the Bard's Tavern
My corner of your imagination
"Wet" (the Game) just get better…
Sep 4th
For those that are out of the loop, I’ll quickly explain that there is a new console game coming out for my beloved XBox 360 called “Wet”. The best way I could describe this game is to say that it looks like ”Stranglehold” meets “Max Payne” as imagined by Quentin Taratino and produced by Bethesda featuring a character who makes Lara Croft look like Safari Vacation Barbie. In short, I was drooling the moment I saw the trailer.
What makes this game so different from just everything out there is the visual style and the interaction. From the trailers Rubi (the main character) is built less like Pam Anderson and more like Mila Jovovich. From the moment you see her, inked up like Kat Von D, you know this is a girl who probably could take out a room full of mobsters with a six shooter and pair of chop sticks. In the sequences from the trailer she’s seen leaping through the air and shooting opponents, hacking at them with what appears to be either a Chinese styled broad sword or a stylized Katana and at one point jumping on the roofs of moving cars in the most creative (if not impossible) approach to a car chase imagined.
Like “Max Payne” there is a Bullet Time of sorts as Rubi does acrobatics, causing the game to slow down which allows you to target multiple opponents better. And while this may seem like a rip off, it is actually a very practical approached if anyone’s ever played John Woo’s “Stranglehold”. In a scene during that game you’re allowed to jump up on a rail and slide down while shooting at enemies. While this is very cool in concept, the problem was you had to go from right to left picking off people shooting back at you, but by the time you’d get the enemy in your cross hairs you’re passing him. Now you have to switch targets but can’t seem to move quickly enough to take out the new target. If the game had slowed down to let me target better this wouldn’t have looked like amature hour at a skate park.
So from the game play ideas and visuals alone this looked like a very exciting game, and one that I was assuming I would rent or maybe buy used. That was until, someone upped the stakes. You see, it now seems that Eliza Dushku is voicing the main character Rubi Malone. I almost found myself pre-ordering this game.
Here is the link to the actual game and you can see for yourself – http://wet.bethsoft.com
Hmmm……. Eliza Dushku.
NaNoWriMo: A Journey Within
Aug 19th
Posted by bard noir in Bard\'s Abyss
So, as I announced recently, I’m diving into NaNoWriMo.org this year and to get ready for this I’ve start looking up how I need to prepare for writing a book, let alone one in 30 days. And I have to say, that even though it’s only Mid Aug and I am not to write A word before Nov 1st I’ve already started to learn quite about this process. Ironically enough, the process is *gasp* to write a book!
Say, isn’t this something I’ve always said I wanted to do and never got around to it? Is it possible that this NaNoWriMo thing is exactly what I needed? Is this just one more example of something I waited too long to do? I think many of us reach a point in our life and ask “What if?” questions. What if someone would have noticed that I like to tell stories? What if a teacher would have encouraged me to pay attention in English and keep writing? What if I would have decided to try this NaNoWriMo thing when I first heard about it 3 years earlier?
I think fear of the unknown and failure are the two things that hold us back the most. We ask if something is possible or real. Only recently have I truly started to grasp the concept that someone has to win the lottery. The biggest problem I see, time and time again, is that people compare themselves and others to everyone else. I know a guy who was a great director and put all his passion into a low budget movie. Sure, not everyone can be the next Tim Burton or Martin Scorsese and I know I probably can’t, but just because myself and everyone else I know would probably never make it as a Hollywood director doesn’t mean he couldn’t. Now, if I were better than he for any reason the question now is about drive and that’s what makes the difference.
I heard a story once, from Tony Robbins about Harland Sanders who supposedly had 1,009 rejections when he tried to sell his fired chicken recipe at age 65. It makes me wonder; If you’re meant to do something, is it ever too late? Or does destiny keep waiting around for you to finally get a clue? Cearly that drive is what makes the difference. Could anyone have sold a chicken recipe and had a $2 million dollar franchise in 9 years? Well, neither would Sanders, had he not had the drive to keep trying.
You can chicken and egg the whole thing (no pun intended). Did Sanders succeed because he had a great recipe or did he succeed because he had great determination? Maybe it was both, but it’s clear he believed in it. That, above all, is probably a more important factor to the equation. The debate still rages if great writers are born or made. Stephen King tells about how he had a stack of rejection letters nailed to his wall in his youth. In his book “On Writing” he said he resubmitted a story that was rejected to the same people who originally rejected it only to have them love it… of course by then he was a well known author but the point was that your story might not be a bad story, it’s just wasn’t supposed to be released yet.
So back to my own writings, and the story I intend to tell. I have two plots now, both somewhat personal. There’s also the life story I still intend to tell one day, when I’m brave enough to let the skeletons of my family out of the closet to total strangers. But it’s the lessons I’ve learned along the way that I hope others learn from. And while NaNoWriMo is more for fun it’s a good exercise.
