For the past year or so I’ve been working on making a video game. Actually that’s a lie: I made the first prototype for this game seven years ago. Back then I got the basic mechanics working for the player character, but I had no story to go along with it, and therefore no game.
This time I made exactly the same mistake, spending a few months getting the character’s motion working well before I had any idea where the game would go. But it has worked out well: the game play was interesting enough to inspire a friend to help with the script (hi Lara :) and now it’s well on the way. It’s being created in Blender.
In-game screenshot of Cargo
Cargo is a 3D adventure game. You play a snail who is on a mission to whoa! No spoilers just yet. But you can get an idea of the basic game play from the screenshot above: Cargo (the snail) can crawl on almost any surface and wraps around objects. The motion is fluid and quite engaging. A little too engaging: development is slow because I spend half of my time just playing the game. In fact, I think I might have a go now.
I was just trawling through my old posts, and noticed that it is almost exactly one year since we adopted out cat. Back then we thought Kuro was a boy, but the vet soon set us straight.
We got a bit of a fright at the vet because she had a microchip: we thought her old owners would want her back. But it turns out they moved interstate several years ago. From the way she behaved when we met her we think she was dumped. I’ll never understand why someone would do that. She’s such a lovely cat.
I mean, she’s usually nice and likes pats a lot. Sometimes she thinks that being lovely involves biting, and then it’s under the tap with her. We have developed a kind of affectionate fear of each other that I think works pretty well.
Happy birthday, Kuro.
The rivalry between the members of the Flight of the Conchords has escalated:
Character selection
Victory for Bret
Bret vs Jemaine: Baseball
Bret vs Jemaine: Boxing
Shame on me for spelling Bret’s name incorrectly.
We’ve slowly been getting more friendly with that cat. A couple of days ago I had him eating out of my hand again, and he let me pat him. He got right into it and started shouldering the door and head-butting my hand. Then suddenly he went berserk, and bit and clawed me! He drew blood in 10 places. We evicted him and slammed the door. He looked very sorry for himself. I get the feeling he’s just bursting with emotion. He goes between being lovely and being wild in an instant, and even when he’s being nice he grumbles to himself. I think he’s very confused.
The wounds are a bit tender, but not more pink than normal cuts.
Today he came inside again, and he actually meowed instead of just grumbling! He really seems to be coming around. We’re calling him Kuro, which means “black” in Japanese.
There seems to be a black cat living under our house. That, or he lives near by and isn’t well cared-for by his family. So! we’re trying to adopt him.
He doesn’t look homeless. He has a shiny black coat and a wet nose, but perhaps he is fed by others in the neighbourhood. He even has a bit of a podgy stomach!
He’s very timid, but he’s just as curious as the next cat. Today I coaxed him near with a trail of dry food, and even had him eating out of my hand. He looked very confused. He hissed at me a couple of times, but didn’t object much to being patted, responding instead by making funny mumbling noises. I hope he becomes our cat.
