Hi! My name is...

...Don or Dana (or Daria) Darling (depending on what gender the player chooses/how I feel at the time)

Due to an administrative error, what was supposed to be a draft of the famous flying ace D. Daring, resulting in mild-mannered accountant/furniture salesperson/professional gamer (once again, depending on how I feel at the time) D. Darling being drafted instead.

The purpose of such a backstory is two-fold: 1) So it doesn't seem stupid that a world famous fighter ace has to have the controls/ship details/back story fed to them, as well as making it not odd should the player absolutely suck. And 2) Allow the characters some personality to bounce off of each other. Sure, we could have the player as a grizzled old vet, but I'd rather save that for an NPC (who can actually fly like a hero). It's not exactly a tough (or seemingly important) decision, but I guarantee it'll improve the overall vibe of the game. Look at something like Monkey Island for an example of what I'm after.

So in other news:
- I need to change the eyes for the Female variant because every time I look at them it makes me feel stupid (although I don't feel so bad about it when she's shrunk down).
- I also need to have some kind of startup/cool-down animation for the launch of the evasive move, but that shouldn't take too long.
- I'm currently working on a base level enemy. When that's done, I'll do some basic shooting animation (as simple as possible) AND THEN I'm going to start on an engine demo.
- It is too damn good a time for gaming at the moment. That is all.

Night of the typing dead.

Here is an animation test of the player ship's movement. Of note: Idle movement gleam, directional tilting and evasive move. My apologies for subjecting you to a .gif file in this age of web2.0 and all, but I though my blog could do with a Geocities make-over. Next week: "Under construction" images.

Please ignore the jerkiness and the graininess, but I knew no other way of uploading an animation without having to do a whole flash thing. It will look smoother/sexier in game. Also ignore the shoddy jet burner animation, but it's late, I'm tired, and I don't love you nearly enough.

A newfound respect for Walt Disney.

Another day another ship. This is another one of the NPC ships, obviously lightning themed. Obviously blue. Obviously not greased.

Meanwhile, things have slowed down a little development wise now that I'm doing some animation. The current plan is to finish animating the player ship and at least one enemy ship, and then work on an alpha version of the game. Animation is a lot more annoying than I was planning though. At the moment, it's not so bad that I could've learnt 3D modelling in the time it's taken me to animate some 3D rotational movement, but it's definitely something I'm considering for next time.

Speaking of other things I'm considering for next time: It's taking a lot longer to get this done than I was expecting. It's really torn here between pumping out simpler one-concept, low art content apps or focusing on full proper games.  The second option is definitely what I want to be doing, but there's a reason one man teams died out in the early 90's.

Transdimensional werewolf flying ace squad!

... So maybe that retarded idea from last post has legs after all? I mean if Twilight can work, why not some story featuring all the romance and action of World War 1 mixed with the supernatural mystery and raw sexuality of werewolves. It's a no-brainer: World War  = WW = WereWolves! The have DOGfights in the skies! We can have a British pilot that turns into a were-bulldog!

The question is: Can I fit all of that in a cheaply made and marketable iPhone game in less than a month?

Survey says:.. No.

More Project Voltron stuff tomorrow. Maybe.

Rule #63

For those of you who don't follow (warning, you will get sidetracked) check here.

So this is the female variant of the main character... I'm not 100% happy with her, but hey- When am I ever? It's more than enough for the moment though.

I had also planned of having a background story for these two (well... one unisex story at least) done by now but I still can't decide whether I want them to be cybernetic monkey repair persons (as needed by cyber-circuses, for example) that just happen to be pretty handy in a space jet, or trans-dimensional werewolves that only look like people in our dimension but use their incredible were-powers to be ace pilots.

Admittedly, it's probably going to be neither, but I'd just like to shotgun both of those origin stories for some other game down the line regardless.

Follow the arrows - They'll show you where to go...

So as mentioned before: The player's ship, plus decals.

