Ugh, not satisfied with today's meeting.

Hey guys, I think I just came from the worst meeting I've had yet. Maybe I felt a little unenthusiastic, but I couldn't blame anyone. But we didn't get much of anything done. @_@

And nothing of value was lost.

In any case, we got a new skit up.

Goals for July!

Summer's in full-swing, and I'm on a full-schedule. Well, a personal schedule at least. Usually I post at the beginning of the month of my goals for the month and then I disappoint myself at the end of the month with how much I failed to complete. Har har.

But stuff like Operation Rainfall and upcoming XIV patches were more important, so I put this post off until today!

Games to complete... or at least hope to complete:

Final Fantasy VIII:

Goal: To get Squall and Rinoa to get all mushy. Easy enough, right?

I started this game up again from scratch a week ago after a long 10 year ish hiatus, and I'm already past the point of where I was at my first file, with little difficulty. The game is so much easier when played the right way and not winging it with Guardian Forces, I swear.

Now for obligatory Uematsu:





Chrono Cross:
Goal: To save the parallel dimensions of Serge's world from going to chaos.

I put this game off too, but not as long as FFVIII. Chrono games tend to get so un-linear that you get confused on where to go next. ...Or lose track. That's the problem I'm at now. Maybe, I need a walkthrough to get the mind jump-started again on where I was.

Now for obligatory Mitsuda:






If I get some extra time, I want to go ahead and play through some Vagrant Story and finish up Revenant Wings and Final Fantasy Tactics. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Ivalice. :X

Next summer, I will probably play through Lost Odyssey and some certain Wii games if a certain Operation goes through. I'm writing my letters!

...I'm hoping.


Game Projects:

Selatria:

Progress is getting there, I work on the game usually late night. Perhaps this weekend I will unveil some new areas. Depends on my creativity... and the heat. Damn this heat.


University:

Easy classes this term. At least I'd like to think so. I'm going to study with a friend of mine for a midterm on Friday. Hopefully we ace it! Interesting class, though. Both "Race and Racism", and "Studies in Music". Though the latter is kinda filled with common sense. Meh.



Anyway, I think completing these two games and passing courses and doing this game design project is a fair amount of goals to achieve, right? Nothing too hard to do. ...I think. I said that about my goal to finish FFXIII and that took an additional five months. (I finished that last month.) So take that with many grains of salt. Or a large chunk of salt. ...


Oh, and I almost forgot. New BETACinema skit.





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BETACinema Presents...

Today's blog post: Launch of new skit!

(See also: Direct link to video.)






It is mainly comprised of footage of stuff we filmed in our last meeting in May and some of our meeting in April. Due to some circumstances with a skit we were going to do, we had to postpone it and we just mocked a bunch of popular movies and games and what not for the meeting instead. Depending on how the reception is, we may do more sketches like this and make it an episodic series, we'll see. :)

All in all, it's nothing too serious. But then again none of our stuff is meant to be taken seriously. :P

We may be doing a serious skit with Batman. (With a proper mask this time.) I'll probably reveal more information about that later. But the person playing Harley Quinn already finished her costume.


Anyway, it's a short blog post today, and I'm sorry about that. I spent more time video editing than writing. I'll come up with something lengthy on Tuesday.




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Awesome Saturday, not-so-awesome Sunday

So the title says, I write this blog from my bed rather than my desk (like I normally do).



My Saturday:

I got sick all of the sudden on Saturday morning, and I rarely get sick. But when I do, it hits hard. Anyway, I was still feeling well enough to attend the 8th BETA meeting and go to a friend's show that I promised her I would attend. Both were really freaking awesome.

The BETA Meeting unfortunately had a majority of the group who couldn't come, but we were able to make-do with who we had and made a very entertaining skit. I hope you all will enjoy it, we have a new member who makes her debut in it as well! It should be out sometime soon, but I'm not editing this one (due to my other commitments with other projects), so I can't provide a solid release date just yet. Note: It does contain massive amounts of Batman.


Afterward, I went to check out the circus my friend was performing in Redlands. I'd have to say, I was thoroughly impressed! There were a lot of talented performers and I can say I would probably be far too afraid to try and walk on a tightrope or climb a human ladder suspended in air. Those people have some real talent (not to mention courage!) I can say it is worth every penny and highly encourage you to check it out if you're in the area. Note: It's hard to get parking. I had to park quite a ways down the street! Damn you, narrow Redlands streets and your parallel parking.


I had to cancel the event on Final Fantasy XIV afterwards as I started feeling much worse and lost my voice entirely. I just don't feel like gaming when I'm in pain, you know?



Today's Plans:

Since today is Mother's Day, my brother, my dad, and I are going to visit her in the cemetery and get some flowers to put next to her plaque. I think I'm probably also going to see "Thor", I hear it's really good. Next week, I'm going to go to Frank and Son with one of my closest friends, and next month I'm going to introduce BETA to the place and we look for props and all that fun stuff!

Also, I'm hopefully going to try and get rid of my terrible sore throat for the time being, because it's hard for me to talk. and it's frustrating trying to drink liquids to try and get better. Almost feels like I'm choking on something, very painful.

On a side note, I feel like I have the need to point this out. If you have your mom, make sure you spend the day with her and show her that you care. You may never know when you can lose your mom in the blink of an eye at any moment, and she won't be around forever. Don't take her for granted!


Until Tuesday!







Rest in Peace (1962-2000)


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Wishy-Washy Writings of Wednesday

Where to start?



Apathy:

The past few days (since my last blog entry), I've been feeling a lack of motivation to do any work on any of my projects. I've also been more apathetic to people and started saying the "c"-word to people. Yeah, "cool". I hate hearing that word, because it gives the impression (or fact, even) that the person just doesn't care about what you're saying to them. Ooh, and "nice" too. That makes me angry.

I try to make it a personal policy to engage in a conversation and actually hold a listening ear to people, because people don't seem to do that much anymore nowadays.

For example:


Situation A:

"Hey, Grover! I was able to do x, y, z today!"
"That's great! I was glad you were able to do x, y, z. Congratulations!"

Situation B:

"Hey, Grover! I was able to do x, y, z today!"
"Cool."



Now is it just me or does situation B come off as just snide and insulting? The person takes their time and energy to share with you their excitement of the day and the best one can come up with is a one-word response.

Though, I'd have to call myself a hypocrite for accidentally saying it in my moment of apathy. I'm usually non-apathetic when it comes to my friends. I honestly, truly care about any conversation one brings up to me and I try to put my points clear on the table, unless I'm in a really bad mood, which I guess could be why I'm feeling this way.

So, if you had to unexpectedly deal with my apathy today, I apologize. It's normally against my nature.


Developer's Interest Group:

Later today, I'm going to be heading to Hollywood with two of my friends to the Developers' Interest Group. It's ran by SoftEgg which apparently publishes titles for the Nintendo DS and related systems. The event is claimed to be for event for "developers, artists, musicians, writers, designers, engineers, filmmakers, producers, directors and other creative folk". So I'm very interested to see how this turns out. If it's any good, I'll blog about it on Friday!

Also: If this DIG event is any good, expect me to show off our game project at the end of the year.

BETACinema:

Expect another skit to come out this weekend, with Friday at the earliest. I'll most likely be handling the editing of this skit as well as the next one which is posted next week. After that, I'm going to take a break from editing and other members will do some of the future skits. (Though I haven't determined who quite yet.) But it is clear that I know who to trust to get things done on time and at least some kind of notification on why if not. I'd rather prefer an honest person who is clear with me on why they agree to something and can't make a deadline rather than someone who ignores my messages and tries to hide.

Shows an unwillingness to accept responsibility if you ask me. Just sayin'.

Anyway... skit preview!







Xbox 360/PC MMO Senior Project:

I got into a group that wants to develop a small 360 MMORPG prototype in Unity for the senior project. I am not going to share any details, but I am going to be involved with programming parts of it as well as mapping. So I'm interested to see how this'll turn out.

_

Anyway, I think I'm done ranting for now. I think I'm going to try and get some sleep, maybe I'll actually get a good night's rest this time. I'll need it for the long drive to and from Los Angeles later today. Until Friday, blog readers and friends!



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Mid-April Updates! (Game Development/EPIC/BETACinema)

Hello, blog readers!

Spring's in full-swing and I've been working on several different projects. I'll go into them in more detail a little later, but it has been causing me to get into some random inspirations at random times in the middle of the night. (Probably inspiring the tone of this blog entry, too.)

I've been reading this book almost non-stop (whenever I get some free time at least).


It's called "Introduction to Game Development" by Steve Rabin. Rabin has 10 years of game development and currently works at Nintendo, and also contains various publications and contributions from several people in the IGDA (which I'm also a member of.) It's actually a good read if you're interested in the game industry. (And it's a thick book, don't let the picture fool you. It's about 900 pages.) Believe it or not, it was the textbook we were required to get for my Game Design course we took last year, but the professor hardly used it. He didn't seem to know much about games in general, but this book was still a good buy, even if I'm just now reading it six months after I took the course.

(I ended up getting an "A" in that class, in any case.)

The book seems to understand what I want to do, even if most people do not. Most people seem to get the misconception that I want to do game programming and/or video game 3D modeling and what not, and don't really understand the true meaning of what exactly I want to do with my dream career.

I want to be a game designer. The one that makes the rules of the game, the one who comes up with intricate level design, and/or directs the progression of the project. A game designer can be programmer, and most do start as that, but I'm really not one to sit there typing lines of code, it would drive me nuts after a while. (Well, I'm not exactly the patient type.)

Not that I sit there and think programming is boring. (It's not.) It's just not something I would want to do a full-time career in for the rest of my life. I have a lot of leadership qualities and creativity, and I'd rather actually put those into motion as a designer or engineer rather than be the programmers behind it. Programming is a logical talent, design requires a lot of different talents. More of a "jack-of-all-trades", if you will. Even reading through said book (above) in great detail, I've learned an equal amount of computer science, psychology, and statistics.


Anyway, going off of that tangent, onto progress on projects!

"Codename: EPIC"

My own game projects have been appearing in my dreams too, it's been weird. I've been so engrossed in getting this game project progressed, and I'm very inspired to keep working on it. (Probably much to the disgust of the team, which has to endure my random thoughts, posts, and screen-shots on a constant basis. Sorry, guys!)

However, I still don't feel that any of the work I (or any of the team) has done on the project is worth showing to the public. Not yet, at least. I want to have at least one big picture of the project to show by the end of next month.

Here's a pic of the world map (in development):




World Map designs. I've spent most of this week coming up with a decent flow of the game, testing out possible things the player may enjoy, and getting it to be enjoyable. But on the other hand, I have a bad tendency to make things WAY too easy for the player, and I'm glad I have Jon to call me out on it.

I'm hoping to have a playable demo of one part of chapter 1 done by the end of the summer and all of chapter 1 done by the end of this year. That's the goal, at least. There is a lot of work to be done.

Still need a permanent monster designer and someone to do trailers and promotional work. I'm talking with several different people, but I'm trying to look for someone who'd be more willing to contribute and get a share of the project rather than ask for a flat fee. That's not exactly easy to find, you know.


BETACinema:

Three new skits are coming: The Tube Skit, the Internet Skit, and the Math skit. I don't know what order these are coming in, though. The Math Skit was originally supposed to be finish on April 1st, but we had some postponements getting some of the scenes, so that will be posted in early May.

I'll have to get on Ryan's case for finishing the others since we have the footage for that.

I also need to get working on AdSense...

So much to do, so little time!





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End of March Rant!

Hey, blog readers! It's hard to believe April is around the corner.

Dojo Adventure:

I've been working on a new version of Dojo Adventure, you can see the list of changes I've worked on to the March Version.

You can download the Dojo Adventure March 2011 Version here.

I also mentioned earlier that I'm giving away a special in-game item that I implemented to people who take the time to read these posts.

Anyhow, if you transfer your save file or create a new save file and e-mail it to me as an attachment (UltKnightGrover*at*hotmail.com) with subject "Dojo Adventure Ring", I will upload the special "Creator's Ring" onto the save file and send it back to you. The item is otherwise unobtainable in the game.




BETACinema:

Can you believe it? "If Jon Ruled the World" is finished! I spammed it on Facebook (as well as a lot of my friends) and it got 70 views, but it's funny and if you haven't taken a look at it, I suggest you do! ^_^ Note: I can't have children anymore because of it.





As always, we appreciate the support, and you can subscribe to us on YouTube or become a fan of us on Facebook! I will love you a long time (platonically).


Progress to Degree(s):


Another end of the quarter, another evaluation of my degree progress.

Here is how my grades looked (much better than I would have thought, but not as good as I would have liked!)

Geology: B
Software Engineering: B-
Machine Organization: B-
General Physics: C+

I'm glad I was able to pass all of them and move on. I know to take a much easier quarter next time. The classes I'm taking are circled on the diagrams above, but they are as follows:

Math 372 (Combinatorics)
Math 262 (Applied Statistics)
PHYS222 (Physics II)





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BETACinema: Math Skit - Coming: April 1st

See also: BETACinema on Facebook
See also: BETACinema on YouTube






Our next skit is hopefully coming on Friday, April 1st and I have had the tendency to tack said date onto the end of most of my posts as of late.

Yesterday, I was finally able to get the skit footage so I have been editing it for the last couple of hours, as I'm very inspired to finish this on time. Though two scenes still need to be shot, it is largely finished, and so far it's looking pretty good.


Some more preview pictures of the skit:













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Marvelous Middle of March Updates!

Happy Middle of March!

As I always do every month, I want to post some updates on stuff that has been going on.


Last blog post, I stated that we had some progress on some future skits that are coming. In the last couple of days, some of the BETA members uploaded some commentary and footage from our meeting. So here's a quick compilation. Credit goes to Shadoe (for the first) and Mechanical Mia (for the last two) respectively.

BETACinema:















Pokémon:

I'm stuck at the Elite Four! Kind of my fault really, I taught Bacon some terrible moves. I re-taught it Heat Crush in order to go back to the Elite Four. I will be giving them a beating on Wednesday. Looking forward to transferring my team over from the older games and doing all that online content. I'm also going to be working on a team of all Unova pokémon within the next couple of months too. So look forward to that!

Also, my friends code is 4169-3822-6605. So add me!

Also, doesn't this pokémon look badass?



especially when it evolves into this:


I was lucky enough to find a Deino in Victory Road. :D

Dojo Adventure:

The changes I posted in Dojo Adventure will most likely be implemented in a few weeks. Sometime between March 27th and 31st. I'll advertise that as well. I'm maybe adding some NPCs in that ties in to upcoming game project Codename: EPIC as well.


_

Also, haven't completed (or touched?) Final Fantasy XIII yet. Most likely after finals. I'm also looking to finish Donkey Kong Country Returns too. So much to do, so little time! And now, I have to get back to my Physics work. Until the 17th!



And I shall end this blog post with two epic remixes. Enjoy!

3/13 Updates - Viva Eorzea/XIV Updates, BETACinema, and new announcement!

A hell of a lot has happened this past couple of days.

Added with the fact that I promised a fairly long rant... so here it is.

First and foremost, the country of Japan had a tremendous earthquake that resulted in giant tsunamis afterward. Please, I encourage you to at least donate something to the various relief funds that are going on. More details can be found here.

_

^ No, I'm not angry. If someone stands there and takes pictures, I'm tempted to flail around like Kirby and yell "Hiiiii!". Just sayin'.


Anyway, yesterday was a very productive day.

Final Fantasy XIV:
Although, I had to wake up at the 8AM (which is equivalent to the crack of dawn for me), I lead the FFXIV Gridania quests with the linkshell:





While the quests felt like I had something to do in game, there was just something... missing. Not quite sure how to explain it, but the game doesn't really feel too epic with all of this easy content. In any case, I have one more main quest to do for the Gridania and should be done there.

Also, I'm trying to get a second co-leader for the linkshell. I have a good idea of who will take the new second-in-command spot, but I'm not willing to make any final confirmations yet.

I've also just been notified that the game has been taken down for about a week while Japan is recovering from the recent earthquake/tsunami. Until then as well, the LS will go into hiatus while I focus on restructuring.

_

BETACinema:

Well, snap. Where to begin?

We filmed a pretty funny skit today. I don't want to reveal specifics, but this one is kind of aimed at more of the intellectual crowd. It's kind of bad (on my part) when you have to sit there and have to explain some of the jokes (ie: Chain Rule and Taylor/McLaurin series) , but I tried to have a balance of jokes that anyone can understand and some others can get as well. I guess I'll have to wait and see how that's received and go from there to determine if I want to write more niche material like that.






Also: "If Jon Ruled the World" is almost finished. Just a little longer. I'm helping out with some of the video editing in that regards to try and accelerate development.


New Announcement:

Starting in April, I'm going to convert my YouTube page and make it a page primarily a YouTube page for development with my game projects (Whim Independent Studios) and post new game project trailers, and new trailers for BETACinema comedy/video projects. I am also planning on having commentary/outtakes of the group on that page as well. Main skits and sketches will still be placed on BETACinema's main YouTube page, as always.






(Photos of BETA March Meeting are courtesy of Mechanical Mia.)

Friday-Induced Rant! The Good, the Bad, the Interesting.

^ Happy Friday!

Better start with the good, and then the bad:

Good:

-Today, we're hoping to get the rest of the filming for "If Jon Ruled The World" done. The video may be released by this month, but it seems unlikely. Possibly March.

-After that is all over, I'm going to head over to GameStop and download my Celebi to my Pokemon SoulSilver and Pearl versions. (That's right, I get two!) I can get the event in HeartGold/SoulSilver that allows this:

Make sure to get your Celebi to your DS before March 7th!

-We also a composer interested in the Codename: EPIC team! So we almost have a full development team now. I just need to train two other people how to use the software so we'll be able to develop different parts of the game at the same time.

-I'm also working on a new update to Dojo Adventure which should be coming in March.

-Some of the Blackbelt's abilities are going to be adjusted and split into tiers. So Blackbelt will be getting new higher-form abilities out of what exists and the existing abilities will be adjusted and made weaker as well as have their accuracy adjusted.

-Paramedic is also going to get the ability "Heal 4" which restores all HP to a party member.

Bad:

-I had a Physics midterm today, and although I think I did okay on 3 of the 5 problems, I don't think it's enough to garner enough points to have a decent score. I need to work on the labs and homework to get a decent grade for the class and move on to Physics II next quarter.

-I still need to get my laptop repaired, the USB ports are still dislocated, and I've yet to get them fixed.

Interesting:

"Where did all the nice guys go?"

-A friend sent me this article a couple of days ago, but I really have to say that he was right on par, and this article is very, very, true!

(It also doesn't just apply to guys, I imagine this works with both genders. But from personal experience, it couldn't be more true.)

Though it is kind of sad when you think about it. We always overlook what's in front of us and try to go for what we can't have. Yay for plans backfiring, right?

Also:

Gotta admit, guy has a point.

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A look back on 2010/December Goals and Updates!

A new month! The last month of 2010!

I've found this year in general to be much better than 2009. 2009 was a year filled with heartbreak, widespread political change, and a deep insightful look at what the hell was going on with my life. While I've found 2009 to be forced change upon myself (whether I wanted it or not), I've found this year to be one of personal change and a sense of advancement in my life. I've met a lot of new people and got to know some of my older friends a lot more, I experienced my first Anime Convention, I've become much more social around others (even though I'm still largely withdrawn/reclusive), I've started a new video group and met a lot of exciting and interesting people (and that video group implicitly hooked up three couples XD), I've learned how to both tweet and text people (thanks Fuego for the latter), and I've stopped using MySpace in favor of a better blog site (You're welcome, Blogspot). I've completed lots of video games that have been in completion limbo (like Final Fantasy I, and Legend of Dragoon for example).

In short (if you didn't want to read all of that mess), I've greatly enjoyed this year, I really couldn't be any happier of where I am now, and if I had a choice, I wouldn't have lived through 2010 in any other way.

Now on to December goals and updates!


Video Game Design Projects:

Shadow Kid:

My second game project, tentatively titled "Shadow Kid", is being worked on in both Unity 3D and Indie Game Maker, I'll have to present a prototype of the game sometime next week, so I'm working on it and I should be providing early screen-shots with placeholder graphics in a future blog post.

I'm looking for voice actors and level artists to help me out in the future. If you're reading this and may be interested, please message me on Facebook.

(See also: Shadow Kid Artwork/Designs)


Dojo Adventure:

I'm working on Dojo Adventure too, I've been getting messages and comments that the end of the game has a steep climb to it in terms of player vs monster level. I'm adding some areas in a couple of weeks that smooth-ens the leveling curve and makes it more enjoyable to level up between the 40's and the 60's. Expect an update to be posted around the 18th.

You can download the current version at the link below.

(See also: Dojo Adventure Download Page)

School:

Finals are coming up and I've been working my double to make sure I do well in all of my classes. I've pretty much singled out the one class that really needs work on (Digital Logic), and then I can try and hopefully pass that course and not have to worry about it.

I'm optimistic about it and hopeful that I should be in good shape. Next quarter I'm taking General Physics, Geology, Machine Organization, and Software Engineering. Fun!

(See also: Computer Science Class Flowchart)


MMOs:

Final Fantasy XIV:

I'm currently really enjoying my time in Eorzea. Since the update, I've been playing every chance I get (which, honestly, really isn't all that often due to school), but I'm aiming to play more during the Winter break. The game is at the point where I can start recommending to my friends (even though they'll most likely not listen and still not play, save for my XI friends) and I plan on having lots more adventures. I'm eagerly awaiting the December patch so Ricocant and I can continue shaping Viva Eorzea to be one of the best linkshells on the Figaro Server.

(See also: My current Final Fantasy XIV character status)

(See also: My views on Final Fantasy XIV Post-November 2010 Patch)


Final Fantasy XI:

I'm going to return to Final Fantasy XI this weekend to get level 85 Paladin and prepare for the update on December 6th that adds to the end of the Wings of the Goddess storyline. If this turns out to be the last patch they add with any sort of storyline content, I may retire from Vana'diel to continue working on FFXIV. As for the time being though, I'll be playing both FFXI and FFXIV and it makes it much easier that I get the two for $19 a month. Take that, World of Warcraft! Two addictions for $4 more than the price of one.

(See also: My current Final Fantasy XI status)


Relationship Thesis:

For people who have been keeping up with my blog posts, I've been working on a thesis of my personal view of [romantic] relationships. That can be viewed at the link below, and gets updated sparingly (as I see fit).

(See also: Relationship Thesis)


BETA Cinema:

I've outlined a detailed list for the plans for BETA Cinema this month and it is all listed in the link below.

(See also: BETA Updates)

Late-November Updates: Dojo Adventure, Shadow Kid, BETA.

I wanted to get some blog post in to keep the schedule going of one post of every two days. I've had a lack of motivation to do much in the gaming world lately. Call it a slump if you will, but other than some progress with Chrono Cross and Dissidia, I haven't played much of anything.

As for game design:

Dojo Adventure:

I'm working on some additions to the game in the form of side quests, optional boss fights, and new weapons and other neat additions to the game. I want to do this for the sake of better scores when the game gets reviewed after being sent to some forums. It already has some good scores on the RPG Maker Web forum on Facebook and from some friends, but I really want to expand to the Independent RPG developers on PhanxGames and Amaranthia to get some additional feedback.

For the time being though: New weapons, areas, and sidequests are coming. Expect them in December. It was originally going to be the 4th, but it's going to most likely be pushed back to December 18th.

Shadow Kid:

While Unity 3D is easy to pick up, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to learn. Not to mention I am teaching myself. I need to be disciplined enough to work through all of the tutorials to understand and comprehend how it works. I learn more by example than by an online lecture, so it's not exactly easy. We will see what happens though, I'll keep the blog posted with my future discoveries with Unity.

BETA:

A new skit is coming sometime in the future, I don't know the exact expected release, but nonetheless, it's going to be called Control Freak. We also have two more skits that are going to be filmed a week from now. One that I have written, and another that a team of three in the group has written. The one I have will be more comedy based, the other is a serious love story of sorts. It's interesting to see that we will start branching out into new genres and I'm excited to see where this group goes! We are all having a lot of fun, and a fun environment always leads to expanded creativity among members.

That's the official update for late November!

Oh and by the way, if you haven't seen our first movie: