Issue
One
January
2003 |
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© 2003
by
Cliff
Johnson
All
Rights
Reserved |
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| Two heads are better than one. |
the officious newsletter of author Cliff Johnson |
Too many cooks spoil the broth. |
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>Take
One<
Uncertain
how to proceed, I asked my best buddy
“What would you want to see
in a Fool’s newsletter?”
“I
dunno,” he said. “I’m
waiting to see what you do with it.”
>Take
Two<
I
feel a need to write a Citizen Kanesque
Declaration of Principles. Then I
realized I hadn’t any. Besides,
who wants Joseph Cotten spamming it
back at me, two decades hence.
>Take
Three<
Dennis
Miller once said “I work in
TV yet I don’t watch TV.”
Then HBO cancelled him.
>Take
Four<
Tom
Lehrer once said “I feel if
a person can’t communicate,
the very least he can do is to shut
up.”
>Take
Five<
If
receiving this newsletter is perceived
as a hostile and heinous act of war,
click
here to cancel.
>Take
Six<
Being
an alumnus of USC Cinema necessitated
that I buy a DVD player to study the
film classics of Orson Welles, Stanley
Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. My research
began with Starship Troopers
and The Thing.
In
his commentary director Paul Verhoeven
spins tales about Starship Troopers
with infectious enthusiasm. He shares
his creative process, his thoughts,
his passions, his dreams, why he did
what he did, and I was spellbound.
The
Thing commentary has director John
Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell,
guzzling brewski and sucking up smokes,
babbling like two goofballs without
dates on Saturday night watching the
movie for the first time after renting
it from Blockbuster. I learned “it
was sure cold up there in Canada”
and “those flares made a helluva
lot of smoke.”
In
this newsletter, I will endeavor to
share my creative process and why
I do what I do. This by no means relinquishes
my right to babble like a goofball,
however, if Kurt Russell drops by.
>Cut<
>Print< |
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It
may come as no surprise that,
when I was young, my folks made
treasure hunts for my birthday
and Easter. Later in life, I
returned the favor by staging
Mystery Game parties, inspired
by the films Sleuth (1972)
and The Last of Sheila (1973),
both for their clever invention
and keen misdirection, the former
for suggesting the idea of elaborate
party games, and the latter
for its marvelous metastructure
of clues within clues within
clues.
In
this genre, typically, the detective
solves a mystery by examining
clues, interrogating suspects,
and deducing conclusions from
the facts. I knew this formula
made for good reading and fun
filmmaking, but would it make
for great gameplay? |
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I observed
that people who bought the audio cassette/video
tape mystery games mostly sat around
and frowned and had wicked arguments
over meaningless clues whereas people
playing a social game like Charades
or Taboo hooted and hollered and laughed
themselves silly. I knew then that
I wanted to create an amalgam —
a fun party game that solved a mystery,
not through formal deductive reasoning,
but through party game puzzle play.
In other words, a game that appealed
to Dr. Watson, not Sherlock Holmes.
How
I accomplished this, employing the
elements of a treasure hunt, is discussed
in the next issue. |
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Mimicking
007, the last line of the finale credits
of the original 1987 Macintosh version
of The
Fool’s Errand read “The
Fool will return in The Fool’s
Paradise.”
I
meant to say the Fool will return
in The Fool and his Money and
then in The Fool’s Paradise.
As the
clock on the home
page keeps count of the days
remaining, the new game takes shape.
I have the main engine built which
takes care of all that New-Open-Save-Save
As-Quit jazz and also loads in the
correct puzzle engine with the correct
puzzle data.
Yes
— the game works on both Windows
and Macintosh.
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Like
Errand, you can read the story,
play a puzzle, or, look at the
map — this time it is
the Moon who offers the Fool
counsel and a new map to guide
him.
Unlike
Errand, I’ve planned the
whole thing in advance, though
I only had 15 years to do so.
I leap back and forth between
creating the new art and programming
the new puzzles. But the sound,
I know, is going in last.
Compare
Errand’s black
& white illustrations
to Money’s color
inspirations. |
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In Errand,
the Hermit’s game of Thoth used
the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot,
and after the Fool won the game, he
won the Tarot cards as well.
In
Money, the Fool journeys once again
to each of the four Kingdoms and ultimately
wins all 78 cards, gaining 14 from
each. Earning all the cards permits
you to do Tarot readings to predict
the Fool’s future. This is particularly
useful in auctions and other bartering
opportunities, that is, if you can
interpret the cards correctly.
The
four Kingdoms — Wands, Pentacles,
Cups, Swords — each have their
own unique customs, commerce, and
culture which is discussed in the
next issue. |
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You
might’ve noticed
at the bottom of the home
page there’s a new
animation of my mug for
every day of the month.
If you click it, you’re
whisked to the culprit,
Sheer
Cliff Face, the
self-portrait animation
I’d intended to
do at film school but
never did. With Flash,
a flatbed scanner, and
Photoshop, that notion
may now rest in peace.
Ever
wonder what became of
the classic puzzle book
Masquerade? I did
some research and found
some startling
news.
If
you’ve played my
games and had your fancy
tickled, I ask you to
consider pre-ordering
The
Fool and his Money
so I can continue to offer
you quality games for
the head and from the
heart.
Til
February.
Cosmic
Jet. |
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