added old posts

posts/Final Fantasy Friday.html

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+<time datetime="2017-01-20">2017-01-20</time>
+<p>Okay maybe not every friday, but there's nothing wrong with dedicating THIS friday to FF.</p>
+
+<p>Let's have some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I699C5Vy8vI">good music</a> and then read this silly rant.</p>
+
+<hr><p>Declan Dineen of the <a href="http://declandineen.com/checkpoints/">Checkpoints show </a> talked to me about being a new guy in indie development and my thoughts on creativity. Though it was a great chat, I realized we neglected to touch upon the most important recurring theme of Checkpoints: That Final Fantasy XII is by far the best Final Fantasy. So here is the rundown:</p>
+<ul><p>FFI - hasn't aged well
+</p><li> FFII - the same
+</li><li>FFIII - the first good FF, but FFV is just a better version<br></li><li>FFIV - you like it cause of nostalgia, it's not good<br></li><li> FFV - despite a boring story, this is where we get the job system with ability mixing, so it's automatically fantastic<br></li><li>FFVI - good story, inspired setting, great music. No interesting battle system
+</li><li> FFVII - the best story, materia system is fun. Good today, fantastic for its time<br></li><li> FFVIII - the one I havn't played enough<br></li><li>FFIX - a great mix of the being character and narrative based, while including a super fun ability system. Story starts out great, the shits its own pants when a spaceship appears
+</li><li>FFX - just no
+</li><li>FFXII - the best, despite a meandering story, that is better when you think back on it, than when you play it
+</li><li>FFXIII - had fun, but 10 hours in I still hadn't finished the tutorial, so quit, because the story and characters were lame.
+</li><li>FFXV - 9 hours in, really good.
+</li></ul><hr><p>FFCC is good.</p>
+<hr><p>FFTA2 &gt; Tactics Ogre &gt; FFT. Come at me, brah!</p>
+<hr><p>So yeah, enjoy the weekend, play some FF and think of all the great adventures you've been through in those games.
+ </p>

posts/Open Air - Open World.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-17/a.jpg"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-01-17">2017-01-17</time>
+<p>Sketchwhale toughts</p>
+<p>What am I hoping for that Breath of the Wild can deliver, that we haven’t gotten in the past 12 years?</p>
+<ul><li><strong>I want the tangible combat of the Zelda series</strong> but in an open world setting. This style of battle is wonderful: I feel like <strong>I’M</strong> controlling the character, and the Z-targetting system combined with the free-moving camera put me right there in the world in a way only 3d zelda games have done.</li>
+<li><strong>I don’t want a million bugs.</strong></li>
+<li><strong>Aesthetics</strong>, really. It was never enough that the open world was vast. It needed style. My hope is that <em>open air</em> as a term covers more than Nintendo trying to set themselve apart in a way that really isn’t that different. My hope is that the artistic style of the graphics can be felt in the minute-to-minute interaction with the world.</li>
+<li><strong>Design</strong>. The mere idea of a team building a world as vast as any open world game, and hoping that it is as meticulously designed as a much smaller level-based or area-based (new term, but think previous zelda games), is mad. And of course BoTW can’t do that either. Yet all too often I feel like the real-world randomness that open world design often inspires uses emergent gameplay that as a crutch: That nothing needs to be designed if world is based on an almost randomly-generated structure. It might be a balancing issue, and after trying one side of the scale for so many years, I’m hoping Nintendo is betting on a vast, yet slightly more empty world, yet where the actual content is absolutely hand-crafted.</li>
+<li><strong>Tools</strong>. Items that tangibly alters the gameplay not just in a sense of power growth, but in a variety of ways you interact with the world. Indeed this is really where Zelda games have always been best: Mole Mittens in Minish Cap, a hookshot for fast travel and upper hand in combat, an interactive musical instrument for manipulating time and space, and simple glass bottles to carry mucus of fallen enemies as cooking ingredients or enslaving fae-folk to revive you upon your demise. The difference between these tools and items in other games, is that the competition creates weapons first and foremost. Zelda games have tools to change the perspective on the world, and I’m hoping so desperately that this scales to BoTW.</li>
+</ul><p>I think BotW is going to deliver on these needs, and that seems reason enough to eagerly await a game that was technically possible 12 years ago, yet no one made it. Different creators, different priorities.</p>

