Video Game Review: Thomas Was Alone

At first glance, I didn't think much of this game, where you have to maneuver a bunch of sentient rectangles across a landscape of blocks.  That's right...you control rectangles.  They jump.  That's pretty much all there is to this game:  jumping from area to area, dodging obstacles and dangers in order to get to the exit.  It's a platformer so simple, the only thing simpler would be Pong.

And yet, the game makers did their best to make something special out of this bunch of rectangles.  They all have personalities, more or less, which are mostly conveyed by their shape, color, name, and the cute ethos expressed by the narration (which, in turn, provides a feel-good sentimentality similar to the narration in LittleBigPlanet).  Above all, each shape has a different range of characteristics.  Some jump really high.  Some don't.  One can float on water.  One can make other shapes jump higher.  One defies gravity.  And when you have to move them all to their respective exits, the levels get substantially challenging, because you have to use all the shapes' strengths and weaknesses in inventive ways to complete each level.  As a result, each level is a unique puzzle or challenge that will stimulate some brain cells.

There is a story behind these little rectangles.  They're actually artificial intelligences growing sentient in some company's lab, and the game chronicles their evolution and eventual liberation.  That being said, the story is very understated, and some more explanations, especially in the last levels, would have been welcome.  As it is though, it's a clever enough set-up for an otherwise bizarre game.

The game plays smoothly.  Controls are as easy as they come.  Graphics are minimalistic, but the backgrounds, lighting effects, and particle effects are great.  Each level is designed pretty smartly.  Voices and sounds are good.  Music is quite lovely too.

This is probably the most fun you can have moving rectangles across a screen.  The game is worth playing once.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Pretty Good | Game:  Very Good)

Video Game Review: Prince of Persia (2008)

After the ups and downs of the Sands of Time trilogy, game-makers kicked off a reboot of the Prince of Persia series.  This game from 2008 is a colorful, cartoony affair with a less serious protagonist going on a grand adventure that involves a lot of acrobatics, puzzles, and combat.

Once the story is kicked off, you're set on a quest to cleanse the land by exploring four different corners of the map.  Together with Princess Elika, you spend your time traversing across the labyrinthine sprawl of ruins with your mad parkour skills.  Most of the time, you'll have to make calculated jumps and launches while running vertically along walls or clinging to ceilings or any number of other complex moves.  As far as combat goes, it's strictly one-on-one with occasional monsters.  The most intense of fights occur with four different bosses, who guard each area, but won't really die until you kill them in their respective lairs.  And once you liberate an area and cleanse it, you have to collect light seeds, which will unlock the ability to use special pressure plates that can propel you to new areas.  You just keep working at this until you can open up the temple and face the final boss.  It's an extremely structured game with a bigger focus on platforming, puzzles, and collecting things, but it's pretty relaxing that way.  You never really die in this game; even if a villain closes in on you, or you misjudge a jump and plunge down a lethal drop, Elika will save you every time with her magic.  That leaves you free to work through the game at your own pace and skill; some of the acrobatics can be frustrating, and the combat is not really all that smooth or fun, but it is a more laid-back experience and a great way to pass the time.

The story is pretty limited in scope and scale, but it is an interesting enough tale with a cast of endearing characters.  The actual Prince of Persia is a young, arrogant, wisecracking dude, and he shares great chemistry with Princess Elika, who proves to be just as sharp and able as the Prince himself.  There is a history to the princess and the ancient kingdom you're made to explore, which adds up to a pretty interesting and exotic mythology.  The characters often break out into discussions on free will vs destiny, and it all comes to full circle by the bittersweet ending.

This game is rendered with a cartoony, cell-animated look.  It is rendered with decently-sharp and smooth-looking textures, lighting, and frame-rates.  Particle effects are often pretty decent.  The writing is not bad, and the voices, sounds, and music are decent.  Designs for the settings, objects, characters, costumes, and overall worldbuilding is decent too.

2008's Prince of Persia is a fun game, plain and simple.  It's a simple structure that offers hours of challenges, and is thankfully not punishing.  It's not necessarily groundbreaking or profound, but it's satisfying nonetheless.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Pretty Good | Game:  Good)

Video Game Review: Tomb Raider: Legend

Upon celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Tomb Raider franchise underwent a pretty heavy-duty make-over in Tomb Raider:  Legend.  With a new developer, the series would start with a fresh new direction, ensuring that Lara Croft's adventures would continue for a while longer.

