Michael R. Baker's Blog, page 8

Author Interview: J.R. O’Bryant

First of all, welcome to a new year, and a new decade! I have a few articles I was working on from December still to finish and post, but I thought it was time to finally get round to posting the interviews I’ve had over the last few months. My apologies to all who have the wait!

First interview of the 2020s is with J.R. O’Bryant, who kindly contacted me a couple of months ago. Sorry it took so long getting it up there! Here is a link to her novel down below!

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write? 

 

Well I’ve had a little over three decades of adventures on this planet. I’m the proud “parent” of three amazing young women and “grandma” to another. I am happily engaged to the love of my life and we will be celebrating our two-year anniversary this winter I am the personal slave of one Feline Overlord, and the sometimes slave to five others, as well as the sometimes space heater to a red tail boa. I thrive the best in the mountains or near the Pacific Ocean, but currently reside in the Midwest. I listen to music as often as I can get away with. I love Autumn more than any other season. I am obsessed with reading and will read anything I can get my hands on. As to writing, I write mostly Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, sometimes Smutty, Fiction. I like to write strong female leads with unique lifestyles and open minds, and throw them into terrible situations that risk their lives or their well-being. The series I am currently writing revolves around a centuries old vampire and the goings on in her life and business affairs.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I’m a total pantster. I rarely, if ever have an outline. I have a general idea of what is going to happen in the book and what I want to see from my characters and then I just let my characters run rampant and tell the story as it happens. Sometimes I have to go back and tweak things to make everyone happy and other times I end up going in a totally different direction than I had set out with.

I’m kind of an old school gamer, so my characters start out with a traditional character sheet and dice. I get a basic “outline” if you will, of the character and then I flesh them out like I would for game. I give them character flaws, and interests, and hobbies, and an alignment. Then I set them loose in my world for a few days to see what happens. So far everyone has worked out fairly well. My antagonists have really turned out in the coolest ways.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

I’m working on the next book in the Krystianna Aramis Vampire Series. The current working title is “Behind the Masque”. This time I’ve put Krystianna under more stress than I think she can handle. The Vampire High Council or at least their representatives are in town for the West Coast Grand Gala which Krystianna is hosting this year. While everyone is scrambling to make sure the Gala goes off without a hitch, a serial killer starts murdering the Fae in the area in gruesome and horrible ways. Krystianna and her people find themselves arguing with fanatics who blame her for the deaths of the Fae, the political drama of the Vampire Council, and her own internal issues. What could possibly go wrong? Or would that that be more wrong…

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them! 

The main character is Krystianna Elena Aramis, owner of Cold Crypt Cellars in Central Coast California, Female West Coast Vampire Representative, Heir to House Aramis, and daughter of Council Member Erik Rhego Aramis. She’s a little over four hundred years old and sometimes forgets modern English or how to use modern tech. She and her primary partner are openly polyamorous and are both pansexual. Krys enjoys martial arts, yoga, and horseback riding on the beach under the light of the moon. She is active in her local community. She also has inner demons like everyone else in the world and sometimes comes across a little too human for a centuries old vampire.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

I’d give the same advice I give to any new writer. Get the words on the page. Do your research and read your genre daily. Don’t fret about the first draft, just get the words on the page and don’t edit as you go. There will be plenty of time for edits and revisions once that first draft is said and done. Don’t let anyone hold you back. Chase your dreams and reach for the stars. And most of all don’t let critics and editors break your spirit. There is someone out there that is waiting for your story to be written, so sit down and write it.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book? 

 

I grew up in Central Coast California and spent a lot of time there even after we moved out of the state. A lot of Krystianna’s universe is based in and around the area I grew up in. Krys’s lifestyle and belief system come from my own personal experience with both. The characters and races and species come from my own reading and gaming experiences. A lot of the wardrobe in Krys’s universe comes from people I know or have interacted with on some level. My world is bits and pieces of my life and the fantasy life I’ve created for my characters.

 

What inspires you to write?

Life in general, honestly. I like to people watch and take aspects of the everyday day to day into my creative scope and create new universes out of it. I love writing. It’s my outlet for everything. I don’t really need inspiration to write, I need a reason not to some days. I think my biggest inspiration is that I want to see what happens next and I want to see what my characters will do next.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Oh Gods… umm… editing. Editing is hell. Watching your baby manuscript being ripped to shreds by your editor is excruciating. And having to do rewrites and tweaks and changes is like genetically altering your most precious possession. Well, it feels that way while it’s happening, anyway. I think that’s the hardest part of writing any book, to hand off a finished and polished manuscript knowing it’s going to be sent back covered in red.

 

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not? 

Routine. That’s funny. No, I don’t have a routine. I tried to at first, but routine and I don’t work well together. My life is crazy and hectic and never really allows for any kind of consistency in anything. So when I write, I write when and where I can and I just let it happen as much as possible with the knowledge that life gets in the way and it may be a couple days before I can get words on the page again.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why? 

This is going to sound so bad… I loved writing my big interrogation scene. It took months of research to build and create and make realistic. It’s a really violent and drawn out scene and it’s one of my proudest writing moments. I’ve had people tell me that it was too realistic and other people tell me that they didn’t know that level of sadism could be expressed in a book. Both lines makes me giggle with maniacal glee.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

I learn something new every day. I am constantly learning and changing. This book specifically, that I’m currently working on, I’ve learned more about the Spanish Inquisition that I ever thought I would need to know. I’ve also learned a lot about human anatomy and how to break it. I know that sounds a bit twisted but we do what we must to make our characters and their actions come to life.

 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A gardener or an architect?

 

This is by far my least favorite question of all time. I’m a pantser through and through. And I see myself as an architect constantly building and working and making new and amazing structures. As I mentioned before I don’t really work well with routine and structure. I have my own way of doing things and I enjoy my methods more than anyone else’s.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it? 

I like to sit down with my characters and let them talk to me. I’ve built a safe space in my head to hold conversations with characters. I like to put on music that helps my characters comes to life, and it’s a different genre for all of them, and I just sit back and listen to what they have to say. If a character is being particularly difficult, I will ignore them for a couple of days while I work on a different project in a different world.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

I want to get the next two Krystianna Aramis books out in the next six months. Then hopefully the next two after that in the following year. I’m also working on a more adult themed side project but that’s a secret and still in the works.

 

What is your favorite book ever written? Who are your favorite authors?

I don’t have a favorite book of all time. I love books and I love to read and the more I read the more there is to explore. How could I pick just one? That’s like a picking a perfect flower from a spring field of wild flowers, it’s simply not done. I have quite a few favorite authors, some Indie and some not. I read a lot of Urban Fantasy so big names like Laurel K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, and Larry Correia are always at the top of my list. But I also enjoy epic fantasy like Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, and Tolkien. Some of the Indie authors I follow are A. Vers, Catherine Banks, and Katika Schneider.

 

What makes a good villain?

A good villain is the one you want to love no matter what they’ve done. You want to love them and still you find yourself hating them. A good villain is the one that you just know could have been redeemed if someone had taken the time.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I enjoy gaming both console and table top. I love traveling and try to take a road trip at least once a year. I’m always listening to music and reading, usually at the same time. I love spending time with my kiddos and my critters. And as silly as it sounds l love driving around in the wee hours of the morning with my fiancé while we play Pokemon Go and just talk about everything.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

At one point I wanted to be a veterinarian of zoology and exotics. I wanted to work with endangered wildlife and work with breeding and education programs internationally to raise awareness and repopulate species before they went extinct. So in a world where I didn’t write, that would have been an ideal career path.

 

You can travel to any planet or moon in the Solar System. Where would you go, why and what would you do there?

Honestly? I wouldn’t. I’m happy here on earth. We have done so much damage to our planet, I would be terrified of endangering another one. If could do anything for our planet, I would rid it of the last couple hundred years of damage and destruction and heal the planet that allows us all to live.

 

Pick any three characters from a fiction novel. These are now your roadtrip crew. Where do you go and what do you do? 

I would take Harry Dresden, Michael Carpenter, and Molly the Winter Lady from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. I would kidnap them to the west coast to have a week off. We would eat awesome seafood and In-n-out burgers and just relax. No world ending disasters to juggle, just vacation and family time. Maybe get some new tattoos with Molly while Harry and Michael took a nap or three.

 

Finally, what is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

You can find me on my FB author page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJROBryant

My FB Fan Page: www.facebook.com/groups/2530288117190809/

You can find me on twitter: www.twitter.com/JRFyreDancer

You can find me on my Blog: www.JRFyreDancer.Wordpress.com

You can find my books at: https://books2read.com/u/bO5KAm

You can find me on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jrfyredancer

2019 – A Reflection and hopes for 2020

Featured photo from the credits of Spellforce 3: Soul Harvest. You may spot a name in there!

