Novel Review: A Song of Ice and Fire

Hey all! Yes it's been a week with not a peep from me! School, visits from parents, blah blah blah. I will try to do better, even if it means shorter entries!

To get back into things, I wanted something easy to write about. It's easiest for me to write about things I like, so today I'm going to talk about a book (and series) that any serious fantasy lover should read...


A Song of Ice and Fire
by George R. R. Martin

I would probably rate A Song of Ice and Fire as the best fantasy series of all time. It is NOT, however, in any way shape or form, light reading. It is DENSE, meaty, and full of juicy, delicious, raw realism. These characters are a far cry from the ideal white knight and evil sorceress. They behave much like real people might when thrown into extraordinary situations... and while nothing in the books could be described as "ordinary", George Martin also avoids the disgustingly over the top cliches that litter most fantasy novels. Magic, dragons, monsters, gods - these things existed (there are dragon bones in the capital city to prove it!) but they were things of the past, for the most part. Fantasy elements are much more subtle, weaving in and out of the main story in ways that are unobtrusive, natural, and truly enchanting.


Plot

The plot of A Song of Ice and Fire is a slippery, wild snake that winds through the smaller, sordid tales of the various view point characters (of which there are many). The overarching idea of the series is that of a kingdom thrown into chaos as many different factions fight over the crown. Meanwhile, in a far off land, the true heir to the throne is growing up and making her own place in the world, but one could only imagine she will return soon. And, over all this, the dread words of the Stark family, "Winter is coming" beat ominously. In the north, the dreaded undead creatures of the frozen wasteland are stirring for the first time in known history, and the ragged defenders of the mighty Wall must somehow convince the bickering factions of the kingdom to the south to join forces and deal with the greater threat.

Characters

 As mentioned in the introduction, the characters are one of the many strengths of this series. Each has extreme depth, and acts in ways more real than any other novel I have read. From despicable to noble and anywhere in between, they represent all the shades of gray of humanity. George Martin effortlessly juggles dozens of viewpoint characters, keeping your interest and attention across many storylines at once, and keeping you turning the pages to see how these lines might cross.

The linchpins in this highly varied tale are the Stark family, of the northern-most part of the kingdom, and the princess-in-exile, Daenerys Targaryen. Unexpectedly, several of the enemies of the Starks become very interesting viewpoint characters as well - Tyrion Lannister is intriguing right from the beginning, but while his brother Jaime at first seems a shallow and unlikeable character, he proves to have quite a bit more depth as time goes on, and also eventually has some time in the viewpoint spotlight.

As might be expected from the gritty, realistic nature of the writing, several characters don't make it past the first book. In a land this torn by war, you never know who is going to die... or who might survive but be horribly maimed, which is not an uncommon occurrence in the series.

Recommendation

I'm not sure I need to say more than I did in the first paragraph - these are, in my opinion, the best fantasy novels of all time. Martin has earned his place on the shelf next to Tolkien and Lewis, and then some. As long as you are willing to set aside some time to seriously dig in and digest the dense material, you can't go wrong with A Song of Ice and Fire. Pick up a copy of the first book, A Game of Thrones, today!

For a more detailed overview of the series, check out this fine article!

Busy Weekend!

Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend! I've been painting nonstop and have some other homework as well. I'll post pics of my paintings as well as a game progress update tomorrow.

Gaming News: Drop in game sales?

I read an article in the Hollywood Reporter (not something I typically read but it came up under a search for "gaming news" so what can ya do) today that there was a 5% drop in video game sales last month compared to January 2010. The article was somewhat ambiguous about what exactly this meant - it mentions "physical sales" at one point but it's unclear whether total number is referring to physical sales of software, software+hardware, or if it includes non-physical sales (such as those made through Steam, the Wii store, App store, XBox live, etc).

It's also unclear if the statistic is referring to US sales alone or world-wide.

Given the state of the US economy, it's not surprising that US sales have fallen. Non-physical methods of purchasing games are becoming more and more attractive to many gamers, in particular computer gamers, and this could also account for the change.

