one wanted to buy. After a month of no sales (and lots of wasted time), I quit. Maybe no one wanted to buy from a woman, or people really don't like getting bothered by a door to door salesperson.

Fuck that shit. I hate working for da man anyway. I got all my gaming tools now and lots of time on my hands and a new place to crash. I've been scouring the job papers but there has been no jobs available in this town. Apparently it's a cosmic joke that I came here, away from the land of opportunity. While in San Francisco, I managed to find housing and a job within 2 weeks and I should have stayed. I got involved with a shady company and had a fall out with the people so now I'm stranded in this podunk place. I would like to get back to California or back home to St. Louis as soon as possible.

Dungeon Master-like "depth"? Dayum

Take a look, I'm interested whether there were a lot of kliks like this (maybe I didn't lurk long enough...)

The in-game help is a lengthy saga about the game itself.

I'm BC_ . I may be most remembered on the internets with the nick Viovis, AntiViovis, Vivois, what have you.

I've been part of ZZT since 1996 and part of the ZZT ug (i call community ug for short) since early 98. We had a couple AOL Free Trials and downloaded some lost forever games. Know this that there were 1000s of ZZT games that are lost forever in aol, hundreds of stories of teenage angst and adventure gone through the tides of time... Knowing this, I'm pretty sure the same applies to KNP, there were probably many lost gems in the AOL Vault.. so uhh, historically we'll never know the whole history since they were the only company successful to have their own library aside from the bbs's and internets and etc.

Uhh anyway I know there are some games that go as unmentionably fun, some games take effort, some games are chill and laid back, some are interactive cinemas, some are only cinemas... Some redefine the meaning of a game, as some involve just wandering around and tinkering with stuff, talking to objects, and in ZZT you tend to see all genres.. I think a lot of great has been made in ZZT but for those outside without a passport you're not really given the full scope of things.. I'd personally just like to share a couple of my favorites...

Games that not only I'm one to like, but that I think others of this crew may like since I am a fan of many of the games released here and I will do my best to choose games that carry that spirit.

I present Newt's third ZZT game Castle of the Dogs. This game spoke to me because I thought it had a certain degree of suave in it. I liked the writing style, it was blunt, it went from point A to point B fast. Part of the tests of time is as time marches forward, writing refines and changes.. This was a time piece where, you and your wife were on a plane and hte pilot crashed, and he didn't make it, and your wife was captured and taken to a giant castle, full of dogs. Why? I don't know.. ask newt. All I know is like you miss your wife and have to go through a dog labyrinth full of giant dogs and gather keys because dogs are high tech like that. There's also a really tough puzzle by glynth that's not impossible, but just keep trying..

I think thepsycophant did a wonderful job here with narrative, attempt on a good story, and I think it's a little more than meets the eye, so I think playing it now I still really liked it. And it was based on an abandoned moment of his OG series... so It's the first step of difference from style and might be where he developed his sound, course that's all for another story. Just make sure if you see a star to move into a corner and dodge it, cuz stars don't die... and aim for the dog noses... Somehow that's the core.. It's a lesson for us all. If you're fighting a gigantic dog.... uhh, their noses?

And this'll be the only time I attach lyon to a post like this, so get it here or I'll link to here. Get ZZT from around the nets. Maybe in the future we'll get Tyger, but for those in winders land This little item works.

FACADE STAGEPLAY
Sun Jul 29 21 48 57 2012

TRIP
Where are the new wine glasses?

GRACE
What for?

TRIP
That should be obvious!

GRACE
Oh God, Trip, don't turn this into a big production, please!

TRIP
Jesus Grace, come on, I'm not asking a lot here!

GRACE
What -- Trip, don't give me that look!

GRACE
You're going to drive me crazy!

MATT
dicks

(MATT knocks on the front door.)

(MATT knocks on the front door.)

(Trip opens the front door.)

TRIP
Matt!!

MATT
sharnar

TRIP
Hey! I thought I heard someone out here! Great to see you! It's been a while, how's -- (interrupted)

MATT
hi

TRIP
Uh...

TRIP
Uh, well, it's -- it's good to see you.

TRIP
Well come on in...

TRIP
Uh, I'll -- I'll go get Grace...

TRIP
(unintelligable arguing)

TRIP
(unintelligable arguing)

GRACE
No, no, here we are!

GRACE
Matt,

GRACE
Hi! How are you? Oh it's so nice to see you, it feels like it's been forever!