Legend definitely has its share of coolness.  As before, you play Lara on a quest to raid tombs and fight bad guys.  This time, the relic in question is Excalibur, and the Arthur legend is interpreted in a pretty loose way that spreads the tale across multiple countries.  As always, you are required to climb seemingly-impossible obstacles with precise, complex acrobatic moves.  You occasionally fight armed goons and supernatural bosses (although, I don't recall many animals in this game).  In addition to the main story, you can also explore the Croft manor for bonus collectables, and you can unlock a plethora of bonus material.  Overall, the experience is an adventurous rush, much akin to a regular Indiana Jones or Dirk Pitt story.

All that being said, the game had its frustrating parts.  I found myself breezing through parts of it satisfactorily, but then I'd be held up with some obstacle or crazy boss fight that just kept me stuck for hours.  Part of the problem is that the game has a few iffy glitches (at least on the PS3's HD collection, I'm not sure how this game actually fared when it was first released for the PC and older consoles).  Lara would often die an inexplicable, stupid death (especially in the last boss fight, where swinging Excalibur suddenly backfired and caused her to fly off the map).  I had plenty of moments where a jump was miscalculated, either by me or the machine.  It was never a smooth or fully-enjoyable experience, unfortunately; the game has a pretty even mix of good and bad moments.

The story that's told here is at least most of the way relevant, given that it explores more of Lara Croft's backstory and uses it as a focus for the main conflict.  It is still episodic in a contrived way, stringing together exotic locations for the sake of giving you a series of unique levels with unique challenges.  The game ultimately hits up some decent character-building points, but the plotting feels like more of the same.

This game boasts some adequate graphics, especially for its time.  It is most notable for its animation and movements; Lara's climbing and acrobatics are quite flexible and dynamic, and offer its own array of challenges.  The gameplay and control scheme overall is pretty sublime and easy to master.  Levels are well-designed, and features okay-looking settings, items, costumes, and creatures.  Sounds and voices aren't too bad, and the music is lovely.

Playing Tomb Raider:  Legend is pretty fun, but with a few frustrating moments.  If you're a casual fan of adventure gaming, it'll be worthwhile as long as you're patient and able to stick with it.  Fans should love it though.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Pretty Good | Story:  Pretty Good | Game:  Good)

Video Game Review: inFamous: Second Son

After two great games (and one interesting add-on), the inFamous series closed off the saga of Cole MacGrath in a truly grand and epic manner.  For the PS3 era, it was not only an addictively fun saga, but also a thoughtful story and a well-developed universe that reflect heavily on human nature and morality.

The PS4 era commenced with this new tangent of the inFamous universe, introducing a new character in a new city with a new range of superpowers.  This time, you play a kid named Deslin Rowe, who's a bit of an arrogant punk, but with his heart in the right place.  Experiencing an accident by chance that endangers his loved ones, Deslin gains powers and has to use them against an armed force that's occupied Seattle to fight "bio-terrorism." Through this setup, the game inhabits the same style and manner of gameplay as its predecessors; you're given free-reign over the city, unlocking more districts and more of the story as you fight the powers of oppression.  As before, you have the power to fly, to perform strong melee attacks, to zap things and thunder-drop on bad guys, and so on.  But while Cole used purely electric powers, Deslin starts off with smoke powers, giving him the ability to throw cinders, to dissolve and fly through vents, and to incapacitate enemies with vapor.  But that's not all; as the story goes on, Deslin can absorb other mediums of power; you're eventually made to use neon powers (allowing you to shoot lasers, send our powerful energy blasts, and turn to light and run really fast), video powers (allowing you to turn invisible, swing and shoot holographic swords, and fly with glowing wings), and concrete powers (allowing you to shoot rubble).  With four different sources of power, the possibilities are expanded, and taking out bad guys is not as repetitive or straightforward as before; you're given more flexibility and power than ever before.  And it is necessary, because the game throws a lot more challenges at you; enemies are tough, numerous, and more well-armed than before.  The game excels at giving you power and allowing you to run free with it.

As before, you're given the choice to be good or evil; you can save or heal citizens, or you can hurt them.  Certain story decisions can also contribute to your karma, and your path will inevitably alter the direction of the story and characters.  The themes of good and evil are played with in interesting ways towards the story's end.  It's not quite as sublime or mind-blowing of a story as the first game, and some gamers may find it flat and disappointing.  Side quests can be rather repetitive for many (although I found it perfectly addictive playing those missions to free up the city little by little).  The game does have its strong moments though; I think Deslin has way more personality than Cole did, making him a more appealing character with plenty of room for growth.  Deslin learns much as he goes on, making sacrifices and suffering to the point where he matures into a proper hero or villain.  He comes to learn that other characters (including the main villain, whom I think is pretty well-developed) go through the same.  It may not be a fresh story, but it is still a strong one.  If there's anything to really complain about, it's that the game is short (it must have taken me 20 hours or more to finish), and they could have easily included more to the main story that would allow you to use those concrete powers.

The game's greatest strength is that it is masterfully-crafted.  It makes full use of the PS4's hardware to render extremely smooth, clean, colorful, and highly-detailed graphics.  Seattle may not resemble the real-life city much, but it is well-rendered with impressive textures, effects, particles, and lighting.  It's also much more realistically-proportioned than before, giving you a better idea of the city's size (whereas the older games made the cities seem really small in comparison to its people).  Characters look phenomenally realistic, thanks to quality texturing and animation.  Sounds are good, voice-acting is great, and the music is fantastic.  The game has okay writing, and the designs for all the settings, props, costumes, creatures, and everything else is decent.

Second Son is only disappointing in that it's short and its story/gameplay doesn't offer that much new to the table, but it is still a blast thanks to its beautiful graphics, its plethora of superpowers, and a colorful main character.  Casual PS4 owners may be impressed by the technical qualities of the game, but may be put off by the repetitiveness of the missions.  If you're a fan of the series, this game is a no-brainer.  As for me, I think this might be my favorite of the lot, and can't wait to see if more will be made down the line.

If you get the Collector's Edition of this game, you'll have a few bonus missions that help connect this game with inFamous 1 and 2.  They're alright.  This edition also gives you a couple of free in-game costumes, which are neat, but don't really affect gameplay.  The CE is really best if you want the swag (the hat, buttons, patches, and stickers, which are neat).  A free DLC is available - the inFamous Paper Trail mission - which offers a really neat detective story sidequest that can reward you with more karma.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Good | Game:  Perfect)

Video Game Review: Sleeping Dogs

There's the old saying "let sleeping dogs lie." In the context of this game, you play a cop in deep cover, working to infiltrate and take down the Sun On Yee Triad gang.  Naturally, you become the one to awaken sleeping dogs, and all hell breaks loose.

The game plays out a bit like a Grand Theft Auto game; you get free reign in an open-world city (in this case, Hong Kong, which looks beautifully vibrant, colorful, and detailed), where you can run, drive, and fight pretty much anywhere.  The main story gives you about thirty action-packed missions, where you can use martial arts and guns to wipe out your enemies.  There are also a bunch of side missions, street races, and random events you can engage in.  You could spend quite a bit of time hunting down collectables.  You could even just run around randomly, exploring and causing trouble.  The game is addicting, and you can spend hours on all that it has to offer.

The main story is pretty cool; the missions string together a solid narrative that chronicles the clashes, the downfall, and the brutal vengeance of rivaling gangs and the police.  In the shoes of the protagonist, Wei Shen, you're constantly on the edge.  One one hand, there's always the fear that your cover will be blown, so you have to always prove yourself to the gang.  On the other hand, the police worry that you're in too deep, and you've become "one of them." It's a fine line that pushes the character into all kinds of emotional strain, making his struggles compelling.  The other characters are pretty endearing, and it gives their actions and reactions some weight.  The game's last few missions have some pretty brutal twists, and it leads up to a really gnarly climax.  In the end, the game plays out like a Hong Kong crime film, and it is pretty awesome to be able to play that type of drama and excitement in a game.

The game runs smoothly and reliably.  I've seen some funny glitches here and there, but nothing that ever made the game unplayable.  Graphics are decent enough; texture and rendering aren't a big highlight, as they seem a bit rough around the edges.  The frame rate is smooth though, and the cut-scenes looks really nice.  Sound and voices are great; the game is well-written.  The city is laid out really well, and the level design is good.  Designs for all the settings, costumes, props, weapons, vehicles, and everything else is cool.  Music is pretty cool too.

Sleeping Dogs is a smooth and addicting experience with an emotionally-driven story and lots of hardcore urban violence.  It's perfect in the way it submerses the player into the streets of Hong Kong, and into the heart of the Triads, and it makes for one of the finest games available.

4.5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Good | Game:  Very Good)

Video Game Review: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

The films of Studio Ghibli have teleported audiences to fantasic new worlds, the likes of which haven't been so captivating or endearing since the glory days of Disney.  Nausicaä, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Arietty, and so many more, have all presented fantasies full of deep imagination, myth, and emotion; with Ni No Kuni, however, the studio adapts all these same strengths into a new medium, using its full potential to allow gamers to not just see the fantasy, but to live it.

If you've seen and enjoyed the films of Studio Ghibli, then you'll feel right at home with this game; it's all designed and rendered to match the look and style of the films.  Once you leave Motorville and enter the other world, you'll become immersed in a universe full of magic, whimsey, and wonder.  It's a world populated by fairies, monsters, steampunk kingdoms, weird animal people, and majestic landscapes.  The game has its share of cuteness and its share of epicness.  Above all, it presents a vast world with dense mythology and deep storytelling; it's like a hundred times more satisfying as Ghibli's films, because it's all spread out so far and so wide, and there's always something to explore.

