I'm Wiped Like a Raid Team

So, no big long thing on here today. I'm tired, frustrated, and just wanna game a bit.

However, I did see some real cool shit on the intertron today, that I'd like to share.

First up, the trailer for Shen's Last Gift makes me wanna reinstall X-COM (and then 2, when I finally finish Enemy Within.)

And here's a cool preview from GameSpot of the new DLC.

And, by the way, don't tell anyone, but I've never finished an XCOM game, despite it being an amazing series.

Also, this trailer for Scorn is wonderfully unsettling. I cannot wait to check this game out.

Was that just absolutely unnerving or what? Someone's a Giger fan, apparently. And that's a great thing!

Alright, I'm gonna go game. I'm on the road tomorrow, but I plan to be doing some check-ins from the road here and via YouTube.

Stay frosty!

-Blaine

Travel & Tech

We're traveling this weekend. We're going to visit my in-laws in northern Illinois (east of the middle of nowhere), and they FINALLY have real internet. I've known my wife for 15 years, and in all that time, they've either had dial-up, or they (and I'm not shitting you) bounced a satellite signal off a grain silo.

Now, though, they finally have true broadband, and it's actually even faster than what we have.

So, that's nice.

Before that, I'd actually set my phone up somewhere on a window sill, wherever I could get more than two bars of LTE, or 4G, if I had to settle for that, then wirelessly tether the ROG (my awesome Asus Republic of Gamers laptop) to it, if I had to work or game. Or use a tablet. Or do much of anything.

So, that's actually a huge alleviation. I used to run up monster data usage there, and now, I won't.

If we can just get them to get rid of the well water, pig shit smell, and get air conditioning, we'll be all set.

They're awesome people, though, and I always end up having a good (if a bit austere) time.

One thing I'm constantly turning over in my head is how to get a better in-car PC gaming experience. My ROG is a 17-inch screen, which is, right off the bat, a bit too big for in-car gaming. Plus, there's the question of the mouse, and ... it just doesn't really work. I still have my Vita, 3DS, and iPad, though. It would be nice to get something PC gaming going, though. I've thought about just setting up the ROG in the hatch, tethering it to a phone, then connecting my wife's Surface to the network, then getting the Steam streaming going. That might actually work.

Yeah, I know, I'm crazy, but I love thinking about shit like this.

And it's only a four-and-a-half hour drive, but it's been fun, over the years, tinkering and improving the overall car travel experience.

Besides, I'd much rather drive somewhere than fly, if time allows for it. I get to control a lot more of the experience, and it's got more of the feel of a journey than flying does. Besides, whenever I fly, I feel like I'm surrendering my rights and willingly becoming a prisoner. It's usually not a bad experience, but it's rarely a good one, either. Driving, for me, feels like freedom.

Now that I have two kids, it's actually become an imperative that I improve the in-car experience, too.

One evolution that's been really interesting to be a part of, in this regard, is cellular phones. When she and I first met, I had the Matrix phone (the one that Neo gets from Morpheus via delivery in the first Matrix film; I loved it when I first saw it, then bought one several months later.) I think you could, technically, tether a computer to it. But looking at websites on it was awful, and it really was, basically, just a phone.

Now, I use my phone as a camera, a book reader, a web browser, a music player, and if I wanted to subject myself to it, I could play bad F2P games on it. Ooh, and like every other modern device, it can stream NetFlix.

Anyway, in terms of in-car entertainment, phones have brought that notion waaay forward. Now, we constantly have one of the phones broadcasting a wifi signal, and the wife and kids join it as needed, while I stream my music to the car's head unit, while I drive. Good times.

Anyway, I gotta get back to the grind.

Oh, real quick, and I'm gonna post more on this some other time, but, though I love the film, The Matrix does not hold up well now. I watched it last night. Anyway, gotta run!

