TheAstralBackstage

 Hello. C J here. I own and run Infinity Game Studios. My work setting up my games, including Dragon Engine and Quantum, consumed a ton of my time. I haven’t really had the time for much social life for years. I’ve spent a few months getting a feel for the internet as it is and I’ve found that Minecraft is the most popular post category on both Facebook and YouTube. I figured I’d just go straight to the source and make a server. This is being done on my personal budget. I’m not considering it a business expense. It’s for social life and not business reasons. I have the server laptop being delivered and I’m debating what I need at the first launch of the map. We will have the River Lands and a number of towns with farms to gather food as well as buildings and campfires to cook it in. I might not have any custom NPCs at first but I can add them later. Map data isn’t in the same folder as player data so I can update them separately. We might not have weapons or combat but the map shou...

 Hello. C J here. I’ve got another batch of item and gem cards for the Quantum Starter Set done today. These are samples of the ruby gems that pay for equipment during play and that can also be used to buy that equipment by crafting it. The Starter Set is a small sample of the Core Rules and what they can accomplish. I’ve got the full Core Rules for Quantum available to read in the Books link in the folder with the same name. I have all the ruby gem cards and three of the item images done. These then are the starting equipment you can bring into the more diverse gameplay offered by the future Expansions. C J Mcpherson

 Hello. C J here. You know I read his poem once somewhere from an author who was Pagan. It ended with a line that has always stuck with me. ‘With cakes and ale we end our poem.’ I spent a good chunk of my younger years on a mission. I wanted to see if there were any legitimate psychics out there. I’ve had some every impressive readings that turned out to be useful a decade later by predicting something that wasn’t true until it was needed. I’ve had one or two that were really expensive from people who were clearly just stoned out of their minds on something that was not legal back then. When it comes to psychics it’s hard to tell the reputable honest ones who do it for the good of the world from the people who are tripping out and think it will benefit them. One time, after the best reading I’ve ever gotten, the psychic recommended I make tea and have some sugar in it afterwards at a little tea stand in the shop that was hosting her. I did. This has become a core part of my job. Th...

 Hello. C J here. I know the holidays are coming up and it’s normally a really stressful time for people. My family here and I do a good Christmas together. Mind you I’m actually one of our youngest team members but I help. I’m good with a teapot and a coffee maker. I posted last year about some food tips for things to make that I thought were easy or tasty. This year I don’t have more of those. Holiday food really never changes. So how about Minecraft? Okay, that transition might have been a bit unexpected. I know a lot of people won’t have much to do over the holidays so I’m aiming to have my free public Minecraft server Fantasy Plus up and running long in advance of the actual holiday season. I know I’m always in need of something to do on Christmas afternoon so I plan on hanging out in a tavern in Haven in the River Lands and roasting some chicken over a campfire. Fantasy Plus is entirely cooperative. I’ve already turned friendly fire off in the master project file. I have an e...

 Hello. C J here. Don’t read my stories or play my games seeking escapism. I don’t make games to escape. Fundamentally I think that’s the wrong approach to take in a game. I make stories that challenge people. They have motives that I don’t explain. I want my audience to think and to gain something from what I do, something both tangible and also without a name. I make art you can read. Why? Let me explain. I never went to university for my craft. I don’t trust universities these days. I went to a normal trade college and it wasn’t for computers. I have no love for computer science or coder courses. These new flashy learn to game design diplomas people are pushing are crud. You learn code, you learn storytelling, you learn game design, you learn to carve a walking stick, you learn to paint by doing. Just make something with your hands. That’s it. I do not do this job for accolades. I do it because I am a craftsman. Code is an art form. It has infinite incorrect versions and one cor...

 Hello. C J here. In my opinion a good game, video game or tabletop game, needs to have meaningful challenge to be interesting. The trick, I find, with game design is to make that challenge increase as the game continues. Players become more powerful but the challenges they are faced with scale faster than they do. It’s often a game designer’s first instinct to reward their player with getting stronger faster, better and easier. This can be a problem though, as too much increase in strength without effort makes the earlier challenges seem less important. This is why I avoid setting up unlimited resource gathering systems for myself when I’m playing Minecraft. I avoid farms that aren’t for wheat. I do the level progression through mining, crafting and fighting the long hard way. This is to me more fun. I avoid Addons mostly because I really want the vanilla look and feel. I don’t often use resource packs either. Humans are smarter than we realize we are. We need to innovate to be he...

 Hello. C J here. I thought I’d do a Fantasy Plus Minecraft server project update. Here’s the current state of the server. I’ve realized that you can cook over a campfire so I never need ovens. I have installed Blockbench and the Entity Editor Plugin. I have made stats, equipment lists and loot tables on paper for the gold skeleton themed enemies. Most of this will be run off three or four spawn eggs as the skeletons only need to go up in tier rarely and can have armour and weapon options including my spellbooks. I’m assuming this can be done in the entity plugin. I know zombies can spawn with armour sometimes. I will be recolouring the default skeleton to make my version, the sand skeleton. They will be run using mob spawners in the dungeons and in monster camps in the overworld. You cannot destroy them so get used to combat in these regions. I’ve spent a couple days learning Minecraft Bedrock Editor and I have the system of building worlds on the scale of tens of kilometre square...