Monday, November 10, 2014

Log 007



Dear Internet,

                How are you friend?  Have you been well since I last wrote to you?  I hope so.  Do not think that my lack of correspondence has meant ill will to you.  My time away has not been one of lax attentiveness or mild slothfulness.  I have been busy.  Oh, have I been busy.  It is just that I have not been busy attending to my Backlog or towards my project near as much as I wish I could say that I was.  There have been a variety of reasons and things that had to have been done.  All of which were much more important than doing my superfluous little experiment here.  I do not mean that I do not like writing to you, Internet.  It just means that moving some 700 miles can make a person quite busy.  And that is all you are going to get out of me concerning that.

                It is a bit jaunting to realize that the last Log I did was back in April, seven months ago.  That feels like a lifetime ago when I think about it.  When I had last posted a Log, I had noted that the game's script was around some 750 lines of displayable text and about 35 lines of code.  I threw out a number of some 7500 words typed, too.  Well, those numbers seem quite small right now.  I can clearly state that the game's script is complete and majorly edited.  By the numbers, it is nearly 30,000 words long, which includes both code and displayable text.  The current line count is just a little over 4000.  All in all, that means that the plot has been ironed out and the coding has been mostly taken care of.  For what it's worth, I believe that it would take an average reader an hour and a half to go through the whole kinetic novel.  Do not go trying to quote me on that.  I still have not got an impartial non-editorial reading to base that claim on.  Reading a kinetic novel for editing reasons instead of normal reading will yield a much different rate of speed.

                So, what does that mean is next?  Art assets, lots and lots of art assets.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

Monday, July 7, 2014

Entry 138: "The Worm Ouroboros" Pt. 2 End



Dear Internet,
                Well, I suspect that you most likely think I am dead or close to it by now.  I am not sorry to disappoint you.  I am well enough alive, as far as I can tell.  I have been busy with various things.  "What?" you ask?  None of your darn business is what.  Just know that even this entry does not mean that I can begin any sort of regular posting any time soon.  So, do not get any sort of ideas stuck in a loop.  All I am here to do is to finish up my review of "The Worm Ouroborous."

                The last thing that I talked about concerning the novel was the book's language.  The book can be broken down into three different types of English language that I am sure someone can define better than I can.  The most modern type of prose comes in the book's narration, which sounds the most of what we hear today.  The second is the spoken language that the characters use when communicating between themselves.  This is filled with "thee"s, "thou"s, and "thine"s.  The third type appears when the book's characters communicate through written word.  I would liken it to somewhere between Middle English and the second type I described above.  I mention all this because with each format, a modern reader would have some deal of difficulty in reading these segments.  The third format is especially difficult to get through due to the multitude of obsolete or archaic spellings of some words.  It is not impossible by any means, but it does slow down the novel, which is one of the hurdles that the book tries to overcome.

                "The Worm Ouroborous" is a thick book, but it is below that of what you could call a doorstopper.  It, however, does not move very quickly or smoothly.  There are times that the story progresses at a rather quick pace, such as the battles and the wrestling match, but at other times, it feels like the plot grinds to a halt.  These moments, usually when focusing specifically on the Witchlanders, move slow enough that I wanted to just skim over the text.  Of course, these segments are made to add exposition to the various characters.  The novel does this in strides, making sure that every character is given at least a wading pool level of depth.  The problem is that there are too many characters that just plain do not matter yet are brought up time and time again.  I think someone even got killed in their sleep at some point, but I could not even care because they were so unimportant.  Then there are a dozen or more military figures on both sides that show up at the end of the novel for the climactic battle but are either killed off or barely given any sort of information.  The point of them being there is just to make the world seem more alive.

                This is not a bad thing completely, but it causes the book to be read more like a history novel that is trying to make sure that future historians and genealogists can use it as a primary source of information rather than a piece of fiction that is trying to amuse and beguile away a number of hours.  I am reminded of T.H. White's "The Once and Future King" and how it remembered not to boggle the reader down.  During one of the last segments White's novel, he would barely go into detail about the various knights that were about to draw upon one another, citing "Le Morte d'Arthur" if the reader wanted to know everyone's names.  It was not that the names of the knights were unimportant.  It was that going into such a length of detail would have detracted from the scene, causing it to slowdown.  "The Worm Ouroborous" does what it does because it wants to world build more than anything.

