BETA Updates

This last weekend, we had our monthly video group meeting. Because of some personal issues I had to resolve that had me cut the meeting short on Saturday, I had to split the meeting over the course of two days (Friday and Saturday) to get the necessary amount of filming work done.

BETA Movie Updates:

As of right now, there is only one main video on our YouTube channel, Kingdom Broken Hearts. We are hoping on having three new movies and a handful of older movies posted within the next month:

New: Control Freak (Kingdom Hearts Themed)
New: If Jon Ruled the World
New: [Untitled Ginja Love Story]

Season 0: Chocolate Pizza
Season 0: Pizza Time
Season 0: Secret Agent Yachiru
Season 0: Talking With Jon

The first two new movies have been filmed and are being edited. The third one has been scripted and is in the planning phase.

Seasons:

Our shorts, skits, and sketches will be posted on the YouTube account in a Season format. Season 1 movies are ones that take place if the filming occurred in October 2010 or later. Season 0 movies are for movies that were filmed between June and September of 2010 in our former group. The uploads will be organized as such into these playlists in order to not throw off any viewers on why our quality of filming is good in one movie, but poor in another.

Improvements:

Each meeting we have, we try and have a better quality performance than the one we had before. It's only natural that we improve as a group over time. In our old sketches, we failed to overlook smaller details such as shadowing, or sound effects, or misplaced voice clips. The more we do, the more we re-film and try and minimize these small but glaring details from our movies, and hopefully you (as the viewer) can notice that too if you watch some of our older and upcoming skits.

_

I love working with the group, and we always try and make our newest sketch much more entertaining than the last. Please support our group on by liking us on Facebook or subscribing to us on YouTube! We appreciate all of the views and the comments! (Well, the positive ones, at least.)

BETA Cinema on Facebook
BETA Cinema on YouTube

Final Fantasy XIV November 2010 Patch: The Awesome, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Final Fantasy XIV was, unfortunately, a highly anticipated game that fell FLAT on its face on launch. It made numerous "biggest video game flop" lists of 2010, and received almost universally negative scores among the various reviews after its sloppy late September 2010 launch. Square-Enix received heated criticism that it lost touch with its player base with its horrendous UI for the game and its terrible game mechanics, and stock prices for S-E fell and FFXIV was primarily to blame, and the developers seemed to have looked to have aged 10 years in the last three months trying to assure players, investors, and and reviewers that the game was to get better. In this time, they announced that there would be three major patches to the game. The November 2010 patch which would fix some of the glaring user interface and gameplay lag that players were complaining about, the December 2010 patch which would fix the economy in the game by revamping the search feature and making it easier to shop for items, and the early 2011 patch which adds a load of new features to the game.

Here is the documentation for the patch notes overview.

Here is the documentation for the November 2010 patch and a detailed list of what was updated.

So, was this "miracle" patch worth it?

The Awesome:

Lag has been greatly reduced, the menu and commands work much more fluidly. In my opinion, this is what I disliked about the game the most. Before the patch contained a horrible UI that did not respond well. Areas were also laggy, and because of the breakup of areas to be processed separately, the lag in the game as a whole has also been reduced, which makes it much more enjoyable.




Combat moves much more fluidly.

The targeting system has been improved. You can now use the F keys to target members, like in Final Fantasy XI.

Item sort function was added, makes it much easier to change classes and equip new things without having to go through a long list of crap or loot to find what you need.

CTRL commands have returned and make it much easier to chat in-game. CTRL+R responds to the last person that sends you a /tell (private message in game) and CTRL+L goes right to linkshell chat.




It is now much easier to gain SP in lower levels. It no longer requires direct participation to get SP. This makes it much easier to get stuff like Shield skill-ups. However, high levels are complaining that the SP gains in the upper tiers is very ugly. (See: The Ugly)

The Good:

The user interface is MUCH more responsive, and it goes at close to the speed of Final Fantasy XI. Party member locations are now visible on both the blue minimap and the large map.




The Attributes and Gear has been separated and cleaned up. It's much easier to find gear to equip and sell rather than random loot that gets in the way.



Storyline NPC locations are now available on the large map as well.

The EXP and SP bars are now visible on the screen at all times as a movable widget. (It may show off the screen at first.)



The Bad:

Square-Enix ninja-nerfed (decreased) the value of Vitality. While the number itself doesn't decrease, the stat no longer means as much. I had 1050 HP before the patch, and now I only have around the mid 900's.

Searchable retainers haven't been added yet, but it's coming in December, so the wait isn't long.

The Ugly:

Higher leveled characters are reporting a massive decrease in SP gain. However, this may be a glitch and is probably not working as intended.

Conclusion:

Final Fantasy XIV did get a horrible start. But now it is definitely worth at least giving a try. For people who have played in September-October-early November, they extended the free trial period for a month, so players that started then can play for 60 days free until they fix their problems. The patch gave me new-found optimism about this game and I hope to be sticking around in Eorzea for the next decade. Kudos S-E, you may have started with the game in the crapper, but at least it has a well-built foundation that new content can be built off of!

Hope to see you all around on the Figaro Server!

What I'm thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We as a society seem to take a lot of things for granted. Days like Thanksgiving gives us all a chance (even for a moment) to take a look at what we have in life and be thankful for it. So, for today's blog post, I'd like to take some moments and post what I'm thankful for.

-I'm thankful for my family. They are supportive of what I do in life and are a great influence on how I live my life. I really hope to do the same with my own kids and family when I have them in a distant, alternate future.

-I'm thankful for my friends. They are what makes life enjoyable. Whether it be my primary group of friends playing video games at a Saturday gathering, or the BETA and FFS groups where we get to film planned out completely stupid skits for fun, or my online friends that I've met in various games that we can go on hour long tangents over one video game trailer or update, I highly appreciate and value all of you.

-I'm thankful for my physical and mental well-being. I don't (and never will) consider myself one of the strongest people in the world, or some kind of crazy genius. But I am thankful of who I am as a person. I'm thankful that I'm in decent physical shape and I'm able to get through college and go for my dream careers in the Computer and Entertainment industry.

I know these are the "cliche" responses that everyone gives when asked what they're thankful for, but I don't really consider material things that I have as means for thankfulness. It's the upper-three that have gotten anything material related that I would have been thankful for, if I were to list those, that would make the important three less-meaningful (if that makes any sense).

In any case, happy Thanksgiving everyone! Make sure to eat to your heart's content!

Update to Relationship Thesis

Due to a sudden lack of time available today, I don't really have a new semi-rant for the day. Instead I expanded on my Relationship thesis I posted last week.

Here are the changes.

Late-November Updates: Dojo Adventure, Shadow Kid, BETA.

I wanted to get some blog post in to keep the schedule going of one post of every two days. I've had a lack of motivation to do much in the gaming world lately. Call it a slump if you will, but other than some progress with Chrono Cross and Dissidia, I haven't played much of anything.

As for game design:

Dojo Adventure:

I'm working on some additions to the game in the form of side quests, optional boss fights, and new weapons and other neat additions to the game. I want to do this for the sake of better scores when the game gets reviewed after being sent to some forums. It already has some good scores on the RPG Maker Web forum on Facebook and from some friends, but I really want to expand to the Independent RPG developers on PhanxGames and Amaranthia to get some additional feedback.

For the time being though: New weapons, areas, and sidequests are coming. Expect them in December. It was originally going to be the 4th, but it's going to most likely be pushed back to December 18th.

Shadow Kid:

While Unity 3D is easy to pick up, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to learn. Not to mention I am teaching myself. I need to be disciplined enough to work through all of the tutorials to understand and comprehend how it works. I learn more by example than by an online lecture, so it's not exactly easy. We will see what happens though, I'll keep the blog posted with my future discoveries with Unity.

