Kate Kligman

I’ve finally had the chance to play the incredibly awesome This War of Mine by 11 Bit Studios. The game is a survival-sim crossover somewhere between Don’t Starve and Fallout that captures the feeling of wartime desperation and desolation.

This single-player game begins with a cast of characters that have to survive a war together in an abandoned half-destroyed house in a blockaded city. The outlook initially seems positive: at least one of the characters has an immediately usable skill and resources scattered around the house can be used to craft tools and repair the shelter. However, security quickly vanishes as the player is forced to send out characters to scavenge and replace dwindling supplies and make what feel like imbalanced trades for sustenance.

Actions matter too. In games like Fallout inhumane conduct is easier and almost encouraged in the resource gathering process. This War of Mine constantly reminds the player that there are always consequences. Early on, I accidentally killed a hospital worker after I was caught stealing and my character had a crisis of conscience so severe they never came out of it.

Character death is also sudden and final. This can shake things up after a span of successful scavenging runs — all it takes is being the wrong place and time to end things.

My favorite part of This War of Mine is the balance and pacing. My games seem to last about a month of in-game time, which is just long enough to feel like there’s a chance of rescue when the scenario gets grim.

The year 2014 was an important and well-lived year in my life, for which I’m very grateful.

In 2014 I’m proud to have:

• Became a Zend Certified Engineer for PHP 5.5 and Zend Framework 1.
• Received word that I passed the MySQL 5.6 certification exam during the beta last December (2013).  Though Oracle claims the credentials are equivalent to non-beta exam takers, I’m proud to have earned mine because of the enormous block of questions featured only in the beta exams. It feels hard-core.
• Succeeded at a dream job and found another. I’m getting closer to figuring out what I want to be when I grow up.
• Released 3 games through the Ludum Dare game development competitions and also worked on the Shadowgate remake. That was cool.  I only had one small game out in 2013, so I feel like I’m gaining momentum in this area.
• Joined the current decade in cell phone and laptop technology.
• Visited Portland, twice!  Portland is neat. I could retire there someday.
• Went on a proper (if somewhat local) traveling vacation to the empire mines.
• Played and wrote more about games.

I’m also happy to have seen my family more and spent time with people who are good for me. That’s the most important thing.

It’s that time again.  I started this blog in 2013, this is a young blog!  It feels very strange to write up another year’s end post already, so I’m going to do it backwards and look ahead to the new year.

In 2015 I plan to:

• Complete one game a month in the One Game a Month Jam. (Is this a jam? I don’t really know. But it looks cool.)
• Get my retirement finances in even more groovy shape this year. I’m definitely getting better at moneying like an adult.
• Blog excitedly about the video games I own, most of which I haven’t played yet.
• Pet more kittens.

In 2015 I also hope to:

• Learn how to cook food worth eating. I’m *this* close.
• Upscale my game development skills in the art and music areas. I’m committed to making 12 games next year, but I’d like them to be good ones, eventually.
• Finish my lingering Magento enterprise certification. I still have the voucher; studying for the certification test got away from me this year.

Aside from these goals, I think I’m going to play 2015 by ear. I’m also going to write a retrospective of 2014 probably in the first week of January — it was an important year for me.

After nearly a decade-long pause, I’m finally playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion again.  I’m actually going to beat it this time, too!

Back when I was obsessively playing Skyrim, I remember thinking that Oblivion was still better. I couldn’t remember exactly why it was, but I felt very strongly about that fact. Now that I’m back into Oblivion, it’s easy to see why.  Oblivion is beautiful. Skyrim is epic in a Game of Thrones tribute to the north kind of way, but it gets dreary and boring. Even the later generation graphics don’t quite save it by comparison. The placement of villages and overall map structures in Oblivion make sense, and don’t feel packed in like Skyrim’s do. Oblivion feels smaller, but that’s okay, because the cities, towns, caves and other areas resonate with the mood of the game.

I never finished Oblivion back when I first played it largely because my game got bugged inside the oblivion gates.  My incredibly powerful alchemist made potions to walk across the lava in the oblivion areas to reduce travel time.  I thought I was being clever by sidestepping one of the more boring areas of the game, but I ended up bugging the gates, and treasure chests weren’t populating along with other issues.

I have other games I intend to finish soon, so my current Oblivion playthrough is more of a casual speedrun.  I’m having fun, and this time around I’m not taking any shortcuts.

Yesterday, November 6th, was my 35th birthday.  Encompassing most of 2014, this previous year has been a very good one for me.  I’ve achieved personal and professional goals, I’m lucky to have good friends who care about me, and I feel close to my family.

The festivities were mellow. I took a day off from work, I had a relaxing time at my favorite restaurant, and I received some interesting gifts.  I purchased an Atari 2600 for myself, which I hope to use with the Harmony cartridge to port a Ludum Dare entry (more on this later).  I also received an apple, a t-shirt, and the mother of all power strips which is greatly appreciated right now to support all of my various gadgets.

I’m really looking forward to the next year. I have a hunch it’s going to be a good one.

Last week I took the plunge and started playing games in my massive GOG.com library. Let me tell you about Ultima 1.

Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness, is Richard Garriot’s first game in a series I loved as a child. One of my all-time favorite games is Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar for the classic Nintendo. But looking back I hadn’t played much of the others, stopping after briefly playing Ultima V on the classic NES, and some aborted attempts with VII in the 90’s on an ever-slow 386. The first game in the series, released in 1981, simply passed by me.

Fortunately, the version on GOG.com is the 1986 remake with enhanced EGA graphics and a few other tweaks. The graphics look brilliant on my netbook, and the game’s overworld is bright and colorful with animated sprites and wandering monsters.

Probably the best part of the game is the most sparse, the 3D line-art minimalist dungeons. They are positionally navigable, capturing the first-person dungeon exploration experience I loved in other games like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder. And the line-art makes me smile.

I’m only a few hours into the game so far, but I’ll post an update when I’ve managed to complete it. I’m hoping for a long adventure.

Summer has been as busy as expected, and I’m glad to have time to blog during these next few months.

My technical certifications are moving forward. I decided to finish off the MySQL certification series and become a certified 5.6 administrator by the end of this year. I originally skipped this certification test, sitting only the developer portion of the exams.  I’m now able to commit a couple hours a day for studying and I expect it will pay off.

I participated in another Ludum Dare 48-hour game development competition. My web-based entry is called SWARM, and it’s available here (click on Web/HTML5 above the picture).  I’ll probably do a post-mortem on it after the judging ends next week.

Shadowgate came out and was for the most part well-received by the series’ fans. This makes me very happy.

I’ve also agreed to look at PHPUnit Essentials for Packt Publishing and will be posting a review here within the next week or so. Reviewing books here was something I started on an experimental basis, and I hope to have a couple more reviews up in 2014.

On a personal level, I’ve made some efforts to reconnect with friends and former co-workers. Keeping positive people in my life is important to me.