The Lossen, Short Film, Review And Interview

In wanting to write something about The Lossen I feel like if I go more than what is in the synopsis I will be giving too much away about this insightful short film. I will just leave it that this is a film that can be enjoyed by everyone as I think every adult can find some level of being able to relate to the story.

The Lossen was screened at the 2019 FilmQuest film festival (website). It was nominated for Best Fantasy Short and Best Actor (Sean Knopp).

Synopsis

In the dead of night another-worldly visitor drags its hulking, hooded mass to the front door of 70-year-old successful businesswoman, Sylvia Cappleman, but this mythical Grim Reaper is not all it seems and so appears The Lossen, the Reaper's agent of death. In the final moments of her life The Lossen discovers a complication with Sylvia's passing, she cannot be taken by death because she has not fulfilled her dream. In order to rectify the problem, The Lossen takes Sylvia on a journey to confront her lost dream and the secrets of her past.

The director, Colin Skevington, provided some additional information about the film and their personal journey into film making.

The Lossen won the Grand Prize for Best Fantasy Short at the 2018 Rhode Island International Film Festival, a Gold Remi Award at WorldFest 2019 in Houston and Best Art Direction at the Vienna Independent Film Festival 2019.

 

What was the inspiration for The Lossen

The inspiration for The Lossen came whilst I was researching a documentary about the differences in attitudes towards death in the East and West. Sadly, in the West death is still a taboo subject and most people want to avoid any thought of the inevitable. The opening scene of the The Lossen came to me as a daydream. I could see the imposing figure of the Grim Reaper, scythe in hand, walking down the path of an impressive, old country house. It raps on the door awakening Sylvia, a woman in her 70s and in the final moments of her life, but this Reaper is not what we expect. This dramatic opening scene gave me the perfect opportunity to write a script that would begin a journey to turn our view of death on its head and show us a possibility of what could be, but in an entertaining and gripping way. It reflects one of the key themes of the film; that death is not what we think it is.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

The plan is to produce more Lossen films. I am working on the script for the next one. It follows on straight after this one. There's a little insight at the end of The Lossen. I also have a screenplay which is an epic tale with a supernatural undertone, of course. We will be working towards getting that into production and hopefully The Lossen and the follow ups will lead the way.

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

I've always been fascinated by how things work. As a child I was always breaking open toys to see what was inside them and made them work. The first film I saw at the cinema was Snow White. I just wanted to know how it got on to the screen and films have fascinated me ever since. As I got older, I realised that film making is all about storytelling and how it's one of the most powerful ways for us to reflect on our own lives.

 

What would be your dream project?

To direct a movie of the screenplay I have written. A supernatural tale set in different times and will lead the audience to question where they come from and why they are here.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

For me the greatest thing is tending the garden. It's a place to shut off and escape. I could say I'm a snowboarder and light aircraft pilot but that would be a lie.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

Pan's Labyrinth. It's the most stunning and engaging film to watch. Magic realism is one of my favourite genres and for me the idea of the natural world and supernatural world co-habiting and influencing each other is inspiring.

You can find more about The Lossen on the on the following sites.

IMDb (link)

Website: www.thelossen.com

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=51&v=Ga3Ya4TKxEI

Facebook: @thelossen

Twitter: @TheLossen

Instagram: @thelossen

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Ion Fury (PC)

Developer:

Voidpoint

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Release Date:

2019

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Systems:

PC, Mac

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This month on Super Adventures, I've only got the one game for you, and it's been reviewed and streamed by everyone else already! In fact it was in Early Access for months, so a whole chapter of it's been around for everyone to play for ages. What I should've done is hang on for a couple of decades until the game's properly retro and write about it then, but I'm impatient.

Ion Fury is the second Duke Nukem spin-off starring Shelly Harrison after 2016's Bombshell, except not really as the character never actually turned up in any of the Duke Nukem games she was intended to appear in. This worked out for 3D Realms though as it means they got to keep her when they sold the rest of the Duke IP to Gearbox a few years back. They can't make Duke Nukem games anymore but they can make all the Bombshell sequels they want. Or a prequel in this case.