BETA:

A new skit is coming sometime in the future, I don't know the exact expected release, but nonetheless, it's going to be called Control Freak. We also have two more skits that are going to be filmed a week from now. One that I have written, and another that a team of three in the group has written. The one I have will be more comedy based, the other is a serious love story of sorts. It's interesting to see that we will start branching out into new genres and I'm excited to see where this group goes! We are all having a lot of fun, and a fun environment always leads to expanded creativity among members.

That's the official update for late November!

Oh and by the way, if you haven't seen our first movie:

Shadow Kid Updates: Engine Decision and Artwork.

We have picked out a game engine that we are going to use for the upcoming platformer project, "Shadow Kid". It's going to be the Unity 3D engine. It's free for PC games, but if you want to get a license for the consoles or use a Pro version of the engine, it costs a lot of money. x_x

Shadoe is doing the character artwork for the game project, which will be the basis for the character models or sprites. We're not sure if we're going to have 2D sprites on a 2.5D plane, or 3D sprites on a 2D plane. That much is undecided.


Anyway, to see the potential of Unity, take a look at a Sonic game that was redone by a fan using the Unity Engine.







Here is an RPG that was done using the same engine:








Artwork:

Credit to Shadoe for doing all of the artwork for the character creation(s) thus far. Note that these are subject to change.

My favorite video game music remixes.

Ducktales Moon Theme - Remixed by Brentalfloss (Ducktales (NES))





Chrono's Theme - Acid Jazz Remix (Chrono Trigger)





Forest Interlude - Overclocked Remix (Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest)






Yoshi's Story Ending - Smash Bros Version (Yoshi's Story)





Gerudo Valley - Overclocked Remix (The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time)








Song De Chocobo - (Final Fantasy Series)





Clash on the Big Bridge - The Black Mages (Final Fantasy V)






Force Your Way - The Black Mages (Final Fantasy VIII)









Kazham - The Star Onions (Final Fantasy XI)






Priphea Flowers - Orchestrated Version (Lufia Series)

My Relationship Thesis

Relationships are often a subject I avoid in seriousness in my blog entries, but I decided to write about this on a whim. I may edit this in the future. Haven't decided.

Thesis:

People tend to change when they are in a relationship. It's sad, really. For guys and girls.

Guys tend to become douche-bags because they feel like they want to show off their girlfriend to everyone, and in turn feel like they are superior over those who are single. Then there are even the worse guys who are ashamed of their girlfriend for whatever reason. If you like someone, why be ashamed of them? That, I will never understand.

Women tend to act completely different around those who they do like and seem like they have to change who they are to impress the guy they like. I do not like this observation, either. People should be themselves, they shouldn't have to change to impress someone.

Guy or girl, one shouldn't have to try to impress another person. Be yourself, if someone doesn't like you for who you are, then who are you to keep them in their misery?

Then this is probably the part where a lot of people get angry, but I find it shameful that we don't know what the hell our partners could be having with them be it diseases, herpes, STDs, and what not. What happened to the old days of just holding hands and getting to know one another?

It seems that with the advent of contraceptives, people just use any excuse to go buck wild all over one another without any recourse. Sex in general has lost its meaning. I mean to the point where "sex on a first date" isn't an absurd question. Now, I'm not promoting abstinence. In fact, I find abstinence to be illogical and unrealistic given the way our society has advanced and matured. But still, does that give an excuse for people just to forget the value of a relationship and hop on the first woman/man one sees? Is this really what our time has come to?

I've lost faith in relationships in general. I find them to be shallow and unrewarding, and it's most certainly lost it's meaning in this day and age. Most importantly, I like being who I am. I will not change my personal beliefs or interests for anyone, and if that means I'm standing alone with my beliefs, well then I'm standing alone happy!

Permanence and Change:

I believe that we use relationships to attempt to establish a sense of permanence/stability despite inevitable change. Life in itself is a journey of transformation, but people want to hold on to something constant. Something one can hold to for a sense of comfort that never changes among the long time period.

