Man, I dont even remember what I wrote in that last blog post, but I'm positive it was not worth any time reading any of it.

But today, I'd like to express something that I feel would be universal to many who buy a mass amount of games and have no time for them. Its hard to try and keep up with all the latest titles that come out, along with games that passed by and your friend recommended it to you, or it was all the net rage and people on message boards agree in unison that everybody should own it. If you buy X certain game or you dont own this Y game you're labeled as some kind of horrible person. You were able to shell out all this cash for this one game, but you missed this really great one, and your mother hates you for it.

Its starting to become a tough industry for just anyone to come out with a great game for everyone to check out. They have to fight other publishers to attract consumers into buying their product. It may even be coming to a point where people feel as if the up and coming games dont match their expectations. Like Mario Kart for example, Mario Kart Wii did everything to try and make the game friendlier to a broader audience, which caused the developers to change the rules. But people still prefer just sticking with the Super NES or Nintendo 64 versions so the player can have something familiar to them. They may also be times where the developer changes the rules so much that they were better off owning the previous version. Not every person who played the original version of Team Fortress went over to Team Fortress 2. Some complaints that the game was made too simple, or they dont agree with other aspects of the game, such as the graphics, or the fact the game is constantly changing with the class updates. Some even feel that games lose all value once the next generation of consoles come up.

After a few years of being a console fanboy, I learned that any developer appreciates your business. You could probably imagine that I was heavily aligned with Nintendo. To see games on other platforms and not the console you chose is disappointing. But they probably had a better chance on that system (Like Klonoa 2 on Playstation 2) because of the wider install base that could see a home for a title thats already having a hard time standing out. They could probably had put Klonoa 2 on Gamecube, but could they afford it? All the advertising, development just to sell a measly 5,000 copies in the first month is not exactly breaking the bank.

Now that its been years later, I've been able to earn my own money, meaning I could buy anything I want when I want to. But now the industry is larger, maybe not neccesarily stronger. Theres still difficulty getting niche games to see a decent return. However I've noticed that indie developers have seen a significant rise with the arrival of digital distribution. But the real difficulty is that the amout of games coming out are starting to grow substantially. You may even find difficulty looking for a specific game due to low distribution. At worst, you'll have to spend double the amount of the actual MSRP in the aftermarkets such as eBay just to find a copy of the game.

A problem I have in keeping up with games is that I have to dedicate time to other things. In some cases, a 5 hour game may be just the right length to accomodate for a hectic life schedule. Or maybe the other thing taking up time is...other games. I dont expect to play a multitude of RPGs, especially if they tout that they last over 100 hours just to complete. RPGs are probably my worst genre. I mean, I recently picked up Persona 4, and I greatly look forward to it. But I'm only 13 hours into Persona 3, nowhere near the end. I could play both at the same time, but theres still other RPGs I have to play through. Like Skies of Arcadia. But with all games, sometimes I run across a point in the game where I just dont feel like getting past a certain part. Or scouring the game world to collect a handful of items that grant you the ability to move onto the next part of the game.

I dont think this post is quite going anywhere, but it does hurt when certain games arent successful on the market. Or even when you want to make room for games that fit into both your time and budget.  Everyone is bound to miss certain games. I'm trying to do my darndest at picking up some of the best games that dont receive the most attention. But if I miss a couple of things, dont blame me too much if I'm just waiting for a price drop down the line.

So here I am, I've finished up another semester of college and I'm ready to start getting to work. Now, a lot of you dont really know me. Lets just put it this way; I want to get into making video games. The only real experience I've had was mucking around with some small ideas. Kind of half-assed and put together very oddly. The unfortunate thing about all this is, my first plan was to become a programmer. However with a lack of ability to do complicated math formulas and it took me several semesters to get a 'C' grade in a Texas Jr. College, I might as well as give up on that. So my only means of 'programming' are easy-to-create game programs such as Click Team's Multimedia Fusion. Now I'm trying to come up with ideas for a new game using Macromedia Flash. Part of the reason being is that its cross platform, the other being rather personal I'll probably get into if this blog thing works out for me.

So anyway, I'm pretty distracted sitting in my room for quite some time. Partially because I'm bored. Plus thats where I've been sitting for the past several months toiling away at homework among other things. Not to mention, my room also has all of this:


Thats a lot of game systems Sega's last two game consoles along with a newly acquired Playstation 2, my Wii, Xbox 360 and a DVD player I dont use that much. Plus off to the right off-camera is my dual core processor PC that I usually use for games like Team Fortress 2. I figured out a good way to help concentrate more on my little game project.


So my dad acquired from one of his friends a Pentium 4 they were getting rid of. Pretty lucky deal if you ask me. The problem was that there was really no place to put it. Until we started clearing out the back bedroom. Its mostly cleaned up, theres a few things we need to either move or get rid of. Long story short, I decided to turn it into an office, plus all the stuff I couldnt fit in my room.

It almost seems as if it defeats the purpose, but things have to go somewhere. Its all of my game systems that couldnt quite fit in my bedroom. Theres also a bookshelf thats actually full of books. Some of them strategy guides, some of them left-over cook books that was dug up as me and my dad were clearing out the room and some comic book compilations such as "Sam and Max: Surfin' the Highway." I intend to use that shelf as a way to take a break from staring at montiors and televisions all day.

Anyway, back to my computer set up. I've got scores of paper, a clipboard, several notebooks and more to help jump start the planning phase of my next game. Although I've already started drawing up some graphics for the game for the fun of it, because having ideas on a piece of paper is nowhere near as fun as helping yourself get a better visualization on what the game should look like.

Its getting late, and this blog may not be so interesting, but I'm hoping I can keep this updated to try and generate some interest. I've got other things I'd like to talk about. Such as the stack of boxes that are sitting on my desk in my bedroom. So until next time...