Month: January 2014

Meet the Actor – J.T. Decker

Kris Takahashi Meet the Actor 3 Comments

It’s a hard thing to find actors that have range, talent, a good mic, and most of all, are reliable. It’s very, very hard to check three of those boxes, let alone four. J.T. Decker, he checks boxes for breakfast. He’s had it up to here with your unchecked little squares. And while this sort of attitude means he takes no prisoners, he does take interview requests. Here he is answering questions and discussing the variety of characters he has put out in a relatively short amount of time.

If you care to listen, he’s slapped a WARNING label on this audio file. Something about having an odd sense of humor. Naturally, that only makes us curious types more likely to click on it. Nevertheless, click at your own peril.

And yes, the impersonation of me is rather spot on.

Creation Kit – Easter Egg Quests

Kris Takahashi Other No Comments

In a game like Skyrim, objectives are pretty much essential. You can’t really keep track of what the hell you were doing given there’s so much shit to do. Still, objectives do have unintended consequences. They tell you there is a piece of candy waiting for you at a certain place, and place an incentive on visiting it.

This is completely benign if the quest giver is self-aware. If I want you to fetch my sword from a cave, the player should have it marked on his or her map. They should have an incentive to go there. Objectives are just a helpful reminder of the task at hand.

However, in other cases, as with the crabber Juryk, the quest giver has no idea that certain events are taking place around him. There’s no reason an objective marker should point you to the next location, given the information the crabber provides. In this case, I decided to let things happen organically. The odds you would never visit the inns and taverns are next to nil, so there’s never a worry that lacking objectives will hinder your progress.

Nevertheless, I thought it’d be a good idea to highlight this and other easter eggy quests like The Queen of Mereth in the blog, if nothing else than to give the actors their due.

Fan Art – Rumarin by BlueReptile

Kris Takahashi Art 1 Comment

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Did I tell you how much I love fan art?

I mean shit, let’s face it. Much of the internet is cold, dark, and hopeless. The things you see…the shivers don’t just crawl up your spine, they hop on a rocket ship and blast off – right into the sun, where it’s nice and warm.

And somewhere, in that nuggety center, I imagine you’ll find pictures like this. This is a picture of BlueReptile’s character and Rumarin, just the latest in what has become a score of warm and fuzzies for our High Elf friend.

• Blue Reptile’s Tumblr
• Deviant Art Account