Regardless, as a game developer, it's an important statistic to keep an eye on. We can only hope that with the economy stabilizing, people will have money to spare for games once again!

Game Review: Evil Genius

Posting every day is hard! I'll continue to attempt to post daily, but don't be surprised if I miss a day here and there.


Evil Genius
Sierra Entertainment, 2004

I've played this game in the past, but my interest in it was recently rekindled due to TotalBiscuit's coverage of the facebook game Dungeon Overlord. In Dungeon Overlord, you build up your dungeon over time, and the idea is that you check in one or two times a day to collect your accumulated resources and give new orders. It's a bit like if Farmville was actually fun. And had silly goblins. Anyway, I've been enjoying that game quite a bit but wanted something that I could play for a longer period at a time. Dungeon Overlord is often likened to Dungeon Keeper, but having downloaded the latter game and tried it out, they are very much not the same. In Dungeon Keeper you scrap your dungeon and start over at each level. One of the things I love about Dungeon Overlord is the persistence of the dungeon - you get to continually improve it over time. I suppose it speaks to my inner 10 year old, who always loved building forts.

This is about the time I remembered Evil Genius. In Evil Genius, you are a criminal mastermind and the goal of the game is to design and maintain your secret lair, while carrying out acts of infamy around the world to become the most notorious villain around. Unlike most strategy games, the emphasis is on base design rather than micro-management of troops, since you can't give direct orders to your minions. Despite being over six years old, the simple graphics are still quite pleasing, and the animations and sound show tons of polish and attention to detail. The characters are quirky and hilarious, as are the various pieces of equipment available for use in your base.

Being an older game, Evil Genius is available for purchase for a mere 10 dollars from Amazon.com. If you'd like a persistent base-design game with tons of character, I'd highly recommend you check it out!

Game Project Update: Creature Caretaker

I intended to write yesterday but ended up sleeping almost the entire day, and when I wasn't sleeping, the power was out. Bleh. Anyway, here is my first game project update, enjoy!

Creature Caretaker

This is my first game update, so I'll give an overview of the game.

Overview

In Creature Caretaker, you play as an Elf tasked by Leaf, the Goddess of Nature, with befriending a variety of magical Creatures. You must increase the friendship between Elves and Creatures, as well as the mysterious Sprites, by charming, training, and breeding many different Creatures in order to accomplish different goals throughout the story. Story-based goals will be primarily exploration based. The player will also be able to decorate their ranch, grow food for their creatures, create items both useful and just for fun, and enter their Creatures in competitions such as beauty contests, races, and arena combats. The overall feel should be one of exploration, creation, and relaxation.

Game Type:
    Farm Simulation/Virtual Pet/Point and click adventure
   
Platforms:
    Windows OS, eventually to be ported to mobile phone

Key Mechanics:

• Mix and match all sorts of creature to create your own bizarre monsters
• Includes detailed genetic algorithm for creature breeding
• Possibility and ways to encourage mutations
• Crafting system that allows your creatures to help you build items and structures
• Many different types of competitions to enter your creatures in
• Detailed world to explore
• Interesting combat system where your creature performs depending on how well it was trained

 Last Week

During the last week, I got the wild Creature generation algorithm started. It does not yet take Creature species into account when generating stats, but it's a start. At the moment I'm working in a test bed wrapper program while coding the engine, later I'll work on the application itself.

NOTE: I haven't decided whether all these stats will be fully transparent to the player. It's possible they will only be able to see whether a stat is particularly high or low, and it will instead be called a "trait" - so if the creature's attitude is particularly high, it might have the "Cheerful" trait.

Originally I was using combinations of pokemon sprites for the Creatures, but during the last week I've begun working on my own sprites. Since I've never done spriting before, they are a little rough, and I may re-work them in the future.

The Elf sprite is straightforward, and doesn't have any animations yet. If and when I give her animations, I suspect it will be quite difficult due to her flowing hair and dress.