I originally struggled with this a little... Some of the designs for the NPC ships have come pretty naturally because I want them to tie in with the characters traits/themes. Because I hadn't fully decided on what I wanted the main character to be (see previous discussion) I didn't want to impose a theme on the ship, nor did i want to enforce too stiff a personality. I didn't want to leave it blank though, nor did I want to entirely rip off Robotech/Macross, so I thought about functionality... and the only thought I had was:

"Well the ships heading that way, may as well point that out... I guess... :S"

And so there you have it. It started out as some goofy big block arrow and I sexed it up from there. Co-incidentally, I then decided to use arrows more in the character design too, just for the sake of consistency.

A big arrow pointing to my fly...

So this is taking a little longer than I was anticipating. Not all my fault though, I was pretty sick there for a while.

So this is the player character, and will be used in game during conversations with other pilots. I'm thinking about doing a female version as well, and at some point I'll add some simple animation. I don't really have a massive need to get this done now (i.e. I should be focusing more on getting the ships out of the way) but I decided to go ahead with this so I can get the proportions/templates done.

My apologies for being kinda boring. I'll work on bringing the entertainment when I'm not so damn tired :P.

Rod Thunder was taken.

In what I'm now dubbing "Sketchy Mondays": this is a sketch I did of the cocky hotshot NPC. I really need to work out a way to make him look more like a jerk... This is just a sketch though so I've got some time to work it out.

I don't have a name picked out for him yet, but I'm thinking "Dirk Lightning". Yes? No? Too pseudo-phallic?

Spacecraft no. 2: Electric Boogaloo

So this is the 1st NPC ship... I haven't exactly worked out what NPC will be flying it yet, or what the name of the ship is called. Any ideas in that respect?

I do know it's attack will be some kind of beam that sweeps across some of the screen though. I think that's plenty for a Sunday night. I also know that on reflection the nose looks very beak like. Make of that what you will.

Also note that I did also get around to adding decals to that first ship, but I'm saving that to post another time when I'm feeling lazy(er than I am now).

There are going to be a lot of spaceships on this blog pretty damn soon.

So I didn't get as many done as I was hoping (damn you Starcraft!) but here's a taste. I still need to do highlights and maybe darken some of the shadows... Oh and add some colour and stuff. This will be the player's ship though. The little one should be about the size its going to be on screen (at full resolution at least).

I had planned on writing some goofy background about the ship or something but its late and I'm tired. Can you spot the anime I'm ripping off giving homage too?

Late project post ahoy.

So updates haven't been as forthcoming as I was hoping, but the wheels are in motion. I'm just making sure everything is  properly though out before I start working on stuff. This is supposed to be serious operation after all.

So I'd say at the moment, preliminary design is done. I've been spending a little too long on it I feel, but I'm now sure of enough to begin setting up the framework. I've even started on some of the graphic templates, which I may post on here before the weekend is out. Today though: A quick sketch of what's possibly going to be the main character, and an boring (but skippable) essay on character dilemmas. There is however a bonus question at the end to answer though! See you after the...

So apparently I don't do titles anymore...

...Or posts for that matter.

That changes now.

So I've had a little trouble getting started on things. I got a new system, complete with snazzy new tools... But unfortunately with that came Starcraft 2. And Fallout 3. I've managed to cut back a little though so things should be back on track.

Well they would be, but I'm having some trouble adjusting some of the new programs I'm using. It's just too much of a departure from the old stuff and I don't think it integrates with my hardware as well. I may need to do some reconsidering here.

But meanwhile, a little about PROJECT VOLTRON. I'm a little hesitant to talk about things, considering I've been so recently burnt... But really, who reads this thing anyway (aside from the spammers). So without further ado, I'm willing to reveal the following:
- It's a shoot 'em up set in space, with a strong 80's space hero anime feel.
- I'm aiming at releases on PC, Mac, iPod and iPad.
- I'm totally going to get it done, dammit.

