Experience Points

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Silent Hill finally gets its due

This post contains mild spoilers for PT. To find out more about information on PT, please look here.

Anybody who knows me understands that I have an indescribably infinite love for well-made horror stories. It is my how to one day write serialized horror/science-fiction, and I'm certain that those stories will be incredibly influenced by the Silent Hill franchise, among my other favorite horror stories.

This year's Gamescom saw the announcement of P.T. on the PS4, a playable trailer that raised a lot of questions and sparked a lot f discussion. Upon experiencing it, we find it to be a disturbingly ongoing walk down an infinite hallway, which gets increasingly unnerving with each new loop.

The pacing is rough, or can be, since what little progression exists is based solely on the nerve of the player as well as their ability to spot and activate the nuances of the environment. Three of the play-throughs that I watched all went between twenty minutes and three hours of play, and none of them reached the end, either because they were too scared, or because they were too frustrated with not finding the clues needed to progress to the next version of the hallway.

After finally finding a short video of the final moments of PT, I'm greeted with a very reassuring sight. Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro are collaborating on the next installment of the Silent Hill franchise, entitled Silent Hills. It is also starring the likeness and voice of Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead.

This is an amazing bit of news that has me incredibly excited for a franchise that has done nothing but disappoint me since Silent Hill 3 (although Shattered Memories was an interesting revision). Del Toro's artistic flair and haunting imagery combined with Kojima's knack for breaking the fourth wall (which is displayed in PT), will combine for, what I expect to be, one of the greatest Silent Hill experiences in the franchise long and storied history. And these are high words coming from someone who is normally much more conservative with his excitement.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Guardians Tomorrow!

Totally hitting up Guardians of the Galaxy tomorrow with the girlfriend. The little one is with her dad for the weekend and its been a while since we've been able to see a film -- well, a good film -- in theaters together. Plus I've been excited for Guardians since it was announced. So opening night isn't soon enough!

It certainly gets the creative juices flowing for future stories, after Cybersaurus is finished up. Sure, there's something alluring about a Firefly type story, but I think I'd be more for a universe like was delivered in Disney's Treasure Planet, or Spelljammer from Dungeons and Dragons. Something about steam-like schooners sailing the stars just tickles me.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Writing Warm-Up: Sad Face, Lock & Bridge

Writing Session Warm-Up with Rory's Story Cubes

The time has come for me to do some more writing in my serialized fiction, and that means doing a warm-up to get the creative gears turning. I've decided to utilize my Rory's Story Cubes, recently purchased and yet to see official use, to create a basic outline for a story I may or may not write sometime in the future.

In this particular case, I've rolled three of the story cubes, and I will use those three cubes to come up with a simple outline for a potential piece of fiction.

Rory's Story Cubes

Potential blog post inspiration? I just picked up these little gems after hearing them discussed on Fear The Boot. They're supposed to help with on-the-spot story or character development. I'm excited to use them, on occasion, in our tabletop role-playing sessions. But they could also pose as a good thing to grease the blogging wheels every so often.

You can find out more about them at the story cubes website.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Cybersaurus: Episode 1.5 - Kenneth

Hey readers! Here's a short written about a couple of side characters from my series Cybersaurus. Kenneth appeared in Episode One as a small role in only a single scene, and I had so much fun writing him, I decided to give him his own scene, as well as a potential, minor subplot that could develop in future shorts, or even find its way into the main series! Enjoy!