Well, i may not have started the evening with any ideas, but a few hours later and i’ve got three new pages of comics up, starting here, with news that the semester has unofficially ended! It actually ends in three weeks time, but i’ve only got one exam in those three weeks so I think I can fairly safely say that i’ll have some spare time over the next while. In that spare time who knows what I might do.

Only time will tell for sure, but so far I’m certain that me and matthew will be working on a half-life 2 balanced-deathmatch mod for half life 2. The original half-life 2 deathmatch had the potential to be a great game, placed squarely between unreal tournament and counter-strike on the fully-hectic to slow-paced scale of multiplayer FPS games. The main problem with it, however, was that valve sort of pushed it out in the most tacked on way imaginable. The game was simply half life 2! The only difference is that its lots of players killing eachother, the maps are closed, and the weapons respawn. They hadn’t made any balance modifications to the weaponry, which meant that encountering somebody with a rocket launcher or an smg grenade was simply not survivable unless you both had a magnum and were a very good shot with it. So what we’re doing is tweaking it all so that the game will be an enjoyable experience for new players and old, with less “OMFG CAMPER” moments. Somewhere in our naive little game developer hearts we hope that after we’re finished the valve-mobile will pull up to our doorstep and take us away to work in the best game studio on earth, but for now we’ll be satisfied if we can just get a few people playing it and enjoying it.

More news with more progress!