Welcome to Potrero Research Labs

Title: Welcome to Potrero Research Labs
Format: Audio drama script
Genre: Science fiction, suspense, spy
Purpose: Production by audio drama group
Progress: Script complete, 22 pages. Download from here (copyright Arman Borghem).
ETA: Script is currently not scheduled for production

Welcome to Potrero Research Labs is an audio drama script originally written for production by an Internet-based audio drama group. We follow a young researcher being hired at a research lab that officially makes peaceful products, but which in fact makes weapons. The employee doesn’t seem to mind that, but voices concerns about how they should be used. And, there’s something else about him too, which we don’t quite figure out until the end.

The Threat to Uncertainty

Working title: The Threat to Uncertainty
Format: Feature film script
Genre: Intelligence agency science fiction
Purpose: Fun & learning
Progress: 40 pages, target 90-120 pages.
ETA: Unknown

The Threat to Uncertainty is a feature film script that I’m writing purely for my own enjoyment. I haven’t written anything on the idea for the novel which the script is based on for a few years now. I do expect to return to the novel eventually, but I have no idea when exactly. The feature film script is something that I write on in bursts now and then.

Career options: an analysis

My last blog post was almost a year ago. There hasn’t been a reason in particular why I haven’t made any blog posts during that time, rather I’ve simply prioritized other things since it’s been a busy year to say the least. Mostly, I’ve continued to study game design at the university college. I’m in my second year now, the third and final year starting after the summer. Since a year ago, we got a new game design teacher after our old one left, we canceled Project Different Reality (read about it in the update to this post), and I’ve made a few discoveries and decisions which I want to share.

Uwe Boll rocks!

So there’s an online petition to stop Uwe Boll from making more movies. The goal is to gather one million signatures, as of this moment there are 129 365. Personally, I’ve signed a counter-petition, which currently has 713 signatures. I haven’t seen any of his movies, but I’m really looking forward to Postal.

Project Different Reality

Project Different Reality is the working title of an Unreal Tournament 3 modification that I and a group of classmates are making. It’s a single player experience that takes place part in the 1930s, part in present day. Chester Hunt is a private investigator who slowly realizes something isn’t right with the world he’s living in. He’s got a voice in his head that comments his moves, he’s hearing strange music coming from everywhere and nowhere, he sometimes loses control over himself, and some surfaces in the world are covered in a chequered pattern with a text mentioning missing textures…

Status update… #7

I currently have three game design “projects” in school going simultaneously. The first two are for a course. They are flash games, one made in a group of four people and the other individual. We have plenty of ideas and the ability to conceptualize them, but we aren’t especially good at ActionScript 3.0 – so we’re struggling quite a bit at the moment.

More signs that EA is learning?

I just read this article at Wired. At the DICE Summit, EA’s CEO John Riccitiello said that EA had mismanaged their acquisitions of several companies, including Bullfrog, Westwood and Origin (interestingly, I mentioned exactly this in a comment about a week ago). Said Riccitiello, “We at EA blew it, and to a degree I was involved in these things, so I blew it.”

Prisoner’s Dilemma, continued

So last time I talked about the Prisoner’s Dilemma, I brought up an example regarding gaming consoles: how Microsoft and Sony would save a ton of money if they cooperated and built one single console instead of having one each. My primary reasons for why this would be logical is that they would only need one development team and budget, one marketing campaign, one support structure, and developers would only need to learn one console architecture.

And a happy festivus to the rest of us!

I’m currently in Nynäshamn (just south of Stockholm) visiting my parents and some relatives. Having bought a PS3 from Canada (that uses NTSC rather than the European PAL system), I’m getting a black and white picture on my TV in Karlshamn. I was hoping it’d work on my parent’s TV, but alas, I’m getting a black and white picture here too. I’m getting some cables that will hopefully enable me to connect the PS3 to my computer screen.

Anyway, happy Festivus!

Who wants Christmas ham in November?

Christmas is obviously an event that knows no boundaries. Not even time itself can stop if from popping up whenever it sees fit. Or rather, when the ad makers see fit. I took this picture with my cell phone November 1st. The Lidl store in question is perhaps a kilometer away from where I live. Its text says “We have everything for Christmas!” and displays a wide variety of foods normally associated with Christmas.

Now, one thing that Christians, at least in Sweden, seem to want to emphasize is that they provide a counter-weight to commercialism. While I personally don’t see why we need religion to do that, as we have political ideologies that provide even better counter-weights, Christianity does provide at least something positive in this regard.