An Introductory Post (With Lego and Murder)

Hark! Could it be? 

After a long video break, 

is a blog from Zucchini? 

Perhaps this is a mistake!

Nah it's real, and it's terrifying. As you read these words I have successfully infiltrated your conscious mind! For real tho I've been on a bit of a drought with my creative output, as there's been some stuff in the background that's put a load on my mind. You see, I was working on a standalone video for Onion Games' Black Bird, and planned to release it somewhere around the beginning of July. I had the script scripted, the voiceover voiced, and even had most of it edited before scrapping it in the end. The video was only 9 minutes long so not much was really lost, but it was a signifier of some deeper self-esteem issues because that scrappage was due to dissatisfaction with my writing. It's a feeling that had been arising ever since I started making videos, feelings that my writing style was awkwardly flat and that I haven't truly developed my voice as a creative person. I figured this stuff would naturally figure itself out over time but it didn't happen as fast as I hoped, so in my extended break from video creation I came to the idea of making a blog. Figured that the best way to improve my writing would be to write more, without the major investment of time and energy that video creation necessitates. And like, it'd still be more productive than just posting microthoughts on Xitter all day. 

An aspect of my writing that I think blogging will help improve is my sense of pacing, especially with how much time I focus on a single subject. Take Lego Island for example. Realistically there's not much I can say about it beyond "woah this is really charming and funny", but god damn is it heckin charming and funny. I'd watch let's plays on it and be drawn in to all the cutscenes and music, so I'd try to check it out for myself but to make it short: getting old PC games to work on modern systems fucking sucks.  Thankfully tho the mad lad fans of Lego Island did the work of the LeGods and decompiled the game, making it more accessible to newer computers and even playable in your web browser. With this island opened in my tab I set out to explore its contents, and yeah the vibes are pretty great. Loads of funny character interactions and unhinged moments, with the island being just big enough to facilitate all its little challenges while still keeping a brisk jaunty pace. It's almost like an open world version of those activity center games you'd play at school, which makes it the perfect little world for a child to become immersed in.

All the freaks of this island gather around plotting the Brickster's demise. Of course it's up to Pepper, the dude with the food, to fulfill their desires.

 

 

  An atmospheric view of the endless seas surrounding these folk. Feels a lot like Myst, though I'm certain you don't get harassed by the ghost of a pirate in that game.

But hey, if the idea of a pizza that can melt metal isn't scary enough then there's always Warp's FMV horror adventure game D. Though I'm gonna be real, I mainly played this out of obligation before I'd get into the sequel D2. I hear people talk about that game in such a high regard with its strong narrative and bizarre gameplay systems, but I don't see as much buzz around the original D. Well, besides the time where Limited Run Games rereleased the 3DO version on fucking CD-Rs and thus didn't work on original hardware. Might as well have had Dennis burn all the copies in his basement. Also I only just now realized that the stories of D and D2 are completely unrelated, with Laura being a different character between them. I hadn't even played any of Kenji Eno's games yet and he's already bamboozled me, what a legend.

Immediately the game hits you with an off-kilter tone that emphasizes the morbidness of the scenario. A famous doctor has committed mass murder in a hospital? Heh, still not as scary as the medical bills! There's some genuinely strong directing in its wide and close-up camera work, and the composition of its shots creating hella frameable frames. This probably ain't that much of an original thought, but I still find it fascinating how this early 3D style really taps into that uncanny feeling that pairs wonderfully with the dark horrors of the story. It may even come off scarier now than it would've in 1995, but even then the blood tinged flashbacks and trippy visuals of colorful bugs still elevates D's presentation beyond just its technical limitations. While exploring the dream world manifestation of Laura's father, the sheer thickness of the game's atmosphere comes across almost tangible. Slow methodical plodding around tables and up stairs, pulling out each individual drawer as the occasional deep drone chimes in.

With these kinds of adventure games it's inevitable for me get stumped on some puzzles or sections, so when I was consulting online guides I was shocked to learn that the entire game has a 2 hour time limit. I really don't like this, especially for the type of game D is where the pace is already slow and trying to solve the puzzles take up so much time. It's like they realized that the FMV adventure gameplay doesn't have much inherently tense about it, and so added a time limit to artificially create stress. I could've probably finished the game well under that limit if I just followed a guide closely, but there's just like a mentality thing that I can't really get over, so in the end I just watched a longplay of the game. Even tho I didn't have a real first hand experience with the puzzles and stuff, I was still taken aback by a lot of the twists the story takes. For a game released in 1995 it does seem pretty boundary pushing with its themes and depictions of more taboo violence. So even though I didn't fw the time limit, I still gotta respect D for pulling off all the wild ideas it set out to do.

 

 

This shot of the mirror outside the barrel room genuinely unsettled me a bit. Such a genius use of lighting and composition to cast Laura ominously, which may be some foreshadowing for the twists later in the story.

 

 

 

 

A cozy red room where the chairs share a fair bit of the same pattern as the wallpaper. But in turn the urn is a bit strange from what I can discern.

 

 

But yeah, by now you should sorta get the vibe on what these blog posts will be like, at least tonally. I might experiment with with different styles and formats, from more analytical essays with a central thesis to recounting experiences, writing stories, and creating little galleries of images. It's all stuff that I could probably post on YouTube if I felt like it, but again without the burden of video production I feel more free to really just do anything I want and see what may stick. I can already feel my voice as a writer become a bit stronger just from making this post, so I'm really looking forward to see where this will go. Thanks for reading!