Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE) Conference

My wife's Valentine's gift to me this year was me going to the Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE) Conference last Saturday here in Provo! For those of you who do not know, LTUE is also known as the Marion K. "Doc" Smith Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy. So a bunch of fans of science fiction and fantasy come, a good majority of which are authors or artists that are established or want to break in.

According to the official website, "LTUE is a three-day academic symposium on all aspects of science fiction and fantasy. Comprised of panels, presentations and papers on writing, art, literature, film, gaming and other facets of speculative fiction, LTUE is a place to learn all about life, the universe, and everything else you love. The symposium is, most importantly, a gathering place for fans of our creative and innovative world to hang out and share their love of all things amazing, obscure, and even not-quite-real."

I was mostly there for the game aspect of it. When I first got there, they were doing a demo of a three-dimensional Oculus Rift kind of thing, only it wasn't the Oculus Rift, it was something that the guy had made himself, I think. Anyway, I got to try it out. Here are some pictures of the guy before me doing a 3-D sculpture modeling program on it, making a dude in 3-D. We could see on the computer screen what he was seeing in 2 dimensions, but when I put on the goggle thing it was totally in 3-D and looked way cool.

Okay, so here are some pictures of the game I played, where you had a grappling hook on each hand and were free to explore the environment. You could grapple and pull yourself toward pretty much everything if you were in range of it. The guy after me, Bryant, used his hooks to pull himself along rather than just walking. Below are some pictures of the game as well as Bryant playing it.

After that Bryant and I pretty much hung out together for most of the day. He is 15 and from Logan. After the virtual reality demo we went down and looked at a whole bunch of booths set up. Below is a picture of him checking out some cool leatherwork stuff. He eventually bought one of those leather book covers and a leather pouch.

Some cool leather journals that had designs/artwork o the covers.

Lots of books for sale. The ones pictured below are old used ones but there were several authors there selling their sci-fi/fanstasy books. Brandon Sanderson wasn't there though. Mos of the authors are people you've never heard of.

There was tons of amazing artwork. Most everything was for sale. Below is just a sampling of the stuff that was there. Cool science fiction scenes and fantasy scenes.

These things are made out of folded paper. How cool is that? The detail is amazing. They were selling for a lot of money, like $250 or so.

A booth had some Dr. Who fans who do art. Below are a couple Dr. Who posters which I loved. The one on the right actually has a little key that tells you what episode and which item every picture is from. Te key is not pictured here.

The first workshop I went to had John D. Payne talking to us. e is one of the authors of the Star Trek Beyond movie and is currently working on the script for the fourth Star Trek movie. He talked to us about script writing and pitching ideas and working in Hollywood and his story about how he got to Hollywood and some stories of him working with J. J. Abrams. I snapped a picture of him at the end as proof that I met him.

Later Bryant and I played Somerset and he gave me some ideas. We played one full game and I gained a lot of insight from it adn had some design changes and rule changes.

The Game Room is where I spent most of my time. I even played an hour and a half of Dungeons and Dragons for the first time. I was given a character sheet so I didn't have to make one from scratch. It's an interesting game: it's more of a story-telling kind of thing as opposed to a board game kind of thing, where the main game master tells you this story and you make decisions and interact in that environment. So I guess that now that I've played it I can be considered a total nerd now?

Okay, so that best part of the whole day: there was a workshop on game design from start to finish and the guy teaching it is Alan Bahr. He is a full-time game designer, meaning that designing and playing game sis his entire job and how he makes a living. Jealous. Anyway, at the end of the presentation is a question and answer session and I ask him a few questions about getting your game published by a company if you don't want to go the self-funded route. He said that sometimes people give him pitches of games and he talked about pitching your game to companies and that whole process. So at the end of the workshop when everyone's leaving I go up and I ask him if I could pitch my game idea to him. He laughed and said that he was far too busy and important to take ideas from unproven pipsqueaks like me and that he had better things to do.

Nah, I'm just kidding, he said that he's love to hear my pitch and gave me his business card and personal e-mail so that I could get a hold of him in about a month when he wasn't so busy. He asked if I was local and I said yes, I lived in Provo, and he lives in Lehi so he said he could meet me halfway so that I could pitch my idea to him. I'm so excited. And nervous. The good news is he says he's a big fan of Arthurian lore and games around that concept, and the game I'm pitching to him is Somerset, so that's awesome. I've been playing a game every day now since then (except for Sundays) trying to get it in tip-top shape. I've already made some drastic changes to make to flow better and be more fun. Right now I think I've got it pretty much down, but it could definitely use more polishing. If your'e Alex and Hannah and mom and dad, expect to see a copy coming in the mail so that you can play it. If you're Eric and Ryan, expect to see a copy in the mail coming with a copy of Outbreak so that you can play it and give me feedback. So here's a picture of me at the end of the day, excited that I finally get to pitch my idea to a game design professional.

