My Search for the Perfect Game - Part 3: Prison Architect cont.

After the last post I thought I would go back and write a list of goods and bads for Prison Architect as the best game in the world. and here it is, starting with the positives:

-Firstly the way the GUI is set up is really good. All of the items are little tiles in menus, from foundations to objects to floors to walls. Now this is nothing special and can be found in many other games, I know. But there is a very nicely presented as well as functional clipboard type presentation of all the staffing, prisoners, and financial reports which is really good way of having a large menu on screen. This is minimised at the click of a button.

-Also the idea of foundations is really nice. it is something very realistic and means that the mechanics of the game work really well as well as that sense of realism. This is something I would definitely like to see in my ideal game.

-The way the people move around is very simple but very effective. There is no moving legs, occasional arms and head move too, as well as it being very obvious when they have handcuffs on etc. This simplicity is not only effective but also quite funny. For example, when the workers are carrying doors or tables, it just looks like doors or tables moving about the place and is quite quirky. This is something else which a game has to be. A little bit comical and a little bit light hearted designed with a sense of humour. After all it is a game.

-Obviously the game works on a very simple grid. Yet again basic and easy-to-use but also allows for ones imagination to get a bit carried away as well as mean that there is a lot more functionality in the game if there is that grid. Take Minecraft for example, the idea of blocks means you can build great big structures, but the physics mean that the grid adhered to is so controllable and neat. Often people talk about Minecraft OCD, which I have been diagnosed with by my friends, and I think this comes about by the lack of any roughness with the grid system. The reason why I think this should be applied to a perfect game is that it gives the player the possibility to do so much more, rather than struggling to even create a basic vehicle in something like Garry's Mod, and also allows for greater precision and neatness. A tidy game is a good game

The things which make Prison Architect not the best game in the world:

-The topic: Prisons aren't very exciting, at the bottom of it, but Prison Architect does bring an awful lot to the table when it comes to the topic and makes it very fun in breaking up fights and sorting people out etc etc, but it is more of a game of sorting people rather than managing a business, which what I think should be the focus of the best game in the world.

-You are paid every 24 in-game hours which is roughly around 25 minutes. It needs to be an hourly pay system and there also needs to be a better balance between money earnt and the cost of building things, as the current game doesn't allow, after then initial grants have been spent, for much in the way of earning money and therefore expansion. There are ways of sort of cheating, which is effective, but also it's not very ethical and takes a bit of the fun out of earning all of your money and developing your prison fairly and by the book.

-Apart from those two features, there isn't a lot else which is wrong with the game, and it is only in Alpha. Some things like the paths of Guards and how quickly they respond to incidents, which one is selected for each incident and things like that needs improving, but this is even an issue in games like SimCity 5, where the traffic goes round and round in loops to get to places when it wouldn't do that in real life, so it is not a unique issue and in all fairness to the game, I bloomin' love it.

So Prison Architect is a step in the right direction, but mainly the business aspect of the game doesn't quite make it the best possible game I can find. Nevertheless, go and play it if you are at all interested by what you have just read. I have already lost an entire weekend to it, and I have only just started playing it.

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My Search for the Perfect Game - Part 2: Prison Architect

So in my very short search through YouTubers for some unique indie games, one I stumbled across is a game called Prison Architect, which has been played by Sjin from the Yogscast as well as Louis of Mariocat Gaming, which I have really enjoyed watching the 50 odd videos he has on his channel over this weekend. Another wasted weekend to YouTube, but that is besides the point!

Anyway if you are unfamiliar with this game then let me explain a little bit about it. Basically, it involves you creating a map with nothing on it, then you have a little army of workers which you can use to build a prison to certain outlines given by the use of grants, which I thought was a very clever and unique way of laying down a beginner's tutorial. This immediately captured my attention. It is a complete simulation game from a birds-eye perspective, so doesn't involve any of the level of graphics as simCity 5 for example, or the 1st person view of Minecraft  it is a very basic, very simple and easy-to-use graphical interface, a bit like that of a Pokemon game, or probably a closer link to the graphics of Super Mario, with the same rounded and cartoon-like landscapes. However instead of being from the side or that weird 45 degree slanty view which Pokemon uses it is birds-eye, as I mentioned.

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My Search for the Perfect Game - Part 1

As an avid gamer and supporter of Youtubers, I have been thinking for quite a while about the perfect game. what really got me into playing was Minecraft, as you will be aware if you have read previous blogs. Now this game has a lot of aspects which really appeal to me: It is completely sandbox and free-roam, so you can do as you wish. There is the idea of growing and upgrading tools and buildings to get better things. A natural progression through material strength and durability properties.