                In this respect, the book delivers on all accounts.  The book goes to great lengths to ensure that all the "t"s are crossed and the "i"s are dotted when it comes to making a world that not only functions well but is also believable.  The world in the book is one that the reader can lose themselves in very easily if they wish to.  The landscape and the history within the world are fleshed out to the point that subsequent novels could have expanded upon small segments and still be folded within this novel.  Take the matter of the kings of Witchland.  We are told of at least four kings that all share the name Gorice.  That still leaves another eight or so that can be expounded upon.  These holes made evident do not detract from the plot that is progressing within the story.  Instead they show evidence of a much larger spectrum that is at play.  While the mechanics of the magic appearing in the book is usually glossed over to the point of requesting the reader to ignore plausibility, the book knows that it is not all that important, instead using that time to set up the scene.  Compare this to "Tale of the Abyss" which would constantly spend lengths of time ensuring that the mechanics of magic are so extensively detailed and plausible that it caused any scene that even mentions "fonons" to grind to a stop so it can be explained twice over.  It is alright that magic does not get explained as long as you do not contradict yourself later on.

                Then there is of course the ending of the novel that needs to be addressed.  You can just skip reading this if you do not want to spoil yourself.  At the very end, the demons wish that they could have someone to fight against since they are for all intents and purposes bored of peace time.  Their wishes are heard by the gods who turn back the world to the beginning of the novel so the war can begin all over.  This illustrates the bloodthirsty nature of the main characters who care not for their kingdom's well being but instead for their own amusements.  In the end, the only thing that separates the demons from the Witchlanders is a sense of aristocratic pride and elitist elegance.  Both of these are characteristics that you will be hard pressed to sympathize over by the end of the story.  The demon lords care not that hundreds, nay thousands, of men and women have died in the war just fought and will die again in the one coming soon.  They are a self interest lot that are more in tune with certain beheaded heads of state than the warrior kings that the book spent depicting.  I am not sure if Eddison, the writer, wanted to depict aristocracy as being so petty or if he wanted to make a criticism of the icon of the fighting hero.  In the end, it makes for an anti-resolution ending that failed to wind me back up again as it does for the characters it contains.

                In the end, "The Worm Ouroborous" is one of those books that I like when I am done with them.  It is not that I am happy because that it is over, as one could say about a kidney stone.  Instead, the novel is one that shines best as a whole rather than in parts.  The problem with me, at least, was just slogging through it.  I just wonder if the story could have been condensed a little to save on unneeded plot elements that fell a bit like padding.  Then there are the number of characters whose names all swirl around because they are similar in spelling. I could recommend the book, but make sure you bring a notebook to make a few family tree diagrams.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

Friday, April 18, 2014

Announcement: Hiatus

Dear Internet,

          Can you guess what time it is, Internet?  No?  It is time to go back on hiatus.  I know, I know.  I have only been re-corresponding for some two months now.  I wish I could keep up this writing, or better yet go back to the original five day format, but life has a happy little way of getting in the way of what we want to do.  Attempting to try and keep my current rate of letters would be quite frankly impossible due to a number of circumstances that are well beyond my control.  Do not weep for me, Internet.  You will get your servers wet if you leak that much coolant.  I cannot say just when I will return to finish my latest review or update anything in vein of the visual novel project, but know this.  I will return eventually.  In the mean time, just keep replaying those kitten videos and amuse yourself in the mean time.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

Entry 137: "The Worm Ouroboros" Pt. 1



Dear Internet,

                Now, I am as much of a fan of fantasy stories as the next person down the line.  Stories of exiled and kidnapped kings, elven folk parading across the forest, dwarves smelting alloys lost to the knowledge of man, and magic being used at the risk of the life, or very soul, of the user are tales that capture not only my own imagination but also those of many others.  There is something wonderful about a narrative that goes far into the depths of human wonder while going far off into the realms of the impossible.  A fantasy story, specifically the kind that need to create another world to be told, must remember not to weigh the reader's thoughts down but also remember to allow for some imagination to occur naturally from the information put forth.  But what does this have to do with "The Worm Ouroboros" you ask?  Well, I may be getting ahead of myself.

                I came across this book in the most shameful way possible.  I was pulled in by a praising quote printed on the cover.  I know, I know.  Being taken in by one of the cheapest tricks out there is a terribly pathetic excuse to reading a book.  For this, I should perhaps lose my critic license.  Thankfully, my critic license is already overdue for a renewal after having not blasted any piece of work as being "a detriment to society" for some time, so it does not matter much.  The only thing that I can offer in my defense is that the cover quote is from J.R.R. Tolkien, and he says "[T]he greatest and most convincing writer of 'invented worlds' that I have read."  Hopefully, Internet, you can understand why my curiosity was piqued from such a quote.  It did not help my curiosity at all that the back cover had even less to say about the book's content, instead chronicling more of the book's influences than its actual plot.  With that being said, let me try and fill in some of the holes that the cover leaves open like potholes in a back-street.

