It’s very odd.

I used to have a job - I’d get up in the morning, have a coffee, shower, dress, grab my bike and brave the mean streets of London…SW London, admitedly - so in the Mean Stakes it’s more at the polite end, but I’d faced down death more than a few times…

I’d get to work and turn on all my stuff - Office Clone for work, mail, skype - for work, twitter client, browser for mail and research - you know… stuff.

Then, work, coffee, lunch, work, coffee, home.

There was a framework to my life.

Now I’m semi-self/un-employed and…while I have _some_ structure - I get up, turn on my machine, check mail etc. I don’t have the same “turn on the machine and get into the work frame of mind.”

Which is why I’ve been so lax in keeping this blog up to date.

Case in point - it’s take 48 hours to actually finish and post this.

Well, I underused this.

And I didn’t realise that merely answering comments didn’t make them show up - you actually have to show them.

Not the most auspicious return to blogging.

But - new year sees a return of focus and a return to the digital age

Litranaut lives again!

As does The Weather

Which means that all I need to do is also kick start this.

God - that’s a tedious waste of 72 words.

****

I used to blog a lot, over on livejournal. And then I stopped.

It was something to do with living my life, as opposed to reporting it. The same thing happened with videoing concert clips, or live broadcasting. I used to do that a lot - but then felt that while I was, I wasn’t engaging with the event I was at.

I started Litranaut - which is a great creative outlet, but not a blog.

So, as I said back at the start:

I haven’t had one of these in forever.

*sigh*

That’s not a very gripping first line is it? How am I going to get you to come back and read some more with that one?

Hi. I’m Adam.

I write here, though not so often recently. I also design games, and I’ll be talking a lot about the both of these things here.

And… you know… blogging.

Come back later, I’ll be more interesting then.

Promise

I’m slack.

Ish.

I’m busy on other stuff, but that’s no excuse for not coming here and dropping a note in every now and then.

I’d love to post another litranaut stort. But I’m not going to. Not yet.

I’ve been pushed some educational material from a wonderful woman -@bdmaroon on Twitter. It’s not followfriday, but I’d add her.

She pointed to me at the Handheld Learning conference and this lecture in particular: http://blip.tv/file/2718176

I then went hunting and saw this one: http://blip.tv/file/2717766

These are awesome. In ways that, as a game designer, I can only begin to explain. The possibility stored in each one.

The aching for things to be better.

No - not the aching - the utter, black and white… blue and white? Blueprint on what has to be done to make it better.

These movies are inspiration and battle cry.

I’m in development … stuff … at the moment. More on that as I get time. And I’ll put aside time. It’s an exciting project. Though…maybe only to me.

I am a bad blogger but I want to be mighty.

I want to be mighty.

Marcus was the eventual name of a guy who was one of the first repeating characters on my flash fiction site, Litranaut

He and his girlfriend, and then ex, were media pirates - underground journalists, hackers. He, as you will see below, became a cyberpunk-styled runner. We don’t know what he did, or whose side he was on. Likewise, we didn’t know is she - when taking the name the Dread Pirate Roberts.

In an early edit the couple talk about the name. It’s after their first job, they’re in bed. She says that no one reads anymore. They wouldn’t recognise the name.

As the stories went on, the couple split up, she retired - handing the title on, and he stayed in the game.

The following story was a bit of a resurfacing for them. For him. At this stage I hadn’t decided on the end of their story - on the sections in the trailer.

Still. This is Marcus in “Coming Home”

****

Marcus leant against the sink and let out a sigh.

He wasn’t going to look in the mirror. Just. Wasn’t going to do it.

They took a freelancer on this run. Just to try her out.

He started the tap, running the water over his hands trying to work out if there was a difference between the NuFlesh and his original skin. Anything to not look in the mirror. He soaped his hands and did his best to wash the freelancer off his face.

He reached round to his shoulder and started to unclip the NuFlesh to get to the security bolts below. With a twist, his arm went offline. He pushed it into one of the machines that took up most of the space in his small apartment. It took a twist and a pull and he left the arm snug in its casing. The machine started its comforting hum as it started working.

He ripped open his velcro pants and stepped out, throwing them towards the washing pile in the corner of the room.

The freelancer was good. It’s why they took her. He would protect her. That’s what he told her. The Big Man. As long as she stayed close to him, real close, she’d be safe.

He felt for the flap of NuFlesh at the top of his thigh, unhooked, and removed his leg, which joined his arm for the tune-up.

Then he collapsed back into a chair. He closed his eyes and saw the bullet tearing her neck open.

He let his head flop to the side, chin resting on his shoulder.

The job was a bust. The money they had made have been blown trying to save the freelancer. And then making sure the body was taken care of.

