Saturday, March 10, 2018

March 2018 update

If writer's block is when you cannot think of anything to write, what is it called when you have too many ideas to start? Let me know when you have the answer. Until then I can give at least an update about some recent ideas that have come to my mind.

I'm still really thinking about making a video game I would really think that would be fun and a good advertisement. And since it'd be based off a game I previously made, I know the mechanics, and so it shouldn't be too hard to make if only I had the game development skills required to make it. However to devote the time to acquire those skills would be very difficult.

One thing that has been recently developing, though arguably it has been developing for 9 years, is a sequel series for Shining. Back then part of the issue was trying to make characters distinguished from those in Shining and each other. Among those would be the rival for the main character. An idea I had was a type based off a musketeer since I liked fencing. However when I drew that concept it looked horrible. So for nine years I was without a concept for a good rival that could match any of the four from Shining. And since I wanted this series to be team-based this was a very important thing.

So here's a rough draft of what I have in mind. Instead of a fencer, he would be a martial artist. His main weapons would be very very short swords that he essentially he is punching rather than slashing. And at the same time he would also fire long-range energy blasts. This would reflect in his personality in which he would ask very direct and personal questions, but also keep things at a distance when he's not comfortable. One interesting idea is that by using punches rather than slashes, is a text or more quick and to the point while slashes follow the logic of, the longer the blade, the more time it takes to swing. This in turn reflects that maybe he will not allow people to think so much, and while his logic it might be sound, his comments might be a little too personal and direct. For example in one case he'll probably ask, "do you know what the meaning of life is?"

One concept that might be pretty cool is that maybe he can throw back bombs using energy powers kind of like how energy blast in shining. And most likely in every one on one encounter the main character loses to him. Yet he will probably have one flaw that would prohibit him from being able to defeat the main enemies. Most likely it would be from personal torment and dealing with the dark power perhaps he took a little bit as a drug and now he's addicted? This might allow for a deeper relationship with the main character's sister as maybe she is one that supports him in trying to recover.

This leads into one of the themes considering for the series: Life issues. I'm thinking of this series taking place either in high school or college age. This would kind of be like The Spectacular Spider-Man TV series in which they take care of crime and stuff but at the same time to deal with teenage issues such as asking a girl out on a date. And again and cover topics that don't seem to be questions as much. For example well, some teenagers will wonder what is the meaning of life. So it would be cool to explore that and see how different people act.

One TV series that used to watch when I was younger but it's starting to influence how I'm thinking about this series is Psych. In pretty much every episode, the main character would learn something from his father that would help him solve the case or was somehow president to the case even though these things tended to be typical life lessons or ways of thinking. We'll see if I can pull it off. While it would still be better as visual media, I might be able to work this out in a serialized story format as well.

Dream On,
J. D. Nyle

P.S. I wrote this blog post using voice typing. What do you think? I had to correct a few things, but otherwise I think the result turned out well and especially allowed my hands to rest.