FLY SOUP

 Much as I hate to brag... *Ahem* My branching narrative stories Cat's Claw and Darkendore have recently shared top spot on the Tales: Choose Your Own Story app. This makes me very happy. The app management team are still in the "writer and community building stage" right now. But even so, the number of readers appears to be steadily growing. There must be over a thousand stories/games on the app now and I'm so happy my stories are being read, even at this early stage. I hope that, when Tales team switches from app development, to the serious business of attracting readers in large numbers, that the stories will enjoy a similar degree of popularity.

Just going to drop these here. I'm only a few scenes away from finishing Darkendore. Some of the art is still pending, but have a look at this. It's a fair indication of what you'll see if you choose to download the Tales: Choose Your Own Story app for iOS or Android (still in beta I think).  Apologies in advance for the poor graphical and sound quality. That's on me. Between my sub-par video screen-capture skills, and the video conversion here on Blogger, it hasn't translated super-well. Still, I figured they're worth worth putting up to give an idea of what I'm up to.  

I've been really busy in 2022, mostly writing for a mobile platform called Tales: Choose Your Own Story . It's a great, new(ish) app that I believe offers a lot to both readers and writers.  In early 2022 I put the finishing touches on Cat's Claw , a small 's' superhero who finds herself in a huge pile of captial 'T' trouble. As far as I can tell it's going well on the platform and as such is getting promoted by the app managers. I'm currently writing the final episodes of Darkendore , a young-adult (kinda grimdark) tale about reapers, and what they get up to in their downtime, and their uptime I guess. In fact, it's pretty-much about what they get up to all the time. I'm loving writing Darkendore as I originally tried to get a grant from Screen Tasmania to produce it and was knocked back. But the first game company I pitched it to greenlit it immediately. Unfortunately, that means it's not set in Tassie now, but I love it anyway.  Tales ...

 So I joined these guys: They seem like a pretty inclusive bunch and since I'm branching into crime writing now I thought it was a good idea. They've already put me onto a couple of informative (and free) online seminars. Honestly, as most of my work (including the narrative design) comprises some level of mystery and danger, crime writing isn't much of a stretch.  Plus - I'm loving it already!

No one who knows anything about the Skywalker saga can deny the final scenes of The Mandalorian Season 2 are anything but spectacular. The arrival of the mysterious X-wing, the green lightsaber, the black-gloved hand, all build toward an exhilarating and surprising reveal. Personally, I thought the return of Luke Skywalker in the prime of his Jedi powers was an awesome sight. My partner on the other hand? Not so much. My partner isn't a long-time Star Wars fan. She doesn't know much about the Skywalker clan and doesn't much care to find out BUT, she loves the Mandalorian and she especially loves little Grogu.  Toward the end of season two's final episode, while I was getting more and more excited as clues began to drop as to what was about to happen, my partner was becoming frustrated and confused. "What's going on?" she asked, bewildered at the sudden and unexplained turn of events. "Who's this guy?" At the time I was too overwhelmed with ch...

The first thing I'm gonna say about this game is: I freaking love it. Everything that comes after should be seen through that lens. The second thing I'm going to say is that the writers/devs on the The Outer Worlds are sharp. You know the saying, "You can't please all of the people, all of the time"? Well, Obsidian Entertainment has shown that you really, really can. It's been said many-a-time that "This Game" is just Skyrim with guns, or "That Game" is just Fallout in Space etc... Well, The Outer Worlds is all that and it doesn't care what you think about plundering pop culture for kicks. There are numerous nods to other games, sure, but (and I want to emphasize this) not only games. There are references to TV shows, movies, music, books, table-top RPGs, the list goes on, and it's not confined to the SF/F genres. Conversations are 1 on 1. Very Reminiscent of Oblivion. And like early Elder Scrolls, the voice acting is ...

The more contracts I take in the game industry, the more I'm appreciating the nuances of game writing. And the more I appreciate the differences between straight fiction and interactive experiences, the more I'm blown away by the creativity of some people involved in producing video games. Cue the total, mind-bending insanity of Cuphead and Mugman . I have no idea how, or why, this game came into existence. No doubt I could search it and discover all the details I'd ever want and more, but I don't need to. Cuphead and Mugman is perfectly well appreciated simply by playing it. With visuals reminiscent of early Disney cartoons - or even early Popeye  - this game is like no other. It looks amazing. It sounds amazing, and it IS amazing , but in this case it's not the graphics, story, or even the gameplay that really make Cuphead a great experience for me. It's the all-pervasive, persistent absurdity of almost every element of the game that has me entranced....