All posts by Newt

Games Designer, Publisher, Web Developer, Dad.
Gaming

The Movies

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I’ve previously moaned here me and Rach aren’t doing XMAS properly until the second week of Jan. I sort of had XMAS yesterday, starting with the egg in a bun fest that was breakfast at maviscruet‘s. Massive kudos to that man for feeding the large number of people who turned up. I was literally in shock when I first stepped into the crowded room, so apologies if I didn’t talk to everyone. Lots of people, most of whom have LJ even sweet Jimmythedog. A nice fun way to catch up with people and their hangovers…

Then returned to the peace and quiet of Castle Von Newport, and me and Rach exchanged one present. I gave her the new G4 CD since she likes that sort of thing1 and my sweet darling wife gave me a copy of The Movies.

Hurrah for Peter Molyneux and the chaps at Lionhead. When ever I get bored with FPS and pc games in general they release something that is truly innovative and fun to play. Last time it was Black and White, which I had to put to one side I had to work on my Masters.

On the surface The Movies is a management type game like Theme Park meets the Sims. You have to look after your studio keeping it in good repair and adding buildings while looking after the needs and happiness of your Movie stars. However it all builds up to the creation of Movies that you can watch after they are made. When the game starts in the 20s this is all automated (leading to some very strange Gay Cowboy films). However as the game eases you into it, it lets you lose with the Advanced script writing once you’ve released a couple of films, which allows you to write your own films.

This is my first attempt “Die, Die my darling”, A particularly violent spaghetti western tale2. I created it in game3and nearly bankrupted my studio filming it. My leading lady, who appears in this film, quit the studio soon after. Like most “Art” films this one didn’t make its production costs back.

Download “Die, Die My Darling” (in .wmv format/ ~4Mb)4

Spent most of the afternoon and long into the night playing/tinkering with game. Now firmly into the post war period, managing the chaos which is a busy B-Movie studio. Trying to get “Maximus studios” off the bottom of the Studio league table, by churning out crap short films to rake in the dough. Then I can go back to make my WW2 epic, or perhaps some more strange Sci-fi/Horror films.

I’m rather smitten by this game. I like messing about with this sort of multimedia nonsense. The good thing about the Movies is that you don’t have to create things from scratch, so its relatively quick to put a short movie together. Most of all its fun. Expect more nonsense from this direction 😀

1Of all the muppets that have been on X-Factor they are the most tolerable.
2 Ok so it was an excuse for me to try out all the fight scenes.
3 Apart from adding the music after wards, and slightly changing the titles. This can now be done in game using the “Post production studio” but this wasn’t available when I originally made the game. You can also make films with all the options, sets, props and costumes etc., in the out of game Sandbox mode.
4Next on the list of things to learn is to import these files into flash in a smaller format.

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The Begining of the End

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In six weeks time, week commencing 6th Feb 2006, me and the good lady wife will be moving to Oldham.

We’ve inherited Rachel’s Grandma’s house so thats were we’re headed. A nice big house in a nice part of Oldham, just a short ways from Tandle Hill Park. Its going to be a short bus ride to the train station, a short train journey to Manchester and a short walk to work. Bliss

For all you people who think I’m moving to Mars, Oldham is only 45 miniutes on the motorway or 1 hour approx direct by train. So I’ll be back to visit 😀 Also if we’ll have more than enough room if you want to come and visit 😀

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The light at the end of the tunnel is begining to shine brightly.

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XMAS is nearly upon me and I hurtle towards it rapidly.

The weekend was a quiet one. Got to spend a whole day with Rach on Saturday. A WHOLE NORMAL DAY. Just get up, eat, hang out, eat, watch tv, sleep, sort of day. Bliss.
Sunday went for lunch at Whitelocks, and caught up with Ginger Matt, deputy_dug, maviscruet, susannah_banana, grannyannie,glennkenobi, and GM’s old flat mate Tarin. Had a lovely lunch with the largest pile of nachos known to man topped off with a couple of pints of Old Peculiar. Yum

Monday was Ethel’s funeral and a day I’ld rather forget. i’ll miss the old girl something rotten.

Back at work, finish tomorrow, and using coffee to keep me motivated. Not really working. Can I go home now?

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Getting people to provide the information that they are required as part of their to is often a chore. If you want to sabotage the ‘machine’ today the easiest way to do it is to withhold or give wrong information. Information is the life blood of the organisations that I have worked for over the last ten years.

I had to chase up late information all the time when I worked on the GP Pay data collection at DOH, late returns all over the shop and no big stick to hit them with, except “If you don’t make a return we shall name your Health Authority as not contributing at the GP pay steering committee”. I hated being assertive and pointing out that it was “PART OF THEIR JOB” to make the return, not optional, not if they felt like it but REQUIRED! And I felt like an evil git, especially since I had spent the previous four years being a freedom & peace loving hippy. My boss David Stevens pointed out that the only tool I had was my power to convince them verbally. So with his help that’s what I learnt and the timeliness of returns increased as a result. It was one of the biggest lesion that I ever learnt.

As with many lesions in life that I’ve learnt, I’ve also quickly unlearnt it.

In my current job as our School’s web master I have to go through the same process. Convincing the skivers, the slackers and the cheeky weasels that they should submit the content/information to the school web site that they are responsible for maintaining. Up until recently I felt bad, even ‘evil’ about this. Then I had to go sort out the University Admissions officer, because the majority of our Undergraduate courses where not on the university course pages. Various excuses had been made, but I went into the meeting and was assertive about it, to the point that I got dates that the work should be done. As a bonus they’ve been keeping me updated on progress, were before I had to chase them!!! I have learnt that putting my foot down and saying that someone should contribute to something isn’t being evil as long as you don’t personally blame them from word go, but often part of the process.

Originally intended as a comment to one of maviscruet‘s posts, but it grew into a mini essay, which I thought would be a useful reminder to myself. So I posted it here instead.