Today's picture was supposed to be a warm-up sketch, but I had so much trouble working out what to do it soon became the only thing I did tonight. Not entirely happy with it, but my optimistic side would say at least it's a start and I can only go up from here. My optimistic side is a passive aggressive bastard.

Ok.... So it's a little late. I've been busy.

But this metaphorical 40' I'm tipping out goes to Drew, a comrade in arms taken from us and the blogs all too soon. Without him around, I no longer have a blog rival, and I feel I'm a lessor man because of it.

(I know his blogs continued now elsewhere, but it's just not the same :P)

So meanwhile, having entirely failed at my last reinvention almost a month ago now... what's going to happen here now?

The answer: We've come full circle. Due to ... uh... "certain circumstances" that "happened" things have changed (yet again) and so now, I'm happy to say this blog is turning back into the project blog it was always meant to be! Exciting and cryptic! Yay!

Never-the-less, I'm still a little unsure what exactly is going to go up here, but I will be aiming for at least something every week. Lastly, as proof I am actually doing something (anything), I've given the project a codename. So be prepared to be wowed (or at least moderately perturbed) by...

PROJECT VOLTRON!

So surprise surprise: I'm taking the blog in a different direction again. The transformation begins one more.

While I did enjoy the whole "month-focused-on-one-thing-everyday" thing (for the entire month that I did it), I have to focus more on getting things done. Gamey things. Things for work. However, since so much of it is seemingly going to be done in my own time anyway, I currently plan to upload some of it here. Unfortunately, because some of it may in fact "give stuff away" (in more ways than one) I probably wont be able to post every night, but I'll post what I can. Work can enjoy the free publicity.

Or alternatively they can tell me to stop.

But hey... Much like Kenny Rodgers, I'm a gambler. We'll see how it goes.

So what to expect? More game related stuff. More analysis, more specific and focused game artwork. Or alternatively I'll just forget to post for like a month again.

One for the road...

So here we are at the end of the month... and while I know I kinda dropped out of it there for a moment (due to reasons beyond my control, I assure you I've still managed to make a mighty 21 posts this month, which is far and beyond some kind of record for me.

While I don't think I've learnt as much as I should've, I guess any learnin' is good learnin'. I'd like to keep up this kind of format, but a) I've got some stuff I have to get done this month and I don't know if I'll be able to post it up here, and b) I don't know what specifically to do next. I dont want to just do quickies again, so it wouldn't be a post a day (making stuff look good takes time, for me at least). I wish there was some easy to add poll thing here so I could let my loving audience decide for me (even though I could ask all one of you in real life anyway :P).

Well anyway... I guess I'll just have to rely on the comment's system. What of it? What should I focus on this month?

Hard-wired for justice.

So is it Streetfigher's Q, Giant Robo's Iron Mask, or just some other sad robot detective? It's a mystery - Only he can solve!

By the eyepatch of Odin!

The Mighty THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR

Life ain't pretty for a dog faced boy...

So I know that I'm behind a couple of days, but screw it. If I can make it up I will, but we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I wanted to draw some more scythes because I couldn't find anything else to draw... Originally he was going to have a more goblinic/demonic mask but then i stalled when it came to armour ideas. A quick google image search turned up this, and naturally, I had to redo what I'd done to match that level of awesome.

OBJECTION!

So I've finally had a chance to play the Ace Attorney games and I'm pretty damn impressed with them.

This picture semi-inspired by something Dick Gumshoe said during the 3rd case... Something about Edgeworth being all distant after losing to Wright, standing around with his coffee and staring out windows. Or something. It was late, but I hear ya' Edgey-baby...

Also: I think this post makes it my most postingness month so far on my blog. Go me! Can I keep it up though? No idea.

I think it's time we blow this scene...

No.3 of 3. I figured it was about time to have a little colour again, so hasty (but appropriate) colouring go! Also I went back and fixed up a couple of things on Spike and Jet that were bugging me. The End.