posts/People on the Inside - Aya Kyogoku.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-18/a.png"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-01-18">2017-01-18</time>
+<p>It must be weird for game creators of the 70s and 80s to think back on the time when being a creator was just a job. To me and perhaps many others now, it is, besides an industry, a craft about creating pieces of art and tools for art.</p>
+<p>Nintendo eventually figured out that it is interesting to know the faces behind the games, and so they let us know that a guy called Shigeru made Mario and a guy called Gunpei made the GameBoy. And although a few more games eventually got added to the list, our knowledge of who is making these fantastic little cartridges filled with color worlds and ever-so frustrating adventures, is still pretty spares.</p>
+<p>Which is all the more reason for it to be interesting when Nintendo let’s us know of more names behind the games. The late Satoru Iwata was especially good at showing off his staff in his countless <em>Iwata Asks</em> features. One name that has been pushed forward in recent years is Aya Kyogoku.</p>
+<p>Kyogoku was late to gaming, starting in high school, and having been bitten by the game-bug, the creative side of them started to draw her attention, as she was wont to do, like when manga took up a big part of her free time, she naturally leaned towards drawing them herself.</p>
+<p>She landed a job at Atlus after college and eventually became integral in the GameCube era zelda games, like being a script writer for Twilight Princess. Since the Wii though, she’s been an Animal Crossing woman, through and through, rising from sequence director (when I ponder is a sort of game designer slash planner slash writer role), to director and now a producer.</p>
+
+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-18/b.png"></br></img></figure>
+<p>It could sound like Kyogoku got herself promoted out of a creative position, but knowing how much creative say Aonuma and Miyamoto have in their respective producer roles, I imagine Kyogoku too, still has a touch of painterly influence on her future projects.</p>
+<p>What is this creative influence though? We often see Kyogoku during promotional events, like when a new Animal Crossing is released, but true to Nintendo-form, these events focus on the product not the people, and it can be hard to seperate one person from the rest, especially when Animal Crossing was already pretty well-defined before Kyogoku entered.</p>
+<p>I’m simply gonna guess here, but I see a sort of humorly melancholic trail for Kyogoku. The creepy and saturated Twilight of Twilight Princess, with the sardonic Midna as the figurehead, and the video game version of social dayplanner Animal Crossing, where the residents often feel sad, move away, and leave a lonely patch of dirt when their house  disappears, eventually being covered in grass as if time simply forgot about them.</p>
+
+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-18/c.png"></br></img></figure>

posts/Sketchwhale on the Nintendo Switch.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-16/a.png"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-01-16">2017-01-16</time>
+<p>Reblogging from 'sketcwhales.com' about the Nintendo Switch</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Maybe they don't want a big line up?</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>A good reason not to use Android on your new obsidian-like monolithic computer, is if doing everything yourself allows you to do something completely unique. Another reason is if doing everything yourself gets you control and control gets you money, but the first one is the important one here.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>So here's a problem we've all started to notice: The various digital stores are currently faced with the fallout of their user and developer friendly strategies: They are flooded with gold and crap simultaneously. And often the crap rises to the surface. Steam, App Store, Play Store, Itch.io. On the other hand, if we look at the Wii U store we say "Damnit, there's nothing there" [compared to other console platforms].</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Neither situation is good, and I think Switch launch line up is a hint at Nintendo's remedy to the issue:</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>What if you looked at the Switch as a tablet first? A gaming tablet, that continues the idea of the Family Computer (the original Post-PC device). Well in that case, the Switch store wouldn't be an understocked gaming shop. It would be gaming focused app boutique. Not the barren ghetto of the BlackBerry store, but a tiny and catered shopping experience.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Opening the boutique-like store and seeing hand-crafted gold only with no crap in sight, the Switch would even solve the same problem that the Famicom solved in the eighties: Too much bad stuff with one to say no (For different reasons back then compared to today).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Only a quality oriented dictator can filter out the bad stuff. Which is where we come back to the whole "Why would you not just use Android on a tablet?". Because of some good reasons now: Optimised games require dedicated hardware, and an exclusive emporium allows Nintendo to control the perceived value. That final point is actually not just good for Nintendo: It's good for consumers who want quality:</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>If Super Mario Run is $10 and Clash Royale is $0, more people are going to plop down zero for the latter, and perhaps invest a little once their hooked, into a game designed as a business model first and foremost.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Yet if Super Mario Odyssey is $60 and some mobile company is forced to sell their half-baked, the-biggest-chest-is-best-value, if-you-use-a-rainbow-gem-you-can-speed-things-up bastard at $60 as well, then more people will choose the good title. And that's good for us, because that means we finally get a tablet with console quality games, designed around tight controls, with optimal controller support, and if some company decides to make a high quality touch-screen game (Device 6, Bumpy Road), then they can finally set a price that reflects this.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote>
+<p>With this perspective, I'm not slightly hesitant about Nintendo's next console foray. I am instead eagerly awaiting their first real tablet, the first good reason not to use Android, Lord of the Andals, protector of the realm and perhaps a good game system.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Also, gonna blog more here from now on. Let's create an online cafe-like experience for video games and game design!</p></p>

