And with that, I have my 100th win in League of Legends. It took longer than I hoped. But it was a pretty game, and it was done with my Pentakill Sona skin too. =)
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I had the pleasure of playing Frog Fractions this week. It’s a ~30 minute Flash edutainment game in which a friend explained as a game where he “started out as a frog catching flies, and ended up running a porn business”. How could I resist?
There is no way that I could have finished this game had I not had his help. (Hint: thinking about vertical space during the fly-catching moments is helpful for progression). I’m not great at text adventures and needed quite a bit of hints, but it’s definitely worth powering through. I laughed so hard in parts because everything is so damn perfect. Who doesn’t enjoy froggy porn?
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Though Dishonored was one of my favorite games of 2012, I actually ended the year one chapter short of beating it. Earlier this week I finally finished it and was completely disappointed and underwhelmed by my ending.
Spoiler Alert:
I played as High Chaos (which actually means that I did in fact TRY to be stealthy but lacked the patience required to restart over and over again when I fucked up) and at the very end I was trying to be sneaky and climb up on top of the greenhouse. I got up there, shot the guy, and the game just ENDED. Like, no buildup, no dialogue, no nothing. I felt like I cheated the system for sneaking up on top of a building, a mechanic that the game rewards you for doing throughout. I have no idea what happened. I just ended it all. It felt broken, bugged, unfinished, and just awful. I just don’t know what more to say.
All in all, the game was still awesome. But the last 10 minutes could have gone far better.
I did some horse photography today at my ranch, using a new 55-200mm lens. Sadly, my focus was in all the wrong places for 98% of the photos. I’ll improve some day. :)
My Games of the Year
2012 was the year that I put aside MMOs in favor of playing a larger variety of games. I think I did “just okay” with that hope. I certainly played more of the top games than in 2011, but there are still some big ones (Journey, Waking Mars, Mark of the Ninja) that I’m sure would be in my list if I’d had gotten a chance to play them. Alas, here is my list of the “games I enjoyed enough to put them on a list”, starting with my Game of the Year.
The Walking Dead game was an emotional, gut-ripping, intense, fascinating experience. The story was so captivating that I marathoned all 5 episodes on PC in a matter of a few days. I’ve never felt closer to any videogame characters, nor so affected by their actions and decisions. It’s also the first time I have ever downright sobbed, requiring a hug from my fiance and a whole lot of face-drying time. The point-and-click adventure genre is one of my favorites, and The Walking Dead will go down in history for me as one of the best.
Plans for 2013
I know, it’s not New Year’s yet, but I wanted to get a jump on getting my thoughts for my goals for 2013 down on paper. 2012 has been a huge year for me. My fiance and I moved back home to San Diego and bought our first house. I bought my wonderful horse Rosie, and showed her for the first time. I got a pretty huge promotion at work from Producer to Studio Director, and launched several games this year. I wrote things that I’m proud of on a variety of sites, and made a lot of connections and formed friendships with people that I truly look up to and am inspired by. With how chaotic 2012 was, I really hope that 2013 is calmer and less stressful. It can’t possibly be worse! Without further ado, here’s my goals for 2013: *Note: This is a living document, so I plan to add to it as I come up with more ideas*
Get married
That’s the plan, anyway. Though I haven’t done hardly any planning and we’re looking at a June beach wedding in San Diego. I really need to start preparing and organizing for this now that we’re settled in our house and things have calmed down in our world. My mom keeps bugging me to finalize details so that she can plan her trip out here, so I should probably be considerate and get on that.
Learn to code, make an app
I’ve tried several times in the past to learn how to program. I have gotten so far in my skills that I can edit CSS/HTML and some other languages (mostly Lua) but I can’t necessarily author much on my own. I really would love to build an iOS application or game at some point by the end of the year, even if it’s very simple. Between resources like Team Treehouse, Coursera, Lynda.com, Code Academy and help from coworkers and friends who are engineers, I know that I could learn if I really set my mind to it and focused on it. Honestly, this is a huge one for me. I really want to make this happen, so I’m going to do my best to try.
Hodgepodge Update
I am currently just under halfway through a two week break from work over the holidays, and damn does it feel nice. It’s been probably the most low key ‘vacation’ of any that I’ve had. Almost everyone I know here in San Diego is out of town for the holidays, or they’re already back to work. I’ve basically been spending the time riding my horse, playing various PC games, relaxing, enjoying our new house, and learning to code in JavaScript!
As I mentioned in my 2013 resolutions post, learning how to program was one of my most important goals of next year. I spent many hours over the past week going through Codecademy’s JavaScript track and completed it, which should mean that I’m ready to tackle a project (in theory anyway). I have one in mind, but there is a web display component to it that I’m just not sure how to do. I think perhaps I need at least one sample project/tutorial for actually deploying js to the web and getting it to interact with a website. My project is simple - I need a list and I need a way for people to vote on said list. The javascript part of it I think I can manage — maybe that’s all I need to do for my first project. It would be amazing to be able to link it to people though as a first success. We’ll see where I go with that.
Gaming-wise, I’m trying to make a serious dent in my Steam backlog. This is made increasingly difficult by the fact that the Steam annual holiday sale is underway. Through purchases of my own and gifts from kind friends on Steam, I’ve obtained a number of new games including: LEGO Lord of the Rings, PixelJunk Eden, Spirits, FTL, Super Hexagon (which I’ve devoted hours of my time to already on iPhone), Unmechanical, Mark of the Ninja, Condemned: Criminal Origins, The Sims 3, FEAR complete pack, RPG Maker, Darksiders Franchise Pack, and Closure. That is way more games than I have managed to play so far.
2012 In Review
2012 was a hell of a year. I feel incredibly fortunate that while other people had a lot of sorrow and heartache this year, I was spared from the misfortune. I have no idea where this year went, because it sure went quickly. Here’s a look back at the year.
The year started with us living in the San Francisco Bay Area, renting a house in Burlingame. While we were pretty unhappy there, we definitely spent a lot of time exploring the city through food and adventure.
Notable:
+ A trip to Monterey to go to the aquarium, which was beautiful and fascinating. It’s a beautiful city and a really scenic drive along the coast so make sure to check it out if you can.
+ An incredible promotion at my job, gainful employment throughout the year, plenty of opportunities to grow and learn alongside some of the best coworkers one could have.
+ A wonderful visit from my good friend Allison and her daughter Ashley, consisting of a whirlwind of activity in one of my favorite weeks of the year. We did everything! From Alcatraz, Angel Island, wandering around the Mission, exploring the city, eating great vegetarian food, horseback riding along the ocean, and getting exhausted. I don’t get to see them but once a year, so it was a precious time spent together.
My parent’s dog, Norma Jean. I took this picture in 2009.
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I took this picture with a Nikon D50 in 2009.
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My mom and her Boxer dog, Norma Jean. Picture taken with a Nikon D50 in 2009.
