I miss Douglas Adams. Never met the guy, but it sure feels like I did. Do you know what I mean? Like it seems you could run into Douglas Adams in a pub and waste several enjoyable hours talking drunkenly about evolution, interactive fiction, sheep farming, or whatever. And I guess what I really miss are his books, which somehow create this feeling of a friendly, witty guy talking directly to me about geeky things. An Adams' book is always good company.
There are a number of "
British Humour"
sources that share characteristics of Adams' writing--Monty Python, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, and others. If you were going to make a British Humour drinking game, the list of cues might go something like this:
* A character is about to be killed, but is more interested in something trivial like the location of a misplaced toenail clipping.
* A purely random object is inserted into the dialogue, i.e. "
an orangutan in formalwear"
* Extra swig for each additional irrelevant detail added to the random object, i.e. "
a slightly disgruntled orangutan in ill-fitting formalwear which was improperly sized by his tailor due to the fact that several Swahilian anarchists, on a northerly jaunt through Devonshire..."
and so on and so on, with no enforced limitations on when it should ever stop.
* A character is remarkably sane or intelligent in contrast to an entire world of flailing imbeciles.
* A character is unexpectedly involved with transcendental issues in contrast to his exaggerated ordinariness. A pot of petunias is more likely to expound on nihilism than the chair of a philosophy department. The latter is more likely to throw the pot of petunias at a passing ice cream truck, driven by a slightly disgruntled orangutan in ill-fitting formalwear, which was...
* Any obvious goal will never be reached. That would be too obvious. A happy ending? A sad ending? It will be something weirdly in between. Like a giant "
meh"
.
* A manly guy dresses up in drag and sings a song.
Having such an appreciation for British Humour (yes, I will continue to put the extra "
u"
in), I've been tempted many times to Britishize Beethro in the DROD stories. And in fact, some of the stories I wrote about Beethro prior to the release of
DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold have him slipping into the part. When Beethro was asked about a blue letter from King Dugan he replied in Black Adderly fashion:
"
Basically, it will be some sort of fundraising scam. Now that Parliament has voted away the Royal Tax, Dugan's scrambling to keep his loot. His scheme is to make every dumb little event at the castle into a Royal Cermony with guests who pay to see it. He wants me to drop a hundred greckles or so to attend the Making of the Beds. Or the Polishing of the Shoes or the Plumbing of the Loo. That's all it is."
Not too bad, but it feels like I'm borrowing too much from the other side of the Atlantic. It's okay to work inside of an existing style of writing, but I'm afraid it won't ring true in the long run. Why? Because I'm American. Not in a chest-beating, flag-waving, guns-and-glory way. No, it's more subtle and inescapable. Americans like to win, and I can't be responsible for a main character that isn't heavily motivated to do something, even if it's stupid. Beethro can't just make witty detached remarks about the lunacy of his world, he has to change it. Americans like simple solutions to complex problems. Sometimes they are unbelievably and unforgivably wrong (I am thinking of world politics, but I won't jump into that mess). But at the heart of our worst mistakes is a guy that insists he can replace his car's transmission by himself, professional mechanics be damned. The triumphs of the simple-solvers are few, but when they come around, victory is sweet. And there are some problems that are so complex, that only someone with the will to blunder semi-blind through them will ever make any progress.
This is exactly the kind of problem that Beethro will be asked to solve in
The City Beneath. We will see if he is the right man for the job. If we put Arthur Dent up against the Rooted Empire he'd wander aimlessly through random situations mainly concerned about finding a proper cup of tea. Edmund Blackadder would take an underling position with the DAA to give him endless opportunities for making his bitter, little jokes. Dave Lister would mainly just lay around drinking leafjuice and composing bad guitar songs. So clearly, we can't have some loserly British guy meandering around the Great Beneath. It must be somebody just a little bit dumb, but very determined. It must be an American.
