Good concept, bad concept.

Not only one of the most original games I've ever seen, but one of the weirdest.

Although the concept is rather... questionable... I really like how they took the concept and converted it into gameplay.



Still probably not getting it though. Even if I had a DS.

On the Presentation of Media

Hey all. Illy here. No updates today, instead, I'm giving you a little peek into the life of a game developer ;)

Well, first off, I just got a Wii today, and I should be ordering a trio of books by next week (Gamer Theory, Simulacra and Simulation, and the Disgaea Manga.)

And I've been watching Discovery Channel's ever-so-sublime "Planet Earth" series (Against my will, oddly enough.)

So, as you can see, I've been intaking a lot of media as well as outputting it. As such, I've come up with a few conclusions about media in general, and how it's presented:

To me, there seems to be four ways to present media: There is interactive media (Games), printed word (Books, comics, newspaper, etc.), non-visual (Radio, music, etc.), and non-interactive (Movies, television, etc.)

Now, of course, the highest form of media, is of course, interactive. It simply is the most immersing, since one not only listens to the story, but takes command of it.

Next up comes printed word, the second-most immersing form of media. Although it is both the most technologically un-advanced as well as a passive media, I find it that it is almost as immersive as a game for one reason: One has to use his own imagination to visualize the scene the words portray.

Now, in dead-last comes everyone's beloved television and movies, AKA non-interactive media. To me, a great story portrayed by television and movies (Like Planet Earth, for example,) is easily ruined because it's portrayed through this form of media. It's like going to a dirt-biking stadium with training wheels. Sure, you can still get some thrill out of it, but it's just not the same.

(You'll notice that I left out non-visual media. I simply did this because it's too reliant on content to generalize.)

Now, another thing I've seemed to notice is how media seems to deteriorate when passing between certain mediums, even if it's going up in the ladder. The biggest one's I've noticed are:

Printed Word into Non-Interactive (Example: The Harry Potter movies. Sure, they're interesting for first-timers, but to hardcore fans of the series, there are a lot of disappointments)
Non-Interactive into Interactive (Example: Games based on cartoons or movies, like Spongebob or Spiderman. These are often horribly made in order to make a quick buck, and are never quality pieces of media)
Interactive into Non-Interactive (Example: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. I, personally, found the movie rather interesting, but I've never played the game. I'll take the word of the hardcore fans for this one.)
Interactive into Non-Interactive, then back (Exapmle: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, again, and it's offspring: Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus. Horrible game, even for a Vincent fan like me.)

Strangely enough, any other transition between two mediums is acceptable. Thoughts, anyone?

POSSIBLY opening the Virtual Office...

Illy here.

Well, after much thought, I've decided that I MAY be publicly hiring for the last main voice-acting job, the voice of the younger of the two princesses of Kakana and the mercenary team's only Kunoichi, Dimona. However, I'm going to be a lot more strict. You gotta go through an audition, of sorts. In reality, that just means email us, I'll send you back a little script, and you send me back the soundclips.

I warn you though, since this is a REALLY BIG test on the concept of a virtual office, you gotta be serious about this. That doesn't necessarily mean putting in 16+ hours of work a day (Although I would love it if you do ;)), but just that you don't fall behind too much.

Oh, there are also a bunch of little jobs up for grabs, too. These are only a few lines or so, so these aren't as serious ;) For all genders, too!

If you're interested, mail us at eternitysendrecruiting@gmail.com

Merchandise?

Now, as always, here's the latest news from Clan Darkterror Productions: After some talk with the team, we're thinking that, if there is enough interest, we may start selling some Eternity's End merchandise once the game is out. The two most likely possibilities at the moment are artbooks and soundtracks, although if anyone can hook us up with a way to produce them, we may start selling items such as T-shirts, figurines, replica weapons (Made out of our favorite non-lethal material, plastic!), and... dare I say it? PLUSHIES. But if nobody is interested, it probably won't come to fruition! So, if you would like them, or if you wanna hook us up with a way to make this swag, either email us at eternitysendrecruiting@gmail.com, or head over to our forums and post in This topic!

SUCCESS MACH 2

Well ladies and gents, the new user-friendly installer of the Eternity's End demo is now up! Revel in it's glory!

Success!

Aforementioned experiment was a success. A more user-friendly version of the demo should be up soon. There aren't any gameplay changes, just an easier way to install it. So those of you who already can get it to work need not re-download it.

Any... Volunteers? *Sinister laugh!*

Well then, ladies and gents, it is time for a little experiment, and I need lab rats.

A lot of people have been having problems with the extreme multitude of files found in the current setup of the Eternity's End Runtime Package, and are having difficulty finding which one to execute. So, I would like to try out a program I found, in which it will create an installer for the game, which in turn will compress everything into one nice, neat .exe file. Thing is, I do not know how compatible it is with my game, so I'll need volunteers to help me out with this.

Oh, and if you comply, let me warn you: The test area has no doors, and no windows, which offers you this chilling challenge: To find... A WAY OUT! HYAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

Of course... there's always my way...