2 posts tagged “theta”

I'm hanging out in downtown Portland today, at the wonderful little Coffee Crutch, just up Yamhill from Pioneer Square. Its just a dollar for a cup of coffee, and you can refill it for free. I imagine some of their business model revolves around one feeling guilty about such a deal and making up for it by purchasing a pack of Tic-Tacs or a muffin, which they leave conveniently on display. Tempting me.

In addition to the usual Systepic stuff, I am revisiting my work on Project Theta. It is interesting uncovering work one has done before; I rediscovered a bunch of OneNote entries I wrote almost a year ago, many of which I'd forgotten existed. I think I'm going to pick up where I left off, which means I'll have to hunt down my copy of Dante's Inferno again. Judging from my notes, I was somewhere in the middle of the 9th circle...

On the gaming side, I recently picked up Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for my DS, and am having an absolute blast with it. I was initially a bit worried when I read the game would work entirely off of the touchscreen, but as usual Nintendo quietly backhanded my doubts away within minutes of my first gesture. All in all, the game feels like a lighter, more to the point version of Wind Waker; the same look and feel, less text. The world appears smaller, though I've only uncovered half of the sea charts, and explored less than half of one of them. Unlike Wind Waker, which split the world into dozens of small postage stamp charts, the entire map is split into just four large ones. These are all just initial impressions, so take anything about the game's size with a good slab of salt.

I got up at midnight. Everybody should do this; the peaceful atmosphere of my living room at the witching hour is something all should behold.

In their own living rooms, anyway. Get out of mine.

Class is going well. This whole two-classes-a-term thing is a vacation compared to my credit load before. It's really cool, since I'm able to take my time on most of the coursework instead of frantically trying to get it all done last minute. I also now have plenty of time to get some other things done. Like get a car. I have a job, working for Thomas' dad. I won't say much, but I will say that it's pretty fun, and allows me to flex my  mind's creative muscle.

Also, Theta has been haunting my brain. It's an idea sparked about a year ago while talking with Matt about game design. Unfortunately, explaining the premise ruins the entire effect I want to convey. It's a psychological mind fuck, though, and has the potential to be an amazing story for a game. That said, Theta has been on the back burner for a long time now, constantly at a lower priority than other happenings. Since I returned from break, however, it has resurfaced. Whenever I hear a moving song, I start imagining a random moment within it. I want to make the thing so damn bad.

What I need to do is write a 'bible.' A bible, in this sense, is a compendium of knowledge about the universe a story is to take place in. Generally, an author will create one if an idea is expandable enough to tell multiple tales. J.K. Rowling, for example, keeps a file cabinet of random ideas that pop into her head. I've begun doing the same, except I use Microsoft OneNote. Same idea, only geek'd. My hope is that at some point I'll have enough ideas to build a coherent world around; confirming whether this approach works or not will only take time. I'm debating building a private Wiki at some point to house it.

Anyway, time will tell how much Theta develops. In the meantime, I've got class.