• No words?
• No miles?
• No news?

I realise I usually update a lot more regularly than I have been doing recently, which is down to a few things. Granted, I was never much into quantity over quality (apart from the early MSN Space days, perhaps), but I’d still like to make some excuses for your approval.

What a way to make a living!

If you’re a friend, a sleuth or a games shopper in the York area, you’ll already know one of the main reasons: I got a job. It’s not full-time so I can’t claim that’s eating up all my time, but it does mean I’m not the one in complete charge of my time any more. Fine with me – I love doing what I do.

Maestro!

I’m currently working on a soundtrack to a film called Tanner (official website), written, directed and produced by my mate Oliver Crocker, with some edits by Hannah. Far from being your typical student film, Tanner has some experienced professionals involved:

• Frank Williams (Dad’s Army)
• Tony Osoba (Porridge) and
• Bernard Wrigley (Phoenix Nights).
• It’s even got a “guest director” – Mervyn Cumming, whose CV includes EastEnders, Coronation St and Emmerdale.

The music is done by a man at home with a keyboard and a cheap version of Logic.

The film itself is well over an hour long, which is quite long to score, but so far I’ve got a good idea of what needs doing and how it’s going to sound. The best piece so far is probably Tanner’s theme, which you can listen to by clicking this link. Leave a comment on this post telling me what you think, or across in the Music page!

The tour

I honestly intended to get back on with this after returning home, but so far I haven’t done as much as I’d like for one reason or another. I did pop on the other day for 20k, and I’ll finish that off today (when I find my trainers!)

What all this comes down to, really, is this.

Since the start of October I have:

• Written over 25,000 words of my first novel, taking it from 6 pages to 71. It’s still some way short of being finished, but it’s a damn sight nearer than it was.
• Scored almost ten minutes of music for a feature film. This doesn’t sound like a lot admittedly, but it’s spread out throughout the film, rather than a continuous tune, so it’s more in reality.
• Cycled over 600 kilometres, or almost 400 miles. That’s a lot of exercise, yet I’m still quite unfit.

So, on the whole, this has become one of those blog posts in which I apologise for not posting and explain why. The site might be named after me, but it’s rare for it to be about me. That’s a bit strange really, because when I thought about it I realised I’m the unique point of this site: you can get reviews and game news in any number of other places online, and there are much better places for photos.

I never wanted the focus of this site to be me: I wanted it to be what I do and what I love, probably because I fail to believe people – other than my friends and hostages – would keep visiting a site just because it’s connected to me. However, as long as you keep coming back, I’m happy!

In other news…

Sodaware blog has just launched a weekly newsletter, which I thoroughly recommend you sign up to. You can read about it here.

Michael Jackson will perform on a UK stage tonight for the first time in almost ten years. He’ll be doing Thriller LIVE at the World Music Awards. Sadly it’s not on telly until next week (Channel Four, Thursday, probably about 9pm), but it will be.

Wii launches in the US in just four days. We have to wait almost another month, although I should get to play it before launch day with any luck. My first impressions here, of course!

Very old updates from my old MSN Space coming soon, including ramblings about Magical Sound Shower, how much a lungful of oxygen weighs and my awesome Animal Crossing diary.

Don’t forget you can subscribe using RSS or via email so you’ll never miss a thrilling post. Come back soon!

After much hassling from me, my good friend Jim Parker finally set up a blog the other day, and the first post – about the nature of play – is a cracker. Click here to read it.

Jim and I clearly see very much eye-to-eye on this issue – I would much rather play a game that gives me the chance to do something I can’t do elsewhere. Escapism into a simulated reality very rarely interests me, with the possible exception of Pro Evolution Soccer.

I enjoyed the whole article, but this section stands out to me:

I’d prefer an ultra un-realistic game to be quite honest, a game where I can fly, a game where I can do super human feats, a game with no gravity, no rules and no limits.

Although such a game would be near-impossible to design and play, the message is clear: play is our chance to take on new personae, escape the limitations of our human world and embark on new adventures, exploring fantasy worlds and our imaginations. To play is not to simulate situations we find or avoid in our own lives, but to give ourselves experiences otherwise impossible.

There’s obviously a lot of money to be made from games that simulate reality as closely as possible, but it’s a futile endeavour if you ask me. “Reality games” could end up with the same reputation as “reality TV”, another media attempting to capture our everyday lives for entertainment’s sake that often falls flat.

As a future games programmer, Jim has the chance to shape what games we’ll be playing in years to come. It sounds to me like he’s got exactly the right idea not only about what we play but, crucially, why. Let’s hope developers around the world agree, and that we start to see that reflected in their games.

Related links:

Jim Parker – game blog.