The Wolf Among Us Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile Review

2499489-wolf+among+us+-+wolf+among+us+-+2014-04-04+12-40-21+(p)63.jpgA Crooked Mile slaps us right in the middle of some pretty amazing and memorable moments to date in this game.  Around every corner Telltale succeeds at introducing new characters in almost every scene which keeps the interest up, and brings some more light and story to characters we’ve only just seen a small glimpse of over the past two episodes. This episode drops some tough choices on you and some crazy consequences to boot, so overall this episode really gives you the feeling of being these characters and owning the story itself!

My biggest beef with episode two was the lack of story / plot progression you had as it just didn’t move forward enough, but A Crooked Mile is just the opposite as this 90 minute episode makes every second count.  This episode also introduces a new character which was a lot of fun, a witch of Fabletown who lives by the old world standards that really brought a sense of magic to the story which tingles the intrigue of where the story is going.

thewolfamongusepisode3acrookedmile_review_1.jpgWithout going into many spoilers here, this episode brings us one of the biggest scenes to date.  Watching Bigby finally bare his superpowers against an army of angry dwarfs is just a taste it seems of what you get to look forward to in future episodes.  This incredible moment in the game lasted about as long as a blink of an eye, so the wait for episode 4 is going to be a nail biter for sure.

One major plot line of the story that is really starting to take shape and become the star of the show is Bigby’s sadness and frustration.  With that being said, time really seems to be limited in A Crooked Mile, and always moving forward, so you can’t see everything or meet everyone.  One thing that really made Bigby’s emotions standout is due to a big change from episode 1 and 2 as you had very limited time to react to conversations which isn’t the case in this episode.  Oddly I like the fact they gave us more time in the conversations and story this time cause there are some brutal decisions to be made throughout.

Wolf-Among-Us-Episode-3-04As great as this episode was to play through I had a little beef in a couple of the scenes as they decided to cut before I had a chance to fully explore the surroundings.  Both of these scenes were packed full of things to explore and items to discover, so one moment I’m happily exploring, the next I was sliding right over into the start of the next scene which was disappointing.

This episode pushes the boundaries of brutal encounters and wacky decisions that really push the story forward and brought almost all the characters to the playing board.  This is one of Telltales best episodes to date on any of the games they’ve written, so I can’t wait to see where they take Bigby in the next episode!

Destiny Lore – Fundament: A World Changed

FundamentLong long ago, a rocky planet inhabited by the proto-Hive collided into a gas giant named Fundament and shattered.  All of the rocky planet shards that were left scattered across the Fundament ocean, within one of of it’s many layers, and became “continents” in which the proto-Hive took refuge and lived out their existence.  This vast world was filled with five hundred and eleven other intelligent species who also inhabited Fundament’s sea through seemingly similar circumstances.  Surrounding Fundament and within it’s great orbit were fifty-two moons inhabited by a race called the Ammonites.  The Ammonites were bony, six-armed cephalopods who evolved on an icy moon of Fundament. At some point, the Traveler arrived at the planet and became a patron of this race, who helped them build an advanced space travelling civilization with paracausal technology that spanned all of Fundament’s fifty-two moons.  Deep beneath the Fundament ocean dwelled a massive creature called the Leviathan, a great disciple of the Traveler, and one who plays a larger part in this races existence, as it’s a gatekeeper for the darkness being imprisoned in the depths of Fundament.

Life was quick and harsh for the proto-Hive. Their natural lifespan rarely exceeded ten Fundament-years, though proto-Hive who ate “mother jelly” became able to spawn and live longer.  Fundaments environment was harsh and relentless, as the ocean was toxic, the storms constantly raged through the skies, the rain was poisonous and corrosive, and living clouds called Stormjoys would prey upon the populations causing mass conflict amongst the proto-Hive.

The+Alien+Base-Sung+Choi_1920This world was filled with torment and a great fear of a catastrophic event called the “Syzygy” an artificially induced alignment of Fundament’s moons that would create a devastating global tidal wave, the “God-Wave” as the Ammonites called it. One kingdom of the Fundament Ocean was the Osmium Court, ruled by the Osmium King. When the King went mad out of fear of the “Syzygy”, Taox, the teacher of the King’s three daughters, invited the rival Helium Drinkers of the Helium Court to invade and install her on the Osmium Throne. The Helium Drinkers did so, but failed to kill the King’s three daughters: Aurash, Sathona, and Xi Ro. The sisters escaped on a ship, swearing an oath to avenge their father by overthrowing the Helium Drinkers and bringing revenge to their family by hunting down Taox.

