#superkicker

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So, I love art, and I love drawing, but I have always struggled with creating an identity with my drawings. I have always thought I lacked a personal style.

I stopped drawing, because I never felt like my pieces were my own, so today I just decided to sit down and draw. I didn't try to make it super realistic, or even accurate, I just wanted to put my thoughts on what I'm drawing on the page.

I actually really like these, for once. I feel like they are unique, but still good. I only spent about 10 minutes tops on each, too, which is interesting I guess.

I'm not sure exactly how many hours I have now put into the SNES classic "Link to the Past" so far, but I do have a few thoughts on what I am assuming is the halfway point.

I just beat the first dungeon, to obtain the first crystal in the Dark World. So far, in one sentence, this game is fantastic. No one wants to hear that though, Everyone knows this game is great, even if they themselves haven't played it. I was in that camp for a while. The game always seemed just a bit too out of the way to play. I felt like i didn't need to play the game to understand how great it is, but I now know I was wrong. I'm going to tell you the game is great, I'm going to tell you why it's great.

There are certainly some ups and downs to be attributed to the game. Some things feel pretty tedious, while others feel really fresh, even with the game being more than a decade old. The tedious parts come in the backtracking, and slightly less in the combat. I'll talk about the combat first. It's hit and miss. Sometimes I feel like a knight, gallantly making my way through the depths of evil to save the day, and other times I feel like I am going to snap my controller in half because Link won't fucking line up correctly with the stupid fucking boss's god damn tail. The backtracking sometimes went from being really fun, to being mediocre. When you are first running through the map, it feels really fresh. It's actually quite enjoyable to backtrack through and discover new areas along the way. Once you have visited all these areas though, which will more than likely happen about a quarter of the way through your journey, it just doesn't hold the same appeal. It doesn't feel like you are adventuring from point A to point B, it feels like you are running errands. Here's hoping that with the introduction to the Dark World things feel alive again.

The "ups" are the highlight though, of course, and there are a lot of them. The pacing in the dungeons (and outside them, really) is incredibly satisfying. Each dungeon never overstays its welcome, but still feels like an epic event. I wouldn't say they are short, but they are definitely sweet. The enemy designs are all really great, and the actual narrative being told through the player's actions is phenomenal. Everything that I am doing feels like it is actually affecting things, and I feel like I as a player am learning and changing with the story. Most of the puzzles are the dungeons themselves, which is incredibly interesting and fun. You are mainly solving a bunch of very little puzzles which help you understand how to approach the dungeon and complete. You'll never sit there on a single puzzle scratching your head as to how to complete it, which is great.

  Something that might possible rank up as one of my favorite video game moments ever occurred, as I obtained the Master Sword, and then was told to make my way to the Sanctuary, as something had gone awry. The old man from earlier in the game was there, dying, and he told me to keep carrying on, as I am the land's only hope. It's at that point, that a large skull appeared on my map, bringing me back to where the game began, the Castle. I approached the door, shielded by some sort of magic, and slashed at it with the might sword I had just obtained, allowing me to cut through it (a hint for a later fight) and get inside the upper level of the castle which had alluded me but had been teased at the very start of my journey. Inside, I hurried through all the rooms, absolutely obliterating all the enemies in my path. Opponents that were once difficult were now barely a challenge thanks to my new sword and the knowledge I had obtained so far. Without taking a single hitpoint of damage I made it to Agahnim. This moment of progression, was incredible. The Master Sword felt like it mattered. I felt like I had been bestowed upon a gift that would change my life. It's very rare that a game does this for me, where it makes me feel the item I obtained was truly powerful. What followed was not nearly as great, as I walked around the room for a few minutes swinging my sword every where (including at the curtain), and eventually assumed I needed to use the mirror to follow Agahnim to where ever the hell he went. I used the item, and was teleported to the beginning of the dungeon. I was really, really not happy when that happened. Moments like this have happened to me a few times in this game, where I had to consult a guide because I just couldn't figure out where to go next. It almost always turned out I did what they wanted, but missed the mark by a pixel and payed the price for it.

Things are changing, ideas being brought in and tossed out, will keep this blog going and updated until I finally decide exactly what to do with it.

IN THE MEANTIME, I'm playing through Link to the Past for, like, the 12th time? By that, I mean I have played through the first "dungeon" (getting Zelda to the Sanctuary) one thousand times, but never went any further. I finally got it on a console instead of a tablet with touch controls, and I am standing at the bottom of the mountain where apparently the "Golden Power" is held (Golden Power? I'll take three, please).

  Over the last 2 years or I've made a lot of changes. Some of these changes were small, others larger, changing the landscape of my life. One of my most recent changes is the decision to stop fucking around and make a commitment to my future. After thinking, and stressing, and then some more stressing, I decided to reach for a goal I have had since I was a child. I decided to become a game designer! Alright, so that's not that exciting, especially since I haven't actually, well, done any game designing yet. What is exciting though, is that I plan on letting anyone interested join me on this journey. That's where you, dear reader, and this blog come in. Through the power of Tumblr and the internet at large, I am going to be chronicling my escapades into the dreary, depressing (or so I hear) life of independent game development. I'm going to try to keep this blog updated frequently, with posts about what I am learning, doing, and playing. I feel that a huge part of this, for me, is the chance to dive deeper into a hobby that I love, so I want to use this platform to push myself to not only understand games better, but enjoy them more deeply and more often.

  I have a lot of ideas for what type of content I will post here, but to start, I want to introduce TWO new series. The first being a text based "Let's Play". This will be exactly what it sounds like, a journalized documentation of me playing games. There is no better way to learn about games then to play them, right (this is complete bullshit, I just want to play games too)? The first game will be one that I feel pushes me out of my comfort zone. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. I feel that not only enemy design, but the design of the encounters themselves are super important in games, and Monster Hunter fans know all about this. More on this later.

  The second series will be one a lot more grounded in actually learning about the technical side of game design. While I don't have a name for it yet, the idea is that everyday (hopefully) I will post about a single topic, in decent depth, that I learned about that day. The only criteria it needs to match is that its a part of the design process. I am leaving the rules of this loose on purpose, so I can learn about things I am interested in rather than burning myself out on topics I may not care for. My final note for today is that, if it wasn't already obvious, I am no writer. Don't expect long form, journalistic posts out of me. Hey, who knows, maybe this blog will help my writing as well.