posts/Sudden 1-hour Game Jam.html

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+<img src="/images/2017-02-14/a.jpg"></br></img>
+<img src="/images/2017-02-14/d.jpg"></br></img>
+<time datetime="2017-02-14">2017-02-14</time>
+
+<p>Haruki Murakami has mentioned how he wrote his first couple of novels at the kitchen counter at night after closing shop at the jazz club.</p>
+
+<p>There isn't really any good reason not to try and make hendes under the same circumstances, perhaps achieving the same sort of unpolished creativity.</p>
+
+<p>I had a sudden urge to make a game about a wizard who stays at a hotel in the mountains in Japan. Simple graphics like in a <a href="http://distractionware.com/blog/">Terry Cavanagh</a> game, and obtuse controls like using the <a href="http://www.vim.org/">VIM text editor</a>. I was gonna use <a href="https://love2d.org/">Love2D</a> and <a href="https://www.lua.org/">Lua</a>, since they’re simple, but the syntax was so foreign to me that it actually took far more time than I wanted. Using a tutorial, I got the map drawn, and I painted some graphics in Photoshop, so I have more to use for a later version.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it’s wonderful to think we’ve come so far in programming accessibility, that I can go from vague idea to vague demo in a few hours.</p>
+
+<p>I’m probably gonna give this idea a few more evenings every once in a while, now that I’ve got it started.</p>

posts/Takunomi Weekend Recap Saturday.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-21/a.gif"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-01-21">2017-01-21</time>
+<p>So that was one whole week of updates! I have my doubts that I keep this going, but let's be optimistic. The posts this week were:</p><ul><li>Monday. <a href="Sketchwhale-on-the-Nintendo-Switch"><b>Sketchwhale on the Nintendo Switch</b></a>. My initial thoughts on the Nintendo Switch.</li>
+<li>Tuesday. <a href="Open-Air---Open-World"><b>Open Air - Open World</b></a>. What I'm hoping that Breath of the Wild will bring that's unique.</li>
+<li>Wednesday. <a href="People-on-the-Inside---Aya-Kyogoku"><b>People on the Inside: Aya Kyogoku</b></a>. A short profile on Aya Kyogoku, producer and director at Nintendo.</li>
+<li>Thursday. <a href="Time-and-no-Space---Sodagirl-and-Final-Fantasy-XV"><b>Time and no Space - Sodagirl &amp; Final Fantasy XV</b></a>. Some game design thoughts and impressions of Final Fantasy XV.</li>
+<li>Friday. <a href="Final-Fantasy-Friday"><b>Final Fantasy Friday!</b></a>. Just a silly post of rankings.</li>
+</ul><p>Have a nice and relaxy saturday!</p>
+
+The beautiful gif at the top is from an unnamed rogue-like that <a href="https://twitter.com/chickysprout">Cocefi</a> is developing. Why not use this relaxing saturday to check our his work on the tumblrs or the twitters?</p>