MATT
hi

GRACE
H-mmm (happy smile sound)

GRACE
And, I've got to say, you look really good!

MATT
WHAT NOW

GRACE
So come on in, make yourself at home!

TRIP
Huh, I'll close the door. -- (interrupted)

(Trip closes the front door.)

TRIP
I'm gonna fix us some drinks.

PHONE
** RING **

MATT
THE PHONE

PHONE
** RING **

PHONE
** RING **

MATT
Answer it?

PHONE
** RING **

TRIP
Oh, I'll get it --

GRACE
No, no, we have a guest, we can let the answering machine pick it up.

ANSWERING MACHINE
** click **

MATT
Answer it!

ANSWERING MACHINE
You've reached the fabulous new home of Grace and Trip. Leave us a message!

GRACE
What? Wait, wait, let's just wait for the answering machine...

ANSWERING MACHINE
** beep **

ANSWERING MACHINE
Grace, this is your father, I thought I'd call to see how my lovely daughter is doing.

ANSWERING MACHINE
I want you and Trip to come up to the house this weekend, your mother and I are throwing a party for a senior VP at the firm, and you should be there.

TRIP
Oh, it's your parents! I'll get it --

GRACE
Trip, Trip, please, I don't want to talk to them right now...

TRIP
I want to say hello --

GRACE
No no, Trip, we're entertaining a friend in our new apartment...

ANSWERING MACHINE
Oh, and be sure to arrive early, I want to talk to you about this business about why you won't be attending your mother's Christmas Eve gala.

GRACE
the last thing I want to do is talk to my parents.

MATT
It's fine

ANSWERING MACHINE
(clear throat) So, that's all. Uh, goodbye.

GRACE
Oh, ha ha ha, God, let's not talk about my parents... we've heard enough from them tonight.

MATT
As in?

GRACE
W -- well, no, talking about my parents is just going to frustrate me.

MATT
What did they do?

GRACE
Matt, seeing you again makes me remember the wonderful times we all used to have. H-mmm (happy smile sound)

TRIP
Ha ha, yeah...

MATT
Like when I killed that hooker?

GRACE
uh...!

TRIP
(nervous coughing)

GRACE
(nervous coughing)

TRIP
geez, I'm not, uh...

MATT
ANYWAYS

GRACE
ha ha ha ha ha, heh...

TRIP
(nervous coughing)

MATT
It was a joke

GRACE
ha ha ha ha ha!!

MATT
What now?

MATT
The drinks?

TRIP
ha ha, heh...

TRIP
heh, ha ha ha!

TRIP
Ha ha ha, Matt,

GRACE
heh heh heh...

TRIP
heh heh, you had me going there for a sec...

TRIP
heh, ha ha...

TRIP
You're not afraid to say anything, are you?

MATT
Nope

TRIP
put us on the spot...

TRIP
heh heh, you're crazy, heh, you know that?

TRIP
ha ha...

TRIP
(big sigh)

MATT
That's just the begining

TRIP
Anyway, uh... what were we talking about?

MATT
Drinks?

TRIP
I'm gonna fix us some drinks.

TRIP
Good news, I just fully loaded -- (interrupted)

MATT
Sure

TRIP
Y -- yeah, yeah, time for a drink.

TRIP
How does a martini sound?

TRIP
Everybody tells me I fix the -- (interrupted)

MATT
Sure!

TRIP
Beautiful!

GRACE
No no,

GRACE
Matt, maybe you'd like some juice, or a mineral water?

MATT
Nah

TRIP
Excellent! It won't take me more than a minute!

GRACE
(little sigh) I sometimes wonder if Trip spends so much time fixing drinks to avoid having real conversation with the guests.

TRIP
What? What was that?

GRACE
(clears throat)

MATT
BURN

TRIP
wasn't...

GRACE
He is...

TRIP
You...

MATT
I said that out loud

GRACE
It just occurred to me... uh...

GRACE
Oh we need to make sure we -- we look at... uh...

TRIP
Right...

GRACE
refrigerator light bulb thingy...

TRIP
we should get that looked at...

MATT
Oh

GRACE
Oh, right! Right! Yeah...

GRACE
(long release sigh)

MATT
Can I help?

GRACE
yeah...

GRACE
So, Matt, you can help me understand where I went wrong with my new decorating, ha ha.

TRIP
Grace, oh, no, we don't need to do that.

MATT
It looks fine.

