Little Nightmares DLC 2 - Looking into the Story (Spoilers)

So Little Nightmares has been one of those interesting games that has come out as of late and one of the things that has grabbed my interest in it is its story and lore. This game doesn't use vocal or written dialog to tell it, but more through visual clues and actions, which tends to require a bit more creativity to pull it off right. For me, this is one of those games that does it very well.

So why bring up this DLC then? Well, I have searched other playthroughs to see the reactions of a few Youtuber's upon seeing what I saw, yet so far no one I've watched has. I've certainly heard complaints about the lack of a new monster, but once you realize what this story is about, the one they chose makes more sense. The part I'm referring to takes place in the second last spot and involves the Nomes standing in front of a small furnace. Those I've watched tend to be confused by why this is there or what the connection is between the Nomes and the light/fire. However, if you look harder, the answer to this whole DLC is right in front of you.

This is what I love about such games, when the answers lay in front of you, yet it is set in such simple detail that you could easily miss it. The whole 'Nomes are the Maws child victims' was something that makes sense to me, mostly due to the way they act in the game. The monster being the Janitor also makes sense, as he was the main monster in the children's quarters and was responsible for bagging them and sending them to the kitchen area.

This kind of deep. yet simple story telling is something that tends to get missed by some in games, often playing the games through and expecting the story to be explained to them by the game itself in a straight forward manner, simply cause they don't want to waist time looking for details. I admit, I can understand where they are coming from as there have been a few games where I have become confused about the story, mostly due to some important detail I missed or wasn't put in, likely waiting for a sequel to explain it. That said, I feel this game is definitely one of those that does have good pay offs for those who spend just a little time looking around.

A Killer Christmas

So as far as Twisted Alternative box sets go for Malifaux, I really like this one. I admit, I am no fan of the whole 'Krampus' thing, but I do love the look of the snowmen, presents and the christmas tree. Definitely feels like a nightmare set to me and suits the horror aspect of Malifaux. The level of creative ideas for these alternative sets always seem to surprise me, though I would be curious to see what they would do with a Gremlins box set.

Apparently the tree guy was added due to an issue with the Rasputina mold and was put in to increase the box size as a means to apologize because of delays as a result. While purchasing the box now will cost more (due to the extra miniature), those who already purchased it will get it at no additional cost, a gesture that I do like.

Broken Promises Choice Upgrades

So looking over the new upgrades for the Masters from the Broken Promises release that I do own and I just wanted to point out a couple that I really liked.

Jakob Lynch

Burn Out
So I talked about this one in the Gremlin post a few days ago, but I do like this one. It is the more expensive out of his two upgrades, but allows you to summon a The Depleted model in base contact with an enemy model that is killed withing a 6 inch range of Jakob or Hungering Darkness if they had the Brilliance condition by discarding two cards. They do take some damage and gain slow (taking additional damage for any Aces discarded), but with the right crew, upgrades and cards, it would make a pretty interesting scenario (though honestly, I just love the idea of old HD draining his opponents before turning them into crazed madmen).

Cheating Bastard
This limited upgrade allows those within a 6 inch aura of Jakob or old HD to cheat fate second, even if they are loosing the duel. This would mean your opponent is forced to decide if they want to cheat or not, granting Jakob's crew the advantage.

OK, so just to add more clarity to this part, Malifaux is played with a 52 card deck and you draw a hand of six cards which you can use to cheat fate (its sorta like re-rolls with dice, but you know what your putting down). Now in combat both players flip a card and add it to their relevant attack and defense stat, with cheating done after the flips are made. So lets say for this example that the attacker has an attack with a stat number 5 and the defender (who is part of the Lynch crew) has a defense stat of 5. The attacker flips a 7 (5+7= total of 12) and the defender flips a 4 (5+4 = total of 9). The defender has the lowest number and gets to cheat first, but if we reversed that and the attacker flips a 4 (so total 9) and the defender flips a 7 (total 12) then the attacker has the lowest number and gets to cheat first.

