Blue Skies Over Mars http://overmars.posterous.com Whatever's on our minds -- usually video games, board games, music or movies posterous.com Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:48:00 -0700 Translation is Balls http://overmars.posterous.com/translation-is-balls http://overmars.posterous.com/translation-is-balls

I work as a translator for a video game localization company. We specialize in bringing niche Japanese rpgs/visual novels over to the States. These games focus heavily on story, which requires careful handling in order to give an experience that is naturally enjoyable to a U.S. audience, but is still faithful to the original material.

Keeping the general context of a scene or story in mind is all too important during localization. It's not enough to simply just "translate" sentences, and a good translator will carry over the correct context and filter out potential misinterpretations that may be made of a scene, with careful use of language.Translators also offer notes to editors in order to overcome the hurdle of language barriers. One of my crowning triumphs in this struggle is this comment I wrote, something to the effect of: " 'a dragon's balls' here, refers to the magic seven balls that grant a wish, not an actual set of dragon testicles." The word "balls" carries the same connotations in Japanese as it does in English, and the way the word is handled must be carried over as well.

Just say it. "Balls."

In the back of your mind, you know it's a pretty fun word to say.

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Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:24:00 -0700 Web Game Wednesday http://overmars.posterous.com/web-game-wednesday http://overmars.posterous.com/web-game-wednesday

So this week's game is a good ol' fasion tower defense. Now, it feels weird playing a tower D since I have Pixel Junk Monsters at home, but this is a type of game gets duplicated so often that I had to post a decent webgame version that everybody can enjoy.

Kingdom Rush - With nice artwork and dynamic sound Kingdom Rush has great presentation. And of course once again, upgrades. This game is a your very basic tower defense game that really doesn't add anything super exciting to the genre but is a solid example of the type of game it is. Now I haven't gone very far with it, mostly because I suck at Tower defense games. Check it out though, it's been fun so far.

I was going to add another game but I ran out of time. I hope you enjoy Kingdom Rush!

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Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:29:00 -0700 nanoloop http://overmars.posterous.com/nanoloop http://overmars.posterous.com/nanoloop

I just got an iPhone over the weekend, and one of the things I was most excited about were musical apps I heard were really cool. one of the apps that got a big recommendation from a subreddit I frequent is nanoloop. it has a rather odd interface where very little is explained on the surface (there is a help section) and the 16-step sequencer moves across four rows instead of a straight line but I still feel like I have a great deal of control. I haven't dived into the app proper, I mainly get too absorbed in the sampling aspect, but I am definitely having fun with it, and would love to incorporate it into a live performance in some way especially if I could do sampling on the fly of a particular random sound. it's definitely more feasible to have a 2nd person take care of that and just kind of go mad scientist on it. that could work I think as long as what I'm doing doesn't rely on synching up with the sample/sequencer.

anyhoo, I managed to export a little doodle.

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Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:11:18 -0700 Long week away http://overmars.posterous.com/long-week-away http://overmars.posterous.com/long-week-away It's been a long almost-week away from home. Many board games were played, a new free-to-play FPS was discovered (Blacklight: Retribution) and an incredibly lousy dinner was had with a family member. It's very weird not having a steady job to go to every day, and I was just starting my break when I left town, so coming back I don't really know what groove I had going that I should return to.

It feels like a moment to make the most of but those seem to go as they come as some random thing gets in the way. I wonder what'll come up but it's time to watch more Simpsons.

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Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:46:00 -0700 Web Games http://overmars.posterous.com/web-games http://overmars.posterous.com/web-games

We constantly talk about the best console and PC games but seem to overlook a the huge part of gaming that is webgames. Now, I'll say this right now, I'm a little tipsy as I write this. I just want to share with you all some of my current favorite webgames. 

Kamkaze Pigs - This is a Chain Reaction game with upgradable features. It was fun and offered enough variation that I wanted to continue to upgrade to move forward. I didn't find any of the sound effects to be too annoying but I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing. It took me about an hour to beat. Some of the stages get a little frustrating, especially the end boss since it's all the way to the right and the majority of the damage falls flat. Other than that, it provided enough of a challenge to continue through.