To some people, a relationship will last an unspecified amount of time, and while the constant (the relationship) remains the same, the two people involved eventually grow apart from the change and realize they want different things out of life. The relationship constant is broken, and the two people involved go on to lead their own lives separately.

From my observations, the best relationships arise from those where two people who change use the relationship as a constant and continually respect each other as they change and grow. For the better or worse. There are indeed some exceptions depending on culture, but those who respect one another as they grow in age and know each others limitations and values and are willing to accept how they grow and change, those are the relationships that last the longest, or perhaps until death.

Is love a taught behavior or a human instinct?

What causes humans to have affection towards one another? Are we taught to love and nurture someone else from birth growing up from observation? Are we taught by our parents, or even perhaps the media that there is someone for everyone?

It's everywhere, from movies like Beauty and the Beast, to Shrek, and to many other countless re-hashes that love conquers all. But romantic love seems to be an affection or emotion exhibited by only human beings.

A dog or a lion or any miscellaneous animal doesn't take love into account when choosing a mate to procreate with, what makes us so different?

Some animals use mating noises or calls to attract someone of the opposite sex, some animals use scents. So for us, is mental compatibility a principle in mate selection? Assuming love is an inborn instinct/emotion that we're born with, that would be a definite yes.

If this is the case, is Darwin's theory of Natural Selection inherently true? The best looking/best to get with people will survive throughout the generations, whereas the people who are unable to find a significant other eventually get weeded out of the human gene pool.

But what if love is instead a taught behavior? Hypothetically speaking, what if one was not pre-exposed to any of the love movies/stories or grew up with parents that gave them nothing but food, water, standard arithmetic and a grasp with language, and survival needs. Would this person be able to have a mental understanding of love or compassion in the first place without having knowledge of what it even is?

Well then, what type of women interest me?

Someone who respects who I am, and someone who knows what they want and aren't indecisive. I really don't like to have to "fight" for someone who plays "hard to get", and I'm not interested in anyone who plays that.

Someone who is willing to help me out and wouldn't mind actually going against me sometimes in a discussion. I wouldn't want someone who agrees with me 100% of the time, then it seems that the person is agreeing for the hell of it, and then it feels one-sided.

Someone who does not mind my awkward-ness. The person needs to be able to put up with my shy, reclusive behavior.

Someone who does not give one-word responses. "Cool", "Nice", and what not as a response to me talking to you means that I'll think you're not interested. If I think you're not interested, I'll stop talking in order to not waste your time and not waste my time. I don't like coming off as being annoying, so I try my best to give people space.

Someone who isn't afraid to initiate a conversation. I do not like to start conversations with people, period. Again, I don't like coming off as annoying to people, and I just usually keep to myself and reply when messaged. If you send me messages sometimes to initiate a conversation, I'll be more inclined to drop a random message here and there in the future.

Someone who isn't afraid to actually ask someone out. I normally do not ask people out. I also will not budge on this policy. I don't ask women out because everyone who I have asked out and said "Yes" has cheated on me. If someone goes through the trouble to ask me out, then I would know that they have some genuine feelings for me rather than fake ones that are thrown away when they are unfaithful. Just my two cents.

RE: Square-Enix and their arrogant/unprepared development teams.

I. Introduction
II. The Current Problems
III. The Future Solutions

I. Introduction

I am left to be very disappointed with Square-Enix. Very, very disappointed. Two games that I was looking forward to this year, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIV ended up tanking (in my opinion).

Although Final Fantasy XIII got good scores because of its graphics and story and presentation, I was put off by its linearity and lack of freedom in the game. Every dungeon was just a line with different graphics with the majority of the game and bosses that take an unnecessarily long amount of time to beat.

Final Fantasy XIV, on the other hand, I was looking forward WAY more than XIII. It is supposed to be the spiritual sequel to Final Fantasy XI and had the setting I like, a medieval fantasy setting that actually felt Final Fantasyish, and they even brought Nobuo Uematsu back to compose the score of it. I thought the game was going to be a serious World of Warcraft contender just from looking at the trailers.








