With E3 now a good two weeks (plus) past, I thought it time to offer my impressions from the show. Granted, I spent most of it cooped up in a small presentation room with the project manager, PR director, and assorted journalists, but I was able to roam freely for a little while, untethered by a punishing schedule.

In general, this E3 was more about games than hardware. While a 'Battle of Handhelds' was staged, I didn't see much of that - I checked out the PSP through a glass casing (sleek and pretty, and I'm definitely getting one), but the line for the Nintendo DS was ridiculous, and I had no time to wait in line for anything. Quite suprisingly, none of the hardware manufacturers had any news regarding their next generation consoles, and thus the games remained the show's primary focus. Which was good.

Of the three, Xbox was probably the console blessed with the widest range of original, high-quality titles. Not counting multi-platform games, there was Fable, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic 2, DOOM 3, Conker: Live and Reloaded, The Chronicles of Riddick, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Halo 2 (which I didn't get to see, but its presence was noticeable in other ways), and more. Of course, most, if not all, multi-platform titles looked their best on the Xbox, including Burnout 3, Prince of Persia 2, Mercenaries, and Silent Hill 4.

PlayStation 2, and Sony, had a more muted presence (PSP notwithstanding), with few must-have titles on display - not counting a good-looking, but not spectacular, Final Fantasy XII, and Killzone. Metal Gear Solid 3 looked rather blah, Getaway 2 wasn't all that different from its predecessor - competent but unspectacular - and Gran Turismo 4, while technically cutting edge, made me shrug. Sony may just need the PSP to maintain excitement about their brand, especially since the PS3 isn't due until 2006.

The GameCube may not have had the numbers, but they had the quality, and with the new Legend of Zelda title (video only, unfortunately) and Resident Evil 4, they made me giddy with excitement about the future of the platform - however limited it may prove to be.

Here, then, are the individual games that were standouts:

Resident Evil 4. Oh yes. Simply being a true Resident Evil sequel (it's been a while; Zero and Outbreak don't count) was enough for me, but this game breaks new ground. The viewpoint and controls are smooth, intuitive, and revolutionary; the graphics are some of the best to ever emerge from the current generation consoles; and the whole package oozes fear. A class act through and through, and probably my pick for game of the show.

Jade Empire. I didn't get a chance to play it, but I've seen enough to know that this game will be a part of my library come December. An Xbox RPG, it has a fantastic setting (mythical China), some intriguing characters, fast-paced role-playing combat, and a great story. Plus it looks mighty pretty.

Prince of Persia 2. While I can't make my mind up completely about the previous one - did I love it, like it, or find it annoying and frustrating? Or all three? - the sequel looks absolutely fantastic. Darker, more violent, more stylish, and much, much prettier, it's a game I can't wait to play.

Half-Life 2. Again, video only, but from what I saw, this game has the gameplay to back up the astonishing visuals. Still, it's difficult to get too excited about a game that was due in September of last year. At this point, I'm sick of hearing about it. I just want to play it and judge for myself.

DOOM 3. Playable on the Xbox only (as far as I could tell), it looked good. Not amazing, not groundbreaking, not revolutionary...but good. I like the setting, the claustrophobic corridors, the shadows, the monsters - the whole DOOM atmosphere - and I look forward to playing it, but it doesn't have me squealing like a schoolgirl in anticipation. (Not anymore, at least.) We've heard and seen too much for too long, and they need to release this one already.

Burnout 3. I loves my racing games, and I gots to have this one. It looks stunning, controls beautifully, and if Burnout 2 is any indication, this could end up being the ultimate arcade racer. Outrun 2, unfortunately, pales in comparison. Definitely the racing game of the show, and miles ahead of Gran Turismo 4 in the 'pure fun' department.

Mercenaries. I didn't see enough of this to get a good impression of how it plays, but it looks sweet, and the concept is rock solid: GTA meets Freedom Fighters. And from what I've read so far, it seems like a very intriguing game from a highly prolific - and talented - developer. In fact, Pandemic Studios were behind some of the most talked-about games of the show, and appear to be on a solid winning streak.

Killzone. The PS2's only FPS of note, Killzone is due for release quite soon. Visually stunning, it also controls extremely well, and features intelligent - and scary-looking - opponents. Nothing revolutionary, but it doesn't have to be as long as its fun. And this was fun.