As such, the way this upgrade works is in relation to this example is the attacker gets the higher number and in that situation instead of the Lynch crew defender cheating first, the attacker has to decide if they will cheat it higher or let it pass and hope the defender doesn't cheat it. So the opponent could ignore it and the defender cheats it higher and thus the attack is stopped or the attacker cheats it from say, a 7 to a 9 (making it a total of 14), so the defender could either cheat in a 10 or more to bring it up to a 15 and thus stop the attack, or simply leave it and let the attacker waste a card.

He can also reveal a number of cards when he activates and for each Mask revealed this way, there are bonuses given (up to three Masks). This means your opponent might know some of your cards, but you get bonuses for taking that risk. This feels very much in character of the gambling man that is Jakob Lynch.
 
Viktoria of Ashes

Sisterly Bonds
All Sister models get an effect where when the enemy gives them a condition, they get a healing flip. On top of that, Vik also gets a (0) tactical action to give a minion model in 6 inches the Sister characteristic until the end of the turn. Personally, I like the cards and abilities that work with Sisters as I feel it adds more unity to the crew. Speaking of which....

Mah Tucket

Manifest Destiny
Finally, an effect that works with the Bayou Bushwhackers. This allows the use of the ability 'Get Off My Land!' at the start of every turn, not just the first. Plus, you can cross the Centerline with it on the second turn onwards, which means more movement for the crew. Not only that, but it also adds +1 range to Mah's melee actions (which is already quite nasty as I learned when I last used her) and when she discards a card outside of a duel, she can then draw one. Overall, this upgrade improves the effectiveness of the Mah Tucket crew boxset.

Pit Traps
Mah runs around dropping pit traps, forcing enemies who begin activation within 3 inches of one to discard a card or become slow. You do start with three on the board just by taking this upgrade (you just can't place them in enemy deployment zone nor within 3" of a marker or model) and the ability is a 1AP tactical action, with some restriction on where you can place it (though cannot be done while engaged). Effective at draining a persons hand or dishing out slow.

Colette

Audience Participation
So friendly Showgirl minion models that activate within an 8 inch aura of Colette gain the focus +1 condition. Given at least half her crew will most likely be showgirl minions, this could prove very effective in helping them out (and they certainly need it). It also grants her a tactical action targeting an unactivated enemy minion within 3" of a scheme marker, so when they activate you can use up 1 AP for them. While this is a 0 AP cost, it does require a high Tomes to cast, but given Colette's abilities with soul stones and cards, that shouldn't be too much trouble.

Extra:

Ulix

Pig Midwife
OK, so I don't own Ulix, but I have realized that I do enjoy painting the pigs and I am looking for my third Gremlin master, so he is definitely looking to be high on the list.

Anyway, I do like the idea of a Pig breeding crew and this upgrade goes will with his Husbandry upgrade. While that upgrade is expensive, this one is cheaper, thus making it a must have to go with it. It allows Pig models summoned within a 3 inch aura of him to not get the slow condition from being summoned, something that works well for a summoning crew. It also has an ability where if a friendly Pig is killed or sacrificed within an 8 inch aura of Ulix, then a friendly Pig that was within 3 inches of the killed/sacrificed Pig may heal 2 damage. Not only would this be great for a force throwing lots of Piglet models into the fray, but teamed up with a Taxidermist and his ability to also get a Stuffed Piglet from corpse markers, and you have a good set of usable bodies to sacrifice to keep the stronger Pigs healed. Would take some smart tactics to pull off, but it could be done by a skilled enough player (which clearly is not myself given my win/loss ratio with my Gremlins).


There are more with the other Masters I have, but I am still not as familiar with their play styles enough for me to comment on them. I am curious to try them out, but for now I think I'll remain focused on getting more painted first.

Thoughts On: The Nut Job Movie Series

Oh boy, this one is going to cost me a few points among the animation community, but whatever. So I've now seen both The Nut Job and The Nub Job 2: Nutty By Nature several times along with seeing a number of Youtuber reviews of both movies and I have now come to my own conclusions in regards to where I stand on this. I actually think they are alright.

