Update from last month: My cough finally went (mostly) away! I managed to get an appointment with my GP, who proscribed some medication that finally dealt with it. Now I’m down to my usual small cough I get after eating, which is much better than a persistent giant cough that makes me feel like I’ve run a marathon.
Which is great, because I’m about to go on holiday. I had planned to try and take a few vacations this year, but honestly between deadlines and illnesses I didn’t really have an easy option, and now that it’s August I needed to take one now-ish if I wanted to have another in late December.
Luckily, Past Me committed to going to TFNation, Europe’s largest Transformers convention. I’m only going for two days, but it’ll be a packed two days, so I knew I wanted some recovery time after that. When other colleagues started taking time off as well around now, I decided “what the hell” and turned my weekend trip into a six-day holiday. To be clear, I’ll still be at home for four of those days, but I already have deep plans like finishing some video games and building a model kit. Probably catching Deadpool & Wolverine too, and maybe checking out some more museums.
I’ve talked before about vacations, so I won’t rehash that here — short version, freelancers should take them more often for very important reasons — but my recent illness has me thinking about my physical health as well as my mental health. So as part of the holiday I’m going to start my Couch to 5K program again, as well as getting back into yoga, because it’ll be a good time to start building the habit. I may even take some workout clothes with me to TFNation!
I admit, I’m a bit nervous about the convention. Most of the time, I go to a show for work, so there’s a fair bit built in: I know what I have to do, I have certain work obligations I need to discharge, and I generally know at least a few people there for social comradery. I don’t have any of that here. The last time I went to a Transformers convention was Botcon 95 in Dayton, Ohio, nearly thirty years ago! I don’t have any work obligations (and I have to admit, I actually tried to see if I could get a Transformers RPG panel together). But I do actually have a few online acquaintances that will be at the show, and I’ve heard from a lot of people that TFNation is a very friendly and welcoming event. Plus, it’s in the same hotel that I ran games at for UK Games Expo, so it’s somewhat familiar territory. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but it’s been a challenge to build a new friend group.
Anyhow, in the unlikely chance I’ll see you at TFNation, let’s get together and talk about giant robots! And if not, feel free to discuss giant robots in your own life. But until then…
News
First off, I had to cover for Rich as he was on his vacation (See? They’re important!) so I wrote this week’s Monday Meeting Notes blog for Onyx Path Publishing. Which also has a sneak preview of some upcoming Realms of Pugmire art!
Also, my friends at Extra Credits reached out to me again to write another script. This time they wanted me to talk about the history of Monopoly, which is something that used to be quite the pet interest of mine! So I was delighted to take them up on their offer, because it’s a fascinating tale of old-school game piracy, corporate bullshit, and the disconnect between game intent and game salability. Check it out!
Next, the final book for the original edition of Pugmire is out. It’s the Squeaks in the Deep Companion, a slim volume of new underground adventures, as well as rules on playing rabbits and hares! It’s available in PDF and print-on-demand right now.
Finally, I was interview by City News to talk about the impact AI has had on narrative designers. You can also see the old coworking space I used to use!
My Media
I don’t think I’ve discussed it much, but every month I have a vague idea of what media thing I want to talk about, because usually there’s something I’m really into and this newsletter gives me a chance to babble excitedly. So I thought I was going to talk about Fallout London. But, as much as I enjoyed the first few hours, in the end I bounced off it hard, like I have most every other Fallout game. I’m sure tons of people will really enjoy it, and I did enjoy the British in-jokes, but in the end it’s not for me, and that’s a shame.
The game I thought was just going to be a bit of fun is the one that actually has me hooked, and that’s Kingdom Hearts Final Mix.
It’s part of the confusingly-named Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX. And I know the franchise has a notoriety of being complex and hard to follow. I’m not there yet. I’m just working on the first game, which I played way back in the early 2000s when I had a Playstation 2. And honestly, it’s a pretty straightforward game so far. I mean, if you said “Make a Final Fantasy game that uses the Disney IPs,” this is pretty much what it would look like. That’s a cynical take, but honestly there’s a lot of fun to be had in summoning Simba to attack your enemies, or equipping Goofy with the best shield, or trying to get Donald to do anything useful god damn it Donald.
Anyhow, Final Mix is, so far, a nice action RPG with some mildly annoying quirks that the remaster hasn’t quite smoothed out. I’m close to the end now, and I can see where the story’s going (in a fun way), so I expect the reason it’s so complicated of a franchise is that the first game never expected to get a sequel so they made a complete story that the designers then had to somehow undo in order to make more games. (Insert Avengers: Endgame snark here.)
So, yes. For people who are already fans of Kingdom Hearts, I’m sorry it took me so long, but I’m here now. For people who have been put off by the perceived complexity and difficulty, I’ll say that Final Mix on Easy is just a load of fun, and a pretty great game full of late 90s Disney easter eggs. I can’t speak for the rest of the franchise, but at least that first game is well worth a look.
Time to get back to work so my desk is clear before I dive back into Kingdom Hearts on Thursday. See you next month!