(The tl;dr video companion to this article):

I’m a big fan of inversion in the name of critical thinking, so while the classic idiom goes “can’t see the forest for the trees” in terms of a cautionary tale about missing the big picture due to focusing on smaller details, I think inverting the old adage and “spoopifying” it a bit is far more relevant for today’s post: “being able to focus on the zombie through the horde”.

I was originally thinking about my “spoopification” process of said turn of phrase having something to do with Legion, but then quickly realized…err, well no…that’s kind of just one big ball of fuck there, it is the they that become the one

This is all due to the notion that I fucked up my streak, by not writing and posting an article yesterday, which you wouldn’t think is such a bother, as this is on some level, an optional recreation activity for yours truly…but a bother it truly was. I’ve observed that it is not necessarily the amount of time I have at any given moment that necessarily dictates what I am able to accomplish, but how I carry myself in those moments that end up defining them in a more meaningful manner. Of course, I’m not implying that if one is of proper focus, but only has ten minutes to spare, they can impossibly run a 5k no sweat, but I think in a less literal manner, and perhaps even leaning into the metaphysical mechanisms involved of what the mind and body can accomplish in tandem at any given time, it is a matter of things like practice, experience, temperament, and health that are able to produce more efficient results, if a demanded call of urgency requiring such Herculean efforts to win the day effectively becomes a reasonably possible outcome at a moment’s notice.

And no, I’m not implying any nonsense involving some hogwash about the power of friendship triumphing over evil blah, blah, blah

Once again, I mention all of this now as kind of a mea culpa to myself, as I was so dog tired after working all night yesterday, that I effectively slept through all of my free time, thus negating any I was able to spare to write and be creative, and as an extension of that, broke my own streak of posting everyday, which is infinitely lamentable. However, instead of beating myself up about it, and after having arrived at work, taking care of all of my beginning shift duties, I thought to myself it is perhaps a good enough point in time to do a test run on writing random notes, thoughts, and even partial thoughts in downtime moments, so that I may cobble together an article over a period of an entire shift, so that by the time I am relinquished of my capitalistic servitude, I will already have work to show for my multi-tasking efforts, and will be all the more ready to execute on the polish and enhancement of said writing pieces, in preparation of posting them much early in my days, and in the process, freeing up time to game all the more, in gathering ideas to spur on the creativity.

My own personal “Putting on the Ritz” moment, as I Frankenstein some bullshit together

That’s the working plan, anyways, and any plan is a good enough plan if one can somehow make it work, so now it is merely a sense of constitutionality reliant on a will and a way, which is prefaced by action and strategy. My working idea for an article yesterday was to do a double feature involving Castlevania; as to say, after I had done my write-up involving the demo for Belmont’s Curse, which will be the latest in the series, to go back and play a little of the first game from the series, in reexamining the design methodology of said title, and seeing what kind of devils advocacy I may play with the old school sensibilities which at this point, represent a horse pill of concessions to swallow, where quality of life features are concerned. As is a well known fact throughout the gaming community, quality of life features didn’t start existing till developers realized they had to actually give a shit about making their games forgiving, and not just ball bustingly difficult; a novel thought for the mid 90’s, an unthinkable one in the late 80s.

Which goes a long way in explaining the absolute horse shit that is Castlevania 2.

I willingly admit there is a level of devils advocacy I am playing with in this process, and I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t the devil have enough advocates? I certainly concur, but as one who enjoys philosophy, and toying around with thought experiments, taking on another perspective, even one antithetical to my own, is a great exercise in imaginative circumstance, and helps to frame reality in a more multi-dimensional way. At the very least, it helps to see how far we’ve come in 40 years time, and marvel at all of the small reinfements that have been granted to us through innumerable moments of grace in the matter of softening up game design, or maybe, to put it another way, in helping to make game design more sane.

Ironically, even though I’m using Body Harvest as the punchline for the joke about “sane” game design happening later in the grand zeitgeist of gaming, I fucking love how insane Body Harvest is

I think for starters, it is quite telling that the first moments in the OG Castlevania, Simon Belmont (and by virtue of this, the player as well), are given an immediate moment of grace, as the outside area before one enters the eponymous castle, is one of the few screen where there is absolutely no danger in the whole game. A rare moment in this era of unrelenting havoc, where the player is given, by the NES eras standards at least, what feels like an absolute eon of free reign to mosey about as they please. Of course, since one just started the experience, and is likely raring to go, in seeing just what horrors await just beyond the front door, after grabbing a couple of well meaning power ups to give the player an even greater fighting chance, it’s off to the races, and a plunge into darkness, to see what lies beyond the threshold.

Just these goofy fucks, it turns out

Almost immediately, one is greeted by a number of ghouls lumbering towards them (however goofy they might be; still lethal), with only seconds to spare before they collide with the player in a head on collision. While they are easily dispatched with a couple of flicks of the thumb, I think this helps signal to the player that shit is about to get real, and, much like life, it just slowly goes downhill and gets worse as time goes on, and unrelentingly so; which means best keep your wits about you. After a couple of waves of ghoulish fiends attempting to accost you, the player is given a choice of remaining on ground level, or taking some stairs to an elevated platform. Going Up is the smarter move, as both Sun Tzu and Obi-Wan Kenobi have pointed out, in helping countless generations in avoiding stupid tactical errors throughout time. This is due to the notion that if one takes the higher ground, one is able to put themselves into a more advantageous positioning, not just in getting out of the way of the continually creeping ghoulies, but in being better leveraged against the newly introduced demon dogs, who will rush at Simon within the blink of an eye (after he gets close enough). Thankfully, the devs were charitable with their movement speed, so one does have a chance of downing them with the lauded length the Vampire Killer Whip comes packing with, in what has to be one of the more under stated but infinitely appreciated advantages House Belmont proudly rocks.

I said under stated, not celebrated

After the staircases, one is merely a hop, skip, and a jump away from passing through their first stage completion door, after cleaning up some left over ghoulish stragglers still making their rounds. Which, as I made my way through the stage and picking it apart, I realized just how much it helps focusing on the immediate, and not the entirety of the castle that makes it feel far more doable, all things considered. And to that point, like many a task in real life, I think it’s always when one focuses on too much at any given time, that one gets effectively overwhelmed, as when one thinks about beating all of the game vs the step by step process of act 1, the process seems ridiculously more digestible as a result. Boiling down any long winded or mechanically complex series of tasks, and deconstructing it, bit by bit, helps to break it down into its essential parts in compartmentalizing the complication in the process, going a long way in helping reinforce the notion of why the concept of “baby steps” helps to frame everything in a far more reasonable light.

Baby Steps: If this strategy can help Bob, it can help anyone

Not really the article I was expecting to write when all is said and done, but one I think that represents an excellent first trial run, in a long line of baby steps, that may help my creative process work on a more manageable basis, with the constituent whole broken down to its more essential parts.

Steady as she goes.

~Pashford