Back and Ready to Write!

Hello anyone and everyone! I am back and ready to write! As you may know from my previous posts I was struggling with my calculus II class and I am glad to say that it is done and over with. Whether or not I passed remains to be determined, but it's all up to the Lord now! I am currently on spring break (got 8 inches of snow two days ago) and I was putting off writing because I wanted to play through Fable II and for some reason Lionhead did not make Fable II for the PC (they should) and so I had to wait until I was home with my Xbox. If you read my last post I talked a little bit about how I played through Fable: The Lost Chapters again to try out the anniversary edition and that is what made me want to play through Fable II again. I spent a solid 5 days playing it and have beaten the main quest so I decided it was time to write some more!
Now as much as I love Fable: The Lost Chapters, I must now conclude that Fable II is my favorite Fable game. Not only that but it is my favorite game of all time I would say. Some of you might be wondering "Why?" Well I have played through Fable II 4 times now but it wasn't until this last time that I truly could conclude that it was indeed my favorite game. The reason this past play through confirmed that for me was because I looked at it in a new light. Because I am wanting to be a video game designer I decided playing through older games again to see different aspects of them would be good for my own design knowledge and ideas. As I played Fable II again I fell in love with its world all over again. Fable II's fantasy based world has to be the most immersive world I have ever played in. Look at the Bower Lake region for instance.

The grass is lush and green. The flowers alongside the road/trails are all different colors and shapes and sizes. The water looks amazing for the game being made 7 years ago! The place is just so whimsical yet completely realistic. Fantastically fantasy yet surreal-ly real. And the lighting of the sun was the cherry on top. Seeing the vibrant orange of the sunrise or the bright yellow of the mid day sun or the rich rerange (red-orange; pronounced reh-range). The light flickering off of the lake...gosh it just seeps into my soul! That is what I want to make. That is the feeling I want to get across to players with whatever game I make. I want to help make a game that has that feel to it. I think this is what people who don't understand or criticize video games fail to see. People who look briefly at the game then toss it out don't look close enough! LOOK CLOSER! Look at the minute details that the creators made! Take Fable II for example since I'm already ranting about it. Take a look at Bowerstone Market for a sec (picture below).

Now this is a bit more of a posed shot than I wanted to get but it still shows a lot of what I am wanting to say. This is my favorite place in all of Fable II. This town square is fantastic. I love the houses first off. If you just look at them you'll think they are just A-frame roof style houses, but look closer. Do you see the slight curve the roof has? Not only that but the curve gets sharper as it goes further up! Then the tip is flared up slightly more to emphasize the tip of it all! Now look at the upper portion of the houses. Just looking briefly you get the Tudor style of home feel, but what sells it? Why does it have that fantasy feel? If you look at the far right house you'll see it. The outside edge of the wall sections just below the roof are curved inward. Do we see this in real architecture? If you want a house that will collapse then possibly! But no generally not. But in video games there can be anything! The walls could be floating off the ground and the designers will just call it magic or magicka or haunted or you name it! Something I have noticed as I pay closer attention to the environments of video games is that every town has its own theme/design style. I always knew that "Oh well Bowerstone is an upscale town so there's stone and a clock tower and nice houses and stores. And Oakfield is more of a farm town so the houses are more old time farmer houses and there are just little vendors instead of full blown stores, etc etc," but I see now even more into that now. Bowerstone for example has the Tudor style home with the A-frame roof that curves at an increasing slope. Also all of the houses are two story houses whose second story has a hangover someplace and if there is a major shop (Weapons, Clothes, Barber, etc) then it has a building from which it sells. All of the buildings in the Bowerstone Market are worth more than 10,000 gold and all of the windows are the stained glass type of window. From this view I cannot tell if the windows are actually stained glass or not but I know they aren't clear glass. I never have looked into a game as much as I have now to Fable II and I am so glad I did because it's making my mind race with ideas! Even now I'm looking at the clock tower (my favorite structure in Bowerstone Market) and I'm seeing just why it looks so fantastic! The four legs get broader as they reach down, but if you look at the mid section of them you will see that they get skinnier towards the center then broader. Just that aspect alone gives the portion that the players see up close a whole new perspective. The whole tower is not a rectangle all the way to the top either. For one it is tiered and two it gets skinnier as it approaches the top. Then as the upper section reaches the top framing, it flairs out! It is not prominent at all, but just enough so that your eye catches it and you like what you see. I'm not going to get into the lighting because I feel I've geeked out a bit much as is!

I am a dork I realize. Many of you probably think "Wow you have too much time on your hands to look at a game like this" and you are probably right! I have nothing to do, but this is truly fascinating for me! If all of the games I one day create can cause just one person to be blown away like I am now, then that game was a success to me. Gosh, video games hold so much in them that some people just don't see and that makes me so sad. They are just games, but they are also more than just games. They act as escapes from the stresses of life and as conduits of your childhood dreams of being a knight or prince or princess or _________. You fill in the blank. Just because you grow up does not mean you have to let your childhood fantasy dreams go. I know I haven't! I put them into almost every game I play and I've played a lot! 

On a side note since I'm wrapping up, if you are at all interested in what I am making in Landmark I must confess that I haven't played it since I got home. I have been too wrapped up in Fable II! But I will say that my next goal is to recreate the Fable II Bowerstone Market Blacksmith. I don't know if I will be able to but I shall try! So if you are interested in seeing that check back every day or two to see my progress! Now that I am done with calculus I should be less stressed and less busy so I can write more often. I'll post pictures and such and I'll probably talk more about the other games I've been playing! Thanks all who have made it this far! Follow me if you liked this blog or follow me on twitter! My profile name is The Engineer or look up @AllTheWifeSteal (League of Legends Thresh Reference and also my summoner name). I only use twitter for Landmark, but I'll happily accept anyone who wants to follow me! I'll talk to you all later! Have a fantastic day!