However there a quite a few things which I would like to see in the game. The idea of money and creating and developing wealth, with things to earn money from and also spend money on to make more money, the kind of business simulation games which get a bit boring after 20 minutes, like burger restaurant and the like, have this element and it really captures me, but the idea of actually having to do the work yourself is also inspiring as it makes it more than just clicking things and earning money. You are actually being productive and it is a little more realistic.

The mod-pack of Tekkit though adds a lot of this, such as power and electricity, as well as being able to automate things and create very complex pieces of machinery. This I like! Also the pack never seems to end, so there is always new things to capture your imaginations and explorations.

My point is, they both still aren't perfect. Minecraft is absolutely amazing, don't get me wrong, as many of the people close to me will testify, I still believe this. However for me it isn't perfect. I am not quite sure what is perfect exactly so I am going to enter on a journey through the world of indie games and see what ideas and principals and mechanisms I can take from those games and strive to find the perfect game.

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Highlight of The Day 25/03/2013 - MacDonalds Monopoly

A weekly trip which me and my friends indulge in now that we actually have a way of getting around, is a trip to Macdonalds on a Monday. Naturally 4 lads and fast food go together incredibly well, and this has formed a sort of tradition within our friednship group to a point where occassionally we have to take 2 or 3 cars.

Upon our visit today to said fast food resturant, we discovered that MacDonalds Monopoly is back on. We spent a great amount of time ripping the little stickers and sticking them on our now numerous monopoly boards. In doing this, we decided we would have a kind of monopoly syndicate between the 4 of us.

The other people in their must have thought we were on day release from the lunatic asylum. We went mental looking at all the prizes and making sure all of the stickers were stuck on, and claiming our macdonalds instant prizes of apple pies and free cokes. It was brilliant.

We decided between us that we would take the prizes, and split them between the 4 of us. now this will be quite difficult with the x-box and the 3D TV, but I presume we will work a way round it!

This lead me to think though, what would we do with a quarter of £50K? It is quite a lot of money when you think about it. I mean 12.5K could buy a nice litltle car and pay for the insurance for a year. It could be the deposit on a house. It could be so many things. Which lead me on to think about what you would do with more. Another syndicate that some of the lads indulg in is a lottery syndicate and thinking towards tomorrow's Jackpot of £94 million, I have started thinking what I would do with that money.

It is such a huge sum you just wouldn't know where to start. I mean I am sure you could quite confortably retire (or just not work in my case) and live a very confortable life in a big house, nce cars etc. But would you really want to? The attention you would get for having so much money would be outrageous. I went to the new St. Georges Park England training ground the other day to play for a gig that was happening in one of the function rooms. It was nothing big or anything, but as you walked through even the lobby of the hotel, you could have fitted about 3 of my houses just into the reception desk area.

Not just the size, the finish on it was really posh. the sort of suited and booted dress code. and I am not sure if I would want to live like that. It has really highlighted the kind of different life people talk about when they say "How the other half live." There is being confortable and there is being loaded. I don't know if I would ever want to cross that bridge. And I don't really think anyone does. Wealth to me isn't happiness, because you can be incredibly rich and still have no family, friends or those kind of social interactions which ake us human and ultimately fill us with the greatest happiness.

And for that reason, I hope none of my friends ever win the lottery. Not because I would be jealous, but because it would ruin them. People shouldn't dream of material wealth, they should dream of wealth in friendship and support from their friends and family. That is where real happiness is.

My Favourite Cake List

As a member of the male species I am mainly driven by food. If there is one thing which I going to make me get of my lazy arse it is food. And for me the best motivation food is cake. Naturally I have a lot of cake eating experience, this I cannot deny, I have given too much away by my slightly rotund tummy...

My cake expertise goes from the very most basic of Victoria sponges, classic school canteen pear or apple sponges, to the more exotic flavours of the lime and coconut cake (just no), raspberry and white chocolate cake (at first I thought the white chocolate chunks were lumps of butter that hadn't mixed in properly. Noob) alongside many other weird combinations of ingredients. 

The cake that I would always go for though is by far a lemon drizzle cake. I know this is not always the most popular choice but it really appeals to me. I sometimes find that chocolate cakes or Victoria Sponges with lots of butter icing are far far too rich. I think it is the acid in the lemon that breaks up that buttery richness and creates a really really nice cake. Also, the tradition way to serve a lemon drizzle cake is in only 1 teir, as apposed to the normal 2 on a sponge cake, thus making it much easier to eat without having to start messing about cutting it up with a fork, and also you get the full range of cake and icing all the way through, as apposed to having to eat you cake in 3 stages: The sponge, the jam and cream in the middle and then the icing. So the spread of taste is much more evenly distributed.