Yes, I didn't mind them at all. I think people are a little too harsh on them and while I do agree that there are issues with both movies, I think the hate for them is really unnecessary. Sure, they don't compare to most recent animated movie releases like Disney have brought out, but the second movie stood out better then those brought out recently by other animation studios this year. In fact, I really liked the second one far more then the first one, so I guess the best way to explain why is to talk about some of the things I liked and didn't like in them. As I've pointed out before, I'm not critic and am simply a individual with personal opinions, so as such it isn't going to be some deep in-depth analysis and is just my opinion and thoughts. As such, let's get the negatives out of the way first.

The Negatives

I feel that there are a couple of reasons that people dislike the movies, one of the big complaints being the use of licensed music. I guess this might be due to the fact that when it comes down to music in animated features, you can never tell how the audience will react to the vocal songs. Sure you might end up with a big hit like Frozen, but more often then not, most will find it out of place or irritating. One example would be in the second one where the first use of 'Born To Be Wild' when they were attacking the workmen and 'Tick Tick Boom' during the second assault on the Fair felt completely off and I would have preferred more original action music pieces, though the the end use of 'Born To Be Wild' with the final destruction felt better used (and no, I didn't think the whole 'Gangnam Style' end credits part of the first movie was that bad either). It probably also costs more to have an original piece produced then it is to just license some well known songs just for the movie and they don't have to pay extra to pay for licensing them in the soundtrack. Then again, I don't know much about how movie budgets work with music and while I can't speak for what the reasons for their inclusion were (because frankly, I have no bloody idea how music is acquired for movies), I felt that it worked about 50/50, but that could be cause many of the other included vocal songs completely went over my head I guess. I'm happy to admit if I'm wrong on this and easily understand why people would hate their inclusion in this movie over, say, original music. Would more original songs have improved them? I honestly don't know.

Personally, I felt that the bigger flaws to the movies come down to two things: Writing and Villains. That may not sound like much at first, but it does tend to have a big impact on the overall product. I felt like some of the story and scenes (mostly in the first movie) were either unnecessary or needed to be reworked. I feel that this did improve in the second movie, though the complexity of the story was simplified to 'nature verse greedy developer', but for a movie about park animals I can look past that. This can also be seen in the humor with a neat joke here and there, such as with how Andie just bursts out in song (making fun of movies in which characters just break out in song for whatever reason) as opposed to things like the fart jokes in the first movie. My opinion is that while there is still more work that could be done in the story and joke telling, it's an improvement. There does appear to be some confusion as to what from the first movie is still considered cannon in the second movie. I say this mostly cause of scenes like when Andie and Surly are having a conversation and Surly mentions starving, Andie points out that they won't starve and that animals survived long before there were nut shops. I point this one out in particular because what was the purpose of the first movie? The animals were are risk of starving (even before the food was destroyed) and they needed to raid the nut shop for food, which seems to somewhat contradict what is being said (they even miss the chance for Surly to point this one fact out), so I do have some concerns over continuity along with some big plot holes (like what happened to Grayson or why didn't Lana take Precious with her when the Nut Shop went out of business?). Character wise has the second movie also being an improvement over the first. The second movie seems to improve the status between Surly and the rest of the animals and we even got a back story on how Surly meet Buddy (still doesn't explain why he was mean to him in the first movie, but I have my thoughts on that). Some of the characters have been improved, though I can't tell if Mole's personality got a down grade.

The same can be said about the Villains, though this might be because they tried to cut back a bit and simplify them. My issue with the first movie is that there were basically two bad guys competing to be the central villain, which grew irritating sometimes as it felt like they were trying to tell two different major stories at the same time. One was Squirrel vs Crime Gang in nut heist and the other was Squirrel vs Racoon for control and reputation. Both seem to work well on their own, but were constantly competing for dominance in a single tale. The second movie seem to be more focused on the Mayor as the main villain with both his selfish daughter Heather and the Animal Control Officer Gunther acting more like the cartoon henchmen/goons role associated with the main antagonist (as far as their threat as bad guys go). Of course, they came off as less complicated and more straight up cartoon-like compared to the villains in the first movie which I felt worked better, though I am unsure how it will go about in a third movie (yeah, spoilers - Racoon looks to be returning, so he would most likely be the central villain for a third movie.......wait, hold up a sec. It appears at least a minimum of a year has passed between the end of the first movie and the end of the second one, so was Racoon just sitting there on that buoy the whole time?).

