WFH Pros and Cons

Since I began lockdown on the 16th of Marth I've been working from home and while I hated it at first I've started to get into a routine, one that I could see myself continuing happily, long after the coronavirus pandemic has ended, assuming that I was allowed out of my house for more than a walk around the area.

That said I've been thinking a lot about what I, as a designer lose out on by working from home and what I gain.

As a designer, losing daily interactions is a heavy blow. I still have meetings, I still get time for talking to people about specific things, but it's the loss of other interactions that massively lowers the quality of work. The conversations that happen when someone sees something you're working on and comments about it, or when you're walking through the studio and you see something on someone's screen that inspires you.

The best example of this I can think of is before lockdown, back a thousand years ago when I was working on a twin-stick shooter prototype. We had a fairly solid conception of what it was supposed to be, but it wasn't feeling amazing. Then a friend, another designer walked by and commented that it reminded her of Dynasty Warriors and suddenly the ideas exploded, the feel of the game was improved tenfold. since I've been in lock down nobody has walked passed my desk and so nobody has been able to inspire me to take things in a new direction, and for Design that is brutal.

On the other hand I get to skip my 3 hours of commuting every day so maybe becoming worse at my job is worth it?

With those extra 3 hours I have been completing games!

Not so many since the last time I posted compared to the previous jump I think. I'm up to 16 games in the 12 weeks since I locked down. The 4 new ones are;

Uncharted

Outer Worlds

Dishonoured 2 (as Emily)

and Life Is Strange 2

I'm currently playing through Hitman 2 from 2018, which is probably the first hitman game I've played since Hitman 2 from 2002.

One last thing;

I hope everyone is surviving through these insane times, and while I don't think I have anything to say that hasn't been said better or by more worthwhile people, I stand with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Trevor Noah has spoken best on this subject, and so I will leave you with his video.

 - James

Top 5 Animes

So I've officially been in lockdown now for 2 months, 1 week and 5 days - though it feels like a years - and I've gotten bored of all of the things I was doing. I've grown tired of the shows I was watching. And I've re-watched my favourite anime, several times. It occurred to me that maybe some of you out there might be looking for something interesting to watch while you're going through the same things and so I thought I'd share with you some more of my favourite animes.

And so, in no particular order, here are my top five anime;
Gate - https://youtu.be/r3rJqoqk4gQ
Gate is initially about a magical gate appearing in the middle of tokyo japan and how the Japanese defence force deal with it, but it quickly becomes a story about how the Self Defence force go through this gate into a world of fantasy and adventure.
I love the characters, and the concept, it's like the normal trope of humans going to a new world where they have to survive against the odds turned on it's head so that the humans, with their advanced technology and war strategy go in and become a dominant force, though they have articles of war that teach the natives of the new world how to treat each other. It's rarely an anime where you are wondering if people survive, and more about how they do it and what they get out of it. Very interesting and only a little bit of Anime Pervy tropes.
Erased - https://youtu.be/jTOyQJuZuy4
Erased follows a guy in his twenties who has this strange ability to rewind a few minutes when someone dies near him. It starts out intriguing but goes full on dramatic when his mother is killed and instead of travelling back a few hours he's transported back years to when some kids were killed in his town growing up.
A solid mystery drama, best I've seen in a long time. And the live action version aint not bad either
New Game! + - https://youtu.be/Gi4-01Ai-qQ
A guilty pleasure of mine. if you read one of my previous recent posts you'll get way more detail than I could put herre, so here's the link.
Rising of the Shield Hero - https://youtu.be/CXsebXvLvkU
Rising is one of those anime's where someone from our universe gets sucked into another universe and is one of the specialist people ever. The difference in this one however is that everyone hates him, nobody wants him there and he has to do a lot of shady stuff to get by while the powers try to undermine him at every turn, at least for the first 3/4 of the show. it also has that element of building a team and I am a sucker for any media that has the 'building a team' thing. I love seeing the teams come together and wondering which outsiders are going to join up. It can feel a little harem-y as all of his constant companions are girls, often who want to be with him, but I find it fairly easy to overlook since its only really one of them that feels like will be relevant in that regard and he's so depressed all the time he's pretty oblivious to it, so it doesn't come up a ton.
Psycho Pass - https://youtu.be/YzuJnyebc40
Psycho Pass is a super solid sci-fi detective drama. I Never saw season 2 cos I could never find it, but the first season was really good. It takes place in a futuristic city where evereyone's mental state is constantly monitored and people who start to break are taken in to be rehabilitated, or killed on sight. The whole plot is so well made and delivered, from the newbie in the ranks getting to grips with the agencies ways, to the former agent who broke and could only work under supervision of official agents, all the characters are great and the big mystery that worms its way through the whole show is entirely on point.

