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.

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.”

Go WGA!

I just wanted to express my deepest sympathies for the members of the Writer’s Guild of America right now. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski (which I respect and admire, B5 is one of the best science fiction series I have seen) posted a message with his view on the situation, which can be read here (through JMSNews). In Sweden, unions have a comparatively strong position, and collective bargaining is a fundamental part of how wages are set. The parliament doesn’t have to decide minimum wages through legislation, and can focus on other things instead. In any case, the conditions for WGA members have been abysmal. It’s great to see them demand more money for their work – they deserve it (and it’s not like they’re asking for a fortune).

Read more about the strike on Wikipedia and in JMS’s post.

Update: there’s also an excellent podcast by two people who recently moved to Hollywood to pursue writing as a career. In episode 35, they discuss the strike in more detail. Highly recommended.

‘The Last Shot for Freedom’ – one year since release

This post contains spoilers for the Darker Projects audio drama The Last Shot for Freedom, the second episode of their science fiction anthology Dark Matter.

Today marks one year since the release of this second episode of Dark Matter. And if I remember correctly, I wrote this episode almost a year before it was released. It was initially scheduled to be the pilot episode of Darker Project’s science fiction anthology series Dark Matter, but due to the insane amount of delays (accidental stuff like lines being lost) it had to be pushed back, and ended up being episode number two. Listening to it now, a year after its release and a lot more than that since it was written, there are certainly some things in it that make me cringe. This is my attempt at a review of it, having learned a lot about writing in general, and especially writing for audio drama, since I wrote this episode.

Harry Potter – the end of an adventure

The following post contains a section with spoilers for the last Harry Potter book (The Deathly Hallows). That section is marked in advance.

Ads – information or a story to be told?

The following text was written following an assignment in a course called Grunder i Digitala Spel (Basics of Digital Games). The assignment was to contemplate on whether we’re living in an information society or a storytelling society, to pick an example for or against, and to reflect on it. It’s rather interesting, because the assignment is about society as a whole rather than just gaming. Because I was given the opportunity, I wrote it in English, which is why I can now share it with you all.

Trust in writing

There’s an excellent short film about Trusted Computing, which can be found here. In the first 45 seconds or so, it defines what trust means: amongst other things it is emphasises that trust always depends on mutuality.

And that’s very true. Also in fiction.