Bombshell was a top down shooter, but this is a bit more like Duke Nukem 3D. In fact it's a lot more like it, as it was made using the Build engine that powered the last of the great 2.5D games like Duke 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood. Why did they go back to such an archaic game engine? Same reason that Baldur's Gate got an expansion made recently in the Infinity engine I guess: because the developer had already updated the engine for new systems and knew people were nostalgic for it (Voidpoint is run by the guy who made the EDuke32 source port). Plus they wanted to.

I'm immune to nostalgia though, as I never really left the 90s (or the 2000s). In fact I played a few levels of Doom II, Quake and Duke 3D while I was waiting for the final version to go live and the download to start, so all it has to do is be better than them and I'll be impressed.

Read on »

Apply Now To Be A GDC 2019 Conference Associate!

Hey there! Want to help make sure the 2019 Game Developers Conference goes off without a hitch?

Then you should consider applying now to be a volunteer Conference Associate (CA), because you can earn the equivalent of an All-Access Pass by putting in roughly 25 hours of on-site work!

Next year GDC 2019 runs from Monday, March 18th through Friday, March 22nd. Applicants chosen to be Conference Associates will be given pre-conference assignments and asked to attend a required orientation dinner on Sunday, March 17th! This is a paid position, so you must be eligible to work in the United States.

If you are accepted into the program, you are expected to be on-site from the start of your pre-conference assignments through the end of the conference on the evening of Friday, March 22nd, during conference hours. Please plan accordingly so you have no job, school, or other conflicts during that time.

What will you be doing, you ask? CA duties may include guarding doors and scanning badges, monitoring sessions, answering attendees' questions, and more. In your free time, you will be able to use your All-Access pass to do things like attend talks or visit the Expo floor.

To apply, head over to the GDC 2019 CA application page and read the instructions. The deadline for applications closes at 11:59 PM PDT, December 21st, 2018. Applicants will be notified if they are accepted (or not) by January 10th.

Applications submitted after the positions are filled will be offered the opportunity to be put on the waiting list. Applications will be accepted up until 11:59 pm (Pacific Time, UTC-8) on March 12th for the waiting list.

For more details on GDC 2019 visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent company Informa

A Pushcart at the Curb by John Dos Passos

Into The Tiny

Tiny Epic Galaxies delivers on its promise: it has the feel of an epic exploration game, but it comes in a small box and doesn't take all day to play. Now, don't get me wrong, it isn't Xia or Star Wars Rebellion, but it still creates a sense of mighty space empires growing stronger as they explore and conquer new territory.

It's a dice placement game, a growing sub-genre of worker placement where players roll dice to determine what actions they can do in a given round. The actions here are moving a space ship between planets, acquiring one of the game's two resources (energy or culture), using either diplomacy or economy to advance colonization efforts on a planet, or utilizing an established colony's special ability for a game effect.

Players start with 4 dice and two space ships, and compete to exploit the resources of a row of planet cards at the center of the table. Landing on a planet conveys a one-time use of that planet's special ability. Orbiting the planet and taking the time to colonize it takes longer but adds the planet to your pool of colonies, meaning only you may use its special ability. Additionally, each planet provides either energy or culture, so spreading out your ships to take the best advantage of the acquire resource action is critical to having the resources you need to upgrade your empire, which gets you more ships and dice to use on later turns.

As with all the games in the Tiny Epic series, this one doesn't really offer anything truly original, but that's not the point. The accomplishment is that it offers something similar to what you normally only get from much larger and more time-consuming games. The amount of game that designer Scott Almes is able to get out of a minimum of components is astonishing.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) There's a lot more going on in this game than can be expected from a 5" x 7" box, that's for sure.

• Tiny Epic Galaxies official website
• Tiny Epic Galaxies on BoardGameGeek

I'm That Guy!

I am replaying Suikoden 2 at the moment, a game I last played back in something like 2001. I'm now playing it on PSN, purchasing it for something like $5.

 Funnily enough though, I actually owned the game back in 2001! The actual CD! FFVII basically took over my life when I was 11 years old and after completing it, and becoming obsessed with it, I started looking through my back copies of the Official Playstation Magazine to try and find some games that were like it in some way, part of this genre called "RPG" which I had never even known to have existed previously (I'm not sure I can be blamed for this either, because in the UK we hardly received any RPGs for consoles).

I made it my mission to check out the used sections of Electronic Boutique and the other second hand games shops near me (which included a shop called a record shop called Bebop and another which I think was called Games Express in Sutton, surrey).

 On one fateful day, I found it, Suikoden II, as I flicked through the boxes in Games Express. From what I remember, I think I payed an insignificant amount for the game, I certain don't remember having the save and go back, I'm guessing it must have been about £10. I took it home, I played the game through and I had a great time with it, it isn't too tricky and I completed it, getting the 'bad ending' the only ending I knew of at the time. And then I took it in a second hand game shop and sold it.

 I'm that guy! I had Suikoden II, now worth £150 on EBAY, and at points in the past worth even more. I have almost no recollection of exactly what I traded it in for. Sometimes I like to tell people I traded it in part exchange for Chrono Cross.... but I don't know for certain if that is true. I know I definitely got CC pretty soon after Suikoden II, but I don't know... another memory says I traded it in for Ergheiz (now worth as much as Suikoden II on EBAY! A game which I also traded in!), or possibly it was Destrega or Street Fighter Alpha 3. The thing I do remember though is that I was surprised at how much the store gave me for Suikoden II, I think it was £15 or something, more than I paid for it to begin with.... I think they got the recommended price out of a book.

 Anyway, I'm that guy, the guy that traded a super rare and expensive game in for almost nothing. But in all things Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever. Games are there for fun and recreation, and if we are really lucky, we can find something good and true and beautiful in them which can lead us to praise Him and bless Him and love Him more. Games aren't my life, my life is hid with Christ in God.

 I played a lot of great games back in the day, I owned and played almost every PS1 RPG released in the UK, and now I own Suikoden II once again on PSN, in all honesty I have no regrets that I sold it, but it makes a fun story. I am going to write a review on Suikoden II soon. There is a lot in this beautiful game which is genuinely inspirational and supportive of the truths of our holy faith.

Seven Little Wonders

I was thinking about my newly acquired dice.  Not just the sets I picked up at Game Hole Con, but the ultra cool polyhedrons I use for Cha'alt.

And one thing kept coming back to me... the fancier and more exclusive these boutique dice are, the less chance you get more than the standard 7.

Over the years, gamers have been spoiled with additional d6s, sometimes an extra d20, and similar "bonus dice".  But alas, my favorite dice don't have that.

I think the extra d6s add the most value.  Mostly for character creation and fireball spells.  Well, there's no rolling for ability scores in Crimson Dragon Slayer D20.  That's the former solved.  The latter I've sussed with the following random table.  Simply roll 1d6...

D6 Fireball Hack

1. Uncontrolled Blaze: Sorcerer's fireball spreads to both friend and foe.  Everyone within 50' of the sorcerer takes 10 damage (save for half).
2. Burn Out: Sorcerer's spell fizzles; no one takes damage.
3. Flurry of Flame:  Minimal damage to enemies - 10 damage (save for half).
4. Scorching Blast:  Moderate damage to enemies - 20 damage (save for half).
5. Raging Inferno:  Max damage to enemies - 40 damage (save for half).
6. Incinerated:  All enemies incinerated (no save)... however, if this targets a godlike being, then it does 12d6 or 60 points of damage, instead of outright killing him.

Not only is it a damn sight better than rolling a single d6 several times and adding the numbers up in your head, but I think the table presents a fun spectrum of the good, bad, and ugly that can happen when using area-of-effect magic.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. The 2,000 print-run of Cha'alt hardcovers is still available - order yours today!

Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused Browser of 2020

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser

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