 

End of another year. It’s been a long one! I write this in a very strange mood. Not particularly low or anything, but not in a particularly happy state of mind either. It’s hard to put my finger on it, really. I’m waiting this in a state of brain fog and mental exhaustion. How would I describe this year?

Hopeful, with a chance of meatballs. No, I’d say it’s been decent all round. End of 2019 has arrived with a mixture of nerves, exhaustion and worries for the future, but it’s also come with excitement.

As for 2019, I will sum up the year in three main, basic topics.

First of all, let’s get the elephant out of the room and discuss writing!

 

The Thousand Scars – The Counterbalance Dilemma

 

As of mid-Feburary 2019, I officially parted ways with my publishing press Nordland Publishing behind The Thousand Scars and I stopped all sales on the book. First of all, a big thankyou to Nordland for the time. I felt it was the right decision going forward.

So, let me tell you a little story about The Thousand Scars during 2018, it’s first full year of publication.

I’ll let you all in on a secret. I should have been happy, or proud, or elated when it launched. Instead I just felt exhaustion, numbness. I even felt deflated. I remember doing the launch reveal and just being so drained I ended up cutting the livestream early. There weren’t many people watching it so I don’t think it mattered.

I achieved what I planned, but now what? Then the doubts started. Did I release it too early? Did I know what I was doing? Was the book any good?

The first few months were rough. I was trying to market, but it was tricky. To make money you need to spend money, generally through ads and that was something I did not really have. Of course, this was something I learned from this year, a painful lesson, but one worth learning. Connections and community building is something I’ve worked on for years, but perhaps I was in the wrong places.

Reviews and feedback were few, sales even fewer. I started wondering if it was even worth doing anymore. Publishing The Thousand Scars nearly broke me emotionally. Then I did the stupid thing of comparing myself to other authors…why did I do that? I needed to focus on myself.

The Thousand Scars was selling poorly, but feedback at least was mostly positive, for a first book by a new author I guess. I’m not in this for money otherwise I’d just do a standard job so money is not my motivation. I wanted to show it to the world, but I was so drained by it and its lack of success that I was close to giving up. I still had the second book in the series to work on, and it was getting ballsacking difficult. I had few fans, but I didn’t want to let them down. I did get a lot of support from fellow authors in the indie community, urging me to keep fighting. I did so. I have severe ME, and job-wise I don’t really get many chances. Writing and cartography is all I know how to do. I couldn’t give up, not now. A word of advice to fellow writers. Connect with others and support each other. They are not your rivals, but your allies in this fight.

I wanted to go further. So I drafted ideas for another novel set in the same Counterbalance universe but a standalone, something different. Something to take to agents. Something to prove I have improved. I started work on it in April and it surprisingly began to take off. I made progress.

Then SPFBO began, a massive blog-contest for debut indie authors. I signed right the fuck up with The Thousand Scars, thinking that even if I didn’t have a chance of progressing, even a little more exposure would do the trick.

It ended up being the lifeboat I needed. I landed more connections, and my interviews for my fellow authors really helped increase exposure for them and myself. I even had a few people backing me for winning my group. . .*snorts out drink*

More people read The Thousand Scars. More people added it to their reading lists. It got some pretty damn good reviews and feedback. I made some Top 10 lists, made some huge fantasy blogs. I even got Longlisted in Booknest’s End of the Year awards for Best Debut! I still don’t know how in the name of Horse’s wrinkled ballsack I pulled that off.

Connections change things. People got excited for me and my future. I’ve been learning a lot about self-publishing, which is important for going ahead.

 

Moving forward

After the split, I decided to return to The Thousand Scars in preparation to republish it. Originally it was just going to be a coat of paint. The more I spent with it however, I decided to fully rewrite the book. While the base idea was good, it was too half baked, and I was frankly ashamed I let the book go out in that state.

Now, I’ve had a few people worry that I’m changing the book or I’ll keep going back and editing it over and over.

That is not the case. This will be the only big edits I intend to make. Most of this is fixing mistakes (Chapter Two had 11 typos alone…), and fleshing up the prose based on what I have learned. After reading the manuscript, there is no way I am letting it back into the public without a good hard seeing to.

The plot, setting and 99% of the characters will REMAIN THE SAME. Do not worry about this. Think of it as an extended edition. Now, the beginning will change slightly because it was easily the worst portion of the book according to feedback. I feel I dropped the ball too soon. Too many characters introduced in stupid ways, too soon. The more I realised this, I feel it’s a perfect chance for me to give the book what it deserves. After several months of editing and beta reading, I think the book is finally in a place where it deserves to be.

The Thousand Scars ended up getting quite the update. Included:

Fixing typos and errors across the board
Tidying up prose from beginning to end
Fleshing out characters, adding new ones from The Aegis Mora
Overhauling the beginning (said to be The Thousand Scar’s weakest point according to most reviewers) The new beginning should now be considerably stronger.
Adding more events cut from the book. Battle of Manesow, anyone? Reviewers said battles were my strong piece. Why not add a little more? There are many new scenes in the book, and nearly every original chapter has been overhauled and improved.
Diversity has also been improved, for the better I think.

The good news is The Aegis Mora (Counterbalance Book #2) is already in a decent state and in a complete one. It’ll need updates, but it’s in a good spot.

Now, what will I do with The Thousand Scars upon fixing, some may ask? I’m still mulling over the options. Self Publishing it is probably my go to plan. Release date is still undecided. I need formatting, book cover, proofreading and copyediting, and that all takes time and money I need to save up. It will happen, however. I’m determined to make it so.

That’s not all, however.

Other Projects

 

I have quite a few. Most of these are set in the same universe.

Counterbalance Series

Six book fantasy series, main project.

The Thousand Scars – Complete edited draft, in advanced stage. Awaiting proofreading.

The Aegis Mora – Got complete first draft, but needs updating in regards to the new Thousand Scars.

The Endless Worm – 40k first draft, needs complete rewrite.

After a small timeskip, the final three books of The Counterbalance series:

Dread – In planning stages

A Mortal Tide – planning

Mortal Call – Concept.

The Bonelord

A new fantasy series that I started creating in 2018 as a compliment to Counterbalance, it really took off. Will be made of four books, set in an ancient African/Greek setting.

A Skeleton’s Eye – Complete and with editor.

A Skeleton’s Heart – Concept stage.

A Skeleton’s Hand – Concept Stage

A Skeleton’s Grave – Concept Stage

 

Untitled Fantasy Series

Set in Uldur, a civil war/magic heavy series. Rebooting, start from scratch. 100k of notes and old drafts. Takes place in Uldur, on the other side of the CB universe.

Beruno’s Finest

Dragon-story set in Uldur. More “YA” than other works.

The Syndicate

10% planned novel set in Uldur.

Novellas and Short Stories

10 in planning and WIP stage.

Worldbuilding and Lorebooks with Maps

In Progress. 80k written so far, several maps in progression.

 

Rogue – Ghostwriting Scifi

In a new development, I was approached in October about writing a scifi novel with Level 4 Press. 40k so far, going quite well. I’ll give updates as I progress on this.

 

So there’s a lot in development. Onto stage 2 – Job!

 

Nine months On

 

It’s really weird how things go. I’ve been unemployed as long as I can remember before 2019.

Now, it’s been exactly since nine months since I started my job at Grimlore Games for writing, and it’s been a wild ride. I really like my job and it’s been a fascinating insight in the gaming industry. It was always an interest of mine, but for it to actually happen (and so soon) still makes me a little surprised how I managed to pull it off

Games of 2019: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

So we come to the final five. This took me an agonizingly long time to work out. If anything, I think it was harder than last year, which was no slouch in itself.

But, I finally came to my choices, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. All five of these games are brilliant in their own way, and I highly recommend them all.

Oh, and I may have broken one of my rules for this endgame. I know. I don’t care though. That game is too good not to be included.

But hey, all of these are amazing. To check out the 10-6 spots, click on the Wildermyth card below.

 

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5. Streets of Rogue

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Taking the number five spot, I bring in this amazing little gem. Originally launching in Early Access December 2017, it finally reached 1.0 July of this year. That means it qualifies for my list this year!

The EA version would have done too, let’s be honest. I’m not usually one to play rogue-like titles. I find the indie market is getting a little overly saturated with them, with every second or third entry seemingly one of these things. However, Streets of Rogue is up there with the best of them.

The best way to describe this game is: Enter the Gungeon meets Deus Ex. You’re part of a little rebellion, and you need to retake districts to defeat the corrupt government. It’s all done in a cute art style, and the gameplay is seriously addicting. It’s fast-paced, it’s tough and it’s fun. That’s what matters to me.

The gameplay loop is stunning. You get randomly generated levels to clear, and you’ll get a list of objectives. How you do them is completely up to you. Steal, kill everything, hack, free gorillas, there’s a ton of different choices, helped through a diverse cast of playstyles.