Black. I know nothing about it, I've seen absolutely nothing, no one is allowed to talk about it - and that just makes it so much more exciting in my book. We'll probably all end up being disappointed, but, hey, isn't that what breathless anticipation is all about? It's a first-person shooter (sort of, maybe, I think), it's for the PS2, it's from Criterion, and it's coming out next year.

City of Villains. I play City of Heroes, but who wants to be a wussy do-gooder when you can be a maniacal big bad? This MMO expansion looks yummy, and I'll definitely pick it up when it's released next spring.

World of Warcraft. All right, so it looked the same as it did last year (and, honestly, the year before that), but it will most likely be a highly enjoyable - and polished - experience. I don't know how long it will last, seeing as there's a multitude of MMOs on the way, but I'm not too concerned about that. Bring it on, already!

The Sims 2. Yes, I played the first one waaay too much, and yes, the expansion packs were all crap (and don't get me started about that online thing), but this one could offer something new and original. I remain cautiously optimistic. And it does look promising.

The Movies. It might not work - in fact, I'm very doubtful that it will; Peter Molyneux's games have a tendency to sound fantastic on paper - but if it does, it'll surely rock my world. And, hey, it's inventive, original, and daring, and there's not nearly enough of that to go around.

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. It's the concept more than anything else that has got me excited: playing a party of original characters, you interact with the characters and storylines from the books...I mean, the movies (EA only has the license for the three films). EA only showed a battle against a cool-looking Balrog at E3, but this LOTR-meets-Final-Fantasy title tickled my fancy. A bit.

There you go. Unsurprisingly, almost none of my picks - sans Jade, Killzone, and Movies - are original titles...quite simply because most of the games at the show were either sequels, spin-offs, remakes, licenses, or expansions. Love it or hate it, this is where the industry is heading at the moment, and while it does limit creativity in some ways, it can also lead to more polished games, as developers build on and evolve past successes. Heck, at the Funcom booth we were showing Dreamfall (a, uh, "spiritual successor" to The Longest Journey), and Alien Invasion (an expansion pack to Anarchy Online). Incidentally, next year will be a banner year for Funcom. Just wait and see. There will be surprises galore. And also much more Dreamfall-y goodness.

Ironically enough, my single most anticipated game of 2004 was nowhere to be seen - not surprisingly, since Take Two are in the enviable position of having a guaranteed smash hit on their hands: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I just can't wait to be transported back to the early 90s in a fictional California...  ¶ 12:43 0 comments   

  My previous post was delayed almost a week for various reasons, including a hardware upgrade at the office. I finally have a PC which can actually play Dreamfall! For the past four years, I've been using a Pentium III 500Mhz, which is all right for Word - where I do most of my work - but rather useless for everything else. Since I upgraded my home-office laptop a short while ago - to a Dell Inspiron 8600 - I'm now technologically up-to-date. It won't last, however, so I should enjoy it while I can. Hopefully, Half-Life 2 will be out before my hardware is outdated.

There's been quite a bit of mail lately, and I've yet to wade through even half of it, so if you're waiting for a reply to a question, please be patient. For now, here's David with a few concerns and ideas:

Hello again,

A long time ago you said two things, one of which concerns me, while the other has recently been brought to the surface. The latter was regarding language and controversial matter in TLJ. I think it appeared in an interview, although you may have posted it in your journal, but it basically said that we can expect to see lesbians and/or gays, as well as course language in TLJ2. A few days ago in an IGN interview, you said that you were seriously considering toning things down. I'd like to strongly advise you against this, as mature gamers, most especially fans of the original TLJ, would see this as "dumbing down" the game, and one of the things TLJ was praised for was it's inclusion of a normal same-sex couple and course (or as I like to call it, realistic) language. While these elements do not necessarily make a game good, they show the writers are not afraid to communicate to their audience on a mature level as well as giving the game more depth and a greater sense of realism.