Something about the Lost finale reminded me of the ending of Cowboy Bebop, so I went back and watched them all again, having been a few years at least since the last time I had. While on the surface there's nothing really in common between the shows, thematically they are quite similar. Plus they both extremely good at manipulating viewers emotions. It's something I'd like to get into at some point, but not tonight because it's too late for that.

Next: Something non-Cowboy Bebop?

EDIT: My attempt at drawing Faye made me vomit everytime I saw it, which made it awkward at work. In my defense I was really tired and she was the last one I did. Long story short, I re-did the face (and fixed up a couple of other things I skimped out on in the name of sleep). Truth is though, I suck at drawing sexy females. I barely practise them either because I'm worried someone will assume I'm a pervert, so instead I draw a bunch of half dressed buff guys. But I think overanalyzing that issue can wait for another time :P.

Speaking of overanalyizing, Overthinking It finally did another installment of thier series on Cowboy Bebop just after I made this post. Go read it because it's incredibly insightful (or maybe watch the show first, that would probably help too). I don't know if his grand unified theory is correct, because I know nothing about French new wave, but he's spot on about CB's love affair with the past, except I'd go so far as to say it's a love/hate kind of deal. Once again, something I'd like to go on about sometime, but a) it takes time to write something up thats long, in depth and well researched and b) I'm worried I'm boring.

The black dog who bites once and never lets go...

Jet Black! No.2 of a few! Collect them all!

Only a true samurai can kill him...

Spike Spiegel! No. 1 of a couple!

Bringing the suck... In a good way.

True Blood is back! More naked vampires for everyone!

Also, I only noticed after posting, but this is my 150th post! I don't think its really special drawing post worthy, but I'm still pretty happy with it! Thanks to everyone who's told me to post more! Exclamation mark!

Same math-time... Same math-channel...

Mild mannered Aliesha C. was just a regular girl... Until one day, while using her calculator, she was struck by lightning and fell into a vat of gamma radiation toxic waste ooze. Emerging from the ooze, she realized she was suddenly capable of extraordinary math related feats, like long division and... addition... or something.

Vowing to use her newfound powers for good, and armed with her collection of math symbol shaped weaponry, Miss Math strikes terror in the heart of numerically illiterate bad guys everywhere.

Godspeed to you, Miss Math!

The mighty stubby-wearing hunter man.

If there is anything that's more in need of a gritty remake than "The Crocodile Hunter", I'll eat my hat...

Suspicious lack of robots.

Random scribble or my subconcious telling me I need to go to the doctor? You be the judge.

Speaking of judging, I was going to assess my performance so far this month, but I'm officially too tired for that right now, so instead, I'm just going to dot point stuff. Tell me if you think I'm missing something.

- I've done pretty well to actually post something everyday... I dont honestly think I'll be able to do the whole month, but we'll see.

- I REALLY need to work on either my speed, or not caring so much about the little sketches. I think so far (despite some of them turning out good) I've spent most of the night working on them, as opposed to the time limit I was aiming at before.

-My composition needs a lot of work. Every time I see that Daredevil/Wright pic from a few days ago I see a tiny Daredevil standing on Wright's arm...

- Need more colour, or say, at least tone.

- No man is a tank.

- Cryptic

- Sleep zzzzz

MORTAAAAAAAAL KOMBAAAAAT!

So this awesome test footage came out today, showing a directors proposal for a new Mortal Kombat reboot. It's awesome, and it's good to see someone actually treat the source material with some respect (even though it's ditching the mysticism by the look of it, it's still got the gore and the blood like Mortal Kombat should). Unfortunately, thats why this will never get made :(.

Once again... Too tired to evaluate my efforts for the past week. Assume I'm giving myself a C-.

A dwarf and a priestess walk into a bar...

Tonight I was going to give myself a one week evaluation of how I was going so far, but ironically (I think) I fell into the biggest problem I have so far: Spending too much time on things. Still, I don't care so much when it turns out OK.