-Blaine

The Dev Life

I'm a developer. That still feels a little weird when I say it. I wanted it for so long, and now I've had it, for two and a half years. I'm a little old for being at this stage in my development career, because I took such a circuitous route getting here, and that bothers me a bit, but I try not to let it. I have a much richer background than most developers.

The short version is that I worked a string of shit jobs, eventually working my way into shit job management, before finally going to college when I was 21.

I graduated with a BA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago, and went right back to shit job management, only now I was higher-ranking and much better paid.

After a few years of that, I took a huge pay cut, and actually did help desk for a university for a while, which was actually really, really enjoyable. If you ever get the chance to work at a university, do it. It was a really fun, magical time for me.

The money, though, is in corporate. I was eventually lured away by the siren call of corporate cash money, and worked help desk for a short time there, before eventually being promoted to a SysAdmin job.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

The reason I made the jump was because I saw it as a chance to break into development, and that opportunity was there.

Instead, I chose to demonstrate my value by jumping into the support side, because that's where the help was desperately needed, and I knew I could bring value.

I taught myself things like how to build a domain, the ins and outs of Active Directory, and how servers work. Before long, as I said, I was suddenly a SysAdmin, which is somewhere between 'God' and 'rockstar.' You're always the smartest guy in any given meeting. When shit hits the fan, you're the one that steps up, and saves the day.

It's a super-cool job, and an easy way to stay employed, but it lacked the creative nuance I wanted. And the hours can, depending on how well-run your shop is, kinda suck. For me, at first, they were awful, but then, after an organizational change, they improved drastically.

Regardless, after a few years, it was time for a change.

Fall 2013, an opportunity presented itself. A buddy from the dev team here was leaving, and I quietly put in some feelers. I got paid one of the highest compliments I've ever received in that process. "We were hoping you'd still be interested."

For political reasons, they couldn't ask me if I was interested.

Anyway, after some figuring, it all worked out, and I went from being a SysAdmin to an entry-level developer.

Since then, it's been a crazy and fascinating position. As a SysAdmin, you question every step you take, everything you do, and you never, ever, move forward without some kind of escape vector or rollback plan.

Development, if your TFS is well-managed, is free of a lot of those constraints, when you're talking about actual development code.

The biggest change, though, for me, was being told I did something wrong all the time.

In the infrastructure world, I didn't hear that often. I wasn't perfect, but ... well, you don't do bi-weekly releases. In the dev world, the biggest challenge for me has been the emotional side of 'bugs.' I'm wired in such a way that every mistake I make feels devastating, and I try very hard to learn from each one, self-flagellating and burning inside. What's become apparent is that is not a helpful approach. I've had to dial it back a bit, and just kinda act like 'it is what it is, now let's fix some shit.'

Of course I still care, but I've toned down my internal reaction. I still learn from it.

What's interesting, too, is that you're not always learning from your own mistakes when fixing bugs. Sometimes, someone made a mistake YEARS ago, and your change just revealed it. That kinda shit actually happens quite often.

The biggest thing, though, and this was good advice from my boss, is really testing the hell outta your own shit before you lob it over to the QA folks. This is where I think I'm focused the most on improving.

And I tell you what, too. I've seen guys learn to staple together various frameworks and call themselves developers (I actually stole that phrasing from a fellow developer and friend), but really learning the craft takes years. I'm at about two and a half now, and I'm only recently really feeling like I can kinda handle the basics of most projects and situations.

It's a fucking great job, though. It's, for me, a perfect balance between logic and art. And my team is just awesome. I love my team, and they tolerate me.

What's amazing is visualizing the solution and then just building it out. People do this kinda shit as games, for fun, and I get PAID to do it. It's awesome.

So, yeah, it took me a while to get here, but I've got years of management and systems administration in my toolset, along with the development experience that I'm building. That'll all coalesce into some kinda super-job at some point, but for now, this gig kicks ass.

If you're even thinking of going into development, just do it. Get the free version of Visual Studio, SQL Server Express, hit up some of the training on Microsoft Virtual Academy, and learn C#. From there, move on to web development in ASP.NET, or maybe game dev, or whatever you want. If I can claw my way into this career, anyone can.