Through plotting and planning their revenge the sisters eventually salvaged and reactivated “the needle”, a high-tech ship which had been neglected over the years, but was designed to explore Fundament’s darkest depths. Deep below the sea, the sisters encountered the great Leviathan, who warned them away, and tried to convince them of the darkness the planet had imprisoned, but they continued on and encountered the Worms and made a pact with them to gain immortality and power, taking on the Worms’ parasitic larvae and spreading them among the other proto-Hive; thus the first true Hive were created, and so the sisters were transformed into their new creations as Xi Ro became Xivu Arath, Sathona became Savathun, and Aurash became Auryx.

tumblr_ny4d5t9Q7u1u7keg4o1_1280In just a few short years after the sisters transformed they took the Hive and conquered a large portion of Fundament’s surface population, reclaiming the Osmium Court and harrying Taox off-world. After building their first starships, the Hive followed Taox and encountered the Ammonite civilization that lived among the moons, as well as the Traveler. The Ammonites were far more advanced than anything on Fundament’s surface and were initially able to drive back the Hive’s attacks, especially as Auryx held the Hive back in the hope of achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict.  Savathun denounced her brothers weakness and killed her brother for his futile efforts of peace.  The great Worms hidden in Fundaments depths then vested Auryx and his sisters with the power to defy death so long as they continued their conquest and fed their worms. Auryx returned to life and together he and his sisters defeated the Ammonites, killed the Leviathan, and forced the Traveler to flee.

The three leaders of the Hive transformed Fundament’s fifty-two moons into great colonies for the Hive and set out to conquer the universe in the name of the Darkness and find Taox, who still eluded them. Fundament’s fate afterwards is unknown, though the Syzygy had already taken place before the Hive had begun to war against the Ammonites. It’s likely the “God-Wave” wiped out the remaining of Fundaments surface population. However, the ultimate cause of the Syzygy is unclear. The Worms claimed that the alignment of the moons was caused by the Traveler to prevent the surface civilizations from contacting them, while the Leviathan claimed that the Worms were behind the event in its final plea to the Hive.

We may never know the truth about what causes the Syzygy, or who causes the Syzygy, but one thing is clear, the Hive are still out there and we will see more of them very soon.

Until the next episode Guardians

Writing Fantasy – Do’s & Dont’s

writing-a-bookFantasy is a fun genre of fiction that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally set apart and crosses paths with science fiction and horror as they all three have sub-genres in the fiction world.

Fantasy is one of those genre’s made up of many creative things and frequently includes elements from the Middle Ages.  Most fantasy is adventure based, with a conflict between good and evil which is usually the common theme of plot.  When you here fantasy you probably think of things like wizards, elves, magic, etc…Fantasy is often based on myths, legends, and folklore, that could stem across multiple cultures.

If you’ve thrown around the idea of writing fantasy then here are a few things to do.  

  • Read a lot of fiction in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror genre’s. Soak up as much as you can about the way the books flow, plot layouts, structure, etc.
  • Do the real world research on any folklore, culture, and traditions those era’s had you want to pull into the book.
  • Ask questions, find writing mentors, learn new ways to bring an idea to the page.
  • If you are setting your story in medieval times or using elements from those times, research medieval life in the real world.
  • Plan your fantasy worlds before you start, figure out all the details you want the readers to know about.  This will help you during the writing process as it will become more natural and eliminate any doubt you might have on the topics.
  • Set limits for your world and hero / heroine of the world, as this creates obstacles within the story for readers to be evolved with and helps get to know the world.
  • Bring your fantasy to life with lots of detail.  Give the readers a chance to meet everyone in the book, and make them feel at home like they are actually in the world you are describing.

Here are a few things not to do when writing fantasy. 

