It's time for my annual self review. You can see previous ones from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. I didn't have a lot of goals for this year:
Write to my blog instead of only to Twitter or other closed platforms.
Improve my explanations and write new ones.
The first I can measure by looking at whether I blogged about my projects. I did: 24 blog posts this year. I'm pretty happy with that. The second is harder to evaluate, but I would say I didn't spend nearly as much time on explanations as I had hoped to. I wrote these new explanations, but they were small:
I also have 15 other projects that weren't for the general public (for clients, or responses to emails, etc.). I generated new logos for my social media presence using a new logo generator I wrote. And I updated my home page with links to lots of projects I hadn't previously linked. I track these projects on Trello.
What else? I'm hanging out on AIMA chat (students who want to contribute to the AIMA textbook open source project), Roguelike Discord, ProcJam Discord, a few Slacks, Twitter, and a few subreddits. I decided to go to non-GDC conferences this year, and went to BangBangCon, FDG, and Roguelike Celebration. I'm pretty happy with how all of this went this year.
For several years I've hoped that the coordinate systems page would become the next big successful project after the Hexagon page and the A* page. I've attempted to write it several times but just haven't been happy with it. I'm now starting to think that maybe it's not going to be the next big success for me. I've also been trying to come up with a good explanation of differential heuristics but can't seem to make much progress. Maybe I won't have any more big successes with tutorials, and should stop looking for that.
What are my goals for 2020? Unfortunately, I don't have any strong goals. After working on big projects in 2018, I ended up working on small projects in 2019. I would like to work on something bigger, but I think my focus will be on learning new things rather than explaining things I already know. I'd like to work on projects that last a month or two rather than a week or two, to really dig into them and learn a topic deeper than I can do in a week. Other than that, I feel kind of aimless right now. I'm ok with that. I'm in a wander-and-explore phase of my life.
I picked up some Austro-Hungarian Aeronef cheap at the start of the year on eBay. My buddy Matt and I intend on playing some games with them. He has, in fact, procured the age old enemies of the Austro-Hungarians, the Japanese. We're likely going to bash a few rule sets together into something that's quick and fun.
I've got a few more things left to build (battleships, fixed wings and a carrier) but this is the lion's share of them. Just a simple base, wash and drybrush. I've got a few details left to do but I don't think I'm going to go full orange Eldar on these.
Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats After a hiatus due to my friends being in hospital, when I came back to streaming, it finally dawned on me to not care about viewer numbers - at last! Even as I theoretically realize that ignoring numbers is a major solution to preventing burn out, there was always a part of me that cared, due to ego issues. As a result, I was watching a lot of Twitch streams as that's the best way to grow numbers (i.e. networking = making friends), that it's caused migraines, not to mention, feeling imprisoned because I "have" to watch streams for numbers. In other words, I was afraid to limit Twitch viewing as it may lead to decrease in numbers. However, during the period of time when I was visiting and supporting my friends, I didn't have time to watch Twitch, and despite this very sad period, I felt physically better due to lack of migraines. When I came back to streaming, I had such a huge outpouring of support that I finally internalized deep down that it's my viewers who are the most important, not reaping numbers. Because of my viewers (and it can never be overstated, your viewers make your stream), I was able to internalize this completely. Indeed, one of the most deadly things you can do as a streamer is to take your audience for granted. Having all this support and love from my community make streaming worth it, and that certainly prevents burn-out. I must never forget how I felt when my community was there for me when I came back to streaming. I'm not sure if my viewers noticed that I was more spontaneous and free during this time, but I felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. Indeed, you can ad lib more when you don't have to worry about turning off viewers. Although I enjoyed streaming before this revelation, my joy was constricted by worrying about concurrent viewers. Now, without my joy being choked off, I feel liberated while streaming. Interestingly, since not being concerned about numbers, I noticed that I was able to stream just as well as ever. In fact, I may have been better at streaming since I had the same (or perhaps better) mental focus despite not exercising. Almost all of my past streams, I made sure to exercise. I think having this psychological freedom made streaming less taxing. When you're truly happy in what you're doing, in other words, you're able to be more effective. It took almost a year to get to a place where I finally know and feel that numbers are irrelevant, and that's a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I've come up with strats, a flowchart that I follow, that help guide my stream: If there's someone commenting, stop everything and talk to the person (though remember what you were talking before that and continue that thought process). Once talking to the person, if there's a pause in chat, go back to previous thought and complete the thought. If there's no one there, comment on gaming action (why you did this, what you're going to do, how you feel about the cinematic cut scenes and the like), or tell interesting stories (more on that later) Use load screens to catch up on chat and talk. It gets rather stale talking about the same points (i.e. gaming action and streaming issues), so to improve content, discussing life experiences are key as you can fill dead air by telling stories. Talking about life experiences is material enough. Further, these experiences don't have to be unique and exciting ones - often any common mishaps that you experience can be told very humorously. Making people laugh is one of the best forms of entertainment. I never had reason to be a story teller, so being an entertaining story teller is a skill that I'll be working on. This is an entirely new and exciting new adventure that I'll be experiencing! Progress made:
Truly not caring about concurrent viewer numbers (finally!).