The keywords tonight were "Heroes of Might and Magic".

The A in AK47 stands for "Angels".

Just kidding, it stands for "Adorable".

I saw Legion the other night, and to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I think the problem was that it thought it was a lot more than it was. What it was, was the story of The Terminator, taking place during Dawn of the Dead but with angels, which sounds like an awesome idea really.

Regardless... While we went to go see it for Keamy from Lost, and as great as his Swiss Army Mace was, we now know that real angels prefer guns. Thanks cinema!

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords...

So apparently there were UFOs buzzing around my home town in the last couple of days... I didn't see them personally, nor see any news about it until someone passed me on that link, but really, communications disruption can mean only one thing: INVASION.

GO TEAM JUSTICE!

So I'm possibly the only person I know who's excited that there's going to be a Marvel vs Capcom 3, but I don't care. There's not much I'll admit to being a fanboy about, but Capcom is one of them. I have previously bought games solely for the Capcom logo on the box, and I haven't been let down yet (and I bought Bionic Commando).

The only downside is that it looks like they're going for a darker, more realistic look for this game (well as real as giant green balls of muscle can be) so I get the feeling some of the goofier characters wont be making it into the game. Thats a massive shame, because they're missing out of some spectacular team ups.

Sure, some of these might make it in, but we'll just have to wait and see really:

• Daredevil and Phoenix Wright - Blind Justice
• Spiderman and Frank West - The Liberal Media
• Iron Fist and Gene from Godhand - The Punchmasters
• Deadpool and Dan - Saikyo Soldiers
• Professor X and Harlon Smith -  The Deadly Cripples (who sometimes have problems with split personality disorder)
• Jonah J. Jameson and Mike Haggar - Civil Service
• Reed Richards and Dhalsim - The Lady Pleasers

I was wondering how long it would take for me to run out of everything except dick jokes, and apparently that time is now.

Don't fear the reaper.

Death is the only one who can legitimately say that CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.

Also... so far I'm doing a pretty bad job at this time limit malarky.

Please note: Yes - Scythes, but I think I can do better, just not tonight.

Ocelot was his constant.

I have a friend to told me my sprite of Naked Snake was infact a shirtless Daniel Faraday from Lost.

No... this is a shirtless Daniel Faraday from Lost, that's jumped back in time to the 60's and ended up in the Russian Jungle. Cue references no one will get...

Exciting new format!

So I still feel lousy about hardly posting at all last month. Plus... I haven't been drawing nearly enough lately as it is. So under the guidance of my No. 1 fan, I've decided to try and draw something every day for the next month.

Since actual good stuff always takes multiple nights (or at least it does with my schedule) what I'm also going to do is start doing warm up sketches every night.... limit myself to only like 30-45 mins and try and learn to accept it if it isn't all that great. At least that way, I'll have something to put up on top of any actual planned stuff I do.

So will this actually happen? Survey (and previous history) says no, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

This one goes out to Drew, currently over in the UK, who very well may be getting beaten up by a punk similar to this right now.

Also, I ran out of time to draw the legs (I imagine this will happen a lot) so it's your choice as to what's going on here. Are the legs just kinda, tapered out of the picture, or is he in fact rocking a pair of bloody stumps? What kind of terrible accident has rendered him that way? Can his insurance cover it? Mysteries.

I didn't really know what to draw tonight, but it was just one of that lucky 25% that wasn't featuring a samurai/sword. Instead you get a sword-lite baseball bat. If you have anything you'd like to see me try and draw (and most probably fail to meet your expectations) leave a comment with your suggestion!

Is that a Solid Snake in your pants, or are you just happy to see me? - Metal Gear Solid 4 Retrospective

...Wait around for a little while (i.e. however long it takes to make a sequel) and it'll become a Naked Snake. But wait too long and it'll turn into an Old Snake. Ladies and Gentlemen: Comedy.

