Plan for Greg Findlay

Well, it's official. Checkmate has received honorable mentions in the MSU contest and I'd have to say this was pretty disappointing. I think I made my opinion pretty clear in my last .plan about what I thought about the MSU contest so I won't go back into that except to say I think my point was proven. Oh well. We've created something we really enjoy playing and all the feedback we've gotten has suggested the same for other people so it was a great success for us.

So what's next then? The rest of the Unnatural Gaming team has decided that they want a break from the grind of essetially working two jobs and I can completely understand that. However, my thirst for game making hasn't been quenched by the final release of Checkmate and I have game ideas to burn. So I've decided that I'm going to work on my own and build a little turn based strategy game. Yes, this is a massive project to do on my own, I realise that. How-ever it's the kind of game that has always held my interest, specifically the ones that incorporate more of a roll-playing element to them (Shining Force, Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, and the list goes on). I have some ideas on ways to expand the combat system so I think the first thing to do is to hammer out the design a simple battle scene.

Now I'm primarily an artist so the bigger part of the work I'll be doing is art related. I am after all trying to eventually work in this silly industry and a nice portofio goes a long way. Have to see what comes of this and if it ever gets past the art demo stage.

I also have another little side project on the go. I'm making a 3D waterfountain. The big thing about it is I want to include normal maps. I think it's a nifty little project and when it's done I intend to give it to GG to use how-ever the will. If they don't like it, the recycling bin is a fine place for it. For me it's a chance to get dirty with normal mapping and rip into a really cool model idea.

If anyone has any really cool turn based strategy games they've plade (along the lines of the games mentioned above) feel free to let me know. I'll be doing reviews of 5 of them for a school project so anything from say the 70's or 80's (I'm thinking about doing battle chess for 80's) would be a great help.