It's better for British people to write British Humour, I think. Or if you aren't British, you better feel your Inner Limey pretty strong before you start inserting those extra "
u"
's and replacing "
z"
's with "
s"
's. Anyhow, I am still left with a concrete problem: Douglas Adams has stopped writing books. You share the same problem too, since there's a finite selection of Adams' material to read, and it will not be extended. If you're like me, you've already read all of his books at least four times, and pine for some new Adamsesque material. Maybe you'd accept something from a different author that replicates the style and theme of Adams exceptionally well. We've already established that author won't be me. But it could be...
An Australian Guy Named Alan
Australians are British, right? Hey, as long as they got that Union Jack flying above 'em, they're Brits to me!
Alan Marshall of Posthuman Enterprizes mailed me his four-part audio drama,
This Pointless Thing Called Life. I listened to the CDs while I was drawing up portraits of new characters in
The City Beneath, and was heartily amused. It seems that Alan is consciously paying tribute to
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The main character is again concerned about finding the
Meaning of Life, although she goes about it in a different way. It's set in a future world full of aliens, robots, and humans that act inhumanly insane. The randomish events that happen to the characters might have been inserted as lost chapters into the
The Salmon of Doubt without causing suspicion. "
That's fine and well,"
you say in your curmudgeonly fashion, "
but it sounds almost too derivative. Is this all just a big boring rehash? Is this plagiarism?"
No, no, no. The style and theme are strikingly similar, and an occasional nod is made to Adams' work, but the material is fresh and has plenty to offer in the way of new ideas. For example, in
Pointless there is a market for brain tissue, and people pay for certain things by pulling out chunks of grey matter in a casual way. Learning is accomplished with chemical injections. A powerful University is responsible for... oh, I can't give that away. Look, just trust me--it's original and worthwhile.
With a quickness, I contacted Alan Marshall and licensed all two hours of the show. So we will be including all four parts on the next four
Smitemaster's Selection CDs. I think that makes this a spectacularly good time to put in an order for the...
Summer 2006 Smitemaster's Selection
Work is well underway for the next
Smitemaster's Selection. No, it isn't here yet, but I am giving you advance warning so that you can get the CDs which, as you may already know, can only be pre-ordered. Or if you like, you can just set up a subscription to receive them, but that's just another form of pre-ordering. The next issue's CD is going to have two level collections (holds) on it:
*
Master Locks, a hold by Larry Murk, which I believe will come with two separate difficulty levels--expert and intermediate.
*
Smitemastery 101, a hold by Jacob Grinfeld that is designed for kids 8-12, and perhaps as a guilty pleasure for the genius who wants to give his overheating brain a break.
We heard all the complaints about
Smitemaster's Selections being too hard, and the Summer issue will be our attempt to ease up a little. Also on this disc, we will have:
* Sci-fi audio dramas: the final episode of the
Shadowman Saga, and the first episode of
This Pointless Thing Called Life.
* Recorded interviews: One long audio interview with Erik Hermansen (me) and one with Joe Lieberman, the marketing guy that writes our press releases.
* Indie game stuff: a hilarious video newscast plus a ton of demos for new indie games that hit the market since last issue.
A Secret Offer for people reading this by e-mail:
This secret offer can't be revealed publicly on our website, so its text has been omitted here. It was only sent to people who receive the Illumination
by e-mail. We've had some secret offers like this so far, and there will be more, so getting the Illumination
once each month by e-mail is recommended. If you've got a Caravel Forum account, you can change settings in your profile to receive it. There is also a sign-up form at the top of caravelgames.com.
So that special offer combined with getting all four parts of
This Pointless Thing Called Life is pretty compelling, eh? Eh? >
>
nudge<
<
>
>
pinch<
<
Smitemaster's Selection ordering and other information
And You Can Download the Things Too
If you missed past
Smitemaster's Selections, you can't really get the CDs that I go on about, because they are mostly gone. But you can still get the level collections (holds) that came with them. We recently made them individually downloadable. I'm not going to elaborate too much on this, since I already spent a lot of breath on other stuff. But basically you can get downloadable access to the older holds by buying credits at the link below, if you want:
ordering individual level collections
The Story of You
Does it seem like I talk too much about myself and what's on my agenda? Hey, get off my case, buddy! You guys were all sitting around staring at the ceiling before I showed up and became the life of the party. So if you've got something brilliant to talk about in your own life, then why don't you just stand and deliver? Go ahead. Open your mouth and entertain us.
