My Mind, or: The Haunted House

I was about 10 or 11 years old, and still fondly remember meeting up with a friend at Sunday School and fervently discussing all the finer points of EACH AND EVERY MISSION. It was brilliant. I suppose it was one of my first experiences where the sharing took place on that level. We would strategise, discuss weaknesses, the amazing FMV clips...I would look forward to that the whole week. It was very fun trying to find little tricks to exploit the A.I. It didn't feel like cheating at all, it felt like it was all part of the game. It felt NECESSARY. Ones I can still remember are parking a stealth-tank in the enemy refinery so that their harvester could not deliver any tiberium, or how you could pick off an enemy Mammoth Tank with a single Recon Bike unit if you were fast and skilled enough to dodge their rockets, because you could stay outside the main cannons' range. The first time I encountered an Obelisk of Light...it was one of my most defining gaming moments u...

I was considering getting on my soap-box and delivering my list of the top video games of all time. Then, I realised, there are already tons of such lists across the Great Internet, so why would you read mine? Firstly, it brings me amazing joy to reflect on the very personal memories each of these games has brought me. Once again, this is for people who know me. Without personal knowledge, this becomes irrelevant. This pursuit combines a lot of what I love. I am a gamer and have been since the age of 3, when I started on an Apple II. Probably the first game I can really remember absolutely loving is Choplifter (1982). Playing that using the brilliant Apple II joystick was, simply, sick! I love design, and certainly not only visuals, i.e. most people's idea of graphic design. All the choices that have been made in producing something. I analyse films and enjoy them greatly, likely more so because of this. Along with my ex, Wynand (who loved films too), we came up with the rating s...

I’ve never been too stressed about writing anything, really. Having said that, this is also much more for my own benefit, but it should definitely be interesting to anyone who knows me. I’m by no means handing out life advice here. This is to help me. Without sounding like I’m bragging too much, I think my thoughts are carefully considered and well defined. So here’s the first! What has made me so happy recently? Many things, but the one I’d like to concentrate on right now is the notion of pre-conceived ideas and values. It’s absolutely useless to try and pretend that “Oh no! I don’t do that.” It’s pure human nature and cannot be avoided. As a graphic designer, we somewhat rely on this. Why make a continue button red? It denotes “Stop!” for obvious reasons. This is why they are very often coloured green instead. Specifically, what I want to mention is that these values are what define us, and that we’ve built them up over a lifetime. They are so much st...