Realizing that story telling can make streams more compelling.
Putting in scheduled vacations, and notifying community, to prevent burn-out.
Improvements to be made:
Be a better story teller.
Thank new viewers for stopping by stream (use cbenni.com chat log to review chat history) - I was consistent in past, but not currently.
Completing my thought processes and sentences (I have a tendency to do this IRL as well).
Get back into exercising and self-care.
The usual being able to chat and game at same time (this is not habit yet).
The usual decreasing filler words, vocal "tics" and the like.
A year ago my manager at work started a game hour on Thursdays for our small group of 5. Between the 2 of us we brought in new games every week for several months that could be played for 5 non-gamers. My manager up and left us last week, but I hope to continue the gaming. Only now we are going to get between 7 and 10 each week. Which makes it more challenging, unless I just bring in 2 copies of Codenames (1 Hebrew and 1 English) each week. That will be the default option.
Meanwhile I haven't touched my book. But I went to South Africa and came back. Pictures on Facebook. I usually tell a travelogue on my blog, and I may still do that. I didn't play much on the trip.
There is something to say about my game It's Alive, which I will say when I can say it.
The Digital Media program at Georgia Tech is now accepting applications at the Master's and Ph.D. levels.
The Digital Media graduate program at Georgia Tech is a multidisciplinary program that engages students in making with meaningin digital media through their own discipline, skills, and expertise. Students here from the humanities, engineering, technology, and the arts backgrounds all engage in collaborative, practice-based work where they learn and apply design methods and critical theory in studio courses that are focused on having a voice--or giving a voice to others--through digital media.
They offer both a two year intensive Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Digital Media, working with leading researchers that touch on topics such as civic media, game design, smart cities, interactive installation, augmented & virtual reality, computational creativity, and STEAM-based education.
They host multiple online events to inform those interested in the program. More information and RSVP is available through our website: http://dm.lmc.gatech.edu/. The upcoming application deadlines for Fall 2019 are Dec. 10th, 2018, for the Ph.D. program and Jan. 8th, 2019 for the Master's program.
Students interested in visiting the campus can do so during our open house event on January 18, 2019. RSVP here.
If you have any further questions about the program and admission process, please contact me or the Associate Director Michael Terrell directly at dgs@lmc.gatech.edu.
When a company changes their logo, it's generally a group exercise in self pleasuring. It's rarely necessary. If you look at the Starbucks logo, the 1987 or 1992 logo is in color, a big transformation, but I personally wouldn't change my coffee drinking decisions based on any of their logos. As for 1971, I'm not sure what's more offensive nowadays, bare mermaid breasts or a black and white logo. And what in the hell is she holding? Are those her mermaid legs? What exactly does this imply? Is this a coffee shop or a brothel? Sick bastards. Logos are ridiculous and nobody cares.
When I was told we needed to change our logo, my first concern was the circle jerk of pointless design and then cost. Clearly there's no financial benefit to the exercise. We've had the same logo for 15 years. Is it a good logo? It looks good. I like the colors. I like the knight. As for the design itself, I have to admit, it's a giant pain in the ass. Our original logo is terrible, practically speaking. It's an impediment to its very purpose.
The use of black means it looks great on screen with a white background, but it's problematic with other forms of media, which require a very light background. It's so difficult to use, we tend either not to use it at all, making the brand identity somewhat weak, or we reverse the colors to put it on a black background with the logo in white. We mutilate the logo to make it work. It's a problem. But is it worth fixing? Enter the business case.
When it came to staff shirts, we resorted to white embroidery on black shirts. originally I had white shirts with a full color logo, but those were loathed by everyone, and they were hard to keep clean. You may not know this but everything we sell sits in a dirty warehouse before getting to us and gets even dirtier as it sits on our shelves. Keeping a retail store clean is a major feat, as it starts dirty and only gets worse. White shirts were always getting stained and looking bad.
The black, embroidered shirts we currently use, with a boring plain white stitched logo, turned out to be incredibly expensive. Each shirt costs $70 with embroidery. They also need to be made in batches in various sizes, so we're almost always buying more than we need, in sizes we hope will be useful. Invariably, those sizes don't match our diverse staff. So over time, we've been stuck with a box of very expensive shirts in the wrong sizes. The cost of bad design turns out to be very high.
Our new shirt design features a full color patch that can be sewn onto a variety of shirts. We choose the shirt from the Work Wear store next door, grab a patch, and sew it on. No big batches of variable sized, expensive, embroidered, logo perverting shirts. Also, if I want one of my robust, tactical shirts from 5.11, I buy it in the right color and sew on the patch, something not available before. Total cost per shirt for employees will be $25 or so, with no waste.
Then there's the increased merchandising we tend to avoid with the old logo. We've already ordered new patches, pins, stickers, and more. We'll have hats and t-shirts eventually. These were difficult to design with the old logo requirements and they sold poorly.
Now let's get onto the minor controversy of our design choices. We spent about a month defining the needs of the new logo with half a dozen designers. We identified core requirements. It should maintain the design elements of the old logo: the knight, the horse, the lance, the direction it's all headed (very symbolic) and of course, a diamond. The logo needed to remain fairly simple. The name needed an updated font that was compact with the design. The previous font used long, horizontal text and has been nothing but trouble for 15 years. The color black is problematic. It goes with nothing but white. Those who use black in their logos hamstring themselves design wise, so we omitted that. In fact, I would probably pick a different store name without a color in the title if I were to do it over. I have few regrets, but "black" is one. Let's take a look at the new design:
I think it pops. Rather than black, we have a dark blue, which works much better and represents one of our colors. It's a darker blue than our original logo (which some say was purple, a color I love). The diamond color, away from black, represents a shift in store colors that came about with our big construction project, three years ago.
This orangish yellow is called Curry in Sherwin Williams colors, which is the color we painted our staircase. It's a color that matches our birch fixtures. It provides a pleasing blue and gold ambience, the colors of the local university, UC Berkeley.
This shift in store colors came in a moment of crisis. The Curry color came from a decision I made with the architects when it was clear our paint color choices weren't working in practice. I was distracting myself at the time with another project, a used Jeep I was about to buy in Utah, because Utah was the closest location of a Jeep in this exact color I was smitten with. I had to have not only the features I was looking for, but it had to be in that color. It was clearly on my mind. Originally the Curry color was white, but when we painted it on on the staircase, it looked terrible.
So the color of the staircase and thus the logo got their color from a Jeep. The Jeep is in a Chrysler color called Amp'd. And thus our staircase became Amp'd, and our logo became Amp'd. And for the foreseeable future, we shall be Amp'd. Most people like the new logo, once they've accepted (or more often overlooked) the diamond isn't black. It's a tough ask, but if people can accept the Starbucks mermaid isn't holding up her legs suggestively any longer, I think this can be overlooked. Personally I love the direction of the logo. I especially love I won't be paying $70 each for a box of useless shirts.
On the last day of the cold January Will from Extra Credits sat down to stream SOMA, and for the first few hours of the game he was joined by his friend and Frictional employee Ian Thomas. Ian worked on scripting, coding, and level design for SOMA, and is now the Story Lead on one of Frictional's two upcoming projects. During the stream he answered some questions from the viewers, ranging from what type of pizza he thinks Simon had in his fridge, to ways of minimising dissonance between the player and the character in a narrative game.