You can:

1) Play as a zombie who can infect others into friendly undead, turn people into other zombie followers that do your bidding.

2) Play as a powerful Jock who can smash through most walls and buildings with the click of a button.

3) Play as a hacker to mess around with the level systems in many different ways.

4) Play as a super-intelliegent gorilla who, despite being unable to talk to any characters, is super powerful and can free other gorillas to join you as a Planet of the Apes style assault.

That’s just four of twenty characters you can play. The amount of variation you can play with in this game is quite impressive, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it. There’s even a level editor/Workshop now in beta, giving a game that already has a lot of content even more so.

Streets of Rogue easily deserves the #5 spot in my eyes. It’s fun, challenging, has great art design, bloody, works well with controller or keypad, fairly well priced for the content and has a brilliant gameplay loop. There’s just so much to do, and it does everything pretty damn well. One of the best indie games of the decade, in my opinion.

Final Score: 9/10

 

 

 

4. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

 

Easily my favourite game on the Nintendo Switch this year, Fire Emblem Three Houses captured my heart and mind in droves. I haven’t played a huge amount of Fire Emblem in the past, so Three Houses was my first real foray into the series. So far, It’s doing a great job. I toyed for a long time where to sit this game. It’s good enough to be my GOTY, no questions asked. I think my final choices boiled down to how much I enjoy them, and how much they mean to me. This #4 spot doesn’t take anything away from how much I like this game, just…the top three games just meant a bit more to me on a personal level.

That’s all.

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It’s a weird mix of Harry Potter and classic turn-based combat, with a massive campaign to boot. It’s really impressive how it does the dialogue as well. There’s dozens of characters, all fully voice acted (With the exception of you, the master teacher dude who helps take a house to victory), and they all have their different personalities. The game really makes me feel for them, and because death is permamant, losing them hurts.

You have to pick between three Houses and follow them from the beginning to the end: The Black Eagles, The Blue Lions, and the Golden Deer. Each have their own strengths to start. I went with the Black Eagles, partly because I really like their cast of students, and partly because I was most drawn to Edelgard, the head of house who felt the most prepared for the war.

The first big section of the game is training them in a monestary, taking up tasks and getting to know them. This is the Harry Potter element, just with actual good writing. (Sorry, JK Rowling fans!) You get to know your students, train them however you wish and carry out mercenary goals throughout, getting them ready for the ultimate war. Whichever House you pick, you know you have to fight and kill the other two eventually. You can recruit others from different houses, but only if you can convince them. It really becomes a test of how much you can prepare, and I really felt drawn to every character. In Garreg Mach (The monestary), you can dine with students, fish, garden, and shop, among other activities to improve your skills. There’s a lot of dialogue in these sections, and improving relationships between the others unlocks a ton of support cutscenes. There’s so much here and most of it is really well written.

While the combat isn’t as in depth as I’d like, it’s fun and challenging with a lot to consider. Because the characters are so well done, you really feel out of the way to protect them. Losing someone hurts like balls, but there is a reverse time option you can use to repeat a battle or several turns. I like this because it gives you some way to make up for mistakes, and it’s balanced.

I have yet to complete Three Houses, but I’m greatly enjoying it so far. In my eyes, it deserves it’s current spot. The only reason it’s not higher is the top three games this year just felt a bit closer to home than all others. The bar is raised so high that there was no other place for it.

Final score: 9.1/10

 

 

And for the interlude, here is a photo of a fluffy duck, courtesy of Lost Ember (Awesome game)

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And now, we come to the big three for 2019. The gap between all these games is incredibly tight, but these three could almost be a tie in how good they are. However, I did manage to number them, so here we go.

Then again, what is reality anyway?

 

3. Enderal: Forgotten Stories

 

Welcome to the game that broke my rules. You know, originally I had this in Honorable Mentions. As a mod and a game that originally came out in 2016, I initally decided that it couldn’t belong in my Top 10. But you know what? Fuck it.

Calling it just a mod of Skyrim isn’t only not doing Enderal justice, it’s downright fucking insulting. It’s a seperate, vibrant and stunning RPG in it’s own right, and one of the best games not just of the year, but of the decade. Enderal completed its full big 1.0 release on Valentines Day this year. For that reason, I decided to bring it into my Top 10 under the: Early Access that launched fully this year rule. I think it fits, because Forgotten Stories is the finished article, and the quinessential experience. It’s that good.

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It’s awesome. Seriously. I’m happy to break my own rules to put it in the Top 5 spot. It really should be GOTY, but well, you’ll just have to read on.

For the full review, click the link down below:

Enderal: Forgotten Stories Review

Enderal Forgotten Stories is a massive total conversion mod for Skyrim, made by the great SureAI team, and it is better than ever. Even better, you can download and play it right off Steam for free, without the need for its own launcher or anything silly like that. All you need to own is a copy of the original Skyrim. This is a huge improvement on the old launcher and Steam makes it nice and easy to plug and play. It just runs like an ordinary game.

Yes. I know it’s a mod. I don’t care. SureAI has been making this total conversion for a long time, ever since Skyrim released back in November 2011. They have been responsible for making other total conversions such as Nehrim for Oblivion, and the lesser known Arktwend for Morrowind, which I am currently playing at the moment! Nehrim was another excellent experience, although it currently lacks English voice acting. It’s appeared on Steam though, so I expect it to get similar treatment to Enderal, hopefully. I really want to give Nehrim another go.

And Enderal is just brilliant. The writing is great, the voice acting across the board is superb, and everything just feels tight.

Enderal: Forgotten Stories has added a fair few new quests including a new secret third ending to its lengthy main questline (which is really cool) and two pretty chunky side questlines: The Golden Sickle and the Ralatha. Both are pretty cool with some open-ended ways to complete them, but I seriously recommend the Ralatha. It’s one of the best questlines I’ve seen in a video game, let alone a mod.

Some of the best visual, storytelling and character moments take place in this questline and I highly recommend you make a beeline for it when you get the chance. There’s a serious case of “Holy-hellism” with this part of the game and the main character Tharaêl is beautifully well written from start to finish. It’s fairly short, being just six quests, but the quality is right there.

I can’t say too much more. It’s free if you own Vanilla Skyrim on Steam. Download it on there and play it. It’s stunning. The only reason it’s not higher is because I wanted to give the final two games on my list a bit more credit. Otherwise, Enderal would easily win this year. No doubt about it. Go check it out, read my full review. I go into the game with a bit more detail.

Final score: 9.3/10

 

 

 

The final two. I can’t describe in words how difficult it was to list these. I spent days thinking about it, swapping them back and forth on my list. However, I finally came to a decision, so here goes. Number two of the year belongs to:

 

2. Disco Elysium

I don’t even know where to begin with a game like this. It feels like it’s some kind of twisted, fucked drug experiment where a team is locked in a house for six months, dripfed all kinds of nacrotics and are told to come up with a video game. And this is it, Disco Elysium.

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I’m kinda stunned how good it felt, playing a game like this. I view it almost as a spiritual successor to Planescape Torment in terms of writing. There is zero combat in the game at all, with all actions done through dialogue and skill checks. You play as a drunkard, slightly fucked in the head cop who has to solve a murder case, but there’s just oodles of shit to discover. I died the first time trying to grab my tie from the ceiling fan.

Yep. It’s one of those games. There’s a ton of reading, so if you don’t like that, back the fuck away. The writing is…weird. You have all sorts of skills and personalities battling it out inside your booze and drug addled mind, arguing throughout for supremancy. The game writing and dialogue is bonkers, and your character comes up with all sorts of weird shit, but otherwise, how can I fault it? Disco Elysium is rather cleverly written with a mountain of lore. In fact, what pissed me off most about this game was that there’s no in-game glossary that keeps track of the dialogue. It made me want to write down notes like a true detective, though I would’ve liked an in-game glossary.

The characters are all really well done, weird and slightly fucked in the head (see where I’m going?) in an odd, victorian style open world. It’s point and click, with so many things to see and discover. The mood is dark, grubby and unsettling, but that’s what draws me to it. (The #1 game is even worse for this. Wicked laugh)

The RPG elements work in that you can level up different aspects of yourself like logic, reaction time, composure and endurance, and as those skills come up in conversation, you are having not only dialogue with the npcs but also yourself on how to proceed. It’s a bizzare way in how to make an RPG, but a stunning one. I’ve never seen anything like this in a long time, and it might be the best written RPG since Planescape Torment and Bloodlines. It is odd, however, and I found myself sometimes taken out of touch by the wacky choices.

I don’t know what else to say. Were it not for another similarly nilhistic and cruel setting, Disco Elysium would have been my GOTY. However, there’s one more nail in the coffin to go. Give it a go. I dare you.

Final score: 9.4/10

 

 

And we come to it, at last. I spent far too much time and drank too much coffee making up my mind this year. Coming in at number one is…

…..

 

…..

