This is creative bliss that I’m in right now.
I’m not being sarcastic — I honestly am more thrilled than I have been in a long time about a creative project. I’m deep into the development of my first point-and-click adventure game, and it’s going exceptionally well! Mark and I are falling into our respective roles pretty comfortably, and it looks like the thing will be ready early this summer. I can say with great confidence that this will not be one of those abandoned half-projects I so often announce — we’re too far along and I have too much momentum going for that to happen. I have an extended outline, I’m building the “sets” with Mark’s help and putting together the character animations. Then I flesh out the entire script, we record voices, animate and program the puzzles.
I’m making a FUCKING ADVENTURE GAME! Sometimes I just stop and think about that for a minute. The classic LucasArts adventure games, the equally classic Infocom text adventure games and the significant-though-not-quite-as-classic Sierra games occupy a substantial portion of my fond childhood, adolescent and early-20s entertainment memories. The genre has been gradually dying out these last few years, and to contribute even a tiny poke at those smoldering embers makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. Beyond that, though, are my purely selfish reasons — I have a list of creative (and other) things I’d like to accomplish in my lifetime. “Comic book” was one of them, and I’m waist-deep in that effort right now. “Adventure game” was another.
Another good thing is that I abandoned my original concept for a game (though I may come back to it someday) and decided to make this a story based on Tales of the Odd. As I hoped, the momentum and excitement I’m gaining from this is getting me worked up about all kinds of comic-related ideas. I think after I finish “Chachi in Charge” (and I promise that’s not far off), I’m going to do a series of short stories within the Tales of the Odd universe, rather than the big epic stories that take a year to finish. One story every week or two, 15 pages or so… to provide instant gratification to you, the reader and to assist me in creating a more thorough tapestry for the locations and history of Fort Burr.
So if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted lately, this is why. I guess that’s why this journal comes off as so bitchy — because when I’m happy, I’m too busy living life or writing (or both) to write anything down. This entry is an attempt to improve on that trend. Note my happiness. NOTE IT, DAMMIT! There’ll be a quiz later.