In this blog we've compiled the best questions and answers into an easily readable form. So go get a beverage of your choice and dive into the everyday life at Frictional, narrative game design and tips on networking in the industry! Or, if you're not the reading type, you can also watch the whole video on Twitch.
Have some other questions? Hit us up on Twitter and we will try to answer the best we can!
(Picture commentary from your favourite community manager/editor of this blog, Kira.)
Q: Does the Frictional team scare each other at the office?
We didn't have an office until recently, and even now most people are still remote, so not really!
The thing about being behind the scenes in horror is that it's very difficult to scare yourself, and each other, because you know what's going on. We do play each others' levels every other week, and it's always brilliant to get a decent scare out of a coworker.
Otherwise we don't hide in the office cupboards or anything like that… regularly.
Q: Is it true that developers don't actually play their games?
No - we play our games thousands of times, and most developers do!
It does depend on where you sit in the development chain. If you work for a very big company and only do something like facial models, you might rarely play the game until it's close to completion. But in a team the size of Frictional everyone plays the game all the time. That's how we get our primary feedback and develop our levels before the game goes anywhere near alpha testers.
Q: How about after they're released?
Probably not that often. For me personally there are two reasons, which both have to do with time. Firstly, I'm probably already working on a new thing. Secondly, during the short downtime after a release I'm trying to catch up on games I had to put aside during development. But it depends: for example, when I worked on LEGO games I would later play them with friends, because they're so much fun to sit down and co-op play.
For a couple of years after the release you might be fed up with your game and not want to see it, but then you might come back to it fresh. With SOMA I sometimes tune into livestreams, especially if I'm feeling down. That's one of the kicks you get out of this stuff – knowing which parts of the game people are going to react to, and getting to watch those reactions! That's the best payoff.
Q: Did the existential dread of SOMA ever get to the team?
It's a little different for the dev team, as the horror is a slow burn of months and months, whereas for the players it comes in a short burst. The philosophical questions affected people in different ways, but I don't think we broke anyone. As far as I know we're all fine, but given that a lot of us work remotely, it could well be that one of us is deep in Northern Sweden inscribing magical circles in his front room and we just don't know...
Q: Why did SOMA get a Safe Mode?
SOMA was originally released with monsters that could kill you, and that put off some people that were attracted to the themes, the sci-fi and the philosophy, because they saw the game as too scary or too difficult. Thomas and Jens had discussed a possible safe mode early on, but weren't sure it would work. However, after the game came out, someone in the community released the Wuss Mod that removed the monsters, and that and the general interest in the themes of the game made us rethink. So now we've released the official Safe Mode, where the monsters still attack you, but only if you provoke them – and even then they won't kill you.
You can now avoid one of these three death screens!
The concept of death in games is a strange one. All it really means is that you go back to a checkpoint, or reload, and all the tension that's built up goes away. The fact is that game death is pretty dull. It becomes much more interesting when it's a part of a mechanic or of the story. We at Frictional have talked about it internally for a while, but it's something we've never really gotten a satisfactory answer to.
So, all in all, even if you turn on Safe Mode, it's not that much different from playing the game normally.
Q: What type of pizza does Simon have in his fridge?
Meat lovers', definitely.
Schrödinger's pizza! And a Mexicana. Unless they mixed it up at the factory. In which case it's also a Schrödinger's pizza.
Q: What was the funniest or hardest bug to fix in SOMA?
There were so many! You can find some of the stuff in the supersecret.rar file that comes with the installation.
I spent a lot of time fixing David Munshi. His animation really didn't behave and he kept leaping around the place. He was so problematic, especially in this sequence where he was supposed to sit down in a chair and type away at the keyboard. We had so much trouble with that - what if the player had moved the chair? We couldn't lock it in place, because we want the player to be able to mess with these things. We went around trying to come up with an answer for ages.
And then someone on the team went: "Standing desk!". Problem solved! It's silly little things like this which tie up your time.
For all you thirsty Munshi lovers out there. You know who you are.
Another similar element was the Omnitool. It was a fairly major design thing that we came up with to connect the game characters, and to gate scenarios. We were struggling trying to tie these things together, and then it was just one of those days when someone came up with one single idea that solved so many problems. It was a massive design triumph – even if we realised later that the name was a bit Mass Effect!