Our July contest allows you to do exactly that. Tell a story about something that really happened to you using DROD levels. There's still time for you to get involved. Entries need to be submitted by July 20th.
contest info
UrAvgAzn is Surprisingly Respectable
I admit, I judge newcomers by their chosen handles. And anything unpronounceable with mixed caps sets me on guard for obnoxious pre-teen nerdboys. But Jeremy is okay. He's better than okay even. Since he arrived on the forum in April, he's been a powerhouse of contribution. To the end of his every post he adds "
Keep posting,"
to rally the masses. That's the spirit! He made a list of Architecture projects, a forum scavenger hunt contest, an avatar for Zex, and an entry for Pilchard VIII's hold art competition. I'm not saying he's up at that same level yet with guys like Patrick Fisher and Wesley Chua, but for a new guy, he sure has helped the forum a lot.
I'm giving UrAvgAzn a cautious 100 mod points and then 50 rank points. One extra day of CaravelNet membership. My main problem with him is that his handle looks like he text-messages into the forum, but someday I will let that bias go.
b0rsuk is Suprisingly Bristly
So Jeremy is an upbeat guy. Should we all be upbeat? Gads, no. We'd get sick of that pretty quick. You need some darker personalities around to balance it out. This is where b0rsuk comes in. He dug himself a dirty little hole in our forum and burrowed in. If you go too close to it, he'll snarl at you, so just let him be! And don't try buttering him up with rank or mod points. Does b0rsuk care about that crap? No way. Badgers only care about badgerly things, like chewing ugly holes in shrinkwrapped boxes of proprietery software.
For b0rsuk, I will not dual-partition my Linux box to install Windows Vista on it. In fact, for b0rsuk, I will put off installing that particular piece of software until at least 2007. And when I do finally install it, no doubt because I need it for testing DROD's compatibility, I will apologize to b0rsuk for the tragic event.
Topic Picks for July
I skipped topic picks for June because the Tide of Chaos was threatening to engulf us all. As a result, I was slightly less engulfed, but still got that black sticky gunk all over my shoes.
Physics of the Eighth
Coppro posits a theory of how the pie-shaped topology of the Eighth can work. Break open a fresh box of chalk for this one.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=11006
Are You Sick of Indie Game Developers Yet?
I went to the Seattle Casuality conference for developers of casual games. And some guy paid for dinner, which made it all worthwhile.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=10962
L M N O, Pitways, Beethro the Space Commander: 3 in 1, GO4IT, The Land of Sand, Lone Soldier
These are all the new holds (level collections) that have been released since the last newsletter. Larry Murk drops another high-rated hold on us like he has an endless supply of them in his cupboard.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=11
Looking for a Mac guy
We have a job posting for a C++ Mac programmer. Are you one? Have a look!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=10995
Elite Puzzlesolving Team Forming
TripleM is encouraging DROD players to join his team for an online puzzle game called "
Grey Labyrinth"
.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=11008
The Most Hate-able Villian of Them All
Which game villian do you hate so much that your teeth turn in their sockets?
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=10937
Find It on the Forum
UrAvgAzn has organized a hunt for things which appear on the forum, i.e. "
a Hold with 370 monsters"
. As I write this, there are four unfound items left.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=11026
Games For Which a Computer is Not Needed
Before there were computers, people were still able to play games. Those games just weren't very good.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=11019
The Microsoftening
It's happening again. Minions of Gates are bringing unto you the evil of Treacherous Computing. OMGOMGOMG!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=10993
Don't anyone ask me how long these things take to write. I will start crying, and it will be awkward for you.
-Erik
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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[Last edited by mrimer at 05-18-2008 05:42 AM]
)
I was just referring to the oddness of it happening when it's never happened before. I've gotten email versions of every Illumination back to February, and numerous CaravelNet keys once upon a time, and nothing ever went to spam before this month's Illumination. Wasn't sure if you did something strange or not.
