Wednesday, July 28, 2010

In Which I Hodge-Podge

Hodge-Podge! I feel like a hodge-podge post needs a theme song or something.

Something along the lines of Grandad Robert Freeman's "Good food. Good food. Good foo-oo-oo-ood" song from the Boondocks.
Do you watch the boondocks? You totes should. Though it has a lot of language. A lot. But it's kind of the point.




This weekend we found a new game on our xbox arcade that we immediately bought because it looked awesome.
And it was.

It's called Limbo and is loosely about a boy who's sister goes missing and so he travels through Limbo to find her.

There's no music, and the whole game is black and white. It's side-scrolling and full of puzzles and scary creepy things like giant spiders, glowing slugs that attach to your head and drown you, and creepy Limbo children who set bear traps for you.

It's kinda gory, for a black and white game, but there is an option to shut off the gore. It's also pretty short, maybe just a few hours of game play.

We all agreed that we either wanted a movie like this, or a book. It totes made me want to write. AND I know I would have freaked out at its awesomeness had I been a graphic novelist/artist.

For reals, if you have an Xbox 360, get this game.

Here's a video and screenshots for those (like me) who can't always access vids:










I wrote a new short story this weekend. It came about because Hannah (Palindrome) had mentioned on her bloggy (and received agreement from Lindsey (at Dangerous with a Pen)) that sunflowers creep her the hells out. This had never occurred to me, that sunflowers could be something that frightened people.

AND THE STORY IDEA WAS BORN!

It's about 2k. I did a quick tightening but now have to sit on it to see if I can come up with a theme or junk to weave throughout. For me, themes don't come until after the story is complete.

But I was pleased with it. Hannah said it was creepy so that's good.

I also have another idea for a short story, and I had a dream this last weekend about a zombie-hunting family that I MAY (but probably not) write for NaNo instead of my sea serpent plan. We'll see.

There will be a two week span in August where I will be mostly away from the interwebs. The first week I will be camping and have no Internet access.
The second week I have to go into the office for fun time Six Sigma greenbelt training and since the commute is 1-1.5 hours one way, I will have less time to visit.

This is just a heads up. There will be more reminders later. I'll probably repeat some posts and maybe have a few new ones written as well.

And that's it for this Hodge-Podge experience!

How are things for you?

23 comments:

Hannah said...

That game looks so frickin sweeeeet!!! It makes me want an XBox 360! or just play Alone in the Dark again and then get scared, put it in the freezer and not play it for 3 months.

And yes, sunflowers are creepy. Trees are the only thing that should grow taller than me. NOT creepy staring sunflowers!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAh! Why are you insistent on scaring me today? Creepy game, uber creepy story...

Could I mayhaps be a horror writer?

Gawd I love horror.

Jaydee Morgan said...

The game does sound fun but I totally suck at video games.

Never heard of anyone being afraid of sunflowers before (sorry Hannah). I quite like them and thought about planting them in my own yard.

Have great fun camping!

Matthew MacNish said...

I watched that Limbo trailer last night and it does look awesome. Too bad I have no points right now. Boo.

Summer Frey said...

I can't handle shit like that (the VG). I get scared waaaayyyy too easily. But it looks pretty sweet, graphics-wise.

Congrats on the short story! Sounds like fun :)

Sarah Ahiers said...

Hannah - next time you're over, you can play it if you wants

Anne Ahiers said...

that last screen shot you posted- i don't remember that scene, do you?

Austin Gorton said...

@Palindrome: Trees are the only thing that should grow taller than me. NOT creepy staring sunflowers!!!

What about corn? Like, corn that grows as high as an elephant's eye?

Sarah Ahiers said...

Jaydee - video games, like most things, just take practice

Matthew - when you do have points, get it. it's worth it

Summer - i wouldn't say it's super scary, per se, though there are some anxiety parts with the spider, but mostly it's just curious and a touch creepy

Anne - no me neither, but there were a bunch of screenshots of it. maybe we'll have to play it again

Sarah Ahiers said...

Teebore - yeah and how about a corpse flower? they grow pretty tall.

And lilac shrubs.

actually shrubbery in general can grow pretty tall.

heh. shrubbery

Lola Sharp said...

I love sunflowers and find them happy and...wait for it...sunny. It never occurred to me that they could be seen as creepy. Hmmm. *scratches head*

I LOVE that it inspired you to write a short story. :)

Those screen shots look haunting, gorgeous. I love that stylized look.

Happy Hodgepodge Humpday!
Love,
Lola

Rebecca T. said...

Hodge Podge! do dodo dodo do do!

There. Theme song. make up your own tune please :)

That game looks amazing. If I had more time and an actual video game system I would probably get pretty into them. I have enough time eating monsters in my life right now, though.

Also.

Shrubbery!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Lola - yeah i don't have a problem with them either. Go fig.
The game is so beautiful! Even when it's violent it's great

Sonshine - HAH! Awesome song.
Yeah video games does take up a lot of my life. I mean, a lot...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I appreciate the graphics! Shame I don't have an XBox. However, I am deep into playing Starcraft II at the moment and loving every minute of it.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Alex - oooh yeah. we gots to get that. i think we'll try and hold off a bit until we complete the current games we're working on

KodasTotems said...

I don't play vid games- too empathic. They make me crazy. But my husband loves his x-box. Doesn't look like the kind of game he'd be into, but it's beautiful in a hopelessly cinematically depressing sort of way... LOL.

Joan Crawford said...

Oh, Lord. Terrific! Now I will undoubtedly have the image of that horrific spider in my mind when I die.

This game looks awesome! It is like a fairytale/nightmare, isn't it?

Hannah said...

@Teebore- Bah! Corn.

And the corpse flower just stinks.

Hannah said...

Anytime someone says shrubbery I think of pubes. I'm just saying.

I'm gonna play the hell otta that game!!

Hannah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hannah said...

p.s.

dude, trim your shrubbery!! LOL!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Kodas - LOL that's a good description

Joan - yes. yes it is. And the spider is pretty creepy. It likes to stab children with it's long legs

Hannah - Ha! and you need to watch more Monty Python. I DEMAND IT!

Hart Johnson said...

I'm not a game player, but the graphics and idea on that game sound like they'd make an excellent book set-up.

And the short story about creepy sunflowers--excellent! Interesting to me to hear you weave in a theme afterward--with novels, too? Or just the shorts? It's just an idea that had never occurred to me before.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Hart - both novels and shorts. Usually the themes don't become apparent until i've written the whole thing. Especially with novels since my characters so often change

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