A Superhero RPG for PC

Apologies for the lack of updates for the last couple of weeks, but I've been pretty busy for the last while and here's why:

I'm making a game! Yep, a bona fide computer game. It's an old-school style rpg game but unlike all those old-school rpg games this isn't about fighting trolls and dragons, no this is all about superheroes!

Now of course, making a game isn't easy, which is why I want to be able to dedicate time to it and to make it as good as I possibly can. To aid me with this I have started a fundraiser on indiegogo.com/knightsRPG. Please, check it out if you have a minute to spare. The aim of this is really to provide me with the means to be able to concentrate on making the game to the best of my ability.

For those who have used crowdfunding sites in the past, you may be thinking "Indiegogo? Why doesn't he just use Kickstarter? Everyone and their cat seems to have heard of that place!"

Well to be honest, I would have liked to have used Kickstarter too. It's a well-known thing at the moment, and videogame funding seems to do well over there. The only problem is, you have to have a bank account in the USA to be able to use it, and as I'm from Ireland and currently living in Australia, that didn't seem like it was going to happen. And so I went for the second largest site out there, indiegogo!

I'm very excited about all this and I have the game all mapped out, along with some fun things I'd like to implement based on what funding I get for the game. So do me a favour if you can and head over to indiegogo.com/knightsRPG and check out the game, and if you really want, drop me a couple of pennies, and I'd be very grateful.

Thanks and see ya soon,

James

Why is naming characters so hard?

It seems like a such a simple thing to do, and yet, whenever I start writing something new one of the stumbling blocks I invariably have is deciding the names of characters, from the major ones to the minors. In many of my stories the character names have changed multiple times, just because I felt a certain name didn’t suit well enough.

But why is this? What makes a name a “good” name? And does it really matter? I know that when I read books I don’t really place much importance in a character’s name, it’s just what they are called. And yet when I write myself, I find something pushing me to find just the right name for a character. I can’t think of many examples of ‘good’ names of characters, only bad ones (for example, calling a character Hope, whether that character saves the day, or is symbolically killed at some point, it feels a bit obvious doesn’t it?).

New Dark Knight Rises Trailer

The newest trailer for The Dark Knight Rises is out now, and all it's doing is make me want to watch this film more and more. I'm double happy because the film is out here in Australia a day before it is back home in Ireland. (I think that's the real reason I came over here :D ) If you haven't clicked on the video above to watch yet, then why the hell not?

Film Review: The Avengers

Marvel’s latest big-screen blockbuster is hitting screens worldwide at the moment and I was fortunate enough to get a chance to see it yesterday. For those who don’t know, this is what Marvel’s last few films (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Incredible Hulk) have been building up to. We’ve been introduced to all these characters in what have mostly been very good films(the last Hulk film wasn’t as good as the others but certainly not as bad as Ang Lee’s Hulk, but then again, not much is).

Going in as I did having watched all those films (and having read comics about them for the last few years too), it’s hard to tell whether you need much knowledge of the characters beforehand, but it seems the film  assumes you at least have a rough knowledge of them (and if you’ve successfully managed to avoid hearing at least the most basic details about the characters from their last few films, then chances are this won’t be the film you’re looking for anyway).

The basic premise of the film is that this group of superheroes (consisting of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye & Black Widow) has to unite to face a greater force than any of them could handle individually. It’s a pretty basic premise, and overall the plot is pretty straightforward, but with an ensemble cast like this, that’s pretty much necessary. Not to say that this hurts the film either, it simply leaves lots of space for the films real strength to show through, the character interaction.

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

After watching the Hunger Games film a couple of weeks ago, I decided I’d give the 3 books a read. I wanted to find out more about what would happen in the world of Panem. So what did I think of them overall? Somewhere between “Meh” and disappointment.

The first book was good. The changes they made between the book and the film seemed like logical ones, especially considering the first person narrative of the book. Overall I’d say the changes made in the film were for the better, giving a much larger view of the impacts of Katniss’ actions in the games and things happening around her than is possible to show in the book. The book is however much more detailed and brutal than the film is but I have to say I probably enjoyed the first book on roughly the same level as the film.

The Magic of Unplanned Writing

I've been writing on and off for a long time, lots of little stories, stories that were never finished, and stories that are still tucked away as ideas in a secret folder (I say secret but not exactly well hidden. It just sits on my desktop, tempting me away from whatever I'm currently working on). When these ideas strike is always exciting, and the impulse is always to chase these ideas and see where they lead.

The problem with chasing these stories in the past has been that whatever I was then working on would inevitably get lost in the wayside. I've gotten a hell of a lot better about it though, which has resulted in me getting a lot further into the novel I'm currently working on, and some of these ideas for other stories have fed back into the novel so it's all good (Of course it's also meant my ideas folder has been filling up a lot quicker, but hopefully that'll come in handy later!).

But anyway, one thing I've discovered through getting so far in my current book is how much fun the unplanned things can be. As the characters begin to develop and grow they start to fill in the story much more than I planned. Certain elements of my story have been dropped as I've written more and found out that the characters, as they've grown and become more developed, don't want to do some of the things I want to (they're like unruly children that way). There's been many occasions where what I've intended to happen in a given scene has completely changed while writing it.

Film Review: The Hunger Games

It was a sunny afternoon yesterday and I went to see The Hunger Games. I'd read a few reviews and heard some positive things about the film. I managed to avoid hearing too many actual details before seeing it, knowing only the basics of the plot, and not having read the books.

For anyone out there who hasn't heard about the film (and I'd be surprised. It seems to have done quite well for itself...) takes place in some unspecified future date and revolves around the fictional North American country Panem, which features and central seemingly advanced city called The Capitol, and surrounded by 12 poorer districts. After a failed uprising by the districts 74 years ago, the capitol punishes the districts by once a year selecting one boy and one girl from each district, aged between 12-18, to participate in The Hunger Games, where each "tribute" (as they are called) is forced to fight to the death, with the victor bringing prestige and benefits to their district, and a life of relative ease for themselves. The main thrust of the story revolves around the character of Katniss Everdeen, a young girl from District 12, as her younger sister is selected for the games at the beginning of the film, and Katniss offers to take her place.