I was graced with the opportunity to not only recall, but also record on digital paper, a game I played in dream-state. Tuesday. Early morning. Woken up by the urge ‘to go to the washroom’, or as my Google Assistant would fail to transcribe “crucibles to Washington”. Just prior to that I was in a semi-conscious state recounting a game that I’m playing with three other people at some undisclosed location. Like in many other dreams before, nothing new to me. I’m fairly lucid throughout my dream and picked up on the fact that this seemed like a pretty cool game. As I felt myself becoming conscious and my bladder now forcing my hand I quickly started to recap how the game looked and how it was played. This experience may be common for some of you, and if so you know how it usually goes. As my brain tries to cram abstract concepts to my frontal lobe a lot of details were missed. Kind of like jamming a peeled melon into a coffee cup, only so much will be retained. Odd analogy, but we’ll go with that for now. Of the information I happened to retain simple concepts like game pieces and board layout were pretty definitive. Basic concepts like game mechanics and order of play weren’t so memorable. I had to do a little thinkering.
Down the rabbit hole
For me, game-inspired dreams are still somewhat of a mystery. I can understand the why but I’m still figuring out the how. I still can’t pinpoint when. I’m always thinking of creative mechanisms in applications. High-level concepts for everyday things and everyday experiences. It’s not just for game design but creativity in general. That morning’s dream-state recital began roughly around 5:45 a.m. I kept on trying to remember the look and sequence of play over and over while in the washroom. Then quickly bolted back to my nightstand to grab my phone and started creating notes. I went straight to a notepad and my stylus took helm. I started drawing out what I remembered. Sometimes a few scribbled lines here and there were worth a paragraph of incoherent (and often misspelled) text. As I drew, I started to remember more concepts of game play and, eventually through the art of interpretation, started to construct game mechanics that made sense to the draft. Then designer divergence kicked in and I was literally of two minds on how to tackle this concept. From there it was an hour sitting on my bedside, in the darkness of the morn, cramming as much ideas from my head into little notes on my phone. Welcome to my life.
So what’s next?
Curse these hands for not drawing, typing or moving fast enough to keep up with my brain. Or, curse my brain for moving too fast for my hands or words to express such wonders. Yes, I could keep audio notes but I find sometimes they are filled with gaps of incoherent babble. I’ve done it in the past and I often use it when I find writing takes too long. Or sometimes after saying something the idea changes and I have to remit the previous thought. I usually voice-to-text my notes so I can control what’s said, taking breaks at punctuations and adjusting on the fly. Speaking softly so I don’t disturb my wife proves to be a challenge sometimes so I just go sit on the toilet lid or in the office. Pfft. Going back to bed? I wish. Brain is now almost at full throttle. Blessing and a curse, I tell you. If these game concepts ever take off expect a DevLog for them. I do really like the ideas. They may even reach my Game a Week campaign I’m running over on my FB page. Ciao for now.
So where do I start this post? Conventions shut down. Cities shut down. THE WORLD shut down??!! *sigh* Let’s just keep this light and game related, shall we. Going into February no doubt you had been aware of what was happening in the world. Pandemic. Global scale deaths due to a funky little mutated strain called corona virus (code name: COVID 19). Things really hit home when Ontario Premiere called for a state of emergency and shut down everything public related. No stadiums, no clubs, bars or restaurants, no conventions or gatherings of any sort. This meant the upcoming Barrie Game Exchange for Spring 2020 was closed. I was really looking forward to this one as I was legitimately prepared for another good day at the show. Then COVID busted that bubble. All the conventions for spring pretty much got tanked and so did my energy. Down goes everything.
Now that everyone had to shift gears, and I was unemployed, it was hard to find time or drive for game design. Not to say I wasn’t still thinkering and tinkering on ideas, but full blown self publishing came to a halt. All my time then shifted to unfinished home and car projects. I made use of the new free time I had and put it into getting the Forester summer ready. Full clean, removed and repaired tons of rust, swap out winter wheels for low-pro shoes, the whole nine. It felt good finally having time to put in full days. Rearranged the garage while I was at it, and did a little gardening. Inside the home I was tidying up little painting and repair projects. Suffice to say I was far from bored during lockdown.