Q: Why does using items and elements in Frictional's games mimic real movements?
This is one of Thomas's core design principles: making actions like opening doors and turning cranks feel like physical actions. It binds you more closely into the game and the character, on an unconscious level. We've spent an awful lot of time thinking about ways to collapse the player and the character into one and make the player feel like a part of the world. It's a subtle way of feedback that you don't really think about, but it makes you feel like you're "there".
There's an interesting difference between horror games and horror films in this sense. You would think that horror movies are scarier because you're dragged into the action that moves on rails and there's nothing you can do about it. But for me that kind of horror is actually less scary than the kind in games, where you have to be the person to push the stick forward.
We try to implement this feedback loop in other elements of the game too, like the sound design. When a character is scared it makes their heartbeat go up, which makes the player scared, which makes their heartbeat go up in turn, and so on.
Q: Why didn't SOMA reuse enemies?
It obviously would have been much cheaper to reuse the monsters. But in SOMA it was a clear design point, since each of the enemies in SOMA was trying to advance the plot, get across a particular point in the story, or raise a philosophical question. Thus, the enemies were appropriate to a particular space or a piece of plot and it didn't make sense to reuse them.
Q: Did SOMA start with a finished story, or did it change during development?
The story changed massively over the years. I came on to the game a couple of years into development, and at that time there were lots of fixed points and a general path, but still a lot changed around that. As the game developed, things got cut, they got reorganized, locations changed purpose, and some things just didn't work out.
Building a narrative game is an ever-changing process. With something like a platformer you can build one level, test the mechanics, then build a hundred more similar levels iterating on and expanding those core mechanics. Whereas in a game like this you might build one level in isolation, but that means you don't know what the character is feeling based on what they've previously experienced.
You don't really know if the story is going to work until you put several chapters together. That's why it's also very difficult to test until most of it is in place. Then it might suddenly not work, so you have to change, drop and add things. There's quite a lot of reworking in narrative games, just to make sure you get the feel right and that the story makes sense. You've probably heard the term "kill your darlings" – and that's exactly what we had to do.
A lot of the things were taken out before they were anywhere near complete – they were works in progress that were never polished. Thus these elements are not really "cut content", just rough concepts.
Q: The term "cut content" comes from film, and building a game is closer to architecture or sculpting. Would there be a better name for it?
A pile of leftover bricks in the corner!
Q: How do you construct narrative horror?
Thomas is constantly writing about how the player isn't playing the actual game, but a mental model they have constructed in their head. A lot of our work goes into trying to create that model in their head and not to break it.
A central idea in our storytelling is that there's more going on than the player is seeing. As a writer you need to leave gaps and leave out pieces, and let the player make their own mind up about what connects it all together.
You'll meet a tall, dark stranger...
From a horror point of view there's danger in over-specifying. Firstly having too many details makes the story too difficult to maintain. And secondly it makes the game lose a lot of its mystery. The more you show things like your monsters, the less scary they become. A classic example of this is the difference between Alien and Aliens. In Alien you just see flashes of the creatures and it freaks you out. In Aliens you see more of them, and it becomes less about fear and more about shooting. It's best to sketch things out and leave it up to the player's imagination to fill in the blanks – because the player's imagination is the best graphics card we have!
There are a lot of references that the superfans have been able to put together. But there are one or two questions that even we as a team don't necessarily know the answers to.
Q: How do you keep track of all the story elements?
During the production of SOMA there was an awful lot of timeline stuff going on. Here we have to thank our Mikael Hedberg, Mike, who was the main writer. He was the one to make sure that all of the pieces of content were held together and consistent across the game. A lot of the things got rewritten because major historical timelines changed too, but Mike kept it together.
During the development we had this weird narrative element we call the double apocalypse. At one point in writing most of the Earth was dead already because of a nuclear war, and then an asteroid hit and destroyed what was left. We went back and forth on that and it became clear that a double apocalypse would be way over the top and coincidental. So we edited the script to what it is now, but this has resulted in the internal term 'that sounds like a double apocalypse', which is when our scripts have become just a bit too unbelievable or coincidental.
Q: How do you convey backstories, lore, and world-building?
