Dev Locke

Samurai 7

2011-12-04T16:07:00.001-08:00

This weekend I decided to finally watch Samurai 7.
Just in case you didn't know samuai7 is a anime loosely based on the Akira Kurosawa movie
7 Samurai.

The anime is made by the Japanese animation studio GONZO.
I often see people on the Internet give gonzo allot of flack for producing crappy anime and crappy 3D graphics in their anime.
I personally like GONZO and what they are doing and what they attempt to do. The thing about GONZO is : at least they take risks and try to advance the genre by always trying something different. I think GONZO is one of the most important animation studios in history. Sure not everything they make is GOLD but they are also responsible for great anime as well.
As a creative, I have the unique understanding that creativity is a war of attrition, often times you trow things against a wall and see what sticks.
Some examples are:
Rome wasn't built in a day
George Washington actually LOST most of his battles, etc.

Anyway, Samurai7 is a good anime, good animation, good character design, good story.
My only critique's involve small nuances of the story.
For example one samurai starts out a bad guy and turns good for like... no reason. The reason they give it mega cliche and superficial and he is never fleshed out as a character or as a human being for that matter.
One major gripe for me is that there is no explanation as to what the bandits are until like mid season(episode 15 ish?) I feel this underdevelopment of the Antagonist earlier on, needlessly hurts the story, when i could have been explained in a sentence or two.The 3D Design of the bandits are generic and not given any depth or personality. They are never properly introduced and so, I could barely tell them apart. This sticks out to me because you can't have a great story without great characters. A protagonist is only as good as his antagonist-its a subtle balance.
Furthermore the Antagonists just are not much of a challenge to the samurai, so much so- that there is not any believable risk or danger when they battle. And so, this takes away the tension from the battle scenes. The main story arc just seems way too easy for the samurai to accomplish.
After the main story arc based on Kurosawa's film ends we get a second story arc tacked on which feels as if it just languishes on.

All in all an entertaining series. I can recommend this, but you don't have to watch it past the first story arc- you'll know what I mean once you watch it. It just falls apart after that.

-SPOILERS-

Hey guys I couldn't help myself:
once the samurai defeat the "Bandits" this series should have ended. This is the first story arc based on Kurosawa's film.
The second story arc then goes into some retarded infantile nonsense about overthrowing the government.
C'mon really? your gonna overthrow the government just because you don't like the guy in charge?
*sigh* could you please GTFU? (Grow.The.Fuck.Up.)
I'm really tired of this infantile bullshit!
Its as if George W. Bush wrote this part of the story. From an adult perspective we know for a well proven FACT that this approach does not work. So after they KILL everyone in the government, they refuse to take responsibility and rule in its place.
In reality, there would have been a HUGE power struggle and all out WAR would have broken out throughout the land. And that could have been a very interesting third story arc.
Then again, maybe I'm looking into a fantasy story too much. I know I'm supposed to turn my brain off every now and again, But hey- I got a brain, and this is what i do.

Tekken Blood Vengeance

2011-11-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

I just tried to watch Tekken Blood Vengeance today.
I suggest you don't
I fell asleep halfway through.
It’s so terrible and makes absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever.
On top of that-if I was a true hardcore Tekken fan I would be mad.
There are next to NO characters in the story besides the Mishima and Williams families. Besides those FIVE the protagonists are ling Xiaoyu and Alisa, pretty much just caught in the middle.
Middle of what you ask?
Don’t ask.
It’s a convoluted and retarded excuse to show CG. I wouldn't even call this a story.
But what about the fight scenes?
You ask?
Well its the same graphics as the games cut scenes so you may as well just play the game and let a three year old make up the storyline as you play, your guaranteed to get a much better story that way.
O.K.
I’m done.

Robotech

2011-10-04T20:58:00.001-07:00

In the beginning of October 10/4/11, I had just re-dicovered Robotech on
Netflix, so naturally I went on a binge and watched all (36?) Episodes of the macross saga in one weekend.
I could not help it, I hadn't seen the show in decades!
Man is this show good, but its not really made for kids- especially nowadays because you have to have an attention span to watch it.
It has a very interesting take on war and its combatants.

Japanese DEV's never listen.

2011-10-01T05:23:00.003-07:00

Hello Japan!
I know you'll probaly never read this, and that's the point!
You NEVER LISTEN!
You wonder why the west does not like your games?
We will gladly tell you, and we do- ALL THE TIME, but you just go and do the same things over and over anyway.
Case in point: final fantasy 13. It sucked and we told you why it sucked "loud and clear" and now final fantasy 13-2 looks exactly the same.
White knight chronicles had a lot of problems, white knight chronicles 2?
Level5 did not fix a single thing.