I couldn't be any more wrong.

II. The current problems.

Square-Enix, in some desperate attempt to try and beat out World of Warcraft: Cataclysm severely ruined their launch by releasing Final Fantasy XIV about six months too early with a barely functional game. A laggy user-interface, chocobos nowhere to be seen, party imbalance, a grindfest (when they stated there wouldn't be one), convoluted menus, a lack of a decent player-interactive market system, lack of a decent search system, bad targeting, ...

I really can go on and on.

Why? Why would Square-Enix shoot themselves in the foot on a launch? They effectively beat Cataclysm to the shelves, but in essence ruined a lot of their potential subscribers and former players that have already quit out of frustration.

Being a linkshell leader in FFXIV with what used to be 55 people, I log on (as well as some of my other friends) and only see 1-2 people on the whole linkshell anymore. That's a strong message, people just don't like the unpolished, unfinished state of the game (including myself) and it shows in the reviews:

Compare it to FFXI which came to our shelves (even though way past the Japanese launch, that may have been a better decision over here to save the wrath of the reviewers)

FFXI:
Metacritic 85/100
Famitsu 38/40
Gamespot 8.2/10
IGN 8.8/10

In comparison...

FFXIV:
Metacritic 50/100
Famitsu (Didn't even rate it yet!)
Gamespot 4.0/10
IGN 5.5/10

No one can disagree here that FFXIV's initial reception was a launch/failure. It even goes on the list of "2010's biggest video game flops", and rightfully so.

The thing that Final Fantasy XIV has over XIII though is that it has the potential to be a good game. But first impressions can mean a lot to someone. You don't go to a job interview looking completely unprofessional and with the promise that you'll improve for your actual job only after you are hired and start receiving payments, and games shouldn't be released like that for a paying subscriber base either.

All they can do from here is "hope" that they can regain their user base once these November-December updates are completed.

Gamers, however, are generally very unforgiving. And it shows on past MMOs with horrible launches, such as Age of Conan or Vanguard. The former is doing somewhat well now, but it took an irrecoverable hit in subscribers it can never get back and lost out on a lot of potential. And the latter? Well, that's on life support.

The thing that Final Fantasy has over Age of Conan or Vanguard though is that it's a (somewhat) well respected franchise. People (like me) will play just for the fact that it's a Final Fantasy game, and all of them are supposed to live up to a quality standard. We all may have our different shares of which game in the series we like and do not like, but we can all agree that until XIV, they all came out at the highest possible quality.

III. The Future Solutions

Right now, Final Fantasy XIV has a terrible reputation. But it's only been released on the PC so far. It's going to have a second chance to get reviewed when it's released in March for the PlayStation 3. However, I really hope Square-Enix knows what they're doing this time. If they screw up this launch, Final Fantasy XIV will no longer be seen as just a short-term PC launch failure, but a long-time failure for all platforms.

Square-Enix is well aware of all of the bugs I (and countless others) have mentioned. Tanaka, in a recent interview with Eurogamer, said that he is sorry for the quality of the game and that they focused on getting bugs out of the game by its launch rather than working on other issues that should have taken priority, like UI interface design and server/client lag.

Square-Enix has also given players of the game a bonus free month for people who subscribed before October 25, so players like me get to play for free until November 22nd.

Also, they outlined a long timetable for updates to the game that will be coming late-November, December, and in 2011 with reassurance that the game is going to improve.

The time table of game fixes can be seen here at Final Fantasy XIV's main site, the Lodestone.

Personally, I'm looking forward to this game fixes, as a frustrated buyer who spent $80 for this game, and more importantly, as a Final Fantasy fan. I want to be able to look at this game in retrospect and say that these were the "dark ages" of the game, and not to look back.

The problem is, will gamers be willing to give this game a second chance in the future? Or did Square-Enix let their long-term MMO tank because of their poor management?

Internet Explorer Users

Apparently this blog is now viewable in Internet Explorer! This is exciting news. MySpace blogs weren't viewable in Internet Explorer 8.

