Week 798

What’s this? I’m blogging about my work on a weekly basis – a simple way to track and archive whatever it is I spend my time on.

Two weeks ago I wrote that my Ninja Girl grant application was denied by the Creative Industries Fund NL. Last week, I spent a lot of time refactoring my plan in order to try again the coming week (there are four rounds a year).

From what I understand, the biggest concern the jury committee had was that my iPad novel project was too autonomous, and not helpful enough for the creative industries at large. I can see their point, so now I’m focusing on the software tools I need to write, publish and visualize the story instead of the story itself. Tools that other authors can use too.

I feel pretty good about this; the tools were always part of the plan, and this just prioritizes them, forcing me to think more deeply about them earlier on. Interesting ideas were popping up all week. Let’s see if I can hit the sweet spot at the Fund this time.

What else? On Monday I snuck off to the cinema to watch Korean science fiction movie Snowpiercer, which I liked a lot. I want to go to the movies during work hours more often; I always feel hugely inspired afterwards.

I also tackled my administration that day, taking care of the quartlery revenue taxes. Thanks to my work for RIVM, the first quarter of 2014 was quite solid.

In the afternoon, I published my article on computational creativity here: Angelina krijgt steeds meer vrijheid van haar baas – Kan een computer creatief zijn? Since starting last fall with Arjan Terpstra and David Nieborg, this was weekly games article 20 in NRC Handelsblad, and I felt it was one of the best yet.

That night, VPRO’s cultural radio show Nooit meer slapen broadcast the item about indie games (in Dutch) by Maarten Westerveen. Maarten interviewed me as well as Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, and the end result is worth listening to.

On Tuesday, I checked in with Two Tribes. Their new game is a 2D science fiction shooter with some novel twists, and it feels like it’s starting to take shape now. This means that it’s now my turn to propose a concept for the backstory, world and characters. And maybe a title!

That afternoon, I edited a review of Mario Golf: World Tour for Nintendo 3DS by Harry Hol and wrote a review of Child of Light myself. I also edited a cool interview with one of the makers of Child of Light by Jurjen Tiersma. Because of space constraints, only the reviews were published in nrc.next on Thursday. The interview should follow soon.

On Thursday evening I had my weekly game development hobby night with Hessel. I continued work on my Japanese village game, mostly learning about arrays and streamlining the menu stuff I’d worked on the previous week.

Over the weekend, I finished two articles for the Dutch Official PlayStation Magazine: a profile on Bethesda Game Studios and a column about a next-gen Wave Race 64 / Waterworld crossover game I’d like to play. Finally, I did a small thing with David, seeking out a games studio for a client.