Almost a month without an entry and no GM progress… so what have I been up to?

First and foremost I have been quite busy with my daytime job. It’s my first ‘real’ one, so it’s a bit getting used to and I still need to find a good balance, especially since I’m hanging out with people from work after work as well ;)

Booking time

Still, there is always free time left (or as they put it: free time made) for other things. I have actually picked up reading a classic fantasy trilogy most of you will probably not have heard of to date: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. It’s actually a Tri-trilogy, as there are two trilogies made and a much later third series being written as we speak. The one I’m reading now is the first trilogy which was written in 1977.

Now I wasn’t playing pick the donkey in the bookstore. I actually bought the first trilogy, as it inspired one of my old-time favorites from the 8â€? floppy-disk era: The Land. Created by Mike Riley in 1988, this was a Rogue-like that required a whopping two floppy disks to install having a massive size of 431 kB (we are talking the time of 286’s, mind you ;) ). Anyway, countless hours were wasted upon scavenging dungeons, leveling up and seeking lore to get rid of magical force fields to obtain the next piece of the puzzle. It was buggy and ugly, but I loved it :)**.

Point is, that I finally took the time to buy the book where it has been based on. Without giving anything away, the main premise of the book is that a leper named Thomas Covenant gets hit by a police car and wakes up in the magical world of The Land. The book is written entirely from his perspective, so the reader (and the main character itself) is constantly uncertain whether what he sees is real, or just a figment of mind struggling to survive the impact trauma.

Ledgejumping

Next I have been playing some platform games, for fun and inspiration. Most notable titles have been Iji, the amazing platformer by Daniel Remar and Treasure Hunter Man by Bernie.

Iji is brilliant. It has great balance, enough little secrets for retries and a good flow. My only pet-peeve is that final boss is about twenty times harder than all previous bosses even in easy mode (although, the directional warning hints displayed in game are a very fair addition). Pick it up if you haven’t played it yet!

Treasure Hunter Man is a nice little platformer by Bernie. It lacks some flow here now and then, but finding out how to continue is part of the fun. The MIDI music fits the game well, even though it’s funny to hear Colonization and Daggerfall music in-game :).

Well that’s it for now!

*) Anagram of Work, Read and Play. Yeah I know, but it sounds a lot more interesting :P

**) Interested? Find a copy at Home of the Underdogs