Game design, right. Let’s stay on track. So my blog stopped, my devlog stopped (but not due to COVID) and I had plans on posting more seeing as I had more time. I started a whole diecast scale model world with my son and he was totally into it. We started collecting cars from all over the place, and I was ready to start doing videos for everything. I created intros for Instagram and YouTube, and was preparing my ADL Interactive channel on YT and never got back to it at all. There are videos there now but nothing to do with what I really want to share, game design process, prototyping, my library showcase and family game nights. Still need to edit a lot of game reviews and playtests I’ve already recorded. Every time I start fiddling in Adobe Premiere I never finish or get sidetracked. Month and months later. Enough rambling though.
So what’s next for ADLi during this rise from the ashes of a worldwide pandemic? I don’t know. I truly don’t know. I’ve started posting my never before shared game concepts over on my FB page for creative exposure. I have more game ideas than I know what to do with. And honestly, if I can inspire someone else to take an idea and run with it, great! I always have ideas brewing and now I’m not shy about these kind of things. Part of many game design groups and never once shared my ideas. Note, they are not all complete but it’s something I now feel more comfortable about. Why shy? I don’t know. I eat too much humble pie sometimes. That’s it for now. Here’s hoping that the years of content I’ve created up until now provide some levity and growth for other designers and players alike. Ciao for now.
*EDIT 120420 – This post has been drafted and edited too many times to count. As of this publishing, I’d lost my job of 8+yrs and dealing with a possible change in career. Not to mention a new year just started. Need to keep my head on right.
It’s been a hot minute and I feel terrible neglecting this site. I’ve just been sleeping on a lot of good ideas. My history on blogging and vlogging is a terrible one, wrought with inconsistencies and moments of inspiration only to fall flat on its face shortly there after. What is a busy guy to do?? Set a schedule reasonable enough to follow and stick to it? That would be a great idea and one that has cross my mind many times. Let me count the ways: One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand…
What do I do?
In the last half of 2019 I’d been updating and upgrading a few of my existing ideas. During the beginning of 2019 I had pretty much scaled back on design efforts and turned the focus on getting more of my developed and published games into the public’s hands. Hitting up conventions here and there within a 100km radius. Since cost is a major factor for us con exhibitors/vendor I wanted to be responsible enough to not spend hundreds of dollars on a table to only (hopefully) make $75 in profit on sales. Small cons offer small exposure but a better return on investment so far. Slow and steady, as they say. Some of the cons that I frequent here north of the GTA are Cottage Country Con in Orillia, Muskoka-Con in Bracebridge, the Barrie Comic-Con, and the Barrie Game Exchange. All of which I’ve done for at least 2+ years. More on the con scene in another blog. On to what I’ve been developing.
It’s all bling to me
This is a new game idea that I had just started developing this year. Only about 5 months ago did I start a poll on my Facebook and Instagram accounts to try and find out what people preferred – Candies or Gems. It was an interesting experiment and in the end I think the results were pretty accurate. Candies beat out gems as a preferred option. The idea for this game derived from a hunt for stock illustrations. I noticed that candy and gem designs were indistinguishable to the search engine and it’s interchangeable in some instances. I then decided to create a war between the two, leading to a pole and ultimately questioning peoples faith in what is better. The results weren’t as interesting as I had anticipated.
Boing boing boing
Shortly before I drafted this post I was working on a game for my son’s 7th birthday party. It originally was supposed to be a corn hole toss game. Along with a ladder golf game, these were to be built and played outside. Two days until the party I find out that is it going to rain on that Saturday so the party was to be held inside. I start working on a version of the corn hole toss for indoors but then felt the need to customize. Oh the creative mind – what a wonderfully complicated web it weaves. I decide to add more holes and starting to think on what objects can be used to toss onto the board. As I was looking around, it came as no surprise that, with the beer cups I’m using as the pockets under the board, I’m essentially replicating a version of beer pong. So a ping pong ball should work perfectly. Where would I get one at such short notice. It just so happens that I have a game called Cup Pong. Long story short you toss a ping pong ball in a variety of styles into a cup place in a variety of locations and score points. Yay! I have ping pong balls at my disposal. So the night before the party I finished this inverted beer pong / shuffleboard / corn hole toss game out of foamcore (foam board). As I’m designing it I figured why not add Christmas lights to light up the back of the cups and the rest is Pong Pong Shuffle history.