The Positives

I actually do like the characters a lot. Those of Surly, Buddy and Andie are probably my favourite. Buddy is great and works very well as a silent character, relying on facial expressions and actions to speak for him. He tends to flip-flop on his intellectual level, but when it comes to a supporting character, he does that very well. He tends to have some great moments and his backstory gives us nice emotional piece and an explanation as to why he is Surly's best friend and has stayed by his side for the most part. He does take some abuse from Surly during the first movie, which does have an impact (though only a minor one in my opinion), but it's his impact in the second movie that shows off the friendship better in my opinion.

Surly and Andie are a bit more complicated (or not, depending where you stand I guess). It's clear in the first movie that something has happened between Surly and the other animals (most likely manipulated by Racoon at times for his own benefit) as he is very much the social outcast, being a rather self-centered & independent type. I get the feeling that whatever has happened over those years, it changed Surly to be more like that and making him take a more harder and colder stance, affecting his relationship with those around him, including Buddy. That said, it's hard to paint him as being selfish and greedy at times when its quite clear things are honestly against him. That one scene in the first movie when he goes to the roof to let off his frustration cause he's helping the animals get nuts and yet they are still praising Racoon over him, not appreciating what he's doing for them is understandable. Then Andie has the nerve to be annoyed with Surly's 'I'm doing this for myself' reaction after she just told him that Racoon was going to betray Surly once it was done and that all the animals (herself included) are all in on this. So from his point of view is everyone is just using him and that no one, not even Andie, stood up for him when Racoon planned his betrayal. In his situation, I would totally understand that being a response. I mean, you just told him everyone was going to betray him after all his hard work, that you were in on it too and that your the one trying to make him feel bad just because he reacts like most would, never considering his point of view or feelings (wait, wasn't I suppose to be talking about the positive things?). Surly does have moments when he is a real jerk for no reason, but by the end of the first movie Surly is more positive & respectful and going into the second movie he is respected and looked up too by the other animals, but that leads to them looking to him for answers and results when things go wrong, which proves harder for Surly to solve. He certainly still has his moments when he is grumpy, sarcastic and just showing off, keeping some of that personality from the first movie, but he is also more likely to jump into protecting the park and animals compared to the first.

Andie on the other hand is the central female character and tends to be focused more on the main goal, which can lead to her sometimes missing the finer details or Surly's feelings in the process. It's clear that she has a thing for Surly early on, being one of the few who struggles with her feelings when the other animals are straight up on board with trashing Surly. I feel there is a back story with these two that could be told (perhaps in a third movie) as there clearly seems to be something there as they would have known each other from when they were young. Her opinion of Surly seems to be that she believes he is capable of great things as he certainly has the skills and capability to do them, but can't understand why he doesn't, usually trying to throw things back on him as a result. I feel she's trying to get him to be the Squirrel she wants him to be, but in pushing him so, tends to miss his side of the story or feelings. Her push in the second movie is in keeping with nature, that animals need to work hard and not take the easy way, thus placing the conflict with Surly. She certainly uses his own ego against him, but also try's to show him the positives of her side (which doesn't work as well as she'd hoped for). Of course, both Surly and Andie have their moments when their plans go wrong and they realise that perhaps the other side might have a point or two, leading to a compromise both are quite happy with in the end (and yes, I do like them as a couple).