I'm liking this site already.


...Wait, who still uses Internet Explorer?

New issue found in Dojo Adventure

An issue was found in Dojo Adventure by Landen Bigham on 11/12/2010:

-When a main character is dead and you have other mercenaries, if you do any action which results in the mercenaries leaving the party, the player will automatically die and the "Game Over" screen will appear.

In a future version/patch, this will be edited so that if any Mercenaries leave and any action that leaves the protagonist going solo with 0 HP, will be returned to 1 HP to save from going to "Game Over".

The following issue has been added to the "Current Issues" section.

New Blog

I have had it with MySpace. Seriously. They are becoming too much like the competition, I like being able to personify my page look and the way they are changing it is too conforming and convoluted. I'm already having issues with FFXIV's UI, I don't need that to spread to my blogs.

In any case, I've moved to Blogger, with somewhat of a new look for the occasion. :D

I've spread this new watercolor look to my other websites as well. My past site doesn't get that luxury.

Until next post!

Older Blog Posts

Older blog posts can be seen here.

2007-2010
http://blogs.myspace.com/ultimatespamgrover

2006-2008
http://www.xanga.com/ultimatespamgrover

Too Little Too Late Episode 7 - Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals [Archived]

Lufia, the RPG that pretty much defines my childhood. If it wasn't for this series, I wouldn't be anywhere near the gamer I am now. My dad brought this game home after it was traded in, and I was hooked from day one. I had no idea what experience points, levels, or HP or anything was before this and if it wasn't for this game, I probably wouldn't be interested in RPGs at all. Lufia II was also the first game I ever got from Ebay, and I liked that game just as much!


Now... when I heard they were remaking Lufia II for the Nintendo DS, I HAD to get it. I missed my chance on playing the GBC and GBA iterations of the series (they're on my list, trust me.) But this. This is a game I could not pass up. It made me all nostalgic inside.

Too Little Too Late
Episode 7: Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals

Storyline:


The storyline of Lufia rarely changes from game to game. Every game has a red-haired hero (Maxim, or his descendant(s) depending on what time period of the game) who must use a Dual Blade to defeat the Sinistrals, four god-like beings who destroy the world. The movie below is pretty much the prophecy from the first game, released in 1993.

What is noticeable about the Lufia series is the first game is the sequel to the second game. The beginning (above) starts with the "end" of Lufia 2 and tells the story of Maxim's descendant, 99 years later. Lufia II focuses on how Maxim was able to do that whole journey, so in sense it's a prequel. The Lufia game I'm reviewing is Curse of the Sinistrals, which is a remake of Lufia II.

The characters are:

Maxim - A red haired monster hunter who "seemingly" takes on more than he can chew when he goes and fights against Gades, one of the Sinistrals. After being defeated, he needs to go on a journey to find more strong warriors to take down Gades and the other sinistrals.

Tia - Maxim's childhood friend. Has a big crush on him throughout the game. Is a whiny spoiled brat, pretty much.

Selan - Maxim's love interest. Commander of the warriors in Parcelyte and does not like anyone's help, until she falls for Maxim.

Guy - Dim witted strong buff guy. Yellow hair.

Artea - An elf, he has a lengthened lifespan and gets to also live to see the future battles of Doom Island.

Dekar - Self-absorbed master of weaponry. He considers himself to be the strongest warrior in the world, and is a flirt.

Obviously, the storyline is very cliche. But the game makes light of this the whole time and really breaks the fourth wall at times to make it seem as such. However, the ending is kept in tandem with the game it is based off of, and I won't spoil it, but it's a tear-jerker.


Gameplay:

The gameplay in this installment is noticeably different from the other Lufia games, even the Lufia game it is based off of.

Here's some comparisons:

Lufia II Gades Fight (Original, SNES, 1995)

Now here is the same boss battle in the remake.

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals Gades Fight (DS, 2010)

As you can see, instead of a traditional RPG approach of the original, they made it more of an action game, not unlike Zelda/Kingdom Hearts. Despite the change, the game stays true and most all the main storyline sequences are the same and have enhanced voice acting.

