PixlBit

Jesus H. Christ. I've been writing for 6 days now, almost 12 hours a day and have pumped roughly 18000 words into various projects. I'm really proud of my world and characters so far, and I honestly haven't been able to keep them out of my head for the most part.

 I've finished chapter 5 of my story, written the outline to the next story, designed a cover using Amazon's book cover creator, and - with the permission of my lecturer - submitted my first chapter to jukepop so that I can get more eyes on my work and more feedback.

 Above is a the first draft of my cover. It took forever to find a stock photo to use, and I may end up purchasing a different image for this story. This particular cover maybe works better for my next work.

 If you want to know what I've been listening to while I'm writing, it's mainly this ambient, folky post rock/drone album by Earth that sounds very western tinged: 

 My next work will be the hardest thing I've ever written.

I have no fantasy elements to fall back on, and very little comedy to even help me get through it. This is a story about my dad. Well, not my dad, an incredibly exaggerated and fictional version of him. I need you to know before I start this story that my Dad is nowhere near as bad as the protagonist of this story. If he was, he wouldn't be breathing and I'd be in jail. I love my father very, very, much, and need you to know he's not the abusive bastard portrayed in this story. Dad, if you ever read this, I love you. Your religion is your drug, and like all drugs it has it's side effects. I didn't realise it at the time, but you always did what you thought was best for me, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that.

It also needs to be pointed out that the religion I mentioned is nowhere near as bad as I portrayed here. I still believe it is a cult, and god knows how many families it has destroyed. That said, the same can be said of any religion, and if I were to condemn an entire group of people based on my sole experience, I'd be no better than the worst, most judgmental and cowardly people in religion period.

 If you want to read my story, let me know. It chronicles Ephire's backstory, but is not an easy read. The outline alone is nearly 3000 words in length, so again I understand if you want to pass. It's very heavy, and it's very honest, to the point I'm worried about my dad not being able to cope with reading it. Still, it's something I need to write, and honestly believe the concept has the potential to be the thing that gets me published.

 Gaming-wise, there hasn't been too much to report. I finished the demo of Ys VIII and loved it. It's not as good or fast paced as the pc/psp era of ys, but better than the ps vita era in my opinion. The switch to full to 3rd person as opposed to isometric does wonders for the gameplay, and the platforming feels more fluid and enjoyable as a result.

 Combat is still fast and frantic, but there feels like there's more depth here. This title essentially uses the same formula established in Ys 7, but makes each character you can switch between feel much more unique. The power sets are more diverse, and there are more enemies that are only vulnerable to certain attacks. The two boss encounters in this demo weren't particularly difficult, but they were enjoyable. They were well designed, and different enough to feel like different creatures.

 The main loop of killing monsters, collecting their materials to make better equipment, and levelling up to gain new abilities is all extremely compelling, and this is honestly a day one buy for me.

Today was my day off, so I bought Jak and Daxter on PS4. I have to say, it still holds up. It's a gorgeous game with an art direction well ahead of it's time. I love the world and characters. The dialogue has an almost western flavour, and I sense a lot of tribal influence in some of the lore. It's a very cohesive fantasy world, and I love it.

 The gameplay is still fantastic. It's essentially an open world platforming game with no loading screens. It's fucking black magic and I don't trust it. The controls can be a little stiff at times, with some double jumps not registering at all, but otherwise, this is a masterclass in platforming. Fuck Mario 64, Fuck Banjo Kazooie, Fuck every other game in this genre with the possible exception of SMG 2. This is Naughty Dog at the top of their game.

 Jak and Daxter is polish exemplified. You can see it in every aspect of the game. The animations are amazing, showcasing an elaborately exaggerated animation system where the characters are stretched way out of proportion for a frame or two to give them a bouncy, vibrant flair. The music is... nothing to write home about. It's ambient and does it's job, but I doubt you'll remember any of these tracks after you turn the game off.

Something that blew me away when playing this game again was how much the level design reminded me of Dark Souls. You get intricate levels with branching hubs and shortcuts that you can't possibly see coming. It's nowhere near as elaborate as the Souls series, but it's worth pointing out nonetheless.

 This is an amazing title. I've finished roughly 50% of the game in one sitting today. I look forward to playing more, and to the eventual ports of 2 and 3.