As for the other characters, I did enjoy the antics of the Groundhogs more in the second movie, though I do wonder what is up between Mole and Jamie. This was something that sort of popped up in the first movie (Mole was clearly trying something like a poor attempt at getting Jamie's attention, but she clearly wasn't taking it), but never really had much done in the second which was a shame as it could have been used for more comical moments, something like Mole's bad attempts at flirting with Jamie perhaps. Most of the others are there as background support who are generally one shot personalities. Grayson from the first movie was definitely the ego, but scared at times type who is confused as a hero by most due to dumb luck (though he does have moments when he does take action) and Mr Fang (hell yeah, its Jackie Chan, who I think is just amazing) is the dark and strong type who is introduced well enough in the second movie so when they are used later on it makes more sense. Both have their rolls in their respective movies, though I do wish they had addressed the missing Grayson issue in the story. I'm not sure is it was a story decision or if Brendan Fraser couldn't/wouldn't do it, (mostly cause there is absolutely no information on the net about this) but whatever the reason they still could have addressed this one given how prominent a standing he had among the animals in the first movie.

Moving away from character personalities, I do like their designs as they do look like their respective animals while still giving off that cartoon feel that's enjoyable to watch. I also love the animation and feel it suits this style well. Oh sure it might not be Zootopia quality, but I still enjoy the feels of its visuals. It flows smooth and fast that I found it enjoyable and tends to get the emotional moments off quite well. Some have said it feels strange watching this style as it can't tell just how cartoon it is with it's slapstick (moments where the characters must be rubber like to survive being crushed by bricks, but they never stretch or squish like one should for that sort of thing) and that it feels more like a direct-to-video animation. Personally, I disagree with the latter (I would love to see a proper discussion about what levels of quality of animation has to be to be considered 'Cinematic' and 'Direct-to-video') but honestly don't mind its style as every animated world has its own rules and that just seems to be the way that world works. I can certainly respect the effort that went into animating these movies (I know after doing my own visual effects course, I learned the difficulties of pulling off 3D animation and have a better appreciation for it).

I feel the voice acting is very good and the cast chosen to represent the characters does a fantastic job of creating personality for them with their voices, which works well for some characters over others (I definitely enjoyed Will Arnett as Surly and Katherine Heigl as Andie). Having seen a lot of behind-the-scenes sessions from various animated movies, I wonder which option works better, actors doing their sessions solo or doing them in a group. I understand they all cant be in the same place due to things like locations, times, etc. but I would really like to know if such chemistry would better reflect through voice (This question has nothing to do with the movies, this was just something that occurred to me as I was typing this, but I would really like to know which one do voice actors prefer).

I also don't mind the soundtrack either, though I do preference the second movies one over the first (there appears to be a running theme here). I guess this is down to two theme pieces they use in a number of moments that I find catchy enough that it feels like this movie does have music that could be considered catchy 'theme song' music material (music pieces that you hear and instantly recognize as being that franchise). I think Heitor Pereira did a great job in this and am now looking into his other works to see what else I can find from his range that I might like. As for the vocal stuff, I made my opinions above so no point wasting time talking any more on it.

Overall

I'm sure I have a lot more to say and perhaps in time I'll get around to saying it. I do understand a number of the issues people had with these movies and I do agree with a number of them (seriously though, the nut puns were few and far between, so stop groaning about them). I personally feel the second movie didn't deserve the low ratings that it got, but hey, if people still feel that then this is a case when I will happily add this to my list of movies I love that everyone else hates. I'm not here to say your wrong or forcefully change anyone's opinions of it, I'm just wanting to point out a few personal opinions here and there and poorly explain why I enjoyed them (though, mostly the second movie then the first). I could see this franchise going further with a bit more investment (and by that I'm not just talking about money) much like Dreamworks did with T.V series spinoffs of their movies, but feel that without the original voice actors it wouldn't work as well (well, compared to Dreamworks Dragons series anyway). Maybe as shorts, who knows, but other animation companies have proven that even after a trilogy is made there are still many stories you can tell without them being a movie. While I would look forward to a third movie, there would still need to be some work in areas like story and writing, but I could still see it working out (then again, I have my own story ideas which would probably put mine at odds with whatever they did).