The other thing I wanted to ask you is if you have played TLJ from beginning to end yet, as you said in your journal that you have never done so. If not, I suggest you do so to make sure you stay true to the spirit of the original, and be sure to pay special attention to the ending. That is one thing that NEEDS to be resolved. When I passed TLJ, I felt several things; satisfaction, sorrow, and a feeling that there was a small thing, a few little details, or perhaps something to be said that wasn't. Almost as if the ending wasn't an ending at all, merely an intermission (albeit a very long one). You really need a nice, LONG flashback to that moment when the credits began to roll, and preferably with high-res pre-rendered video, as while in-game, interactive cutscenes are great, there's nothing like being able to sit back from the keyboard and watch a beautifully rendered sequence that you'll be able to go back and watch again and again. I'll say it again, because it's so important - you can have interactive cutscenes, rendered in-game, and as good as they look, they can never match a pre-rendered cutscene for sheer satisfaction, partly due to the fact that an in-game cutscene is always worse-looking then a pre-rendered one, partly because in-game graphics don't offer you change from what you've been looking at before, partly because watching them again is never as good as watching pre-rendered ones, and also let's face it; Adventurers (and many other gamers) just love em.

I took the time to write this, and I hope you will find time to reply, either by posting this in your journal or replying by email. These issues are important to me, and I wouldn't have written an e-mail this long if I didn't want a response.

Thanking you in advance,

David Jeffries
(Pirateguybrush)

PS. I love the new screens, and although April looks strange, I kinda like the new look. The other characters look great, but I hope there's not too much forced combat and sneaking during Kian's segments.

We won't be dumbing down the game, nor will we be pulling any (necessary) punches. I was referring only to the language, and nothing has been decided. We don't want to alienate anyone - but that goes both ways. Rest assured that the story will be as 'adult', as mature, as it was in the first games, and that we are striving to give depth and realism to the characters and the universe. We don't want to play it completely safe, and we like shaking things up a bit. There is a ratings issue which we have to be conscious of, but we won't let it compromise the quality of the game.

As for playing through The Longest Journey: it's true that I haven't ever sat down and played the game through from beginning to end, uninterrupted - but that's only to be expected. The entire story, every single line of dialogue, every puzzle, every character - these are all lodged in my brain for eternity. I can literally play through TLJ with my eyes closed, so there shouldn't be any concerns that the spirit of the original will live on in the follow-up: on some levels - especially in terms of story, themes, and characters - they are both highly personal games.

Lastly, when it comes to pre-rendered cut-scenes, don't expect a lot of these. Our graphics engine is quite capable of rendering beautiful real-time cinematic sequences - much, much nicer, in fact, than the full-motion videos in the first game.

...oh, and the 'new' April is, in fact, a realistic evolution of what we wanted April to look like in TLJ (but for various reasons weren't always able to accomplish; every incarnation looked slightly different). Check out the American box-art for that game and compare it to the one-decade-older April: they are quite clearly the same person.  ¶ 12:39 0 comments   

  Back in Norway, back to more manageable temperatures. New York was so unbelievably hot and humid that it was hard to muster up the energy to do anything at all. Here, it's still relatively cool and dry - still spring - and after the past couple of weeks, that feels very refreshing.

Aside from the weather, New York was a blast. It was nice to have a whole week off after the craziness of the past month, and since it'll probably be a while until I'm back in the city - September, most likely - I made the most out of my stay. As is always the case, however, I would have liked to stay quite a bit longer.

My flight out of JFK on Monday was delayed for two hours because of storms, which made the first hour in the air a rather shaky experience. Stuck in a centre seat, with my freakishly long legs, I was miserably cramped for the entire journey, and quite unable to find a comfortable position. Yet, unbelievably, I managed to doze off for a few hours in-between the meals - mainly thanks to my brand spanking new mint green iPod mini.

Yes, after months of searching, I finally got my eager little hands on one of these beauties - they've been selling like hot potatoes, and Apple hasn't been able to keep up with the demand - and it rocks. Considerably smaller than the 'regular' iPod, it's a very good-looking gadget. Which is important. And it sounds and functions quite beautifully. Which is even more important. I also picked up a pair of Sony in-ear headphones (EX-71, with a kickin' bass), and I got a remote from a friend of mine, so now I'm all kitted out and a happy boy. Worth every penny.  ¶ 17:21 0 comments   

  I'm leaving New York for decidedly colder pastures come six o'clock this PM - KLM to Amsterdam, touching down at 8 AM, followed by a two-hour flight to Oslo - and then straight to work. The entire team has enjoyed some well deserved post-E3 R&R, but now we're going to focus yet again on our next milestone, which is already looming on the not-so-distant horizon. For now, I'm going to enjoy my last few hours in the city, but I'll be back with more posts once I've made it to the other side of the Atlantic.  ¶ 15:58 0 comments   