Obviously there are clichés like audio logs and walls of text, but there is a trend to do something different with them, or explaining the universe in a different way. But the fundamental problem is relaying a bunch of information to the player, and the further the world is from your everyday 21st century setting, the more you have to explain and the harder it is. So it's understandable that a lot of games do it in the obvious way. The best way I've seen exposition done is by working it into the environment and art, making it part of the world so that the player can discover it rather than shoving it into the player's face.
Q: How do you hook someone who disagrees with the character?
It's hard to get the character to say and feel the same things as what the player is feeling. If you do it wrong it breaks the connection between the player and the character, and makes it far less intense. Ideally, if the player is thinking something, you want the character to be able to echo it. We spend a lot of time taking lines out so the character doesn't say something out of place or contrary to what the player feels.
With philosophical questions there are fixed messages you can make and things you can say about the world, but that will put off a part of the audience. The big thing when setting moral questions or decisions is that you should ask the question instead of giving the answer. If you offer the players a grey area to explore, they might even change their minds about the issue at hand.
To murder or not to murder, that is the question.
Q: How do you write for people who are not scared of a particular monster or setting?
In my experience the trick is to pack as many different types of fear in the game as you can, and picking the phobias that will affect the most people. If there's only one type of horror, it's not going to catch a wide enough audience. Also, if you only put in, say, snakes, anyone who isn't afraid of snakes is going to find it dull.
We probably peaked in our first game. What's worse than spiders? (Not representative of the company's opinion.)
Q: What's the main thing you want to get across in games?
The key thing is that the players have something they will remember when they walk away from the game, or when they talk about it with other people. It's different for different games, and as a developer you decide on the effect and how you want to deliver it. In games like Left 4 Dead delivery might be more about the mechanical design. In other games it's a particular story moment or question.
In SOMA the goal was not to just scare the players as they're looking at the screen, it was about the horror that they would think about after they put the mouse or controller down and were laid in bed thinking about what they'd seen. It was about hitting deeper themes. Sure, we wrapped it in horror, but the real horror was, in a way, outside the game.
Q: What does SOMA stand for?
It has many interpretations, but I think the one Thomas and Mike were going for was the Greek word for body. The game is all about the physicality of the body and its interaction with what could be called the spirit, mind, or soul – the embodiment of you.
The funniest coincidence was when we went to GDC to show the game off to journalists before the official announcement. We hadn't realised there is a district in San Francisco called Soma, so we were sitting in a bar called Soma, in the Soma district, about to announce Soma!
As to why it's spelled in all caps – it happened to look better when David designed the logo!
Q: Does this broken glass look like a monster face on purpose?
I'm pretty sure it's not on purpose – it's just because humans are programmed to see faces all over the place, like socket plugs. It's called pareidolia. But it's something you can exploit - you can trick people into thinking they've seen a monster!
This window is out to get you!
Q: What is the best way to network with the industry people?
Go to industry events, and the bar hangouts afterwards!
It's critical, though, not to treat it as "networking". Let's just call it talking to people, in a room full of people who like the same stuff as you. It's not about throwing your business cards at each other, it's about talking to them and finding common interests. Then maybe a year or two down the line, if you got on, they might remember you and your special skills or interests and contact you. Me being on Will's stream started with us just chatting. And conversations I had in bars five years ago have turned into projects this year.
You have to be good at what you do, but like in most industries, it's really about the people you know. I'm a bit of an introvert myself, so I know it's scary. But once you realise that everybody in the room is probably as scared as you, and that you're all geeks who like the same stuff, it gets easier. Another good way to make connections is attending game jams. If you haven't taken part in one, go find the nearest one! Go out, help your team, and if you're any good at what you do, people will be working with you soon.
Q: Can you give us some fun facts?
Sure!
- You can blame the "Massive Recoil" DVD in Simon's room on our artist, David. A lot of the things in Simon's apartment are actually real things David has.
- We try to be authentic with our games, but out Finnish sound guy Tapio Liukkonen takes it really far. We have sequences of him diving into a frozen lake with a computer keyboard to get authentic underwater keyboard noises. It's ridiculous.
- Explaining SOMA to the voice actors was challenging – especially to this 65-year-old British thespian, clearly a theatre guy. Watching Mike explain the story to him made me think that the whole situation was silly and the guy wasn't getting the story at all. And then he went into the studio and completely nailed the role.