 

…..

 

 

1. Pathologic 2

 

This photo sums up Pathologic 2 in a nutshell. It really asks the question. Do games have to be enjoyable to be good?

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Most of the time, yes. Pathologic 2 is brutal and punishing, and half the time I didn’t enjoy playing it. It takes your comfort zone and sticks a rusted knife up it’s arse, making you scream in frustration. I have died so many times in this game, to the point I had to restart the game from the beginning. It’s cruel, and it relentlessly punishes you if you fuck up. And you will fuck up.

Oh, it’s not perfect. It’s deeply frustrating, and the graphics, while good at times, are dated. It’s badly optimized up the arse, and every time I’ve opened a door, there’s a long loading screen when the FPS plummets to single digits. It’s not even complete, with two other playable characters yet to be released (and possibly never will. Boo.)

But christ, did this game speak out to me. The writing is stunning and speaks volumes for humanity. It’s an immersive sim, with some absolutely brutal survival mechanics. Your hunger meter, sleep, health and exhaustion are all vital to be managed, and stopping yourself from starving is a nightmare. Prioritize food at all costs, because food prices skyrocket from Day 2 onwards. The in-game economy is split between barter and coin, and every item has use to some people.

Oh, the game ends after 12 days. There’s an unstoppable plague preparing to fuck up this town, and you can’t save everyone. You can’t follow every thread. Pick your fights carefully. Time does not wait for you. It advances no matter what you do. It’s another reason why I love this game so much.

Oh, and combat is a mess. You don’t play this game to fight. Good luck taking them. This game is out for you from beginning to end, but I was so drawn into this game. It’s one of the few games that I felt compelled to keep playing, no matter how badly I was doing. Steal, beg, trade and kill to survive. And yes, nobody is safe in this game. Starving, my character was forced into killing a house full of innocent people just to live for another few hours.

Fuck. This game is amazing. It’s weird, you know. Pathologic 2 has so many mechanics in it that should make it a horrible experience:

You move slow as a snail
Timed missions, and you can’t complete everything.
Permanent penalty for death/failure
Survival partially dependant on RNG while looting or trading
The UI is a bit of a mess
Absolutely brutal survival mechanics

But none of this matters. The game’s atmosphere and story is brilliant, and the way the world slowly degrades into hell drew me in from the start. I mean, just look at this!

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Pathologic 2 spoke out to me beyond any other game this year (except Enderal) and while it was a difficult challenge trying to work out where to put this game, I eventually gave this my GOTY spot. To those who want a challenging yet carthatic RPG, Pathologic 2 is as brutal and compelling as they come. I’m as surprised as you are that this game won, but I don’t regret it for a minute.

Final score: 9.5/10

2019 gave me by far the hardest challenge this time. Too many games. We’re not done yet, though! Join me soon, for my Top 10 games of the decade.

What the fuck have I done to myself…

 

SPFBO Author Interview: Darian Smith

Getting close to the end of the year! Today I’m with Darian Smith, one of our SPFBO finalists!

 

 

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write? 

My name is Darian Smith and I’m the author of Kalanon’s Rising, one of the SPFBO finalists this year.  I’m a New Zealand author and I usually write fantasy – often mixed with other things. The series I’m writing at the moment is murder mysteries in a fantasy world.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters? 

I’m a planner so I do have character sheets and a scene-by-scene breakdown of how I want it to go.  That is pretty fluid though and the characters feed into the plot a lot. When I’m at the planning stage there are pieces of paper with words and post-it notes strewn across the house.  It’s a bit of a mess, to be honest, but it makes sense to me. Mostly.

 

Tell us about your current project.

I’m currently working on the third book in the Agents of Kalanon series.  There’s another bunch of murders for Brannon and the others to solve and some more secrets from their pasts to be revealed.  One of Draeson’s big secrets gets exposed in this book so that’s fun.

 

Is this your first entry into SPFBO? If not, how many times have you entered?

This was my first time entering. A good friend and fellow writer told me about SPFBO and suggested I enter – and I’m glad I did!  It’s been a great competition not just for the good fortune of getting to the finals but also for connecting with many other wonderful writers.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them! 

Brannon is the main character although it’s a bit of an ensemble cast.  He was a war hero and people still refer to him as Bloodhawk, but he feels bad about what he had to do to protect his country and has retrained as a physician since the war ended in an attempt to balance the scales.  Duty is very important to him though and when he is called on to solve the murder of a royal family member, he will do whatever it takes to get the job done – especially since failing to do so could restart the war.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

Read heaps, learn heaps about story structure and the craft of writing, and remember that, while people talk about talent, writing is also a skill and skills require practice to build up.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

Because the characters in my world come from a variety of different countries, I wanted their cultural backgrounds to reflect that.  I drew inspiration from elements of renaissance Europe for Kalanon, elements of Asia for Nilar, and elements of African and Pacific nations for the Djin.  But of course this is a fantasy world so they’re elements of culture and aesthetic that I twisted, changed, and adapted as a starting point for my world – they’re in no way intended to represent those places or people.  I also wanted to show how the two enemy nations were in many ways similar despite their differences and drew inspiration from real-life religion to do that. In the Agents of Kalanon world, both Kalanon and Nilar follow the same three gods but some of the ways they pay respect to those gods are different.  For example, Nilarians wear hats so the gods have something pretty to look at when they gaze down on humanity and Kalans don’t. They differ on the origin story of one of the gods as well. Real life religious history is full of tiny differences that get blown into huge cultural significance and cause wars despite the people essentially following the same root religion that espouses kindness to everyone.  It shows how silly humans can be at latching onto things to hate each other for.

 

What inspires you to write?

I’ve always written.  It’s been a love-hate relationship at times but I’ve always made up stories in my head and over the years I’ve gotten better at writing them.  All sorts of things will spark an idea and then it sits in the back of my mind until it coalesces into something useable. Some story ideas take longer than others to go through that process!

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Like most books – finding the time and energy to actually sit myself down and do it.  I still have a day job that pays most of the bills and is demanding of my focus so it’s easy to lose the balance that allows me to keep some of myself back to be creative with.

 

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not?

I try to do a little writing each evening.  I’m not a particularly fast writer but I tend to edit as I go so when I’m finished it’s a pretty clean draft. That means I’ve had to learn not to get too uptight about comparing myself to some writers who knock out thousands of words in an hour because I know if I did that I would end up deleting most of them.  When I’m away from my day job I can get much more written – partly because obviously I have more time and energy and partly because momentum is a real thing for a writer!

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why? 

Writing the action/climax parts is always exciting. But also I love writing the banter between characters.  When that’s sparking it’s as much fun for me as a writer as it is for a reader. I’ll quite often wander out to my wife and be like “OMG, you’ll never guess what just said!”

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

That scenes with a lot of characters present are hard!  It can be tricky to make sure they’re all present and contributing and it took a bit of work to get the balance right in places.

 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A gardener or an architect?

I’m definitely a plotter.  I’m not a fan of the plotting process as such – it kinda feels like pulling teeth – but I like having a clear idea of where I’m going with the story and given that I’m writing mysteries I need to know where to plant the clues.  I also find that once my brain is freed from having to come up with the main plot points, it can start coming up with fun little details for each scene that I probably wouldn’t have thought of if I was having to figure out the broad strokes of the plot as I went.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it? 

This is where I believe my counselling training has been really beneficial for me.  I use a lot of the counselling theory and psychology to develop my characters and make sure I have a good grasp of how they tick.  I even teach workshops on the subject and have written a book called The Psychology Workbook for Writers: Tools for Creating Realistic Characters and Conflict in Fiction.  Basically I perverted my education to create drama rather than help resolve it as was intended – but only in fiction! In real life I use these powers for good. Honest. Mostly. 

Games of 2019: Interlude

Since I like keeping some suspense before revealing my Top 5 of the year, I thought I’d talk a bit about some other games I’ve played in 2019. Nothing huge or too in detail, just little thoughts here and there.

And because I like teasing. Let’s give this a go.

 

Heaven’s Vault

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A game that I toyed with a lot whether it deserved to be on my Top 10 or not over the year, I eventually decided on regulating it to this little talk. Which is a shame, because it is a really cool game with a lot of promise. Don’t take that as anything to count against Heaven’s Vault. I think in the end, I just didn’t play enough of it. Believe me, I will be during the coming weeks.

In Heaven’s Vault you play as an archeologist translating ancient text through a really interesting narrative. It’s wide open with lots of choices, and while I’m only a few hours in I like the artistic style and the gameplay. It’s almost a visual novel in many ways, and has quite a lot of charm.

When I play more, I’ll be happy to give this a proper review.