As such, this was just my simple opinion looking at this movie series and as such I will enjoy coming back to this discussing these movies in the future, for some reason or another (or you know, to fix up the writing. Definitely could write this up better, but you get the idea). Certainly gave me an idea for a new character to create at least and that's always a positive for me.

Slight Blog Changes

Just making a visual change or two. Mostly removing the background (until I can find or make are more suitable one) and altering a few colours. Slow start, but its a start.

Fun With Gremlins

So there are times when I get some energy and a burst of inspiration, during which I've slowly got work done on my Gremlin conversions. As a reminder, these pics are not the best as I am still working out the set-up for photo shoots and these were just quick shots anyway.

First off, I recently updated the Dimitri Benois page with the started conversion, but I'll throw up the shot just for this post. Still lots of work to do green stuff wise, but that will be for another time.

Also mentioned in said article was the Boozer character of Maurice. Well, work has started on him, using a Hog Whisperer model as the base and head, with the fist arms from a Bayou Gremlin I had (honestly, I rarely use more then one or two, so I could spare a model for use). I am mixing and matching parts of the two models, with the Banjonista hat to round him off. Still some wire (I use as rope) and green stuff work to go, but liking him so far.

Of Course, the Hog Whisperer comes with a Piglet model and after going over all my Gremlin books from the RPG game, I felt like one would make a good companion for Maurice. I'd imagine him getting one as a prize or reward and at first thinking about making it into a meal, before it got into his booze and got drunk. Finding it hilarious, Maurice would keep it, call her Wilma and she would not only carry his brewing materials, but be his drinking partner (most likely leading to some humorous moments, but probably also causing some trouble too). An Empire bottle and two of a three pack Space Marine pouch was also used (the third pouch is on Maurice) with a sort of green stuff pack saddle.

Finally, having looked over the Broken Promises upgrades for Jacob Lynch in which if you kill an opponent who has the Brilliance condition (within a short range of Jacob or Hungering Darkness), you can discard two cards to summon a The Depleted model (who takes damage and gets the Slow condition) where the enemy was. Given I usually play Gremlins and that I had some Gremlin parts and Illuminated/Depleted parts left over, I decided to convert a simple Gremlin Depleted (tentacle arms). Not overly great (a chance to repaint its crappy paint job though), but it's silly and I love it.

Also, as a side note, I am working on both Big Jake for my Outcasts and the female Thalarian Queller for The Wild Ones crew (her look just seems to match the theme I'm going for) along with these miniatures.

Election Day.....Hooray?

Queensland election day and the one thing I've learned is that the real issue is that we need a referendum on opening the voting booths from 8am to 7am. Seriously, some of the people you have to stand next too in the waiting cue makes me wonder just what the hell am I doing there.

Sorry, lack of sleep and the depression hitting back with a vengeance is really kicking me down. With luck my next few posts will have a more positive spin to them.

Collecting the Classics

While I'm still struggling at the moment, it's always nice to get a few positive things. Today I got a few classic movies from my own youth. Cheap yes, but still good. My only complaint was just how difficult it is to find a copy of Young Einstein in Australia. An Australian classic and it's almost impossible to find, unless you have US iTunes (go figure). I get the feeling that it is getting harder to find Australian made movies and shows unless you live in America and I would love to know why (my guess it that it probably has something to to with company control and distribution rights).

Could a One Player Miniatures Game Work?

So here was one I stumbled onto just recently, a discussion among miniature wargamers as to whether or not a one player miniatures game could work. After thinking about this (when I could think anyway), I do believe it could indeed work and the reason I feel this comes down to one game. That game is Games-Workshop's own Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower/Shadows Over Hammerhal. Let me explain.

From the games I've seen played with it, each quest has a set of rooms that a randomly generated through flipping cards and that rolls determine what event/encounter takes place. This works perfectly for a single-player game, a randomly generated style adventure, featuring enemies, encounters, allies and treasures. The tiles/rooms that get used is a perfect example of how to make the random style dungeon work, as they are all different and some have multiple doors, allowing for more options.