                "The Worm Ouroboros" tells of the four lords of Demonland and the kingdoms around them.  The lords Juss, Goldry Bluszco, Spitfire, and Brandoch Daha rule their kingdom of men peacefully after having finally put the final sword to the Ghouls, a race that had razed the land time and time before.  During the celebration of the birthday of Lord Juss, an ambassador from Witchland requests an audience with the court.  The lords allow the audience and welcome the ambassador in.  Once in, he delivers a message from the king of Witchland, Gorice XI.  The message dictates that the lords of Demonland swear allegiance to Gorice XI before the world and that the realm of Demonland belongs to Gorice XI.  Naturally, the rulers of Demonland are furious at this proclamation of subjugation.  They in turn give a message to the ambassador.  They challenge Gorice to a wrestling match with Lord Goldry being the representative of Demonland.  The winner would determine if a war should break out between the two kingdoms.  What occurs during the match and the events following lead to a conflict that splits the land apart.

                The book has got a few things going for itself right out of the introduction.  First and foremost is the book's language.  Having been written almost one hundred years ago, the novel is going to instantly separate itself away from modern works or even modern speech.  A good number of the words contained here are no longer spelled in the same manner.  The use of "wrastling" made me do a few double takes at first and made me wonder if the book was written a few years ago in Alabama rather than in England in 1922.  Written tics aside, there is still an eloquent use of language here.  The manners that the individuals speak reflect the fantastical setting that the book sets forth.  But the book takes one step more than just interjecting a few "doth"s and "thine"s.  A number of lyrical breaks made by the characters reciting poetry or song are written more in the manner of Chaucer than in Shakespeare.  It can be a bit subtle, but the impact is there with the much older spellings and usage.

                The language of the novel goes further with the settings and their descriptions.  The halls of kings are not the straw huts that house peasants.  Flawless marble, amethyst, jasper, pearl, and many other materials decorate the walls and ceilings.  Pillars of stone seem to make the ceiling as high as the sky while stone sculptures hold aloft support beams upon their backs.  The clothes that decorate the characters are not of low leather or tin melt plates.  They are elaborate gold stitch works that reflect the person's standing within the kingdom.  The book is not afraid to describe such rarities or even let them be.  Too many works, even fantasy genre ones, attempt to paint a drab picture where the ruling class have no wealth, no color, no beauty, and are as dirty as goats.  While I do not wish to attempt to discredit such a view, which is best left to historians to squabble about like stockbrokers, I will say one thing about such a written portrayal.  It is drab.  It is the kind of drab where the lack of luster ends up affecting any sort of extravagance that the plot wishes to showcase.  If you make a drab world with no glimmer of glamour, you make a drab story.  It is perhaps one of those Modernist inventions that try and trick the reader into thinking they enjoyed the work when they clearly did not.

                I shall leave you with this small letter for now, Internet.  I hope to write to you again, soon.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

Monday, April 14, 2014

Log 006



Dear Internet,

                You probably cannot tell how much I am scraping the bottom of the barrel that is my mind right now.  I do not have much else to talk about in the general sense of visual novels.  That being said, I will still find some way of writing some 500 words here.  I am not sure how, but it seems that whenever I say that I have little to say, I end up writing too much.  It is a weird quirk of mine.  Or maybe it is just that I lack a certain skill in my writing ability.  Oh look, 100 words.

                One thing that I seem to have done while attempting to convert a simple short story of seven pages into a kinetic novel is explode a small plot into a full on multiple sub-plot intertwining novella.  Ignoring formatting issues, which of course make everything disproportionate, the currently far from finished script is now at 32 pages.  I say disproportionate because measuring a short story against a script is like comparing a dollar store to a big box outlet.  One is going to have a ton more returns than the other.  Counting words, which is by far a more accurate method, I have made 2,770 words grow into 7,517, give or take a handful.  That is an increase of approximately 170%.  I make this comparison because at the point that I am now in converting the script, I have caught up with what I have previously penned.  Everything from here on out is added story that I have not yet developed.

                This is a bit exciting and at the same time horribly terrifying.  It is like being handed only half a book to be read to a group of children.  Eventually you are going to run out of pages.  The children in turn will expect the story to continue and come to an end fitting the story.  You must then try and connect all the loose ends while continuing the central plot.  There is the danger of leaving a loose end that will be evident to everyone except yourself and will be called out on it.  There is the danger of making the rest of the story inadequate to balance out the complexity of the first.  And there is the temptation of making it all anti-climactic to the point of cheating the audience.  It can make you understand Scheherazade's dilemma, just with less chances of jugular drafts.

                These are the faces of the danger that I am staring into right now.  Thankfully, or rather foolishly depending on who you ask, I know how to face such danger.  The trick is to just add more content and work on it.  It is not an easy answer.  Sure, I could end the story abruptly or just leave plot holes bare, saying I want to "leave it open for interpretation," but that sounds too much like a cop out.  I would rather just try and do a better job of it.  There is 500.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

Current Assets
Writing: ~750 lines
Coding: ~35 lines
Art: 0%
Audio: 0%