 

The Creatures themselves are a more complex problem. I've decided to use a modular approach, and create the body parts for the creature separately, then construct them in game. Additionally, I will use a single palette of colors on the sprites I create, then change those colors in game depending on the Creature's genes. Shown above are the components for feline type creatures, and one example of a feline creature. The blue is the primary color and the green is the secondary.

Overall I'm quite excited with the progress of the game, and wish I had more time to work on it. 

Next Week

During the next week, I don't have very much time to work on this project. I'm going to set a small goal of simply getting the species-specific stat adjustments added to the wild creature generation algorithm.

Web Comic Review: The Abominable Charles Christopher

It's time! According to my schedule posted yesterday, I'll be doing a Web Comic Review every Friday! Without further ado, let's dig in!

I discovered this comic very recently, and absolutely fell in love with it. It attracted my attention because it beat out Digger, one of my favorites, in the webcomic awards for best black and white comic. I came in with high expectations and the ACC did not disappoint!

Story

ACC is a meandering, whimsical tale following the misadventures of one Charles Christopher, who we as of yet don't really know much about. He appears to be some sort of yeti, and the story has hinted that he has ties to both the world of animals and that of man. He lives in the forest and seems to have a great love for the forest creatures.

Things get interesting when humans start encroaching on the forest, and CC is given a mission by what appears to be a forest god (or at least some sort of magical being) to stop them.

One of the most unique and wonderful things about this comic is that, while there is clearly a main story involving CC, the author (very) frequently diverges in side stories about different animals in the forest. This extremely non-linear way of storytelling could be frustrating for some, but these side stories and slice-of-life comics are one of the reasons I love this comic so much. The main story is frequently rather heavy and sometimes extremely sad, and the light and funny nature of the side stories helps balance that out.

Art

The art in ACC is all black and white (with graytones as well). The artist is a master of this medium, as the webcomic award suggests, and the stylized imagery is really beautiful. The animals are absolutely excellent, managing to convey strong and detailed expressions without the anthropomorphic cartoony ickyness that would kill the immersion in the story.

 Status/Updates

The comic is still running, and I would expect it to continue for quite some time based on the current state of the story. It updates Wednesdays.

Recommendation

If you can handle the non-linear, meandering storytelling, this comic is one of the absolute best I have encountered. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

New Directions

 My goodness, it's been a while!

As anyone who frequents WoW-Pro.com will know, I've recently decided to take a break from World of Warcraft and from the WoW-Pro addon. I'm still hanging around the site and helping out here and there, but I no longer have time, money, and inclination to continue paying for WoW and therefore I am no longer able to work on the addon. University is quite tough this term, and soon I will be looking for an internship.

However, while I won't be working on WoW related projects for a while, I do want to continue this blog. Therefore, I've decided to change the focus of the blog. Instead of being specific to WoW, the blog will cover many different games, my writing and reading, my artwork, and my own game design projects. If and when I return to WoW and WoW-Pro, it will include WoW information/commentary and updates on my WoW-Pro projects.

I would like to try and produce at least a short article every day. Roughly the plan I would like to follow:

• Sunday - Game Project Update. An update on my current game project, what I got done last week, and what I plan to do this week.
• Monday - Novel Review. Review of one of the books I've read recently (usually in the fantasy genre).
• Tuesday - Artwork. I share a piece of artwork I've done and explain in general how it was done.
• Wednesday - Game Review. Review of a game I've played recently (not necessarily a new one!)
• Thursday - News. Something interesting that happened during the week involving gaming/writing/art.
• Friday - Web Comic Review. Review of a webcomic I've read recently.
• Saturday - Editorial. Whatever the heck I want to write about in relation to the main focus of the blog.

 Note: If something else occurs to me, any of these could be replaced by a different article at any time. This is just a guideline for me to follow.

Because I'm planning to update every day,  some of the updates may only be one or two paragraphs long, and that's okay. I want to get myself in the habit of writing every day, to improve my writing skills and build a portfolio of work to sample from, not to mention provide lots of interesting content for you fine folks!