The Dark Brotherhood Chronicles

If any of you played the game, 'The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion' than you would remember without a doubt the most intriguing (and fun) side quest of the game, the Dark Brotherhood. You are approached by an Assassin named Lucien Lachance who brings you privy to a secret underground group of assassins known as the Dark Brotherhood. You are then tested, and if you have the skills are brought in as a brother. Following this you are given about a dozen quests involving assassinations in the game and it is without a doubt the most fun to be had, the trouble was that it was so short and left so many strings dangling at the end.

My guess is that the developers didn't anticipate it being as popular as it was and opted to focus more on a variety of guilds and content instead of really pushing this one. It wasn't completely unfinished, it had closure of sorts, but it wasn't 100% satisfying to say the least.

The Oblivion game is fun because it allows it's users to 'mod' the game, add scripts and models and animations of their own to customize the game to their liking, add more content, etc. This is great because if there is part of the game you don't particularly enjoy, or find too hard, you can alter it to your whim assuming you have the skills to do so. There are websites abound with game modifications, downloads, libraries even of mods you can try out and use to make your experience more enjoyable. It is here I came across a project known as the Dark Brotherhood Chronicles. (DBC)

Through Google searches and a forum or two, I stumbled upon the DBC and started reading up. A team of tens of people from around the world have come together to build what is certainly the largest expansion to the Dark Brotherhood storyline anyone has made. It is supposedly going to add 15 hours of gameplay, along with tying up some of the loose ends and continuing the story where it leaves off in the current build of the game. New characters, new quests, new items, new buildings and more. This is a modification to the game that players have built completely on their own that is going to add FIFTEEN hours of gameplay. Anyone who has ever tried to design something for another's entertainment knows what a feat that is, and how much hard work went into it.

Over the months, and eventually a year or so I saw they posted a test level for potential beta testers. Beta testing anything usually ruins the experience of immersion and burns you out on a project, but I was still interested and gave it a go. I talked to a couple of the developers during the first test and during this process I found out they were looking for an animator, so I asked and was brought on to the team for a few small jobs.

It's exciting, the mod is almost finished and I'm happy to be helping with it. There are thousands of people waiting eagerly to play this and I'm excited to have a small part in it's production.

More Info: DBC Website

Bike Hero For The Win!

This is possibly one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen.

Freaking. Awesome.

Free Hugs

Check out this youtube video I found over at Bobby Beck's blog.



Source: http://bobbyboom.blogspot.com/2008/11/breaking-barriers.html

Barack Hussein Obama

Congratulations to all of us for being a part of American history today. This is the first time in my lifetime that something like this has happened and it's pretty neat. No matter what your beliefs or who you may have voted for, you should be able to respect the fact that literally millions of American people, black, white, asian, hispanic, and robot, were celebrating in the streets last night.

This man has given hope and excitement to an enormous percentage of people who have maybe never had any, and for that he has my respect.

Here's looking forward to see what he can accomplish.

A Morning At The Polls

Voted today! Ron Paul imo.

Image Metrics, Surfing, Halloween

Towards the end of October I started over at Image Metrics again for a stint until the end of this month. It's been so much fun! I was doing only at-home freelance work for a few months and it was really starting to be a drag. Sleeping in is always nice, but not having any reason to leave the house for days at a time can start to make anyone get bleh'd out. I was stir crazy and running out of money, so the new job has been a light in many dark places. Getting bills payed, things fixed, being able to eat, etc. It's awesome!

Since the studio is on Main Street, it's a one block walk down to the beach and we've been taking daily surfing breaks during lunch or whenever the tide is good. My old spot down by the Venice Pier is significantly less awesome than this new one for my personal taste. The water is nice and shallow and the larger breaks are quite a ways out so you've got plenty of room for variety in between. My buddy Jonas bought a 6 footer which we've been trying to shred and I've been on my body board until I get the cash for a new board. Ultimate fun though, so happy to be getting out in the water every day.

Halloween was pretty entertaining. We cruised down to Bill's house in Huntington Beach for his annual Halloween bash. He went all out this year with a full on Halloween decor that put Knott's to shame. It was an awesome time. Got to see some old friends and meet new ones, who could ask for more? Emily dressed as Tifa Lockhart from FF7, and I was Luffy again. Almost everyone knew who Emily was right away so that made her happy. =)

I finally beat Final Fantasy XII. It's been sitting at the final battle for like 4 months and I forgot about it until the other night where I plugged in, logged on, and proceeded to hand Vayne his ass in all 3 forms. Good times.