The game itself plays out much like other JRPGs on the market; you spend your time gathering a party, roaming around the landscape, and fighting your way through hoards of monsters with hundreds and hundreds of battles.  As the game progresses, you grow more powerful, learn new spells, find new companions and creatures, and eventually fight your way to the finale.  Grinding for experience and loot can be repetitive (especially if you're aiming for the platinum trophy and looking for those elusive alchemy ingredients), but the main story keeps things rolling pretty well.  Overall, whether playing the main quest, bounty hunting, or running errands, the game is consistently engaging, highly immersive, and incredibly addicting.

The story is great; it starts off tugging the heartstrings really hard, for its opening is quite tragic.  As the story goes on, it turns into a sprawling epic that digs deeper into the myth and history of the fantasy world; some of the revelations, especially regarding the White Witch, are pretty invoking as well.  The story is full of lovable characters; even the villains are lovable, once their motivations are revealed.  Classic themes of good-vs-evil emerge, but what makes this game unique is that it's not all swords and sorcery; the good and evil exist more on an emotional level, and most of this conflict involve fixing hearts that are broken.  It's not only a different mechanic for some of the quests, but it's also a fresh new take for fantasy fiction in general.

This game runs smooth and reliably.  It uses pretty basic graphics that emulate cell-animation (with some quality anime cutscenes on occasion).  Despite not having terribly detailed textures or renderings, the game looks great for its given artistic style.  Gameplay is quite easy, with an intuitive control scheme.  There are oodles of tutorials available, making the game accessible for young, old, experienced, and unexperienced gamers alike.  The levels and world design are pretty decent, and there is a ton of places that can be explored.  Voice-acting (for the English version) is good.  The game is written well-enough, although I think it has a tendency to over-explain the objectives and over-simplify things.  Designs for all the settings, characters, props, creatures, and everything else is highly imaginative and fantastic.  Music is really great as well.

Throughout the game, I could easily identify countless references to the Studio Ghibli films:  My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Nausicaä - and really, the whole thing plays out a bit like Howl's Moving Castle.  Even on its own merits, however, Ni No Kuni is still a phenomenal world all on its own, filled with endless hours of addicting gameplay, emotionally powerful storytelling, and whimsical experiences.  At the time of this writing, it stands as my favorite JRPG, and it is highly recommended for gamers young and old.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Perfect | Game:  Very Good)

Writing Prompt: Using Rory's Story Cubes

In my former writing group, one of our members revealed a potentially interesting tool for storytelling: Rory’s Story Cubes. It’s basically a pack of nine dice with pictograms on them. I managed to find a pack of these at a Barnes and Noble store; the package advertises these dice as a pocket-sized story generator with infinite possibilities. It’s probably designed with children in mind, as an interactive tool or game to inspire their young imaginations and develop some basic plotting skills. However, these dice can be valuable for people of all ages.

There are no real right or wrong ways to use or interpret these dice. The package describes that these dice can be used as a party game ice-breaker, a problem-solving tool, for creative inspiration (which would be my chief motivator for getting these), for enhancing speaking and listening skills, for use as a mental workout, and for literacy development. The package offers the suggested playing techniques: 

1. Roll all 9 cubes and look at the face-up images. Pick an image that will be the starting point for your story. Beginning with “Once upon a time…”, make up a story that somehow links together all 9 face-up images.
2. Think up a title or theme for a story (for example, the beach, or my fantastic vacation, or dream). Then roll all 9 cubes and try to tell a story that relates back to the title or theme. 
3. Divide the cubes evenly among multiple players (it’s okay if some get more than others). Starting with one player and continuing in a circle, take turns rolling the cubes and adding to the story based on the face-up images. Stop after all 9 cubes have been rolled, or continue rolling for additional rounds.

Today, I rolled these suckers and came up with the following images.

Yikes, what can I make out of this?

My thinking is…

1. The Earth, or the world, a globe: maybe the characters are in space and seeing Earth from afar. Or maybe the world is in danger. Or maybe the story is set in international locations. Maybe there’s an environmental message to emphasize.

2. A man parachuting: could be a literal interpretation, a man parachuting to the ground. Or parasailing. Could be thematic as well, such as a man who “needs to come back down to Earth.”

3. A house: could be a literal setting. Could also be a thematic interpretation of home. Maybe the characters are trying to find their way home. Home is where the heart is. You get the idea.