TRIP
Ah, yes, Matt, I knew you'd like it. See, Grace?

GRACE
(frustrated sigh)

GRACE
So, about my decorating...

GRACE
Uhh, you know, I've been collecting these little glass sculptures for God knows how long now.

TRIP
I always hear people talking about them at our parties.

GRACE
but now whenever I look at them, I suddenly get such a... such a... headache!

MATT
Parties?

TRIP
Oh, yeah, you know, I think I'll fix us another drink in not too long...

GRACE
I bet I can return most of this, and start over again on this room...

MATT
It looks fine.

GRACE
Uhh!

TRIP
See, Grace, as always, you're the only one unhappy with your decorating.

GRACE
Uhh... right, I know, I'll never be satisfied with it, -- (interrupted)

MATT
Not the best. Not the worst.

TRIP
Matt, yeah, Grace, nothing's wrong, everything's fine!

GRACE
Huh, you two really are getting along well tonight, heh...

TRIP
(little sigh)

TRIP
Ah, Matt, you probably didn't come here to hear this, heh...

GRACE
What?

GRACE
Trip, it's okay if we disagree in front of our friend --

TRIP
Disagreeing?! We're NOT disagreeing.

TRIP
We're not.

MATT
I HATE CONFLICT

TRIP
You don't agree? uh... okay, well...

TRIP
Oh, Matt, I thought you might like this photo I just put up from our recent trip to Italy.

GRACE
Uhh, it's a beautiful picture of the Italian countryside, of course he'll like it!

TRIP
Grace, I know you don't like it, but our friend might.

GRACE
By the way, anybody, join me on the couch if you like.

TRIP
Um... uhh, Now, Matt, in one word, what does this picture say to you?

MATT
gay

GRACE
Say to -- (interrupted)

TRIP
Mmm... no...

GRACE
Wait, what's wrong with that? That's a perfectly fine answer!

TRIP
(little sigh) No just take a look, this says...

GRACE
How about controlling.

MATT
gay as hell

TRIP
Romance! No it says... romance...!

GRACE
Romance? Ha, in our marriage, that's just a code word for manipulation.

TRIP
Grace, it'd been such a long time since we'd... had a chance to -- -- (interrupted)

MATT
more like NO-MANCE AHAHAHA

GRACE
Yeah -- no -- Trip tricked me into going!

GRACE
And you knew I planned to attend my friend's art show that weekend!

GRACE
A very good friend from college had a gallery show of his new paintings that weekend, and I missed it!

TRIP
What?

TRIP
Ahh, this is bullshit!

GRACE
Ahh, no, you're full of shit!

GRACE
Goddamn romance...

GRACE
Trip, our whole marriage, you're so... controlling! -- (interrupted)

MATT
Why do you have that 8-ball?

TRIP
What? What -- what are you saying to me? What?

TRIP
(little impatient sigh) Matt, I...

MATT
That thing in your hand

GRACE
Uhh, can you -- can you just...

TRIP
Goddamn manipulation...

TRIP
You never listen to me! You don't believe anything I say! You just don't listen.

GRACE
Oh, God...!

MATT
YOU ARE TEARING ME APART

GRACE
Alright, you know what, Matt,

GRACE
I need to ask you something.

TRIP
Grace --

GRACE
Trip, let me ask our guest a question.

GRACE
Matt, yes or no...

GRACE
Do you think it's _wrong_ for one person in a marriage to listen _too much_ to the other?

TRIP
What?

GRACE
To trust your husband or wife too much, to rely on them too much? Is that wrong? -- (interrupted)

MATT
Yes....

TRIP
What...?!

TRIP
Oh, yeah, that's fine... that's fine...

TRIP
Uhh, I keep trying to help you Grace, but you reject me, you cut me off, you cut me out of your life, goddammit!

GRACE
Oh, that's great Trip!

MATT
You hate me now, don't you, tripp?

GRACE
Uhh! Yeah, good, go away!

GRACE
I can't stand you!

GRACE
Dammit, Trip!

MATT
It's fine.

GRACE
What? What are you saying?

TRIP
What? Are you talking about me in there?

GRACE
I wasn't talking about you!

GRACE
Matt, I can't believe you have to see this...

GRACE
uhh...

MATT
what?

TRIP
Matt, (annoyed sigh) Grace is just so...

GRACE
Oh, we're talking about me again, are we?

TRIP
What?

