Author Topic: Do you have a Pet Project? (Read 4151 times)

DjinnAndTonic · « **on:** April 03, 2011, 05:48:17 AM »

So with LFT and Sage's hack and the various IAQs running around, it got me thinking about Pet Projects, and a big discussion spiraled out of this with Tide.

But it made me wonder, just how many people in the DL have their own little Pet Project? Be it a website or graphic art or a work of fiction that you mentally keep adding to. How does the DL get its creative release? ;)

I know that the likes of Laggy/mc, Tonfa, Meeple, Sage, and a few others like to make games and gamehacks, but what is everyone working on now?

I spend pretty much my entire day everyday in a state of a creative fervor. I want to make new things and tell new stories and draw new pictures. Time constraints often mean that very few of my ideas ever see fruition (probably a good thing in most cases), but I'm always interested in making my Next Big Project. This lack of focus is generally what hurts my projects the most, so I love the idea of working in a group setting, to help narrow the enormity of a task and make it easier to keep working on it. My biggest project at the moment is hacking FF6, as everyone should know by now. I've gotten a lot of work done on it and I continue to come back to it every few days, so it's looking like the project most likely to get completed (apart from random pieces of art or shortstory drabbles that no one should ever read).

But I wonder about how others go about working on their Pet Projects. And what kind of Pet Projects does the DL prefer?

Nitori · « **Reply #1 on:** April 03, 2011, 05:52:05 AM »

I teach mice to travel through time and fight crime

Bardiche · « **Reply #2 on:** April 03, 2011, 05:53:51 AM »

I write VNs. Not all are in English so I don't bother talking about those much. Kinda seeing about making one for pupils to see if I can't give a modern twist to standard teaching material. Just have to pass the "lol cartoons" hurdle, I guess.

I kinda want to write one in English again, but getting help is a chore and it's more difficult when you write for an audience that will care about everything rather than just whether it explains the subject material clearly.

Carthrat · « **Reply #3 on:** April 03, 2011, 05:54:03 AM »

my pet project is my body

Nitori · « **Reply #4 on:** April 03, 2011, 05:55:43 AM »

I also teach cats to shoot lasers

and commit crime

then the mice fight the cats

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #5 on:** April 03, 2011, 05:57:58 AM »

Man, these responses are great. It sounds like everyone is really good at their Pet Projects. Bard uses his VNs in classes. Rat's project with his Body is obviously working. And Nitori wins the internet.

I wish my Pet Project was so far along.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #6 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:00:03 AM »

I've been writing a variety of fantasy/romance stories, both short stories and regular stories.

Carthrat · « **Reply #7 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:03:44 AM »

It's actually true since I've been working out since last year, feels so good.

Apart from that I can't say I'm working on anything particularly huge, save my postgrad stuff, and I doubt that falls under the 'pet' category.

Bardiche · « **Reply #8 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:08:00 AM »

My sarcasm detector is having difficulties here, Djinn-chin.

I haven't used one in class yet, anyway. I'd need to get permission to do so since I'm not a full-fledged teacher, and approaching the subject matter in a new way could upset the Dutch Way Of Life, which is Everything Must Be Equal!!

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #9 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:30:36 AM »

I have all the pet projects.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #10 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:54:44 AM »

Quote from: Ciato on April 03, 2011, 06:00:03 AM

I've been writing a variety of fantasy/romance stories, both short stories and regular stories.

Anything available online for us to peruse~? Or maybe you could just tell us how you've been motivating yourself.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #11 on:** April 03, 2011, 07:21:55 AM »

It's yaoi.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #12 on:** April 03, 2011, 08:41:02 AM »

Frequently my pet projects have been stat topics and the likes, while I've been at the DL.

Over the past couple months I've returned to my favourite pet projects from my teenage years, which was game-making. Currently hacking at something with RPG Maker VX. I never know how long this creative push will last, but it's fun while it does. Maybe I'll have something to show at the end of it, who knows? I hope so. But even if not, it's fun to channel creative energies into something besides stat topics. <_<

(Oddly, I hadn't realised it until now, but the DL actually killed many of the pet project-type things I used to do before coming here. Game design ideas, writing, and such. Not sure if that was just coincidence connected to the time of my life or if DL chat started eating up my downtime which I'd otherwise turned towards creativity. I dunno.)

Cotigo · « **Reply #13 on:** April 03, 2011, 09:16:44 AM »

I have a few "creative" pet projects stirring around, mostly refining works I made during my creative writing degree. More recently, and more frequently, I've been focused on: A) 5 year plan, B) Becoming better at Starcraft 2.

One is far more useful than the other, but the other sadly feels more fulfilling most of the time.

Grefter · « **Reply #14 on:** April 03, 2011, 10:23:14 AM »

Quote from: Jona on April 03, 2011, 06:30:36 AM

I want all the turns.

The writing on the forums has been the first creative project I have done in ages.

Otherwise, last year and a half was spent dedicating a large portion of time and money to expanding my tastes in music beyond the smaller box it had been in. Buying albums from artists I had never heard of or would not normally buy, it was a great success.

Prior to that it had been branching out in books, it was less successful.

Current one is I am trying to get a bit more in touch with Cinema. I love movies a lot, but have always been pretty bad at catching stuff. I still am, but am trying to get a bit of a backlog on my favourites at least. It is not going so well either.

Also should exercise more so I can make my body my project. It has been alright so far, but fell off the wagon when I started writing.

MC50 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2011, 10:29:07 AM »

I've messed with Rom Hacks quite a bit, and completed a few of them. I've completed an FF1 hack (That was awful, if fun to make), an NHL 94 Hack that replaced all the teams with Video Game characters (...Which surprisingly got a lot of playtime between me and some friends), and a Final Fantasy 6 Hack (That I think is pretty good!)

In the realm of unfinished stuff, I've tossed around ideas for a Fire Emblem Hack, FF5 Hack, Pokemon Hack, and several RPG Maker games that never get beyond 5 hours and aren't that great to begin with.

...If there was a good editor for FF5 I would totally do an FF5 hack, though. As of right now I'm not really doing anything, though.

Sierra · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2011, 01:16:31 PM »

I really, really wanted to find a picture of the super-powered cat/mouse fight from Top Ten to complement Nitori's rambling, but GIS was not obliging. Shame.

~

Traditional Cid diversion was planning stories and never writing them. Always getting new ideas and jotting down notes but the prospect of actually sitting down and writing a book in full is a terrifying one that I seem to lack the focus for. Every now and then I still make the attempt, but Cids are so easily distracted.

So the past couple years a lot of free time has instead gone towards planning and running traditional P&P RPGs over at Soulriders. With varying degrees of success, first one I didn't know what the hell I was doing and suffered from insufficient preparation, but it was a learning experience at least. Currently prepping something not at all copied from Castlevania (and by not at all I mean 100%). There are times I can't help but view all this as sort of a stopgap pastime and I really would be better off spending my time writing, dammit, but I figure we know by this point that's not going to happen. It's strange in a way, because running a game takes a good deal of work on its own and I don't seem to have any problem with that. Suspect this is because it's really a collaborative enterprise, which makes the whole thing much easier.

Will occasionally also pick away at a project in RPGM3. Maybe once a year I'll get motivated to hack at it for a couple months and then forget about it again. Most of the base is actually done here by this point (PCs/monsters/items/skillsets laid out and input into the program, maps somewhere in the 50-75% range? Think I just have the towns left there). The big hurdle of course is the script--that and placing NPCs/event triggers comprise the bulk of what still needs to be done. And balancing the thing (I actually intended to draft one of the DL's obsessive stat compilers for assistance if I ever got that far, probably Dhyer if he had time). Actual content of the game is mostly silly nonsense for a couple reasons: for the purpose of the exercise I thought it would be more constructive to come in without significant plans and instead make exhaustive use of the tools available; I can't imagine serious business plot flying given the graphical style available here. So what we get in the end is an episodic structure that's driven largely by character interaction and personality. I've come to the conclusion that this is what I'm best at anyway--I've always wanted to make big stories but I don't seem to have the knack for it. Most of what I respond to strongly in fiction is micro-level stuff anyway, so why fight it? Again, attempting to do best possible work with the tools available rather than stretching.

Will occasionally also make a halfhearted attempt to pick up guitar again but this usually doesn't fly. Which is a shame as I think there's a kind of emotional release with that I don't otherwise get (everything above being in practice more an analytical than creative process at times).

superaielman · « **Reply #17 on:** April 03, 2011, 01:40:35 PM »

Quote from: Dark Holy Elf on April 03, 2011, 08:41:02 AM

(Oddly, I hadn't realised it until now, but the DL actually killed many of the pet project-type things I used to do before coming here. Game design ideas, writing, and such. Not sure if that was just coincidence connected to the time of my life or if DL chat started eating up my downtime which I'd otherwise turned towards creativity. I dunno.)

It takes a fuck of a lot of creative energy and time to do the DL, and that's ignoring the time sink of playing RPG's.

The DL pretty much was my pet project. Most of my time of late has been eaten by education and work.

SageAcrin · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2011, 01:44:33 PM »

In my own case, the DL probably sparked a lot of creativity in me. I tended to not think in terms of trusting myself to be at all creative.

My writing for the DL started because there was a total lack of writers and I had free time.

Eviltype started because Meeple was talking about VF6 and got me thinking about it.

I apparently have more creative talent than I tend to think as a kneejerk and tend to only utilize it when I see a lack in an area. Go fig.

There's a bunch of ideas floating around in my head right now, but finishing up Eviltype 1.1 takes precedence before anything.

Eviltype wasn't started as a rebalance project, but for whatever reason, people liked my rebalances. If I can make rebalances people like when I'm half-assing it and refusing to retread older monsters to make sure Lore works right and the like? I can damn well do better when I'm putting real effort in.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2011, 04:16:48 PM »

Well, me and some friends are launching a production company within the next six months.

Also I seem to have become the authority on the 2nd Donegal Guard somehow.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #20 on:** April 03, 2011, 04:28:55 PM »

MF6 aside, I have a bunch of random ideas I come up with that I never really put on paper outside of random jotting downs in notebooks when I'm really bored in school, cause putting things in lists and such makes me recognize "Oh, right, I haven't thought of something for this" and such.

metroid composite · « **Reply #21 on:** April 03, 2011, 04:51:43 PM »

I've had a few....

(DL, FEstats, LFT being ones you've seen)

I've made an effort in the past couple years to channel my creative efforts towards my job. So when I was on music games like DJ Hero and Sing Hero, I would send out "Music Video of the Day". On World of Darkness I send out book reviews for vampire books. I also organize meetings that...I can't talk about. But strangely I think my most successful project has been something called "Weekly Twilight", which I can't talk about yet, but I have at least one coworker who wants me to write a book out of these.... >_>

Yakumo · « **Reply #22 on:** April 03, 2011, 04:58:08 PM »

It's not really creative or anything since I'm just copying existing designs, but I do some bead designs when I'm bored and don't feel like playing games.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v143/bvh18/Perlers/?albumview=slideshow

Excal · « **Reply #23 on:** April 03, 2011, 06:57:41 PM »

I've got a fictional world and an outline of what happens in it which I've been tinkering with since I was a teen. Based loosely off of some RP I did before I ran into the DL. Nothing's ever really come of it, though I've tinkered with P&P RP, jRPG, SRPG, and just writing a damned book at various points in regards to it. Got a ton of notes scattered through a few notebooks and a binder.

That said, these days, a lot of my creative energies are drawn into role playing. Nothing that inspires pet project the same way that the old stuff with Cyril did, but it's still a lot of fun and fairly creative.

Right, biggest thing in my life that would qualify as a pet project. My D&D Campaign. I've also run those things sporadically, and the one I have going right now has been a blast, actually. First time where I've managed to get the story going right and the players are all also having a good time. While I definately make the occasional slip, it's not so hard to recover from them. Also, players are not always predictable, even when you have ones that are good natured and not likely to go and do random things just to watch you dance. (Of course, being players, they will still do random things for a million other reasons)

Sierra · « **Reply #24 on:** April 03, 2011, 07:50:13 PM »

Quote from: Excal on April 03, 2011, 06:57:41 PM

Also, players are not always predictable

Understatement detected.

Also, that's awesome, Yakko.

Rob: movie production, I presume?

News:

Author Topic: Do you have a Pet Project? (Read 4151 times)

Bardiche

Bardiche