So there was an earthquake just the other side of the northern Thai border in Laos yesterday at just about 4PM measuring 6.1.

I first heard of it when the boss at the one school I teach at comes into class, utters something mostly unintelligble and says ‘the school is closed, everybody go home.’ My class only had 10 minutes let anyway so it wasn’t a big deal, but I was glad to leave for home a bit early anyway. ;-)

Later on I found out the quake was so far North that only tremours were felt in BKK. Though  that was enough to make the building managers on Silom worry enough to evacuate the buildings. hehe. At first people misunderstood and believed a 6.1 quake had happened on Sathorn Rd itself - real near my work. I just remember sitting there after I got a call from Kaywood, wondering why I hadn’t felt anything? I may have been involved in my class, but not enough to miss a quake of that magnitude. ;-) Regardless, my buddy Toon was happy cause his evening class was cancelled. ;-) It also made me laugh a bit thinking about Hiromi and all the earthquakes Japan gets in comparison.

So I have one more assignment left in what will be my second semester at Northumbria. I actually start my third semester this week. So, three more months in two classes and I hand in my final thesis (18,000 words) in the third week of August. :-O :-D I can’t say it’s gone fast, but it definitely is a surprise to be so close to finishing! *Fingers crossed* that I get my degree. I am optimistic.

Then I will be back home in Ontario for my folks’ 40th wedding anniversary and hopefully one, if not two, actual weddings of some cousins. Four happening this year in total! I so wish I could go to all of them.

So, with the MA near completion and my shifting back to Canada for a bit in the closing months of this year, my future prospects are looming closer. Still quite a bit uncertain what I will do, but my highest priority is to find a good job. I may even focus on Canada instead of straining to stay abroad. Though I will look abroad and if I do get an offer outside of Canada it may take precedence. But, being in Thailand for over 2.5 years already has me yearning for home and more ‘normality’ in my cultural interactions. hehe. Regardless, if I end up back in Vancouver or Toronto again, I do believe I would be happy, or at least content. ;-)

Been busy with school and some web design jobs so haven’t been working on Dink and Nipples that much lately. Have a lot of level design to do, which is a lot of slogging and tedious work at times.

Anyway, I am alive and kicking. And appreciating the cooler weather that an early rainy season seems to have come to BKK earlier this year. Here’s to staying dry. ;-) Cheers.

And it’s live! flyinglonghorse.com is active and engaged. Presently it’s just a “coming soon” page linking to the development project section of this blog. But nonetheless, it’s fancy and makes me happy. :-D Enjoy.

The Adventures of Dink and Nipples, the Flying Long Horse

So, what have I actually been doing for the last while?

One of the projects I have been working on is an online puzzle-style Flash game. At present it is tentatively titled: The Adventures of Dink and Nipples, the Flying Long Horse: The Human Trap. And if you’re not sure what all that’s about I will endeavour to explain.

Overview

A Long Horse is a cryptozoological animal, a regular horse with an extra long mid-section basically. And well, in this game said horse can fly, like Pegasus. So far, so simple. But!!! this flying Long Horse can split into two halves: one in the front, one in the rear. (Not unlike those two-person horse costumes.) And those two halves of the Flying Long Horse, the front and rear portions, are individually Dink and Nipples. Dink is the smiley faced, simple half, and Nipples if the flying, brainy portion. You can see both of them here in the following model sheets, as well as the fully formed Flying Long Horse. Click to see larger versions in my flickr site.

Storyline

The plot of the game is such: Dink and Nipples, being a semi-mythical creature of the cosmos, are hanging out in that specific place where mythical creatures hang out, a side-step over from our corporeal, less-majestic existence. One day they hear news that a friend of theirs, an equally mythical and fantastique creature, is trapped in the shell of a living human being’s head - having got unduly lodged there during a botched dream-transfer. Being mythical creatures these characters can traverse the paths and doorways of the dream-world and move from place to place and dream to dream at will - as long as they can find the next doorway. Dink and Nipples’ friend has found himself in a dead-end and will disappear forever if the human wakes up.