 

Supraland
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What an adorable and awesome idea for a game! Taking place inside a sandpit, Supraland borrows elements from Portal, Metroid and Zelda in a really fun platform/puzzle adventure. There’s just so much joy in playing this, and there’s a literal sandpit of stuff to do, jumps to make, and puzzles to solve. You are given a very basic start in story and sent off to do your thing. There’s no voice acting, the graphics while nice are pretty basic, but it’s the gameplay that matters.

It’s just nice to play a cool, open ended metroidvania style game like this. It’s as if something shoved Portal and Metroid in a blender of sand, mixed it to shit up and brought out this beauty. It’s really quite endearing and like Heaven’s Vault, if I had more time to play it, it could have easily been on one of my Top 10 lists.

And they’re making a sequel. That’s awesome; it deserves the recognition it gets.

 

Eastshade

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Coming out early in 2019, Eastshade is a very unique take on an open world RPG. There’s no combat at all: you are a painter, in a beautiful and strange forest setting. All you do is travel the island, draw pictures, and sell them to locals for secrets and items.

It’s a really zen way to play, if I’m honest, and I’d like to see more games like so. It really is a beautiful game, and the world design is quite unique. There’s a mix of races, humans and strange humanoid talking animals. The narrative is quite sweet. You’re travelling to this strange land to paint landscapes for your mother back home, but a shipwreck keeps you in this world. There’s a very nice feel to everything, and while the voice acting isn’t amazing, it’s high quality for such a small team. The soundtrack and ambience of it all is impressive too; it really feels like I’m with nature.

Some people might call this game boring, and that’s fair – some people will find its general lack of direction and combat a slog. But there’s a really cool and memorable game here if you have the patience and daring to go out there and give it a chance.

ATOM RPG

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I’ve had a lot of fun with this one. It’s an excellent post-apocalyptic indie game, inspired by classic CRPGs: Fallout, Wasteland, Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate and many others. I’d call it the spiritual successor of Fallout 2 in several ways, and it’s a pretty good piece of kit.

I also interviewed the devs:

Game Dev Interview: Atom RPG

There’s an excellent character creation, a good sense of freedom and a solid base for a strong RPG here. Like all good RPGs, quests are variable and have plenty of ways to complete them, and there’s a very good way to customize your character with skill points. I’m only a few hours into the game so far, but I’m finding it strong. There’s crafting, difficult but fair combat, really fun quests and even base building in times.

Even better, ATOM RPG is pretty damn affordable, you can buy it for just over £10/15$. The guys behind it continue to support it with new content as well.

 

Apologies this article took so long to come out. Hopefully at the weekend, I will upload and complete the big one: My Top 5 games of 2019. It’s going to be fun!

SPFBO Author Interview: Eddie Skelson

Been a while! I have a few interviews left, so let’s do this

Games of 2019: 10-6

This has been an interesting year for gaming, and I’ve managed to play quite a lot this year as well! This should be a fun series for the end of 2019 that gives a bit of insight into what I’ve been doing when I should be writing my books.

This is about video gaming, and the immense juggernaut which shows no signs of slowing down. Problems in gaming still remain of course, but I’ve rather enjoyed the new games this year.

This year my annual gaming awards in December will come in several parts. I’ll have two articles exploring my favourite games of the year (The big top 10), as well as one that explores games I haven’t talked about for a while. There’s quite a few.

Anyway, let’s get down to it! Seriously, I’ve had a real challenge this year. I’m still not 100% convinced by the ordering of these.

 

Number 10: Outward

Let’s start with one of the most interesting RPG concepts in a long time.

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I had a real challenge with this game on where to stick it in my list. Do I mention it at all? Do I stick it in Honorable Mentions? Where the fuck do I put it?

I was torn between three games for my Number 10 spot, three very similar RPGs that suffered considerable gaps in one way or another. You know about two of them: Greedfall and The Outer Worlds. After a lot of debate with myself, I decided to go with Outward. Why?

Well, one, it’s my choice, so fuck it. Two, I felt more attached to this game than I did the other two games. Something really drew me to it. It’s a game made by a very small dev team. Being on one myself, I have the utmost respect to them, as they had the balls to make a lot of big risks and releasing this behemoth into the world. An indie studio launching a AAA esque title (with some pretty serious marketing I might add) out there, especially a game like Outward, which is a little out there itself, takes a lot of courage to do. It does a lot of things well, and a lot of things…not so well.

What can I say about Outward? One, the game doesn’t fuck around. It’s got a required taste, and that will put a lot of players off. It almost feels like a single player MMO in places. There are some pretty brutal survival mechanics: you need to eat, drink and sleep to stay alive. Food rots quickly, and eating spoiled food will make you sick, making a challenging game even more difficult. Oh, and there’s no fast travel or any clue where you’re going on the map. You need to plan things out. There’s a little tutorial to get you started, but apart from that you’re thrown right into it with zero handholding.

When the story begins, you start off with your house at risk of being repossessed, and you have a few days to stump up the cash. From there, the world is your oyster, though the game doesn’t end if you die. Instead, one of many events might happen. Oh, and you can’t save manually either. Everything you do stays on. No save scumming, no reloading bad choices. Have fun! There’s lots of different factions and playstyles, and you can only spec into a couple of each every playthrough, so there is a lot of replayability out there.

While the combat can be clunky, there is a sense of achievement in working things out, and while magic is extremely powerful, you need to unlock it, then invest a lot of your skills into it. There’s quite a lot of depth into the combat, and while it reminds me a little like Pirahna Bytes games at times, and not in a good way, it does get the job done. There’s also many different enemies in the game, all with their different attack styles. Fighting in this game can be pretty punishing.

The game also feels dated in many ways. The open world is fairly barren at times, but the exploration aspects are actually pretty well done. There’s a lot of cool things to discover on the map (and it’s a big map), but it does feel sparse in places. The graphics aren’t great, but they’re good enough for getting the job done, and for such a small dev team size, I think they did a pretty good job overall.

There’s a lot of ambition and love in this game, just I think the MMO-esque part of it shows up a bit too much with a general lack of wealth in terms of towns. The lack of voice acting overall doesn’t help it, and I’ve had my share of nasty bugs as well. Nothing too damaging, but with a game that you can’t reload, it can be pretty unrelenting. No fast travel also puts a lot of emphasis into walking, and with its rough survival mechanics playing, I found a lot of my gameplay was a walking simulator. I didn’t dislike it, but it could’ve been done better. At least give us some fast travel options, even if we need to work for it.

I think the 10 slot is the best place to put Outward. I overall rather enjoyed it, more than I liked Greedfall and The Outer Worlds anyway. With a little more work, Outward can be turned from a good game into an excellent one.

Final Score: 8/10

 

 

 

Number 9: Planet Zoo

After what I feel was the disaster of Jurassic World Evolution, I went into Planet Zoo with more than just my fingers crossed. I know they had to rush it because of movie thing etc etc, but it was still a mess.

So…What did I think of Planet Zoo?

Well, it’s better than Jurassic World Evolution. A lot better frankly, and thank fuck for that.

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Just look at that cute face!

Planet Zoo is a game that I think a lot of people have wanted for a long time. A new age zoo simulation game that’s not a decade old or crap, unlike some of the stupid attempts to reboot Zoo Tycoon from back in the day. And like many others, I wanted a fresh new take on the zoo management genre.

Overall, I think Frontier did a good job. If only they made JWE like this… Anyway.

If you’ve ever played Planet Coaster, you would notice the similarities between that and Planet Zoo. In fact, most of the features are the same. Except, instead of having rides, we have animal exhibits that are fully customisable. Like Zoo Tycoon, you create your exhibits so you can cater to your animals needs and welfare, which plays an important role in having an impressive zoo.

This game is freaking gorgeous in how they got the animal animation. They really went above their weight in making everything feel good, and despite a few glitches here and there, the game holds its own in this regard beautifully. The animals are truly a sight to see, and I can spend many hours just taking the camera and watching them.

Sadly I can’t do that all the time unless I want them to starve to death. The game has a lot of micromanagement when it comes to keeping your animals content, and while there’s no shortage of things to do, it can be a bit frustrating to get it all in balance. There’s some pretty nice tutorial parks to get your feet wet, but besides that, it can be a struggle to remember everything.

Once again, while Frontier loves making these really pretty games, they can leave something to be desired in performance. Like Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo starts to tank your system hard when parks reach a certain size. And there’s some wonkiness to the time scale. Time advances so quickly that animals do age and die out pretty fast, which is a real thorn in this games side. Makes matters worse when they breed on lightspeed too.

However, I feel strongly connected to Planet Zoo. It’s a solid performance all round, and potentially better than Planet Coaster. This is the game Frontier should have made from the beginning.

Final score: 8/10

 

Number 8: Unity of Command 2

 

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It took me a long time to decide on who gets this spot. What game belongs here? I’ve played a lot of titles this year, many games.

However, based on a late surge the past couple of weeks, I eventually decided upon Unity of Command 2. It’s nice playing a good strategy game again, and we don’t get that many anymore. Unity of Command 2 not only fits the bill, but it’s a pretty strong pick all round.

