The Blog's First Post

This website is coming in medias res for me; I've almost finished my BS CS at the University of Georgia; I'm a good way through a first draft of my first novel; I've started work on a game of which I'll finish a proof-of-concept by December of this year, the same time I graduate. But even though I'm starting this in the middle of my work, it's more of a place for me to openly discuss, document, and think about the work that I do.

I've always struggled to finish things I start, and my novel is living proof of that: 4 rewrites, 3 of which were from the ground-up with a complete conceptual overhaul of the world, characters, and main plot structure. Now that I feel like I've finally settled on something I love, I stand at an impasse. My work is meager in comparison to other established authors. My ideas, grand as they may be, are small and frail in the daunting face of those that came before, and even those that have yet to come. I feel that I lack in certain areas of my writing, predominantly character writing and development, and that smothers my want to write. I feel claustrophobic sometimes when I sit down at my desk, or at a café on my laptop, and think about the sheer volume of work and improvement left for me to do. And so I start something else, related or not to my original work.

I've put many hours into a myriad of things. But I'm always dragged back into games, and the stories that they tell both in-game and not. There are two games that I play every year: Dark Souls and Super Metroid. The similarities between the two might not appear apparent at first, but they're quite striking. Super Metroid has an intricately crafted world, with coexisting linear and non-linear paths the player can take to beat the game. In the same way, Dark Souls can be approached from many angles at first, but players are inevitably pushed toward Anor Londo and the linearity that follows. In the same vein as these two, I decided to start work on what I'm currently calling "QuakePrime". Here's the only hint I'll give other than the name:

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As far as this blog goes, I'll continue to post thoughts, updates, and incoherent ramblings from time to time. Maybe one of these days I'll write up some more interesting thoughts about the design of my favorite games, and why they reside at the top of my proverbial favorite-game pyramid.

While it's more for my benefit than anything else, I hope you enjoy reading.