And if this post is anything of a clue I don’t think I’ll have an issue coming up with 50,000 words in 30 days.
April 24th. Official launch of R.I.P. Ep4 “Perfect Pain”
Apr 22nd
After years of working on this project, we have reached an ending point in the series. While it’s not where I wanted it to end, it’s a good stopping point none the less. Due to production problems I’m having to make this Friday’s Episode the final one of the Series. But that’s not to say I didn’t have 8 more Episodes on Paper – or PDF as the case may be.
What makes Episode 4 such a perfect endgame is the collaboration with Crystal Witchery who brought her own unique style of Machinima to this Episode. It was quite a big moment for me, giving my script over to another director and wondering what the finished product was going to look like. And using her SFX and all but one music choice I added the voices and we had quite the stylistic end result.
At www.Youtube.com/BardNoir one might be able to catch a sneak peak of the post-midnight release, but fear not. I still plan to have a showing here on Facebook as well as making the high resolution video available for download here at the Tavern.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
And once again, thanks for watching.
R.I.P. Ep4 slated for Release!!
Apr 11th
Posted by bard noir in Bard\'s Abyss
Finally, no? Episode 4 is a big episode for the Tavern. Not only was it directed by the talented, and popular, Crystal Witchery but it will ultimately mark the end of the R.I.P. Machinima Series. While I did have many more Episodes written the production times and values quickly took a toll on my cast, crew, and even myself as the ’08 Holidays moved in. As I type this blog entry Episode 4 of R.I.P. is in final render. I’d added the final voices, and the Episode chimes in at just over 10 minutes long making it the longest Episode, followed by Episode 2 which chimed in at just over 7 minutes.
I do, however, still have some clips for the Musical Episode and scripts sitting around, so this might not be the last you hear of my little Machinima Production but it is, in fact, the final Episode that will be completed. As the render gets closer and closer to 100% I find myself realizing that is so much closer to ending a very involved project. In a way, I’m not ready to let go.
I had so many plans for the series. I was going to reveal who the Master Vampire was (hint: You’ve already seen him in the series), Winters was going to become a very powerful Big Bad. I was going to touch on the concepts of multiple Slayer messing with the Paranormal Eco System. I even had plans for killing off one of the three main characters and developing a spin off series. I even had a two part musical Episode.
But this doesn’t mean I’m done writing, I don’t think I’ll ever be finished with that. I have ideas that just seem to burn in my skull unless I get them out of there. But what I am thankful for, despite my not being able to follow through with this series as I may have wanted to, is the education this has given me. I may return to Machinima with a vengance, because I’ve learned a great deal from R.I.P. and at the very least, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Melanie or Jezebelle.
Stay tuned for the offical realease of Episode 4 “Perfect Pain” and as always… Light and Laughter.
OwlCon 2009
Feb 8th
So Last Night (and I guess this morning) I was at OwlCon.
For thoses that don’t know, OwlCon is a year RolePlaying and Gaming convention here in Houston, TX held at Rice University. Normally I either win the T-Shirt logo design or I end up GMing a game and get a free pass to the entire convention. This year however, I did neither of things thing (mostly because I didn’t bother to try and do a t-shirt design when I missed the deadline) so this was the first time I actually paied to get in.
This was also the first year I did the LARPs at OwlCon.
For those that don’t know, a LAPR stands for LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAYING. Think of it more as improvisational theater with rules. The first game was a “FireFly” LARP. While it may be hard to imagine 50 some old people all playing roles in such a game I have to say… It worked amazingly well.
I ended up paying a Miner with no faction. At first even I didn’t think I could do much with a fatctionless Miner in a FireFly game. Espeically when there were three ruling parties in a powerplay for control of the planet. I mean what’s a lowly dirt miner going to do? So quickly my firend Don and I came up with a plan of our own. We decided that our character needed to take over a local… in Japan they would be called “Tea Houses” and we’ll just leave it at that.
Needless to say, in order to do that we had to get rid of the man who owned the place first, who just happened to be one of the men running for office and maybe get some venture capital from his rich opponent. Instantly a political play was formed! We then went around striking deals with everyone we could find who would further out plans. When the game was over one player said they weren’t sure who Don and I were actually allied with and I explained “Depending on when you talked to us would have made the difference.” He and I even one “Honorable Mention” as “Best Roleplayers” and the guy playing the Sheriff won “Best” which I think is rigged if you asked me. He got it for “staying in charcter” but there was more character. What did Don and I have to work with? It was something like “You work in a Mine. You have political party” I mean what about that gives us enough to stay in character. I think we should have both one first place for developing a charcter, estbalishing our own motive and then screwing with everone else in the game.
