I wasn't really planning on releasing what I'm working on now to the VERGE community (due to the very specific purpose for which it's being created, as well as the vast number of in-jokes in it), but I'm quite happy with how well it's turning out, and I've received recommendations from several of my friends to make these games publicly (SP?) available upon their completion... so I guess I will! (:

I'm currently working on the third game in what I call "The Bridget Trilogy". My friend Bridget's birthday is April 3rd, and for the past two years, I've made a short VERGE game for her as a birthday gift. The 1999 game was rather short and uneventful, and not especially interesting, but the 2000 game turned out really nicely (albeit not entirely complete -- I made it in 2 weeks, so a lot of graphical details are missing).

The third game, however, is turning out absolutely FANTASTICALLY. I'm using VERGE2 for DOS with Zaratustra's side-scroller engine (quite heavily modified), and it's turning out to be a really long and complicated game. And this time, I started well in advance, so I should be able to include most (if not all) of the things I want to.

Since this is a birthday-gift game, it actually WILL be finished (unlike my other projects, which all seem to collapse after a few months of effort), and in fact even has a release date: April 3rd. After I've completed the game and shown it to Bridget, I'll probably write up a few short text files explaining the in-jokes in each games, and then I'll make the Bridget Trilogy available to all of the VERGErs. The games in it are as follows:

Virtual Zwingli -- somewhere in Zwingli (our house), John Flansburgh and John Linnell of "They Might Be Giants" lurk, and it's up to Bridget and the guy-she-was-seeing-at-the-time, Lucas, to find them. Their journey will lead them throughout the house, even into the spooky (and horribly exaggerated) Zwingli Basement! (:

Bridget II: The Search for Her -- Last year, an alien spaceship came to "take Bridget home"... but really, she was being kidnapped! Now, it's up to Doug to stop the invading aliens. Sent on a quest by God Himself, Doug must locate and destroy the leader of these aliens, a being known as "Lilly" (Bridget's former roommate).

Bridget III: Phil Must Die -- Last year, Bridget took quite a shining to God's pants in "The Search for Her", so Phil, a party individual who enjoys drinking and really really wants to have sex with Bridget, goes on a quest to find God and get his pants. To do this, he plans to drink himself to death, just barely, so he can speak with God and try to convince Him to give up His pants. And so, a quest across the ENTIRE CAMPUS begins... your goal: beer and superhol, a condensed form of alcohol.

It's nothing too exciting, but hey, maybe you'll enjoy them (especially Bridget III, which is VERY long and complex, and contains a side-scroller representation of the entire Ursinus College campus!). (: So, be on the lookout for The Bridget Trilogy sometime in early April... and, in-jokes or not, do enjoy! (:

-Tom

P.S. I have all-but-abandoned Dreamseekers, but I have not yet abandoned Forgotten Kings! Next year, I'll be living by myself in an apartment in Sendai, Japan, and will most likely have a lot of free time on my hands, so I intend to continue work on FK then. Hopefully, I'll actually be able to finish it... 'cause I really like some of the ideas I've come up with for it!

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To answer the question in your subject: yes. Hopefully. I've applied to the JET Program (teaching English at a Japanese high school), and my interview is on Friday. So, as long as I don't make a fool of myself, I'm in (I'm more than qualified, with almost 4 years of the language under my belt, previous experience with having been there, translation experience, knowledge of history, and quite a bit of enthusiasm, after all!).

So, wish me luck. (:

As for the Bridget Trilogy, yeah, I'm pretty proud of the plot for the current one. It should turn out nicely... I really like the idea of a game in which the ultimate goal is to find cans of beer so you can drink yourself to death. (: And what's ironic is, I don't drink -- at all! (:

And as for Forgotten Kings... mwa ha, it's still got some life left in it! (: Mark my words, you WILL hear about it again! (:

-Tom

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Well, my interest isn't really in English, but in Japanese. I used to be a computer science major, but I realized that I could never tolerate making programs as my job -- I'd go insane! It's a hobby, it's not a career... so I switched to an English major, just kind of by default. Then, as time went on, I started taking Japanese language and history courses, and my advisor pointed out the fact that I had more than enough credits to qualify as an East Asian Studies major too... so now, instead of comp-sci, I'm going to graduate with a BA in English and East Asian Studies.

My ultimate goal is unknown at the moment, but I want to do SOMETHING with the Japanese language, even if it's just translation. And when I heard about the JET Program, and how JET basically allows you to live on easy street in Japan for up to 3 years, I figured that was my ticket into a career in something Japanese. Not only will it look GREAT on my resume, but from what I understand, it won't be all that difficult. I'll be assistant-teaching English as a second language to a bunch of high-schoolers, but it will be very simple English (many of the students will have never had English classes before), and because of the way the Japanese school system is set up, absolutely EVERYTHING I'm supposed to teach, for each day, will be thoroughly outlined in a lesson plan... so basically, if I follow the lesson plan, I'll get a reasonable amount of money to live on and be able to live by myself in Japan for up to three years. (:

And yeah, I highly recommend learning Japanese... it's a really logical language, and IMHO *very* easy to learn (the spoken language, anyway... kanji makes the written language VERY difficult). Plus, most of the vocabulary you learn in Japanese consists of English words that are just rewritten using Japanese characters. (: For instance, "konpyuutaa" and "aisu-kuriimu"... I think you can translate them, ne? (:

Plus, Japan is probably the nicest place I've ever been to. Absolutely EVERYONE in that entire country is extremely respectful, the entire country (even the darkest alleys) are immaculately clean, crime is virtually nonexistent, and the food is both mouth-wateringly delicious AND good for you! (: Basically, Japan is the closest thing to paradise on Earth I've ever found, which is why I want to make a career out of something involving it. (:

-Tom

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(Yeah, I think it is.)

(:

-Tom

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I know MAYBE 200 kanji... I'm terrible with kanji! (: Hiragana and katakana are much nicer. (:

-Tom

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