I consider myself to be a writer, with only one problem. I tend to find it very difficult to describe what things, well, are. This is especially true in my science fiction stories, where I've created entire worlds on numerous spiral notebooks (as 'personal background information') and have to convert my personal notes into a storyline. After all, how does one explain a "Gack"?
That's why I'm also a game programmer. Mostly, because along with words, you can put images... like a two tailed cat with glowing feelers or a robotic praying mantis armed with ElectroPulsers and so forth. My tastes in programming range from simple arcade games, such as Pesky Humans, to full multi-media cd rom adventure games such as Synnergist.
It's my life goal to create a role-playing game, though, similar in scope to Ultima Online or Final Fantasy. With all the background history I write in spare time, along with spell effects, selections of weaponry and equipment, traps, dungeon designs, and so forth, I know I have the materials for a full table-top role playing game, yet I would love to see it online. Right now, however, I will be content to simply program my various arcade/childrens games such as The Rifter, Pesky Humans, or Chris The Fish Plays Hide and Seek. I'm hoping that someday I will be able to program these things full time, and actually get paid for it... what a dream that could be! :-)
I'm also rather big on card game designs. You know, like Magic: The Gathering or Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. To date I've designed two entire card games, and working on a third. For a long time, I was held up by an interesting problem, I cannot draw people, period. Equipment is easy (although it has a rather animme flavor to it) as are ships. Planets are a little more difficult. My stumbling block, however, was the human body, and no matter what advice I tried, such as trying to draw them upside down or extremely simple poses such as standing perfectly still, it was not going to be.
However, after a visit with an old teacher of mine, I was made aware of a program created by Fractal Designs, called Poser 2. It immediately went on my list of holiday 'demands'. :-) Using this program, I have been finally able to create shock marines and other crew members for my space card games, monsters and heroes for the role playing card games, and so forth. Along with programs such as Vista Pro, which renders landscapes, I'm able to do what I could never do before.
I have started up my own company, Banished from Bellevue, with a side company, Serious Tangents, to encompass the products and ideas that I've come up with. As I get them finished, I will be putting some of my more 'simple' computer games onto this web-site, available for download.
If you would perhaps be interested in trying one of these games, feel free to download a copy of Pesky Humans. It is a two part download, and the installation proceedure is explained on that particular page.
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All images and works contained on this and other pages copyright Joseph McEvoy, © 1997 peskyhuman@hotmail.com
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