- There's a lot of game development in Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden and Norway, because it's dark and cold all the time so people just stay indoors and make games. Just kidding… or am I?
The new pricing structure takes effect on February 15th. We are offering up to a 30% discount our current off MSRP until that date.
Most items will see a 5% to 8% increase and a few specific items will be higher.
If you have an item or two that has been on your bucket list, this might be a good time to blow the dust off the list.
(from prior post)
We started down the road to manufacturing plastic kits in 2012, a lot has happened since then. I have seen shipping prices nearly double, WGF has ceased to be our distributor and we have taken over that aspect of operations. We now purchase our kits from WGF China directly.
We recently place two restock orders to bring our stock levels back on par, the shipping costs have been an eye opener. In many cases shipping from China to the US was more than the actual cost to manufacture a kit. Some kits needed to be brought in line with their cost of production. This price increase was as minimal as we could make it most items will see an increase of 5% to 8% with some more drastic adjustments to kits that were selling into distribution at a lower than delivered cost to us.
To maintain the health of DreamForge-Games it has become clear that we will need to implement a price increase, effective February 15th2016
Much like its sister foundation The National Film Registry, The National Recording Registry is dedicated to preserving our cultural heritage, but instead of film, this registry honors what we hear. Indeed, much of culture has been captured through sound. Among the pieces in the Registry include Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream Speech, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Orson Welles' dramatic Halloween reading of War of the Worlds, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, FDR's Fireside Chats, George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, Tom Lerher's intellectual comedy songs, Igor Stravinsky himself conducting The Rite of Spring in New York, the soundtrack to Star Wars, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Nirvana's Nevermind, and much, much more. That the sounds of America are so rich, so different, so wonderful.
The New York Times reported that Congress passed the National Recording Preservation Act in 2000, in which the Library of Congress was directed to "plan and coordinate a national effort to develop policies and programs to save our nation's recorded sound history and ensure its accessibility to future generations." (Kozinn). According to The Library of Congress this action led to the creation of the National Recording Registry, in which the Librarian, advised by National Recording Preservation Board, annually select up to 25 recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and are at least a decade old. Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, who also heads the National Film Registry, has said,
"These recordings represent an important part of America's culture and history. As technology continually changes and formats become obsolete, we must ensure that our nation's aural legacy is protected. The National Recording Registry is at the core of this effort." ("Hallelujah, The National Recording Registry Reaches 400").
In 2013, The New York Times reported that a new National Recording Recording Preservation Plan was passed, as the plan address ways to preserve and digitize recordings, with focus being put especially on broadcasts and recordings made on neglected, antique, or other "at risk" formats. There are urgent reasons for this, since many precious recordings have been lost. These include about half of all recordings made on cylinders, recordings of Sinatra, Garland, and Gershwin, along with a wire in the Enola Gay that recorded the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. Billington praised the plan, saying, "As a nation, we have good reason to be proud of our record of creativity in the sound-recording arts and sciences. However, our collective energy in creating and consuming sound recordings has not been matched by an equal level of interest in preserving them for posterity. Radio broadcasts, music, interviews, historic speeches, field recordings, comedy records, author readings and other recordings have already been forever lost to the American people." (Kozinn).
That it took the National Film Registry until 1989, and the National Recording Registry until 2000 to be put into action shows that the idea of preserving our culture in these formats is a very novel one. It shocks me a bit that it took this long, but I'm grateful to see it happen. With 400 recordings as of 2014, we have a great national treasure trove. One that should be cherished and, of course, heard.
Without further ado, my nominations:
1. The Doors Artist: The Doors Release Date: January 4, 1967 Recorded: August 24-31, 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California. Label: Elektra
The Doors are one of the most influential and popular rock bands in American history. Their self-titled debut expounds on their signature talents, Jim Morrison's haunting voice and Ray Manzarek's hypnotic keyboard. The album features the famous "Light My Fire" with its endless organ solo, shameless desire in "(Alabama Song) Whiskey Bar", the drug culture "The Crystal Ship" and "The End" an Oedipal, almost scary, avante-garde opus.
