First and foremost, a big welcome to all the new faces in EO who I haven't had the chance to welcome into the fold yet.  It's great to see that more talent in the GM community is being recognized here, and it's nice to have more friends among the crowd here.

I don't know what it is about me lately, but I seem to have become very disorganized in my projects.  I've got about 3-4 GM projects going right now, and because of this, none of them really seem to be going anywhere.  The trouble is, I keep getting struck by these ideas that sound great, work a few days on them, and then wind up in a place where I just don't feel like continuing.  Considering I also have a more high profile project currently resting in limbo (Falcon Squad), and other real-life projects (still haven't finished those three paintings for my ever-patient friend).  I really want to finish these things, but finding the drive to do them has been hard lately.  Such is the life of an artist, I guess.

I suppose my inability to get much done with my work has also been due to my Xbox, which I just got back about a month ago, after turning it in for repairs a month before.  It seems there have been a lot of good games being released lately too!  I actually just finished Bioshock this weekend, and I can honestly say that it was one of the best single player games I've played in a long time; great story, great atmosphere, and just long enough.  I highly recommend it, but watch out for the Securom rootkit thing if you're planning on playing it on PC.

And of course, I've been spending a lot of time with my girlfriend (her birthday was in August too!), and going around and taking care of random odds and ends...  had to have my car serviced, went to the California State Fair, switched cell phone carriers.  The list goes on.

Anyway, I should get back to work, but I just thought it'd be nice to check in with everyone, get a new blog out there, and say 'hi' to the EO newcomers.  I'll be trying to focus a bit more on my GM stuff, so maybe we'll actually see some more stuff coming from Fred in the near future...  ;)

Until next time!

Well, I haven’t been able to get as much done with Falcon Squad as I’d hoped this week, but it’s all good – I’ll have a new demo out this weekend.  I’ll talk about that in a second though, because the reason for that is that I have gotten a new job!

Yes, my career as a lowly page designer for a real estate magazine is over, and I am now a production artist for a beverage company!  It’s really a very nice job, and I have had a lot of fun learning their system, and helping with product packaging designs and such.  My supervisor and project manager are nice people, and everyone at the company seems very happy to be there – which makes it much easier for me to be there as well.  The only flaw with this new job is that it’s considerably farther away (an hour away) than my last job (20 minutes away), but so far being a commuter hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be.  The pay is good though, so I’ll stick with it for as long as I can, and still keep plenty of time on the side for my girlfriend, and for my work.

That said, I’ve been working today, and I should have a new demo out for Falcon Squad tomorrow.  The new demo will include a lot of user-requested fixes / additions, as well as (hopefully) two new maps to play on, and a lot of fixes and optimizations.  I’ll be running a server as much as I can tomorrow as well, so hopefully I’ll see some of you online!

Lastly, I also wanted to say that Aces High Over Verlor Island has made it into round 3 of the cagematch over at the GMC.  If you liked AHOVI, show your support with a vote!

Anyway, I’m off to get back to work on Falcon Squad, and also to play some Rainbow Six Vegas later on…  just picked it up (on sale for only $39.99 at Target!), and it’s an awesome game.  Thanks for reading, and for voting! ;)

Before you even start reading, let me say this:  I am not actually making an MMO…  But my topic title is not a sham, and if you will read on, I shall prove that to you!  Hehe.

So long time no blog, eh?  Sorry folks, I have been busy…  but soon I’ll be getting a new demo out, and I will need some beta testers.  So stay tuned.  Now, onto my blog!

Anyway, I think it’s funny, how much MMO games have really changed the way people think about games.  Myself specifically.  As a former WoW explorer, and a current Guild Wars adventurer, I often look around myself at things in the real world and think to myself, “man, that would make a great MMORPG game!”  I ask, is this a common thing to think among game developers?

Case in point – In a recent fit of nostalgia (and I happened to have a Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my pocket), I picked up season 2 of Disney’s Ducktales.

Before I continue, I’d like to say that I think this show is one of the best cartoons for TV  that Disney ever produced.  It had action, adventure, and some silly (but still funny) humor that was very reminiscent of the old Uncle Scrooge / Donald Duck Carl Barks comic books I used to read when I was a kid.  It was colorful, well animated, and had some very memorable music.  But enough of my praise, back to the topic at hand.

While watching the show’s pilot episode (2+ hours, 5 episodes long!), where most of the main characters and locations are introduced, I couldn’t help but think to myself again “man, that would make a great MMORPG game!”  Yes, I envision a persistent game world filled with ducks, beagles, money bins, mansions, hideouts, crazy inventions, etc.  I see a Junior Woodchuck quest / merit badge system.  An explorable Duckburg.  Maybe some big treasure hunting story.  The possibilities would truly be endless!

To those of you who know of (and appreciate) the show, this would probably be an amazing experience.  To everyone else, it probably sounds insane!

As was mentioned above however, it is not to be.  Aside from the fact that a project like this would be of an impossible magnitude for a single person to undertake, it would also be a waste of time to work so hard on a project that you could have no possibility of selling, and probably even less of a possibility of pitching to the owner of the intellectual property contained within.