TRIP
Matt, look around this apartment. It's got everything anyone would ever want. But, Grace, oh no, she's never satisfied.

GRACE
Trip, ... ugh ... I'm so sick of this.

MATT
It doesn't have food.

TRIP
Matt, come on, I don't feel like fixing drinks at this moment!

TRIP
Uhh...

GRACE
Let's keep talking about Trip.

TRIP
Look around here. We're doing well, really well.

MATT
Can you two GET ALONG?

GRACE
God, Trip, I can't believe even now you're still...

TRIP
Oh yeah, you'd never admit that I've created a good life for us.

GRACE
Dammit Trip!

MATT
Why do you keep arguing?

TRIP
Ah!

GRACE
Matt, you're saying I'm... angry?

MATT
Over stupid shit like that.

GRACE
No?

TRIP
You've always been angry about something, Grace... if it's not one thing, it's another...

GRACE
Uhh...

MATT
I'm not taking sides here.

TRIP
Let's talk some more about Grace.

GRACE
Trip, it's your fault -- ten years ago, freshly married and just out of college, you convinced me to go into advertising, instead of art!

TRIP
What?

GRACE
If it weren't for you, I could be a real artist by now.

TRIP
Uhh... Matt, uhh...

MATT
YOU CANNOT INTO MARRIAGE

GRACE
Look, if we're going to talk about marriage, all I can say is, it doesn't turn out the way you expect it to.

TRIP
Grace...

GRACE
I'm not saying marriage is a bad idea or something, I'm just... saying I think it's hard to predict what it will actually be like...

TRIP
Grace, no...

TRIP
No, no, look, marriage is -- uhh... is this great thing -- (interrupted)

MATT
JESUS CHRIST SHUT UP

TRIP
Alright, Matt, that's it, you've got to leave.

TRIP
I'm sorry, but, uhh, I don't know what the deal is with you tonight.

(Trip opens the front door.)

TRIP
We'll be fine -- you should just go.

MATT
FUCK YOU AND YOUR WIFE

(Trip closes the front door.)

MATT
the den

http://www.synchtube.com/r/smedis2

Password is "glorious" if you really want to join.

HERE WE SHALL WATCH CRAP AND RIFF IT ALL!

Cross-posted at JDM, my personal blog.

...

Some time next month, I'm going to release Caverns of Khron, my biggest game project to date.  A few months ago, I found a folder in my filing cabinet titled "Miscellaneous Game Development," containing dozens of pages I wrote and drew between 1996 and 1999.  Until I'd found this, I'd basically forgotten about all the games I'd made and planned before I started making ZZT games in 1997.  I'd actually been designing games on paper since about 1990, though I didn't have any kind of computer till 1994.  I never learned C++ or any other "real" programming languages save for a very rudimentary knowledge of QBASIC that only equipped me for the simplest text adventures.  So, if you're interested, you're welcome to join me on a nostalgic, navel-gazing trip through what I thought about making video games before I even knew how.

My cousin Steven introduced me to QBASIC in the mid-nineties, and it was simple enough that I thought I could write a couple small programs.  I never actually spent much time with text adventures like Zork (I loved Return to Zork, but couldn't get my hands on an actual copy of the Zork trilogy until like 1998), but I was in love with the idea, and had played around with a couple MOOs and MUDs, more interested in the promise than any execution of the idea I'd actually seen.  Before long, I'd programmed a virtual room-by-room tour of my house--called "My House"--which forever cemented in my mind the cardinal directional layout of Pocatello, Idaho.  This and other games would be "published" under a "label" called "Moore-Tech 2000," and I'd hang this sign on my door:

Please note that this sign only ever hung on my bedroom door.  The prices listed were the fees I wanted to charge my two younger sisters to give them copies of these games on their own floppy disks.  It was an evolution of when I tried to sell my sisters and cousins the Nintendo fanfiction I'd write and illustrate, bound in construction paper when I was about nine-years-old.  I also offered customized games for the low price of only 75 cents to $1.75.  I don't believe I ever made a cent from any of my games, and rightly so.  Eventually, I just tried to get my sisters to play them.

Of the games listed, very few without the checkboxes ever were finished.  "Text Color" simply changed the color of the MS-DOS text interface.  "Pilgrim Hunter" was a text game where the player searched a square field square by square for a turkey to shoot, like a festive, unchallenging "Hunt the Wumpus." I also apparently finished something called "J.C.," but I have no idea what that might have been.  I seem to have been planning something called "Aquaria," and considering my then-interests, it surely involved mermaids.