Phantasy star online 2 had a beta test over the summer- but refuses to even run a beta test in the west. - Are you kidding me? That's why this game is going to suck. You wonder why western audiences don't like your games but yet when you’re developing them for beta you don't want to hear what we have to say?
This is just bad capitalism. If you don't evolve with you customer and their needs then your customer will simply move on.
Arrogance has no place in the market.
Western Devs listen to their costumers, for example: when the first uncharted had screenshots of Nathan drake and his love interest- feed back was poor.
People felt like the female lead looked too "plain". And what did naughty dog do? They went back to the drawing board and whipped up a brand new blonde for drake to play with.
(As shown above)

There are many more examples of where Devs got feedback from Players opinions and or play testing and changed accordingly.
They did not try to predict what players wanted and arrogantly forced their audience to live with it, no.
Naughty dog and many others LISTENED to what people had to say and made CHANGES. That is what is supposed to happen when developing a large-scale game and that is J-Devs major problem.

Phantasy star online2 looks weak.

2011-10-01T05:23:00.001-07:00

There, I've said it. Everybody knows it. And nobody cares! The gaming press- all of the major websites are not even bothering to mention this game, why? Because its obvious that sega is not taking the time to make an inoovative game. When I first heard the news that there was a PSO2 comming out I was glad. He graphics looked unimpressive but the looked a hell of a lot. Better than PSU. Then I looked a the featues and was like- "hey this looks better than PSU" and I as glad. Then I took a look at every other MMO out there and just about ANY triple A title on a console and was like"yup, this is gonna suck" I think sega is just lazy. This game looks like the same exact game I played ten years ago- just with jumping. I mean honestly, what other MMO can you compare this to and say that it looks beter than?
Blade and Soul? NO
Vindictus? NO
Terra? NO
Mass Effect? NO
(I know mass effect is not an mmo but I just had to thow in an action RPG TPS)

On top of everything else I feel as if the development time is waay too short, they just announced it and they are looking to release early next year and they just had a " beta test" this summer.

BETA TEST what a crock! But ill get into that next post.
Bottom line, PSO2 looks laughable as am MMO in this day and age and is just not competitive enough from its conception in todays current marketplace. And its a shame from a major studio who not only has the instant name recognition and fanbase, but also talent- but just lack the will or direction to do any better.

Square needs to learn from edios!

2011-09-27T21:20:00.001-07:00

Square Enix makes terrible games.
They just don't get it.
The smartest thing they did was to buy Eidos.
Look at DeusEX. That game is a masterpiece!
If square were smart, they would let Eidos make the next final fantasy.

It’s pretty simple.

Compare DeusEX to FinalFantasy13, c'mon I dare ya!

When I played FF13 I said to myself man, what a beautiful world! If only I could be apart of it some how, if I could sit in a chair or pole-vault over a barricade or even move some boxes around or SOMETHING!

Never mind the horrible story there just no interaction with the environment at all.

To be fair, I have worked on games before so I’m pretty sure I know what happened during development.

They just simply ran out of time.

Let compare that with DeusEX and its multiple ways to accomplish a single task.

How it lets you interact with its environment.

Its suburb storyline ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY WRITERS!

Yes Writers, that ancient mythical creature that J-Devs never heard of.

Squenix, for the sake of making good games, please let Edios make the next FF or at least some offshoot, they "get it" you don't

- At least not yet.

Nintendo is "Out of touch"

2011-09-27T06:46:00.001-07:00

Nintendo is out of touch, this is apparently all too obvious. Nintendo exists in its on self sustaining bobble while the rest of the world continues to spin. but they have always managed to have an ace up their sleeve to keep them afloat.8n the mid 90's and early 2000'S when their home consoles were not selling the only thing that kept them afloat was the Pokémon franchise and the game boy. In the 2000's they struck pay dirt with the DS lite and finally further expanded on this streak of genius with the now legendary Wii.
But what’s going to keep them alive this time? What’s going to be their ace in the hole? definitely NOT the Wii U. the hardcore does not care (we have Xboxes and ps3's) the casual doesn't care (they already own wii's) it doesn't have a blue ray(i guess it has DVD?)
And as for the 3DS, it could and should have been a rousing launch success, but its absolute failure is the obvious fault of Nintendo not having any system sellers at line up. At least if they had kid Icarus at launch that would have been AWESOME, people would have bought it just for that game. Kid Icarus could have been the unofficial mascot for the 3DS. more over, Nintendo has burned 3rd party developers so much in the past that there is no reason for anyone to jump trough hoops do develop games for their quirky control schemes when their games are not likely to sell in the first place. Not only that but the handheld market is all cellphones now. Nintendo has been denying it for the longest and now its finally here. Apple comes out with a new I-Phone that upgrades every year, even if the current I-Phone does not surpass the 3DS it will in a year or two.
Nintendo is also faaaar behind the curve when it comes to online services.
so they can't compete there either, so whats next?

