I wrote a short sketch that I put up over here, but I will also post it below. Hopefully the html doesn’t get too screwy on your browser.

Some very slow progress over here, as I reorganize a bunch of story behind the scenes. I’m getting close to the end of the first episode. After that I will go back and edit and rewrite the first episode and move on the the second.

More story work going on here. I have discovered a character that I complete forgot about, because their big scene didn’t happen until now. I could go back through and write them in where they need to go, but I’m still working under the advice of so many writers to resist the urge to edit and revise until after I have the whole story written. I jump back all the time and add little notes for new scenes and changes to scenes in chapter 1,2 and 3, but so far I haven’t significantly revised them. It makes sense now why that is the common wisdom among people who write longer fiction. The problem is, your brain just can’t hold all the ideas that make up a good story at one time. I forgot a whole character. One that I have notes for and the bones of an arc for. As I was writing each scene, that character just didn’t fire anything in my memory. I like to plan a bit and ‘pants’ a bit when writing because I like to know where the story is going, but i also like being surprised when characters do or say something I wasn’t expecting. That also means that you run the risk of not remembering to write in a whole character. Nothing like learning by doing I guess.

Best Games - Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater The first video game, depending on who you ask, was probably a sports game. Either tennis or ping pong. Video games have been infatuated with simulations of real world sports since day one. Only one problem. That doesn’t work at all.

I wanted to take a short break from fiction to write about machines. Well one machine. No, not one machine, a lot of machines. More to the point, my relationship to machines. With machines? Whatever. I’ll start over.

Added more words here. Not much to say about it. Well I suppose I can say this, editing is going to be a whole thing. New scenes, moved scenes, redefined relationships, expanded descriptions. I’ve gone over a lot of writing advice that says you have no idea what you are writing until you have written it, and holy cows is that ever true.

Some slow progress here. I also went back through the first two chapters and made some notes about things that I will change on an edit pass. There are at least 4 scenes that are in completely the wrong spot and quite a lot of fleshing out to do, but hopefully it’s salvageable. I suppose I will only know that when I get closer to the end.

Some edits here, but first I want to get to another story that I did some work on. I sent this one out for feedback twice, made some edits, sent it out again, and then made some more edits. I think it’s approaching something like a final form. I could probably dive back into anything I have written, disassemble it and improve it, but I think this one is close enough to done that I even gave it a title. You can read This , a short character study about a man with a truly terrible super power.

Best Games - Landmaker A few years before developing Landmaker, Taito released Puzzle Bobble, one of the best action puzzle games ever made (which I, sort of, wrote about here). The shadow of Puzzle Bobble is immense. It’s hardly any wonder that Landmaker gets overlooked when people are compiling lists of the finest puzzle games of all time. Is it as criminally overlooked as Uo Poko or Puzz Loop? Probably not, but still Landmaker deserves a place in our collective memory.

https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games/my-neighbour-vampire ​More than 46,000 people in 114 countries got together to make games this weekend. I was one of them. Over the past 9 years I have joined up with teams and filled all different rolls. I have made 3D models, painted textures, drawn concepts, and programmed game features. I think this is the first time I only focused on one task. This year I drew and painted portraits.

Still going here. I sort of bounced around and broke some stuff and then left the end pretty busted too. Sometimes you need to write really loose and bad for a bit and then put it back together later. Hopefully.

A small amount of movement over here. I was getting hung up on a scene so I jumped ahead and wrote some of the stuff after it. That leaves a big ‘write this here’ hole so I only included all the new stuff that actually makes sense to the continuity. As always, I have to issue this warning. This is an in progress rough draft of something that will likely be novella length. If you have ever wanted to read and comment on a story while it’s being written, please be my guest. If you would rather wait until I have something that works from end to end and I have done at least some polish work on it, stay tuned and I will let you know.

Best Games - Marble Madness Marble Madness is a game that probably shouldn’t exist. I mean, obviously it does. People made it. The odds are pretty good Mark Cerny and Bob Flanagan made it sometime before it’s release, in 1984. At least that is what history says. Even playing it today, it’s hard to imagine some form of time travel wasn’t involved.

A small amount of movement over here. It’s New Years eve, so I suppose I will have to resolve to finish some more stories next year.

It’s Christmas Eve. If you stopped by here to read something new, maybe just go enjoy spending time with your family instead. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, go enjoy any of the other excellent solstice adjacent holidays. I’ll bet there will be food. Lots of really good food. Enjoy that. I’ll keep writing and have some new stuff for you next week.