Why Solar Pons is better than Sherlock Holmes

preamble:

Some days I have nothing to say except “still working on the game” and that gets boring. A few months ago I tried posting thoughts on the game industry, but to be honest I don’t have many thoughts on the game industry. Everything I want to say I’ve pretty much said.

What I really want to do is discuss issues relating to ideas and what makes a good story.  So let’s start:

who is Solar Pons?

It all started when August Derleth wrote to Conan Doyle and asked “I hear that you won’t be writing any more Sherlock Holmes stories. Would you let me write some?” and Conan Doyle said no. Undeterred, August Derleth invented his own detective, who was remarkably like Sherlock Holmes, but the stories are set twenty years later. Pons is not a replacement for Holmes. In the stories he sometimes mentions Holmes – he is set in the same world, but at a respectful distance in time.

Pons is better than Holmes if you have already read Holmes. If you haven’t already read Holmes, then read Holmes. But if you have already read Holmes, then reading Pons is better than re-reading Holmes:

Because Pons is still alive (in a literary sense) and Holmes is not.

What I mean is, the Holmes canon is closed, and the Pons canon is not. There will never be any new Conan Doyle stories, but there are plenty of Pons stories that you probably haven’t read – and if enough people read them there will probably be more.

Are the Pons stories as good as Holmes? I would argue, yes. Conan Doyle’s genius was in creating one of the world’s greatest characters, and a formula that almost guarantees an interesting and enjoyable read. For that, Conan Doyle deserves immortality. But as a writer, Conan Doyle’s other books are not as special.  Any competent author can mimic Holmes, and many have.

What are the alternatives to Pons?

Consider the choice you have when you come to the end of the last Holmes story:

Do you re-read the same stories again? They can never work as well as mysteries, because once you know the ending there is no mystery!

Do you read the various unofficial Holmes stories? All they can ever do is fill in the gaps. Watson often said that he was only choosing the most interesting cases, and he already told us how Holmes started his career and how he defeated his greatest enemy and how he retired at the end, so all that’s left are the less interesting stories.

The ‘new’ Holmes stories are really about different versions of Holmes. Every author wants to be original, so they always add new twists.  A common trick is to have Holmes meet some famous person, such as Bram Stoker, or Sir Richard Burton, or even Miss Marple. Or they create some twist whereby the real genius was Watson, or Mycroft, or Moriarty. Or they make sHolmes recite poetry and quite from the Bible – something Conan Doyle’s Homes would never do. (Conan Doyle makes it clear many times that Holmes is only interested in topics that directly relate to crime, and does his best to forget everything else)

Why does this matter? The whole purpose of a story is to create a world in the reader’s head. A long, connected series creates a big, rich world. A series of single short stories create merely small, shallow worlds. Most ‘new’ Holmes stories are short and unconnected to each other.

But Solar Pons is different. Pons exists in the same universe as Sherlock Holmes (Pons sometimes refers to Holmes) – so it’s instantly big and rich. And he shows us this universe twenty years later, thus adding to the depth.And we get to know Pons over numerous stories: Pons is more of a sense of humor than Holmes, and covers a wider range of topics (including the almost supernatural). Pons retains all the strengths of Holmes (all the familiar enjoyable elements are there) without making the mistakes of the other ‘new’ Holmes stories.

I’m a Solar Pons fan.

Just my 2c.

progress update (not much to add)

I’ve added three quarter of the essential clues, and tomorrow should have added them all. On Sunday I’ll add the not-essential-but almost essential clues, and that stage the game will be playable by someone other than me. On Monday and Tuesday I’ll fill in essential details with the cutscenes, so you can see what’s happening, then send it for alpha testing. A couple of weeks later than hoped for, but you’ve come to expect that by now

Over the next two weeks after that (i.e until the end of July) I’ll go through it adding more dialog, generally fixing things up, and responding to suggestions from others. Hopefully by the end of July it will be working enough that I can send beta copies for review. The end of July is a major date because I’ll be away for a few days, and while away I’ll plan the detailed story for Genesis of the Gods.

new shorter teaser video is up

http://www.enterthestory.com/

Now I can finally get back to, er,  you know, actually making the game.

the teaser video is ready!

After saying I’d leave this for next week, I started tidying up files and things went more quickly than expected. For some reason WordPress won’t let me embed the video, so here’s a link to how it looks on the main site.

I’m a little concerned that nobody outside Scotland will understand the accent. Please tell me you can understand the words!