2. Pulp Fiction (soundtrack) Artist: Various, including Release Date: September 27, 1994 Label: MCA
Much the film, Pulp Fiction, the soundtrack is a watershed mix-tape of American pop culture. The song features hip-hop "Jungle Boogie", classic rock and roll "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon", country throwback, "Son of a Preacher Man," and surfer rock, "Misirlou"/"Surf Rider." The album also contains some of the best dialogue ever recorded, in particular, Samuel L. Jackson's famous "Ezekiel 25:17" speech.
3. The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill Artist: Lauryn Hill Release Date: August 25, 1998 Recorded: 1997-June 1998 at RPM Studios, Chung King Studios, Sony Music Studios, The Hit Factory, and Right Tracks Studios in New York City; Perfect Pair Studios (New Jersey; Marley Music, Inc. and Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston; and House Studios in Miami Label: Ruffhouse, Columbia
Lauryn Hill's powerful debut crosses the genres of hip-hop, reggae, doo wop, rhythm and blues, soul, rap, gospel and rock music. Each song steeped in a rich poetic tradition referencing Christianity, which has had a strong role in the black cultural tradition with "Forgive Them Father", and "To Zion", the urban experience, "Every Ghetto, Every City," complex viewpoints on romance in "Ex-Factor", "It Hurts So Bad", and "I Used To Love Him," along with references to older musical traditions with "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" and "Doo Wop (That Thing)". The album was also critically acclaimed, earning five Grammys.
4. "American Pie" Artist: Don McLean Release Date: November, 1971 Recorded: May 26, 1971 Label: United Artists
Don McLean's poetic anthem of American culture following the deaths of The Big Bopper, Richie Valens, and Buddy Holly, or "The Day The Music Died". The song is a call for an earlier, perhaps simpler time in American music and culture that many felt at the time in the wake of a changing landscape. McLean's piece is a great example of contemporary folk, and that genre's ability to resonate with the cultural consciousness.
One of the defining progressive rock albums of the 70's, Boston is unique in the sense that it was technological creation. The music was almost exclusively done by multi-instrumentalist, Tom Scholz, and vocalist Brad Delp, who mixed the various tracks together in his basement. The album captures old memories "More Than A Feeling" and aspirations of fame "Rock & Roll Band." The tracks have become staples of any rock radio station.
6. "Freebird" Artist: Lynryd Skynryd Release Date: November 1974 Recorded: April 3, 1973 at Studio One, Doraville, Georgia Label: MCA
Regarded as one of the most requested songs in American history, the popular "Freebird" is an outstanding example of Lynryd Skynryd's southern rock style. Its aesthetic significance lies with its powerful guitar solo and its expression of the restless American spirit.
John Lennon's "Imagine" is a song that has become synonymous with peace, finding its way in the Olympics and at protest marches. Listed by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the greatest songs of all time, "Imagine's" iconic piano and idealistic lyrics have fallen into our cultural subconscious, and resonates strongly with Americans today.
8. The United States of America Artist: The United States of America Release Date: March 6, 1968 Recorded: December 7 to 23, 1967 Label: Columbia
One of the great zeitgeist pieces of the 1960's, the album is essentially the sound of America during that tumultuous decade. The album is very experimental, using electronic synthesizers and a variety of instruments including classical ones. Much of the album is enthused in the psychedelic rock music that dominated times with its unconventional directions and poetic lyricism, as heard in "Hard Coming Love" or "The Garden Of Earthly Delights." The very leftist political air is also touched upon in "Song For The Dead Che."
9. "SantaLand Diaries" Artist: David Sedaris Release Date: December 23, 1992
Humorist and writer David Sedaris first got his big break after reading excerpts from his "SantaLand Diaries" essay on NPR in 1992. Sedaris gives us the classic holiday tradition of having Santa meet children at the Macy's mall, but from the perspective of a disgruntled elf. Based on true, if not exaggerated, experiences, Sedaris's reading has since become a popular tradition for NPR.
10. Whitney Houston
Artist: Whitney Houston
Release Date: February 14, 1985
Label: Arista
Whitney Houston was one of the most gifted vocalists of the late 20th century. Her singing defined pop music and black artistry for mainstream America. Her self-titled debut, lauded as one of the finest albums of that decade, and even, all time, is a beautiful exhibition of her talents.
