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weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.01. Pro Tanto.md

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 ---
-date: 2011-03-03
-location: /B1.01/pro-tanto
 title: B1.01 Pro Tanto
-tags: Pro Tanto, old
+date: 2011-03-03
+location: /B1.01
+tags: Pro Tanto
 ---
 
 # Pro Tanto

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.11. 2011-03-24.md

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+---
+title: B1.11 Pokémon War – A Pokémon RTS
+date: 2011-03-24
+location: /B1.11
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Pokémon War – A Pokémon RTS
+
+An idea that I’ve been kicking around for a little while now, that I know I’m probably never going to work on, is a Pokémon Real-Time Strategy game in the vein of Warcraft 2 (not 3).  
+The idea is, you train trainers in a manner similar to training units in most RTS games, then send them into forests, caves, grassy areas, etc to find and catch Pokémon to use in battle. A trainer will only be allowed 3 Pokémon in their party for simplicity’s sake, and because that’s the most number of Pokémon you can send into battle at once.
+
+Each Pokémon can be trained by sending the trainer back to an area with wild Pokémon, or by battling enemy trainers; the latter leveling them up faster, if they survive. Each Pokémon will also be able to learn up to four simplified moves: A “physical” (melée) attack, a “special” (ranged) attack, a status attack (equivalent possibly to area effect spells in a lot of fantasy RTSs) and a HM move that can be used on the world, rather than an enemy. The “physical” and “special” attacks will have the same type as the Pokémon using them, and get stronger as they level up. A certain species of Pokémon (or possibly each trainer, instead) may also specialize in either “physical” or “special” attacks, making one stronger and the other weaker. In this way you have separate melée and ranged units.
+
+The HMs have to be taught to specific Pokémon, perhaps by sending their trainers to a dedicated HM-teaching building. The four main HM moves will be Cut, Strength, Surf and Fly, just like the Pokémon games. Each of these moves has a special use, and will not be used in battle. Cut will allow a Pokémon to gather resources from a Forest. Essentially making that Pokémon’s trainer a resource-gathering unit. Similarly, Strength will allow the Pokémon to gather resources from a cave or mine. Surf will allow that Pokémon, and therefore its trainer, to travel over water at the cost that the traveling Pokémon will not be able to battle while in use. So on water, the trainer can only use two Pokémon at a time. The same theory applies to Fly, allowing the trainer to become an airborne unit, at the cost of one battling Pokémon.
+
+There will be four main resources to collect, which are generally pretty typical of any RTS. There will be gold and stone gathered by Strength-knowing Pokémon in caves or mines. There will also be wood and Apricorns gathered by Cut-knowing Pokémon in forests. Gold, stone and wood will be used as in most RTSs to build buildings, train trainers, research upgrades, etc. The new thing here is Apricorns. Once gathered, Apricorns are fashioned into pokéballs, and used by trainers to catch wild Pokémon. But one Apricorn does not necessarily mean one caught Pokémon, as each Pokémon may use a few Apricorns to catch, depending on that Pokémon’s catch rate.
+
+That describes the basics, for now. There’s more, but I shall fill in the details at a later date.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.12. 2011-04-01.md

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+---
+title: B1.12 Story idea involving futuristic mechs
+date: 2011-04-01
+location: /B1.12
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Story idea involving futuristic mechs
+
+This is an idea I’ve had in my head for a long time. I think it would be most suited to an anime series, but it’s just a story idea.
+
+It’s a pretty typical setup: distant future, war-torn countries, human-controlled bipedal robots… But one side of the war has developed a new technology: remote-controlled mechs. Of course, all parties involved in the war have been experimenting with the technology for some time, but only one side has perfected it to the point where there is no more lag. That is, the soldiers controlling the mechs remotely have no delay in their actions apart from their own reaction time. They feel to the soldiers like their own bodies.
+
+The soldiers themselves are kept in a top-secret “soldier warehouse”. Vast numbers of soldiers strapped to beds and hooked up to machines nourishing their physical bodies and connecting their consciousness to the battlefield. A lot of these soldiers would not be physically up to fighting in a war, but have brilliant tactical minds and lightning-fast reaction speeds (in short, gamers), making them ideal candidates for this kind of program.
+
+A number of these advanced mechs are sent into battle against a relatively minor foe: an army with old-hat weapons which have pretty much no effect on these mechs. Outnumbered and clearly outgunned, their soldiers fight on in vain, clearly desperate not to lose. They also have one advantage their highly advanced opponents are unaware of: they know the location of the soldier warehouse.
+
+The side with the mechs concentrate on the battle at hand, and completely fail to notice an antique stealth bomber approaching the warehouse location until it is too late: the stealth bomber drops an equally ancient nuclear warhead. The warhead itself is not enough to penetrate the warehouse, but it is enough to irradiate a large area around the warehouse and send out a massive electro-magnetic pulse which shorts out pretty much all the electronics inside. The mechs on the battlefield begin to shut down and become unresponsive.
+
+But… There was an unintended side-effect of the pulse. A power surge was sent through the soldiers of the warehouse. Most are killed, many are badly burned. For some through, something extremely unusual happens…
+
+While consciously they are on the battlefield as mechs, they watch their comrades collapse before them. Realizing something has happened at the warehouse, they decide to initiate the override commands that will bring their consciousness back to their physical bodies. But the override doesn’t work. A small number of soldiers are now “trapped” as robots. Unknowing of what exactly has happened at the warehouse. Unaware of the status of their physical bodies. Are they dead? Are they still lying unconscious, strapped to their bed?
+
+Grappling with these questions they must also come to terms with the fact that they must not only begin to attempt living as robots, but they are deep in enemy territory and being hunted. Can they survive? Can they escape? Are their bodies still alive somewhere? And if not, what then? Must they attempt to continue living as robots? Would that mean they are immortal? How could they go back to their families like that? Will their government allow such beings to continue to exist?
+
+I think it would be entertaining to watch. There’s the psychological element keeping people interested, as well as enough action to get people to notice and pay attention. There’s also a lot of avenues to explore. There could be radiation-sick survivors, government coverups… An awful lot to continue the series. In many directions, too.  
+What do you think? Good idea? What would need to be changed or developed better?

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.13. 2011-04-05.md

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+---
+title: B1.13 BIT.TRIP Arcade Style
+date: 2011-04-05
+location: /B1.13
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# BIT.TRIP Arcade Style
+
+I love the retro stylings of the BIT.TRIP series. I wouldn’t call myself their biggest fan; I started playing the series with RUNNER, I haven’t finished any of the games and I haven’t even played FLUX. But I do love the series. One of the things I love the most is the control scheme for BEAT (and presumably FLUX). To a lot of people, twisting the Wiimote to control your paddle feels weird and unintuitive. But it’s an awesome replication of the old Atari paddle controller. The only thing better would be a real paddle controller.
+
+As it so happens, I own a “real” paddle controller (for a given value of “real”). It’s for a TV game, and is smaller than a proper paddle controller, but it looks and feels like a real one to me. I want to hook it up to BEAT and see how it plays, but I don’t know how. The controller connects to a battery-powered box (which in turn connects to the TV) via a 2.5mm audio jack, with three bands instead of the normal two for stereo audio. Not being very electronically minded, I’m at a complete loss as how to get input from the paddle to the computer. If I could get that far, I’m sure I could use GlovePIE or similar to map it to a mouse axis and use it to play BEAT on the PC from Steam.
+
+Another option I read about which I think I will try is to rip apart an old ball mouse. The ball generally turns two shafts to move the cursor on each axis. In theory, I just have to stick something on the end of one of those shafts to use as a knob and hey presto, a homebrew paddle controller. Of course, I could also buy an old Atari paddle controller and an adapter to connect via USB, but I’d rather do it myself without forking out any cash.
+
+Thinking about “building” a new controller for BEAT got me thinking about new controllers for the other games too. Especially my least favorite of the series: CORE. I read an interview with Gajin Games which stated that CORE was their least favourite also. It also mentioned that there was a big toss-up between how to hit the beats: tap the right direction at the right time, or hold the correct direction and tap to fire. The latter won out, which some of the devs still regret. That article got me thinking about the “tap the direction” controls, and how that kind of reminded me of Dance Dance Revolution. Then the idea struck me to hook up a Dance Mat to CORE. If each direction press emulated a press of a directional button AND the 2 button, CORE gets transformed into an unusual representation of DDR.
+
+The question then becomes: how to do it? There’s plenty of software to connect your Wiimote to other devices, but I couldn’t find anything to let you use other devices in place of a Wiimote for the Wii. Surely it’s just a matter of sending and receiving the correct Bluetooth data, just like communicating with a Wiimote? If I can crack that, I can again go the GlovePIE route to convert dance mat presses to Wiimote controls, and dance to CORE. I think that would be an enjoyable way to re-experience that particular game.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.14. 2011-04-06.md

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+---
+title: B1.14 Armchair App
+date: 2011-04-06
+location: /B1.14
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Armchair App
+
+In our increasingly busy lives, we no longer have the luxury of time to sit in an armchair in front of the fire, reading the newspaper. Besides, the news is already a day old by then; we want to know what’s happening now. Enter Armchair, an app idea I just cooked up.
+
+It simulates a crackling fireplace, not unlike many other iPhone relaxation apps already out there. While watching the fire, you can swipe up to pick up the newspaper to read the latest news. The news in the paper is pulled from the Internet by RSS (and you can choose your own feeds, possibly including Facebook and Twitter) so you’re always up to date. You swipe left or right to turn the page and go to the next or previous story respectively. An important part of this app would be to get the graphics and animation looking right: the pages should turn realistically, for example. Also, you Tap an icon to start the pages turning automatically after a small delay, so you can set the Phone down on a desk or in a dock and just glance at the news occasionally. When you’re done reading, you just swipe down to put down the paper and go back to watching the relaxing fire.
+
+Apart from the obvious drawcard of nice graphics and relaxing atmosphere, I thought of another idea to set Armchair apart from other news apps: an rss search-and-alert feature. You can set up a particular phrase or set of words to look for in specific or all feeds. When new posts appear in the app (and maybe on a dedicated server for push Notifications), they are searched for the words/phrase, and if found, an alert is shown in the app. To this end, in the graphical environment in-app (I.e. The armchair and fireplace setup) there will be a phone sitting on the arm of the chair. Tapping the phone brings up a screen with an image of a generic smartphone with app-like icons for news alerts and options. A music player would be nice, too, so you can listen to your iPod music while watching the fire or reading the news. I was even thinking of putting a small game on the “phone” as a nice touch. Just something simple, like snake.
+
+Armchair would be extendable via customization. Simple things like armchair color, which hardly matter. Newspaper style could be changed to be more like a glossy magazine, or old book. Perhaps certain elements of the fireplace could be changed. Or (the big one) the entire environment could be changed. Via in-app purchase, you could switch sitting by a warm fire for sitting in front of an aquarium, or out on a beach, or any number of relaxing, animated environments. They’d have to be stored in some format that could be downloaded so they aren’t included with the app and can be added to later. Seasonal and sponsored environments could be created if the app succeeded.
+
+The main problem with this app idea is that it involves a lot of graphical work. It HAS to look nice, or it bombs. It also has to be somewhat universal (I.e. Have an iPhone and iPad version at least). A free version could be ad-supported (unobtrusively in newspaper ads, and perhaps above the fireplace in place of a painting) and limit customization options. This way a paid version would be worth something to users, but still be a decent free app. Plus there’s the in-app environment purchase for another avenue for income.  
+The app would require a significant investment, especially when it comes to graphics, but if done right, it could easily pay off.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.15. 2011-04-20.md

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+---
+title: B1.15 JamLegend shutting down
+date: 2011-04-20
+image: https://i0.wp.com/browser-game.it/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jamlegend.jpg
+location: /B1.15
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# JamLegend shutting down
+
+![Image from JamLegend stating "Get ready to jam!"](https://i0.wp.com/browser-game.it/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jamlegend.jpg)
+
+Speaking of different ways of experiencing music, JamLegend is shutting down. This makes me incredibly sad.
+
+For those who don’t know, JamLegend is a social, browser-based guitar hero style game. In all honesty, I haven’t had time or felt like playing JamLegend lately, especially since I have customs in Rock Band 2 now, but it was always there for me when I wanted to play something a little different. It was a great way for me personally to discover music artists I would otherwise never be introduced to, at the very least, as well as being fun.
+
+Also, what does this mean for the music game genre? Guitar Hero is gone, and the various clones all seem to be shutting down around it. Rock Band looks like it’s still marching on, but it seems that people in general have dropped the music game fad.
+
+I love music and rhythm games. This news makes me sad.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.16 2011-04-20.md

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+---
+title: B1.16 Inception app – moar plz?
+date: 2011-04-20
+location: /B1.16
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Inception app – moar plz?
+
+Does anyone even know about the Inception iPhone app? Movie tie-in apps and games are generally something to be wary of; once the hype from the movie wears off, they are cast aside as marketing shovelware. Inception was an awesome movie, but was not immune to this. There was an Inception world bending app that took pictures from your current location on google maps and overlaid them on the sky from a photo from the phone’s camera. It was gimmicky and didn’t work very well. Once the hype from the movie died down, it was deleted.
+
+However there was another movie tie-in app, simply titled “Inception”. This one is different. It’s nothing like any other app I’ve ever seen on any platform. Explaining it is a little difficult as it loses something in translation. Much like the Matrix, you have to see it for yourself. Or, more accurately, hear it for yourself. In essence, it’s a really awesome way to experience the Inception soundtrack. There are many “dreams” to choose from, and each dream is unlocked by different means. The unlocking methods are quite varied and use just about every feature of the iPhone. The “Action Dream” is unlocked by moving the phone around a lot, while the “Still Dream” is unlocked by keeping it still. The “Traveling Dream” is unlocked by traveling, tracked by GPS; there’s also dreams unlocked by being at the airport, or in Africa (yes, seriously). There’s a dream unlocked by making a lot of noise, no noise, after 11pm, in bright sunshine and on the night of a full moon. There’s also one unlocked by listening to other “dreams” for a long time, or by other people dreaming at the same time. Am I missing any?
+
+So what are these “dreams”? Essentially they’re mixes of scores from the soundtrack. But they’re also so much more. Each dream also listens from the microphone (in-built or headset) and plays the sounds back in the dream in weird and wonderful ways. Echoes, delays, pitch changes… All in a way that really compliments the mood of the music. Using headphones to listen to the sound enhances the experience greatly, and it almost sounds as if the music is the soundtrack to your life for real. Myself and my partner played around with one of the more quiet dreams, just talking normally, and it sounded like a scene of reminiscence from a perfect time. It was nostalgic and happy, something hard to achieve with music alone. Another great example is the action dream. With the phone in my pocket, walking down the street feels like an action scene in a movie. When the music hits the crescendo, I feel like I should be breaking out into a run. But it reacts to the amount of movement. If I have to stop at traffic lights, the music dies down and drops layers, exactly as would happen in a movie during a lull in the action. It’s this reactiveness that adds a depth to the music you normally only get while watching the movie.
+
+I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to the Inception app on the commute home from work. It’s fun inducing different dreams and playing with ordinary sounds in the environment (eg, tapping on a fence, or a strangers conversation) just to hear what they sound like in the dream world.
+
+I want more dreams, more tracks to play with, and not just Inception tracks. I’d love to digitize the world around me with the Tron Legacy soundtrack, or any other decent movie soundtrack for that matter. Or maybe not just movie soundtracks. Maybe music from artists like the Chemical Brothers. I’m sure they could do some awesome stuff with the technology.
+
+I don’t want this to be it. There’s a lot of possibility with augmented sound. There’s probably some potential for augmented sound games, too.  
+Please, let this be the beginning of a new era of music and sound.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.17. 2011-04-27.md

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+---
+title: B1.17 Wikinauts — Multiplatform Scribblenauts
+date: 2011-04-27
+location: /B1.17
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Wikinauts — Multiplatform Scribblenauts
+
+This is an idea I've had since the first Scribblenauts game was released: A community-driven version. The basic premise is identical to that of Scribblenauts: solving puzzle-based levels using just about anything you can think of by summoning items, NPCs, etc by writing the name down. For example, the objective is to get a star out of a tree. You could summon a lumberjack to cut the tree down, or a saw/chainsaw/axe/etc to cut it down yourself. Or you could summon a ladder to climb up into the tree. Or a jetpack, helicopter, wings... The possibilities are endless. The point of difference between Scribblenauts and my idea of Wikinauts is the social, community-driven aspect.
+
+The general idea is to build a robust engine and data structure, and let everyone add to and modify the database of items to be summoned. In this way, a creative mind might decide to summon something that doesn't exist in the database, let's say "Batman" for instance. They can then go to the Wikinauts database and submit graphics and behaviors for Batman, who can then be summoned in the game. The problem is, Batman won't really be well defined, as he's just been created for someone's purposes in one particular level. This is where the advantages of the community-based wiki approach really start to show. Others can see that Batman has been created and decide to modify his behaviours. For example, tell him to fight evil, drive the Batmobile, hate the Joker, things like that. And as soon as someone notices that Batman does not behave the way you might expect in a certain situation, then his behaviour can be modified again to move towards the expected.
+
+According to Wikipedia: Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Cito Maramba and Steve Wheeler write that it is the "openness of wikis that gives rise to the concept of 'Darwikinism', which is a concept that describes the socially Darwinian process' that wiki pages are subject to. Basically, because of the openness and rapidity that wiki pages can be edited, the pages undergo a [natural selection](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection) process like that which nature subjects to living organisms. 'Unfit' sentences and sections are ruthlessly culled, edited and replaced if they are not considered 'fit', which hopefully results in the evolution of a higher quality and more relevant page. Whilst such openness may invite 'vandalism' and the posting of untrue information, this same openness also makes it possible to rapidly correct or restore a 'quality' wiki page."  
+Given the right community mindset, Wikinauts has potential to outshine Scribblenauts both in number of summoned items and quality of item interactions. As the items and interactions are modified over time by many different people, they will _evolve_ to be of higher quality. Graphics will be touched up, behaviours will be modified, and a community concencus will be formed on how a certain object or behaviour should look or behave in the game world.
+
+A game such as this will have to have an exceptionally robust and flexible engine. People will want to throw everything they have at it, and the gameplay will evolve along with the items. It seems a bit difficult to have gameplay evolve with a static game engine, but it shouldn't be impossible. I'm thinking of involving some sort of low-level scripting language, so actions and behaviours can be modified at _almost_ the engine level for the most flexibility. Items can inherit these actions and behaviours from generalizations. For example, a "vehicle" may contain all the necessary code and behaviours to allow movement, and things like cars and aeroplanes will not need to be told _how to_ move, but simply impose restrictions or add actions to the basic movement actions (cars stick to the ground, etc).
+
+Development of such an application will have to be split into phases:  
+1) An initial engine and data structure  
+2) A public database backend application for development of objects  
+3) Development of objects using the backend application, while testing items with the engine  
+4) Polished front end game client  
+5+) Clients for multiple platforms
+
+Once phase 4 is completed, and provided there is an active community producing polished objects for the database, a database snapshot could be created for shipping with standalone versions of the game, for example on a console or mobile version. It's a large and ambitious project, with a great many factors needing to be taken into consideration. And I've already found one (somewhat poor, unfortunately) attempt to fulfill this idea called Project Everything. I couldn't figure out how to work the game itself, and the object back end seems to consist of adding an image and an animation, with not much regard to behavior. And any image can be used with no scaling, leading to overly large, white-boxed, useless items. Looking at this, it's clear that there needs to be more freedom and more direction when building objects and interactions. I'm considering a library of bits, with the ability to draw your own bits where necessary. So for the Batman example, you could build a person from predefined Man bits, with predefined behaviors, and simply draw the cape and cowl, and perhaps add a few small animations and behaviors to differentiate Batman from Man. The cape and cowl bits can then be used for other things, like Batgirl, or the cape for Superman (re-textured).

