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Daena’s Books

Along came a spider down the wall, a klompen stomped on it. The young girl took her hankerchief and placed the bug in the garbage. “We have a pest problem, mother.” she said, to the woman reading her book in the living room. The girl’s cheeks were beginning to become red, when it was obvious that her mother was not listening to her. Daena was beginning to walk up the stairs, when the mother closed her book. And then tilted her glasses in the direction of her daughter.

“Daena, don’t stomp the floor. You’ll break your shoes.” the mother said, and then reopened her book as if that were the only thing she was going to say to her daughter that evening. Then, “Remember to go to bed early tonight, we have a trip in the morning.” And that was that, so Daena continued walking up stairs. Her long curly light brown hair illuminated in the lamp light. She then walked through the hall skipping the restroom, and then arrived at the door to her bedroom. She closed the door after walking inside.

Is that all your going to say to me, Daena thought. And then began to sit on her bed, she reclined back. The light from the sunset made the room slightly darker in comparison to the bright morning and afternoon. I want to be somewhere. Not here, not there thought Daena. As soon as she began to drift, she took off her klompen. And then began to sleep in her dress that was little more than a white night gown with a green petticoat. But the night would would go differently than other nights … .

She got up to take off her dress, as she had finally noticed that she had not taken it off. But as she did so, she noticed that it had become the next day. Why hasn’t her mother woken her up for the train ride? And why was the sky grey, and the air cold? The room she woke up smelled of old mold. Like an old house that had not been sold for years. But why would mom forget to wake me up for the train ride? She put on her klompen, while in her white night gown that she dressed in for the later half of the night. In the hall, she closed her door. The hall was quite, surely her mother would be in the kitchen … .

As she walked down the stairs, her feet began to hurt in her shoes from the walk that she had during the previous day. Am I in the mood for another walk? No way, not up for it she thought. And then walked into the study living room that her mother was reading in the night prior to this odd morning. But her mother was not there, it was almost as if the house had swallowed her up. She had a voice in her head, come and see us in the shed. Not before you eat your daily bread. We are here, we are everywhere. Yet nowhere, the voice from somewhere was making an imprint in her mind.

Daena walked into the kitchen, made herself some toast. She took it with her while she went outside to go and look for her mother. Her mother was not in the garden, near the fence, or in the lookout fro the their self defense. Nobody wielding the machine gun turret on the wooden look out. Daena walked back to the garden, for surely her mother would be there. Through the gate she walked, and she noticed a mural-ed slab that was not there before. Is this a dream, where she slept to snore. Or a symptom of a mind a’bore. Walking closer, she stared closely at the mural on the slab.

Greg-Gina Hog-worth
1817-1835
Here lies miss Hog-worth,
Gave her inheritance, as she was worth.
A large woman, with a big girth.

At first Daena couldn’t believe that her mother would have already had a headstone prepared for her. Abruptly the world was beginning to shake violently. Her mother was very much alive, and she was shaking her daughter shoulders to get her to wake up. “Hurry hurry Daena, put on your klompen. We need to go to the train in about an hours time.” So Daena got up, put on her raggedy dress and klompen. She already had her luggage packed for the train ride, so she carried it with her as they walked to the station.

The station was a quiet station, for it was still early in the morning. They boarded the train, and then placed their luggage in the storage shelves above. “You must have had a good dream.” said Greggina Hogworth, as they settled in their seats. Daena reclined in her seat, and began to drift off again. Her mother didn’t seem to care much that she would fall asleep once they had boarded the train. Daena didn’t know where they were going to go, only that they would be gone for a week. That’s all her mother was willing to tell her.

And that was when she let her mind wander. Daena wanted to imagine that her family was in the city, with buildings that were tall and pretty. Sparkling window glass. Was this where she was going to go? “Daena, before you go further into your own world, did you pack your coat? it’s going to snow where we are going.” Her mother soon figured out through her facial expression, that she forgot to pack her coat. “Fine you can borrow mine, but don’t lose it. Was a gift from my late husband.” Daena didn’t remember how long her mother had been married to her father. He was always at work, so she never really got to know him very well. But at that point it was Cie La Vie, all so very swell.

She pictured in her mind going down a deeep deep deep bottomless well, until she eventually splashed in the bottom that was filled with seashells. But why were seashells at the bottom of a well? She saw a large with a tunnel going into it. Daena wondered was was on the other end. She could hear loud squeeking down the well. Of what sounded like ghouls from hell. She continued walking further into the well, and the light gradually began to fade. Then she saw another light on the other end. But it was a different kind of light. It was orange, and fiery. Like she dug herself down to hell. Then the colored dissipated. … Daena found herself in a forest, but it was not like any other forest that you and me may no.