Convention time
It’s 2020 and ADLi has its eyes set on a few conventions this year. I had started this post a good while before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I’m sure, aside from statisticians and scientists, no one thought it would leave China at the rate it did and infect the whole world. Being here in Canada, North American in general hurried to slowing the spread by social distancing and self isolation. Suffice to say all conventions across the country, or rather any group gatherings in general, have been X-nayed at a federal level. This has left the convention season stranded for the foreseeable future. Hopefully when things die down over the summer fall shows may creep their weary way back in society. After social distancing and isolation I know social gatherings will be in high demand.
In the hopper
I always have games in mind and something, somehow always triggers neat ideas or concepts for player interaction. The first thing I look at is ‘can this be played with an achievable goal’? And by that I mean, is it more than just a puzzle or roll ‘n move game. Not to say puzzles aren’t fun. At the end of the day almost all abstract games are a kind of puzzle – be it for one or multiple players, but I digress. With the unfortunate/fortunate abundance of time provided during this pandemic I’ve been slowly toiling away at concepts I’ve have floating around. Here’s just a short list of active ideas:
Card-based (and board) tennis game
Head-to-head close quarters combat tile game
Dice and card based system for simulating racing games (different vehicle types)
Custom solitaire RPG with inventory, power ups varying opposition/team ups
Abstract concepts like a tile capture grid game
Time traveling RPG zine for 2 or more players
Real-time musical chairs with numbers board game
Game drafts, demo play and notes will be released here on ADLi as they develop beyond the written concept stage. Something to definitely look out for.
With all that’s going on I’ve also taking liberties to set aside time for my crafting passion. I love working with my hands which lends to my knack for creating prototypes. I also create accessories, jewellery, trinkets and other small collectible items. My sister and I are working on little blank for custom painted vinyl figures. We’ve been doing this for decades and it’s never really gone anywhere due to distance and time constraints. Now that she lives 10 minutes from me we have more time to collaborate on ideas and put together prototypes. Creating is fun and that is the true reason behind my passion. I don’t care to make a living out of creating games. I just want to share the fun I have with others, and have them share that fun with other. A pandemic of entertainment beyond the digital world is something the world requires again, and the winds of change are here. I’m just going to let it sweep me away and I hope you do too. Now, on to designing.
This is a long one so get a tea/coffee, grab your salt shaker and park your keyboard warrior ego for a few moments. I have a story to tell.
I have a love hate for Monopoly, as do many, but my issue with the game isn’t really about the game at all. It lies with the fact that Monopoly, as a whole, is greater than the sum of its failures. Any modern game designer or theorist will babble on about PAPI and the equilibrium to the game. How Monopoly falls short on the core concepts, but excels at teaching how the capitalist concepts molded modern society (in the US at least). How you waste money, abuse power and ultimately bully your way to victory. How luck can work in and not in favour – Luck has no bias. How house rules have warped a generally boring player experience for the “better”. The National Post has a very interesting article on why we continue to perpetuate such a loathsome board game. Give it a read when you get a chance. This article isn’t necessarily about Monopoly in history. It’s more about how it’s spun off many favourable, and in one case a very unfavourable, variants.
Monopoly is now more or less synonymous with terrible, unbalanced, rage inducing, friendship ending engagement. Anyone who plays the game either loved it as a kid and now hates it, hated it as a kid and still hates it, or loved it as a kid and tolerates it now because they know what to expect. Casual gamer or not, Monopoly is one of those games that evokes a deep feelings in all our hearts. Hence, we keep re-themeing it to make it “better”. Let’s dive in, shall we.
The great
Playing with friends/family
Picking the game pieces
Owning properties and tacking chances
People really getting into the spirit
Revel in making money
Crushing one’s opponent without remorse
Easy to learn
The hate
People really get into the game (offensively so)
More money usually equates to less risk
Roll & Move board games are passé
There is no catch up mechnism
Whomever controls property controls the game (which is the point)
Incurring more debt by borrowing money
The sorrowful parallels to real life
Spin-offs
Monopoly has and still has a list of spin-offs using the ‘Opoly’ form factor (licensed and unlicensed). This has definitely kept a tired and outdated game in fashion for so long. People don’t always remember the game but they do recall the feelings and memory of playing the game. I think a lot of it’s charm comes from the experience more so than outcome. Win or lose, you were always involved, always righting against the odds and always fretting where you will land. Paying up is such a bitch. All of this made for a foundation for many themes people found to be more exciting than playing ‘Get Rich – The board game’.