4. A bridge: could be a literal setting. Would be an awesome place for an epic fight (like the Battle of Stirling or something). Could also be thematic, if you consider that bridges can be figuratively built between characters or places. Maybe bridges can be built across cultures, internationally, or even extraterrestrially.

5. A magnifying glass: the first thought is that of a mystery, or “whodunit” type of a story, with a detective finding clues. You could make this into a mystery story that way. Or, maybe it’s a literal plot device, or a way of saying that something is being scrutinized in great detail.

6. A letter: maybe a letter plays into the story somehow. Or it could be just a message in general. Maybe the characters are couriers.

7. A fountain: could be a literal setting. Could refer to the mythology of the Fountain of Youth; by extension, the search for everlasting youth could be the actual plot.

8. Lightning bolt: maybe plasmic energy, electricity, or lightning, plays into the story somehow. Or, in a manner like Zeus, maybe the characters are super-powered.

9. Sheep: could be literal, or maybe it alludes to a rural setting. Or, it could reference people acting like sheep.

This might seem like an odd mix of stuff, but some ideas blend together pretty easily here. The lightning bolt and sheep has me thinking about the relationships between super-humans and normal people (in which super-humans are like gods, and everybody else are like sheep), a theme which I’ve already been exploring in another story I started. In light of that, the lightning bolt and fountain could go hand-in-hand, if you consider that the fountain could be a literal or figurative source of power. Seeing the Earth juxtapose to the parachuting man immediately brings to mind a man literally falling to Earth. Chances are that you see something totally different out of these dice. The fact that the dice has me thinking about some basic connections, potential plotlines, and possible themes, is enough to get started on something.

With some additional thought and planning, I came up with the following story. I’ve put a little number next to certain things to correlate with the numbered bullets above, so you can see what dice images have been included in the text.

--------------------

                 “Jason, what are you doing?” Kayla frantically shouted on the radio.

                 Looking back, Jason regarded the space station Olympus:  it was an expansive sprawl of metal modules and solar panels, stretching out into space for over a kilometer.  Sunlight glinted across the station’s surface, giving off harsh glares against his helmet.  Slowly, the station seemed to move further and further away from him; in reality, the station was still, and Jason was the one moving, thousands of miles per hour across the Earth’s exosphere.

                Facing forward again, Jason beheld the Earth¹; it was an expanse of immense blue water and green continents before him.  At his angle and trajectory, he was in an uncontrollable freefall to the planet’s surface².  However, he knew that he would never reach the actual surface; upon reaching the atmosphere, the friction would incinerate his body and obliterate him.

                Kayla reached the same conclusion, and her voice continued to plead in Jason’s helmet, “What are you thinking? Why are you doing this?”

                “You got my message⁶, right? Then you know what I’m doing and why,” Jason calmly asserted.

                “But why like this? There could have been other ways to do this, you don’t have to kill yourself!”

                “At this point, it’s not just a matter of practicality.  It’s become a matter of principle.  I’m sure General Bannon is watching and listening right now, and understands.”

                At this point, General Bannon’s voice gruffly interrupted, “I understand just fine, you worthless sack of s**t! You can’t expect me to sit here and watch as you take Project Bethesda away from me and burn it all up in the atmosphere!”

                “What can you do, general?” Jason taunted. “If I destroyed the research notes on Olympus, then you would have had leverage over me.  Out here, I am untouchable.  My destiny is in my hands.”

                “Bull! If I really wanted to, I’ll turn the photon collector on you, and fry you like an ant underneath a magnifying glass⁵!”

                “Go ahead, general.  If you burn me up now, the research will be destroyed all the same.  Your only chance now is to physically collect me with a shuttle craft, but there’s not enough time for you to launch a craft and catch me before I reach the atmosphere.”

                “I don’t know what’s worse:  you taking off with the research materials, or you getting the better of me.  I ought to fry you just as a matter of principle!”

                “I win either way, general.”

                “Maybe for now, but when it’s all over, you know what people will say about you? They’ll say that you’re a criminal! Because you are robbing all of us of our future, and I’m going to make sure that everybody knows that you stole critical research materials and destroyed them! You’re nothing but a selfish punk!”

                “You’d really release all this to the public?” Jason challenged. “The true nature of Project Bethesda? Would you really tell people about the anti-matter pool⁷,  and the way it can alter the human body to make it last longer and become indestructible⁸? Would you tell the press about your plan to engineer space-faring supersoldiers, who would rule the planet from Olympus, and rule over everybody else as if they were just sheep⁹? You call that a future?”

                “Son, what I’m trying to build here is a bridge⁴,” General Bannon calmly explained. “Our future depends on becoming stronger.  We might even have to leave the weak behind to do so.  That’s just the way things are.  We need Bethesda, because the Earth is becoming more hostile all the time.  You know just as well as I do that, with all the carbon dioxide and methane in the air, the planet only has a few hundred years of sustainable life left in it! We need to give our gene pool a boost!”

