#space chase

This is a new series of articles and videos following a creative writing excercise with one central idea: how could divisive, disappointing, or frustrating films be reworked to overcome their falws with “one more draft?”

Unlike with a “Page 1 Rewrite,” the goal here is to preserve the overall strengths and objectives of the original creator, even if I disagree with them. All I want to do is refine, polish, finesse, or in some cases, cut out issues in a film’s script.

So, we’re starting with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, written and directed by Rian Johnson. The first video reviews the general strengths and weaknesses of the film, as well as the first OneMoreDraft take on a character’s arc, with that of Poe Dameron.

In summary, the strengths and weaknesses of the film break down like this:

+ Great Cast of Actors 

+ Strong Directing Skills from Rian Johnson

+ Ambition (at times...)

- The Sequel Trilogy leads, Rey and Finn, are pushe out of center-stage and weakly written, losing screentime and focus

- Characterization for most of the cast is in desperate need of help!

- There are some accidentally racist and sexist elements to the film, even as it tries to reject them, leading to some bad writing.

So, part one of the series can be summarized like this:

To fix Poe but keep Johnson’s goals, simply cut out most of his story and scenes, and truncate the entire arc around the first battle, splitting off Holdo into new territory.

Look, I love Oscar Isaac. His charisma and capability made Poe go from an expendable character to a major supporting feature in TFA. And I get *what* Johnson is trying to illustrate with his stroy, even if I don’t think he’s the best character for it and that he could be better used in some other way. Likewise, I see the intention behind Holdo... but I can also see how the film accidentally ends up making her seem massively incompetnt when he rpurpose is supoosed to be as a successful leader for a feminst message.

And ultimately, here’s the cold hard truth: the script can’t afford to spend time dragging out a suporting character’s arc in a story as packed as this, especially when the script is reduced to convulsions to try and make itself work, whether it’s in downplaying the human cost of Poe and Holdo’s mistakes, writing Holdo schizophrenically to maintain the surprise at the end, or simply having no logic to its central premise of the Space Chase and the ending wth the Hyperspace Ram.

Here’s how you fix that:

- Center most of the arc for Poe and his confornation with Holdo to the battle against the Dreadnaught: She has him thrown in the brig for getting her bombers killed while disobeying a direct order from Leia, chewing him out and getting his lesson done here in a quick and professional manner.

- Have Poe emerge from the brig more circumspect and respectful when released by Holdo later, perhaps even recognizing that command is a to way street from Holdo’s example.

- The Space Chase takes place within mutliple Hyperspace jumps: visually exciting vistas and increasing desperation as the fuel runs out with each jump replaces the nonsensical tactics and stupidity of the film’s version.

-Holdo shown to be a practical commander: she’s the one who sent Finn and Rose on their mission, and is trying to disperse segments of the Resistance fleet throughout the Chase. There is no schizophrenic writing on her, and no empty conflict with Poe.

-Holdo’s Hyperspace Ram occurs because of her taking adavantage of something Rose has done to the Supremacy: instea of breaking Star Wars’ rules on space combat and beg the question why she wasn’t doing this earlier, Holdo is joining her efforts with Rose to cause this damage.

Space Chase is a topdown space shooter where you must dodge enemy fire and collect pick-ups to survive. Programmed by Bryse Rochester and art assets created by Alyssa Castaneda (me). There is no music/sound to credit at this time.

The game utilizes arrow keys/WASD to move the ship, and either left click or spacebar to shoot. Enemies are randomized to attack and you must shoot at them to destroy them before they destroy you. You can collect pick-ups to help you in your mission. Pick-ups include a health boost to restore some health, a bullet pick-up that allows you to multiply the amount of rounds that can be shot at a time, and a shield pick-up that will neutralize one damage done by an enemy.

Current "issues" with the game include the inertia of the ship. The motion propelling it is precise; considering the location, there should be some lagging motion that comes from navigating the ship. Additionally, there is no way to "win" the game. There are no bugs, however, if you continuously dodge enemies without eliminating them, eventually the game generates an overwhelming amount of enemies and the game crashes. Lastly, though maybe not very noticeable, there were issues with the ratio, so the yellow border of the game is cut off at the top.

The game includes a detailed end screen that relays the number of enemies you destroyed, your score, and how long your game lasted. This promotes players to play consecutive games to beat their previous attempts.

Since the alpha testing, I would say that the game currently can stand alone as a playable game, where as before there was no title screen, no instructions and no real ending. Additional art assets were needed to flesh out the game, and other programming fixes were fixed, such as the screen ratio and in-game boundaries.

In the final version, there is a slight attempt at story-telling through the scenes. The use of the pink moon is in all backgrounds. In the title screen, we see the cusp of the moon, and an animated yellow comet in the left corner. In game play, as you fly around, you can get a glimpse of the comet hitting the moon; the chaos ensuing from the comet crash and the compiled chaos from the enemy ships is not very clear in connection but there was an attempt. Lastly, in the game-over title scene, the comet has destroyed the moon and you along with it. Had we had a "win" title, it would have shown your ship flying away from the explosion. If I were to continue this game as the artists, I would ensure of this final scene, as well as try to make the narrative clearer.

Space Chase, created by myself, Alyssa Castaneda, and Bryse Rochester, is a top down spaceship shooter in which players must blow up enemy ships to survive.

My titles in the team were that of Artist as well as Producer. As the Producer, I was the one keeping track of progress, making sure we were meeting at least once a week, etc.. My main objective as Artist was creating all the necessary visuals to work the game.

At the beginning stages of the game creation, my main priority was choosing a style and theme for the game, in order to be consistent with the rest of the assets in game. Choosing color pallets and style of art was difficult at first, but thankfully my partner was happy with the work I was producing, as essentially let me choose the artistic approach to the project. Another factor was understanding the components and play style of the game, so I could establish what assets would be needed, such as: any bullets? How many enemies? How many ships? Any collectibles? Once these questions were answered and established, it was mostly a matter of time to draw the components.

Play Testing

I was ready to hear a lot of feedback and criticism due to the fact that I knew the game wasn’t complete. However, despite that, I received compliments regarding the art style, and components of the game, such as the collectables. A main criticism was the speed of the game—too fast! The enemies came on too strong before the player even had a chance to understand the mechanics.

Free Creative Workshops for children in the summer holidays

Thanet Creative, a local creative charity, are running 4 days of free workshops for children. The workshops, in various venues around Margate, are for children aged six to eleven years of age.

Thanet Creative’s workshops take place during the bank holiday week in August 2019 with the theme of “Space Chase” which is this year’s summer reading challenge with the Reading Agency.

Thanks to…