His eyes felt heavy. He was tired.

Tried of it all.

Something moved outside his window. He struggled to get up an made his way, hopping slowly, across the room.

He rested his head on the cold glass, letting it soothe his hot forehead.

He didn’t have to do this any more. He could retire. One last run and it’d be over. Her run.

He looked out the window. He was right – something was moving there.

It was snowing.

He smiled, staring out over the city.

It was snowing.

So, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been in the code mines, pulling together some PHP to test a game.

This weekend the game went live and we’re in the middle of a rather successful alpha test.

Here - have a look at some of the players:

http://ludicmonsters.tumblr.com/

http://ludicpirate.tumblr.com/

http://ludicninjas.tumblr.com/

So - coding woes are only interesting to spammers

Let’s try again.

I write - small, feisty bits of flash fiction.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been involved with 2 projects. The first is the game - which I wrote about in the last update. The other has been trying to edit these stories for a print on demand collection.

“Trying” is the correct term. Coding requires, for me, a different set of thinking. Puzzle solving, analytical. It is also, again - for me, insanely addictive.

Where is the missing ‘;’ at the end of a line?

Why isn’t this database being read?

Why can’t I insert this record?

And the relief and sense of achievement when it, eventually, does work! This is one of the reasons that I became a game designer, not a programmer. The fear of the addiction.

The…healthy fear Not the ‘waking up sweaty in the night, screaming’ fear. That would be silly.

So - at the moment I’m looking at a stack of papers, all red-lined, that needs to be edited.

As well as a ton of new stories screaming to be let out and got on paper.

Here - have a snippet. This was my trailer for season 2:

She exhales in the dark.

“You can touch me if you want.”

***

The couple were sat in the sun by the window. She eats cake.

“We should fake our own deaths and run away,” he says.

***

“We have 4 minutes to save the world, ladies and gentlemen. Are we in place?”

***

Marcus crouches behind a desk, bullets are flying over head. “Screw this.” He yells to his team “We’re kicking this old school.”

Smoke grenades fire into a corridor. He counts off 3, and makes a break for the door as his team sends a wave of bullets to cover him.

***

Sam stared at his new face in the window.

The memory of the fist detonates, white hot, behind his eyes.

His face hit the ground – not that it had so far to travel as he was already on his knees. His nose crumpled on impact.

A voice spoke from beyond the wall of fog rapidly moving in.

“That”ll do.”

Tipping the table in front of him, Sam leaps to his feet, screaming at himself.

“It won’t do. THIS. WON’T DO”

***

A girl stands at a podium. She’s 10, and all grins.

“Hello, Mummy.” Suddenly shy, she looks down. “I’m OK. Don’t be sad. I saw you on TV crying. Don’t be sad.”

***

The letter sits on the table. It’s wrong, too dark at the edges. Not to much placed as…written into the scene.

Austin looked at it. “Is that it?”

His friend looked at him, “Let’s see – it’s the only letter in the room, and it has one word on it, Zarkophski. What do you think?”

***

The butt of Geraldine’s gun slams into Dan’s head hard enough for him to feel it through his armour.

“What part of that order did you not understand, soldier? You do not do this on my watch.”

Dan was on his feet, his own gun drawn, pointed at his captain.

***

Naomi hefts the broken body of her friend.

“See, this is why there’s no side kicks”

***

A hand reaches out.

The body is emaciated, stretched.

The face warped. Free time has seen better days.

“Help me. Please, someone, help me.”

***

The eyes of a sleeping giant snap open.

***

Litranaut Season 2

***

Marcus slips his key into the ignition, pauses, looks out the window at his friends.

He smiles and turns the key.

***

Continues

***

The fireball engulfed the car, throwing it into the air. The blast threw his team to the floor and shattered windows. It landed in slow motion, the sounds of the flames and car alarms echoing as the image fades to black.

Well - there’s been a flurry of activity here today.

This might be interesting. Let’s see.

I make games. I’ve been in the industry for about 12 years. And I say industry. “Industry” might be more to the point. Anyways - after my last foray I decided that enough was enough and … somehow… sort of… got involved in a startup. My own start up no less.

I want to say we’re making Alternate Reality Games, but that’s the - wait.

The company blog says: Welcome to The Ludic Nation.

I haven’t had one of these in forever.

*sigh*

That’s not a very gripping first line is it? How am I going to get you to come back and read some more with that one?

Hi. I’m Adam.

I write here, though not so often recently. I also design games, and I’ll be talking a lot about the both of these things here.

And… you know… blogging.

Come back later, I’ll be more interesting then.

Promise

(ok, not to set up everything else for this…)