Writing

I could write 50,000 words.

No I couldn't

Yes I could.

If you put together all the fiction I've written in the last five years, it wouldn't amount to 50,000 words. 10,000 words for "One Bad Thing". 5,000 words for "The Road Song", and two or three shorter stories of 2,000 words or so.

They're good words, though. High quality words. Each one lovingly prepared and simmered to perfection.

I haven't written any fiction since 2004. But, I have done some writing... an account of our time in New Orleans... a blurb about our home group for the church newsletter... just this evening I wrote a techie article about using javascript to write roguelikes (a subject about which, you'll have to admit, I am a relative expert).

And there's this blog. If blogging is writing. Blogging might just be blogging. I dunno.

Hmm. I take that back -- I have written some fiction recently -- the backstory to the Seven Day Quest.

Clearly I need to exercise my fiction muscles! Time for a new story. Maybe about the Natchez Trace.

If anyone adds a comment to this post asking for it, then I'll put one of my short stories up on the web, so you can see what I'm talking about.

No point in doing that if I'm just talking to myself, though.

Oh, a Design Would be Nice

Forty-Five minutes until I can start coding. But I don't have to start at midnight; as I understand the rules, I can start any time on the tenth, and I have 168 hours from whenever I start.

Maybe I should use this evening to really spec out the game I'm going to write. I have it pretty well set in my head, but it's a hodgepodge of ideas.

I want to capture the essence of Rogue, but also be minimalist enough to be sure I can finish (let's face it, I probably have less than 60 hours in which to actually get work done).

I'm going to make the whole level map visible all the time; no dark rooms, no secret doors. The "stairway" won't show up until you are next to it, though.

Distance weapons and wands are kind of complex, but I don't think I can leave those out.

I could leave out armor. The original Rogue didn't have armor for a long time; folks at UCSC still loved playing it. Maybe I'll just push that out to the end, so I can skip it if I get behind.

I don't know if it's cheating to create the graphics files outside the 168 hour window. The rules are a bit vague. I think other 7drl's have used existing graphics, so it seems reasonable.

Still, I haven't created any, so I better get on it.

Preparing for whatever this is

I'm at a low point in my life.
Struggling at work to even do a mediocre job.
Realizing that I'm just not really nearly as good a person as I always thought of myself.

But I got this idea in my brain a couple months back, and I've decided to pursue it. I don't know what to call it, maybe the Creative Endurance Triathalon or something. Suggestions welcome.

I don't think anyone has done this before: Completed a Seven-Day Roguelike, a 24-hour comic, and a NaNoWriMo (one month novel). I'm going to try to do all 3 this year.

I plan to tie all of them together thematically. In fact, I'm considering this blog plus the game, comic and novel (assuming I succeed at all three) to constitute a single, multimedia work of art.

First up is the seven-day roguelike. This year's contest begins March 10th. I will be at somewhat of a disadvantage because I work full time and most of the rest of my time is owed to family, church and sleep.

I can't start writing code until March 10th, but I think I'm allowed to start thinking at any time.

The theme (and name) of my adventure game is The Seven Day Quest, a parallel of course to my own seven day quest.

Classic Rogue consisted of a single dungeon of 26 levels, a single quest to find a single magic item, the Amulet of Yendor. 7DayQuest will consist of seven, sevel-level quests. Each successful quest will result in finding a magic item, and that item will be necessary to succeed in the next day's quest.
I'm working on the backstory of the game.
I'm figuring that that will be the novel.

I need to make sure I don't get overambitious with the thoughts of the game, because I have to have it completely finished in one week of spare time, and I am starting from zero.

7DayQuest will be written completely in Javascript (and DHTML). To my knowledge, it will be the first Roguelike to be written that way.

Next step: Overall design, and an implementation plan with daily milestones.