I ain't waiting for no train.

Projects

Since the dawn of time as I know it, I can always remember being obsessed with inventing projects for myself to work on. Having a project waiting for me at home, or in my backpack at school, for me to work on in my free time, was an aspect of my life that made me always look forward to feelings of achievement and accomplishment.

Having a project meant having something to plan, brainstorm, and daydream about whenever I had a boring stretch of waiting in line, or in a waiting room, or doing chores. As I began my seasonal job of mowing lawns several years ago, much of my day was spent in contemplation, the processing of my mental schematics drowning out the noise of the motor beneath me.

Granted, not all of my countless projects were ever completed. I can think of very few, in fact, that I actually could stand back and hand the keys to Perfect Satisfaction himself and say "She's yours." I find myself today even starting a WarCraft III map or writing a story, spending weeks in ecstatic anticipation, only to eventually grow bored of it and move on to something new.

Even so, this doesn't subtract from their value and my respect for previous, perhaps never-to-be-finished projects gathering dust on shelves, in computer folders, or in cardboard boxes. It only increases my admiration for past inspirations and gives me hope to one day make something better.

I have taken the time these past couple weeks (and I'm still adding things here and there) to make a page on my blog listing my biggest projects. It has been both nostalgic, encouraging, and exciting for me to recall all of my greatest works that I've worked on for so many years. Some have rekindled the fire of enthusiasm I had for them when they were in development. I invite you to walk through the dusty museum of my Project List and glance, at least for a moment, the symbols of my moments of dedication. You may not understand them at all, or perhaps the extent of what the project is will not be clear to you; But as for me, they are flames ignited from my personal spark of creation.

We have all within ourselves the urge to create, for we are the offspring of the most creative Being in the universe. I look forward to countless other projects, finished or started, in the course of my sojourn in this world. My imagination couldn't be happier!

Project List up!

Hey! Check out my Project List here for a list of past and present projects I've worked on. More on this later.

Corridor Bit: Skills and Classes

Shown in this picture are Corridor's Skill Cards, a system never before used on The Hero games due to lack of stats, turns, organized battle systems, etc. The way they work on Corridor is based on the hero's class, another new feature. Classes, in turn, are based on stats. At the beginning of a game, players place 3 stat points in any combination in their four stat areas, Attack, Defense, Magic, and Magic Defense. Depending on their combination, a class is determined that they keep throughout the game. A player who chooses pure Magic damage with no defense is a Warlock berzerker class, while a mixture of Magic and Attack damage alone is a rogue class, either a Spellsword or Assassin. A complete balance with no real specialization, such as one point in each of Attack, Magic, and Magic Defense is an Apprentice, which is a wanderer-grouped class.

Hero classes such as Barbarians and Knights draw two "warrior" skill cards, while mage-themed classes such as Sorcerors and Wizards draw two "mage" skill cards. Hybrids, such as Rune Knights and Witchhunters, draw a "rogue" skill card and a mage or warrior one, depending on which they more closely lean towards stat-wise. A wanderer class such as a Mercenary draws two cards at random, not heeding its type.

Gameplay presents opportunities to "purchase" new skills at random from the deck, through items or through collecting enough gold. It is also currently a function of the game to trade skills from player to player, but it's one of those functions that isn't set in stone quite yet.

So far the Skill Cards have added a lot of fun aspects to the game; However, there are a lot of balances that need doing, which are important to making the game balanced, fun, not too hard or too easy. So far the issue has been the game is too easy, especially when playing three player.

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Because of so many balances that need doing, as well as having to do so much work on the game by myself, I've decided to take a hiatus for an undetermined amount of time on the game. Corridor has been fun to make and play, but there is an instinct in me seen in many a WarCraft III and Heroes of Might and Magic scenario that discourages me when I work too hard in a small amount of time and it ends up having bugs that are not readily fixable.

In other words, encouragement will be needed for me to continue on the game. My main goal was to have the game finished and balanced in a year, which should be easy to do; especially after about 90% of the game was made in a little over a month and a half. I also plan to continue putting Corridor Bits on this blog as a part of self-encouragement to excite me about finishing the game someday.

