The MOKKOGRAD Report: December 2023 (new host edition)
Hi Friends!
Obviously the good people at Mailchimp had to decide to kill Tinyletter the moment I finally started using that service in a somewhat regular fashion. So right now I've switched over to buttondown, and I hate the interface.
(Also feel free to unsubscribe, if you don't like getting emails from there, I just imported my subscribers, but it honestly feels a bit scummy to just do that without anyone's permission?)
Gamedev-News
Work on Virtue’s Heaven went along pretty well in November. My goal was to have at least a rough version of the game’s entire map built and set up and I did manage to get there. I also built out a smaller section of it in more detail, as a testing ground for my general production process. So far things have gone fairly well, though I’ve hit a bit of a wall this Month with my goal of building something like a “generalised boss fight template”. I think in part this has to do with me just not really liking the process of building boss fights in my action games, but I also haven’t been feeling all that great for the first half of December. So we’ll have to see how the rest of the Month goes, but I’m optimistic that I’ll get there by the end.
Blogpost-Shares
I late November I stumbled over a paper from a self-described “Game Design Think-tank” from 2017, that offered a very extensive definition of what makes a “Cosy Game” and what developers can and should do, to make their own Cosy Games. I have personal issues with the idea of cosy/wholesome games as a game genre, but I don’t really felt comfortable just writing about those, without really having substantial to go on, so having this paper really helped, not only as a jumping off point, but also because it managed perfectly demonstrate which elements of these games I have issues with. You can read it on my blog, if you’re interested. It took me several days to write it, which is rare for me, but I really wanted to make sure that I’m just ranting about things without much of a wider ranging point, and I’m pretty happy how it turned out. It’s also the second time that one of my blogposts managed to be picked up by Critical Distance for their “This week in Videogame Blogging” write-up, which was pretty neat!
Interesting things I played/watched/read
Sadly, my descent into becoming an awful motorsports nerd continued as I started to watch old broadcasts of mid 90s Indy Car races. Honestly, it shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did, but I was still quite shocked how much more blatantly nationalistic US motorsports is than the regular kind. One broadcast from the 92 or 93 Indy 500, started with Norman Schwartzkopf (US General during the Gulf War) parading around the circuit and all that shit. I’m pretty sure stuff like this is still going on, especially with how much more everything moved towards more blatant fascism, but for some reason I still get blindsided how much and how many people seem to fall for this? In other, more fun news: I started running my own Armour Astir campaign. Because apparently my brain is convinced that I’m not already busy enough, or something. It’s fun though. It lets me use a bunch of world-building ideas I had over the years and just cram them all into one setting. It’s also a good place for me to practise scheduling and organising things with other people a bit more, since this is something I’m not very confident in.
That's it for December! I hope you're all are having some nice days towards the end of the year, whether it's holiday related or not. Personally I cannot wait to eat too much Lasagna on Christmas Eve.
See you in January,
Eric