Dink and Nipples being the heroic horse that they are cannot abide to tolerate their friend’s incarceration and eventual dissolution inside a human’s skull. So, they must travel through the paths of dream and find their friend inside it’s Human Trap and release him. In each level of the game then Dink and Nipples must travel through a different dream, or mini-world, in the grander dream-realm to finally enter into our meagre realm and save their friend.

Gameplay

The general play for the game will include several Stages, with multiple Levels in each Stage, culminating in a fantastique Final Level. Each Stage has paired levels with similar game plays, growing progressively more difficult and fantastique as Dink and Nipples advance. The player progresses through the levels by controlling Dink and Nipples by clicking on each character and then on possible locations or items with which Dink or Nipples can then interact. Players who fail to complete a level are simply deposited at the end of the previous level and can retry any level again without having to restart the entire game.

There are also a series of special powers that both Dink and Nipples obtain throughout the levels, metamorphosing into super-powered Dink and Nipples, necessary to solve each level. But I won’t go into detail about that here to save from spoiling the storyline or level designs.

Postlude

The Human Trap is meant to be a casual game with a variety of puzzles and level designs to interest the imagination of the player. The storyline, puzzle-style game-play and visual designs will take precedence over interesting game mechanics, simulations, or more “hardcore” arcade-style game play. It is my hope that Dink and Nipples captures the imagination of some portion of the web-o-sphere and gains some attraction and attention. Oh, and I want to print shirts with them on it and sell them, hehe.

At present, I and my friend Toon Degryse are involved in pre-production. I am acting as creative and production lead, and Toon is assisting with ideas and doing the code. As you can see, character designs exist for Dink and Nipples, and we are at work on level and overall designs. I will post more material and information as things progress.

For those interested, inspiration, and just down right great games with similar puzzle-style gameplay, can be seen in: Samorost and Warbears. Though stylistically, you can see Dink and Nipples stand apart from these games.

Well, it’s been a million years since I’ve posted, I know. I would like to say it’s because I’ve been dead busy, but mostly it’s been because I haven’t felt the urge to post. Just been partially quiet, as well as not too outspoken.

That’s one thing I do like about getting older - the need to talk less. A lifelong ambition of mine really ;-)

Anyway, so I am going to be posting more lately. Probably less posts about what I am doing and life in general. There is a need to write posts about my MA and the research I have been undertaking coinciding with such. I also will be posting examples and ephemera about my latest projects - which at present mainly includes pre-production and planning for an online flash game, and in the future links to some websites I will be designing.

So, it should be interesting. I am happily working away on things lately and hopefully things will stay that way. More about that in my MA posts and rants.

Oh and I’ll be posting about some recent trips I did as well, probably. There are already photos on my flickr page as well. ;-)

Cheers.

Hey all, it’s been a hella long lapse since my last post - over two months now… :-O I’m just adding a small note to say that I’ve not passed on and that I am still alive and kicking in BKK. I am off to visit Laos this weekend for a small trip, and then back to the big polluting and my continuing MA and such… Will endeavour to post some actual news and stuff when I return. Cheers. ;-)

Broke my own recent silence on the blog front to link to this. Great article about Andre the Giant and his drinking feats of lore. He was a big and great man, and this story, not only amusing, was a bit touching even. Cheers.

Happy New Year all!

Just a quick post to say that yes there were a number of bombs that went off in BKK yesterday (which was really eff’d) and that I wasn’t anywhere near them. No one knows for sure why they were set off. Of course there’s been lots of violence down south for a long time, but this apparently is not linked with that. No idea. It’s just kind of sad and strange that it’s happened. The main New Year’s countdown party was cancelled because of it. I was at the local pub most of the night, which was fun, and thankfully uneventful.

More soon. Cheers.