Updating

Okay, it's been a while since I updated. Sorry about that. It's New Years eve and I've been up to my elbows in stuff to do practically since I got back from school. One of my biggest responcibilities, as it turns out, is being "big cousin" for little Clara. She adores me, as I'm sure you know. It's nice to be loved like that, but there are just sometimes when I'd like a break, to be able to have time to myself. Of course, I'm getting off easy. Some people actually have to do "WORK" for a living.

Oh wait, I'm one of them. Here's the story quick. I got a 1.88 or so GPA. I needed a 2.0 to stay at Tech. So I'm kicked out until next Fall. Whee... Until then, I'll be staying in Austin. I've been looking for a job, but not nearly hard enough. I'll prolly just end up working at McDonalds again or something. *Sigh.* Actually, my mom suggested that I get a job in the child care profession. Not the computer science gig I was hoping for, definitely not the video gaming career, but I do like kids, and I'm good with them, and above all else, it IS a paying job.

Yesterday we went to the store BookPeople, and Mom got me a book on how to program video games. It's a huge thick technical nonsense, but it'll be cool if I can actually make a game work. It won't be my dream game, though, just a fun little ditty. My dream game is something that, realistically, I can't do on my own. It's a 100+ hour quest that is almost more story than anything. It'll be somewhat like Final Fantasy and such, in terms of the epic-ness, but I'll have a more open ended game play. Not open ended in the GTA sense of "Do whatever you want, but you still have to do our quests." More open ended as in, "Do what you want, and that in turn will affect your path."

A year or so ago, mom enrolled me with her in an ACC course on 2D Game Design. Part of the exercise was a chance to come up with a game idea. My pitch was something really ambitious, but still technically doable on a 2-D level. The proffessor said that games today are often pitched to producers as being a mix of things (BMX games are Tony Hawk + Bikes, for instance). So my suggestion was GTA + Star Trek. I'm talking the origial GTA, not the 3D ones on the PS2. Your character would be a lone character in space, and he could ally himself with one or more of the factions in space, each with their own unique differences, and their own fleets of Starships, something like the different races in Starcraft. Your character would be able to commandeer any of a number of vessels, and use them to complete quests and missions. There will be some story line stuff, as well as a few bonus missions to get you specific items and stuff. Think of it as a 1 player MMORPG in terms of play and politics. You can upset a faction and thereby lose their support, or get shot at when you go near them. You can gain favor with a faction and earn better ships in their ranks or what not. You can help change the map by wiping one faction out. Fun stuff like that. Maybe I'll have a demo of it up or something.

Okay, I need to do work. I gotta pack for my trip to NJ tomorrow. Happy New Year everyone. I'll prolly write out a blog on the plane tomorrow, and post it as soon as I get online.