newsletter >> 08
Dishing on my beach-inspired life, movie watching habits, video game scripting, and secret projects!
:: the beach episode. …or, at least, that’s what this would be if my life were more like an anime and less like the Wheel of Pain from Conan. Slam Summer has abated slightly, but work continues on the many projects that are going on all four burners.
:: film. I’ve taken to watching a lot of movies while I work (a lot), so this latest drawing table session had me streaming Mission: Impossible. As was rightfully pointed out to me by Steenz, this is the best line in the first movie:
And if you’re in Boise, you should check out Steenz’ work at BCAF, happening at the Boise Centre in Boise, Idaho! August 30-31, Free to attend.
:: video games. So my latest experiment here in the studio is writing a video game script. It’s nothing grand or epic; it’s just writing a script and then putting that into Twine, then seeing what emerges out of that. It’s fun too because playing the game is actually kind of like doing a draft of the rough.
It’s been pretty fun visualizing plot structures and seeing what dynamics are created by having the player make decisions towards predetermined endings. And that dimension is fascinating because the choices made give an illusion of firm outcomes; like the choice might in themselves be moral or ethical questions, and thus the outcomes are like judgements based on those decisions, and not, say, completely arbitrary endings.
In Uncanny X-men Annual no.11, the entire team is left to battle a character named Horde who traps them in a crystal where they become locked into fantasies. The unfortunate ones remain in their bliss eternally (I’m being ruthless with the plot, it’s more complex than that.)
Dazzler’s storyline encapsulates what I want to talk about best, though. She is stuck in trying to figure out a fantasy lifepath to choose from.
It sort of illustrates a sort of fun anxiety that choose your own adventure books bring. Like the player can make decisions that don’t permanently alter their lives, and then can make choices that they know to be morally bad or good. What if I, the player, was more of a jerk? A saint?
However, we never consider whether or not the outcomes that Horde provides for Dazzler are arbitrary. Dazzler doesn’t generate those paths: Horde creates these paths and then tells Dazzler that she must choose. Later on in the story, she judges herself for her decisions, criticizing herself for choosing an outcome. However, she didn’t make that path; it’s a path limited by Horde’s imagination of Dazzler.
My friend Chris McLaren turned me on to this interview with Dr. Malka Older where she talks about “using science fiction to imagine better futures and then working towards changing the present.” Can we use fiction to create our own futures based on our own unique, lived experiences?
When we surrender our imagination of potential futures to others, they may not necessarily have our best interests at heart. Why let Horde decide for us what paths are available? And what does it say about Horde in the futures that he makes for Dazzler?
What does a game say about it’s creator in the choices that they press players to make?
These have been the questions I’ve been flirting with lately. I think they do say more about my state of mind than they do about any player, and likely speak to the limits of my imagination as opposed to getting players to explore theirs. New standpoints from which to examine fiction.
:: drawing board. Dinosaurs from Outer Space continues in Owl Magazine as I work on the November story! This time around, those crazy scamps go and play basketball.
:: superzine. The only thing missing from Superzine vol. 2 is the time to complete it!! My friend Jerry Resendes has been very kind in helping to create a new logo for me so that I can go tour next year, and work continues on that book-project-in-the-background-that-I-can’t-talk-about-yet-but-am-working-very-hard-on. I’ve already gotten colored and lettered pages back and they look great. So I’m very excited to tell you about this thing that remains a secret, darnit. Anyways, back in thirty!
:: eric