It was a burnt forest, with dead trees. Through the forest of death was a breeze. Sounds of weird sound not meant be heard by mortal ears. Screeches that sound like eardrums, torn apart by shears. Then the sound gradually became quieter and quieter. “Where am I?” Daena asked, and it was with this question that came to realize that she was dreaming. Her mother stared at her, tilting her glasses. “Oh don’t worry sweetheart, if you lose you coat. I can find you another one. It’s more me I’m worried about having one.” Her mother opened her book again, and it was a long train ride after.

They arrived at an old house in a snowy village. Daena was shivering in her wooden shoes, so her mother lovingly let her inside first. Her aunt greeted them, offered the two hot chocolate. Greggina refused the drink, but said that Daena would probably want one. “But before that, want to see the library?” Aunt Frannie, peered down to Daena, with an offering hand. “Come you will find adventures.”

“But I don’t like to read.” said Daena.

“Oh I’m sure we can change that.” said Frannie.

In the large room full of books, there was severals shelves of books. Most old, some new. There were many books only fit for a shrew, and many others that had adventures about collecting small crystals, and about little cowboys trying to outrun trains by their super-horse. Of course, at this point Daena refused to read any of it. She simply wanted to sleep. “Here, have this one.” Frannie handed her a small book, roughly one hundred and twenty pages. “You can get used to reading with this.”

Not being sure what do with it, Daena simply went to her room and placed her luggage in. I don’t want to read anything, books are boring. And then took a little nap before dinner came to visit.

It was the next hour after dinner that she went into the room on her own. She saw a bird in a cage, it was calling her name like an old sage. An old owl that would never age. “I hear that you do not like to read? You know what happens to little children that don’t like to read?” the owl said, with it’s owly gaze that felt like she was walking through a maze. “It is not heaven above, or hell below. Nor hear where the land snows, only the a place where the cold wind blows.” Daena was not sure what the owl meant by this.

“But what does that have to do with reading?” said Daena.

“Everything my dear.” said the Owl.

The owl took her by the wrist, and they flew and flew into another world. That was a world part of an old storybook, where children where dancing by the fire, and where demons from different levels of hell came out to play. Little girls with skull for masks turned into demons at the sound of bones cracking grwoing very very long wings indeed and their eyes were like flames of fire. Daena walked through the several levels of hell, and warped back into the real world with the Owl. “And so you see, reading can take you places.” Daena tried to ask what the owl meant. But he dissappeared, there he went.

“Daena, it’s time for bed.” called her mother.

“Can I borrow a book from here?” said Daena.

“Wait till I tell your aunt.”

It was at the dinner table that Daena spoke with her aunt and her mother. She wanted Daena to tell her about how she had recently learned to read books. However this was not completely accurate. Instead she wanted to explore the worlds provided by those books. Daena wondered if the owl from earlier was still in the library, or if perhaps it was simply a matter of her lack of sleep. Even on nights when she barely got any sleep, she would never make a peep. “I met a friend today.” said Daena.

“Who is that?” said the mother.

“I met an owl.” said Daena.

“What book?” asked the aunt.

“No a real owl, in the cage in your library.” said Daena. Both the aunt and the mother looked at Daena like she was very strange.

“Have you gotten your rest latelly? You look tired.” the mother changed the subject, and then she began to start eating her food again.

Daena she have figured they wouldn’t believe her.

Elements Of Gameplay

There are aspects of game development I haven’t seen elsewhere, but be used as a way to gradually develop a game from the ground up, rather than relying on external engines and libraries to make it work:

Core Gameplay Mechanics

At its core, can you game be boiled down be being based on Tic-Tac-Toe, Rock-Paper-Scissors, Hangman, or other simple games? You can consider this Core or Primary game mechanics that make your game work in the way that you intended.

Secondary Gameplay Mechanics

These develop while fleshing out your core game play mechanics, such as by combining Rock-Paper-Scissors and Hangman for instance in my case. Secondary game play mechanics are mixture of game play mechanics that exist in their bare bones form.

Complementary Gameplay Mechanics

These are game mechanics that contrast with your main game play mechanics, such that are serves as a contrast point. If Core Game play Mechanics is the ancor point, then Complementary game mechanics allows you to accentuate your main game play elements by contrasting elements.

You can think of it a bit like Choosing Reddish Blue colors if your you mainly use paint that is shades and tints of red-orange.

These can generally be broken into more complex complementary mechanics, similar to the way color palettes can be split into different types of complementary, clashing, and other ways of evaluate colors.

But for the game dev, those colors are game mechanics.

Going forward

Over the next few weeks I will be discussing Core Gameplay Mechanics that I’m working on, and trying to find secondary gameplay mechanics and complementary ones that contrast well with the main elements of game design. p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }