New Year's Resolutions Time

Apart from the usual resolutions I intend to keep for about a week (diet, exercise, wake up early, floss, etc.), I've come up with a few for Scattergamed as well.

1.) The January Engine will see more regular updates.

The idea behind the January Engine was to post an update once a week, although that went hand-in-hand with a "week" actually meaning a specific number of hours.  Since I slowed down how much I worked on the January Engine over the holidays, I started posting irregularly.

Now that the holidays are over, things will be returning to normal, which means January Engine Development logs will continue on a weekly basis.

May need an extra week or so to get back in the groove.

2.) First Impressions feature will be coming.

I intend to play more games this year, so along with the usual Deconstructions of classic games, I'll also be giving First Impressions of games I've recently played (whether they are new or old, they'll be new to me).  I'll play a game for a couple of days and give my thoughts on it.

This is not meant to be a full review, but instead more of an analysis on how well it sucks me in.  I'll be looking through the eyes of both a player and a designer, so it will be quite like my WoW analysis (although a teensy bit shorter).

Not sure yet if I'll call it "First Impressions" or something cuter and punny.  Suggestions welcome.

3.) Some Deconstructions will have videos.

Moving forward with the DOOM Deconstruction, I want to discuss the level design through videos, because such kinetic elements are hard to explain without actually showing the motion through the level.  A game like MYST is easy to write about without losing much, but DOOM requires movement.

This tells you pretty much nothing.

The videos will probably begin simply, with a run-through or three and a voiceover (which will be not much more than what would ordinarily be the text of the article itself), and as I get more comfortable making videos (and hearing the sound of my voice) I'll get fancier with them and spend more time on them.  Expect early videos to be rough.

The videos will be hosted on Youtube; if there are problems with that I'll find another site, but it seems to work for now with my other videos.

These Deconstruction videos are one of the two "unspecified features" I discussed in previous updates.  The other feature will require a lot more time and planning, so it's being put on the backburner until I see how well the videos work.

I think that about sums it up.  These are at least the updates I have planned for the next couple of months.

I usually use the first post of the month to give an update (like now), but I'm considering not doing that every month and just giving a normal Article/Decon/Dev Log/whatever in its place when I have nothing to report.  If I'm making a change that I think requires an update post, I'll still give it.