So the 4th game I finished this year (maybe... I need a better recording system than just "my memory") was the long awaited (for me at least) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. Check out what I thought of it (spoiler: I enjoyed it) after the break. Please be aware that it's impossible to talk about a MGS without including spoilers, so if you're planning on playing it eventually, take heed.

It slices... It dices...

I would hazard a guess, that if I just sat down and started sketching, about 50% of the time it would come out as a samurai. Someone told me that they think the chance of it is in fact, probably higher, but I think that might be because there's a 75% chance I'll draw something with swords as well anyway. I can't help it- swords are just that great.

Do you think I'm drawing too many swords? Am an ignoring some other, more awesome, weapons? Let me know!

Obligatory "I'm not dead" post.

So yeah.... not dead, just really busy with work... And not in any good way.

I'm planning on catching up somehow but I may need to rethink how I'm going to approach things for a little while... I really need a bit of a break. But at the same time, I don't want to not do stuff and post it here, I like doing that. It's just time is tight right now. I didn't even realise an entire month had passed!

Anyway... there will be more... What? who knows. When? see "What?"

Today's picture: A bunch of dudes, drawn in the style of Scott Pilgrim.

KICK-ASS!

KICK-ASS!

The empire pew pew's back.

Completed! Well as much as I need... I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Don't forget to click on it to see the larger version. I decided to change things up a little too, so now I've ripped off been inspired by some other non anime things as well. Probably even more obscure though, so don't fret if you don't notice it... That's the plan! :P

Anyway... I dunno how much I should say about this. It's for a pitch I'll be making in the next month or two. That's about all I can say for the moment. If it gets shot down I might talk some more about it, but if it doens't, you'll probably have to wait and play it or something...

Oh also, I was so happy with it I actually signed it (somewhat). I didn't want to use my real signature coz you know, I don't trust the Internet, so I've decided to use this proxy-sig.

And Fritopi: Close but no cigar... I haven't actually seen any Gundam, which let's face it, is blasphemy for someone who runs a site called Big Stompy Robots.

Finally: for the sake of boredom, I've composed dialogue, effectively turning this string of unconnected portraits into a comic. Panels as follows:
1: Red leader calling in! Report Squad!
2: Red 2 reporting! On your six Red Leader!
3: You guys are so lame... Those ships haven't even taken off yet.
4: Aww.. Are you a little jealous that they get to be in the ships instead of just having to fix them?
5: I'm just jealous that I'm not your skin-tight space suit.... RAWR!
6: I thought you were into me!
7: Goddammit... Why is it the guys with hair always get all the girls? I had to shave it all off for my job goddammit!
8: Maybe you should wear a uniform like me... Keep it on the quiet, but I'm acutally having sex with all the girls on this carrier.
9: HOLY CRAP GUYS THE COMMANDER IS HAVING SEX WITH ALL THE GIRLS ON THIS CARRIER!
10. Wait, I'm a girl... Why was I not told about this!
11. (translated) I do not understand these humans Khorahx...
12. (translated) Why are we even here Mhasnex... We're Aliens.


Make your own! Don't worry because I've set the bar extremely low :P

Pew pew space battles.

So I had this idea of what I wanted to do tonight, and as normal, it didn't turn out like I was expecting. The difference is though, that this time, I was just trying to sketch out some ideas. But then they started to look good so I decided to spend a little more time on it.

I've got some other ones similar to these still to go, so expect them in a follow up post soon/eventually. Maybe I'll even give some more details as to what it's all about... Probably not though. Feel free to just assume something though, and maybe your assumptions will come true.

Also, feel free to take a guess at the anime references I'm ripping off giving homage to!

You are my Final Fantasy.

By popular demand a couple of my friends asked me to do JRPG characters for them too. So I did.

I didn't just want to post them boringly standing around, so I decided to make a battle scene for them. When I asked them who we should be battling, their responses were "France" and "A couple of jocks?"