  • Don’t disclose everything you know about the fantasy world you’ve made.  The planning you do up front is for you to make sure the story is told correctly, but that doesn’t mean that every detail you write needs to make it to the book.  All the prep you do up front will give the readers something real to look forward to and enjoy. Give the readers some play room with things that you know about the world but they don’t yet.  Let them come up with there own ideas and conclusions about a specific personality of a person, or maybe a place in the book.
  • Don’t break the rules of the world that you have planned.  This in a way will give the readers a false sense of reading and make them feel cheated like what your telling isn’t worth the time for them to read it anymore.
  • Don’t copy people, places, things from other fantasy authors.  Use your imagination to create this magical universe you want the readers to be a part of.
  • Don’t lose track of the story and where you are at with it. Map the book out, the ideas, and all the fun details you get throughout the days while prepping to write.  It’s fun to create worlds with magical tales to tell but don’t get so caught up with the tiny details that you forget to create the main plot of the story.
  • Don’t forget to save MULTIPLE copies of this story and the details, along with any planning materials you have along the way.  You don’t want to lose that work and not have a backup to revert to.

Mind Mapping a Novel

Writers-Block

Are you struggling to start your book?  I struggled with this idea for a long time before I dove into the deep end of the writing pool, and then when I dove in it was a bit overwhelming and at times felt I was drowning.

Many people don’t write books because they simply don’t know how to start.  They possess an idea for a book, but they don’t know what to do with it. They can’t imagine how they get from initial idea to finished manuscript which isn’t a small feat at all so don’t think I’m playing this down.

It wasn’t until I began using the “Brain Dump” method to get my ideas that were just floating around that space in my head, to the paper so I could have a visual.  Some call this mind mapping, but for me this is just an old fashioned Brain Dump.  Whatever you like to call it doesn’t really matter, just the methodology and way it’s used. Brain dumping will take you from a few grand book ideas, to a detailed book outline you can work from to make a manuscript.  This ultimately becomes the go to place for when you need a guide to take you from start to finish of this novel you’ve dived into.

It’s funny how our brains work as we have an analytical and creative side, so mapping those ideas out for a book when thinking about that can be tough.  Basically mind mapping allows you to bring the two sides of your brain together in one location so that all the thoughts and information are easily visual and accessible. Once you’ve learned how to wrangle those thoughts it’s time to take a look at the actual brain dump.  This is the point where the thought has to become a reality.  So….how do you make the brain dump happen?

Well multiple ways, but my favorites are using a large white board to map out my ideas and plot pieces of story together.  My journal is always a go to, though lately it’s littered with sticky notes from ideas I need to go back and form into the story section I need it in.  Another favorite is the sticky note and poster board which is always fun for me as you get to move the sticky notes around and write on the poster board as well.  Maybe this is a super writing nerd kinda thing, but this is very relaxing and enjoyable for me and that’s why i’m writing this post.  I’m hoping this sparks some ideas for you as well and lights a fire so you can get to moving on that great book idea you have.

Think of the brain like this and hopefully it will help you picture what needs to happen.

Brain Dump Process

  • Creative Right Brain is where the ideas flow from and all the magic happens.  The fun stuff clicks on this side of the brain.
  • Analytical Left Brain is where the organization of all that creative material you just dumped to the paper happens.  This is where the structure of the book comes from and where your – table of contents, and outline of the book will look like.

If you’ve lined everything out and keep a good record of the book and use this process then you can produce some very detailed information and great chapter outlines for your book.

Now let’s look back at the Sticky Notes and how they will help you map this book out. This is the easiest way to make a mind map of your book.

My Favorite Brain Dump Process:

  • Grab yourself a large poster board or poster boards, or even a large white board will work. Get yourself a big stack of sticky notes….multi colored is what I like to use as I color coordinate topics to specific colors.
  • Take a single sticky note in the middle of the poster board and write your topic on it, or a book title, just depending on what you are working on.
  • Write all the related topics you can think of on sticky notes and place them anywhere on the poster board.  Sounds like chaos I know, but don’t worry about where you place them , or  about organizing them, unless you are absolutely sure the topics relate to one another.
  • Fill the board with as many topics as you can possibly think of as this is the “Brain Dump” phase and when you think you’re done, look again as you will more than likely come up with more topics after taking a break, or a step back.
  • At this point I like to take a picture of the board for reference purposes in case I have to take a break or get pulled away for something.  They are called sticky notes, not permanently held in spot notes.
  • Ok now comes the organization of the topics.  The analytical side of the brain is ready to be worked right? Look for related topics. Pick up the notes and move them around. Take a close look at what you have grouped together as they just might become the chapters of your book. More than likely, this will be the groups with the most information lumped together.  Just remember this is your book and your board so move things around how you feel fits best, and don’t be afraid to break apart groups into multiple chapters if one is too large. Just make sure you use a different colored sticky note to mark that chapter and don’t forget to name the chapter.
  • Use each of the sticky notes you have grouped together under a chapter as a sub-topic that you want to write about in that chapter.  This is where the fun begins as writing guides and book maps are a must at this point.  Sub-plots of a story can make things confusing if you don’t.