So those 2 things, the refreshing tang of the lemons, and the sponge: icing distribution ratio, make a lemon drizzle is the recipe, in my opinion, to the perfect cake.

For more ways to get to a man's heart, follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Can Somebody Turn The Snow Off?

Waking up this morning and seeing yet more snow did not put me in a great mood. In England,  snow is not a regularity and the infrastructure of the country can just not handle it. So when there is so much as a sprinkling of snow, the whole country grinds to a halt. Buses stop running, planes stop flying, motorways come to standstill. and it is so frustrating. It dominates the headlines of the news and media, so all we ever here about when it snows is that it is snowing, and it is causing so much disruption. Which is the last thing I want to here about when I can see out of my window that it is indeed snowing.

Although it is starting to slow up now, it is still infuriating. The fact I drive a 45 year old rear wheel drive 1.1 litre car is also annoying. I basically can't drive it on grass, let alone when the weather is like this. I can't even get off the drive.

So in essence: It is not right for there to be this amount of snow in March. I mean I have been camping at Easter and woke up with a few flakes of snow on my tent, but not a foot in some part of the country after the first day of spring. This is my plea to the weather maker: Will you please just turn the snow off. Thank you.

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Highlights Of The Day 23/03/2013

As the same as pretty much everyone in the country, I woke up this morning to a complete white over. Now snow is great, don't get me wrong. But not at the end of March. The first day of spring was technically 2 days ago and yet still, I can see the reflection of snow falling in the reflection of my computer screen.

I was out the house at 5.30 this morning and I could just tell from the minute I walked out the door that today was not going to be a good day. When I arrived at the paper shop, fully expecting the papers to be late, I set about drying off all the parcels of supplements which had gotten damp from the leaking roof under the stairs, and made them ready for when the papers finally arrived. I went and stood out in the shop and had a chat with the owner and a few customers about who is dead, who is nearly dead, who is sleeping with who, that kind of thing that goes on at 6 'o' clock on a Saturday morning.

Still by 7 the papers hadn't arrived. And when they finally did arrive and I got out on my paper round, trying to pull my trolley out was a nightmare! The wheels soon turned to snowballs and I was incredibly frustrated when I got back to the shop.

When I got in, I made a round of coffees, and the owner presented me with a bundle of letters. Now to get you up to date, the newsagents in which I work is closing down in 2 weeks. It is being bought out by a well known large supermarket chain, as an expansion to an already existing shop next door. This is something which has a mixed reception among customers and staff alike. The main worry amongst staff was that untill this morning, we hadn't found out anything about being transferred as employees next door (Under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, of which I have become an expert on in the last few weeks) and so are getting understandably anxious. Not that this becomes too much of an issue for me, with my livelihood not depending on my job, but for some of the other staff this is an altogether more serious issue.

But nonetheless, I have been presented with a Payroll Form, a form to check I am not an asylum Seeker (which I am not, just for the record) and a sheet to fill in about what size uniform I need. So from that I can only assume they are taking me on as an employee, but I have still not had anybody actually tell me that for certain. Nevertheless, it is steps in the right direction.

In a lot of ways I will miss working in the newsagents where I currently work. The manager and his wife run the business on a very flexible basis. If there is ever any issue about getting to work, or you need time off for something they are more than accommodating. The interactions with other staff and the boss himself is very enjoyable and it will be missed by all. Not only that, but I have felt like I have had a very big part to play in the delivery of the newspapers in the village, holding a paper round for over 5 years now, and progressing up the ranks to take on more and more of the responsibility. Upon the takeover, the newspaper deliveries will stop being sent out from the shop and it will be somebody else's responsibility to do it, from his own house. And those responsibilities will be lost.

I have always said to myself I want to feel as if I am actually doing something productive in a job, not just standing at a till and scanning peoples loaves of bread. However, the money I have earned has lead me to maintain, insure and run my pride Morris Minor Traveller, and many other things along the way, all of which I am grateful for, because they are things which I wouldn't have had if I hadn't have had a part time job. 

Also there is an added bonus of the possibility of a transfer to a store near where I end up at uni, which will definitely be very useful and would be something I didn't get if I was still working where I do currently. 

I think the paper shop is a hub of the village and will be sorely missed by everyone, but it is something which has got to happen. Change happens, and seeing as that paper shop has stood for 50 years under the same name and management, and by the age of the tills and fittings, probably the same technology, so it is well overdue it's time for change. It will just be a great shame. I might do a sit-in, and use the money I have stashed away from my paper rounds to make a better bid that the supermarket chain and rename it as "Tom Peach Newsagents." Somehow I don't think £16 a week will quite be enough to pay a mortgage even if I could get one.