I was planning on compromising, and drawing us battling "A couple of Jacques..." (presumably Cousteau and Villeneuve) but then I thought: "What the hell... why not draw something that actually happened?" So I illustrated that time the Eiffel Tower gained sentience and it was up to us to stop it... With our goddamn fists.

Regular readers may be able to spot James, who already has a game made about him (effectively making this either a sequel or a spin off) and Drew, who has also popped up on this blog a few times before. I believe this is the first appearance of Vic however, with his Leather Kilt of badassedness, but he doesn't read my blog so it doesn't really matter.

So if we were in a JRPG, what would our strength and weaknesses be?

Gareth:
-Strength: Can use "Remember" skill to remember what parameters he set the enemies to have, since he made the damn game (acts like Scan)
-Weakness: Susceptible to Drunkeness (Confusion and Poison combined!)

James:
-Strength: You win more money in battles (although most of it will only be able to be used to buy more equipment for James).
-Weakness: Susceptible to Blindness (i.e. Darkness)

Drew:
-Strength: Fanatical devotion to Apple Products (Drew gains a bonus for using Apple Products).
-Weakness: Fanatical devotion to Apple Products (Drew can only use Apple products... Of which there are about 4, and they aren't as powerful or useful as other weapons)

Vic:
-Strength: ANGER.
-Weakness: Low ceilings.

About the picture: As I said before, I drew the people just standing in white space, so I thought I'd draw an enemy and a background too. This took WAAAAY longer than I as expecting (stupid cross beams) so by the time I got to the background I could not care anymore. Also, since for some crazy reason I was working in MSPaint I didn't really think about placement too much since I didn't have layers. And now it looks like I'm hovering or something.

I'm starting with the man in the Mirror's Edge - Mirror's Edge Retrospective

Congratulations to the one person who guessed correctly that it was Mirror's Edge (not via the blog). She wins my copy of the game (maybe), or at least a close copy of it. To find out what I thought of it (and possibly hear some spoilers), read more after the "Read More >"

Guess the thing.

It's that time of night again: my eyes have gone a-twitchy and my hands have gone a-crampy. But it's been worth it. I haven't finished this one yet, but I thought I'd put up what I've done so far.

So can you guess the game based on the linework? It should be pretty damn easy (if not, I'm clearly doing something wrong).

I've finished basic line work and then started from the bottom and added detail and tidied up stuff. I tried to improve the face a little before I gave up for the night too, but it just wasn't happening for me. I've also been trying to shy away from heavy blocks of black because I think I've been using too much of that recently, but that may change before this I'm done. I suspect I'm going to finish this (with colours!) tomorrow, or at least over the weekend, but I've gotta post now to take the coveted first post of the month trophy from Drew.

It's easier than you might think.

So I was supposed to be working on something productive, but then I noticed that someone has commented on ALL of my posts with spam about hotel broking (and in Chinese no less).

Normally I ignore spammers, but if someone (or in this case "somebody") thinks I need to know about hotel brokerage that much, it's obvious that they are really looking out for me. They're basically saying: "Hey... Video games ain't nothin'. You're wasting your time. Running a hotel is where you should be at!"

And for that, "somebody": I salute you. I mean considering what this blog is about, it's a pretty random topic to spam it with. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's some overlap, but really, no ones coming here looking for anthing about property ownership (until now at least).

So, "somebody", I'm elevating you to No. 1 fan (or at least No. 2). Thanks for your support!


(Also, website's been updated a little more, including my status page, with as many "achievements" as I can remember. I'll try to keep it updated. Let me know if you think my stats are out.)

An accurate description of my last couple of weeks.

Trainz. Kicking my ass. 24/7.

I'm pretty sure I had other stuff to say tonight as well, but I'm currently punch-drunk and I'm not really sure what it was.

ZZZ...

So work's still kicking my ass, so I haven't really had the time or energy to do anything post-worthy. Also on the weekend circumstances forced me to immediately learn video editing (having only ever watched videos prior). I'm not so good with moving pictures... I just cant draw quick enough to do 30 in a second. (Rimshot).

