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Hey interwebs, it’s been a while. My New Year Resolution should have been to stop Halo 4 and Dark Souls from taking over my life!

As the new year climbs into my life I decide that I need new focus on designing. With that in mind, I continued with the Game Design Document (GDD) for Bloodlines. I should have the concept section finished by the weekend, and then ready to start on the technical section of it. I am hoping to get the GDD finished and checked by the end of Jan.

I also finished the wiki a couple of months ago. However I haven’t checked it throughout yet. The URL is http://bloodlinesthegame.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodlines_Wiki. Anyone can edit it, so if you notice an error please feel free to ammend it. A community is nothing if it doesn’t work together.

I also had a thought about what I would work on next when Bloodlines is in production, how will I fill in my spare time? I have a couple of ideas that could work but there is one that stands out over the rest, not just for it’s concept but it’s feasibility; It’s hard not to aim for the stars when your looking up at such a bountiful sky. I wonder if that analogy made sense to you lot as much as it did in my head.

Anyway; when the GDD is done, I might work on support documents for this idea and see if I can make a concept that will work. At least when they have been written I will be able to leave it until I get more time to work on it. No harm in planning ahead huh?

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Good news people. Craig Passed his second section exam on his design course. Barely, but he passed it. Next on the agenda is to complete a wikia page based on the bloodlines world. My decision to do this was for a couple of reasons. Wiki pages are used by millions to get to know their favourite IP’s better. I for one use a Wiki site whenever I try to learn about a fictional franchise. So I thought that it would be good to experience the otherside of it for a change. Jason does not agree, he hates them.
(Edit; Jason: “I dont hate them for the information. I hate them because they look untidy, messy and are awkward to navigate”)

1. I want to go over the story bible again to remind myself about all of the work I have done so far. Instead of just reading it might be more beneficial to actually DO something.

2. It can be used as promotional material come close to release, every little helps.

3. Gives me some experience in making a Wikia site. I believe that every experience that I have, whether it is a good or a bad experience will mold me into a better game designer.

4. Feedback can be used to better the overall narrative and game design. Assuming people are willing to share their thoughts with me.

5. It can be used by the development team to find out any information about the game that they need to find and because of the nature of a wiki site they can see the “big picture” with the linked sites. I.e. If one would look at the main character they will not only be able to see information about the protagonist but any information that would relate to the protagonist… assuming I end up doing a good job of this anyway.

So I made up a little check list (I do like to make lists) and a to do list for myself for the successful completion of the wikia and the post completion testing. At this moment in time there is 26 pages  to be made, I have assigned page names, categories for each page and some things to fill it as each section of the pages become complete to help me stay organised.

I will share the link on the completion of the site for all to see.

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After the first realisation that I had about the direction of the story I put the old documents into the filing system; never to be let out. I also learned a lot of time saving ideas in making a narrative from the student forums. Firstly, don’t commit at first. Take an idea and bullet point the plot lines to get an overall feeling. Secondly, I showed a few people the structure first and take some feedback and move the story on from there.

As a result I made a quick story structure passed it around, tweeked it from feedback, passed it back around etc. When I was happy with it I decided to start the story.  So I took the plot lines and worked on character designs, locations to tie the story up, groups and organisations that will drive the motives of the main character etc. With this I made the basis of a story bible. After this the story; in it’s current form came a little easier.

I enjoyed writing the short story, as it is something that I wanted to work on and I felt like I had. It is no where near perfect yet, I still got a few issues with my writing abilities. We can always work on things though.

I have new issues with the design but more on that later

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