I imagine a set of miniatures that a player could pick from that appeals to them, before picking a class from a collection of options. This way, a player can play a mini they like, while playing them in a class style they like. From here, each class has a small deck of skills they can earn through doing missions and earn special items from treasures collected. The treasures would perhaps be one use items (either one use only or one game only), so as to ensure the player isn't too over powered, but also have extra rules to help ramp up the difficulty if the player felt they were having it too easy. Of course, there are plenty of options for expansions, but also co-op and multiplayer (as an option should players want too or as an add-on if the game got popular enough).

With a general rule set and various options, it could work regardless of the setting. The world could just be humans, a fantasy one with creatures like Elves and Dwarfs, a sci-fi one with aliens and mutants or even a world of anthropomorphic animals or mechanical objects. If you think about it, depending on the franchise, you could set up two types of games. If you were to take a single franchise (so let's say, Dr Who for example), then you could run with a scenery style game (games like the DC/Marvel ones for example) or go with a Shadespire like one which uses two boards and you just move them about to alter the grid. You could have the starters set and add additional miniatures and rules in expansions. On the other hand, if you had various movable game tiles to create random playing fields, you could take a multi-franchise option (so let's say Disney as the example) with an initial starters game and multiple miniature releases like Heroes and Villians from their various franchises.

So is there a market for this type of game? Well, yes. I could certainly see myself and many others playing such a thing. My only concern is more about things like the marketing and demographic. See, as mentioned above, I used a Games-Workshop product. Games-Workshop is a big company and they have both lore and other games to back it up. Take their Shadespire game. I've seen it played and it doesn't really grab me, but it's miniatures look nice (the Skeleton ones look particularly great) and they have rules to be used in Age of Sigmar. As such, it doesn't matter too much if it doesn't really take off as they will still sell based on the miniatures and their compatibility with their other game. However, most other companies or even a kickstarter may have some trouble promoting it and getting it out to those who would be interested. It would also have to have some nice looking miniatures (to help sell it to players who like to paint or those who want to convert, plus they might play it and enjoy it too), but also make it affordable enough, as this is a one player game first and doesn't have the kind of expansive options that other games have, like events and tournaments (as in, justifying the spending of money in a large miniature gaming marketplace). One could expand their game and lore into these areas, but the original game still needs to succeed for this to work.

That said, depending on the games look/feel, I do believe that there is a market for such a game and if you can reach such a product to those players, then it could work.

The Joy of New Medication (Updated)

AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My body can't stay still, my mind is racing at a million miles an hour and there are times where I feel like I can't seem to control myself.

Give a week or two and things should be back to where they were (I am so on edge right now). That's the problem with changing over to a new medication for depression/anxiety, it can take a few weeks for the body to adjust. Until then, you just do what you can (there are a number of things, whether they work is still up for debate) to try and not loose it & let the emotions take over.

Update 26/11/2017:

Nope, the side effects may have calm down but the depression and anxiety are back to their irritating levels. Until I can get a grip on all this (and a few other problems that have left me in limbo at the moment and don't forget the heat), most of my projects will be put on hold. Hell, I haven't even done an Animated Reflection in a while and that just makes me more disappointed with myself. That doesn't mean I won't be working on things (see more recent posts), but it means things will probably be here and there for a while.

A Great Day for Australia

Today has been a great day for Australia. The morning was filled with celebration as the marriage equality survey came back as a Yes result, moving us one step closer to getting it legalised (the footage of Penny Wong's reaction to the results and how the non-Labor senators supported her made even me emotional) and tonight was the sounds of celebration as the Socceroos won 3-1 to get us into the World Cup in Russia (I watched the second half and it was wonderful to feel the excitement). I admit I'm not a sports person, but things with big stakes sometimes get my attention (the last time I watched a sport game was the final of the Asian Cup, which we won).

Good times.

Wyrd's Latest Preview - Armored Whelks

So the latest preview for The Other Side and I really do like the look of this one. I think it might be the creatures face I love the most with things like the eyes, teeth and just the general shape of the face itself. I'm really liking these Gibbering Hordes.