posts/The Semi-Immersive.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-02-13/a.jpg"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-02-13">2017-02-13</time>
+<p><a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-02-10-valve-is-making-three-fully-fledged-vr-games">This</a> Gabe Newell interview pretty much echoes the sentiments of <a href="http://takunomi.space/post/157056938970/new-play-style-in-the-good-old-way-if-youve">my friday post</a>. Feels good to know I'm not quite off.</p>
+<p>I've been rewatching <em>Dennou Coil</em> recently. Probably one of the best and least lauded TV/anime series of the 00's. Compare images of people using the <em>Vive</em> and even <em>Google Glass</em> to the Glasses of <em>Dennou Coil</em>. Those are simple, thin and elegant frames with science fiction levels of power and no battery problems. That's not important though. What's important is that they blend into everyday life, unlike those other products.</p>
+<p>Also, note that goal of American VR mainly has been to enable ever more realistic and immersive simulations. I would argue that video games by default have an ever-present nature of being immersion breaking, both for practical reasons (HUDs, uncanny valley visuals, bugs) and for design reasons (player choice and the need to be lenient to inherent player-driven logic breaking behaviour).</p>
+<p>In the interview, Newell notes on the first time he played <em>Wii Sports</em></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>I was like 'Oh my god! There's so much opportunity! There's so much potential here that we're all going to go discover!' Then it turned out that Wii Sports had pretty much nailed it and that was it.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>I don't think he is disregarding motion controls completely, else Valve wouldn't be making them.</p>
+<p>There is something else though, that Nintendo did with Wii Sports, that Newell isn't crediting them for here:</p>
+<p><em>Wii Sports showed that</em> less is more <em>in new tech</em>.</p>
+<p>Could we perhaps try to make VR do less, but make it do it better? What if we just had gaming-glasses that only handled gaming UI (feedback only, no direct input) and left the game itself on a monitor in physical space? This might be a more practical version of Nintendo's second screen concepts in both the Nintendo DS and the Wii U, yet still, the main screen would still provide a more immersive and clear experience.</p>
+<p>This hardware would be lighter, and wouldn't need to lock us out of our surroundings. With AR cards or perhaps even a mat, we could perhaps even make introduce some interactivity. I wouldn't mind having the contents of Link's inventory visually in front of me in physical space, as a pile of cute little items on an AR mat, for snappy equipment chances. Players and spectators could even observe different things: By default the screen could show the game's HUD, while the spectacle hardware could mask it away for the player, instead showing it on the AR mat.</p>
+<p>True these are mundane and gimmicky examples, but the idea that VR might not necesarily be about achieving the ultimate immersive experience, but rather augmenting the already immersive breaking nature of video games, for a more pleasant pleasant experience, is not so bad, I think.</p>
+<p>Indeed, I see this semi-immersion as a more practical and fun way of using both the new steps forward in both VR and AR for traditional gaming experiences.</p>
+<p>Illustration by <a href="http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=818658jj">Hoira</a>: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&amp;illust_id=25594636#<em>=</em></p>
+

posts/Time and no Space - Sodagirl and Final Fantasy XV.html

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+<figure><img src="/images/2017-01-19/a.jpg"></br></img></figure>
+<time datetime="2017-01-19">2017-01-19</time>
+<p>Sodagirl, Takunomi's current project, very much plays like a japanese roleplaying game. Moé, the main character can select targets, and attack and manipulate them, with no notion of distance to the target. This seems very much less exciting than understanding the terrain and manipulating space in games like Dragon Age or Tactics Ogre.</p>
+
+<p>Believing this, I went to my Fortress of Solitude‎ (making sure I had enough toilet paper) and started thinking: If I don't have the component of space, how do I make interesting tactics?</p>
+
+<p>Well what is space in a game? It a finite range of numbers across two or three axis. Yes I know that's a super boring way of thinking of it, but it allows me to consider alternatives.</p>
+
+<p>Two that I can think of, that aren't missing in other games but might not have as much emphasis as space, are context and time.</p>
+
+<p>Context is the space in the game rules: What status ailments are characters suffering, and what is the AI responding to. In Chess the castling move is dependent on context, though it manipulates space.</p>
+
+<p>Time is the progress of the game.‎ Card games have no sense of space either and therefore always rely on much time (rounds and turns) has passed.</p>
+
+<p>I'm not saying these axis don't exists or are not used in other games. I am saying, to make up for lack of space in Sodagirl, I need to put extra emphasis on them.</p>
+
+<p>A recent game that has contemplated these same notions, is Final Fantasy XV. Although it takes place in a visually 3d space, combat could very well be played from a top down perspective, with specific out of reach grappling points to hang from when combats becomes too intensive.
+
+</p><p>Furthermore, the main character, Prince Noctis, is able to teleport away from and towards enemies, simultaneously negating distances, always being able to enter a melee instantaneously, and gaining extra attack power from attacking from far away.</p>
+
+<p>It's a wonderful combat system, and a lesser version would simply have relied on selecting a target pressing attack, or auto attacking, when in range, with no teleportation-based combat.</p>
+
+<p>I think these thoughts make it clear, that when I design a game, I can't just accept a game as being 3d, 2d or menu-based, and with a real time or turn based combat.‎Indeed Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy XV expresses the same willingness to question the given in this <a href="https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/in-conversation-with-final-fantasy-xv-director-hajime-tabata">Vice interview</a>:
+
+</p><blockquote cite="https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/in-conversation-with-final-fantasy-xv-director-hajime-tabata">I'm not sure that there were any elements from past games that I had to include.</blockquote>
+
+I need to think why a game needs to be one or the other, or if I can take apart these ideas and put them together differently, or with less parts that don't really necessarily matter.
+
+<p>The beautiful image at the top is from <a href="http://pomiko2.tumblr.com/">Pomico</a> at http://pomiko2.tumblr.com/</p></p>