Author Archives: Ryan

“The Statue Got Me High”: Supplemental Material

The other day, prolific interactive fiction critic “Peter Pears” posted an excessively complimentary review of my IF “cover” of They Might Be Giants’s “The Statue Got Me High”. [Update, September 2014: that review is not there anymore] In the review he called out an aspect of the game that not everybody notices, namely that I stole the plot of the game from the finale of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

The rock song and the Don Juan myth both deal with statues, fire, and cosmic justice, but the similarities apparently are coincidental. A fan must have pointed them out to John Linnell after the song was released, leading him to introduce the song at a show in 1994 saying: “This song is based on the life of Don Giovanni, which I didn’t know when I wrote the song.” Yes: The game is a ripoff of two different artists’ work, and even drawing a connection between the works wasn’t my own idea. Continue reading →

Groundhog Day Around the World

2013 marks the twentieth anniversary of the film Groundhog Day, directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Since the movie’s release, the real-life holiday has been inextricably linked with Sonny, Cher, and temporal disturbances. But there’s more to Groundhog Day than Groundhog Day, isn’t there?

Continue reading →

Westerado: a Roguelikesque Spaghetti Western

I haven’t played all of the games in adultswim.com’s online catalogue, but for the most part they seem rather slight. Burrito Bison Revenge is the best “launch-an-object-as-far-as-you-can” game I’ve ever played, but it’s still a launch-an-object-as-far-as-you-can game. It’s an arcade game.

Westerado is not an arcade game. Westerado, created by the Dutch studio Ostrich Banditos, is an open-world Western that you play in a browser—and I’d say it beats quite a few console and PC open-world games for depth, immersion, and freedom.

Continue reading →

Another Doll

A new project has been added to the Felt Dolls page or whatever it’s called. “Plush Toys”. Whatever.

More Cute Things: LIZARDBROS

I added pictures of three more Lizardbro dolls to the Plush Toys page. They are way at the bottom.

New Cutesy Page

I got a new page up in the menu bar there, displaying a selection of plush toys that I have made with felt and stuffing. Do not feel embarrassed if you find any of them to be adorable; that is the intended effect.

Interview: Alexandra Niehlan

Hey, it’s me, Ryan. I have to explain a couple things first: I recently found out about this incredible opportunity to interview Alexandra Niehlan, the famous voice actress that you’ve definitely heard of. I’m a huge fan of Niehlan’s work, as I’m sure you are, and talking to her in person felt like it could be a turning point for me, a career-shaping experience. Continue reading →

Love and Lust Beneath Earth’s Crust

Shag’s beat-up old magrunner, old and beat-up though it was, still and yet managed to slice through the molten rock of the planet’s mantle like a hot knife through butter. It was a good old magrunner. It had a few years left in it. If it didn’t melt first. Continue reading →

“MOTORCYCLUS” Portrait Series

Plaid Peacock is this place here in Waterloo that sells neat arts and gifts, including my goofy book of scary stories, and this Saturday they’re hosting a reading/signing event for the aforementioned book. It’s gonna be spookdacious.

We decided to have prizes for people who come in costume as characters from the book, and it fell to me to figure out what those prizes should be. Luckily my friend Heidi came up with a great idea.

Continue reading →

Time to Laugh, and Shiver, and Cry

Hi, this is the blog for Ryan Veeder and rcveeder.net. I should get around to adding more stuff here but there are some other things I have to take care of first.

Thank you for your interest.