 

Ok now get ready to write as it’s going to take a lot to get that story from your head to paper so what are you waiting for?  Sit down, start slow, think it out and enjoy the process of making that next best book anyone has ever read!

NBI 2016 Coming To A Close

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As we come to a close on the Newbie Blogger Initiative “Lite” for this year I first and foremost want to give a big shout out to all our new bloggers who joined with us this year!!!!  This was a crazy month but I’ve seen some great stuff being posted from everyone so I tip my hat to you all and give you props for stepping out of the box and writing with us and say welcome to the gang.

List of our 2016 Recruits –

Go give them some love and likes as they publish some fantastic stuff!!!!

Vagrant Zero at Just East of West
Zyngor at Pleasant Gamer
EGrey at The Wild Core Chronicle
Kluwes at I’m Not Squishy
Shadowz at Shadowz Gaming Blog
A2Zeo at A to Zeo
Mingnon at Cookie Cutter Monks
Sparko Marco at SparkoMarcoGaming
Chordian at Chordian.net
Elio at Static Refresh

 
I also want to say thank you to all the supporters who have helped each year to keep this thing going. The troops rallied together this year and we did start a bit late, but this year has been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed being a part of it.  NBI has a strong community of gamers, writers, and content creators who enjoy connecting and that is what makes this group fun and cheeky to be a part of.  As we come to a close for the NBI event, I leave you with this last tid bit for the months to come while you type away creating those blogging masterpieces.

Blogging with a schedule is tough but if you like to keep up the pace and continue to grow, you’ve probably developed a system for staying on track. Staying consistent is the key to a blogging schedule and what I use works for me so I hope it helps spark some ideas for you.

Before You Get the Wheels Turning 
Think consistency, consistency, consistency…. because blogging in a way is like exercise but for the brain and the hardest part is….STARTING the engine. Once you’ve kicked some momentum into gear…usually after a few cups of coffee, it’s probably not hard to get going. Just like exercise though it’s one of those things that at first you usually have to force yourself to do, but it becomes more natural over time.  Remember Consistency is key.

Do You Have a Planner? 
I’m an old fashioned kinda guy and go analog for writing things down when I plan. Whether it be in my Moleskine, or a sticky note that later goes in my Moleskin that is where most of my planning happens.  This becomes a reference point for me if I’m writing something that I can’t quite get to that day, or maybe it’s a larger piece I’m writing and want to keep track of where I’m at.  To me having something I can check off in a Moleskin is a great sense of achievement… you know… I just made a check mark by a task right.

Make That Schedule Happen
I’m a planner so I tend to know how many posts each week that I’ll be able to get out.  I on average blog twice to three times a week and usually publish about 6-8 posts a week.  Now, that varies depending on what I have going on but I’ve committed to blogging twice a week for sure.  This may be completely different for you…it may be once a month, once a day, or whatever you fancy.  Being a planner means I like to choose one day a week and plan out some posts in advance so that I have a constant feed to work on, which helps me from falling behind on my schedule. I only recommend scheduling for a week at a time because you probably won’t know the specifics of that week until the week before. By making your specific schedule for the following week on whatever day you choose, it gives you some flexibility in posting. If you end up with some free time and want to post more than what you schedule, well that’s just a bonus for the readers.

 

Remember this is just what works for me so you have to find what works best for you. Sometimes though it’s easier to use another idea instead of recreating the wheel.

I hope you’ve enjoyed all the content that has come out of our writers this year during the Newbie Blogger Initiative.  Go connect with them, and we will see you out in the digital community somewhere.

Sincerely,

Iogro Merrybelly

Newbie Blogger Initiative 2016

 

1464077259935Time has absolutely flown by as it seems just yesterday I was writing my first post ever for NBI and my blog.  It was two years ago that I first got involved with the Newbie Blogger Initiative. I wasn’t able to participate much last year due to my schedule and this year it almost seemed as though NBI was going to be postponed.  But that is not the case as Doone himself was lurking around Twitter and low and behold an announcement from him that June would be the month for NBI.