World War Two has so many games out there guzzling upon its corpse, but I’m happy to say that this game has done a good job. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, to be honest.

I only played a bit of the original, and while I enjoyed it, I found it was lacking. Fortunately, Unity of Command 2 is an excellent sequel that expands a lot on the original game. It’s base mechanics are there in force, but everything else including tactical use of force, maintenance and disruption of supply lines, etc. have been expanded and enhanced to add both complexity and depth to the game-play. There’s a good amount of content here, and the logistics in-game is quite compelling. Winning missions through cutting off supplies and weakening the enemy forces, watching them dwindle and weaken over turns until they were easily destroyed…

I may have a problem. There’s a lot to like in this game for certain. I haven’t played a great deal of it yet, hence the relatively short review, but I love strategy games with an emphasis on logistics, and UOC2 goes some way in allowing that. Pretty good so far, and it’s made an impact on me.

Final score: 8.1/10

 

 

Number 7: Lost Ember

 

This game really took me by surprise, and I wasn’t expecting to be affected in such a way. I’m not usually one to be drawn to these “art” style games, but Lost Ember did it for me, and that alone is a reason to rank it as highly as I did.

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Tasteful photo of wolf ass aside, you start off as the spirit of a woman who has died, and you’re helped by a spirit guide to find the City of Light to be allowed back into heaven. The story is quite compelling, and I found myself both drawn in and affected by the game as it played out. It starts off fairly happy, but it really ramps up in terms of emotions, and I really felt for both main characters. The story takes a really dark and sad turn, but it ends on a beautiful note.

Lost Ember gives you a bunch of chapters in big open spaces to explore, and while it’s fairly linear, you get some opportunities to run about. You can transform into several different animals to get around the map easier, and it’s these cute moments where the game really shines. It’s part walking simulator, part platformer in many ways, but I had so much fun in these segments. You can fly as a parrot or duck, swim as a fish, climb as a mountain goat, dig tunnels as a mole…there’s some depth into these mechanics, and you need them for some sections of the game.

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I mean, just look at how cute they are! Like I said, I’m not usually drawn to games like this, but Lost Ember made it a first time for everything. I really liked all the little mechanics, and the swimming segments of the game are perhaps the best part. It feels quite a lot like ABZU, and jumping about in the water as a fish and exploring the lakes feels very zen.

Zen is a good way to describe this game. I felt very peaceful when playing it and even when the story is over (It’s not a very long game), there’s lots of collectables to pick up. And I feel compelled to go back into the game and try to collect anything. No other game does that for me. I hardly ever want to try and 100% a video game. I want to with this, even if it means replaying the game from scratch.

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The game is also quite gorgeous in places. The art style is pretty good, and while there isn’t much voice acting apart from the spirit guide and the stop action cutscenes, it feels solid overall.

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The game isn’t perfect of course: I’ve seen a few visual glitches, a couple of crashes here and there, and I wish some of the cutscenes were animated. It’s also a little short for its pricetag: the game takes about 7 hours to complete if you take your time. However, I’m not going to count against it too badly. It’s a real surprise of the year for me, and I’m very happy I’m playing it. Overall, solid all around.

Final score: 8.2/10

 

 

Number 6: Wildermyth

Holy shit did this game come in at the right time. I’ve been debating putting this game higher up my list…but I think #6 is the best place. It could very much rise higher in the coming weeks, but like Lost Ember, it crept up on me during November.

Come to think of it, a few games did. Huh. Funny how things go, sometimes.

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I’ll make it sweet: I really think highly about Wildermyth. To describe it best: I’d say it’s a roleplaying fan’s dream. The game launched in early access just in November (and I feel it is the best early access title right now, hence why it takes the one EA spot on my list for 2019), and already I’m having a lot of fun.

At it’s heart, it’s designed for you to make your own characters and campaigns, and there’s already two base campaigns in the game for you to enjoy, with a ton of generated events, battles and content for you, as well as two randomized campaigns with a bit more variation. I’ve played one so far, and starting a second campaign.  I found it humerous, well written and enjoyable to play. There’s also a massive amount of variation, and every campaign feels different. Your characters age and change, form relationships depending on events, get wounded, get random buffs or even die.

There’s also a beautiful artistic style to the game that really grabs my attention. The art style in Wildermyth is a mixture of cartoons and paper, capturing 2D characters in a 3D enviroment during the battle mode. Their movements are basic, but it’s done well, and the fighting system has a wonderful, simple loop. There’s lots of different weapons and abilities to pick up, and the magic system is unique and well-made, giving mages cool ways to unleash their terror upon the battlefield. I really enjoy the combat system, one of the best I’ve seen in an RPG.

The nice thing about Wildermyth is again, the customization. This is designed so you can make your own characters, campaigns and scenarios. You can edit your characters appearance and write up their histories. Here’s a few of my own characters from a previous campaign:

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There is a serious amount of depth brewing in this gem of a game. It’s still fairly early in development, but has a lot of content already. I could see this game becoming a massive hit in 2020 if the devs continue the pace they have with it, with more campaigns to come. The artistic style is cute and fresh, the gameplay is extremely satisfying with a good range of in-game events, the enemies are diverse and there’s plenty of choices for difficulty. Want it to be a fun romp, or a Dark Souls murderfest? The choice is yours.

You can even read about the devs visions by clicking on the picture down below. I interviewed them!

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Final score: 8.5/10

 

Whew, that was a long one. Stay tuned, because there’s a lot more games where that came from.

What was your favourite games of 2019? Feel free to let me know!

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Game Dev Interview: Wildermyth

Got a very nice dev interview to show with you guys: Nate Austin, owner of Worldmaker Games and the lead dev behind Wildermyth, a really cool game.

Quoting the steam page, “Wildermyth is a myth-making tactical RPG. It empowers you to craft iconic characters who grow through deep, rewarding battles and interactive storytelling.”

I’ve had a lot of fun with this excellent game so far, and I recommend you give it a shot. Go pick it up here! Click on the legacy card from one of my earlier playthroughs to go to the steam page.

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And now to Nate. Enjoy!

 

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you do?

 

My Name is Nate Austin, I’m the owner (along with my wife Annie) of Worldwalker Games LLC, and the lead developer for Wildermyth. I do a lot of things these days but nominally I’m a programmer. I also do a fair bit of design, communication, marketing, project planning, and administration.

 

What does being a game designer actually mean?

 

Because games are so different from each other, “game designer” doesn’t have a single meaning. For Wildermyth, it just means someone who has played enough and understands enough of the game to intelligently propose changes and additions. So this includes most of our team members and some of our players. It’s a pretty darn vague definition, particularly for our game, which is a mash-up of a bunch of different stuff.

 

In a broader sense, a game designer is someone who’s willing to grapple with all the nitty gritty systems that go into a game, and to do the hard work of following the consequences of design decisions through each of those systems. An ability/willingness to analyze systems, think in story terms, empathize with various types of players, and just generally imagine your way through the game time after time with small tweaks applied… That’s what I think it generally mean.

 

There has been a great deal of controversy in recent years about micro transactions in gaming. Not so much an opinion, but why do games tend to cut out content to sell later as DLC and lootboxes? Is it to do with development costs? Or is it time related?

 

Making a game is expensive, and the market is crowded with great games. Developers, particularly at big studios where there are investors involved, are under a lot of pressure to make money just to stay in business. Many more people want to make games than the market can fully support. This makes things even worse. It’s not that developers are evil or lazy, it’s just business realities.

 

As a self-funded studio, we have the luxury of being able to make our own decisions about stuff like that, and we’ve decided not to do microtransactions or lootboxes. For us, making a game we’re proud of is a top priority. We may decide to sell some DLC after we launch the game. We need to make money at this if we’re going to keep doing it.

 

We’ve put in, at this point, 5 years of our lives, and that’s time we could have been making money doing something else. So the pressure to earn it back is real. Hopefully the game is a hit and we’ll be able to keep producing more content for a long time. But if not, we’ll have to go get real jobs again.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

Wildermyth is a character-driven procedurally generated tactical RPG. You start with a band of farmers, take up arms, and over time turn them into iconic heroes. They have histories and personalities, they age, get in relationships, get maimed, die, retire, and new faces come in. Your favorite heroes go into your legacy and can be recruited in to future playthroughs. The game uses a papercraft aesthetic and stories are delivered in a comic format. The stories are different every time you play, and take your heroes’ personalities into account.

 

It’s a behemoth. We think it’s pretty cool.

 

As anyone who creates anything, we must all deal with criticism from consumers. How do you go about it particularly in the prolific and viral standard of gaming today?

 

We are very active about communicating with our audience. We try to respond to every piece of communication through every channel we can (steam, discord, reddit, social media, bug reports, etc..) We don’t always succeed at this, and we won’t be able to keep it up as the game scales, but it’s the goal.

