On the web, I am:

• An outspoken, non-coding open source enthusiast, with a particular affinity with WordPress
• An aspiring game designer, studying at the Vancouver Film School
• A manager with the jMonkeyEngine project.

This is my unique online identity as a blogger. The main goal of this blog will be to document the development of said identity. If I get some readers along the way, that is an added bonus. Every post I make should be distinguishable by its brevity and difference of opinion.

Welcome to my new beginning. I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

~ Erlend Sogge Heggen

These days when you want to get a new piece of software, you don’t go looking at the backside of boxes in a retail store any longer; you go online, and you stay there. Find your desired software, download it, install it, use it, that’s how it works now, and you don’t have to move an inch. Okay the way I put it now it almost sounds like you’re encouraged to sit on your arse all day, but no one said you couldn’t spend that time you saved not going to the store going for a hike instead.

Now imagine all the energy and resources spent creating that box, manual and CD that is the ‘retail game’. Increased internet activity comes with the need to build more servers you say? Nay! That is only the case if the transfer is one-sided. Torrent technology is just emerging, and it is just a matter of moving it out of the negative light of piracy, and make it beam as a technology encouraging giving back as much as you get. Some torrent-sharing sites only give access to those who upload twice as many bytes as they download.

Publishers constitute an utterly unnecessary drain of money and resources. They represent the type of middle man that we can find in several other places in business, industry and entertainment, who’s sole purpose is appearing to have a purpose by making some small jobs look huge and completely insurmountable, so demanding even, that you’re going to need a whole new workforce added to your crew, or even outsource it to the “people who knows best”.

On to a different side of the matter.., eeeh part 2?

There is a very important notion to make about these people we call “pirates”, sometimes coupled with other terms to be called “media pirates” or “software pirates”. They literally steal from the rich and give to the poor. Okay, maybe not all of their benefitiaries are living in a cardboard box with no possessions but a wireless router and laptop powered by their faithful hamster friend, but the point is they are not doing this for money. Recognition is the key word here. One day when I was a kid I remember I was pulling random kids’ pants down to great enjoyment for others; I was widely recognized. At some point my eyes were opened to the victims of my little shinanigans, and so I lost interest in it, because some of those victims were now lost friends.

Again, a pirate’s peers are not distinctly poor, but they are way poorer than the big fat cats up top who are selling this game. It’s a victimless crime! At least in a ‘keeping an even score’ line of view. We just don’t see the injustice.

Two things stop me from downloading pirated software, the first is principle. I might have played with the dark side back in the days when trying to get my hands on the latest AAA game, but that’s changed now. I realized that I would become a game designer, and that some day, not too far off, I would be one of those people trying to make a living off of selling digital products; a living that is hampered with by these software pirates.

The second is service & delivery. I use eMusic and Amazon for all of my musical needs. It costs me, but so far I haven’t failed to find something that I was looking for, and I get it all DRM free and without the slightest fear of virus infections or broken material. In the off chance that there would be any reason to complain, I would have a right to, and they can’t just throw ‘it’s free so shut it’ in my face. Another strong factor when dealing with these online services is that I often get to buy my music knowing that the biggest portion of it will go back to the artist that I love so much. And I do like the idea of that, because these days I’ve started buying a lot of music from independent artists who are able to effortlessly self-publish themselves thanks to the world wide web.

Going back to games, knowing my supplier is becoming a stronger factor here as well. Independent game companies publish their games online and they actually manage to compete with the big dawgs because thanks to lighter development costs and self-publishing, they completely out-price the AAA titles.

I recently bought Zeno Clash on steam and I loved how smoothly it all went; the money transaction, the download and install. I played it and loved it. Once when I had brougt my computer with me some where there was no internet connection, I remembered how I loved to play that game, so I figured I’d give it a go, as it’s a single player game. Oh my… Because I bought this game with Steam, I couldn’t play it offline. I later discovered that there is an offline mode, but in order to activate said mode, it seems I have to get online first. One could say that I’m making a big deal out of a problem that started with me being too ignorant to familiarize myself with my service & software, but I don’t buy that because good software is supposed to render dumbness insignificant. Steam offers a great way to find and buy your games, but because of its DRM solutions I will not trust it to run my games any longer, hence I won’t be buying any more games from this distributor.

After I’ve bought a new game, it’s mine, I should own it. The code & content is right there on my hard-drive, so I will not have anyone tell me when I can and can not run this game! What infuriates me even more is that if I was a smarter person, I would know how to crack this protective wall and do as I please.