Some of the fun little opoly games I’ve found on my travels.
Hasbro has capitalized on the fad of custom Opolies with their own spin-offs. I’d say the majority of the fun comes from the unlicensed, homebrew games. Ones created by those who love the format and slap on a wacky theme. Even when Monopoly was at its height (which varied with each generation) it was always seen as a entertaining game that provided hours and hours of fun for those willing to customize the experience.
The next (de)generation
There is something to be said about releasing an ‘Opoly game that actually annoyed people. It was such a big deal that Monopoly released a statement calling out all the haters while still being respectful. Yeah, I totally see it as a
“We created Monopoly for Millennials to provide fans with a lighthearted game that allows Millennials to take a break from real life and laugh at the relatable experiences and labels that can sometimes be placed on them.”
(conversation depicted below is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people and actual things said are purely coincidental and not to be take as truth)
Lunch Room:
Nixon, Cresta and Jo are sitting around reminiscing about their childhood when Jo brings up that her mom found the old Monopoly board in the cellar with a bunch of stuff being packed up for good will. Jo remembers playing the game when she was younger.
Jo – Oh. My. God. The amount of times my cousins would beg to play every time they came over. I got sick of that game so fast.
Cresta – I know, right?! I only played it when I went to camp. I was like, I don’t know, like 8. The counselors would either break that out or Snakes and Ladders or Checkers. Games back them aren’t like they are now.
Jo – Totally. There are so many interesting copies of Monopoly out there. You know, the customised ones with crazy themes. I played this one called Weedopoly once. Absolutely hilarious when you’re a little high.
Nixon – Playing any game high is fun. Weedopoly sounds hella fun. What’s popular in mainstream media now? We could design a Monopoly around, let’s say, Trump’s presidency. Trumpopoly. A game around his whole empire.
Jo – Oh my god. Totally. The Presidential election alone would be a theme for the game. Become the next president. I would play that game.
Cresta – How about Farmopoly? Or Caropoly, based on the automotive industry? Those concepts have range. Anything to do with managing money and fuking over the next man.
Nixon – Pimpopoly, bitches! Manage yo hoes and make dat monay!
Cresta – YES!
Jo – Totally!
Cresta – How about a Monopoly around having no money. The Oppositopoly. Like, my life. Just burning cash as I run around, existing. Jesus.
Jo – Oh. My. God. I got it!
The next day a very lengthy email is sent to Greg, the 25yr veteran developer over at Hasbro. He has a laugh and dismisses it as a joke. It is not a joke. His manager is involved, then their superiors, and holy bujesus it’s green lit. Monopoly for Milliennials is produced. Greg smacks his forehead, the trio all high five each other over lattes and scones.
Oh, you know Hasbro had to do it to ’em. I kind of get why certain people would get up in arms about it, but enough so to berate the brand for poking fun at a very common (and understandable) mindset?
And the second in a supposed slue of parody Opolies from Hasbro, here comes Ms. Monopoly.
Ms. Monopoly is meant to celebrate women’s empowerment by giving women a head start in the game.
Bah. I can understand if they made a game themeing the American Dream – oh wait! That IS what Monopoly is. How about living in a communist country? Oh wait! That exists too.
The Waiting Game
Standing in queue is what you do. The game generally describes the Poland at the tail-end of the Communist era. Play is simple: players send their pieces different stores on the board to buy the items they require. The trick is you don’t know what items will come up in what store and certain things may be short on supply, therefore you may never get it. Product deliveries are uncovered (by turning over face down cards) and there will be only product for the lucky few who happen to be in line when deliveries drop. Players can use certain action cards to manipulate their place in line, like “Mother carrying small child”, “This is not your place, sir”, or “Under-the-counter goods”. It’s quite interesting and I think for anyone who loves an Opoly spin-off, though not directly a copy, would like this game inspired by such.