So bad jokes aside, tonight I didn't have to run resource crunching tests on both of my computers (only one), which freed the other to scribble around on. Results are shown here (and may vary). Please bear in mind it was drawn hastily, and while monitoring something else. As a testament to how tired I am, I had to just google "bear" to check I was using the right spelling.

I was. Crisis Averted.

So... what is there to say about MechaGorilla that hasn't already been said?
- He's the cheap z-movie equivalent of MechaGodzilla.
- He's made out of adamantium, so only Wolverine has a chance of beating him in one to one combat.
- He's stood in as a stunt double for Donkey Kong.
- He's fictional.
- He's a first generation Pokemon.

Alright, I think that's filled up my required quota of movie/comic/videogame references. I'm off to bed.

Stompy Fantasy 2: Robot Chronicles

So I was watching this TED talk about solving the worlds problems by playing game, which can be found here. Now I agree up to a point (and that point is most of  second part of the of the talk), and sure, she repeatedly uses the phrase "Epic Win" with all seriousness many many times, but it's still an interesting watch.

But what I take most from it is the unquenchable need to level up. "Epic wins" are great and all, but I want the feedback. I want to ding. I want the final fantasy victory music at frequent intervals.

Considering there's sadly no in-world infrastructure in place to handle that, I've made my own status sheet. It should be available over at my website sometime soonish. I've tried to be as accurate as possible there, but really... Assessing one's attributes  accurately is a tough thing to do.

Speaking of the website: I've actually gotten around to updating it for a change. I dont think there's anything new there that hasn't been here already, but still. Also, I'm not 100% happy with the layouts, but the way I've made it will make it easy to change around stuff later on. So don't panic.

Hopefully I can keep that momentum up.

Also, just back to the video again: The problem I see with her approach is that it's still a bit too edu-tainmenty, and unfortunately, you'll never reach any kind of large audience like that. You can learn things from games, even when you're not expecting it, but it works best when you don't know you're learning anything. Not that I've had any indepth looks at their stuff or anything though...

Also... does anyone know why it's not doing columns next to pictures anymore? :S

Because the current classification system is old and obsolete... Just like the NES! Geddit? Geddit? F#@k you.

A lot (okay... 2) people have asked me to write something about the game classification/censorship throwdown currently (or not so currently as it may be) happening in my home country of Australia. I've kind of avoided it because it's obvious. Really, everyone should know by now that censorship is bad, and if you don't, my blog's hardly going to be the place to convince you. There's no real arguement here, denying someone the ability to play something someone else has made is ridiculous. Anyway... The other day I remembered that I always wanted to do one of those hoity-toity retarded political cartoons and now with my magical newfound grasp of heavy-handed symbolism, I think I'm in the right place for it. It just means I'll have to think up something more interesting to type...


Plus... I've found the break button! Yay!

Sunday night Deadpool

I was just messing around and then decided to have another go using that colour flatting technique from before. This time, I made sure I was paying attention to the lines (so they all cross this time! even if they cross a little too much).

Meanwhilst, this string of coloured posts totally means I can just slack off and do some easy black and white ones ;).

(Note: the thumbnail came out kinda blury, so maybe I should've saved it as a png or something... Either that or my eyes are just that tired...)

We gotta get off this rock, Chuck...

So these minimalist poster/case/cover remakes seem to be the "current in thing" on the web... I don't really have the design skills to pull it off properly, but I more than make up for that with ham-fisted pointless symbolism. Robert Langdon would shake his ridiculous head of hair in disgust.

Anyway, Shutter Island was a good movie. Probably the best movie I've seen this year so far (but it's early days yet). It's odd how it seems to divide critics, but really, this was a much more superior movie than The Departed (which was still good, if not badly put together).

Bonus points to anyone out there who can tell me why the woman's glass disappears in that one shot in the middle of the interrogation.