Carl's Notes

Well, I'm feeling pretty much whole again after getting sick last week, though I need to work on getting my energy levels back up to where they were before.

Last Friday I was only able to deliver one of my paper routes before I was so tired I couldn't continue, leaving the second route to do on Saturday, while this last Wednesday I was able to do both routes pretty much as usual, though I might have been a little slower than usual.

I still need a bit more rest than what would otherwise be normal, and I really need to make sure I eat enough to make sure I have enough energy.

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I just finished the first draft of my taxes last night, and found out that the provincial government either moved or removed a line that would have given me $75 back, so I'm wondering what they did.
(I made less than two thousand dollars last year. I really need to get a better job)

I'm going to pen the final version and either ask somebody here to drop it off at the tax office or take a bus tomorrow.
(it's due tomorrow, and will be very busy what with the 30th being the final due date, with everybody dropping their tax returns off at the office. Fortunately, they've got a wonderful system in place now, which means it won't disrupt traffic too much)

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To stimulate my creative side, I'm in the process of writing a journal as it would be written by the people in one of the games I'm currently designing.

So far, I've got them past the escape from their original home Age, they talk a little bit about not having the right tools for writing linking books (yes, it takes lots of inspiration from the Myst series), they figure out how to move between Ages with technology, and so far they've sent one team to set up a second Age-Traversal machine in an Age nearby.

This journal won't be included in the game itself, but will help guide me as I design the game, indicating what choices they've made previously so I can keep things relatively consistent.

I'll be putting it up somewhere when I'm finished enough of it so I can get some feedback.

Some of you may be wondering exactly what I was talking about last time when I mentioned a game I've been working on for a long time.

Well, like Gil Williamson, I too have a game inside me, and I've had ideas for it for quite some time now.
(which probably started after I played Riven)

Anyway, I've been writing notes about the game and I noticed one rather perturbing thought: All I've been thinking about is the general design of the islands and absolutely nothing about those who inhabited them.
This isn't good. This may mean that I'll need to do some, *gasp*, Creative Writing!™

Seriously, it shouldn't be all that bad, but I've never been on good terms with creative writing.
(once I was supposed to write a tall tail, but it turned into a short story about a detective. I haven't really trusted myself to write anything really creative since then)

I suppose I should start by figuring out what kind of people would live on a group of islands. Draw a basic map of the islands, then write a story about how and why the people got there, what they did while they were there, and how and why they left.

Anyway, I have the basic structure of the game down, what kinds of technology to allow, what kinds of environments would be appropriate, stuff like that.

Another part I'm a little stuck on is transportation, or more to the point, teleportation.
All good games have some kind of long-distance teleportation. The Myst series had Linking Books and Gil is planning on using a kind of Chinese fan.

Here are some ideas for teleportation or fast transit:

• Hula hoops that act like portals? (or maybe slim hoops that act like the teleporter in the movie Stargate?)
• Huge rock portals? (that one's been used before, in Star Wars: Of Gods and Men)
• Large catapults? (these must be aimed, though, and this is a rather low-tech option)
• Magnetic-Levitation train? (I have a rather different concept than found in most other places, but haven't got very far in its design yet)
• Linking Slates? (Although Myst V: End of Ages did use a slate, it wasn't for teleportation so much as for communication)

Anybody have any other, possibly wild, ideas?