In this Hasbro Official spin-off players move around the board working together to make a better community. The new cooperative game play leverages teamwork to and , in a way, forces players to succeed together, but no one said teamwork was easy. Flipping over Chance cards presents players with controversies and complications they have to work out. Issues like annoying neighbors and failing community projects, you’re constantly voting to shake things up. The goal is to contribute all 10 of your chips to win the game, unless the Community Fund runs out of money and everyone loses. Good luck with that. To “do or die” by no power of your own. There is always a catch.
It’s okay to poke fun at the rich but not the poor. If you think about it Monopoly kind of does both. The whole concept of Monopoly is to benefit from setting up a financially stable set of assets. Basically, get rich off the backs of others. If that’s not the capitalist America the world has come to know and love/hate then why make such a big deal about these spin-offs? I guess everyone’s got a right to complain. I know I do, but before this post turns into a segregation of mindset vs. matter I’ll close by saying: It’s just a game. Get over it and find something you love playing. And if you love Monopoly the more power to you.
I’ve been thinking, and I’ve been blinking. It’s time for some change.
Today I’ve decided to reluctantly move all my previous dev logs on Tumblr over to the site. Now, it won’t be all posts as Tumblr will still retain live development recordings. Any completed game dev entries will be moved over here to the site and a snippet will remain over at Tumblr. Any concepts or work through entries will stay on Tumblr. It’s a great place to dump my progress. Plus it’s a great way to have another blog for SEO purposes.
I’ve also been slacking on posting to the site, primarily due to the massive renos happening in my office and home. It’s also partly due to very limited time in the evenings and weekends, but who’s life isn’t filled with stuff. I’m bad at keeping on time frames when it comes to my own stuff because I don’t hold myself accountable. I hope I’m not alone. I wanted to start updating the site but figured why not wait until I rebuild it. Rebuild it, you gasp. Yes! I’m rebuilding ADLi so it supports a cleaner navigation to the important bits. Game Design, Products, Blogs and Multimedia, the four branches of this brand. The current site is an ever changing blog and product site that, I feel, has lost its way.
Changes are on the way, and hopefully through the year end holidays I can bring ADLi into the New Year with fresh digs. Until then there will be posts here and there plus the migrated Tumblr content. If you’re new or haven’t been privy to the Tumblr blog give it a look-see. This site will be up and down, spotted with maintenance warnings and potentially broken pages. See you folks on the other side.
In a span of 24hrs I just got one of the biggest scares in my digital existence…
ADL Interactive Got Hacked!!!
Short recap: I went to bed last night after I finished touching up some posts and publishing a new post. Still trying to figure out what site builder I want to use. One that doesn’t override my theme’s posts types and other features but still gives me responsive, manageable columns and cool widgets to use on page. But that’s beside the point. After I had logged off I crashed.
Night time … sleep
After finishing up my Friday work I jumped right back into my account to continue to put a dent in my Pending list and create graphics for my drafts. Lo and behold when I refreshed my homepage I got a redirect that prompted me to accept a desktop notification. I chose Never, as usual, but then it refreshed. Refreshed the browser’s URL by appending a 1 subdomain and prompted me again. I declined… again! Refresh. Amend. Repeat. I was like WTF??!!
I instantly jumped into my account, looked through my Wordfence settings and performed a scan. Everything was gravy. I’ve seen this behaviour before, so the first thing I though was injection. I instantly went to [simple_tooltip content=’If you’ve NEVER run a site check and you own a WP site, I highly recommend you do so right now. And do it once weekly. It’s like that digital apple that could save you from painful site surgery later.’]Sucuri Site Check[/simple_tooltip] website and ran a test. Aaaaannnnnd I was right. Sucuri output the injection code and I jumped into phpMyAdmin. Now, not everyone has access to their hosting cPanel or know how to dig for these things, but if you do it’s best to stay educated on how to help yourself. The wonders and hindrances of self-hosted WP sites. I would recommend finding someone you know to help with things like this because paying a service could cost you a pretty penny.
Get outta here you
I found the string with a full database search, hiding in the wp_options table. I open the table and there it is bright as day. YUZO. I removed the text that Sucuri had identified and saved, then promptly deactivated the plugin and deleted it completely from my install. I took a screenshot of my database results showing the affected, or in this case, infected plug to send to them. As I jump in the forum, bam! Yuzo this, and exploit that. It was old news. Well, time to read what this is all about. After a little digging, Google sleuth style, I found the history on this plugin development and how this whole issue had been a thing since April. I’m such a fool. I don’t keep up with the WP community or the Security Forums that are out there. So much information to sift through it can get overwhelming. For those interested in the developer’s view on the situation, read what Lenin has to say.
A cautionary tale
I feel as though I dodged a bullet, and for two reasons:
If I had not been actively working on my game blog the last 2 days I would have not picked this up. All the visitors I was getting would have just locked down the tab and never come back again.
This could have been around for much longer (I do find myself taking hiatus more often than not), and there may have been more than just a redirect script injected.
Brush up on your php skills, get access to your cPanel and keep an eye on the forums. There’s always a storm brewing. Don’t get caught in the rain.
Injection code into a good deal of my pages has not F***ED up my damn evening. Hopefully I can get into phpMyAdmin and irradicate this SOB. Rrrrrrr. One thing that is ultra annoying about owning a WordPress site. Even with all the security features and plugins, there are small holes plugin developers may not see until it’s too late.
Oh why, oh why can’t I ever finish a single thought?! I have a couple theories.
1. Every idea is golden
This is a straight up fallacy that a lot of people share. Especially the creative and artistic type. New ideas come through every minute. I can easily switch between reading about literal rocket science to how beer is made, then find some odd pattern somewhere, then get an idea to design an trick taking game where astronauts take tricks from 99 bottles of beer in a rocket ascending into space. There! New awesome idea. Yeah… No. The feeling that an idea is unique and fresh is the illusion that it’s golden. Like everything else it starts out unpolished. Time and effort and energy need to be put in to buff that bitch to a high gloss shine. And even then you may buff out the surface before getting that sweet smooth finish. I say every idea is like an egg. Incubate and foster it and it may grow up to be that golden goose you’ve been looking for.
2. Nothing’s ever good enough
The evil twin of the first point, ‘nothing is ever good enough’ may come from a lack of confidence in oneself. Or maybe just a lack of persistence to see something through to the end. Early adopters of ideas have a difficult situation. Move from flower to flower as each new opportunity blooms, or stay on something until something better comes along. Well, that latter part is the persistence issue I’m talking about. In my younger days I was that guy. Doing the new cool thing until I found something “newer” and “cooler”, apparently. Never staying on one thing long enough to see it through. And when I did, I had too many things on my plate. Now I’m in my late 30s and STILL doing the same shit. Lucky for me life filled in a lot of the gaps so I only have limited space for the things I love. I now have a huge appreciation for those that play the long game to better hone their skills and deepen their interests.
3. Time is on your side
Oh, the creator and destroyer of everything. Managing time is key as one gets older. Life, as I’ve mentioned, fills in a lot of slots leaving the bare minimum of free choice – for the lot of us who don’t have exorbitant amounts of money – and it’s necessary to get your act together or you’ll be spinning wheels for a long time. And when you’re in your late 40s you look back and realize SOOOO much time had been wasted. I’ve learned to slow down and “make” time to do the things I like at no cost to my obligations. Family, friends, work, food, sleep, commuting (for some). These things munch up a lot of the 18 waking hours we have on the average week day. As I say to my 6 yr old son all the time, “sometimes you gotta do the things you don’t want to do to get to the things you do want to do. So eat your dinner. I don’t care if you don’t like it!” My parents channeling though me, I suppose.
4. Blast from the past
Ever had an idea for something you have been fiddling or fumbling with for some time, but then left it alone? Yeah. I’m like that ALL the time. More so with my creative story writing and board game designs. That hurdle you just can’t get past. Can’t seem to see the forest through the trees. It’s hard to realise something when you’re too close to recognise its use. Jumping from game idea to game idea works well for me because I’ve done it so naturally with a lot of other things in my life. Sleeping on it sometimes help. Refocus by no focusing at all also works. Sometimes those treasures lie in another box you haven’t opened yet. Moving around helps keep things moving, keeps the gears lubricated. I’ll usually burn hard and deep on an idea until I feel myself reaching and manipulating answers just to fill in gaps. Best to stop there. If it’s not intuitively or mathematically apparent then you might just be bogging up a good idea. Why be convoluted when you can be clear and concluded.
5. Leggo my Eggo, I mean Ego
That big balloon of gas we all call ego. Speaking to some I’ve heard that ego is ultimately a bad thing and not necessary for people to better themselves. I look at it as a supplement. Not like drugs or anything, but I guess you can relate it to that. A self esteem enhancer so to speak. A steroid. I understand the ego’s plight and we can all agree there is a fine line. The key is to stay humble while being close enough to that line that you can dabble in its head swelling greatness. ‘Everything is good’ so it’s on to the next pasture, even though it’s sometimes clear to everyone else this effort is half-assed at best. Toiling and tinkering away is not the egoists. Though one of the many facets of egoism is obsession. Well, that’s when good ole OCD comes out the play, but we’re not talking about that. Lack of ego groups you in point #2. Too much ego groups you with point #1. How does one balance the scales? Self reflection, honest feedback and accepting failure is a start.
Failure is a catalyst to greater things, and a little humble pie does the body good.I started this blog a month ago with a title and the first line. I had so much running through my head I wasn’t able to get it all out in words. As of this posting I sat for 20 mins and just dumped it all out in one go. No re-read, no skim and edit, no restructure. I wanted it to be a reflection of some of the things I’m sharing about myself and how I view my work ethic and creative process. A lecture based on self reflection. Excuse the grammatical hiccups I’m sure this post is laden with.
Hopefully some of you might find a nugget or two of truth here and realise you’re not alone. Stop. Breathe. Play a video game. Hug someone you love. Eat, sleep, take a long hot shower. Then sit down at your place of creative expression and just let it all out. Feels good, doesn’t it?
Cheers.
In all honestly the Cottage Country Con (CCC) in Orillia this year wasn’t all that bad. Reviews online may be a bit over zealous, but there is no doubt the show was plagued with amateur mistakes. From a setup perspective, space management and visitor flow, execution was a tricky, but doable for this venue configuration. Accommodations for special guests, a whole other topic of discussion, and just the overall feel was lacking. And this coming from seasoned con veterans, not some 1-a-year conboy vendor like me. And only after hearing all the opinions of those affected and understanding the real gripes that vendors had with the show, it was apparent. CCC went too big too soon. There were a lot of good points as well which I share in my post covering ADLi’s 2nd successful show.
Flashback
The Orillia Comic Con 2017 was an eye opener for the Muskoka region. Young and old geeks and fans of game and comic media showed up in droves to enjoy the North-of-Toronto convention. It was their first year and it was great. Small rec center atmosphere, limited space and guests, but a solid first year for any show. I’ve been to a couple first and second year cons, and this one felt very tight and promising. Yes, a lot of artists and vendors didn’t make bank, but it’s a super small show. Those who craft or draw for a living can’t sustain off small shows like this so a lot of them stated they weren’t coming back. Understandable.
A little late late night work to ready myself for the show
Moving on, the show had good numbers for a fledgling con. The organizers were ecstatic and wanted to go big for year 2. Changing the name to CottageCountryCon (which is more encompassing of the area) they moved to a bigger venue. A sports complex with two ice rinks. The space works as a convention centre, but as mentioned in my opening, was not utilized to it’s best potential. Cosplay and gaming were also two big factors I feel this show was lacking. It was heavily catering to the casual con goer and maybe its lack of niche stuff like inviting professional cosplayers or a gaming room really didn’t lend itself to the crowd they were hoping for. People won’t make the trip for an average con. It must be extraordinary! CCC really only had the movie cars and creators as 2 of many things a general fancon must leverage. I hate saying this, but more pandering required.
Consensus
I look at the bright side. The show was good overall. I won’t let the poor experience of others ruin my opinion of a good show. It felt like a big con. It’s had the heart and space of a big con. It just didn’t have the numbers and guts of a big con, and that’s where I see the cracks. It is a totally different community north of the GTA and it’s hard to get a community of con-goers who are used to Fan Expo and Anime North to travel 1h 30m north to visit a fledgling show. Marketing had to be beyond average. They had the stars, they had the cars, they had the interest, they had the space, they had the energy, they had a great first year. But, the outreach, the hype, they pre-show prep, and the acknowledgement was good… but not great. Pulling people out of their convenience is a very hard thing. If we had the cosplayers and the gaming community willing to make moves I believe Orillia would have had a better turn out and this situation would be mute.
It’s disheartening to see that a local fan con such as this get flak and discredited from a lot of vendors. It may possibly hurt the show’s rep. The con vendor/exhibitor community has mixed feelings, and once the word spreads next year’s show may suffer. I doubt there won’t be a 3rd year, but big vendors from the GTA may be gun shy about ever setting up in Orillia again. I, for one, will do it again IF they keep the pricing relative to this year and sort out the follies they made. Learning from mistakes is possibly more crucial than learning from other’s successes. Funny enough the same organizers have another convention set for August in Bracebridge. This one is a Comic and Toy convention primarily, but those that missed CCC may second guess going to Muskoka Con due to the backlash. I’m going to roll through the Muskoka con either way as I enjoy going to those events. I’ll be observing how this one works out, from a con-goer’s perspective, and look out for some of the artists that may have been at CCC. I’m not a comic guy but I do like toys and collectibles. And cons are like family gatherings for me.
I’ve kept the review and my opinion of the con light hearted as I really don’t want to get into the politics that is convention exhibiting. You can watch my post-con thoughts below and share with me what you think. If you were at the show I’d love to hear your point of view. I share my opinion of the bad stuff for only the first minute and seventeen seconds. To get to the ADLi experience skip to 1:18.
Like with any community there is a lot of drama, usually founded around experience, expectations and bias. Bottom line, it had its faults and didn’t live up to the hype and expectations according to some. Here’s hoping the Muskoka Con is a good one and Orillia can bounce back from this fumble and get back to small town con roots. I’d love to have a convention in my neck of the woods.
I missed me. I hope some of you missed me too. Forgive me readers for I have sinned. It’s been months since my last communication. I’ve been late with my blogs and poor at managing time to keep my website relevant and up to date. What should I do?
The Convention Scene
Thinking back on last year’s events, outings and sessions, I really didn’t do much. The 2017 convention in Orillia was amazing. There were small hiccups but nothing show stopping. There was even time to take a few pictures. Now, there aren’t many as I was working my table more than working the lens. The organizers are doing it again this year because this one was so successful. I was so jazzed after the show that on my way home I had a few nice things to share. We, Kurtis, Dean and I, registered for tables again. This time it’s a 2 day con and it’s in June. [added: May 21] For more on that check out the deets.
Game Design
Working through the holiday season was a blast. Well, mostly because of the free time. I normally take the 26th Dec. through to the 2nd Jan. It’s the best to time just turn off and not give an eff. I figured I’d have all the time in the world to work on games. WRONG!!! I was mostly lounging and filling my belly with food and drink. I did dabble in a bit of game refinement but never got through anything substantial. Kinda sucks because I was so looking forward to that time and I ended of faffing around. Oh well. I guess we all need rest once in a while. The last thing I posted in 2017 for dev was game concepts I was working on in Oct. That was it. I assure you I’m working on things, but I don’t have anything I’m confident in sharing quite yet. That may change next month.
Renovation Nation
The year end holidays saw me working mostly in my basement. Renovation season is 365 and I know this better than most. I’ve been in perpetual renovations since 2013 and somehow I don’t feel any closer to the end of it all. When one thing’s done, one more pops up in its place. Have you ever heard of someone say they’re tired of learning? Well, I got there a couple times since 2013 and it’s a terrible feeling. Like letting go of the rope that tethers your hopes and dreams, allow them to disappear into the void like an echo on the wind. Spacing them out is the key. Either way, they are not conducive to me working on my passion hobby. I’m sure some of you can relate.
Other than that it’s been the same old grind. Nothing new, Stew. I just look forward to coming home after work, clearing my inbox, browse a couple art community posts, eat dinner and then hit the sack. It’s so hard to stay motivated all the time but when that motivation turns to obsession and ruins your nights – a couple 4am stints and an all-nighter will kill most people. I used to be a nighthawk. High school saw a couple memorable 36 hour runs. I think there was a 40 and a 48+ hour moment in there as well. Not healthy for the mind or body. When you start to hallucinate midgets playing soccer, or a fat lady getting hit by a bus, or black birds swarming around you throughout the day, you might as well call it.
Now in my older years, one 24+ hour run ruins me for the next 3-4 days. But when you’re working on something you absolutely love (or watching something you absolutely love) it’s hard to stop. No more Netflix or CrunchyRoll marathons for me. Everything in due time. Just like my game designs, a theory I continue to put into practice… most of the time.
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