I think the basic lesson, though, is that this is also the hardest job I've had. It's not the worst hours, it's not the harshest conditions, in fact, it's great. But it's really hard. I'm not used to feeling like I'm in over my head, and I'm not used to being humbled, and this job doles that out constantly.

At the same time, it lets me be creative, and if I think I have a better way of doing something, I'm free to just go try it, which is awesome. It may even be the best part.

OK, I'm going on longer than intended. My job has been on my mind lately, and writing about things usually helps me clarify things, which it definitely did today. If you're still reading at this point, thanks for making it this far.

As a side note, I really wish my Cardinals stabilize their fucking pitching. Holy cow. In terms of offense and pitching, this is the opposite team from last season. Crazy.

OK, back to work!

-Blaine

PS - I REALLY miss smoking, but I really don't. Also, fuck bugfix week.

Goodbye, Witcher, Hello, Torment.

The summer time is often the dead zone for gaming. And, I guess, it kinda should be. It's usually the best time to be outside, walking, fighting bears, toiling in the yard, or whatever it is that people that like being outside pretend to enjoy doing out there.

The only time I like being 'out there' is if I'm at a ballgame (GO CARDS), or exploring something and/or learning something. I do enjoy summer evenings. Back when I used to smoke and drink, the back porch was where you could almost always find me in the evening. Now, it's my couch.

Holy cow, do I get off track like really crazy fast, or what?

ANYWAY, this is the time of year that I'm finishing games, clearing out the pile of shame, and trying new experiences (games, not weird sexual things (that's year-round)).

Right now, I have a rotation going made up of Dishonored, Doom, Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, and the Torment beta, as well as several MMOs. It's too much, but it is what it is right now.

I'm zooming in on the end of Dishonored right now, after which I'll play the two story DLCs. I like that game's compromise between a linear, mission-based structure, and free-roaming within each mission. I think that's a wonderful approach, especially relative to all the HUGE RPGs I play. The story and world are also really cool. Some LOVE the visual style, and I've slowly come to appreciate it, but I still think it's just kinda ugly. It's like BioShock, only not as ... effective? I dunno. Either way, overall, it's a fantastic game.

Doom is just fun. I play a mission every few days. I've stopped playing the multiplayer. This is not because I don't like it, but multiplayer shooters are just never a priority for me.

The Witcher ... I've been a big fan of this franchise for a long time. I've been a few of both the games and the books for years. It took me a couple years to really understand the first game, but once I did, I went nuts for it. The books, I fell in love with right away. It's been painful waiting for each translation, but I devour them quickly. They are each worth the wait.

It was interesting this past weekend, though, knowing that, in Blood and Wine, I'm concluding my video game time with Geralt, just as I was also really getting seduced by the Torment beta. It was this weird feeling that I was sunsetting one intense relationship, just as another was beckoning.

I saw an interesting quote during all this, and I wish I could remember where. I want to give proper credit. Basically, someone posited that 'The Witcher' franchise wasn't a fantasy RPG, it is a folklore RPG. I wholeheartedly agree with that. So much of it pulls from Polish folklore, which is a huge part of what gives it such distinct flavor.

It was really great juxtaposing The Witcher and Torment this weekend. I really didn't mean to, but I kept flipping back and forth between the Blood and Wine expac, and the Torment beta.

Where Blood and Wine is, itself, a great juxtaposition (dark, grim Geralt in a bright, whimsical setting), Torment is a fascinating blend of post-apocalyptic science fiction and high fantasy. And something else. I don't know enough about the Numenera setting yet to really say much, but every aspect of this world grabbed me by my imagination and intellect and YANKED.

For me, that's probably the highest compliment that I can give to a game. I play games to experience other worlds, and to live out stories in them. I feel the same way about The Witcher.