But a man can dream, can’t he?  [:D]

As is commonplace with Apple's X Server, we (my work) currently have the server shut down for maintenance, after a few more days of intermittent service.  If we don't do this, the server becomes more and more erratic, crashing more frequently every day until something becomes corrupt on the hard drive and our database of information must be rebuilt, a process that can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.  Sometimes it's good, since it allows me time to browse websites, post on forums, chat with people via IM...  and of course, write blogs!

So here I am, back from a 2 night / 3 day mini vacation in San Francisco.  The weather was great, I saw some awesome stuff, and got to spend a lot of time with my girlfriend.  I feel fresh, revitalized.  I am ready to get back to work on my projects.  And 'm kicking it off with a status report, courtesy of my blog.  Let me say first though - if any of you happen to ever get the opportunity to stay at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, by all means, do so.  I think the elevator there was more fancy than a few entire hotel rooms I've stayed in before!  Fancy, fancy stuff.

Anyway, big things!  Reflect Games has now officially reached the 1,000 member landmark, with 1,000 users joined by friday, and (to my surprise) over 1,020 currently as I write this!  I've been working hard to add new things to the site, and I will continue working on it in order to make it the best site possible for players of our games, and our third party developers' games.  This summer, I may also undertake the project of re-writing a lot of the underlying server code, so that the Reflect System will be more well-rounded and able to support more of the features both players and developers want, like friends lists, in-game messaging, etc.  It's a long road ahead, but with over 1,000 members, a great line-up of first and third party titles, and more to come all in under a year's time, I am very happy with the way things are heading.  Don't forget to check out the site's newest addition, the <a href="http://forums.reflectgames.com">Reflect Forum</a>, which you can use your existing login to access.

I also wanted to touch on the status of Aces High Over Verlor Island, which, though slow, is progressing.  I recently completed two of the three single player game modes, and I've added a lot of new stuff to the game, including music (courtesy of Ds, of EO fame), new effects, and a large bag full of fixes and touch-ups.  The 3D tile system was also re-written to allow the game to run a bit faster, and I will be continually looking over the code and trying to find things that can be optimized as I finish up the game.  I'd like to get the game out on GM7, if the conversion is mostly painless, but seeing as we don't really know when GM7 might be out, I'm having a hard time pacing myself.  There aren't really any features of GM7 that I need to get into this game, but I would really like for the game to be compatible with XP and Vista...  so we'll see.  Regardless of all that, I am really happy with the way the game is turning out, and I hope that you guys feel the same when it is eventually released.

I've been debating what I want to work on after AHOVI, and I'm just not quite sure yet.  I've already done quite a bit of work on Hover Tank 3D 2, and I'd like to continue that, but I also have been having some ideas for a couple of other games recently, including a more RPG-ish sequel to Evolites, the oft-delayed Gunner McJack (kinda like Soldat), a Worms: Armageddon type of game, or possibly a "massively single player" top-down sci-fi shooter akin to Starship Troopers.  I've got big ideas for all of these games...  some of them I think would make for a really fun time too.  I just don't know what to do!  Oh well, I really should focus on finishing up AHOVI.  I'm also (still) finishing up my commissioned paintings, as well as a website I've been contracted to construct, and of course, the massive amount of video games I have to play.

Ah  well...  I've got more to say (I think I always do), but I think this is enough for now.  Try to stay patient for GM7 everyone, and thanks for reading!

Well first of all, I am glad to report that Aces High Over Verlor Island is again taking steps toward completion - the first single player mode (of three that are currently planned) is almost complete.  Single player mode isn't really what I wanted to showcase with the game, but I think that each of the three challenges will provide enough variety and instant fun for people to be something that they continually come back to.  The addition of a high score board for each of the three games should contribute to this as well, I hope.  I really want to get the game done sooner rather than later, as it has been in production for a long time, and I am anxious to get something new on my plate!

Another thing I've been thinking about lately is having Reflect Games host a contest of sorts, in order to boost creativity and promote the people who are willing to put effort into it.  The contest would run for a month or so, kind of a spring contest...  but I'm not quite sure what the goal of the contest could be.

One idea I had was to do a "one level" contest, where you could make a level for a game that has yet to be made or doesn't exist.  Any kind of game, any size, length, or depth.  The goal would be to make the level as professional and polished as you could, and to make it seem as if it were just pulled straight out of a game.  Any kind of story that is portrayed in the level could start and finish wherever you want, characters would not really have to be introduced, etc.

Another idea I had was a contest where the pieces are supplied, like a graphics pack, or set of character sprites, and the goal is to make the best WIP / finished game to go along with them.

Judging would be conducted via a forum poll, or something similar...  Prizes...  A cool banner?  Reflect credits?  I haven't really nailed down the details yet, since I have only really thought about it a little bit over the last few days.

So what are your thoughts on this?  Would you be interested in competing against others in a contest hosted by Reflect Games?  What other ideas would be good?

Anyway, I feel like this blog is a bit lacking in the content dept., but unfortunately I don't have much else to say, and it's about time for me to get back to work here (writing from work, gotta love it).  So thanks for reading, and until next time!