That’s how it looks on the main site. As you can see, I’ve gone for a more traditional game site look, with prominent pictures from the game. After looking at a lot of different game sites I figured that was probably the best idea.

progress update: video and testing

The video has taken about a week longer than planned due to quality issues (and because my “week” is only the gaps in between my day job). I currently have about 20 thousand frames (because for technical reasons I save the video as BMPs for editing) to shrink, crop, select, reconvert, fade into each other, add music, etc., etc. Realistically that could take another two or three days. I’m highly aware that this is July already, and I think a higher priority is to finish the essential dialog in the game so I can send it for testing. I don’t want to ask people to test and make suggestions but then say “by the way I want it back in two weeks.” So I’ll put the teaser video on hold for a week in order to get the test game out, then go back to finish the video this time next week.

Oh, and a bit of news: the teaser video will include one segment from Genesis of the Gods, just to whet your appetite. (The rest of the video will be from Les Miserables and the Divine Comedy, as I want it to act as an advertisement for the whole project). I haven’t seriously started working on Genesis yet of course, but I do have one animated sequence I made years ago that would fit very neatly.

More tomorrow (or the next day)!

The poor man’s guide to top quality game videos

The DVD recorder arrived, and it’s looking good, so here’s what I’ve learned about capturing game videos, based on literally years of experience.

First of all, if you have money it’s easy. Get a fast computer, a fast graphics card (a TV out socket is a nice extra), and buy one of the better screen video capture programs. Or if you’re lucky you may have this stuff anyway. For example, if you have a decent video camera you might be able to record straight to the camera then feed it back to the computer. Experiment!

But what about the rest of us? What if your computer is old, slow, non-standard, has no graphics card, and you really need to capture full screen video at reasonable quality?

Here’s what I recommend.

First, get a VGA to PAL/NTSC video converter box off Ebay. If you shop around you should get one for under £25 including postage, from Hong Kong. If you’re on a tight budget that’s still a lot of money I know, but they’re amazingly useful. Remember all the hassle you have with getting PCI video cards to fit your ancient computer? And then you get the wrong kind of card and it doesn’t fit? Or it doesn’t install properly on your motherboard or the results are disappointing? Well forget all that. This box is simple. You just plug one end into a computer and one end into a TV and voila! Whatever happens on your computer now happens on TV. No installation, just plug it in.

It works with practically every TV and every computer, every operating system… it just works. You can carry it around in your pocket. If you ever want to show something on a giant plasma screen, or save it to VHS or whatever, you Just Do It.  If you’ve ever messed around with computers and video in the real world on a tight budget then you’ll never regret buying one of these.

Second, buy the cheapest DVD recorder you can find. Not the computer kind, the kind that sits on top of a TV and lets you save TV shows onto DVD for watching later.

These days everyone wants tiny slimline models or hard-disk based machines, so you can pick up good quality bulky DVD recorders for about £30 including postage.  Again, this is a lot of money of you’re a pauper, but it doubles as a great birthday gift. Let’s face it, if you’re uber-poor then you probably live with your family and they still use an old VHS recorder, so if you buy them one of these and they’ll love you forever.

That’s all you need to buy (except possibly a couple of cheap cables if you don’t have them already). Then you simply plug the DVD recorder, press ‘record’ and do whatever it is you want to record.

Then when you have a DVD version of the video you just grab the VOB file onto your computer using Auto Gordian Knot or similar. That conversion doesn’t have to take place in real time, so your slow computer is perfectly adequate. You’ll also need some video editing software and a bit of practice, but all those things are available using open source software or freeware or cover disk software. Zweistein/Thugs at Bay is amazing, but has a huge learning curve. Anyway, as a bona fide pauper with an interest in video you will already be familiar with this process.

The point is that this method of capturing video overcomes the biggest problem of capturing video on a tiny budget: quality. Using a TV style DVD recorder ensures you get acceptable quality and a full frame rate at full screen. You simply cannot do that with a cheap computer on its own. But this way actually works.

The Master Plan: why I’m doing this

This might seem off topic, but it isn’t. From time to time I’ve mentioned that my ultimate reason for creating this game is to fund my research into land rent. Over the last few days I did some more work on land rent, so I thought I’d post a summary here so you know what I’m talking about.

The full details won’t be ready until next year, and then I’ll post it all on AnswersAnswers.com and start a daily news blog, showing how land rent would affect the days’ events.