                “At what point do we mutate, and become something inhuman?”

                “Son, I’m talking about evolving into something better than human! We could be gods!”

                “General, I take it you’re not a god-fearing man.  I am, and without me, there’s no telling what kind of damage your carelessness would have caused.  I have a moral obligation to go through with this.  I figure, this is the only way to make you understand that Project Bethesda was always a bad idea.  I’m also making sure that all this knowledge will never be rediscovered again.”

                “You think you’re some kind of martyr?” General Bannon mocked. “I’ll make sure you’re remembered as a strung-out nobody who died in a stupid space walk accident! I can make the project work again, but nobody can bring you back from the dead! Goodbye, Dr. Levitt.”

                Silence followed.  Jason watched the Earth grow bigger in front of him; he could feel the gentle tug of the planet’s gravity, subtly pulling him closer to the world’s blue mass.  He was still miles away from imminent death, but he started to panic, when he realized that he would accelerate.  His breathing became shallow, and his heart rate spiked.

                On the radio, Jason heard Kayla speak again, “I know you’re right about doing this, but you should have talked to me first! We could have rigged something up together.  We could have burned the research notes in the fusion core.  We could have sent an escape pod to the Earth, and let it burn up.  You didn’t have to eject yourself into space!”

                “I had to make sure,” Jason firmly said. “I had to take it all with me, and let it burn up with me.”

                “Do you have the sample with you too? You could inject it! All that power of Bethesda could allow you to survive the fall!”

                The notion had occurred to Jason repeatedly; a sample of capsulated anti-matter particles could render him invincible enough to withstand the friction of reentry.  It could even ensure his survival after landing, even on a hard ground.  He envisioned his body burning through the sky, streaking into the ground, where he’d leave a massive crater, but walk away unscathed.

                Unconsciously, Jason’s hand crept toward the satchel strapped to his suit, where Project Bethesda’s notes and samples were stored.  Watching the Earth growing bigger and bigger, he was deeply considering succumbing to the notion.  Fear crept through his gut with each passing second, knowing that his death was imminent.

                Instead, Jason restrained his hand, and he told Kayla, “It’s a tempting thought, but I can’t.  You know I can’t let this project survive in any way, shape, or form.”

                He heard her reply in a broken voice, “I know.”

                Jason was aware of his acceleration through the Earth’s exosphere.  His suit started to flutter, and he felt a stronger tug from the planet’s gravity.  As he continued to speed up, he said, “For what it’s worth, I enjoyed working on Olympus, and I loved working with you and the team.  I like to think of you and everybody else as my friends.”

                “No, we were more like a family,” Kayla sobbed.

                “It made me feel at home³.  Thank you for everything.”

                Seconds later, Jason was freefalling faster and faster.  Upon hitting the planet’s deeper atmosphere, the air rubbed harshly against his suit.  It became warmer and warmer, until it was uncomfortably hot.  Flames erupted around him, burning through Jason’s suit and satchel.  Miles above the Earth, Dr. Jason Levitt perished; from the space station Olympus, his passing was observed, and it appeared like a brief fiery flash of light against the planet’s blue curvature.

Writing: Plotting "Prometheus" Style

So I finally got around to re-watching the film Prometheus, and I took the time to investigate the bonus features on the Blu-Ray disc.  If you get the full-blown 4-disc edition, you'll be gifted with a bonus disc with a massive four hour documentary, which details every step of the film's production process.  This includes some insight on the writing process behind Prometheus, with screenwriters John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof describing how they condensed all their (and Ridley Scott's) ideas into a final draft.  It took months of work and multiple drafts to iron out the final script and get the story straightened out.

A branching segment of the Prometheus documentary provided an insightful little secret that I realized could benefit all writers who may be struggling to get their own stories off the ground.  As the writers for Prometheus indicated, every writing project will have different blocks and different levels of difficulties, and it's very much true.  There are some stories I can blast through pretty easily while keeping track of everything in my head.  But when you start adding on multiple characters, concepts, scenes, settings, and more, it can be easy to lose track of what's going on.

To mitigate such a problem, one of the writers made up a board game of sorts, and "gamed" his way through the plot for Prometheus.  Using a homemade board, checker pieces, and other tokens, he would move the characters around in the different settings as the story progressed.  He flipped the tokens to indicate if a character becomes infected or mutated.  He removed them if they were killed.  He also used pieces to keep track of where certain locations (such as the medical bay) were located, especially since some of them were mobile.  With half a dozen different characters being juggled around in this movie, this process allowed the writer to make sure he knew where each person was at a given time, and what they were doing at their locations.