  Dreamfall has picked up a few 'Best of E3' awards from IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot. Yay.  ¶ 03:15 0 comments   

  The day after I pick up Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon for the Xbox ($19.99 at GameStop), I find out that Revolution Software is downsizing to focus exclusively on design. Suffering the same fate as pretty much every independent developer out there, this is another indication of an industry that's becoming more and more reliant on the financial stability of large publishers like EA. Games are enormously expensive, and a single flop - or, in the case of Broken Sword, a mostly well-reviewed 'non-hit' - can spell disaster for any developer living hand to mouth. It's particularly sad when an outfit as established and talented as Revolution is affected, but consistency of quality doesn't necessarily equate success: just look at what happened to Looking Glass Studios.  ¶ 18:06 0 comments   

  I have finally caught up on some much-needed sleep after the Big Show, and I'm itching to get back to work. I'll be in New York until next week, however, doing not-very-much aside from eating, sleeping, shopping, watching movies...and thinking about the next twelve months working on Dreamfall.

The greatest thing about E3 is that you get immediate feedback on the games you're showing, and my mind is currently processing the reactions - from meetings and interviews, and subsequent previews - to focus (or re-focus) on the road ahead. By and large, we're on the right track, but some priorities will be shifted around. I'm already excited about next year's E3, when we'll be showing - to the public, I'm sure - a nearly finished game. Until then, however, we won't be releasing a whole lot of new information. The website will be updated on a semi-regular basis, but that'll be it. Seeing as the game's release is still almost a year and a half away, we don't want to hype it too much too early. I'll still be writing a few words about the development process now and then, but I won't be discussing any specifics.

For the time being, here's a wrap-up featuring a few of the Dreamfall previews I've seen posted this past week:

AdventureGamers.com state that "Dreamfall very well may just kick in the damn door of the whole genre." IGN call the graphics "beautiful" and "amazing", and the demo "impressive", closing with: "Dreamfall should end up being the follow-up the first game so much deserved." Over at GameSpot, they appear to agree, stating that the game seems "extremely impressive" and "very promising". And GameSpy, while worried that adventure fans may be put off by the action elements (it appears that they are wrong), are excited about the "cool new storylines" and "great new characters". ToTheGame "can't wait to see more", and feel that the game will be "emotionally powerful" (which is exactly what we're trying to accomplish). Finally, in case you missed it, there was a detailed pre-E3 interview over at IGN's RPG Vault a week and a half ago. It's still got a few details that haven't been covered elsewhere.

That's it for E3 - at least for now. If something else pops up, I'll be sure to post it, but expect coverage on Dreamfall to be pretty light from now until next year (or Christmas, at the earliest).

In other news: Now that the Hollywood pros are working in the game industry, games are gaining star power? We've done very well without them so far, thank you very much, and there are plenty of stars in this industry already. Maybe they're not particularly well recognised by the media - or the buying audience - but they've been making games for years, even decades, and they are infinitely more deserving of attention than the high-profile stars and film directors who are only now jumping on the bandwagon. The proof is in the pudding, however (or rather, in the games), and, in time, it's the game developers who will get the recognition they so richly deserve.  ¶ 17:54 0 comments   

  E3 is well underway, and we've already met with a number of magazines and websites, including the top two adventure gaming sites out there: Adventure Gamers and Just Adventure. Everyone seems happy with what we've shown them thus far, which is a Good Thing. After all, the team has worked its collective arse off to produce a very solid E3 demo, and while we're still a long, long way away from release, it's important for us to see that we really are heading in the right direction with Dreamfall. When E3 is over and done with, we won't be talking about or showing the game until 2005 (we'll be busy putting it all together), so it's important for us to get the feedback - both positive and negative - at this stage.