And while I'm slowly bringing my final adventure with Geralt to a close, it's been interesting getting settled into Numenera, and appreciating how these two games accomplish similar feats, albeit in utterly different ways. Where the Witcher is over-the-shoulder, action-based, and told from the point of view of a fixed character (though you influence that character's choices and overall demeanor), Torment is an old-style cRPG, very dialogue-driven, told from the perspective of a character that you create, and turn-based combat. These games are utterly dissimilar, aside from both being RPGs. This kinda highlights what I love about the genre, which is its versatility. I love how broad the experience can be.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share some of my musings from the weekend. It's about the only time I have to game anymore.

I tend to slow-jam certain games, so I'll be playing Blood and Wine for a while. Torment beta and Dishonored, I'll wrap up soon-ish, and then I'll probably start beating up another of my MMOs (Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, ESO, FFXIV). I should probably post my server info for anyone that wants to play together. Hmm.

Anyway, I'm heading back into Visual Studio. Keep it real.

-Blaine

BTW - in case you were curious, I post those Amazon links because I get a cut of the sale, and I wanna make money off these blogs, because I love doing them.

I Love Torment (but it's not what you think, sicko)

I tend to stay away from backer betas.

If I back a game, it's because it's filling a need that I don't see being filled by publishers, or it's a need that I want filled without publisher intervention. I don't want it to have mass appeal. I want it to be very specific in its audience.

Pillars of Eternity is a fantastic example of this. It was the game that first got me excited about the possibilities of Kickstarter, and it absolutely fulfilled its promise, and then some. It's one of the best games I've ever played. It was part of this magical time in which Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars, and then Witcher 3 all released in short succession, and I got to play my two favorite series, and a new favorite in the middle, all one after another.

Anyway, I'm really getting off-topic. Sorry, but it was a very magical time.

So, yeah, I backed the hell out of Pillars, and kept adding to my 'backing,' so that I'd get more and more stuff. Including the beta.

What's funny, though, is that I did play a little of the beta, but I put it down rather quickly. I didn't want it spoiled. I wanted my entry into that world to be one that was new, and fresh, and utterly magical.

And it worked out. I held off on playing much of the beta, which was a vertical slice that was early in the game, but not at the beginning. It filled in some lore, but then, like I said, I backed off pretty quickly, and saved myself for release night. When I got the game, it was magical, and many months later, we were both left panting.

And, then along came Torment: Tides of Numenera.

I fucked up. I played a bit of the first beta release, but did the same thing I did with Pillars. I got a bit of lore, and then set it down.

Well, they updated it. A lot. I got kinda curious last night, and ... I made a mistake. I fell in love. This game is utterly incredible. I need to stop. The beta is so good, and so complete, and beautiful, and exactly the kind of game I so badly need ... but the finished product is in 2017. If I keep going, it's only going to hurt both of us. We have to stop. It's what's best for both of us.

But, I played more today. And it was so good. I'm worried. I'm worried that I can't stop.

That's it. I'm exhausted. I'm going to get in bed, and ... read one of the novellas that's part of the mega-backer package that I put down for. I need more Numenera.

-Blaine

Why PC Players Are Getting the Skyrim Enhanced Edition For Free

I'm a fan of the Elder Scrolls: Off the Record show, and they touched on something that I realize I'd been waiting to hear about.

Some people don't understand why the PC version of the Skyrim port for modern consoles is free to existing PC owners of Skyrim + all its DLC.

A few weeks ago, at E3, Bethesda announced that a port of Skyrim was coming to the two modern consoles, with some tweaked visuals, and it will have a similar ability to Fallout 4 (on consoles) to import mods. Before that got announced, I'd heard it was coming, and I was curious about the PC version.

One of the things I kinda figured was that the PC version was going to be free to existing Skyrim owners, since there's no way a lot of us would pay for an enhanced version, when we've already been playing heavily-modded, 'enhanced' versions for years. We wouldn't pirate. We'd just ignore it.