Some more gameplay...

Music:

The music of this game is done by Yasunori Shiono, who did the composition for all of the Lufia series. This game largely has remixed/updated versions of music from Lufia 1 and 2.

Here are some of my favorite themes from Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals. Note: The last theme is a sad one.

Conclusion:

I'm usually not a fan of action RPGs, but this game series seriously holds a place in my heart (as well as a lot of old school 16-bit RPG fans) This game has easy controls, and has a difficulty that revolves around your pace. I strongly recommend this game to anyone who has a Nintendo DS and wants a good RPG. You will not regret it!

Now if only they remade Lufia 1...



(Didn't bother giving a score, it'd be way too biased.)

Winter 2011 Schedule/Changes to degree plans. [Archived]

CSE455 (Software Engineering) (4 units)
CSE313 (Machine Organization) (4 units)
PHYS221 (General Physics I) (5 units)
GEOL101 (Introduction to Geology) (5 units)

I have been on the fence a while between going for a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Computer Systems: Video Game Development, but I think I figured out what I want to do for my college career.

I want to finish by the end of Spring 2012 with a BS in Computer Science, and then stay for an additional couple of quarters to take whatever classes I need left for a BA in Computer Systems: Video Game Development. That way I can do any computer-related career straight out of school as well as go for my ultimate dream job.

30 Random Things [Archived]

Because I was tagged (twice) and by the rules of the internet, I need to oblige. So here it is, 30 random things. If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged, I don't like to tag people in notes.

 

1. -I've been playing video games since 1995. I started with "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" for the Super Nintendo, and Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (first RPG: SNES) shortly after.

 

2. -My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy VII which I started playing in 2000. (Then I played VI and thought it was so much better, which it was.)

 

3. -The first video game I ever pre-ordered was Pokemon Yellow Version for my birthday in October 1999.

 

4. -My first MMORPG was Final Fantasy XI which I played "religiously" from 2003 to 2008 (that game is really special to me). After that, the game got boring (since I beat everything), I don't play it anymore nowadays unless there's an update.

 

5. -I remember getting a Nintendo 64 for Christmas in 1996 and going ape, literally. I was THAT happy. I then proceeded to get my Goldeneye taken away by my mom sometime later because of its violence. I got it back a month later and proceeded to beat the game. For your information: Janus Control Center has the best music probably out of all the 64 games.

 

6. -My video game system of choice is the Nintendo DS. I buy GBA ports of old SNES games I wanted to play and go through each of them at school or on the road. Makes my gaming career that much sweeter.

 

7. -I really enjoy writing and ranting as a spare hobby. That's why I have a blog and have been blogging for four years now. :D

 

8. -I was considering a minor in Business, but opted out of it when I saw how rigorous the Computer Science BS curriculum is.

 

9. -Did I mention I lost faith in humanity? Because I did.

 

10. -I'm not a supporter of organized religion. ...Or any religion in general! I am a mix of Atheist, Apatheist, and Agnostic. I consider myself the former, get confused for the latter and have a decent balance with the middle. 

 

11. -I have no intentions of getting married. Ever. You'd have to be someone extremely special to change my mind. (My mind isn't exactly easy to change. See below post.)

 

12. -I do not eat cheese and haven't eaten cheese for 18 years.

 

13. -Despite having 302 friends on Facebook, I am very reclusive and do not talk to people often.

 

14. -I am easily entertained by YouTube movies. That is my primary source of humor.

 

15. -I refuse to wear jeans or anything denim.

 

16. -The game that got me into wanting to become a video game designer was RPG Maker for the PlayStation. I saw it completely by chance at an EB Games in Ontario Mills several years ago.

 

17. -I don't like swimming in public venues. Never will.

 

18. -I love the fact that my school is driving distance from my house. I do not like being away from home for prolonged periods of time like some of my other friends who moved far distances away for school.

 

19. -I am in love with classic rock music.