If you want to protect your software, you just can’t let it ever leave your server. The second that package becomes available for someone to run and manage on their own premises, you’ve lost it. Take a look at the videos from Google’s Developer Conference, and you’ll see that the barrier between desktop and web software is fading rapidly. Whatever is on your computer should be yours to do with what you’d like. If you utilize online services, it’s done on the terms of whoever sits on the server. Chances are they’ll charge for it, and on perfectly fair grounds.

With restricted space in the top shell I thankfully retrieved out of my backpack about 250 grams worth of A4 sheets tightly crammed with tiny dots of ink and dirt living in undecipherable harmony. No actually, I learned at a very early point of my stay there to see past the dots of dirt, usually found in unparalleled amounts on my bi-weekly washed pair of shorts (admittedly, albeit of generally friendly nature, throughout my stay I received several inquiries on behalf of the very apparent lacking concern for my attire).

Having been on familiar ground for some time now (I returned on the 3rd of May) I’ve been enjoying the marvelous backwoods that is the home of me and the family. Gradually acclimatising, lines of communication and bonds with friends are being re-connected; all in somewhat of a hurry suddenly now that I’ve ordered my flight to Vancouver on the 19th of June. It didn’t take long ’till I felt the familiar attraction to hobbyist projects left and right, all bursting with great potential and lurking talent. But, knowing all too well that the school I am about to be enrolled into will make it its business to keep me too busy to do much if any of my own business, I made it a point to stay away from any intriguing game projects on the rise.

… so instead I am now busying myself with 250 grams of rambling thoughts not-quite-gone-bad-yet. Refreshing! As far as “projects” go, besides my renewed involvement in the still great JFusion project, my “active collaborations” do not stretch any further than re-established ties and casual developments with fellow international hobbyists. Online collaborations are still joyful, but it’s been a while since I dug a hole of my very own and just started on a foundation for a couple of ideas without any outside interruption. Here’s the inside scoop on what I’ve got brewing after retrieving my written-in-Africa notes:

• Ibutho is getting the full length storyline that he deserves, complete with a pseudo-historically correct setting that truly complements and sometimes inspires the tightly knit chain of events I’ve got lined up for the fellah.
• The totem gun was the initial subject of  many a game idea I pondered with, though the concepts soon took a turn to much more basic game mechanics. Most importantly I was trying to engrave ‘simplicity’ on to my mindset, seeing as in the past I’ve had a tendency to conceptualize games just as complex and demanding as your average AAA title. The 5 or so best ideas that I brought with me home are obscure products of the fascinating movements of cockroaches and rechargeable dynamo flashlights.
• After many a trial and failure, I think I might have completed the concept for my first (actually doable) board game since I was about 11. I am very happy about this, seeing as I loved creating simple non-digital games when I was younger. When I was introduced to digital game development the desire to make my own really good board game was still there, but the ideas seemed to always originate from a concept I had first imagined digitally. Could it be that the effective distance that existed between me and the digital world helped me into a non-digital way of thinking? It is hard to tell, seeing as I now also have a digital idea for this game in mind, and I can’t remember which was actually there first… The theme of the game is alchemy, and the game plays a bit like Ludo with power-ups.
• I also had a lot of fun pondering on many a website idea, most of which originating somehow from my involvement with JFusion, though many of these ideas eventually deviated from said project. My hope is that I’ll eventually be able to bring some of these ideas to life and effectively empower communities revolving writing, games and goodwill.

Once I’ve got this quarter of cerebral nuggets distilled into fine, clean, living concepts (say 23 grams perhaps?), I’ll be sure to post it right up here unless I’ve got those pesky investors on my neck already begging for NDAs (ha… ha… ).

In spite of what the 21st century bloggernation might expect of me, I’m not that keen on detailing my private life on a worldwide basis, which is why I intend to always keep this blog largely centered around game development and general career advancement.

So about that headline then, go breakdown(!):
Spending six months by and large doing nothing but daytime work for money and evening hobbyism for fun and (proof of-) experience, body and mind ends up in a slow gear and stays that way. At the end of December I was starting to give up on the whole idea of “Erlend, a game designer”, as my creative wheels had stopped turning months pas. Instead I figured I’d just embrace my people skills instead, aiming for a position in management. Then I went to Africa. In the end it’s all about creating that major gap between you and the (technological) bridge to the rest of the world. This is a well known creative antidote which has been discussed, tested and recommended time and time again, which i why I won’t go into detail about how, why and what exactly worked for me. All I’m saying is: This really works!

I’ll be back home by May 3rd if all goes well, which should give me the necessary time needed in order to pre-polish some new slammin’ ideas I now have in store for my stay at VFS. Bring on the next continent!