 

This is an approach that I learned when working at Riot Games and I think it works really well. Most of the time players just want to be heard. When they feel ignored, lied to, exploited, that’s when things get toxic. If you’re really present in the community, there’s much less of a chance for things to turn sour. But, once they do, it’s VERY hard to fix it.

 

As a developer I want to be programming, making the game better, but in truth it’s really important to take time away from that to talk to players first.

 

What advice would you give budding developers into taking the plunge into game design?

 

Make something. Make something small first, smaller than you think could possibly be fun. It will still be surprisingly complex and you’ll learn so much more from a finished project than an unfinished one. Read books and articles, but not too many. Focus on making things, and the lessons the books and articles contain will make so much more sense.

 

If you still have time to play video games, what are some of your favorite ones to play?

 

We don’t have much time these days with 2 small kids, but we still play D&D, I’ve been playing a lot of Rimoworld, some Baba is You, and we use to play a ton of XCOM, Skyrim, Portal…

 

What inspires you to do what you do?

 

I’ve wanted to make games since I was little, so this is pretty easy. For our current project, playing Dungeons & Dragons is actually a big one. We wanted to capture the sort of free-wheeling storytelling experience that you can have at a tabletop. Obviously there are huge limitations in a computer game, but it’s definitely a big inspiration.

 

Reading fantasy novels, and watching movies/ shows (Avatar: TLA, Korra, Dragon Prince, Secret of Kells), and lately, reading the stories that people tell about the heroes they’ve made in our game, which is an unexpected and super cool thing.

 

What is the hardest part of your job?

 

All the non-programming stuff. There’s just so much STUFF that has to happen to release a game, and someone has to do it. Dealing with build systems, version control issues, infrastructure, reading crash reports, talking to people when I’d rather be “working,” responding to emails, researching publishers, researching marketing best practices, filling out forms… So much stuff. But at the end of the day we’re our own bosses and that means a lot. It’s a powerful motivation to get the stuff done anyway.

 

What was your favorite thing about game development? Is there anything you find difficult or challenging in dealing with the struggles?

 

My favorite thing is laying out a new system, or executing a clever optimization, something like that. I really enjoy the craft, and I like building stuff. But that work is pretty rare, and in fact I save it up to reward myself for getting through a lot of the more “boring” parts of my job.

 

Personally, I’ve struggled a lot with social isolation over the last few years. Since we’re a self funded team and we work from home, there’s not much social interaction in my day. That’s been really hard.

 

What lessons have you learned from your first game?

 

Ha. Make it smaller. Don’t write your own engine. I don’t know, that last one’s tricky. We did build our own engine, and it was a pretty questionable decision, but it made me a much better game programmer, so it’s a tricky one.

 

Definitely though, I wish we had kept the scope down a bit, and picked an idea that had more of a clear “hook” or “gimmick” than “A fantasy RPG.” I think when a lot of people look at our game, they see something very generic, even though we’ve worked hard to make sure that it isn’t. That’s a tough one.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

We’ll be working on Wildermyth for quite some time if all goes well. We’ve just hit Early Access, so we need to get to 1.0, and then assuming that goes well, we will work on supporting that and adding DLC. After that, we’re not sure, but we have some fun ideas.

 

If you couldn’t be an game developer, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

I’d like to work on software tools (for artists, or other game/content developers.) I think I’d be good at it and get a lot of satisfaction out of making people’s workflow easier, more efficient, safer, etc.. Most software we use is pretty bad, but it doesn’t have to be!

 

What is your ideal video game if money and time was no object?

 

Well, this is embarrassing but we’re sortof making it already. There are a few things we would change if we had 10x the money, but, not too many things. We’d probably have a real office and ideally a local team, and a producer, community manager, and one or two more programmers.  Things would get done faster. But Wildermyth is definitely the passion project.

 

SPFBO Author Interview: Sergio Pereira

Happy Advent everybody! We now have our ten finalists, huge congrats to them and everyone who got involved

This time, I bring Sergio Pereira to the table with his awesome titled book. Go check him out!

 

 

Check out my ongoing interviews for SPFBO5 down below:

SPFBO Author Interview: Troy A. Hill

SPFBO Author Interview: Jon Auerbach

SPFBO Author Interview: L.K. Evans

SPFBO Halloween Interview: Mark Huntley James

SPFBO Author Interview: Angela Boord

SPFBO Author Interview: Deston J. Munden

SPFBO Author Interview: Huw Steer

SPFBO Author Interview: E.L. Drayton

SPFBO Author Interview: R. A. Denny

SPFBO Author Interview: CF Welburn

SPFBO Author Interview: Steve Turnbull

SPFBO Author Interview: Nicholas Hoy

SPFBO Author Interview: Phil Williams

SPFBO Author Interview: Luke Tarzian

SPFBO Author Intrview: L. L. Thomsen

SPFBO Author Interview: Clayton Snyder

SPFBO Author Interview: M. H. Thaung

SPFBO Author Interview: Keith Blenman

SPFBO Author Interview: David Reiss

SPFBO Author Interview: R.M. Callahan

SPFBO Author Interview – Aaron Hodges

SPFBO Author Interview: I. W. Ferguson

SPFBO Author Interview: Vincent Bobbe

SPFBO Author Interview: Aiki Flinthart

SPFBO Author Interview: Alexzander Christion

SPFBO Author Interview: Laura VanArendonk Baugh

SPFBO Author Interview: Kristen S. Walker

 

 

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write? 

 

Hi! The name’s Sergio Pereira. I’m a writer from Johannesburg, South Africa. I’m a copywriter by day as well as a columnist, screenwriter and novelist by night. I primarily dabble in SFF, with a leaning towards urban fantasy.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters? 

 

It begins with an idea. A concept. From there, I dissect it into a basic beginning, middle and ending, as well as the core characters I want to introduce. While I do utilize some semblance of a plan, I believe the story and characters are the guide and you should listen to them. This is why the story inevitably turns into something different from its initial premise—and that’s okay.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

The Not-So-Grim Reaper is a fantasy comedy that bridges the gap between Deadpool and Bill & Ted. It’s meant to be funny and serve as a tongue-in-cheek social commentary about how we view life and everything in between. You’ll laugh, shake your head, and relate to many of the protagonist’s struggles. In addition, it was a cathartic way for me to deal with the death of my pets. Maybe life doesn’t end after death and it’s only one part of the journey, you know?

 

Is this your first entry into SPFBO? If not, how many times have you entered?

 

Yes, The Not-So-Grim Reaper is my first entry into SPFBO.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them! 

 

The main character of The Not-So-Grim Reaper is Claudio Chillwell, as the story is told from his point-of-view. He’s a bit of an everyday young man trying to find his place in the world. He doesn’t want any drama or adventure, but would rather just chill and do his own thing at home. He’s like a modern-day Bilbo Baggins.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

Ultimately, just do it. No matter what you plan on doing, you need to execute and do it. Too many people live with ideas in their heads, but never follow through with them. Once you do, though, always strive to improve and learn from what you’ve done. Create because you want to, not because of anything else.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

The story is set in Johannesburg, South Africa, but I did tweak the surroundings a bit. I believe the city I live in is one of the most unique and diverse in the world, so it’s the perfect setting for the madcap nature of The Not-So-Grim Reaper.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

It’s a drive. Even the moments when I’m not writing, I’m still thinking about it. Maybe it’s actually a curse and I’m possessed by some a-hole demon.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

To be honest, there really wasn’t a difficult part. Apart from juggling time between the day job and other writing projects, it was smooth sailing for the most part.

 

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not?

 

Generally, I schedule time in my calendar for the different projects/articles I’m working on. I’m quite OCD about completing what’s in my calendar, so I find that once it’s scheduled, I do it.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why? 

 

I love the opening chapter. It set the standard and tone for the rest of the book. After I wrote it, I looked at it and said, “Well, I guess I’ll definitely have to finish this bad boy now.”

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

Yes, that I love Bill & Ted and Deadpool more than I ever knew.

 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A gardener or an architect?

 

Plot the basics but with the freedom to chop and change as necessary. In other words, there’s a bit of order in the chaos.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it? 

 

I draw from real-life inspirations or examples. Of course, I’ll never tell the people, but most of the characters are based on people I know or met at some point in my life.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

Yesterday, my collaborator and I finished off a historical horror screenplay that we submitted to a big competition. It’s a story that we’re immensely proud of and hope it sees the light of day. In addition, my latest manuscript is an oral history about a fictional horror punk band that’ll blend horror, fantasy and comedy.

 

What is your favorite book ever written? Who are your favorite authors?

 

Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens. Gaiman is my favourite author and his team-up with Pratchett was a match made in Heaven (and Hell).

 

What makes a good villain?