Later that day I also went to a couple of writing classes, one on apocalypse and dystopia and the differences in young adult and adult science fiction, and one on H. P. Lovecraft. I also ran into my cousin Calista! I should have known she would be there, she's a writer, but it didn't even cross my mind until I ran into her. Well, she ran into me. But it was still cool.

Outbreak game files

Eric wanted to see some files from the game "Outbreak," which I had mistakenly called "Contagion."
So, here are most of the files:

The box, unfolded top of.

A few larger cards for tracking rounds and how many times a zombie has touched you.

The board

The main cards backs

The main cards fronts

Game Design games, Unfortunate Events, and random stuff

So here is the final design for the board for Game Design's Basketball the Board Game. I'm quite proud of it, which is why I'm putting it in my blog.

This year we put all three games up for salt anyone who wanted a copy, not just those in my game design class. I did it not because I thought I'd have any takers, but just in case anyone was interested then they've have the opportunity. Well, I did get one taker, who wanted the People Zoo game (which is also the only one I'm getting a copy of). The money was due on Friday, but about half of the students that wanted copies of their own games didn't even pay for it, so I emailed all of them and extended the deadline to this Tuesday. I guess if anyone reading this blog wants a copy they can let me know too, but that's just an afterthought. Anyway, so with the deadline extended for getting the money in it means that the games won't be in before break. The school needs the money before it can place an order. The order will take maybe a week to get here. And the last full week of February (the 20th through the 24th) we have off from school. So I can't put in the order until a day when if I did the package would arrive during the break, not before. So no one is getting their game until after the week vacation, which is a real pity in my opinion.

Last Tuesday I went to Clubs Night and played Somerset with the Quill and the Sword Club. It went alright; we were only able to make it past four rounds because everyone playing was socializing, but I did get some good feedback for some things I could try. Plus on my way there I ran into a guy with Agricola and another board game and it turned out he was going to Quark to play games, and the week I went was just a bad week or something. So this Tuesday if I'm not busy finishing up the art files for the Game Design games I'm planning on going there to see if they'd like to play Somerset.

In other news, not today but last Sunday was Stake Conference. It was really good. We had a General Authority (member of the 70) come.  Today was regular church. And I got all my home teaching done this month. Woot-woot!

Jacob is planning a cousin-get-together game night, but due to people's schedules (including my own) it keeps getting pushed back weekends. Right now it's planned for March 11th, which is a Saturday. We/I wanted it to be on a Saturday so that we can start earlier in the day so that we didn't have to play until 1 at night and be super tired by the time we were done. Plus, now everybody has kids. Yay kids.

Our normal Monday babysitter can't watch Henry tomorrow, so earlier this last week I requested a sub for Monday. This is the first time I've ever gotten a sub. But because it's a charter school we have maybe two or three subs for that school, the main one being Jori, whom everybody loves. And it turns out that Jori is going to be my sub for Monday, so I know that all of my students will love her and that she'll do a great job.

We're teaching "To Kill a Mockingbird" in my literature class right now. I love that book. Like last year, after we read a certain number of chapters we watch part of the movie going over that part of the book. The movie is on Netflix. I don't have Netflix. I've heard everybody say that it was expensive and that the price had gone up. So finally I Friday I asked how much it was. $11 a month, they said. I raised an eyebrow (metaphorically; I can only raise both at the same time, and anyway I don't even think I did that literally in the course of this story). And here I was thinking it was $50 a month or something. Anyway, so I'm using Mr. Bumstead's Netflix. He logged onto Netflix on my computer. Mr. Bumstead's first name is Andrew and he teaches English right next to me and it is also his second year teaching.

"A Series of Unfortunate Events" is on Netflix. I just finished watching episode 5 "The Wide Window Part 1" Friday night. I like the show. Comparison to the movie version starring Jim Carry and to the books? That's hard to say, namely because it's been such a long time since I've seen the movie or read the books. Some events in the show I know happened in the book and the movie, but forgot about until I was watching. For example, Aunt Josephine being afraid of everything. I had forgotten about that, but once I was watching the episode and it came up, I remembered. Another thing I liked was how they portrayed Montgomery Montgomery. He's very kind and smart. I'm actually not sure if he was like that in the book or the movie, but either way he was portrayed there I like the way he's shown in the show. I do remember things from the books that I was happy to see in the movie, such as the phrase "meanwhile, back at the ranch" and the whole signing-the-wedding-document-with-the-wrong-hand thing.

One really awesome thing about the show that you don't get in the movie or the books is the undercurrents of VFD that happen behind the scenes that the Baudelaires are completely unaware of. I'm not sure why it didn't happen in the movie, maybe because they had to cram three books into one film and didn't have time for excess fluff, but I think I know why you didn't see it in the books until later. My theory is that the author didn't have any idea for VFD or any of that background undercurrent until later on writing the series, and then he just added it in and then tried to make it tie back to the earlier books. 

My theory springs from the illustrations, namely the fact that in the first books the tattoo of Count Olaf's eye is completely different from the way it said it was supposed to look like in later books, and the way it's portrayed in the show. So I'm thinking that the author was running out of ideas or how to make it interesting or something, and so added the entire secret society thing in later, maybe stating with the fifth book. Later he would try and add that idea into his earlier books, for example in the book, oh I forget what it's called but it's like the reading companion to A Series of Unfortunate Events, I think it's called The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket, or something like that, anyway in it it talks about how the movie the Baudelaires and Uncle Monty go and see in The Reptile Room, Zombie in the Snow, actually had a secret message in it for Uncle Monty, but he forgot exactly how it worked and so wasn't able to retrieve it. 

But I really like how the creators of the show had that: there is a long scene in episode 3, "The Retile Room part 1" that takes place at the movie, in which a secret message is portrayed in the movie and Uncle Monty is able to receive and decode it using his VFD spyglass. Really awesome scene. Speaking of which, the movie version also had the VFD spyglass thing, didn't it? But it was shown for like 30 seconds and nothing else happened with it at all. Anyway, so one of the best parts about the show is you see these VFD agents behind the scenes working to help the children out, or help Count Olaf, and there are all these subtle little lines that are awesome. (For example, in episode 2 the large bad henchman offers Count Olaf three different flavors for the wedding cake: plain vanilla, vanilla with a mix of a different flavor, and a Lemony flavor, to which Count Olaf responds: "I told you never to mention that name around me.") Oh, and one of the best parts so far is when Neil Patrick Harris breaks the third wall and talks about how watching a show "in the comfort of your own home" is far superior to "going out to the theatre to watch a movie." I'm not sure if the movie or the show is better mainly because I haven't seen the movie in forever, but the movie is not going to get a sequel, but according to imdb, "Lemony Snicket himself has confirmed a second season is in the works." Which I am super stoked about. 

Out whole family went out and saw Moana the other week. It's a greta movie and the second time we've seen it (the first was in Fallon, thanks Hannah!), but I do have a question still, which I think Eric (or the Super Carlin Brothers) might be able to answer: Why did the sea choose Moana in the first place? What sort of ability or talent or something did she have? It's never fully explained in the movie, but I have a theory (which has spoilers in it, so if you haven't seen it just skip this next part). So the ocean chose Moana right after she helped that little sea turtle, but I don't think it was "kindness" that caused her to be chosen. I think it was her ability to look past the skin-deep stuff and see the potential in everyone. She mentions this at the beginning of the movie when she's talking about Heihei (the chicken side kick, for those who didn't know its name). This ability to see potential is what causes her at the end to see that Te Ka was actually Te Fiti the whole time, and thus is able to restore the heart, saving everyone. That's just my theory.

I'm sure there was something else I was going to say in this blog post. Oh yeah! It's Henry's 22 month birthday today. Happy 22-month birthday Henry!

Somerset card looks, I won January Fitbit

I did a lot of work this past week on the art files for the Game Design class winners. Along with that, I also did some work on my Somerset game. Every Tuesday at BYU they have a Clubs night, where different clubs get together to do their thing. Two weeks ago I went to Quark, a club that in the past had played board games. I was going to see if anyone wanted to playtest Somerset. But they were only playing this Draw Something game on the internet and so we didn't. But when I was walking out I passed by the Quill and the Sword club, which is this medieval club that sword fights in the warmer months and such. They were playing cards so I figured I would try them. So last week I went over and asked if they would be interested. They were doing stuff that week but said they would be interested the following week. So this upcoming Tuesday I'm going over with Somerset to play.

Back of 16 Building cards

Back of 16 Spell cards

Fronts of Building cards

Latest page 1 of rulebook

Fitbit:
So after walking extra and getting in tons of steps all last month, coming in first out of everyone in the whole family, I have won $2! Now that I think about it, that's the hardest earned $2 I have ever gotten. At least I got some; it would have stunk to come in first and not have gotten anything.