A birthday fic for Luba, from Brian

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<*> MicroTech Gaming Ltd <*>

Notes following April meeting re submitted designs

Submission; 4048/1

Proposed name; "Sword of Avalon" (We like this, meaningless enough, but ties in to legend and mythology)

Designer; Katherine Pryde, ShadowSprite Systems (Can't say any of us have heard of this one before)

Theme; Fantasy action  / RPG

Style; Retro-Arcade

Play mode; 1 to 4 players

Visuals
Very striking and somewhat cartoony, which suits the gameplay style (Clearly based on the old Gauntlet game. We can get away with that as so, in effect, is Final Fantasy XXIV or whatever we're up to now)

Basic plot is standard, assorted heroes on a quest to accumulate treasure, defeat monsters and release a princess from inside a Phoenix Egg. (BTW First time we ever saw a Princess in skintight red leather, but we can live with that, as it DOES make the trip worth the journey)

Interesting use of graphics, the comic-book-panel style scene shifts look cool. Not sure about each level having a different art style to it, might confuse the kids.

Some of the early levels, notably the Fortress of Shinky-Vitz (Which sounds filthy for some reason we can't quite describe, we LOVE it), look like they were designed by someone with severe anger management issues and a leaky pen, but it somehow works for reasons which are hard to put into words. Very far from the current trend towards photo-realism, but that possibly aids it, it is a fantasy after all.

We do, however, recommend changing the levels which make all the male characters look like they evolved from rodents, and the level where everyone poses prettily but tend to look irate, constipated and possibly missing their feet. (We'll probably lose some fanboy sales over that last one, but trust us here; it's for the greater good).

Characterisation
Four player gamers can be a tough sell, but this one adds to the mythos quite nicely. All of us want to proceed with this, bearing in mind the following comments.

The character designs seem to include something for everyone, in traditional style; Warrior, Sorcerer, Thief and well, we'll get to the last one.

We're all agreed we love Tovar, the armoured warrior. With the armour Pryde designed him with, it almost looks like he's MADE out of metal, which is a great visual. Simple, straightforward, and built like a brick outhouse, the couch potatoes will love him, and his end of level boss-whacking attack move the "Fastball special" is already in common parlance around the office.

Magique, the blonde magic user with the sword is a definite keeper too. Limiting her attack range to sword length, but allowing her to teleport around the field of play will appeal to more experienced gamers, and the visual is simply awesome. We may get a few complaints from parents groups about a scantily clad sorceress wielding a four-foot long sword (I thought Freud was discredited these days, who knew) but that will probably encourage sales, as usual.

The armour spreading across her body the more she uses her power is neat, and the fact it leads to an out of control "demonic berserker" power-up when it covers her completely is pleasingly against predictability.

Note to Graphics; Magique as possible focus for the poster art?? Obvious, but obvious sells, though we should avoid the use of the design from the "pretty but constipated" level, we'd have to explain how she manages to stand _erect_ with a bust that size

Solomon the thief a few of us are ambivalent about, but we think that that might be the point. Pryde has managed to create possibly the most disreputable looking thief since Fagin (Note to Marketing, that's from a book). You can all but smell the cheap whisky on his breath, and at the same time he's the one that most people wanted to play. Everyone loves the bad boy I guess!

He certainly looks shifty enough, yet rakish at the same time, and his fiery blades are an interesting gimmick (We can tell you now, Legal will INSIST on changing their original name. We have to believe Pryde was not be aware of the double meaning of "hot knife"), well suited to the cod-medieval feel of the thing.

Alas the blades are probably going to cause serious problems with the eventual rating though, as throwing knives is a little too repeatable for the kiddies. We may just have to hope no one notices, or modify the weapon a little. We probably need to have this character tested out more than the first two, as it'll take a certain mindset to play him to best effect.

We're torn over the role of the fourth character, Rune, the blond guy with the book. We love the concept that he is good for solving level puzzles and reading runes, maps and information etc, but he doesn't seem to actually _do_ very much the rest of the time, except try to avoid getting killed in the crossfire (So he's clearly a smart character if nothing else!)

It's certainly an interesting intellectual challenge, adds variety, and would appeal to diehard gamers who like more than flashy FX, but these days of flashy razzle dazzle, even in a retro-style arcade game he looks like he might get a bit lost.

Prydes' notes that giving the other players someone to worry about and protect beyond themselves for the greater good adds depth to the game, though it could be a stretch for whoever ends up playing Rune, since he doesn't have much in the way of defences or attacks. There is a lot to be said for that viewpoint but... Perhaps we can just enhance him a little. Possibly we could make him an elf, or a cleric or a warlock or something?

We agreed we should ask Pryde to recommend changes at this stage rather than enforce them, her ideas have been good on this up to now, let's see how she deals with constructive criticism.

As a final note on this section, Pryde's submission states that there is a fifth player you can unlock, but we're damned if we can find it. We're tempted to ask her how to do it, but we want another couple of goes at the game, professional pride has to be maintained.

