Came across this, by tragic coincidence, Onechanbara™: Bikini Samurai Squad™. Cheesus. Weren’t there really enough half dressed titles on the shelves already? We actually needed another “let’s show an unjustified amount of naked female skin” game?

Listen to this:

The sexy sister duo Aya and Saki use their swords and their hotness to defend their city against a legion of killer zombies.

“Oh. I gotta play this game. I really relate to this. Cause if I were a lethal killer facing a flock of flesheating walking deads, I’d definetely dress as if I were going to the beach. Hell yeah.”

I will never take this lightly. The never-ending objectifying of women, in any context, seriously makes me doubt the evolution altogether. Is this as far as we’ve come? To me it will never be just innocent fun. It’s a constant reminder of how women, to a much greater extent than men, are being diminished to eye candy. And always in the same stereotype manner.

And the really sad part? It sells.

Sometimes you surprise yourself. Sometimes it’s not quality that matters the most, but rather the unexpected. Just for being - unexpected, something other than the usual. Sometimes all you really need is time to pass without too much brain activity involved. Like last night, I happened to be seated in front of the tv at 21.00 just to get caught in Underworld, the slightly latexly challenged vampire/werewolf movie.

This is Selene, she’s your heroine:

I like vampires. I like girls that can take care of themselves and fight down a monster or two. I’m not that keen on Kate Beckinsale in general but she wasn’t bad at all. And she didn’t have a completely ridiculous outfit, like a lot of female characters do. It looked like she could actually run, jump and kick while wearing it.

<—- looking comfy

Anyway, this is not a movie review. This is just a note on how we sometimes find entertainment and fulfilment in the strangest places.

I understand, looking at it from outside so to speak, that it’s not what I would call a “good” movie. Still, I spend a few hours of my day watching it. I’m stuck in the middle of an ancient war between lycans ans blood suckers, reluctant to move in case I’d miss out on a cool monster-blood-fight-bite scene.

(what would Bourdieu say about this, him being so set on cultural capital and all?)

Do you recognise this? Do you ever find yourself absorbed with a song, a radio show, tv series or movie that you really wouldn’t consider being worth your while?

Maybe that’s why. Because it’s not good (for you), like biscuits or sweets or staying up too late or drinking too many cocktails or wearing that favourite skirt even though it’s minus 15 degrees? There’s a certain pleasure in doing things that are bad (for you). Out of the ordinary anyway.

Personally I do that all the time. Reading “bad” books, watching “bad” tv-series, singing along to that boy band hit from the 90’s. Maybe I like the variety, maybe it’s just about lack of engagement. I don’t have to invest any emotions, I don’t have to commit. Sometimes that’s exactly what I need.

/ L

I promised you a sneak peek and here it is:

If you for some reason want the youtube link here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-AiUI56WY0&fmt=18

Puss o kram from the PR people

Take a look at this —–>

Doesn’t it look awesome? A bun, cut into two, with a hole digged into it where there’s “almond icing” (is that even a word in English?) And then whipped cream and a lid with some icing sugar dusted on top. Semla. There are five of them with my name on, in the PC office fridge. My kids will love me today. Who said you can’t buy love? Wrong!

And as usual this has little or nothing to do with game development. I actually started writing a post yesterday that had more to do with that, but then I got busy doing other stuff and now…well, it feels a bit outdated. So instead of a Monday-post I had to write a Tuesday-post and as it’s Fat Tuesday in Sweden I felt the need to say something about semlor (semla in plural).

Moving on. I found another thread in the PS forum on the upcoming release of Power Racing, and the teaser film I was talking about the other day. Someone apparently interpreted my post as if the game itself was ready for release this week. And of course it isn’t. So, I’m sorry if some of you were disappointed when realising I was talking about the film, not the game. Tomas U is working on the film even as we speak, while working on some mockups and the HUD… And they say men can’t do more than one thing at the same time!? I say beluga!

Other things going in here at the moment… We have a master thesis/project student with us - Christian. He started his 15 week Power Challenge project period yesterday and he seems to fit in just nicely. His main focus will be the PR tracks, probably with some special attention to object placement and how to improve that process. He’s more than welcome to the team.

On the scrum boards this week we find stories like “single player: speed race”, “edit badge”, “font for power racing web”, “graphics: race flow”, “default badge”, “be able to save replay data”, “create legend”, “Nice: create curbs” - just to mention a few. The stories are not always split up with a complete sense of logic. For instance, sometimes we lift out the graphical components, making that a story on it’s own. Sometimes that is included in a larger, more all inclusive kind of story. Like “single player: speed race”. That includes everything from data base structure, saving the data, launching the client, starting the race, the HUD etc etc. It varies.

