~Garret
Early walk to the centre of jobs.
Things were smoother than expected.
Wednesday the big day.
~Garret
—- GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS —-
Έλα ρε Μάρτιν, γαμώτο δηλαδή.
So… where where we? I haven’t written anything about the previous episodes of Game of Thrones and to be honest, they felt mostly like setup for this episode. Oberyn is ready to fight and kill the Mountain,on paper because he is defending Tyrion, in reality because he wants to avenge his sister that met a gruesome end in the hands of the Mountain.
The duel was a brief but very well executed fight scene, Oberyn literally danced circles around the Mountain, poking him and taunting him with his spear but ,alas, Bronn put it wisely “I can dance around that beast, but as soon as I make one mistake, I am dead”. One mistake is what Oberyn made. He stood a little too close close to a nearly defeated Mountain, got knocked down and then proceeded to redecorate the place with teeth, brain matter and bits of scull.
Pictured: The audience
Well… fuck.
The scene itself was exquisitely made. With reaction shots of Tyrion, Ellaria and the other three Lanisters matching perfectly with the ups and downs of the fight. It was also not very long, lasting a few minutes, something that also helped increase the impact of its punch. It wasn’t so much beating the audience over and over (like the Red Wedding), it was more like a perfectly executed kick in the balls. Short, painful and you are curled up on the floor before you realize something painful is going to happen.
So… this scene was gut-wrenching but was it was also very effective. Martin once again shatters any preconceptions we might have about things like “protagonist immunity”. Killing off people before the audience finishes saying “Oh, I like this guy…never mind” might be extremely cruel, but what it does is that it puts back tension in Fantasy, a genre that had forgotten what tension is.I mean, Lord of the Rings is all sorts of amazing, but you never really worry that Frodo will die by the goblins of Moria or that Aragorn will just get a random arrow in the face during the battle of Helm’s Deep.
Fantasy had gotten so cozy in its structure its cliches, that stories like Game of Thrones are effectively a deconstruction of the genre, even if the only thing they do is not follow the herd.
If this were any other fantasy story, I would be certain that Tyrion would survive the next few episodes.
As it is now… I am seriously worried for the little guy.
~Garret
Might be worth a try
~Garret
Εν δυνάμει σημαντικά πράγματα μπήκαν στο φούρνο της τελευταίες μέρες, προσπαθώ να τα διαχειριστώ με λογική και συγκρατημένο ενθουσιασμό γιατι ακόμα τίποτα δεν είναι σίγουρο. Μεταξύ κύλικος και χειλέων πολλά πέλει, που μας έλεγε και η Καστρίτη. (αχ που είσαι που μου χες βάλει και 4!)
Σήμερα λοιπόν συνέχισα με αποφασιστικότητα την αποστολή μου να βρώ νόστιμες σταφίδες ανάμεσα σε κουραδάκια απο λαγούς, με αυτό φυσικά εννοώ να βρώ καλές ταινίες τρόμου.
Η ταινία που είδα λεγόταν V/H/S και πρόκειται περι μιάς συλλογής απο ταινιές μικρου μήκους, με μια πολύ χαλαρή πλοκή που να της ενώνει. Κάποιες ήταν καλύτερες απο τις άλλες, αλλά αυτή που μου έμεινε ήταν η “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She was Younger”. Ήταν μια ιστορία γυρισμένη εξόλοκλήρου απο Skype το οποίο την έκανε ρεαλιστική και πρωτότυπη. Κατάφερε μέσα σε 12 λεπτά, η ταινιούλα αυτή να είναι creepy, να χτίσει αληθοφανείς,καλοφτιαγμένους χαρακτήρες ακόμα και να ξαφνιάσει τον θεατή σε κάποια σημεία. Σαν να μην έφταναν αυτά, έριξε και λίγο tits & gore μέσα, όμως ίσα ίσα μια πρέζα, έτσι για να πάρει γεύση (πάρτε και μαγείρική αναλογία,αμέεε) και ποτέ δε βασίστικε σε αυτά.
Ύπάρχει, καταλήγω, κάποια ιδιάιτερη άξια στο μηκρό μήκος.
(όχι, είμαι υπεράνω αυτού του αστείου, προχωράμε.)
Είτε σε διηγήματα είτε σε ταινίες, το μυστικό πιστεύω είναι να πείς όσο το δυνατόν λιγότερα. Να δώσεις ίσα ίσα τον σπόρο της ιδέας στον θεατή και μετά να του αφήσεις τα ύλικα και τα εργαλεία να φανταστεί αυτος τα υπόλοιπα. Έτσι καθιστάς τον καθένα ήμισκηνοθέτη της δικίας του ιστορίας, την οποία φροντίζει να κάνει προσωπικά τρομακτική, όπως μόνο ο ίδιος μπόρει .
