Naruto

I'm not really a big anime/manga fan. At least not anymore. I guess I just got tired of the big talk-fight-talk sequences, and the brooding main characters and comical sidekicks (or vice versa). Though there are some anime/manga that I still like. Dragonball Z, Rurouni Kenshin, Wolf's Rain, and Full Metal Alchemist are amongst the few. But my favorite anime/manga of all is probably Naruto.

I started reading Naruto three years ago. During that time, I was just curious about the anime since every forum I visted seems to have a discussions about Naruto. That's why I got a copy of the manga. I instantly fell in love with the series after reading it because it has everything (action, drama, and comedy). The main character, Naruto, is also one of the strongest characters I've read in a story. He's cunning and stupid, funny and sad, and pefectly flawed.

So now that I got hooked with the series, I have almost 200 anime episodes and more than 300 chapters of the manga sitting in my hard drive. Though I haven't downloaded any Naruto anime episodes for quite some time now. But to be more accurate, I'm trying to avoid the episodes since the crappy filler arcs are just chipping at my patience. I prefer to read the manga version since it's updated weekly and it's faster to download.

If you also want to join the action and the hype. You can always download the manga version, from the start to the current issue, at Naruto Central. It's free and they update it regularly.

Leisure and Game Design

Game developer and writer, Chris Avellone (Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Knights of the Old Republic II), had a guest spot as a blogger over at Game Tycoon. He wrote some stuff about researching in game design. I really enjoyed reading it and knowing that game design research can be done at a leisurely pace. Plus, I've picked up some tips that will help me a lot with my Neverwinter Nights 2 module design. Here is the excerpt that I really liked:

"...the best advice for “game” research - read a lot of history. It’s better than any fiction (and sometimes far more unbelievable), although you could argue whether or not it’s “fiction” depends on your perspective and who actually won. But in the depths of the history books is not only good settings and terminology to bring to games, but some of the craziest folks, events, and conflicts than you could imagine."

I agree as well, I've read the Sun Tzu, Mein Kampf, books about ancient civilizations, and some historical fiction, and all of them has given me plenty of ideas about my current module's setting, characters, government, and religion. In addition, it was also fun and educational.

Toying with the Toolset

Lately, I've been tinkering with the Electron Toolset (for Neverwinter Nights 2). I must say that its more versatile than the Aurora Toolset (for Neverwinter Nights) was, since it has plenty of options to make your modules look visually good. However, the toolset is more complicated than before and the interface is quite a mess. So I immediately stopped dabbling with the toolset after my first try. Though, after reading a bunch of tutorials, I stepped in again. It's still awkward to work with but I think I'm coming through.

So far, I've only finished one area (8x8 area size) and one magical item. But it took me almost two hours to work on both (while it'll only take me thirty minutes, or even less, to work on an area and an item with the Aurora toolset). So I imagine, with my time spent on just one area and an item, it might take a year or more before I can finish my epic module. Still, I'm pretty satisfied of how my area looks. It has different textures and surfaces. It doesn't look dry and bored compared to the ones I made using the Aurora Toolset.

For now, I'll just continue building all the areas for the prologue, and then I'll finalize my story so I could start creating the characters and conversations -which would be even more difficult than making the areas.

Episodic Contents

A couple years ago, every time I finish a great PC game, I wished that developers would soon release an expansion to that game in order satiate my cravings. I also hoped that, someday, the game expansions would just keep coming like TV episodes. At that time, it was just that...a dream, a wish -and an absurd one to be sure. But now, that dream is already true and that wish have been granted -and far from absurd. Because episodic contents are invading the game entertainment.

It just started last summer (2005) when they released Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and the first episode of Sin. Then came Sam & Max, which is currently at its second episode. Now, BioWare had also joined the fray by announcing that they will be having episodic contents (this really excites me more than you will know) for their PC games such as Jade Empire: Special Edition and Dragon Age. Then there's also the upcoming sci-fi game called the Seeker, which story will be told in episodes.

So it seems more and more game developers are embracing episodic contents. And why not? It's faster and cheaper to develop compared to a full expansion. The downside to it is, since its faster and cheaper to develop, they'll probably release 2-3 episodes a year. That will cripple my wallet.