Well, maybe I should go and try to fetch some coffee or stare at an excel file or…something. Or do some laps on Drahmeldorf..?

See you soon. Maybe with some sneak peaks of our super fun game (it all depends on how Tomas’ multi tasking skills are doing)

/ L

…and granted you three or five or innumerous requests, features, brought to life in our upcoming racing game - what would they be?

Are there any fundamental parts that we can not afford to miss? What do you look forward to the most? And what super-cool options do you want to find in the game?

Stuff to do with, for instance,

the cars, the tracks, the modification, the individuality, the fun-factor, the reliability, the game modes, the cooperation, the community, the creativity, the handling, the speed, the predictability, the unexpected, the network, the rules, the economics, the environments…anything. Everything.

What is most important to YOU?

// cheerful greetings from your friendly spirit 

Guess what? When I came home yesterday, there was a plasmatic surprise in the living room. My new favourite family member:

I didn’t realise how badly I wanted one until now, when it’s actually there. Jemaine and Bret never looked or sounded better.

Like I said the other day I’d really like to show you all some new stuff. Preferably an in-game action film to let you know what Power Racing is all about. And it just might be on it’s way, just gotta get it done first. So fingers crossed and breath held and we might be able to get it out by next week.

In the meantime I can at least show you some screenshots.

// Linda

Ha! Look what I found…

The Power Racing team photo, about a year ago… Some have left the team, others have taken their place. Still, nice pic!

Went out for a quick stroll during the lunch break… Laura (daughter of mine) went to work with me today and we decided to stop by at Espresso House to indulge in coffeine and chocolate. Take away might definetely bring the world to an earlier end than necessary (all those paper cups…) but for now I let myself enjoy that latte.

Why is it that everything feels easier, brighter and better when I hold a tall latte in my hand? Why do I feel so free and great? Happening. On the move. Like a Nike ad or Sex and the city: The lost season or something… I mean, it’s just coffee!

Anyway, I realise we have to work on ours. Some of the comments made here sort of put Power Racing next to Bigfoot, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Nessie and other believe-it-when-I-see-it objects of our imagination of belief.

However, Power Racing is very much less mythological. I’d say it’s about one hundred percent real.

The reason you haven’t heard from me (or anyone else on the team) in ages is this: we’re constantly working on building the game. And I mean CONSTANTLY, all day, every day, all the time. Believe me, the game is there and it will be released. At this stage there’s a huge amount of time spent on meetings, planning, estimation, retrospections and what have you. I know the guys on the team much rather just get to work, get the code written, the problems solved, the details nailed… bascially do their job. Still they need to put quite a lot of effort into the plan-and-design-process, to come up with some preliminary scope and dates. And if I wasn’t there myself I would never believe how difficult it is and how long it takes.

There are several reasons we haven’t been communicating more regarding release dates, development status etc.

One is uncertainty. We can’t be sure exactly what to release on a certain date. Either the scope or the date has to be flexible. We can’t make any promises, we can just provide estimates based on reality so far.

Another is politics, or marketing strategies. When would be the best time to release this game? Why? How? Business, pure and simple, which is not my cup of tea and someone else’s decision to make.

As this game, product, is being built from scratch we face problems that we don’t have to deal with in Power Soccer. The children’s diseases that only strikes while you’re young. Growing pains, if you’d like. Power Racing doesn’t exist as a product yet, but the game itself does. The people working on it are extremely dedicated and passionate about this becoming the best online racing game ever. This means having opinions on design, how features should be implemented, what solutions would be the best… Discussions and decisions. An entire game has to be thought through, nothing left out. The product managers have to tell us enough but not too much.

Information is a tricky thing. If you have too much it limits you and restrain the creative process. If you don’t have enough you can’t really move forward either.

So, in trying to get the right game out in as short amount of time as possible, we’re walking a thin line that takes us from our product manager’s vision, the producer’s interpretation of it and the developer’s final creation.

And as always I ended up lightyears from the initial subject: is Power Racing just a PR stunt? No people, it’s very much real, happening and coming your way.

It would be nice to show you some new screenshots or an in-game video or something soon. And I know the team would really like to show you our work in progress as well. It’s just a matter of time. So, let’s see shall we, if I can get one of the guys to put together some PR pics or videos soon. But - no promises, just my most sincere intentions.

Do what George Michael would have done, have some faith…

Sincerely yours

/ Linda