Once again we get to see the Dragon and already we are seeing new faces joining the blogosphere realm asking questions about NBI.

For those who aren’t quite sure what the Newbie Blogger Initiative is, here’s a look back to it’s origins.  The Newbie Blogger Initiative is an annual event created by Syp of Bio-Break back in 2012. His main goal was to bring writers together and hopefully start an MMO blog of their own.  It was a place to rally bloggers alike and have encouragement, advice on topics, and overall help with getting traffic to the new bloggers sites.

Why does the NBI exist?

NBI exists to help encourage bloggers (Gaming) bloggers to be specific, but all in all it’s here to help writers, and content creators.  This event has a large group of veterans who have helped over the years and they have a wealth of information to share.  It’s one of the reasons we “Veterans” enjoy this event as we get to pass down the torch of knowledge to anyone who wants it.  NBI exists to help new bloggers get their blog started off in the right direction, and to give any advice we can offer to anyone willing to write and create material for such a blog.

Are you Ready to Participate?

Are you questioning if you can participate in this event, well don’t as all are welcome here. But to be counted as a “Newb” in the Blogosphere you need to have just started blogging within the last year.  That doesn’t mean any of the oldie but goodies are excluded from the event as our “Veterans” as I mentioned above are a huge key to this event as well.

How do I get involved? 

You can follow any of the links below to get started and see all the chatter going on about the event.

 

 

NBI Forums 

NBI on Twitter 

Discord Invite Code: https://t.co/bZLA0YGZSk

 

 

If you’ve ever tossed the idea of blogging around then I hope NBI is what kick starts that fire and helps get you going.  I’ve been writing for years and even today after setting down and looking back, it’s not been an easy journey, but it’s been a very satisfying challenge.  Writing is a passion and just part of who I am, and I hope that passion rubs off onto the next generation of writers.  I hope you all take the challenge and enjoy the 2016 Newbie Blogger Initiative!  Can’t wait to see you all around!

scr.ee tags:

Writing

Writing In a Winter Snow Storm

writing-a-book

 

Hello again everyone!

It has been around a month since my last legit post and that has been strategic, and completely on purpose.  It’s that time of year where our families schedule becomes insane, but like I said it’s on purpose.  This time of year for us is busy with family events and time for us to relax, escape with each other and do those fun family things together.

This has not only been a busy few months but an extremely busy year in total.  As a husband and father to seven year old triplets life has a way of pulling your attention to the important things.  We as a family have always been prioritized, but as everyone we can stray away from those “Important Things” and have to wrangle our small attention spans back in to focus.

I’ve had to slow down the frequency of blogging lately mainly because I can’t create more than 24 hours in a day…though I wish I could sometimes.  This summer was a killer in hours for me due to a very large project at work I was managing in which I was having to work both days & nights a lot of the summer.  With that being said, the project was overall a pretty good success and allowed me to manage a team of people who could make it a success in future years.  Now that the summer has passed and winter is upon us…which happens to be my favorite time of year BTW.

That brings me to my next statement and why I named this blog post what I did.  Winter is my favorite due to a lot of reasons, but one very important and dear to my heart is writing and creativity for me started one very cold winter when I was just a young boy in which I got to read “The Hobbit” for the very first time.

This sparked a passion for writing, creativity, reading and knowing one day I would write my own book, or books.  That has been many years ago and even though my background in school was majoring in creative writing and arts, I ended up being a project manager of all things.  Now that doesn’t mean I’ve lost the passion to write, but what it does mean is I have to prioritize my time so that I can continue my passion of writing.  That prioritization comes in many forms and sometimes it means taking a break from writing which I think any writer out there could say the same thing.

Writing to me is always like writing in a snow storm and the reason I say that is,  “A snow storm is beautiful chaos filled with creativity and awe inspiring moments of it’s ability to fascinate the mind and be completely unique every time it happens.”  This is why I love winter and why I will always continue to love writing no matter the form it comes in.

To all those creative minds and soon to be, thinking about, am doing writers out there I prod you to find what inspires you to do what you love.

One of my  favorite quotes and something I always try to remember, “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words” – Mark Twain

Keep writing and having fun while you do it ya’ll!

Cheers!

scr.ee tags:

#winter