Thankfully we’d have revenge 3 hours later in a “Cthulhu” LARP. For those that don’t know about Cthulhu as a game the point is that there are dark things that man isn’t meant to know about hidden in the Earth. The more you learn about them the more you go crazy. The whole idea behind the game is to go insane fighting the forces of darkenss. In this game I went from a calm and down to earth Catholic Chiliean Priest named Father Diego to a man holding a bone saw, wearing a strange alien artifact around my neck and telling people that I’m getting message from God. Once I was able to make Don’s character mostly insane it didn’t take long for him to go totally insane. After that it was just he and I attacking people at random until we left the game early.
I’m pretty sure no one is going to forget us for a while.
The Window (RPG System)
Aug 6th
There is this little game group, dare I say ‘company’ called ‘Methods in Madness’ who have released a game system called: The Window
“The Window” is unlike any game system I’ve ever seen before because, for starters, it’s free… Seriously! Second, it’s not meant for people new to true role-playing games and finally, the rule book is about 40 pages long and it WORKS.
The problem with most rule based games in role-playing is finding a way to play something within the confines of the rules or to re-work the rules so that you can introduce a new concept. This can become taxing.
The alternative of course is what’s called ‘Freeform’ role-playing where there are no rules, and each person just adds elements to the story as it goes along. This process ends up more like collaborative fan fiction than anything else. But the biggest problem with ‘Freeform’ is the lack of TRUE control a player has. They instead of an illusion of complete control but all actions are decided on the whim of the Storyteller or Game Master. There is no chance and there is no risk as you cannot fail without the storyteller saying so (thus true success is not in your hands) or you cannot impact another character without their permission (so true influence is also out of your hands).
With a System as free and fluid as “the Window” one can make any story they wish, the dice only serve to by an unbiased third party mediator. This not only takes the responsibility of maintaining the story out of the Game Master’s hands, thus freeing them up for focus on goals and plots instead of smaller details, but also adds a level of drama since players COULD potentially influence and be influenced by one another.
It took me not time at all to go through the 40 pages of rules (the first 10 of which is just an introduction and background to the system mostly) and I truly believe that this is a new direction for all role-playing.
Less system/More Character/Better Story.
Production Delays
Jul 29th
Posted by bard noir in Bard\'s Abyss
Once again I find myself playing a waiting game.
I have certianly learned a great deal about working on a seires of this nature, all of these lessons I will take with me on my next project – oh there will be another.
For now I’m simply focused on trying to get Episode 04 out (which may not happen this month) and focus on Production of Episode 05/06 which is starting to look like it will be one double length Episode at this rate.
For now I’m going to go track down some of my voice tallent and see what’s up.
Episode 03 – the Dark Slayer
Jun 24th
Episode 03 – the Dark Slayer is out as we hit the ground running for the remainder of the series. In this Episode a new character is introduced and the team seems the are going to have to deal with more than the’ve barganed for.
You can also download higher resolution version for both windows and mac as well as additional content at http://rip.bardstavern.com
RIP Episode Updates
Jun 21st
Posted by bard noir in Bard\'s Abyss
There should be a caption contest for this one! Am I wrong?
Well the series is progressing once again after replacing the voice actress for ‘Rachel’ with the talented and helpful Kayla from Sims99. While you’ll have to offically wait unitl the Halloween Episode (Episode 7 ‘Evolutions’) to hear her voice the wait will be worth it.
Episode 4 ‘Perfect Pain’ is now in Post Production and should be released Late July.
Episode 5 and 6 are in joint production as they are filming back to back (Being both the first 2 Part Episode in the Series). If Episode 5 fails to release in August then it’s possible that both will be released as an extra long Speical Episode. The nature of the Episode forced it to be split originaly but the exact reason for this is still being kept mostly under warps.
So we’ve got a lot coming down the line so look forward to more from RIP.
Episode 04 Post Production Haulted…
Jun 14th
Posted by Knightmare Reporter in Machinima
Knightmare Knews reported today that were some tensions on set of the latest RIP Episode when the actor playing Dorian Graves (Sarastro) walked off set saying that he was taking the weekend off for ‘Father’s Day’.
While he was not able to be reached for comment the guest Director, Crystal Witchery, had only this to day “Stupid Sims.”
“This is a minor issue at this stage in the production” explained Executive Producer, Bard Noir “We’re still going forward with Principal Photography on Episodes 5 and 6 at this time.”
So far rumors indicate that Episodes 5 and 6 are going to be the first, two part segment seen in the series despite the Bard’s repeated statements that “RIP is not one show broken up into different Episodes.” when asked about this the Noir camp indicated that the Episode length “was due to the musical numbers involved.”
Hmmm… is that so?