Excellent Bosses at the end of each level BTW, the six-armed witch looks great, the fat slob in the armoured crab-chair-thing has a good retro look to it (Remember how freaky Mother Brain was?), and there is something genuinely sinister about the white skinned dude in the blue armour and cape. Pryde must have one incredible imagination to come up with these!

Programming
This is where Pryde excels, a lot of submissions are just ideas, but she backed hers up by submitting sample levels to see, and this, we have to confess, is why we're so interesting in this project. Some of the coding seems to be adapted from the "Cypher" open source material. It may be a few years old now, but it's still almost impossible to improve upon that stuff.

To you young whippersnappers (and that's basically anyone in Marketing), "Cypher" was the name of a legendary online hacker from the dim and distant past, pre-Internet even (Yes, there was such a time, back when we rode horse and buggys and used gas-powered telephones). No one ever found out who he, or she, really was. Coded at uber-genius level, and released a lot of it for general use without profit. Suddenly disappeared from the scene without warning a few years back, more's the pity.

At any rate, we're impressed anyone was able to more than just use it, but actually enhance it in line with the original schema, leading us to believe that maybe this Pryde person might have worked with Cypher at some time. The name is a legend in programming circles, so we might actually be able to use it as a marketing hook, though that might seem a little tacky, we want to tread carefully with Pryde on this one.

Playability
Good feedback from the focus group, though, as expected, some problems with Solomon and Rune. Players reported feeling very drawn into the plot, and you KNOW how difficult that can be.

Overall
The game is solid, entertaining, and has a good "feel" to it. Marketing report that it "has legs", which we assume is a compliment.

We recommend proceeding with the necessary licensing, bearing our comments in mind.

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Several months later - Westchester

Kitty looked around the arcade. She hadn't been here in years and it seemed smaller than it had in the past, which was probably more to do with the Starbucks that now took up half the space it had once filled than her being any taller.

Looking at the current occupants, she also felt too old to be standing around it now, but she'd spent many happy hours with friends here in the past, and it seemed right to at least pay a visit when she was passing through, today of all days.

Over in the corner, where she'd once played seemingly endless free turn on Space Marauders, matched only by a blond boy with a smart mouth and a quirky smile, or played solo whilst sharing burgers and secrets with a girl whose Russian accent was only noticeable when she was really angry (And who _really_ sucked at videogames, but you couldn't hold that against her... much).

Then there was that one special time, when she'd just come back from a stormy weekend at her parents ("Happy Birthday dear" and "We're having a trial separation" should never be part of the same conversation) and Doug and Illyana had somehow managed to con, cajole or otherwise blackmail both her and Piotr into joining them for their one and only game of Gauntlet together. For someone who was in such a foul mood at the start, she couldn't recall laughing so hard in months....

Back in her room she flopped down on the bed.

There was a party later on, and Kurt was organising it, so heaven only knew what the theme would be this year, though last years "Alaskan luau" would be tough to beat. That meant she wasn't allowed downstairs until HE said it would be all right. He must have been a demon at church socials... She paused for a second to try and think of a better phrasing, but gave up.

She decided it was time for her treat to herself. She'd held off on this until today, and that had been tough, but it was important to her.

She wasn't really a games person anymore, hardly seeming to have the time. But this was a special occasion. She took the disks out of their packaging, smiling at the bodice they had equipped Magique with on the front cover (She could just HEAR her old friend's vocal condemnation of it in her head, half of it in high speed Russian, but all the while wondering how she'd look in one) and booted up the game. She saw her name roll past on the credit screen with a certain degree of satisfaction.

Setting the four players to auto-mode, she checked the time and date, made the mental adjustments to work out the correct code, and hit the sequence of keys to unlock the fifth character from "Sword of Avalon".

The character appeared on the screen, emerging up from through the ground like a ghost; a blue clad female with less than Lara Croft proportions, and dark brown hair. This new figure high-fived her team mates who all immediately underwent slight changes.

The armour of Tovar the warrior melted into his skin, becoming part of him.

Magique hardly changed, but then, that was as it should be, her originator had had the sort of life that only existed in fantasies anyway.

Solomon straightened the scarf knotted around his neck and stood a little straighter than the normal specs permitted. He still looked like a ratbag, but he had his pride.

Rune closed his book, and the black and gold volume flowed, smoothly forming light but flexible armour round him (Kitty was pleased with that change, it seemed so right somehow. She must get a copy for Warlock next... what on earth did Technarchs celebrate? Their birthday? Their made-day? Well, whatever, he'd probably get a kick out of it.)

And now, she -- the warrior's guide, the sorceress's confidante, the thief's conscience and the warlock's protector -- was ready and the game was afoot...

Soon she'd be with her real friends, old and new, downstairs but for now, a moment to remember the past fondly seemed right.

On your birthday it's always nice to spend time with old friends, especially if they can't be there in person.

- Fin -

Many happy returns, Luba!