MINERVA: Episodic, Single-Player Half-Life 2
Pinhole photography - posted by Cargo Cult on Monday January 15 2007
Or, contact printing is messy and I need to assemble a proper darkroom in my bathroom and not borrow the windowless loos in the office - so, self-developed negatives are the way to go for now. And my first:
Stop complaining. I spent almost the whole weekend working on MINERVA. The whole of metastasis_3a is nearing playability. I hope to send it out to playtesters for next weekend, whether they like it or not!
Article Comments (now closed)
2. in my day...
Posted by vecima at 5:34PM, Monday January 15 2007
i can remember my first pinhole camera.
...cleverly writing things backward in white out on the negative so that when developed, the picture of my highschool windows (metal bars in attendance) would say 'prison' across the bottom.
...and by all things that fall under the realm of the digital god google, metastasis_3a or b better damn well have been undergoing the vRad process while you were ... toying about outside!
3. And Now For A Dramatic Pause...
Posted by Sirc at 6:00PM, Monday January 15 2007
I think you may have just given your playtesters a decent heart attack...
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
The picture reminds me how fun it is to mess with all the settings on cameras...
4. Please, give us some pics
Posted by Procyon at 9:23PM, Monday January 15 2007
So, do you have a release date for metastasis 3?
5. Commentary?
Posted by wizpig64 at 2:32AM, Tuesday January 16 2007
Please, please, please include a commentary track with the game <:-(?
or maybe release the third release, and put out a commentary thing later. i duno. but please :(
6. ....commentary?
Posted by asmodeus at 3:30AM, Tuesday January 16 2007
Wouldn't that ruin the experience? Commentary would be the perfect way to kill an eerie environment.
7. Do you Realize?
Posted by Sirc at 4:03AM, Tuesday January 16 2007
That it would likely double the length of the wait should a commentary track start. While I would enjoy it... It would seem better placed as a holdover till the next Minerva Release.
8. @amodeus
Posted by wizpig64 at 5:32AM, Tuesday January 16 2007
youre not supposed to watch the commentary on a dvd before you watch the movie are you? you obviously havent played hl2ep1. *shuns*
9. Se, I was under the impression
Posted by Lord_Baz at 10:37AM, Tuesday January 16 2007
That you were supposed to complete a game and then listen to the commentary? Otherwise you kind of ruin the first time through.
10. eagerly awating revelations
Posted by kast at 5:01PM, Tuesday January 16 2007
I can almost... smell the rotting flesh. The atmosphere is heavy, static making the hairs over my arms stand rigid. The door mechanism creaks and wirrs, preparing to pull open to reveal...
the end.
Minerva is coming.
11. what you folks dont seem to realize about commentary...
Posted by vecima at 8:44PM, Tuesday January 16 2007
it could (provided a suitable voice actress could be found) give a voice to our athena.
all that would be required to bring it into the realm of the game and not have orange bubbles floating about would be a new model for the node.
i think it would be pretty interesting to recieve voicemail, if you will, from minerva herself, by walking over to the combine terminals and activating them...
i guess that probably doesn't fit with the style though.
12. Auditory delusions
Posted by Baffled at 9:56PM, Tuesday January 16 2007
I don't think any voice would improve on the text Vecima, but I did spend some time experimenting....
Follow the link below and try out the voice synth demo. You can select a voice then alter its rate and pitch and throw in an after-effect for good measure. The whispery character was promising, the duchess is wierd, but try these settings:Millie, slow rate, low pitch, spacetime echo and paste this into the box:
I am your Athena, you are my bastard Perseus, and our Medusa for
today is this island; our aim is to infiltrate, reveal, destroy.
http://cepstral.com/demos/
13. Aura
Posted by Sirc at 1:33AM, Wednesday January 17 2007
I prefer the text style of updates...
When I read a create a voice that seems perfectly matched with the dialogue to me, others may dislike that voice and think it wrong. The beauty of the text is that you fill in your own blanks. This is the reason diehard fans of any book think the movie went badly...
For example, I was experimenting with that site using the suggestend text (you have to delete the paragraph mark and add a space to hear the whole thing), so far my favorites are Callie (with Slower and Low), Amy (with Slow, Low, Old Robot), and Linda (also with Slow, Low, Old Robot). Many people would think my choices ridiculous compared to others. Keeping it in the form of text helps it keep its timeless appeal...
Man did that go far deeper than I thought it would...
14. I would prefer text updates too
Posted by wizpig64 at 1:52AM, Wednesday January 17 2007
It's like reading a book and making up voices for characters, and then going to see the crappy movie which gets everything "wrong" from your perspective.
15. Heh
Posted by Lord_Baz at 7:03AM, Wednesday January 17 2007
Voice Synth never really does get better does it. I like the text as well. The thing is, not everything needs to be voiced, somethings just work better as text.
Having said that... Shodan probably wants to audition for Minerva :D
16. Commentary track?
Posted by xbskid at 2:28PM, Wednesday January 17 2007
I would gladly wait for a further Metastasis delay if Adam included unlockable commentary tracks.
17. Statement ... or the answer of a technophile ...
Posted by _Wizard_ at 8:26PM, Wednesday January 17 2007
Ah ... so we get another hint; you're still alive ...
* Stop complaining.
For such a good, delicious, *I'm really addicted to* mod, I would wait till hell freezes over.
I won't complain.
* I spent almost the whole weekend working on MINERVA.
Creative individuals like (*I think*) Mr. Foster, need some time to finish a piece of creative labour. Anything worth doing, is worth doing well?! I consider your mod to be the best. Mr. Foster, you're doing well on such a great deal of work.
.... Hopefully no one is allergic to me ^^ (NO! I'm not a wizard, dwarf, etc. fanatic!)....
18. The voice of the Mistress
Posted by kast at 12:00AM, Thursday January 18 2007
My definate favourite is Linda - Slower - Lower - Spacetime Echo. I always imagined her with a more mature, careful way of speaking. Talking as if she was explaining theoretical physics to a particularly dumb child, with a distinct condescending tone that I can't replicate with this application.
19. @wipzig64
Posted by asmodeus at 3:29AM, Thursday January 18 2007
I most certainly have played ep1 and lost coast. I just don't think commentary is such a necessity, it's a fine mini-feature yet nothing more. The introduction to Crime and Punishment won't make you savor the book anymore than you would reading it unladen with an arrogant, pseudo-intellectual point of view.
I'm not sure what you meant when you said "you're not supposed to watch commentary before the movie" as the commentary in hl2 appears in orange text bubbles during gameplay. Even if you play through a game multiple times, it's not the same with giant orange text bubbles.
What we can do is introduce a new character utilizing the text to speech, possibly the guard of a citadel or something along that line?
20. Can't wait!
Posted by Evil-Draon at 2:27PM, Friday January 19 2007
Really looking forward to the next Minerva release! Those lucky playtesters, they get to see the next installment of brilliance in this episodic story.
We need pictures so we can at least drool until it's released :)
Article is now closed for commenting.
1. Blue Terror
Posted by Baffled at 5:27PM, Monday January 15 2007
Our first real glimpse of Our Dear Leader is a pretty disturbing one! That eye, that piercing stare.....eeek!
Why are you blue? I had thought you were devoted to all things digital, even to the point of eshewing the humble phone, so is digital photographic quality still that far behind the "real thing"?
Good to hear that Depth Charge and Pegasus are ( as usual ;-) ) a step nearer to release.