Day 89
Behind-the-behind-the-scenes, I started looking into jobs with the government. Broadly speaking, all I really found are clerks, nurses and doctors, and the sort that would make me go, "Woah...no way I am qualified to do *THAT!*"
Plus, how does DARPA have a tab for GAMES?!
But yeah, looking that direction, they're realistically more interested in artificial intelligence than Super Soldiers. Understandable, but saddening to me personally. Though, through implicit reasoning, they ARE correct about one point: full automation IS the future! And if you're looking for work, my presumption is that unless you're Scarlet tier of smart, you're going to need a full blown PhD in Computer Science just to merely ATTEMPT a job with these guys! Anyone who knows me personally would know that I'd rather have a life sentence of solitary confinement than go back to school, and since I'm already somewhat living that way as-is, it's not much of a stretch.
Just reading some of their PDFs instills a couple of key impressions: 1) the PDFs ALONE are teaching me, and 2) the main theme of emphasis is artificial intelligence, machine learning, and all that (with my psychic powers) potentially leading to the "zero-man-army" decades down the line. Regardless of when you choose to skim their "Opportunities" page for yourself, you're extremely likely to come across the same themes I'm mentioning here.
Why is this important for a video game Dev Diary? 1) It is "research" to help shape my narrative mindset; 2) I am trying to figure out what I can do with my seemingly worthless life; and 3) as this video game is set in a fictional alternate timeline, it's best to be as thorough as possible with understanding the real-world timeline so we can compare-and-contrast the deviations that my fictional timeline take, or where the two timelines do actually align. DARPA is a major player in my world's lore (In the lore, they actually created Hero Team), so it's only fair to at least glance at what the REAL DARPA is like!
Short of it, I do not feel qualified to partake in any of these real-world opportunities, though it is still fascinating if not fun to learn about those that do exist in the real world. I mean hell, when they want research into clocks, they don't mean the normal stopwatch for hours and minutes; they mean actual microseconds. It's very humbling, and I doubt I can do that on a zero-dollar budget.
To quote Hero Team (the Book), Volume I Chapter 3:
This is what I mean when I say it juxtaposes the typical image you think of when you hear the words "military training" or "boot camp". This wasn't boot camp, this was modern-day sorcery. Not all heroes wear capes, and not all sorcerers wear cloaks. Some of them wear power armor or lab coats.
Took a break for a bit (specifically to go through Starship Troopers: the Book, and to adapt my graphic novel trilogy into "Hero Team: the Book"), but looking ahead, I see that schedules are aligning for voicing. So I hope to get that done real soon.
Also I noticed that the missiles aren't spawning in Challenge for some reason. Then another had double barrage. Very confusing for now.
OH, and I tried a little marketing on Wednesday. While at the time I felt it was worth a try, it went about as well as you'd expect.
7:30 PM, Wednesday evening, I suppose I'll check on certain basic needs, and see if I can prepare for voicing. I'm not in the mood for any heavy exertion right now, so ease in with something fun like Scarlet's iconic high-pitched tone.
8:15 PM, that was a bad idea with all the distractions almost lulling me to sleep more frequently than I would like. Plus, the thunder is a bit worrying because I don't want a lightning bolt to spontaneously detonate every active electronic device - including microphone, monitor, and elite gaming rig. Maybe I'm worrying too much about that.
But still, all the yammering behind-the-behind-the-scenes is going to take some metal music to wash away, best-case. Worst-case, I'll just have to ride out the thunder and lightning.
9:25 PM, finally I'm just starting to get on track. The thunder has seemingly passed, and there's a couple hours till people start going to bed. If I want this done tonight, I have to make it count.
9:30 PM, decent start. Got a couple lines for Scarlet down...at least good enough. I don't need it perfect, I only need it good enough. And Scarlet is definitely super adorable. With that in mind, the irony is not lost on me that Scarlet would be teasing about someone having a plushie...when the two girls themselves look like sentient plushies. Again, it's adorable! Though, I'm going to be honest,sometimes it's a strain and struggle for Scarlet to say some specific words (like emphasizing the "always" in "Are you ALWAYS like this" and that's especially hard for the "AI-EE" squeal).
9:45 PM, got done with most of Scarlet's lines. Still got Violet, and the Colonel. Making good time, now that I have *FINALLY* gotten on track! I'm telling you, between the nonstop ways of distracting myself, real=world circumstances, and demoralizing metrics, there are all kinds of slow-downs going on.
And the more I "get into character", with the more I envision them as sentient plush dolls...the more I feel like a little boy playing with his action figures. It's fun, and also adorable.
10 PM, oddly I think I NAILED the "AI-EE" of Scarlet. The cuteness is perfection. If there were a way, I'd attach that for all to enjoy. Or plop it onto Google Drive and drop the link here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TFA_QFKBJ-ngpXmYxKpSVxxV5evJYi5/view?usp=sharing
People on Discord can download it at their leisure. ALSO, I almost forgot there's one dialogue box left for Duke right now.
10:15 PM, clock is ticking and I got all of Scarlet done for now. I know, loads more voicing for Chapter 3 and beyond, but that is hopefully for another time. For NOW, I'm catching up with the recently added dialogue boxes.
10:30 PM, eh crap...thunder's back. And I was almost done voicing the Colonel here, too.
11 PM, I really like Duke's voice (at least when I do it well), though my throat is truly irritated from having done Scarlet, Violet, Colonel, and now Duke all back-to-back-to-back. But, at least that's all of them, and I'm caught up with dialogue boxes. So, assuming the voices are good enough, let's get them into the game engine (and double-check it for updates while we're at it). And, if the dialogue recordings are all good enough so I don't need to do another take, that means I can do the rest of today's effort all quiet, and thus squeezed through the window of time I had for the night. Also, by the way, the thunder left as fast as it came, which is good since I can't work during a power outage, and heaven forbid my electronics get struck by lightning...if that's even a legitimate risk anymore.
11:30 PM, got all the files in the engine. Now code blocks, open up those dialogue boxes and insert the audio commands. Also, add the mute and unmute options for the settings menu! I still need to do the Colonel Reloading animation, but that's not on tonight's to-do list. So, about 2 hours of work just for this voicing and stuff. And I have absolutely lost my voice, so I can't really do any retakes now, even if I needed or wanted to. More specifically, I've lost my capability to do Scarlet's ultra-high-pitch voice.
11:45 PM, most of it is implemented, and just one tiny error so far...a human error, telling the computer to stop audio once, where it should've said play audio. Easily fixed. There's a tiny lag in-game, but other than that, it's working. Gonna need to double-check Duke's dialogue, since he went the default path even after loading the save for all companions; but back to cheats, and double-checking that it was active corrected the matter. Not tonight, but still, known bug.
And, other than that one tiny detail with Duke, everything works! Lunch break (LOL, "lunch" at near midnight), then I'll record, check email, and send the Dev Diary out to you.
12:35 AM, about 50 minutes, and the break's over. Settling back in, and let's see if I can fix that one small bug with Duke's alternate dialogue. Check if the Colonel is present also. Only problem with that, it played both alternate dialogue sounds at the same time, and that's not cool. Let's see if one extra if check does the trick. And, that fixed it. One bug now purged harder than the bugs in Starship Troopers! I'm doing my part!
So we are almost at the 1 year mark! That's just another week and a half, right around the start of July.
Semper Bellum!
Jay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUCmugmG2g4