Disc Golf Might Not Suck After All

If you have heard me hold forth on the subject of frisbee* disc golf before, you may be aware that I do not endorse it. Quite to the contrary, in fact. Playing ultimate frisbee* is all about the frenetic motion, dashing, catching the frisbee* disc at the utmost limit of your abilities - the dive, the leap into space.

It turns out just trying to throw a frisbee* disc with precision and accuracy is also lots of fun. Who knew?

Which one of these looks just like the other?

I happened upon this stunning revelation entirely by accident. The cover of a Tupperware container needed to be in the sink, but that was all of three steps away, and damned if I would bestir myself to go all the way over there just to put something in the sink. Upon further contemplation, it occurred to me that the cover was light, round, and mostly flat.

Suspiciously like a disc.

Shocked by this unexpected discovery, I theorized that, having a disc-like shape, it might travel through the air in a disc-like fashion if I gave it an initial acceleration in the way that I might a frisbee* disc. To paraphrase: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, if I throw it like a duck, it should fly like a duck. Right?


It flew more like an egret. Maybe because I threw it like one. I would not dare to claim perfect duck-throwing skills, after all.

Nevertheless, fly it did, though ultimately it landed in the dish-drying rack rather than the sink. Enthused by this discovery, I retrieved the projectile and attempted again. Due to the air currents, (I theorized) it tilted contrary to the initial curve that I gave it. I persevered, however, and after perhaps 10 tries, I was finally satisfied with my throw. Some of those throws had actually ended up in the sink, but only because it had bounced off of something else. I wanted it to go in perfectly.

portrait of the blogger as a young duck-thrower

Elated by this simple diversion, it suddenly occurred to me that this was actually frisbee* disc golf writ small. Throw the disc, pick the disc up, throw it again. But I hate disc golf! How could I possibly be enjoying myself?

This has led to a profound re-examination of my life and opinions and prejudices and, like, all sorts of stuff. I would like to actually go to a course (is that the right term?) and try it out.

Fortunately, there is one nearby, so who knows? It might even actually happen.

And if it it turns out I do like it, what's next? Running? Curling? Synchronized swimming? Actual golf?


I am frightened of what I might become. Hold me.

*god damn it, Wham-O.

Paintball

During my visit to the Philippines, I had the opportunity to try out paintball for the first time.

It's not how big the paintball gun is, it's how you use it.

It was fantastically cheap. It only cost 400 pesos, for renting the gear and 40 pellets. That's about $10.

The battleground was the side of a hill in a pine forest, with the addition of some wooden planks and stacks of tires to provide additional cover.

In action

It was two on two, and we were sent to the top of the hill, while our opponents started below. I figured this gave us a pretty good tactical advantage. However, instead of sticking to our fortified position, I wanted to move around and try to come up with some fancy tactics. Imagining my partner would move laterally and help me pin down one of our opponents who was advancing, I tried to flank him and immediately got myself pinned down behind a tree instead. My partner (perhaps wisely) stayed safe behind a wide fortification and didn't budge.

The rule was, you were in till you ran out of pellets, regardless of how riddled with holes you were. So once the initial shuffling around was done, it basically degenerated into a stalemate, where you would poke your head out, take a couple of shots, and then duck back away, till our ammo was gone. I could have said to hell with it and taken a few hits in exchange for finding a better position, since there was no consequence to getting hit, but the visceral fear of getting shot was strong enough that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Ouch.

Not that I didn't get shot. My left eye and shoulder were hit, so I was definitely quite dead. The head shot was pretty sobering, and racked up the adrenaline several notches.

My partner was shot in the head - just above his face mask, which left a shockingly large red welt for a few days. One of our opponents was hit in the head and body. The other, I don't recall.

Weary wounded warriors

Next time, I want to do some target shooting first, to get a better feel for a paintball gun's range and aim.

Clearer sets of rules seem like they would be interesting. Not to mention they would help avoid the deadlock we hit and clarify victory or defeat. But having to leave the game early due to being eliminated is no fun either. Maybe some sort of rule where you had to return to a safe zone before you could rejoin the battle. Basically, respawning.

Adding more rules and adjudication would probably break up the adrenaline and tension, though.

The fascinating thing about video games is that all of that can be handled automatically, permitting smooth play despite extremely complex rule systems.

I looked to see if there were paintball video games available. (A video game simulation of a game which is a simulation of war?) The only one I found was way too realistic to be fun.

Something bright, colorful, and arcade-y, with paint splashing wildly everywhere, seems a lot more appealing to me than trying to compete directly with drab and hyper-realistic shooters, which have explosions. The lack of viscera and death should make it accessible to all ages.

Maybe an augmented reality game? M did mention technology to map the camera view to a 3-d space.

Battleheart

A real-time tactical rpg for iDevices, Battleheart is the closest thing I've seen to our vision.

You have a squad of four characters and battle your way through a series of progressively more difficult levels.

You control your characters by clicking and dragging them to a location, to an enemy, or in the case of a support character, to a comrade. If you drag a character to another entity, it will begin auto-attacking or healing that entity, as appropriate.

The art style is vibrant and cute, reminiscent of the super-deformed style of characters from the Super Nintendo era (though much crisper and smoother).

The first boss battle.