Όπως λένε για την Μηχανολογία και τη Συγγραφή: “Κάτι είναι τέλειο, όχι οταν δεν υπάρχει κάτι άλλο που να μπορείς να προσθέσεις, αλλά όταν δεν υπάρχει κατι άλλο που να μπορείς να αφαιρέσεις.”
Σαν το pixelart ένα πράγμα. Κοίτα να δείς.
~Garret
Tired.
In a good way.
Not sex, go away.
~Garret
I had NO IDEA how many things have to happen for a game to exist. I am currently toying with the idea of creating a really low-pixel game, as you can see by the talking Garret here to your left.
I did not hold pixel art in high regard, but my views have done a 180 (or a 26.6) degree turn.
Creating characters and landscapes with so little pixels is not only possible, but also requiring a fair bit of thinking. A refreshing change of tools compared to the advanced photoshop brushes that add hundreds of pixels with one stroke.
Continuing the theme of the past few days of watching as many horror movies as possible, allow me to give you a word of warning. Do not, I repeat, do not, watch Tall Man or Apartment 134. One is a pretentious movie that is not only way dumber than it thinks, but also horribly un-scary and the other is a lame “paranormal activity” ripoff (aiming high,Apartment 134, good for you) that included every lazy cliche of bad horror.
~Garret
P.S. Tomorrow I will be going to a Postgraduate Job fair, in MMU. There I will learn about schools, watch sample lectures and get a tour of all the facilities that are on offer.
Here’s hoping.
~Garret
These past days I have been doing something that I haven’t done before, not in the same way I am doing it now at least. I have studying and reading on my own.
I am currently reading alot about horror stories, from really interesting articles to really dumb movies What makes a good horror story effective and why do people like to be scared.
Something that struck me was that the really creepy horrifying stories are the ones that have no meaning.
I guess this calls back to the fear of the unknown, that’s what makes us shudder. When we don’t understand something that could also be a threat, then we freak out.
Here is a list I found from a survey of “What things frighten you?”
Suffocation Looking foolish
Failing a Test Terrorist Attacks
Injury of a Loved One Spiders
Death of a Loved One War
My Own Death Making mistakes
Being Self-Conscious The Future
Not being a success (0_0) Being Alone
Snakes Criminal Violence
Nuclear War Speaking in Front of a Crowd.
What do you think guys? If you can think of something that really frightens you, drop a comment.
In other news, I applied for a job that I would really love to get, more news to follow, and still keeping with the three pages every morning, all in all, good times.
P.S. I just saw the percentages of the far-right/fascist parties in the European elections… talk about scary things.
~Garret
Today I started the Morning Pages thing, there seems to be an online equivalent called 750words.
Giving it a try, will post with any updates as I feel them.
More importantly, I would like to share a quote that I really stuck with me from these past few days of reading and learning.
The convincing, immersive game world needs to be indifferent to the player and the player needs to feel like an intruder.
That was from this amazing blog full of interesting articles and even more interesting links that I will be reading quite often from now on.
As a design philosophy, it really feels like the complete opposite of the much praised Valve kind of design, where every player reaction is playtested and the flow of a level is almost perfected. It is interesting to hear a, quite convincing, argument from the other side.
A stark example of these two different approaches to design that come to my mind is the Thief series.
Here the intruder aspect is part of the story and package in both Thief 2 and Thief 4.
In Thief 4 though, the levels feel so heavily designed around the player that they make the player consciously or not feel like the protagonist. Windows that I was supposed to climb in where always lit in some way, there were bright patches of paint in climbable walls and the rooftops felt much more of a “place to be” than the streets below did. That ended up undermining the “I am not supposed to be here cause, well I am a Thief” narrative with their “higher quality” level design.
In Thief 2, by contrast, I remember often getting lost, not knowing where to go next and where my objectives where. My map did not have any indicators of my location and that gave me a very real sense of “I am not supposed to be here”, you know… like a thief!
Another example cited was GoldenEye for N64, (I have not played the game though) where some rooms did not have any gameplay purpose, they just seemed to “be there”. The reason for this was that in contrast to modern level design, the levels in Goldeneye were first designed as areas, without any thought on where the player was going to start or have to go, they just made a “place” that made sense on its own. Then they would design the “level” on top of that.
The whole thing got me thinking about design, and how there is no right or wrong way to design, only design that serves the purposes of whatever narrative/feeling you are trying to convey and design that undermines it.
Anyway,check the Astronauts blog out if you are interested, it has some amazing stuff.
~Garret