Paramaters - Alright, this looks kind of weird but I found it to be kind of badass. This game has the game mechanics of an RPG with no story line. It's a game of numbers and upgrades. I forget how long it took me to beat this, but it was definitely a good time waster. Check it out, tell me if you dig it. 

These are the only two that come to mind right now since i've played them recently. But I think it would be fun to continue posting my current favorite webgame. I definitely lean towards upgrades when it comes to a webgame. As a console puzzle gamer I actually find myself hating most puzzle based webgames for some reason. 

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Mon, 02 Jul 2012 22:11:00 -0700 unfinished swan http://overmars.posterous.com/unfinished-swan http://overmars.posterous.com/unfinished-swan

it seems I'm reminded every time I look at my bookshelf or my game collection that finishing things is not my strong point. this post itself is dangerously close to being cancelled, actually, but I'll press on. I've been reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy these days, and it's my second time reading through the first 1/2 of the book -- I started it a year ago and never finished. Same goes for... Ask the DustThe CrossingCrime & Punishment (that book's huge so I think that's forgiveable)... my game collection is more or less a heap of unfinished projects, as well.

I feel it's gotten to the point where each game/book is a worthy distraction from every other game/book -- they're all worth a play, they're all interesting and have something new to offer. throw the convenience and relative shortness of movies into the mix, and it's easy to see why nothing gets done. it's amazing how interesting everything sounds when there's a task at hand. just up to this point in this post, I've imdb'ed the cast of Princess & the Frog three separate times, as it's been on in the background and each new voice actor sounds like the most familiar voice I've ever heard.

creative endeavours of any kind are orders of magnitude worse, as my previous post might've shown. how people create things distraction-free is beyond me. I wish I could compare my unfinished work to Michelangelo's numerous unfinished statues, but... y'know. in the interest of finishing something, I'm going to wrap it up here...

I borrowed this post title from an upcoming game that looks rather fantastic. I'm very excited to play (and finish!) it when it comes out later this year. Here's a trailer:

and in continuing the "unfinished" theme, yet another unfinished music track:

Glitch_Fingerpick.wav Listen on Posterous

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Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:43:00 -0700 I just needed a vacation. http://overmars.posterous.com/i-just-needed-a-vacation http://overmars.posterous.com/i-just-needed-a-vacation

Now with that previous post, I look like some kind of asshole that's hating on games and is grumpy with the world. Well it seems like that all i needed was a good long vacation away from games so that I could clear my head and get excited about things again. So here's a short list of things I want to get my hands on.

Lords of Waterdeep - This is a worker placement strategy boardgame that is brimming with theme. Don't let the Dungeons & Dragons title fool you. The way this game plays is nothing like it's RPG title, but more like an elegantly crafted eurogame. The short video I provided in the link shows a breif explanation of the gameplay mechanics and is produced well enough so you can get a great understanding on how the game is going to feel. This is my current top pick for my next boardgame. 

Flash Point - Second on my list is a co-operative boardgame that in a similar likeness to Matt Leacock's Pandemic. The players play firefighters who have to save victims in a burning building before the fire gets out of control. There aren't very many good co-op games out there and this is the latest one that has been generating some buzz.

Scrolls - Scrolls.com just relaunched with some media images and video. With the success of Minecraft all eyes are on Notch and what he's going to do next and it looks ...boring. Well, I'm not much of a CCG guy anymore but back in the day I used to play Magic: The Gathering often. The issue I had with M:TG is that it seemed like those with most money get the coolest stuff. And the rules, oh god the rules never seem to stop changing. Scrolls doesn't seem like much to look at but what I'm interested in most is the gameplay mechanic behind a Notch created CCG. We'll see how things works out. 

The Last of Us - Now I don't really have to explain why I want to get my hands on this do I? Just watch the video.

Crokinole - I'm excited about this because we're getting together this summer for a tournament and I'm going to come home with the trophy. Let the shit talking begin.

I'm pretty sure the only people that are going to read this are the only two people that are associated with BSOM, so if either of you could give me pointers about how to make this post easier to read or more entertaining we should discuss this in the comments. Also, if we could get the ball rolling on more posts that would be cool too. 

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Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:23:00 -0700 Why have I been so bored with games lately? http://overmars.posterous.com/why-have-i-been-so-bored-with-games-lately http://overmars.posterous.com/why-have-i-been-so-bored-with-games-lately

So I've been playing video games ever since I was a kid. My dad started me with Frogger on the Atari 2600 and I continued through through most of the systems all the way to my current PS3. I loved video games. But lately, I'm sad to say, I kind of lost my spark. I have to push myself to be interested. For some reason, it's hard for me to really gain interest in most of these next gen games. 

Now it's not the games that are at fault here. There are AMAZING games out there. What I actually think is changing is me as a gamer. Back in the day, I always wanted to get my hands on the next best thing. I wanted to play every AAA title, discount bin, and used game that I could get my hands on. But now, something weird happened. 

I used to blame this on the death of the split screen, a.k.a online gaming. I thought that the days of all of your friends sitting on the couch playing games together was the golden age and I would reminice about how things used to be better. But really, back then, it was kind of a rarity for me to partake in 4-player split screen. We had our Goldeneye, Timesplitters, Smash Bros. and Halo moments but comparing that to the number of single player games I used to play it's a very small chunk. 

My latest theory is that I've played so many games, that a lot of games are starting to look the same to me. But I still can't bring myself to fully buy into that excuse. 

Maybe my taste in games are becoming more defined. 1st person shooters and 3rd person adventure games don't really do it for me anymore. I find myself really enjoying puzzle games and more of the old classic arcade/console games. 

Hmm. I think that may be it. I guess I felt guilty that I wasn't fully enjoying the large production AAA titles anymore and was finding more joy in the more classic style gameplay. The top titles are still entertaining to play but I think I would find myself starting up a game of Megaman before Uncharted. 

I don't know, now that I've been thinking about it maybe my new found love of board games influenced this problem. Or maybe I'm getting older and this is what happens when you have more things to worry about than just school. Or maybe I'm just too afraid to let go of something that has been a part of my life since I was a child and I feel like I'm betraying it by walking away from it. Or maybe I'm looking too far into something when there's nothing really there at all and I'm just plain ol' genuinely bored. Psh, all of this complaining is lame, I think I'm going to go find a game to play.

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Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:39:00 -0700 blue skies over mars http://overmars.posterous.com/blue-skies-over-mars http://overmars.posterous.com/blue-skies-over-mars

bsomout.mp3 Listen on Posterous
I've had this for nearly a year, one of those happy accidents that I've never been able to really work on beyond what you can hear. I like the beat and I love that it's 5/4, but I was never able to write a decent guitar part for it and I haven't the faintest idea how I'd recreate the looped noise live. I tentatively titled it "blue skies over mars" too, which would've been really cool to use. Maybe some other time.

(I hope the embedded player for audio on here is good!)

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Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:15:00 -0700 my first post is better than that other guy's http://overmars.posterous.com/my-first-post-is-better-than-that-other-guys http://overmars.posterous.com/my-first-post-is-better-than-that-other-guys

This is my first post on here, and I'd just like to announce that it's much better than the other guy's first post beneath mine.

Lots of stuff is probably going to change around here -- probably everything but the people -- but this is a good place to get started and post about anything I think is worth sharing, without a character limit or pesky readers to make me feel all self conscious.

Happy Monday.

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Sun, 17 Jun 2012 19:49:00 -0700 First Post http://overmars.posterous.com/first-post http://overmars.posterous.com/first-post


Here's my first post to posterous. I'm not entirely sure what we have planned for this space, but we're currently working it out. This post is mainly here to test out the different features that posterous will provide for us so we can publish important things such as this. 

 

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