I haven't had a lot of time to blog lately, but it's spring break now. It feels weird not being busy with school or work, so I'm going to take a little time to work on some of my games, as well as unwind with playing a few. Here's what I've been doing.

Rango

It's an okay movie. Nothing new. The story has been told several times.

League of Legends

I've been playing League of Legends a bit lately. Since they came out with the Co-op Versus AI mode, I've been playing that, having a good laugh at the new bots. You get your win of the day, a little IP, and a shorter match. I've actually lost a game. We had a leaver and a feeder, but it was depressing all the same.

I've started liking PvP less because of how quickly the matches became one-sided, and I'm not a fan of having kids rage at each other. The downside? I get fewer wins, which makes me look less awesome.

Among the best summoner names I've seen so far:

- Miss 4Chan

- FOCUS ANNIE

Other than that, I s till have to play with some of you guys. Only played with Ferret so far, and just a few times. We'd need to get a 64Team together and do some ranked games as well. I'm not ranked because:

1) I don't take the game seriously enough to solo queue

2) I don't know anyone I'd want to play with

Novel

For those of you who didn't know (that means anyone who's not Ronnica or Zane), I am a writer, and just finished the first revised draft of book 1 of 4. I had to rework the entire story over six months, with three years of work previously. It was a lot of work but I got a chance to work with the plot and get some good characters in. Want to read it? Heh heh. Maybe not.

Creatures

Creatures is a life simulation game, hot in the late '90s and early 2000s. But by life simulation, I don't mean Sims or Tamagotchi. No, this is complex stuff, on the verge of AI (though they like to call it adaptive learning). The difference is that, while both of them learn and steadily get smarter, adaptive learning is a paced, easier, slightly more realistic approach. Still, the creatures do learn from mistakes, though they can often make stupid mistakes in the first place.

I've been playing Creatures 3 for the past week. It gives that sense of nostalgia, though I was having a hard time keeping them alive. They have a biochemistry similar to humans, and suffer from diseases just as we do. My problem is that the game wasn't meant to run on a modern computer. Surprisingly, it runs faster than it was designed to. This means you have a lot less reaction time when your creatures get sick or go somewhere they shouldn't.

But anyway, if anyone feels like playing a complex, in-depth life simulation, feel free to torrent it. Its creator is dying, and the fanbase is slowly dwindling as well. But even ten years later, it's still one of the best, most complex life simulations you could ask for.

Touhou

I haven't been playing much of it.

Rune Factory

Fuck yeah.

64Brawl

I recently found an old blog by a wannabe reviewer. In it, he gave his "kudos" to me for working on the 64Brawl project. I want you to know I haven't given it up yet. I'm just waiting a little longer for when both Cyrus and I are available to put a few hours into it.

Prism Soul

Still working on it as well, though graphics once again are keeping me from making a lot of progress. It's also the story, and I'm not feeling awesomely creative lately.

CFL/Lixim

"Lixim" (Lixies Simulator) was presented to me by Serprex a few years ago, and I just now decided to use it as my working title, instead of CFL (Canadian Football League).

Now, the reason I mentioned Creatures before was because this is the base of Lixim. Some of you may remember the lixies (hairy balls), designed by me when I was about 12 years old. Interestingly enough, I started Lixim back when I was 14 years old, and it ended up getting so complicated and so inefficient that I decided to restart a few years back.

The new version doesn't have nearly as many features so far (the old version had unlockable species, enemies, breeding, and very simple AI). This version, I've actually gone in depth with the body systems. As of now, they are capable of breathing, creating energy from food, ageing, and some light navigational skills. Also in the game are light physics. You can pick up objects and throw them as well. It's actually pretty fun to break glasses (though the system broke a little when I ported from GM7 to GM8).

I'm also putting a little more thought into the world. I've got some plants and animals that grow and rely on the ever-changing ecosystem. Weather and time of day affect what animals are out and what plants bloom, etc. So while I don't have anything amazing to show, here's a screenshot anyway.

It was resized just a bit, so the quality is low. But the one thing I wanted to point out here is probably the only issue I've run into so far.

The graphics SUCK.

It's funny. I'm making an ambitious game with biological AI, and the one problem I've having is graphics? I'm no pixel artist, and though I've improved a lot since I've sprited at all for this game, I can't possibly live up to the graphical quality of Creatures.

If any of you are interested in putting together some tiles or sprites, I'd love to have you.

Fin

That's pretty much all I have for now. It's a long blog, but it's also a devblog, something I haven't done in a while.