Then, as I thought through it more, I realized there was also a pipeline issue in terms of the mods for the console port.

The port is going to have an updated engine, and my understanding is that the new client is 64-bit, whereas the old one is 32-bit. This impacts memory addressing.

The mods for the existing version of Skyrim, as I understand it, can be ported to the updated, 64-bit client, but I'd bet that they'll need to be recompiled, and tested, in the updated SDK before they can function in the updated engine.

Additionally, not all of these are going to just 'work.' At least a few are going to need some tweaks.

Thus, Bethesda is going to need a fair number of PC Skyrim players, especially the big-time Skyrim modders, to have this, so that they can have the latest engine and SDK, and make their awesome mods available to console players.

So, there ya have it.

Existing owners of PC Skyrim and all its DLC get Skyrim Remastered for free because:

1) we already have access to mods that make the game look and run better than the existing vanilla version

2) Bethesda needs us to have the latest engine and SDK so that we can push mods that are compatible with the port that's hitting PS4 and XB1

Making it free to existing PC owners is a concession that we have no incentive to buy something we already have (or an approximation thereof), and they see making it free as an investment in their console audience, who will be dependent on the PC modders, as is the case with Fallout 4 right now.

I've also heard some other questions out there that I think I can answer.

Why can't I make mods on my console?
Your console is not a PC. If you've never used an SDK before, trust me when I say that you absolutely need a mouse and keyboard to use it. Also, I question whether the modern consoles have the hardware specs to handle proper development. I would guess they don't. And storage space, too. Anyway, I understand the impulse, but trust me, even if the Creation Kit were made available on console, it would be a sub-optimal experience.

Why isn't this free for console owners that already own Skyrim and all its DLC on the previous generation?
First, there's the question of proving ownership. If you own it digitally, that's easy. For disc-based, though, no.
Second, and I'll be blunt, but console owners voted against backwards-compatibility this generation, and they voted heavily for re-buying games they already own. On console, Bethesda is following the same trend as many other publishers.
Yeah, I know Microsoft has been working to correct this, while Sony has been going the opposite direction, but the lack of backwards compatibility on consoles that, conversely, is inherent to PC is a larger issue that we're not getting into here. I wasn't thrilled to see Bethesda (Zenimax) contribute to this problem, but they, like every other publisher, are in the game to make money, so I can't fault them.

If you have any other questions about this, or wanna discuss any of this, leave a comment below! I'm always interested in having discussions, getting alternate perspectives, and talking shop!

Now, I'm gonna confess something, but don't tell anyone ...

... I've never finished Skyrim. I'm actually kinda stoked for the 'remaster,' because I plan to actually finally play through it. And probably do some modding.

Oh, yeah, in case you didn't know, the Skyrim port is hitting PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 28th this year. Between this and Dishonored 2, I'm going to have one hell of a Bethesda holiday.

Alright, enough of this. Back to gaming!

Don't forget! Comment, follow, share, whatever! I love doing this, and wanna do it more! And check out my YouTube channel!

Thanks, and enjoy the Lard's Day!

-Blaine

My YouTube video quality

I was informed, and noticed, that my YouTube video quality was shit, and that has now been corrected. It's vastly better now. I promise. Give me another chance.

My last stream, the Dishonored mission, was the first of the 'better quality' streams. And it's much, much better. I promise. Check it out.

I'm gonna stream again today. Not sure what. Maybe the Torment beta. We'll see.

I'll throw something up on Twitter when I go live.

I'm kinda tired. Happy Lard's Day.

-Blaine

Oh, yeah, Dishonored is great

Something I've failed to mention on here lately.

During E3 week, I finally succumbed to intense pressure from a couple friends to finally give Dishonored another chance. I'd played a bit of it when it first came out, and maybe again, a year later, but hated the way it looked, and wasn't overly impressed with the opening.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized I hadn't really given the game my full attention when I'd been playing it, and it really is a game that requires a fair amount of focus and thought while playing it.