Sadly, I finally disposed of my 486 PC last year, which had what I'm sure were the only remaining copies of all the games I worked on, including the first game I ever published, "UFO Invasion," a QBASIC text adventure uploaded to AOL and co-written with my friend Caleb.  I also once had extensive pages of planning for the sequel, which I intended to be a Wolfenstein-like FPS.  Also there was another collaboration with Caleb, a Christmas-themed game called "The Reindeer Riots," though I can't remember for the life of me what actually happened in it.

"Magic Learner" is the one for which I have the most documents still and was the first game I intended to be released in the world of "Khron," a text adventure with a magic casting system and a fair amount of open exploration, to be later paired with a game called "Power Quest" which would be a text adventure with an action and strength orientation.  I'd written some amount of lore for the games' story world, and even drew maps.  Below is a map of the game world and a modified one broken up into a navigable grid for use in the game.

 

Of course, these papers are what inspired me to name my current game "Caverns of Khron" (before that, it was called "Ruins of Bufannei," a contraction of "Bullshit Fantasy Name").  If you're worried about Khron canon, understand that the game actually takes place in Greschden Caverns, but the game doesn't bear that name because it sounds stupid.

Note the copyright date on the map.  The world of Khron existed contemporarily with our own, but with a 1,960 year date offset.  P.D., I assume, once meant something.

I'd begun a Halloween-themed horror adventure game called "Mansion," where the player explores a large mansion during a Halloween party to discover dark secrets.

This game eventually evolved into "Jack O'Lantern," which began life as a text adventure, and I distinctly remember drawing this map for it in my ninth grade speech class:

In 1997, I learned about ZZT, and found it a more attractive design platform.  I actually adapted this design pretty faithfully into a ZZT game that I published.

In those days, all my ZZT designs happened on paper before they happened onscreen. I have pages and pages of ZZT-OOP code for games like the unfinished "Bob 3: The Amazon Adventure" and "Zem! X" which I began work on in 1998 and didn't finish until 2002.

 

With my early ZZT games, I employed a "star" system like Tezuka Osamu's, featuring recurring characters playing different parts in each story.  It was silly, but I was in love with the idea.  In the "Zem! X" paper, I love where I drew a picture explaining to myself what I saw in my mind and how I had to express it with ASCII characters.

My ambition was not limited to what I could conceivably produce at the time, of course.  What I wanted to make followed my interests, which in the mid-nineties became largely focused on real-time strategy games.  I have about a dozen pages of notes for "Medieval" and its expansion "Medieval Quests," featuring a total of five factions, with unique units and campaigns.

I also possessed a strange, obsessed fascination with LCD games, and went as far as to plan the screens for half a dozen games on paper. One of these, "Mythical Commander" (left) was an intended LCD real-time strategy game. "Blif the Blot" (right) was a mascot platformer that had a secret versus mode.

 

Beginning in my later teenage years, I fell in love with the link cable racing game included in Super Mario Bros. DX for the Game Boy Color, and plotted an intricate expansion of the game called Super Mario Arena, featuring a character roster with different abilities, power-ups, and a greater focus on competitive combat. I possessed some vain hope that Nintendo would somehow find out about my plans and accept my pencil drawings as the design document for a million-seller Game Boy Color game and a long career in making video games.

I continued to make ZZT games and began playing around with Megazeux.  Eventually, I became more interested in filmmaking than my once-intended career of glamorous, professional video game development and programming.  I kept my toes wet, working on a graphic adventure game and an online RPG fighter with my cousin, though neither project came to full fruition, and I only advised design and worked on graphics.  I wonder what would've happened if instead of ZZT, someone had handed me a copy of Klik N' Play (I saw it in software catalogs, and after it I lusted), or if Game Maker had come into my life a decade before it did.

I'm going up to my mother's house in a couple weekends.  I'm hoping to dig up some more of these kinds of papers.  I have a vague dream about picking up one of the other game concepts I know I had once upon a time and seeing if I can't bring it to life with what I know now, just to fulfill my 13-year-old self's dreams on some level.  It's been somewhat inspiring to examine what I used to think about games, see where I'm similar, and see where I'm the same.

And at the very least, the 16-years-in-the-making Khron world of games will finally see the light of day.

Caverns of Khron (2012)

http://pieandwaffles.wordpress.com/

WELCOME TO MY HOUSE OF INSANITY