For me, land rent is amazing not just because it’s a good theory, but because it has a solid foundation. I was just reading Paul Dirac’s biography (Paul Dirac was one of the founding fathers of quantum physics) and I agree with his view: an underlying theory must be elegant or there’s something wrong. It seriously bothers me that most political and economic theories are incoherent, vague and ever changing. It’s no wonder the world is so confused, we’re basically traveling blind.

Land rent appeals to me because it’s possible to derive it from absolute first principles and beyond. It’s definition of property implies a perfectly rational (and perfectly moral) view of the world. It’s a beautiful theory, it agrees with all observations, and it’s really the only economic theory there is – all other economic “theories” are really economic guesses – sound mathematics at the top, but based on unprovable (and often very shaky) assumptions. They’re built on sand.

So part of my work with land rent is to create a complete theory of everything, and show how it all works together. Note that this theory only deals with the big issues, I leave out any details that don’t change the final result. So don’t expect a unified string theory here, but do expect something where every statement can be proven, right back to first principles and beyond.

Anyway, this is an outline of the theory, without the mases of notes that I need to incorporate over the next year or so: I claim to answer all of life’s biggest questions, starting with zero assumptions and using pure logic. (One of the early steps is to justify the use of logic, since not even that is assumed). I do it in ten stages, hence the graphic with ten fingers:

stage 1. Start with nothing: no assumptions at all

I start by exploring what is meant by ‘nothing’ and what it implies. I also examine the word ‘exist’ and show why pure abstract logic is the only thing that truly exists.

stage 2. If nothing exists, then something exists

I expand the idea that “the existence of nothing implies the existence of something” and show how every possible thing exists. Which raises the question, what is possible? Before examining that, I derive the principle of probabilities and hence Occam’s razor.

stage 3. If something exists, then math exists

Continuing the principe of logic and probabilities, I derive the existence of numbers. From that I derive dimensions, and hence equations, which lead to shapes, and thus to fields, and universes. Universes lead to linked universes and the existence of time. FInally I tie it al together wshowing that the concept of space, the arrow of time and quantum indeterminacy naturally follow.

stage 4. If math exists, then physicality exists

Most people have a hard time seeing how abstract numbers can lead to a physical universe, and so I show how time and space lead to the existence of movement, hence to force, force leads to energy and energy leads to mass. And these shapes with force and energy and mass can lead to the complexity we see around us. This is probably the least controversial part, as it’s well established physics. I’ll probably spend a little time on the nature of light, though that isn’t really central to the argument. Note that I won’t try to second guess the details theoretical or experimental physics here, I’m not qualified for that, I’m simply showing that the physicists’ approach is correct.

stage 5. If physicality exists, then life exists

This is a quick run through of how physics leads to chemistry and chemistry leads to biology. I also side track on the existence of God. sing the matrix argument, I conclude that the existence of God is highly probable, and derive his attributes. (If anyone’s interested, I’m a pantheist – see http://answersanswers.com/pantheism.html )

This section includes a brief run down of the logic behind evolution, the existence of brains, the nature of consciousness, and  free will. People like to see themselves as somehow separate from the universe, so I also apply the same logic to simpler structures like atoms and examine how it “feels” to be an atom.

stage 6. If life exists, then morality exists

This section deals with the evolutionary origin of right and wrong (in the need to cooperate), how they are defined, and the extent of personal responsibility. These principles are then applied to topics like care for the weak and sick, the role of religion, marriage, abortion, cruelty, torture, slavery and privacy.

stage 7. If morality exists, then property exists

This is probably the core of my whole argument: I argue that the common definition of property (what the government says is ‘yours’) is irrational and immoral. The only rational and moral definition is the one used in physics and programming: a property of X is anything that is different because of the existence of X. It’s a lot simpler than it sounds, trust me.

This principle is then applied to trade, money, life, behavior, theft, and authority. I expand on the topics of the nature of God and personal responsibility and discuss common objections.

stage 8. If property exists, then land rent exists

Finally we are on to land rent! I apply the principle of property to raw materials, and show how they can be morally used. This leads to the existence of land rent, with numerous real world examples. Note that land rent is already the foundation of every successful economy, but in such a limited, distorted and corrupted form that most people don’t recognize it. So I will show how it exists and where.

I discuss its irresistible rise (again with many examples), and why land rent leads to vast wealth. This is where the standard economics comes in. I discuss the history of land rent and why vested interests have opposed it, and how they have been placated. I then suggest why it will increase in future, suggesting slow and fast scenarios. I finish by examining common (and not so common, but likely) objections.

stage 9. If land rent exists, then choice exists

This section looks at the social and political implications of land rent. Basically, land rent provides an objective measurement for the value of all human effort, and thus allows us to measure morality. This leads to much better political decisions, and great leaps in human comfort, wealth and justice. I show how this will lead to an end to global poverty and war, and why non-land rent countries will inevitably switch to land rent.

These are bold claims, so a lot of this section is devoted to addressing objections. I also discuss land rent’s long term impact on national and individual wealth (it vastly increases), on the environment (extremely positive), the nation state (better than you might expect) and psychological effects (again, extremely positive).

finally, stage 10. If choice exists, you can have anything you want.

This section wraps it up by looking on broad topics like an end to suffering (by today’s standards at least) and the long term future of the human race.

I think you’ll agree that this is an ambitious project.

Please note that the whole point of this exercise is to derive these rationally, so that anyone can see the reasoning and point out any flaws in the thinking. After a lifetime of working on this I am confident that the theory is extremely sound, and can be backed up in any number of ways. But you’ll appreciate why it wil take me a few years yet to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t.’ This is an ambitious project and I expect a great deal of criticism if I haven’t thought through every tiny detail and anticipated every possible result.

My goal is to present this case so clearly that any thinking person has to take it seriously. Within twenty years I want land rent to be on the agenda whenever anyone discusses politics, economics, or social issues in general. Specifically I need to show how, no matter what the issue, and no matter how you currently make a living, land rent will make your life even better.

Well that’s it, anyway. Next time I say “this game exists to fund my studies of land rent and end global poverty” then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Oh yes, and I promised a couple more screen shots. Here they are.

Do you really want to ‘test’ this?

I was thinking about my need for testers. At this stage the game is playable, but lacks a lot of dialog. When I say “I’d like testers” I really mean “I’d like people to suggest dialog for me, for no pay.” It’s not a really fun job. It’s more fun to wait until the end of the month when the game is finished and testing is really just testing. What do you think? Would anyone want to struggle through a dialog-light game and suggest who says what?

refreshed web site is up (but no video yet)

EnterTheStory.com

Please let me know if you find any broken links or missing images! Thanks.

Edit: I’m still not happy with the very first page, but I’l have to change it again anyway, when the teaser video is done, so I’ll leave it until then.

I’ve also updated a few parts, in particular there’s now a better Linux runtime engine for AGS – which is good.

————————

The teaser video is turning out to be a bit of a challenge. To recap, my computer isn’t fast enough to capture full screen video at 30 fps while a game is running, so I outputted(sp?) the raw footage to a VHS video recorder. That resulted in a small loss of quality, but it was acceptable. I then captured the video using a software based video capture device, and that’s when it all went pear shaped.

When I did the original video capture tests I used Raiders of the Lost Ark, a movie full of iconic images, color, and not too many pans. Which hid an awkward fact: the captured video quality was not as good as it looked. It was grainy, blurred, distorted color and missed frames. This was not obvious when using an in-your-face, larger than life Hollywood movie. But when capturing my game, which relies on tiny characters, subtle pale colors and slow pans, the result looks frankly awful. Imagine the lowest quality low resolution video camera you’ve ever seen, and pointing it at a screen while missing every fourth frame, you’ll have an idea of what it looked like. No, I will NOT be posting the result.

I spent most of yesterday looking for a better solution based on my very limited budget. Most decent video capture cards (i.e. those that do the capturing in the card and don’t just rely on software like the cheap cards) cost about twice what I can afford. I considered just not using a game video – see the current web site – but really I think it needs a video. So I finally came to what I think is a workable solution. I’ve ordered the cheapest reliable second hand domestic DVD recorder I can find. This is one of those boxes that sits on top of a TV, so its job is to take real time TV signals, produce TV quality images, and do it all onto standard DVD format. This seems like the cheapest way to guarantee a certain quality. Plus as a side benefit I can (hopefully) convert old family videos onto DVD. I think – I’m crossing my fingers that it will work.

The machine should arrive on Wednesday, then I’ll copy the VHS onto DVD, then rip the DVD onto my computer, then edit the video into a YouTube friendly format. Then the game teaser video should be online by this time next week.

I hope! 

two screenshots a day until Dante is released

The title says it all.

I just grabbed over 120 screenshots for use in the new web site so I may as well use them to illustrate the blog.