So, I played a lot of it after the floor show at E3 closed, while I watched the Giant Bomb and Easy Allies late night streams, and actually fell in love with it.

Especially in a time in which every game now has gone 'open world' and 'free roaming,' Dishonored' very structured, very focused 'go to this environment and do A, but you can also stop and do B and C if you want, as well' approach is much appreciated. Additionally, the fact that the player can approach each of these situations in a number of ways is very cool. My approach to most things in life, is 'blunt instrument,' which was not going over too well in this game, given my shit FPS skills, so I quickly started using the 'Blink' ability a lot (stealth teleport), and started having greater success, and a hell of a lot more fun.

I started out the game yelling at NPCs for making me kill them because they saw me and attacked, to frolicking the rooftops over a bourgeois party, quietly slipping in, neutralizing a target, and slipping back out, never raising an alarm. I love this game.

In fact, here's this past night's stream of my latest mission in the game.

So, yeah, if you've not played Dishonored yet, I highly recommend it. I'm more of an RPG guy than a shooter guy, and this straddled the two worlds perfectly for me. It really let me play the game the way I wanted to. I think I'm close to the end, so I'll be sure to wrap up my final thoughts about it. And I cannot wait to play Dishonored 2 later this year!

-Blaine

20 Years of Quake and You (and your games!)

This will be a quick one, but I wanted to share a few things about the original Quake.

I knew it was an important game in terms of the shooter genre, but the more I played and thought about it, the more I came to realize that all modern games owe something to Quake. 3D level design, which is found in most modern games now, basically got its core tenets established in this game.

So, real quick, here are some great write-ups on Quake's 20 Anniversary:

PCGamer

GameSpot (Romero, actually)

Those feature a lot of good quotes and reflections on the legacy of Quake. I also had a really fun time playing the PC original (heavily modded) last night, which you can check out below. Yeah, it's sorta self-promotion, but for real, it's a real fun watch, especially once I start to really dig into the game.

One of the coolest things I came across was a pic in the above PCGamer piece that shows the family tree of QuakeC, and all the games that are descended from it. It is absolutely staggering.

Anyway, check all that out and enjoy. I'll probably stream some random shit this weekend. I'll send notifications out on my Twitter if you wanna hang out and shoot the shit in chat.

UPDATED:
I had to add this great RPS article about a VR adaptation. A buddy brought this up in the above video. Too funny.

Have a great weekend!

-Blaine

Quake, 20th Anniversary, Me, Streaming, Tonight

Funny thing happened. It's the 20th anniversary of Quake, so I got the idea to stream it for a little while tonight (yeah, I just got done saying how little free time I have in the previous post, I know, but just suspend disbelief for a bit). I hit up my Steam library to quickly install it to the ROG while I'm at work, and HOLY FUCK I DON'T OWN QUAKE!!!

I have all of 2 & 4, so I'm guessing I was just sticking to the 'Strog canon story' or something?

Either way, the Steam summer sale just started today, so I hopped on there and got Quake + the two mission packs for $7. Not bad.

Anyway, that led me to realize that I have never played the first Quake on PC. I know, I know. I don't know how that happened, but it did. I'll look around for some mods to get it to display like a proper modern game, but we'll see what's out there.

I'm guessing I'll go live some time around 1930-2000 central time.

You can catch me on YoutTube Gaming here.

-Blaine

Time is a Hunter, Stalking Us (or however that Star Trek quote goes)

Yeah, so last post, I said all this awesome shit about me getting back to modding and whatnot. Yeah, that's stalled a little. Let me explain, though.

First things first, I did make a little progress. I eliminated the Ark Dev Kit because it's so fucking big. The game itself is ~40GB, and the UE4 kit + Ark assets is ~80GB, so I said 'fuck that.' I game and dev mostly on my ROG laptop, which is a beast, but isn't the fattest in terms of its secondary disk. On top of that, every time I've tried to play Ark, I've materialized naked in a dark swamp, and then been eaten by a level 113 scaled chicken. After like four times, I said 'fuck it,' and went back to a slow-paced RPG.

