Hiding in Bright Falls
👋🏻
After a successful start last week, I sputtered out. Turns out while AI can read some 40,000 words in a script, it can't watch gameplay and compare footage for you. 🫠
This is the problem with coming back to an idea years later. I have shapes and shadows of my first go around with Ragnarök lingering in my brain. I deleted all that footage before I had the drive space to store all this long term, so that's a wash. I have to resort to scouring the depths of YouTube and those depths are a slog. This is pure tedium. I almost wish I could just play it again, but that'd take far too long.
That tedium killed my drive to wrap up this first draft. I wish more games would implement a mission select like Red Dead Redemption II did. What a godsend that support is for someone needing footage. I can go back in a contextual manner and get footage, while re-experiencing a quest.
I sort of spent the bulk of my early morning time last week (Wed-Fri) playing Alan Wake for the first time. It started clunky. I've got some technical issues (why on Earth is Alan anchored to the right-hand side of the frame?). But guys, Alan Wake is sublime. It is just what I needed right now. A 2010, seventh gen "AA flirting with AAA" game that is dripping with opinionated, remarkable, and efficient design. The story is tantalizing. I am glad I put it on my list to beat for 2025 and that I chose to play it at the end of October.
Back to The Thing™ though, I need to just hunker down and finish this draft. Maybe I don't need as much comparison as I anticipated. In my slog, I have discovered that perhaps I did not play the most common way my first time around, which is causing me to reframe my essay a smidge. I think my title will be more along the lines of...
- I Played God of War: Ragnarök Wrong (and you probably did too)
- I Played God of War: Ragnarök Wrong
- I Skipped Ragnarök's Side Quests and so Should You
Out of those, I like the first, but am curious if it is too long. Easily find-out-able with thumbsup.tv.
That might actually be the perfect length...
Until next time...
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
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Wanna see The Thing™? Check it out on YouTube. Read it on The Blog.