vlog - Second Reality

(warning! lots of flashy effects! don't watch if you're epileptic or easily disorientated by such effects)

scene demos (or simply 'demos') are one of the more interesting forms of computer art i've come across. for those not in the whole know about the whole demoscene subculture, demos are small audio-visual programs mostly developed as a show of artistic, programming, and musical prowess. while the demoscene was more popular in the 80's and 90's thanks to computer systems such as the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, it's still active today with groups making demos for a wider array of systems, including some game consoles like the Game Boy Advance and such.

demoscene's kind of a lengthy topic i'm not too savvy with, so i'll just leave it at that. :'D anyhow, this here is Second Reality, a MS-DOS demo done by Finnish demogroup Future Crew in 1993, and was placed first in the demo competition for the Assembly demoparty in that year. for it's time, it's a pretty dang impressive piece of work as far as programming goes.

the demo can be downloaded here if you want to run it in DOS (or DOSbox) yourself. there's also some wikipedia articles on demos, the demoscene culture, and the Second Reality demo if you wanna read up on them. also of interest are Moleman's documentary on the demoscene and a video on the making of Second Reality.

in p'much unrelated news, FCC voted in favor of net neutrality today. hell yeah. B)

gen's daily life - stuffed shiara shenanigans

not a lot happening here aside from a crapload of snow here on the east coast, not to mention i'm in the process of refurbishing my contact hub and working on some WIP articles (including the Disgaea manga readthrough), so have something a bit more mundane.

around the middle of 2014, my good bud Cyber (who you may remember from my Neopets Haunted House playthrough during that year) started working on a plushie of my minotaur bloke Ayiru as a birthday gift. though, the plush didn't get finished until later around Christmas, and just recently this week she managed to ship it out.

and man was the wait worth it. <3

the plush Ayiru (inset) and one of my recent drawings of him.

it might not be professional-grade, but it's still a lovingly-crafted buddy for my desk. he's pretty soft and he's even got strands of yarn for hair! bless you so much, Cyb. you've made me a happy fenn. ;o;

as you can expect, i had a bit of fun with him and my camera. more shots are under the cut!

gen's thoughts (also vlog time) - jack of all trades, master of none

so a while back i was working on an article concerning aesthetic/design trends in video games (as well as their links with particular audiences) after developer Naughty Dog pretty much ruled out ever returning to making any Jak or Crash Bandicoot games and i got pretty sore about it.

well, as far as the whole game design thing goes, George Weidman of Super Bunnyhop worded it a lot better than i could've. while i'm not going to deny that older gaming generations had trends of their own (how many friggin 3d platformers did we get in the late90s-mid00s again?), certain trends seem to be more commonplace in AAA games from the more recent years. hell, even a good fraction of indie games aren't safe from this; just count how zombie/crafting/survival/metroidvania/sandbox games you see on steam's indie section.

a lot of people yell for new IPs all the time, but how do we know said new IP won't just use trends already seen before? new IPs are great, but if you can innovate on new features or streamline existing ones, that's even better. quite a bit of Nintendo series tend to try out new things and improve on existing gameplay stuff: while the Mario and Pokemon series are good example of this, Kirby and Zelda have this as well.

hell, recent Nintendo consoles feature some pretty creative new IPs that put a spin on existing trends and try out new styles of gameplay. the Pikmin games are wonderful, Captain Toad looks pretty fun, and the upcoming Splatoon is a interesting take on the shooter genre with its gameplay and graphical style. a good lot of japanese-developed titles are pretty unique in their gameplay as well, and there's even some pretty creative indie games if you look hard enough. there's also a few western-developed gems that put an interesting spin on usual gameplay conventions: just look at Guild Wars 2.

there's a bit more to fun and memorable game design (and aesthetic, by extension) than just hopping on a trend bandwagon, but not a whole lot of developers are willing to risk innovation over sales. why is there an overabundance of a particular genre/gimmick/graphic style in games? because that's what the vocal audience demands. and they sell. it's a sad truth, but it's a truth.

though even in recent times, there are creative gems that are worth a look at. you just have to look hard enough for them. c: