Snow him so well
So, Christmas has come and gone, December’s coming to a close, the new year’s approaching, and I’ve been so much of a self-absorbed shithead that I’ve barely even noticed. Story of my life! In my defence, Jingle All The Way was not shown once on television, so what’s the point of caring? Instead they showed things like My Neighbour Totoro. Are they actually trying to bring some class to the festive season? Get outta town!
The annual get-together was pretty bog-standard, and I got two calendars and a box of Rolo. Hell yeah.
My personal winter tradition always seems to be a season of pandering nostalgia where I dig out and enjoy my favourite old rubbish. I always get the craving to dig out a movie or game I haven’t touched in ages, whether or not it was any good. My brother had a tradition of hauling out the Dreamcast and starting up some Timestalkers, though never actually progressing any further; it was just fun to see the sights again. Randomly generated dungeons, though, seriously. Has any 3D game ever done those well?
This year I got a hankering for some Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. I’d never actually completed this game, and given the so-whimsical-it-makes-a-dude-wanna-hurl atmosphere, one would get the impression I should be ashamed of that, but jeez, it starts throwing some really tough jumping puzzles at you halfway through the game! I did finish the fourth world, but I need to go back and complete all the stuff to unlock the secret mega world.
Mind you, I forgot just how much I love the game’s atmosphere. It’s nice to see a game that, difficulty curve aside, is so sweet and whimsical and cute. Croc is just so friggin’ adorable; I love his design so much! LOOK AT HIS WIDDLE WAGGLING TAIL~ I think it’s like why I fell in love with Oscar’s Oasis – a lot of kids’ stuff seems to be so stylised it hurts to look at and the content is no more than smartasses being smartasses, so it’s nice to see the actions speak for a change. I was going to rant about how I can’t remember the last new game I saw that was unabashedly kid-friendly cute, but my scope is hilariously limited and I just can’t be bothered looking at modern games.
The other thing I consistently dig up every winter season is 3D Movie Maker. I haven’t written anywhere near enough junk about this program as I’d love to – I have gotten so much entertainment out of this stupid thing, and despite being nearly 17 years old, it’s still got an active community going on! It is kind of plagued by people who just want to make Sonic the Hedgehog stuff in it thanks to all the super deluxe mods and crap they’ve made nowadays, and the effort that’s put into some of the films is kinda frightening when you know the bazillion limitations of the program – you almost feel it’d be easier to just make a movie for real with salaries and rental cameras and stuff. It’s not my kinda scene, but I have much respect for a community that’s still playing and tinkering with this old thing.
There is some genuinely impressive stuff made with the program, but I admit when I watch 3D Movie Maker, I’m looking for quick dumb laughs. And when I want quick dumb laughs, I turn to Will Maltby – violence and action and lots of people making stupid noises. It’s the most immature you can possible get, but I just love the I Know series. Mind you, my idea of sophisticated watching in the program is Johnny Samsonite (Jason Ruiz’s work is also fantastic, check it out if you can), so, uh, take that as you will.
It’s mildly amusing slash depressing looking at entries from last year and seeing brief mentions of stuff I’d planned to do, but never went anywhere. This one has a bunch of ’em in one paragraph. I did finish the site revamp, at least, though some parts were rushed. I dropped Python like a crab on fire when I realised it wasn’t really a language for making games with. The radio production did go through a few readings, and apparently there’s plans to turn it into a puppet thing, but it’s out of my hands and I’m really that interested – I’m the kind of petty individual who gets bored of something when it isn’t “my thing” anymore.
The “secret project” is kinda sorta still in the works, but my accomplice is busy with actual productive things and we’re both chronically lazy. I’m interested in trying to finish if just because it’s easy to write and I’d love to try and get an interesting visual style for it, but, uh, the best I can say is “I’ll see what happens.”
What can I promise for 2012? Pfft. A few Bomberman updates, perhaps, and maybe I’ll finally get around to adding those small little corrections to the Puchi Carat shrine that people have emailed me about – sorry to let you down, all three of you! I’m not one who has the success rate or history of competence to back up promises.
Yeah 2012 will be okay what with the whole “End of humanity” thingamibob.