Zootopia Case Dismissed

So catching up on Leonard French (our favourite copyright attorney), I saw the update on the Zootopia case and it went much like I thought it would. To make a long story short, the two works were detailed and when compared to each other, it was concluded that Disney's version had very little in common with Goldman's version. As a result the case was dismissed.

With that out of the way, can we please get a sequel now?

Anxiety and Supanova

So this one is a little late, but that's nothing new. Anyway, Supanova was on the weekend and just like last year I went to this one too. However, this was the first time I had to go it alone (my brother decided not to go this time round) so facing this prospect given the way my anxiety was going this year was something of a problem. Now at this point I would have just skipped it, but that changed when I learned that CrikeyDave was going to be there. This artist was the one who I have commissioned a number of pieces from in the past and I really wanted to thank him personally for doing them for me, which I got to do (it was a very inspirational encounter, though I always feel like I make a fool of myself thanks to the anxiety).

The thing is, I have created a number of characters over the years, but I'm not a very good drawer and as such it is disheartening to not be able to draw these characters. So when someone does do that for you, it helps pick your spirits up and gives you that joy of finally seeing them in various poses and scenes. Yes, even if you commissioned it, it is still a great joy and a wonderful feeling as the artist is putting in great effort into bring a creation of yours to life. For that, I can never truly express my gratitude enough.

I admit, because of the anxiety I barely stayed for an hour and so had to go. I didn't bring my camera, but there were plenty of great Cosplayers and it's always great to see the effort that gets put in, but also seeing them just having fun with it (I hope to one day do something like it too). Unfortunately, the event was too much and by the end of the day I was crippled with stomach pain and a headache (the running side effects of this blasted condition) and ended up in bed.

Strangely, I was still smiling threw it all and not the general mask smile you put on to hide what your really feeling, but a genuine one. Thinking back, it was probably the most positive and inspiration day I've had in a while even with the negatives thrown in. These kind of days are rare, but when you get them, you tend to appreciate them much more. I'll leave it on that positive note.

Preview Pics

So while I'm still in the process of figuring out how to get decent pictures of the miniatures (you can see from these shots that I do have one out of the two planned lights working. Still having issues on how to get the best focus, so perhaps a light grey background could help as the white reflects too much light and makes it difficult to edit the photo right), I thought I'd just throw up a pic or two to show some things being worked on.

This classic Chaos Spawn has been sitting around for years and was a conversion done for my old Cult of Slannesh. It was originally just a light flesh colour with a purple ink wash and a pink tail with purple spots and looked really bad. I feel the fleshy look adds a more accurate feel to how I'd imagine they'd look (I threw in some blue blend to show its dedication to its new master, Tzeentch).

While still in the painting process, this is just one of the miniatures that has had a slight conversion to help add a more Skryre feel to this Skaven Blood Bowl player. I plan for a number of them to have mutations or tech conversions, with more mutation looks for the Goblin players on the team. I had thought of re-painting the team colours to have a darker purple, but have decided to just re-design the team icon/logo.

Slowly Moving Forward

So another update. Health wise, it's very slow, nuff said there.

Projects are also slow, but moving at least. I am still waiting on parts to finish one of two Gremlin conversions, while the other still needs Green Stuff to complete. Same goes for one of my brother's Ten Thunders base constructions.

Age of Sigmar stuff has so far consisted of slowly re-basing five Skeletal Horse Archers, re-basing my ten rat Stormvermin squad I had from that one time I did them up and entered them in the Golden Daemon thing years ago, getting bases to re-base my two Heralds of Tzeentch and Flamers I did, looking into my old Chaos Ogres and turning them into Chaos Ogors and of course, taking that old Chaos Spawn of Slannesh I did a long time ago and updating it into one more suiting a fleshy creature of Chaos.

Perhaps over the next month or so I'll get around to getting photos of them and uploading them along with slowly working on both the Blog's visual update and those other projects I had planned a while back. It's been hard and I've realised that I am far more susceptible to things like panic attacks now, but I'm trying my best to slowly get things here back on track.