Honourable Mentions;
Sword Art Onine - https://youtu.be/6ohYYtxfDCg
I loved the first season of SAO, the idea of getting stuck in a virtual world was a great story, but it's all been downhill from there. the most recent few seasons have been okay, and I liked the beginning of season 2, but I think SAO is one of those shows that have some of my favorite bits, but it's not the best as a whole.
Assassination Classroom - https://youtu.be/kgNkGohA20k
I have a lot of love for assassination classroom, but I own every volume of the manga, and while the anime did a great job of making an adaptation it just never felt quite as good as the manga. Still worth watching.
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - https://youtu.be/dqDB6gQLbPM
FMA:B is great, it has some amazing artwork, some of the most memorable and depressing scenes. It really knows what it's doing and how to break your heart... but it does drag on for quite a while. It's still great, don't get me wrong, and well worth watching start to finish, (and it's better than the original) buy I don't think i've watched it more than once.

Final update; since the last post I have completed another 7 games, which brings us up to 12 games in 10 weeks. That said, some of them... actually all of them since the last post, were games I started before the lockdown and never got around to finish.
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Witcher 3
Assassins Creed Odyssey
Horizon Zero Dawn
Star Wars Battlefront 2 + expansion story
Rise of the tomb raider
Devil May Cry 5
I've been tryiong to look at this lockdown more positively. What it's given me that I wouldn't have otherwise.
I've got a lot more free time. I've been able to complete a ton of games. My D&D group has had time to play a lot of games, almost weekly in fact. I've had time to do a  butt-load of work on a secret project I've been putting together for my D&D group.
I guess my point is; the lockdown still sucks, but it's necessary, and it doesn't have to be all bad.

- James
The Dark Side of Games-tube

Lock down lock in.

So I've been in lock down for just over a month now and in an attempt to keep the seething madness at bay I've been searching for entertainment.
I've been completing about a game a week, playing D&D online with my friends and I just got the complete collection of Stargate SG-1 and I have to say; the pilot is one of the best Pilots, from a strictly narative perspective, that I've ever seen.
It quickly sets up the stakes, the villains, the characters.
It sets up the motivations for everyone in a clean way from Jack and Daniel's search for their kidnapped friends to the governments search for technology and strategic advantage to defend themselves from the oncoming threat.
It even and even introduces short term plots in teal'c's defection and Kawalski's infection. And most of that is through show don't tell.
Not only that, but Sam carter is still one of the strongest female characters I've seen on tv, they address she's a girl and don't take away from that in the annoying ways that other shows do (like making a female 'badass' character super butch so she's basically a man), allowing her to remain feminine and still a serious military officer, and then after the first interaction it's not a thing, she's just one of the team.

Honestly I was surprised by how well the whole thing held up.

In other news I've completed 5 games in my first 5 weeks of quarantine (Control, Infamous First Light, Beyond 2 Souls, Titanfall 2 and God of War) and now i'm taking a week off.
This has been a much shorter much more informal post, and I think I might do more like this. Also have the long ones about games and stuff, but when I dont have much going on I'll try to be okay with just a little how its going post like this.

Hope everyone's holding up well.
Take care.
 - James
Ryan-tube

Dirty Little Secret

Everyone has a thing that they are ashamed of loving. Everyone has that thing that they go home and do or read or write that they just don't want anyone else to know about.
That guilty pleasure.
For me, that guilty pleasure is a manga and Anime series called "New Game!".
Actually to be more honest it's any manga/anime about games development, though I've only ever seen two, "New Game!" and "Girls Beyond the Wasteland".
But today I'll be talking about New Game!

As a member of the games industry for over ten years now it's really interesting and kind of flattering to see shows about my industry, even if they get a lot of it weird or wrong - though it's very possible that what they are emulating (the Japanese Games Industry) is massively different to the UK or even US industries and that's why I think it's wrong.

New Game in particular is a cutesy look at the games industry primarily from the perspective of artist Aoba Suzukaze, a new hire for the games studio eagle jump fresh out of highschool. It has a fun and quirky cast of characters who's roles vary from coders to designers, artists to producers and briefly a QA department before they decided to outsource (bad mistake in my experience).
It follows Aoba as she grows in her role as an artist, then character designer and through her career, facing the challenges of working in the industry and trying to fulfil her dreams. It's a slice of life series that feels fun and relaxing to watch, not only that it makes me inspired. More than once I've watched this show or opened a new manga and found myself really wanting to build a game before remembering I can't code or art.
But anyway, New Game. They have a weird girls only thing going and promo artwork occasionally emphasises sexuality in a way that is totally incongruous with the tone of the story, and the characters are all kind of stereotype, but beyond that its just good harmless, pretty fun and honestly the all girls thing could be a major plus when you consider how few representations women have in the games industry. Making something like this that's light and 'girly' is a fantastic way to introduce young women to the industry and maybe get more women and more perspectives in. Can be nothing but a good thing.
Bug get rid of the weird occasional bathing shots. that doesnt seem necessary... unless my friends were right and there is a quota of nakedness that needs to be in any manga? who knows.

So yeah, thats New Game, a fun little slice of life anime/manga that I love and would never tell anyone about.

Cheers!
 - James
Some Good Tube