 

20. It's a very rare occasion if I talk about my actual real life problems on the internet. I prefer handling them by myself.

 

21. I'm usually in a really happy mood!

 

22. I'm laid back, and rarely ever get jealous of anyone. I'm always happy for people who are happy, rather than jealous of them. Too much unnecessary anger thrown at people.

 

23. I don't like the fact that my classes fill up before I can even register. What's up with that?

 

24. Chipotle Mexican Grill FTW. (If you haven't tried it, you really should.)

 

25. Soft serve Vanilla ice cream will always make my day, no matter how sad I am.

 

26. I love writing skits for BETA, that has to be the highlight of my month when we actually get to have these fun meetings where everyone laughs and has a good time.

 

27. I've grown very frustrated of Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

28. I was a Christian up until 4th grade, undecided until 7th, and an Atheist since the 8th grade.

 

29. I can count the amount of crushes I had on different girls with one hand!

 

30. I don't drink alcoholic beverages. :D

First BETA Episode: Kingdom Broken Hearts + Additional Commentary [Archived]

We recently finished our first skit for BETA. It's called "Kingdom Broken Hearts". We had a script of it for a while, but due to the constraints within the first group we were in, we could not post it anywhere. So the group was ultimately formed to film this skit and more skits in the future. Please subscribe to us and check us out!

Kingdom Broken Hearts:








Commentary/Behind-The-Scenes:

November Goals and Updates. [Archived]

Happy November, hope you all had a good Halloween! As with every month, I have goals and plans to lay out for this upcoming month! -Get Dojo Adventure published on several independent developer websites. -Get Kingdom Broken Hearts posted on YouTube. -Get a good amount of work done with Shadow Kid -Write more Digital Logic tutorials. (Yucky.) -Get the sequel to Broken Hearts script finished. -Finish Final Fantasy I and Dissidia. -Get new props for upcoming meetings. -Import all of FFSEntertainment skits we are allowed to bring over to the BETA group. I'm also writing the script to a new storyline-driven role playing game. It's going to be more of a love story than the upbeat game that Dojo Adventure is. It's only in a pre-writing/brainstorming phase, so I'm not looking for people for that development project just yet. I'm also hoping to catch up on sleep. I've become quite the insomniac lately. :( Oh, I'm also working on a new review of "Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals" and "Final Fantasy XIV". The former one should be done soon, the latter one is coming later this month. I'll try posting more often like I used to. And most importantly, get out and vote tomorrow!

About Me

• I am video game designer, and a writer. My dream is to become a video game director and/or producer.
• I usually keep to myself and do not make public appearances very often outside of projects. Personal preference, I'm notoriously reclusive.
• I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.
• I can program in C++/C#, Visual Basic, and Java. I am learning Ruby as a side-hobby, was forced to learn JavaScript against my free will for a project, and I have some knowledge of LISP, Prolog, Verilog, and LC-3 (but please don't ask me to program in that.)
• I am huge on gaming, I think that's what most of my friends know me for. I excel at role-playing and strategy video games (as well as platformers), and I'm improving on games that require coordination. (Namely shooters.)
• I am an avid fan of classic rock and "oldies" music and I used to play the piano when I was younger. I'm currently getting bigger into Old School music as of late. I also really enjoy video game music and video game music mashups if done well.
• I'm a liberal, an Atheist, and support the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. 
• I'm teetotal.
• I am unsure of my sexual orientation. The closest thing I can identify myself as is a Heteroromantic Asexual.
• My trust is easy to gain, and I'm a very laid back person. However, if you lose my trust, it's most likely never coming back.
• My BIGGEST pet peeve is when someone gives me a one-word response. (Ex: "Nice", "Cool", "K", or "OK"). It makes me not want to talk to you anymore. I enjoy thoughtful answers. If you give me a thoughtful answer or just make an effort to keep a conversation going, I will respond to you far more openly and caring and try my best to do the same. If you do respond with just one word, then you'll most likely not get much of a friendly tone out of me.