By the way, the point of the previous post was to encourage any people who haven't to find and play Shadowrun.

Emulators: http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/genesis/

Shadowrun ROM: http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/20252/genesis/Shadow-Run-U-h5.html

Fantasy on the Street

One of my favorite games of all time is Shadowrun, a game for Sega Genesis (and SNES, but I don't know how that was between differences and control scheme). The game created a full region of Seattle and surrounding regions where the player could choose an amazing number of paths, from working with the law or against it or working for or against major corporations. It was an incredible experience where I really felt like I was part of a major city with the choice to actually attack large million-dollar corporations if I wanted, and not only physically with guns or stealth, but also through a whole secondary game mode via hacking through cyberspace. I liken it to a more open-ended gta 3 and I still wait for them to produce a true remake to that masterpiece. They recently released a team-based shooter and though I haven't played it, I know that a team-based shooter is not what I'm looking for.

The reason I bring this game up is that it took a cyberpunk world and placed elves and dwarves and ogres into the world. It was thrilling and totally worked. Sometimes when I'm walking (a surprising amount of the time) I will encounter people that look like they should be in a storybook. I see gnomes and elves and it's awesome. I'm not sure if I had the power to place them in their appropriate world, if I would. Because after all, they also make this world a little more magical to me. Getting to walk by a man who should have a hut in the forest where he cooks food for his numerous wolf-friends, it makes my mind wander. I'm thankful for so many things that make this life awesome, and just having a little fantasy in reality satiates my imagination.

So let's just say that it's really late at night and I'm not that tired but realize I will be in a few hours. Sometimes I work really late in the animation lab even though I've not the heart. I am finding myself more and more drawn to interactive simulations. I've begun to read up on AI and I'm really just fascinated by the concept of emergent gameplay. How will my personal project end up actually feeling in style, I wonder, as I know that the development of the world in my mini-game will be entirely dependent upon balancing variables correctly. I believe that these variables will determine the mood of the outcomes, so how difficult will it be for me to actually find the correct values? I want to start building a mock-up/alpha of the game, but I fear that if not everything is spec-ed out, then things will unravel.

In other news, Geckoman, the game I've worked on nearing 2 years now, finally got its release at the Boston Museum of Science. It was fantastic, but unfortunately my eyelids have decided that now they are sleepy. So good night to all.


p.s. my boss has worked with: Richard Garriott, Doug Church, Shigeru Miyamoto, Chris Roberts, Ned Lerner, John Romero, Warren Spector.
This. Is. Awesome. Methinks I need to drill him for more advice.