I don't like modding games that I don't know inside and out.

And, time, man. It's tough. I get up @ 530AM, get to work ~630, leave around 1530, pick up the heir apparent at camp, go home, and then on Mon, Wed, Fri, I head to my workout shortly after that, get home around 1900, eat, talk at the kids a bit, then crash around 2030. Tues and Thurs nights, the trophy wife has class, so I'm feeding and entertaining the boys, who go down around 1930-2030, at which point, I crash out. The weekends are my days for getting shit done and gaming, so it's gonna have to cut into that.

I think I need to change my mindset, though, and stop thinking about this as 'work.' When I wrote my first novel, I was excited every time I sat down to bust out a page a day. It felt like playing. I need to get back to that.

Time and money are a real motherfucker.

Still, there's gotta be a way that I can sneak in an hour or so every day. The thing is, if I can get sorta handy with just one toolset, then use those skills every day, I'll be solid.

OK, back to work.

-Blaine

Me the Modder

So, anyone that knows me pretty well knows that way into the mod scene for PC games. I love to download and install them, as well as do some minor tweaking on my own. I love everything about mods. From visual enhancements to bug fixes to restoring cut content to new quests and areas that extend the life of the game. I love it all.

Something that's been in my brain for years now is that I should be one of the people that makes these mods, specifically, the mods that tell new stories. I'm a published author, and I'm a developer (C#), so I've got some of the basic skills. I've made a few false starts in learning various toolsets, but I'm at a point now where I really wanna start to get serious about it.

I've been looking at a few different toolsets, and I think what I'm going to do is learn the basics of a few, and then pick one, and focus solely on learning it inside and out, while I slowly build out my mod.

At the moment, I'm considering:
 - Creation Kit (Fallout 4)
 - Divinity Engine
 - Dragon Age Toolset
 - NWN Toolset 
 - Ark Dev Kit

I think, for my first time out, I'm looking to build a fairly linear story that'll last the player several hours and feature some combat, some dialogue, and at least one branching decision. Eventually, I have a few larger stories in mind that I want to tell, including a full-blown Fallout campaign.

The new Creation Kit just kinda jumped out at me, since a) I love the game, and b) based on the prolific nature of mods for Bethesda games, the Creation Kit must be at least somewhat easy to work with.

The Divinity Engine is attractive since a) I love that game, too, b) I love the way it looks, and c) the 3/4 view might be really fun for combat, and d) turn-based battles tend to be my favorite.

NWN and Dragon Age ... there's a very mature, albeit somewhat dead community there. And I'm a BioWare fanboy at heart. It really sucks that they stopped being supportive of mod scenes. Also, the Dragon Age toolset is the one with which I'm the most familiar. And I've heard the NWN toolset is super-easy.

The Ark Dev Kit is the Unreal Engine editor, and if you've not seen UE4 and Blueprints and whatnot, holy shit, it is awesome to work with. I just bought Ark, don't know a lot about it, but I'm getting on a private server with some friends soon, so we'll see what's what.

I'll be starting with either the Creation Kit or the Divinity Engine first. We'll see.

Anyone that has experience with any of these that wants to share some feedback, I'd love to see some comments or DMs from you.

I also wanna get back to streaming a bit more again on my YouTube channel. Maybe Tuesday and Thursday nights, starting next week? I dunno. Tonight, I wanna get my game dev stuff up and running and start playing around.

Anyway, I need to get creative again. I love telling stories, and while it would be cool to work in prose again, this looks like a great new way for me to reach people.

Any thoughts from any current modders are appreciated, especially those that do it while working full-time, and being a spouse, and a parent.

I plan to keep posting in here to talk about my progress.

-Blaine

currently digging: the new RHCP record, the new Garbage record, Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, Dishonored, Game of Thrones