Apparently we got a nice bit of nonsense javascript plugged into the site header.  My virus scan didn’t reveal anything, but being redirected to some video site or other was pretty dang inconvenient, and if you’ve been on teh site in the last couple days you might wanna run a scan, just to be safe.

In any case, if you’re on the page long enough to read this, either your internet died in the last few seconds, or I’ve fixed it.  So far, seems to be the latter.  the lack of maliciousness leads me to think it was just some stupid prank or other, but the code itself was very much nonsense and thus I’m left to assume a spambot thing somehow hijacked the site’s header.  I’ve taken some measures to prevent this from happening again and will be keeping a close eye on things for the next few days to see how things go down.  If you see any weird URLs pop up in the loading bar of your browser of choice, do let me know about it.

That is all~!

EDIT:  So, like, I didn’t even notice I categorized this wrong.  Thing defaults everything to “comics” and won’t let me take it off once it’s in there for some reason~.  So, sorry, Lethe, your fantastic comment was deleted with the rest of the original post.  :x  But now your name lives on for eternity in the edit line.

Oh, yes!

Wanna see how Redux is turning out before the big reveal in March?  Throughout the month, I’ll be updating the TWC vote incentive with advance glances, so be sure to vote daily and check that out!

In other news, I’ve been poking about on 64 Digits again, as I do from time to time.  While DR may be in limbo, I’m still poking at the RPG engine from time to time, and odds are I’ll update my page there before anywhere else.  The latest bit is a nice mock-up of my theoretical sub-menu, so do give that a gander.

Speaking of ganders, in wandering The Escapist’s videos for the week, I’ve stumbled upon some contest they’re having.  Some half-effort one-off I did a while ago received a fair amount of praise, and I’ve been considering doing a more gaming-focused webcomic for a bit now (in case you didn’t notice, I spend a lot of time with the things), and shooting for that seems as good a reason as any to give it a shot.

And, finally, an inquiry.  Unemployment = tight budget, gamer = addiction.  As such I’ve gotten a lot of loaner and cheap entertainment lately, and wonder if, when GDR inspiration lacks, people’d be into budget game reviews or something.  Download things, retail stuff that’s not exactly the latest and greatest, that sort of thing.  inFAMOUS just took a price cut, as did Brutal Legend, and I’ve coincidentally… borrowed both from LM, honestly.  But they’re beaten, so, like, if you want my opinions on whether or not they’re worth the present asking price of 40 bucks, I can totally do that.  Totally.

Or we could, you know, leave the blog a desolate wasteland as a chronicle of my ever so exciting daily life.  Whichever!  Let me know what you think!

Enough links! D: - Zar.

This was bound to happen.  It really was.

Every genre in gaming has a simple list of dos and don’ts that the majority of decent developers try to adhere to.  Platformers need good stage design and control, adventure games need puzzles and a clever narrative, and shooters need to be set in World War 2 and be oozing with Nazis to shoot lest people like me find something creative about them.  I’ll touch on that last one, too, but let’s stick with a genre I know, possibly, way too much about.

There’s been a lot of RPGs, and among them a lot of golden epics, but also almost as numerous bland, predictable slopfests with recycled mechanics we’ve had since the 1980s.  Sure, we could spend some time pointing fingers, but I’m more a fan of smoking guns, myself, and as such we’re going to look at some of the good, the bad, and the ugly ideas and elements in RPG gaming.  And how to start?

Well, we all know when confronted with the option, we should just pick the bad news first.  Thankfully in this case that pretty much covers the ugly, too.  Read the rest of this entry »

Time for the annual empty promises New Year’s resolutions!

I’ve laid a general plan out that I rather hope to stick to.  For starters, I’m aiming to have Redux done by the end of February, and aim to have it online come March.  Somewhere in between I’m hoping to get printed versions for those of you HARDCOOOORE enough to give a darn for such things.  After that?  Well, that’s the fun bit. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, wait, am I late?  Suppose I could have scheduled something.

As the holiday weekend draws to a close and everyone prepares to get plastered and jig like a tard on new year’s, I wish all my readers a safe and joyous holiday season!  I hope it’s been good to you.

I sit in my unemployment holding in my hands a $20 PSN card with which I shall report assorted things (been meaning to do SOMETHING gaming related every Thursday, and GDR material is… well, very fragmented in my head, I guess), as well as a completely and wonderfully legal copy of Painter 11.  That means I have Manga Studio EX 4, Acrobat… number… and now Painter, all nice and legal!  All I need now is a nice page layout software, but most of those are just stupid expensive when all I want is for my images to go to the borders like they should.  :x  Can Word or something do that?  Also, Flash is still a wonderful pirate copy as well but you guys haven’t seen a finished work from me on that front in years so I’m not too worried about legitimizing that end of things just yet.

Point being, save like what I vector with (why must those all cost so much?  I have rather bare-bones needs, people.  :C ), my work tools are all nice and legit now!  <3

So I just need to finish something now.  x_x

Wish me luck, be safe on the night of drunkards aiming to end it all on the first of the new decade, and keep your eyes peeled in the future while I debate between tearing apart demos or the Pirates of the Caribbean LBP content.  Oh ho ho~

- Zar