Time to hit the hay and get the usual six hours of E3-sleep before heading down to the convention centre tomorrow. We're staying in Santa Monica, and during rush hour it's a good hour ride downtown, which means that we have to be on the road by seven thirty in the morning. Ugh. (These E3 parties will be the death of me. I should've been in bed by eleven.)  ¶ 08:32 0 comments   

  The first Dreamfall game CD is already on its way to sunny California as we speak - landing in, oh, three hours or so? The latest version is travelling in my hand luggage tomorrow morning, and another new build will find its way to L.A. on Tuesday. After that, if necessary, we'll do updates over the net - but it already looks pretty solid, so we're good. All is set for a great show. Yay! The demo will be shown behind closed doors - invitation only - but there will be a video outside the Funcom booth (#2473, West Hall), so if you're at the show, stop by for a sneak peek. For the rest of you, keep your eyes open for press coverage, since we'll be unveiling a bunch of new screenshots, concept art, and, best of all, character posters. They look absolutely fantastic.

Finally:

One.  ¶ 19:25   

  Had to cancel my weekend trip to New York, since we're still hard at work on the Dreamfall E3 demo. Things are looking fantastic, but - as ever - last minute tweaking and polishing is crucial. I'm off to L.A. on Monday, but the team will stay busy until Friday, feeding us fresh versions all week long. The team has been working incredibly hard on this demo, and when next weekend finally rolls around, they will get their first full day off since early April.

I heard quite a while ago that Dreamfall would be a multiplatform game, not just PC but PS2, Xbox and possibly GameCube. I haven't seen anything to indicate this recently and my hope that it's true is wanning somewhat as it seems unlikely that my computer will be in the mindset to run it. Any truth to this? Thanks for your, limited, time.

Yup, Dreamfall is being developed for the console(s), but we're not divulging which one(s) just yet.

Oh, and:

Two.  ¶ 14:20   

  Three.  ¶ 20:39   

  What are your thoughts on Jane Jensen's new adventure being put on an indefinate hold by The Adventure Company?

I can't comment on that game in particular, because I don't know anything about it, but there's usually a sound reason behind such a decision, be it financial or creative.

It's very expensive to make games, even relatively small ones. The staff needs a competitive salary, office space must be rented, computers must be leased or bought - and then there's the marketing, the PR, the distribution, printing, pressing, and the cost of getting a game on the shelves (which ain't free, believe me; there's an ongoing war for shelf space, and the deepest pockets usually win). All in all, it's very hard to develop and publish any kind of game - even a 'low-budget' one - for less than a million bucks, and for a triple-A multiplatform title, the price tag is usually four million dollars and upwards (the sky is not the limit). Embarking on any new development, therefore, is a balance between risk and reward, between creative dreams and financial realities. It's easy to criticise a publisher for cancelling a project - or "putting it on hold", which is what we always prefer to call it - but the fact is that, unless your company name spells 'E' and 'A', a single belly-flop can destroy you...and a lot of games do just that: flop. Therefore, a prudent publisher will scrutinise and evaluate a project at every step of the way, and no game-in-development is ever safe from the axe - unless it's a "sure thing", of course, but there aren't a lot of those.

So there's usually a good reason behind a cancellation. More often than not, it's because of a lack of progress, escalating expenses, or substandard quality; sometimes it's because of perceived or actual changes in the marketplace, or limited retailer interest; or the publisher may have run out of cash and needs to focus on fewer titles. It's the same in every creative industry. How many movies get axed before they're put into production? How many TV shows? A lot...but you don't necessarily hear about them. As games get more and more expensive, requiring bigger teams with highly experienced people, more games will also be put on the chopping block at an earlier stage - because mistakes will be costly, and flops may be fatal.  ¶ 15:38   

  I'm on a sleep-work cycle: Sleep, work, sleep, work (etc.). This coming weekend, however, I'll be in New York, enjoying a couple of days off before flying to L.A. on Monday.

I used to think Dreamfall would only use action sequences for key events in the game, but now I get the impression that action will be an important part of Dreamfall. If possible, could you give us an estimate of how much time of the game we'll get action, and how much will be exploration?

There will be lots of exploration, lots of adventure gameplay, lots of interesting places to see, people to meet, puzzles to solve, quests to embark on...and the action will be an integral and natural part of that gameplay.

The action and the adventure won't necessarily be clearly delineated. Is sneaking past a guard 'action', for example, since that guard may discover you and attack - or is it 'adventure', because you may use the environment - or an inventory item - to avoid being spotted? In a traditional adventure, there may only be one scripted solution to that particular scenario, but in our game there's often no right or wrong.