The first half of the game is a joy to play, with new characters, equipment, special attacks, and monsters being smoothly introduced on a fairly linear curve. The difficulty level remained steady and the rate of rewards made it feel like you were getting one (or even several) new things every fight. Even better, special abilities can be reconfigured painlessly at any time, eliminating the need for the player to worry about selecting the "right" ability and giving them freedom to experiment and change tactics in between battles.

The boss fights are unique and require the player to think of new strategies to handle them, adding extra spice to the gameplay.

Tragically, you only get a brief taste of the spice: these strategies are one-off things. They're completely unnecessary for any other monsters, or for other bosses. And you only fight a boss once, unless you specifically revisit the stage - the bosses are not recycled as monsters in later levels.

Color the goblins dark blue, and the bat red, and voilá! All-new monsters!

Speaking of recycling, after the first half of the game, there are no new monsters - merely palette switches and dramatically higher difficulty parameters.

While the first half does truly shine, the second half comes to a grinding, screeching halt. Namely, the time it takes to level up (and consequently acquire new special abilities and equipment, as well as survive tougher monsters) goes up dramatically.

The end result is that the reward received for the amount of effort put in plummets. Yes, I spend more time playing it than I would if I were able to continue through the game at the same pace throughout, but my overall enjoyment is far less due to having to replay a level again and again and again in order to have a chance to survive the next one.

Greater attention to play balance would have made this game enjoyable all the way through - with the simple adjustment of a few numbers.

Next, a more critical look at the control scheme.

It's largely unimaginative and could be replicated with a mouse, despite the iPad's innovative interface. While it is possible to move two characters at the same time using multiple fingers, in practice it covers too much of the action.

The second and larger problem with the control scheme is trying to select a character when several of them are next to each other. Especially during critical moments when I need to select a character and activate a special technique to rescue someone from the brink of death, it's extremely frustrating when I select the wrong character and a character dies as a result, which usually means that battle is lost.

I imagine these issues are exacerbated on a smaller iThingy.

Despite its flaws, Battleheart is among the cream of the crop of iPad games. I hope to one day be able to create a game like this - but with richer and more reliable controls, not to mention an engaging story.

Gotta get back to coding.

4/14; 4/15 goals

3rd draft for technical resume done; write email and send tomorrow morning.

QA resume done.

1st draft for QA cover letter done; 2nd draft tomorrow morning.

Some exercise, some cleaning, some cooking prep. Sent in an application for a one-off 'talk in English for munny' job, got a response, we'll see. Decent cash for a minimal time investment.

Started designing something I can make with what I've learned so far in iOS. Basically... a text-based adventure game, with tabs to switch between exploration and inventory, both of which would be table views. Icons and supplemental graphics can be added. Yes, I know, a text-based adventure game on iOS. You shake your head in disgust. But it should be a good way to practice data structures and review moving from one view to another. I'd like to start working on it tomorrow afternoon.

The Many-Headed Hydra, or, I'm Not Actually Multitasking.

Things I am working on this very minute, or will be when I finish this post:

A spec for currently-fantasized iPad game brought to you by the letter A, yet again in collaboration with friend brought to you by the number D, because one of these friggin decades one of these ideas is going to crystallize.

Character designs for aforementioned iPad game A. Not because I'm any good at it, though. Why don't I know any artists who are into this stuff? I hear there's a thing called networking. But then I'd have to meet people.

A spec for project brought to you by the zygote B for company brought to you by the prime number W, because coding a prototype for a browser extension is just so, so far from anything that I want to do or learn right now. Whereas spec-writing... that's useful for me, and fun. And actually far more useful for them in the long run.

Fleshing out old iPhone game notes into a spec and translating it into Japanese, because companies hiring for "planner" positions - which match quite closely what I'm looking for - would like to see a sample of work. Makes sense. But I find writing in Japanese to be far more blocked than writing in English. Note the absence of my Japanese homework being posted up so far, for example.

This blog.

Nifty things to work on once some of the above are done:

Practical, hands-on learning of Objective-C and iPhone development via writing ezfrizbee strategerizer. Did I say frisbee? I mean, er. Ultimate. Flying disc. Ah, Wham-O, if only that was not your corporate name but instead the colorful sound effect displayed when Batman punches you in the eye. Pricks.

How the hell do you make pretty drawings on a computer? Photobooth in order to show my latest character designs is not my idea of a good time.

Job apps. Can't do 'em without that sample design doc! In Japanese. Meh.

Things that have pretty much hit rock bottom on the giving a shit scale:

Schoolwork. I fell back into the 'it's all masturbation, why bother' hole a while ago, and with real projects about real things, it just doesn't even compete. Sorry kids, it was fun for a semester, but not two.

Dinner. It's under ten degrees celsius in my kitchen. I ain't goin out there. Maybe I'll just pee into my trashcan when the time comes.

In sickness and in health.

A headache plus violent fits of coughing make a potent combo.

A couple of nifty point n' click puzzle/adventure games with substantial free demos, playable in a browser:

www.thedreammachine.se

machinarium.net

These guys give me hope that I can make something something great. However, since my forte is writing, I need to find a partner who can art.

A productive day, given the pounding and the hacking. Chicken soup was performed, and I eagerly await the healthening.