...since I've last been on Giant Bomb. Luckily, I have a lot of great excuses! Actually most of the reasons I have been absent from this site can be attributed to being a senior in high school and are not substantial in any sense of the word. I'm just going to try and go through everything significant that's occurred in my life since I was last on.
I've been busy with my school's Speech and Debate team. My category is Public Forum Debate and after an intense season, my partner and I managed to make it to our State Speech Tournament. This ended up taking a lot more work than I thought it would but ultimately it turned out to be a fun experience. I'd say making it to States is not bad for two people who were trying the category for the first time. It also isn't a bad way to end a high school Speech and Debate career.
I've also been working on my plans for college next year. I was accepted into every school I applied to and ultimately it has come down to either Georgia Tech or Miami University (of Ohio). Both colleges have programs that pertain to my game design interests so I'm not too worried about how things turn out in this area.
My dad lost his job and has since moved back from Tacoma, Washington. This is one of the more terrible events of the past few months. It not only means that my family is now financially strained (meaning no money for games among other things) but it also means that I've lost the sense of space I gained when my dad moved out. Luckily, my dad has lost his job around four or so times that I can remember which means that I'm used to the emotional landscape such a blow produces in both myself and everyone around me.
I've also been reading a great deal and listening to a lot of new music. I subscribe to The New Yorker so I get a new story plus loads of interesting articles each week. On top of that I've been reading a book called 2666 that is simply amazing. I'm hoping to finish it soon as I've already decided that my next book will be Infinite Jest by the late David Foster Wallace. As for music, I've found a lot of bands that I had previously ignored. These include but are not limited to the following: Slint, Rites of Spring, Scratch Acid, The Vaselines, Beat Happening, Fleet Foxes, Flying Lotus, Sunny Day Real Estate, Joy Division, Pavement, and Gang of Four. I'm still expanding my musical tastes so I imagine I'll remain busy for a while with new music.
As far as games, I haven't been playing too much. I bought Aquaria, Everyday Shooter, Darwinia, and Audiosurf. So far, I enjoy each one of these games although none of them have reached the point of being favorites or anything. I'm actually really looking forward to an indie game that will soon be released on Xbox Live Arcade called The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Other than that, I'm still looking to the indie game scene for the most interesting plays.
I've also been slightly lazy with game making. I'm working on four games at the moment. One of them is almost complete and I hope to enter it into a festival called IndieCade (the deadline is April 30th) because in addition to selecting winners, each entry receives feedback. Two of my games are fairly straightforward and thus remain dormant. The final game is one of the most inspired projects I've worked on. I came up with the concept in a day under intense emotional stress and I feel like the game is truly an expression of my current state of existence. It's a fairly complicated project, partially inspired by ToeJam & Earl. It involves random levels, minimalist mechanics and idiosyncratic gameplay tangents. That's about all I'm prepared to say on that for the moment.
The final bit of news is perhaps the best (for me anyway). I now have a girlfriend! I actually sort of worked on pursuing her most of last year up until around February 1st, 2009 when it became official. It doesn't have much of an impact on my participation on this site but it has done wonders for my mood and my motivation to work on games. It's also an interesting opportunity to observe how a female non-gamer who is still familiar with games reacts to different styles of design. So far, we've played Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Rez, both of which turned out to be great choices. Within the next couple of dates (we hang out most weekends) I plan on trying out Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and ToeJam & Earl with her.
That pretty much sums up my life in the past few months. I expect now that I've begun to blog again, I'll probably be on more often. We'll see though...