Japan game Devs need to grow up!

2010-09-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

Everybody is running around saying that "japan is dead" and that they need to "westernise" their games.
Not necessarily true. all they really need to do is GROW UP.
Its very simple, the masses are sick and tired of being treated like children in video games, you know why? because we are no longer children. why s my avatar some spikey haired little boy with an immature story and an adolescent cast?
GROW UP.
Your audience is in their 30's. make games for 30 year olds.
Plain and simple- GROW UP.
If you are not capable of making a story strong enough for adults, well then why don't you do what everybody else does-
HIRE A FUCKING WRITER!
God damned idiots.
Sorry, but I'm just sick to my stomach of the horrible content from some major developers.
In the movie industry, its rare when the producer or the director or the lead actor is the writer of the film.
do you want to know why? Because he's not a fucking writer that why!
you hire someone who can do the job correctly- GROW UP.

FFXIII the line in the sand!

2010-03-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

The line in the sand is drawn, and the name of that line is Final Fantasy XIII
I'm not going to go over the particulars of the game here, you can find that everywhere in the net by now.
But what does concern me is the strong reaction to the game that people are having. After waiting 5 years for the games release I think a lot of people are a little let down.

Apparently what FFXIII brings to light is old ideas, juvenile dialogue with new technology.
Ill elaborate.
It’s just the same tired old and badly scripted and ridiculous storyline that you shove down the throat of a 14 year old.
This game is definitely geared toward children.
FFXIII is best directed at someone who has never played a JRPG in his or her life
And who has not ever played final fantasy before. It's also best not compared to any other game in the series. If this is your first RPG ever and your 14 years old or younger- FFXIII will be great for you!

But if your like the rest of us, who have been playing the series since the beginning (so that we have something to compare it to) and have played great R.P.G.'s in the past, or have even been playing contemporary great games of the present (Heavy rain, Mass Effect2) you will be exhausted by this games performance.

This game is so tired I feel like I'm watching a dinosaur exhibit at a museum. Sure it’s a newly sculpted dinosaur with chrome trim, pretty as hell, but it’s still a dinosaur.

The story is terrible, the script is way worse.
To be fair it is a game in a fantasy setting so the story could be allowed to be bad but, its the script the really destroys this game for me. Cheesy lines and lack of surprise - a stale storyline with no twist or turns and stale characters that try too hard to convince me to care for them at every turn, do nothing more than to turn my stomach.

Ill continue more about this a little later but check out these video reviews for now to see where i'm coming from.

you tube (game play explanation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WLiencHokM

FeedBack (cretique of japanese games)
http://g4tv.com/videos/44608/Feedback----Fall-of-Duty-News-Final-Fantasy-XII-and-Cake/

gameTrailer (review)
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-final-fantasy/62720

ff Rant(funny)
http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/826843/final-fantasy-xiii/videos/ff_rant_spc_122909.html

Review With Extreme Prejudice - Final Fantasy XIII (surprisingly accurate)
http://www.reviewwithextremeprejudice.com/?cat=3&paged=2

Kotaku Frankenreview (a summery of written reviews)
http://kotaku.com/5493738/frankenreview-final-fantasy-xiii

Its 2010 the Koreans are out for blood!

2010-03-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

MMO blood that is!
All the latest games that I am feinding for are all Ammo’s.
I am not an online gamer, but this lineup of game will make me become one. Kiss your social life good-bye buckle up, strap in and enjoy the ride!

Kingdom Under Fire II
http://www.kufii.com/ENG/

The Reason:
Kingdom under fire: circle of doom was an interesting game.
It had like no story; it was only cool graphics and an excellent battle system, kind of similar to Dynasty Warriors where you fight, like 50 guys at the same time. It was a cool game not the best ever but cool nonetheless.
KOFII on the other hand looks INSANE!
The whole point of this game is that it’s supposedly an R.T.S. with and actionRPG crammed in.
I can't wait!
video

VINDICTUS
http://www.massively.com/2010/03/12/gdc10-nexons-vindictus-revealed/
the graphic look a little primitive on this one, it looks more like a PS2 title but its what you’ll be able to DO in this game that piques my interest. It’s so violent and so visceral that I just gotta play it. I was reading up on it and the dev's were saying how your character will be able to chain down a boss while the rest of the party attacks it! cool.