If you're having difficulty trying to figure out your own plot lines, why not give this method a try? A board or mat, some game pieces, or even just slips of paper, will allow you to tangibly manipulate your plot and make sure you can keep track of your characters.  It may not need to be as elaborate as a game board; you could cut up index cards and arrange them on a table.  You could try outlining the plot.  Different approaches may benefit different stories; the best I can tell you is to experiment with hands-on tools to see if anything can help you, the way it helped the writers of Prometheus.

For more information, check out the special features disc for the film Prometheus, and play the documentary The Furious Gods:  Making Prometheus.  Ensure that the expanded experience option is on, and about 30 - 45 minutes into the program, push enter when the prompt appears, for the video segment entitled The Prometheus Board Game.

Writing Prompt: Character Card Game

I decided to try something, in an effort to design an exercise that could help refine one's skill in inventing, creating, or perhaps refining characters.  Not just any old characters, but characters who might be compelling, complex, colorful, or just plain weird.

What exactly makes a character so great? Well, there are many different aspects that can go into it.  The way people talk and act are a huge indicator to their persona.  Their feelings, thoughts, insights, and ideals could also shape them.  Background, experiences, and any trauma could have tremendous impacts as well.  Even physical traits can affect characters in interesting ways.  To make it even more convoluted, some of the best characters have fundamental paradoxes.

To help flesh out some of these different aspects, I did the following:

Step 1:   Make Up Some Cards.  I took a big stack of index cards and wrote down a single trait on each one.  One stack of cards was made with purely physical traits (how a character looks, appears, is clothed, etc).  The second stack was comprised solely of internal traits (a personality, a mental issue, emotion, etc).  A third deck was made up with even more traits, correlating more to the externalized traits (what a character is doing with his or her life; goals, motivations, professions, etc).  I left a lot of these generic on purpose, allowing the people doing this exercise to determine a character's gender, hair color, eye color, etc.

Specific traits I set up are listed down below, but they are certainly not all-inclusive.  The possibilities are practically endless, and the combination of all three could yield countless character combinations.

Step 2:  Pick Your Cards.  Shuffle the three decks, and pick one of each from the top, so that the combination comes up totally random.   The combination of your physical, inner personality, and externalized personality traits should match up to create someone worth writing about.  Sometimes it'll be something really weird or crazy, but that should provide an amusing challenge.  If it comes up as something too paradoxical (such as a pacifist serial killer or something), then you may have to draw again.  Chances are also good that your character may come up dry or uninteresting; that can provide a challenge as well.

Step 3:  Write About It.  In the purposes of an exercise, you can simply write up a brief description, portrait, or character study of a character based on the cards you've drawn.  Sometimes, the cards may provide enough basis for an actual plot; in which case, you could certainly write a scene that reveals the character's traits.  First person point-of-view could work really well for that.  In other cases, third person, or first person from another character's point-of-view, may suffice.  In any case, you'd just spend somewhere from ten to thirty minutes writing about this character and seeing what comes up.

Chances are that this exercise could help in designing characters for larger bodies of work.  Keep in mind though that the fullest characters may require multiple traits to create depth.  It is certainly possible to flip out multiple cards from each deck to layer on different traits onto a character, so long as none contradict each other, or make the character too convoluted.  In larger works, it's also worth noting that characters are never static; they may change or evolve with the story, so that requires additional consideration.

You may also find that some traits have inherent assumptions.  A person dressed in black is assumed to be someone fairly wicked in some way.  A person is quiet and shy may be assumed to be an introvert or social recluse.  A person acting as a tour guide may be assumed to be an extrovert, and really friendly or open.  But if you combine all of those together, you would have someone totally unique (a shy tour guide who dresses in black; you've already set up the possible inner conflict of having an introverted character struggling to be outgoing for the sake of his career).  That may be the true value of these cards; they'll create unusual combinations that will keep you thinking and developing possible conflicts and stories.

A crime fighter dressing in black who doesn't know what to do with his life? Sounds like an interesting story to me.

As for the specific traits used in this exercise, I invented the following.  You're certainly free to try the same, or create your own set of cards, or a combination of these and your own.  The possibilities are endless.