In other media, the word 'adventure' usually describes a story with lots of different elements. When you go see an adventure movie, for example, you expect action, daring-do, romance, heroes and heroines, villains, set-pieces and cliff-hangers. Adventure stories are great fun: they allow us to dream about impossible places and situations, they engage and thrill, they make us cheer for the good guy (or girl) and hiss at the Big Bad. Good adventures can be simple or complex, long or short, deep or shallow - but the one thing they have in common is that they keep us entertained, keep us excited, keep us intrigued and eager for more, more, more!

And that's exactly what we're attempting to pull off with Dreamfall: create an exotic world filled with interesting characters, varied gameplay, stunning graphics and sound, and a good, solid story. A real adventure - in the traditional sense of the word. Conversations? Puzzles? Exploration? Check, check, and check. Action? Danger? Thrills? Ditto. We're not attempting to please everyone by creating a mish-mash of genres, but we do want a mix of gameplay elements to keep players on their toes, and to ensure that there's something new and exciting around every corner.  ¶ 21:46   

  Here, for no good reason whatsoever, are one-word reviews of four games I've tested today:

Siren. Freaky.
Hitman 3. Gory.
Resident Evil: Outbreak. Clunky.
Onimusha 3. Peachy.

Of the four, the first is the most interesting, while the last is the most fun. Since I've spent less than one hour with each title, however, I'll reserve final judgement for a while yet - probably until after E3, since my time between now and then is frustratingly limited.  ¶ 23:18   

  Waitwaitwait... did you say "save points"? As is those annoying things that console gamers have to use? You're a gamer, surely you won't subject PC gamers to save-points?

Fret not: the save-points (or checkpoints) are there to ensure that, should you have forgotten to save, you won't have to replay huge chunks of the game. You will, of course, be allowed to save your game at (pretty much) any time. Who loves ya, baby?

And just to reiterate the point:

- Will you be able to save anywhere and anytime in the game, or can you only revert to predefined checkpoints?

"Yes" to the first part, "no" to the second.  ¶ 10:00   

  http://www.minstrum.net/images/presse/pcjeux1.jpg

Is this in-game? Because if it is HOLY CRAP!

Pretty much, yes. It's not a screenshot per se, but it's a high-resolution render of an actual location - and it does look as good as that in-game, believe it or not.

I'm sure I'm asking a qustion that all adventure gamers will want to know the answer to when I ask "Is there any way to die or be forced to load an earlier save in Dreamfall?"

Yes, and no.

Yes, it will be possible to 'die' (although you won't really: it's hard to explain, and it ties in with the whole framework of the game; there's certainly no "You're Dead!" splash screen, nor will any character be lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground...unless it's an integral part of the story, of course). And no, you won't be forced to load, because you will automatically be given a second chance through the magic of save-points.

Rest assured that experimentation will still be encouraged and required - in the spirit of the first Journey - but since there's more action this time around, more twists in the tale, there's also more at stake, and so there must be consequences. Failure is an option. But we are working very, very hard to ensure that players won't be banging their heads against the wall in frustration. And you won't need "mad skillz" to survive in Dreamfall. You will just need to use your noggin'...which is what adventures are all about, no?

Dreamfall will not be a shooter or a fighter or a platform game or an RPG. In the end, it's all about taking a character (or, in this case, characters) on an exciting and unexpected journey through a reactive game world where anything can (and probably will) happen. There will be adventure! Action! Danger and death and funnies and romance and beauty! And, hopefully, by the end of it all, you will have gotten your monies worth.

I`m currently working on a adventure game -just for a hobby, not commercial or anything!- and my main inspiration is the The longest journey. But what i like to ask is this, could you give me any information or links where i can learn how to convert my hand made drawings into good-looking background screens?

I don't think there's any tool that will convert pencil drawings into full-colour backgrounds without a great deal of manual labour, but the best programs out there - and the ones our artists use on a daily basis - are Photoshop and 3D Studio. Scan your drawings, colour and retouch them in Photoshop, or build your concepts in 3D, and you're on your way. Since these programs are hugely popular, I'm sure there are tons and tons of resources out there on how to use them, but I wouldn't know where to begin. Do a Google search, visit some artists' forums, and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.  ¶ 11:46