Thank you Beta gametesters:

• Jon Ward
• Dustin Clements
• Keaton Ballard
• Shandee Ballard
• Tanner Ballard

Corridor Bit: The Dungeon

This week I completely finished all of the Dungeon Tiles needed to play Corridor. There are 25 tiles, each a variation of a pathway, intersection, room, or turn. To navigate throughout the dungeon, the player will choose a door to enter, draw a card, and connect the new tile accordingly. I've tested this many times and there are countless ways the dungeon will be set up. This "randomized" dungeon system, along with other card-drawing aspects and several functions of the games that require die rolls will hopefully make the game replayable again and again with fun, new results every time.

The dungeon contains many monster icons and item icons, each random every time because they require drawing a card out of a deck of many cards. Some games may be inherently harder than others simply out of pure bad luck, and visa-versa.

There are also locked doors on several tiles, making an element of strategy when it comes to rationing use of key items.

The dungeon can be any size as far as the tiles permit, but any given level only requires a Boss Tile and a Staircase Tile. (More on that later) If the dungeon tiles are all spent and there are still open doorways, there are little "cave-in" boulder tabs available to block them up with. Furthermore, if there is no Boss Tile or Staircase Tile and the rooms all lead to dead ends, there are "passageway" tabs that can be discovered in the game that can lead to the rest of the dungeon, not connected with the main crawl.

I'll let you know more this week! I'm making progress!

Corridor Board Game Bit: Origins

Hey all,
I've been working a bit too hard physically lately to think of anything to write about. I kind of just haven't been in the mood either. I guess two English writing classes took a lot out of me. But that doesn't mean I've stopped working on projects altogether!

Right now I'm busy resurrecting a game I made up in my childhood called "Corridor." The first version of the game was called "Dungeons of Doom," and later it came to be called "The Hero," but in Brazil I thought of the name "Corridor" that suits it a lot better.

Actual pen-and-paper proto-"Corridor" game in progress.

The game is loosely based on the old DOS game "Rogue" from my brother Redge's and my childhood, and we played it mainly on pen and paper. The game was purely imaginitive, consisting of a stickman dungeon crawling through various rooms to complete a specific goal. At its primitive form, it resembled a heavily simplified, visual version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The game was playable anywhere and conveniently portable; All that was needed was a sheet of paper and a writing utensil. As time went on, Corridor grew in complexity. Beneath the dungeon map on the paper itself, a panel was added at the bottom of the page that included an inventory, stats menu, and later, even an paper-doll equipment section and a status monitor. Despite recurring enemies such as Ghosts, Ogres, and Stone Dragon Heads, each game was completely different and rules changed constantly.

Eventually, effort was made to publish several sheets of uniform, recurring items, weapons and creatures. This manual contained as well a selection of "runes" which were used in a sort of "socketed" item system, each representing a real Norse rune of the Futhark. Eventually this system was discarded, but many items remained in the cycle of Corridor gameplay.

My goal is to now take what I know of this enjoyable game from my childhood, and much like Space: The RPG and The Childhood Spore Project, resurrect it and transcend it into something more widely accessible and organized. The rethought version of Corridor will feature a dice-based combat system, a randomized dungeon generator, a class-driven skill system, and much more! I may even make expansion sets to it if it goes well. And of course, I'll keep you updated here on my blog!

Poem #3: Anger Management

I'm finding several old poems I wrote in High School that really aren't that bad at all.

Anger Management

 by Austin Ballard

Your foundation is easily shaken.

Inside, bubbles will burst.

And before it is over, rivers will flow.

The slightest tremor will unleash your fury!

Violent whirlwinds of rage storm outward, and consume!

No one escapes from your belligerent flames!

Quench your inferno! But no.

A thousand hungry wolves could not stop your anger.

Your gaze could crack the boulders of time.

The torrent of red continues!

The winds of blazing insanity envelop me!

It was just a joke!