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.18. 2011-05-13.md

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+---
+title: B1.18 Narbacular Science – A Portal Map Pack Idea
+date: 2011-05-13
+location: /B1.18
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Narbacular Science – A Portal Map Pack Idea
+
+An idea for a Portal or Portal 2 map pack. On the surface, it is simply porting all the Narbacular Drop levels into portal, set in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center testing facility. Although it would definitely add an extra something to it to include a story of sorts.  
+Basically the player will be a small child, a young girl, which ambiguously may or may not be a younger Chell. All that is ever made clear about her story is that she is a daughter of an employee, perhaps somehow caught up in the unknown events of the infamous Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.  
+The (admittedly little) story of Narbacular Drop would have been invented by an employee as the premise for a test sequence involving a child. His theory being that children would be much more suited to thinking with portals due to their lack of knowledge about the laws of physics. They have not yet learned what is impossible, as it were. As you progress through the test, nooks, dens and secret areas not present in the original Narbacular Drop can contain papers and possibly security clips detailing the inception of the current test, codenamed “Narbacular” and its subsequent dismissal due to putting children in danger. I’m thinking the person in charge would have been passionately against it, stating words to the effect of “We will not be testing children while I’m still alive”. In this way, GLaDOS can deem it acceptable to test children because that person is no longer alive.  
+Perhaps after the Narbacular Drop levels are over there can be an extension with more levels of an escape sequence (now typical of Portal) that could explore some currently unexplained aspect of the story, like the post-activation attachment of the morality core on GLaDOS. The final boss battle could involve attaching cores to GLaDOS in a similar manner to the final battle of Portal 2.
+
+In the Narbacular Drop levels alone, there may be some new technologies to develop and explain in the context of Aperture Science. For example, the turtles that swim trough lava (or the green Aperture Science gunk that kills you in portal), and the perpetually rolling boulders. Also, in the very first chamber of Narbacular Drop there is a cube-and-button puzzle, and there is nothing stopping you taking the cube with you. In fact people made it a challenge to do “cube runs”: speed runs where you take the cube with you all the way to the end. I’d like to keep that, and for this reason that first cube should be a companion cube. It also means no Emancipation Grills.  
+I wouldn’t even know where to start making a Portal map, and one like this involves some pretty advanced stuff, plus proper writing and voice acting.
+
+A thought that just occurred to me, perhaps the story could be explored by an ever present and always out of reach survivor scientist. The one who designed the test, but now sees the error of his ways and attempts to help you through the tests in order to help you escape. He can explain his reasons for creating the test, his feelings at the rejection of his idea, his escape from GLaDOS and the deadly neurotoxin and his fear and guilt now that his test is actually being used with a real child. He also tries to help you escape and through lack of other options gets you to attempt to attach the cores to GLaDOS. He may be blocked from her chamber, but is able to provide you cores to use in a mirror of the Portal 2 final boss.
+
+Ass always, feedback of my ideas is appreciated.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.19. 2011-06-14.md

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+---
+title: B1.19 iOS IM With Quick Reply
+date: 2011-06-14
+image: https://deathau.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/20110614-070000.jpg
+location: /B1.19
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# iOS IM With Quick Reply
+
+![A QuickReply popover from a notification on an iPhone 3G](https://deathau.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/20110614-070000.jpg)
+
+I’d love to see an IM program for jailbroken iPhones with QuickReply support like BiteSMS or MobileNotifier.
+
+On my PC, I use digsby for IM, and it’s great for the different protocols I’m signed up for (WLM, Facebook, etc). And one thing I really like is the unobtrusive pop ups when you get a message. In the popup itself there’s a text box so you can reply to the message without bringing up the full conversation window and disrupting your workflow. I think that the iOS one-full-screen-app-at-a-time environment could benefit from a similar approach.
+
+I think I read something about MobileNotifier’s Quick Reply being open to developers? It would be awesome.  
+Just open up your IM app and sign in, then go play games or do anything else on your phone and when someone says something, the unobtrusive bar appears at the top. For me, it would be great if in that box was the sender’s name and display pic, and the first X number of characters of their message. Tapping the bar brings up the quick reply box with the full message text (scrollable if really necessary) and a text box to input your reply. To make it even more awesome, borrow some ideas from biteSMS like the pulldown with conversation history and templates/smileys available right from the quick reply box.  
+Better still if it could integrate with existing IM apps, like imo.
+
+If I had a Mac, I’d try playing with the idea, but I’d probably get stuck at the IM bit, without even touching an OS-integrates quick reply component…  
+Alas, another dream…

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.20. 2011-06-23.md

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+---
+title: "B1.20 Martyrdom sucks: why it's so wonderful"
+date: 2011-06-23
+type: draft
+location: /B1.20
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Martyrdom sucks: why it's so wonderful
+
+I just finished my second play-through of what has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. An iOS-only game called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. That's "EP" in the same way that a musician would release an EP. And while there's no rhythm component to this, the music does play a big part. The music is from a fella named Jim Guthrie, who I'd never heard of until this game, but I might look up. I love the sworcery soundtrack.
+
+But music is only part of the charm. Some of it is the blocky pixel graphics, that are nostalgic for games past. The characters remind me of old Sierra adventure games. The colors are generally of a darker nature and really help to set the mood of the scenes. Zooming out and panning around reveal beautiful, surprisingly detailed and beautiful environments.
+
+So it looks good and sounds good, but that's not enough to make it a good game. It's hard to pin it down exactly. There's an element of emotional involvement in the story, which in itself is sort of vague and generic, but at the same time wonderful, with an emotional ending.

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.21. 2011-06-24.md

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+---
+title: B1.21 The FoFiX Days
+date: 2011-06-24
+image: https://deathau.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/20110624-065632.jpg
+location: /B1.21
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# The FoFiX Days
+
+![A computer keyboard with Guitar Hero-esque buttons replacing F1-F5, and a whammy bar below the print screen key](https://deathau.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/20110624-065632.jpg)
+
+I started this blog in response to the frustration I feel in things I start never getting finished. Things I’ve had ideas about or started, but never got around to completing. Nowhere is this laid bare more than my involvement with FoFiX.
+
+For those who are unaware, Frets on Fire X (FoFiX) is the evolution of the open-source guitar hero-like rhythm game Frets on Fire. I used to be involved with it’s development. I’ve written code, built graphical themes, and was a prominent member of the fretsonfire.net forums, where I am still a forum moderator. I helped people with any issues, documented a large portions of theming capabilities, maintained a list of FoFiX themes and attempted to keep the peace. I was also prominent in a lot of development discussions, and presented ideas that helped shape some of the features of FoFiX itself. As those closest to me can attest, I practically lived on those forums.
+
+But the real world started to catch up with me. I found I had less and less time for FoFiX, and one day I simply stopped visiting the forums. I just disappeared without a word, with the intention to come back when time permitted. I feel guilty about it. I’ve visited the forums a couple of times (generally I hide my online status out of guilt), and my theme list has gone completely stagnant. My themes need updating. Development on FoFiX appears to be slow, but exciting.
+
+I want to go back. I feel like I have friends there. But there’s a guilt and fear holding me back. I feel guilty for leaving things unfinished, and I fear that a lack of adequate free time will have me not particularly active. And I may stop again. People come and go from the FoFiX forum all the time. I’m certainly not the first to fade out when Real Life catches up, and I probably won’t be the last. But I don’t want to be the guy who comes back every few months, makes promises, and then leaves again with a bunch of loose ends.
+
+I need to find some extra time in my life somewhere to work on all my current loose ends. Figure out if/where/how I can still be useful in the community in a diminished (and easily abandoned, if necessary) capacity. If I am able to adequately tie up all those loose ends, perhaps I could go out with a bang and get some closure. Or maybe I always want to be involved in some way or another.
+
+Either way, at the moment I miss FoFiX and I want a way back in…

weblog/B1. Pro Tanto/B1.22. 2012-06-09.md

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+---
+title: B1.22 Game Idea — The Humble Indie Rumble
+date: 2012-06-09
+# type: draft
+location: /B1.22
+tags: Pro Tanto
+---
+
+# Game Idea — The Humble Indie Rumble
+
+Well, this blog has well and truly fallen by the wayside...
+
+This is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a long, long time. But it has been brought to the forefront recently for various reasons. The basis of the idea is simple enough: A Super Smash Bros. clone with Indie game characters. Super Meat Boy vs The Sythian, Josef (the robot from Machinarium) vs ... that guy from Braid, Commander Video vs Captain Viridian, you get the idea. Of course, There's a little bit more meat to the idea than simply cloning Smash Bros, but I hope to get into that in another post. In this post I wanted to talk more about where the idea has come from; and even though it's most likely I'll never make a game like this, I really want this idea above all else to exist.
+
+The idea of a mash-up fighting game such as this has been around in my head almost as long as Super Smash Bros. itself, but the roots of the idea go back further than that. In fact, they probably go back to the classic movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" As a child, there was something amazing about having characters from all corners of cartoon land together in one film. Even then I knew that Warner Bros and Disney were rivals, but yet their characters came together for one amazing experience that as far as I know has never been repeated.
+
+There's something amazing to see multiple things you're a fan of come together. Especially if they are rivals, but also if they are unrelated.