#i've been very casually exploring game design stuff for the last year or so

[realitybled]

about to say some absolute nerd shit but god i love storytelling. i love feeling myself slowly develop techniques in designing narratives for interactive mediums (both digital and traditional), and figuring out why certain design choices are so effective..........

[nutellarchives]

Senior Year Shenanigans

It's been a month since updated but this ain't gonna be a monthly update, just a compilation of remarkable things that is currently happening. Keep reading to read more~

Ever since the summer passed and school started, I've been busier than ever! I suddenly missed the chill and relaxed break that I've had this 2022, welp that would be the last unfortunately because in the corporate world, vacations doesn't exist... oh well at least I can earn stuff right?

Below would be the highlights of my life atm. It's not much but hope you enjoy reading!

That addicting FPS game!

I've never imagine that I'll be playing an FPS at this day and this age. I did play FPS games when I was a kid but I did lose my interest because of how I suck at PVP games. I remember I always lose to these guys that I play with and of course up until now I am a hardstuck Iron who enjoys spike rush and replication more than competitive.

I did start playing this game March of this year and I am just a casual player so It's not really a passion for improvement and I play whenever I want to. I did start with being a Viper main, just love her design and her kit then I did main Sage a little (well because she is very easy to use and her heals are very handy) BUT last month (if I remember correctly), I was able to unlock Killjoy and boy oh boy I've been using her non stop. Her kit is so fun to use and all of these creative lineups on every map is just fantastic! I am now a hardcore KJ main!

Fangirling again and again

ONEUS JUST HAD THEIR COMEBACK OMG OMG OMG!!! Okay, virtual fangirling aside. I've been listening to SEVENTEEN and SNSD and Aespa songs on repeat for the longest time and I've been enjoying their discography and latest release so far. For Aespa it's Girls and Illusion for me then I did a lil trip down to memory lane with their Savage album songs, which I did found some favorites such as ICONIC and Lucid Dream. For SNSD, I cannot stress enough how happy I am for these girl's comeback. It's been 4 whole years since the last Oh!GG comeback and now they came back as whole. SNSD is one of my favorite 2nd Gen GGs, they are part of my childhood. FOREVER 1 is such a great album and a no skip for me!

For the featured picture of this portion, ITS ONEUS COMEBACK, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? I honestly didn't hype this comeback so much because I became their fan last year, after they released Luna and months after they announced their Trickster (Bring it On) comeback and I did hype for it and I got disappointed, like honestly, because I believe that the Luna concept was top tier and after that they released a concept that I don't find interesting. It's my personal opinion obviously (please don't come after me) but now they are back SAME SCENT SOTY! I honestly love the beat, melody, the vocals and the visuals and even the choreography. This comeback deserves another win! Though I have to be vvv honest, I am not a fan of the repetitive eh eh eh and the mmmind mind mah mind part of the song, but other than that everything is perfect. What's missing is the win, the trophy, and the recognition yah.

The Stardew Valley Addiction

I have never expected to be this addicted to this game. I generally never was interested into farming games because I find them grindy plus I got traumatized (kinda) with Genshin, because that game is hella grindy. So I am still at Spring and Year 1 (as of writing) and still exploring lot of stuff. One thing that I want to do is create another game and repeat everything because I feel like I just wasted my time in that game plus the speed of the in game time is insane, increments every 10 mins. like thank you in real world it ain't like that. Anyway one goal I have is actually to marry one of the NPC called Sebastian and I did watch a guide on how to befriend him.. which is hard LOL plus I knew *spoiler* that he likes Abigail like I also like her! (design-wise hihi). Anyway I should probably be playing now instead of writing LOL.

Created my First Visual Novel Story!

Creative writing is something that I wanted to pursue but was too scared to do so. I am a fan of reading fiction books and also fan fiction on the internet (hello tumblr and ao3) and consumed a lot to be able to write a story for the visual novel. I am a game dev major and that I have an on going Thesis research which requires integrating a game to our study, and since we are doing a Visual Novel project, I volunteered to write for the team. It was sooooo hard, with the fact that I haven't written any fiction for the longest time. It was a challenge to be able to write something decent and connect the lines. The story though, is about the gender neutral protagonist (since players can select which gender they can play) who uncovers their past through a hypnotherapy. I did integrate some psychological stuff in the story and of course advice to all the future players (because why not).

Trying to hop on the Tumblr Writing (and Theme Making)

This one is connected to the previous section, I am deciding to maintain a writing blog (aside from this one) that focuses on a mix of fiction and non-fiction. I just love words and imagery so much that I need to release it through writing. English may not be my first language but I am aiming to improve on that plus I am planning on taking a creative writing courses online, because honestly I suck at descriptive writing.

Another thing is learning how to create tumblr themes! I am a ComSci major and I know how to code front-end but I've never once touched the tumblr documentation so I guess the time is now to do so.

I honestly should focus on studying but the things mentioned above are my escape and that everyone should have their own escape too because this what makes us sane in this fast-paced and busy world.

BTW, thank you for reading this entry, it's long (as always) but I hope you did enjoy and I might not be able to update for the longest time again but oh well, let's see.

- ella

[gameting]

“If you haven’t heard of this game already then that’s okay, but if there’s room under that rock what’s the rent like?”

Minecraft Review - Perfectly crafted

Originally created by Markus Persson in 2009, published by his own company funded by the game's huge success Mojang in 2011, and bought out by Microsoft in 2014, the original Minecraft is a far cry from the most current release. Having been in constant development for a decade it's safe to say that Minecraft has only grown mightier as the years have gone by.