Physical traits

• Always carries a bag or satchel (any contents permitted)
• Can't stop smiling
• Carries a weapon of any kind
• Cross-dresses 
• Dresses in sleazy or revealing clothing
• Dresses only in black
• Has a big framed body and/or broad shoulders
• Has a birthmark anywhere on the body 
• Has a deformity of some kind
• Has a large overbite 
• Has a long or full beard
• Has a long pointy nose
• Has a scar somewhere on the body
• Has a small framed body 
• Has a wild hair style 
• Has an excessive amount of cosmetic surgery
• Has an unusual color of hair
• Has big hands
• Has freckles
• Has involuntary muscle twitches
• Has long hair
• Has one or more tattoos visible
• Has short hair
• Has only one eye
• Has unusual color eyes
• Is a dull/plain looking person
• Is a dwarf or midget (4' tall or less)
• Is a foreigner
• Is a giant (7' tall or more) 
• Is a giant insect
• Is a robot or cyborg
• Is bald
• Is beautiful
• Is clean and immaculate
• Is dirty, scruffy, and worn
• Is gluttonous,  obese, or grotesquely overweight
• Is kinda funny-looking
• Is not human
• Is perfectly lean and fit
• Is old
• Is physically strong and muscular
• Is really skinny and looks frail
• Is wearing a costume of some kind
• Is young
• Looks really scary or creepy
• Wears a fedora or other wide-brimmed hat
• Wears a mask of any kind
• Wears a necklace or medallion that means something important to him/her
• Wears a trenchcoat 
• Wears facial paint or makeup
• Wears formal clothes
• Wears glasses
• Wears loud clothes
• Wears street clothes of whatever kind

Personality I (Inner Traits)

• Can never tell a lie
• Can't stop lying 
• Cold and detached
• Confrontational
• Doesn't care about people or the world (nihilist)
• Doesn't know what to do with his/her life
• Easily offended
• Eternally optimistic 
• Flirtatious and/or seductive
• Has a massive ego (narcissist)
• Has a superpower
• Has an attitude
• Has OCD
• Has memory problems
• Is a conformist
• Is a control freak
• Is a coward
• Is a fanatic about something (obsession)
• Is a genius
• Is a miser
• Is a perfectionist
• Is a pervert
• Is a slacker
• Is a thrill-seeker or adrenaline junkie
• Is a total bookworm
• Is a workaholic
• Is an animal lover
• Is an experienced war veteran or hero 
• Is brave and/or fearless
• Is dumb
• Is eccentric
• Is easily confused
• Is evil to the core
• Is goofy or funny
• Is haunted by a crime he/she personally committed in the past
• Is hungry for knowledge
• Is hyper or energetic
• Is insane
• Is gradually losing his/her mind
• Is lethargic
• Is morally straight and incorruptible
• Is naive
• Is passive-aggressive
• Is quiet/shy
• Is rebellious
• Is suave and charming
• Is the life of the party 
• Is very laid-back
• Is very lewd, crude, or vulgar 
• Is very polite 
• Is very selfish and pushy
• Is wise
• Hallucinates all the time
• Has a negative outlook on everything
• Has a split personality or is bipolar
• Has a troubled or disturbing past 
• Has an addiction
• Has no faith in her/her own abilities
• Lost the ability to love
• Stutters 
• Tries to be someone he/she is not
• Wouldn't even harm a fly (pacifist)

Personality II (Outer Traits)

• Defuses bombs for a living
• Fights crime
• Finds him or herself stranded or lost somewhere 
• Goes on a journey of any kind
• Hunts ghosts, or is a paranormal investigator
• Is a billionaire 
• Is a bodyguard or secret service member
• Is a boss or supervisor (any profession)
• Is a cook or chef
• Is a cop
• Is a firefighter
• Is a grave-digger
• Is a hacker 
• Is a leader or a figure of power
• Is a magician (can be either the street-performer kind, or an actual wizard, sorcerer, Jedi, etc)
• Is a musician or singer
• Is a nun or a monk
• Is a rogue mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin, or other profession (any kind where a person is hired to do dirty work)
• Is a serial kidnapper or murderer 
• Is a social recluse
• Is a soldier or mercenary in combat
• Is a spaceman or space woman (can be an astronaut, or any sci-fi character like a ship captain, pirate, soldier, etc)
• Is a spy 
• Is a store clerk or cashier
• Is a storm-chaser
• Is a successful detective or private eye 
• Is a teacher or professor
• Is a tour guide
• Is an activist
• Is an artist, or a patron of the arts
• Is an inventor with a great new invention
• Is aspiring to be a celebrity
• Is either a vampire, werewolf, or other monster in disguise
• Is going after the man/woman of his/her dreams
• Is in a school of any kind
• Is out for vengeance
• Is performing an extreme sport
• Is searching for an ancient lost artifact
• Is struggling to make ends meet
• Is trying to save a friend or family member from peril
• Is using someone for his/her own ends
• Leads a revolution of some kind
• Plays a sport
• Robs banks
• Slays the undead in his/her spare time
• Was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime someone else committed
• Works at a common low-paying job (blue-collar worker)