 

Motivation. The stakes for villains don’t need to be world-ending all the time; they just need to make sense.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

 

I’m big into movies, TV series, games, and comic books. So, I spend my time enjoying those things then writing about them.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

A politician since it’s a similar job. I could make things up and pretend I know what I’m doing when I have no clue.

 

You can travel to any planet or moon in the Solar System. Where would you go, why and what would you do there?

 

Saturn, because who wouldn’t want to grab a cosmic skateboard and ride those rings?

 

Pick any three characters from a fiction novel. These are now your roadtrip crew. Where do you go and what do you do?

 

Aziraphale, Crowley & Agnes Nutter (Good Omens). Well, I’d let Agnes tell us where we’re going and what we’re doing.

 

Finally, what is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

I love to chat to people, so chatting to me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are your best bets. Mind you, I’m available on all platforms, so here are all the links:

 

Website: www.sergiopereira.co.za

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sergiowrites

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sergiopereira27

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sergiowrites

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7374833.Sergio_C_Pereira

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sergio-Pereira/e/B00GB27ANQ

 

Games of 2019 – Honorable Mentions

2019 has brought in all sorts.

This has been an interesting year for gaming, and I’ve managed to play quite a lot this year as well! This should be a fun series for the end of 2019 that gives a bit of insight into what I’ve been doing when I should be writing my books.

This is about video gaming, and the immense juggernaut of entertainment which shows no signs of slowing down. Problems in gaming still remain of course, but I’ve rather enjoyed the new games this year.

This year my annual gaming awards in December will come in several parts. First up is this one, where I’ll discuss the games that I played and enjoyed, but didn’t quite make it. (With the exception of a couple). Then I’ll announce my Top 10 in two articles.

So, here’s my rules for this year:

They have to be complete, and released in 2019. Early Access that launched this year in 1.0 do count, just like last year.
Early Access titles ARE allowed, but only in a complete state, or enough content to support my view. Only one game from this criteria is allowed in Top 10.
No Remasters or Remakes of any kind are allowed in the Top 10, although I can add them to my list of Honorable Mentions.
No Ports either. Sorry Divinity Original Sin 2 and Witcher 3 for the Switch, because while you are both excellent quality ports, I want to keep my Top 10 a bit more open. Same goes for Red Dead Redemption 2. Good game, but a port.
I need to be fair. You’ll see why. In other words, No games I worked on can be in my Top 10, even if I may think they deserve to be in my Top 10.

So, to kick off the first step, the Honorable Mentions! This is going to be a fairly long article, so kick back, make a snack, and enjoy.

 

Greedfall

Why not kick off with one of the most interesting releases of 2019?

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I admit, when I first saw Greedfall, I was…sceptical. Spiders likes their ambition, but it’s been hit and miss. Technomancer had good ideas, but plagued with technical and design problems. So, when I saw Greedfall, I went in with more than a grain of salt. They really put effort into the marketing campaign, so I was very interested.

It’s pretty interesting. Not perfect, the lip sync is pretty bad, but it’s not too distracting. The world design is okay, and I found the characters…Passable. Not bad, not great. The dialogue and voice acting was suprisingly decent, better than I expected from these guys.

The saving grace of Greedfall was it’s quest design, which was stellar. Lots of quests, lots of different ways to complete them. I liked that, it gives you options. Now, it doesn’t do anything different from other games I found, and because of the small dev size, things were sometimes rough. I found my fair share of bugs and crashes, but nothing breaking. The combat felt a bit iffy to me, enough to put me off at first. I improved over time, and I rather liked the levelling system. While the world design was a bit of a mixed bag. The environments were overall excellent with diverse biomes, but the cities were…sloppy. Everything felt a bit copy and paste, which was a real shame in my mind.

Despite these problems, Greedfall is by far the best game Spider’s has put out, and that’s good. It has its shortcomings, and could do with some polish, but they took some risks and it paid off in my mind. It’s overall flakiness and inconsistency drove it away from my top games this year, but I still recommend it.

Keep it up, Spiders. This was a huge improvement over The Technomancer. Just keep plugging away.

Final score: 7/10

 

The Outer Worlds

Yeah. I really tried with this game. Sorry Obsidian fans.

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Now, let’s get this out of the way. The Outer Worlds is a pretty decent game. No denying that. In fact, it’s better than I expected it to be. After all the Epic Games controversy this year with exclusives (I’m not going down that shit-encrusted rabbit hole), I wasn’t expecting The Outer Worlds to work out.

And it did. Kudos to them for actually pulling it off. And I do like it. It’s streamlined, focused, and doesnt feel bloated like so many open world RPGs out there. There’s no “100 hour” experience in this. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing. I’ll explain why a bit later. And for once, Obsidian didn’t launch a game that was broken to all hell. That was the biggest take for me. Now, please get back to fixing the appalling mess that is Pillars of Eternity on the Switch, thanks.

Now, to my issues with it. The game received quite a lot of critical praise…And I’m scratching my head a little. I mean, it’s good. But GOTY worthy? Really? No… It’s not Fallout New Vegas, that’s for sure. I feel a lot of the hype around it is partly due to a lot of consumer exhaustion to Bethesda Bullshhit, and the desire for a really good Fallout game. Fallout 4 is a very competent open world shooter with good shooting mechanics, but it is a terrible Fallout game. That, with how shit FO76 has been lately, is driving a lot of the gushing for The Outer Worlds.

And I just don’t get it. The visuals look good, but dated. It does feel like it was made a few years ago, and it really shows in both good and bad. The dialogue is good and a solid part of the game, but nothing revolutionary. It’s not as good as Fallout New Vegas, nor Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. And it’s nowhere near Planescape Torment.

Honestly, The Outer Worlds lacks originality in most areas, almost as if they were scared to branch out. Gameplay-wise, it feels like a streamlined, stripped version of Fallout. They even dumbed down things like lockpicking, so it doesn’t take any effort more than a skill of a button. The game choices in dialogue also feel a little too easy, with very little skill requirements. The characters are okay with some really cute moments, but again, nothing revolutionary nor special.

The loot options and enemy variety…is pretty pitiful. I could count the number of them on one hand.

Visuals look okay, I like the dialogue. The writing is okay – not the best I’ve seen, but it really highlights how a lot of bigger games in recent years have fucked up.

And finally…yeah. Game length. I appreciate shorter games now, but it’s about 20-25 hours for pretty much everything. It almost feels like the game is too short, and it’s too underdeveloped. I can understand why, but it feels a bit of a shame.

For these reasons, The Outer Worlds missed the cut, but it is fun. There’s good options, there’s some decent replayability and you can complete quests in different ways. Just…a bit too undercooked. Hopefully Obsidian can use the excellent sales to really improve their next title.

Final score: 7.5/10

 

Wargroove

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Ah, Wargroove. You know, back when I started playing this game in Feburary on launch, I really liked it, to the point where I wondered how far in my Top 10 it would go. There’s a lot to like about this game for certain. A spiritual successor to Advance Wars in many ways, Wargroove hit the ground running, and I did rather like it.

There’s a substantial campaign to enjoy, lots of different characters and a diverse cast, an excellent map and campaign editor, nice and cute art, and I feel it plays nicely as a little turn based strategy RPG.

The story…is nothing special. There’s no real voice acting apart from one liners here and there, and the characters are just there overall. A little cliche about a kingdom under peril and a spunky teenage daughter trying to come into her throne, it plays out like a YA novel. Not bad, but a little uninspired at times. I didn’t feel invested in the story, though I did like some of the characters, especially Ceasar. Such a good dog!

I wish there were more differences in the factions. There’s a lot of them, but there’s no bonuses or differences apart from the Commander/Hero and their different abilities. I would have liked to see some variety on that regard.

The same goes for the balancing. The units while varied don’t do a whole lot different, and the campaign gets pretty tough at times, almost to an unfair degree. I got frustrated more than engrossed during the campaign more than once. You get graded only on the speed in which you finish the missions, and you need good grades to unlock certain features and options later on in the game.

However, let’s not take too much away from Wargroove. It’s overall a solid experience with oodles of content for its very reasonable price tag. (£15/$20) Visually charming with a lot to enjoy, it has a lot of replayability, and with the custom editors coupled with new content all the time, I have a lot of good to say about this game. It just fell short of my Top 10.

Final score: 7.5/10

 

Now we really come to near-misses. I’ll say this upfront. The next two games deserve to be on my Top 10, but aren’t for one of my rules. I’ll explain a bit more as I go into them.

 

 

Spellforce 3: Soul Harvest

Okay. I know how this one is going to look.

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So, to all those who are living under a rock, I made huge improvements to myself in 2019, including landing my first big freelance gig in the gaming industry. Ironically, here at Grimlore Games. I’ll say upfront now, I had very little to zero to do with Soul Harvest’s development, other than playtesting, text-fixing and a couple in-game documents. 98-99% of the work and honors needs to go to these guys