The charming pixelated sandbox has gained a following akin to other gargantuan franchises like Star Wars or Disney, striking a flame with the first Minecraft convention dubbed 'Minecon' in 2010. The game itself is very much a love child of the now billionaire Markus' favourite games of the time, and what started out as a passion project has since become a staple of the gaming world.

Story: As a completely open world experience the 'story' of Minecraft is entirely in the players hands; Want to spend the next three weeks farming? Go for it! Want to focus on finding that sweet spot to build your next house? Build away! Wanna murder some tall purple-black dudes who steal your stuff and then use their eyes to find and jump into a portal to then fight a massive dragon? Yeah, me too! The story of Minecraft is non-existent; it's a truly open 'sandbox' experience where the player has total freedom.

As time has gone by however there have been updates that add end goals, such as the aforementioned dragon, but there's no “Nice one for completing the game!” screen so to speak. So what is there to do in Minceraft if there's no story, no tension, no drama or purpose? Well...

Gameplay: The gameplay can be stripped down to four basic functions: kill, eat, build, sleep. At least that's what the alpha version could have been described as. Now, however, you can ride pigs, plant wheat, breed animals, fly, enchant weapons, fish, that's right I did say fly, kill under water zombie dudes, ride horses, keep cats, ride carts, and of course mine AND craft.

It isn't very telling from the list, but there is a lot to do in Minecraft that I haven't even mentioned. So much so that if you leave the game for a few months you could come back to entirely new items and features that seemed inconceivable in the past. I mean the fact that you can fly now? I don't even know how to do that I just saw a friend do it and I've already poured the last week into trying to find out how.

I mentioned that you can enchant weapons, but you can also enchant yourself, albeit temporarily, through the use of potions. Get some glass, make a bottle, and you're one step closer to being able to see better in the dark, jump really high, do more damage or even swim faster under water. The amount of stuff to do in Minecraft can be dizzying, but part of the fun is trying to figure out how to do everything as hard as you can before turning to the wiki.

There are of course baddies in the game outside of dragons and block stealing weirdos; zombies, creepers (the green thing that go boom), skeleton archers, drowned (wet zombies), slimes, blazes (hot shooty boys), spiders, baby zombies and drowned (the worst), Ghast (big white screamy memey shooty boys) and of course other players, the latter of which is one of the best ways to experience the game.

The world in which you inhabit in any video game is just as important as the baddies you slay. Some games push you down linear corridors, some games even tie you to a single path and all you can really do is aim and shoot, and while some games give you large sprawling maps for you to explore at your leisure, in Minecraft, well, the world is made of “chunks” as we pros call it, and it never ends. No, really, it never ends, the game world is procedurally generated, which means you can pick a direction and keep going until you find the perfect mountain to make your home.

There are also a variety of landscapes in the game: taiga (snowy bois), deserts, giant mushrooms, dark woods, regular woods, birch woods, mountain ranges, swamps, igloos, flat plains, and sometimes it's just a lot of water. Whatever your favourite flavour of the real world is, Minecraft has it, and with the ability to pick your seed (the combination of numbers generated when a world is made) you can customise the world you inhabit.

The following of Minecraft also came with game altering mods that can add new blocks, features, animals, bad dudes, good dudes, currency, heck you can even mod in completely different game modes which have since become easily accessible outside of the modding community.

All of this is wrapped up in an easy to learn control scheme with hit, not hit, jump, other not hit, crouch, move around and change your characters perspective between first and third person.

Graphics: Imagine really cool pixel art. Just loads of squares dude.

Sound: The sound design in Minecraft is just so good. Open a door? Mm chunky door sound. Walking on some snow? Crunchy snow sound. The sound effects for items in the game are top notch, but the game really shines with the sounds of the enemies, specifically the creepers. Casually mining and you hear that hissing sound? Well, you were mining.

The music in the game is, as it always has been, gorgeous. Subtle tones that chime in from time to time, gentle piano as the rain starts to fall, ominous noises that can only be described as “bwam” while exploring the depths of the world, all of it works together to create a cohesive sound scape that peacefully fits to whatever you're mining, crafting or slaying. Every thing sounds as it should, and the music has a mind of it's own so it never feels noisy or excessive.

Personal experience: My first real experience with Minecraft was after I 'legally' downloaded it with 'money' on 'my' computer in my own home with my 'hands' on a 'keyboard.' It was an early alpha build and I remember running away from zombies and the hissy green boys by hiding in a mountain. I figured, y'know, wait until day, hang out, then dig my way back to the real world. Only, I'd forgotten which way was out, I wasn't paying attention and ended up spending half an hour punching my way out of an endless wall of dirt.

Between then and now I'm only slightly better at building a 9x9 wooden house, and the green boys don't scare me (as much) any more. Minecraft has been a game that I've left and returned to multiple times, and now as I write this review I find myself playing online with a friend and more invested than ever; when do we fly I ask, I don't know maybe after the dragon my friend replies, and we continue to routinely murder the same bloodline of cows until we're both wearing pink boots and hats. I'd say play it with friends, but sometimes going it alone is just as fun.

Score /10: To be honest I was going into this review with a number in mind, but now that I've finished it I have to say I'm going to keep the number: it's a 10/10. From the timeless gameplay, to the addictive nature of mining and crafting, and figuring out how the hell to fly, I find myself captivated by the simplistic depth of Minecraft, the allure of dying all my sheep the same colour and making all my tools shiny. Definitely leaving my Minecraft world in my will/10.