TERA
http://www.tera-online.com/about_tera/classes/priest.php
video
more RPG goodness

BLADE & SOUL
http://www.bladeandsoul.com/global/en
video
this game looks absolutely ridiculous(ridiculously good)
its basically like oldscool Beat-em-up(like Final Fight) with HyungTae Kims graphics in 3d as an MMO.
got all that?
I can't wait, and I don't even like MMO's

Happy New Year guys!

2010-01-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm back in action, in case you've been wondering,
i've sat out most of last year just to concentrate on Flash development.
i plan on posting tutorials and hints on flash development and flash development for games
stay tuned...

Bytejacker

2009-06-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

hey guys the internet is MEGA boring nowadays, so check out BYTEJACKER its like a video show that focuses on indie games
http://bytejacker.com

and they now have a you tube -like section devoted to peole uploading videos from games
http://bytejacker.fliggo.com/videos

Kiddy Grade

2009-03-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Oh my god this is horrible- this cartoon fucking SUCKS!
the dialogue is just ghastly an the "fan service" shots are just stupid.

I was initially interested in this series because of their interesting Sci Fi concepts such as a "Gravity Bomb" as shown in episode 2.
but by episode 3 their childish and moronic values just make my stomach turn.
The dialogue is so bad that it makes me want to put a stake knife through my screen!
Who wrote this crap?
I mean to be fair, they do get allot of things right, the animation is good, the character designs are nice but its the childish morality that gets me-
its as if 5 year olds wrote the script- i don't know, it feels like plastic little all over again- get everything right except the story.

One thing that intrigues me about this show is that it looks and feels aot like Phantasy' Star Universe- even the typography feels similar. The first 10 minutes felt like i was watching a PSU Aime.

Well, i hope this series gets better soon because I'm finding it hard to finish episode 3!
WIKI

TUT's 309

2009-03-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

Video tutorial sitebestechvideos.com
bestechvideos.com

a very helpful tutorial site
toptut.com

Republic of code Flash tutorial site
Republicofcode.com

Video tutorial website
vtc.com

An assortment of learning games devoted to Japanese
learn-hiragana-katakana.com

an introduction to AS3
gskinner.com

Dev 309

2009-03-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

blog from a flash dev
bit-101.com

a literal map of game Devs all over the world
gamedevmap.com

a banner ad exchange site
addesigner.com

Mr sun studios- shows you how to make flash games.
mrsunstudios.com

a site devoted to healping Dev’s research sponsorship for their flash games
flashgamesponsorship.com

FlashGameLicense.com connects Flash game developers with motivated sponsors.
flashgamelicense.com

Flash Game dev comunity
kongregate.com

website for Flash ActionScript 3.0 for game developers book, by
Gary Rosenzweig
flashgameu.com

How to make a game in AS3!
as3gamedev

I Heart Actionscript, a flash dev site
iheartactionscript.com

Flashden, a market place for flash devs
flashden.net

an independantly produced video game magazine
gamersquarter.com

Design 309

2009-03-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

Realistically rendered porcilin dolls, has to be seen to be believed.
enchanteddoll.com

Blog about Electronic Handhelds, Video Games and Japanese Manga & Anime
chokocat

Graphic design goodness
serialcut.com

A fashion and art blog with a whole lotta links
Bored&Beautiful

Fashion design magazine Blog
prettypretty

ILLUSTRATION 3"09"

2009-03-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

Dope illustration and concept artists
massiveblack.com

These illustrations ROCK this is the MAN!
jasonworks.net

Mega dope artwork!
anarchist

view manga onlone
thespectrum.net

Raw Links

2009-03-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

these are links that i have collected over the past few months but have not had the chance to post,

Ill go into more in depth detail later, but this should wet your appitite till later when i go through them one by one.

http://massiveblack.com/mbNew/frontpage.html
http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?tool=global&query=Developer%20Online
http://www.addesigner.com/free.shtml
http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/
http://stoptazmo.com
http://www.thespectrum.net/manga_scans/?preview=manga_Gantz
http://www.toptut.com/2007/10/26/web-20-gradient-styles-free-psd-download/
http://www.mrsunstudios.com/tag/actionscript
http://www.jasonworks.net/index.htm
http://anarchist.jp/portfolio/illustration/

http://www.bestechvideos.com/2008/07/23/adobe-cs-use-photomerge-for-stitching-large-photos
http://chokocat.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
http://www.flashgamesponsorship.com/
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/
http://www.serialcut.com/
http://blog.styleserver.de/
http://www.prettypretty.be/prettypretty/index.html

http://www.kongregate.com/forums/4/topics/575
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/
http://flashgameu.com/
http://as3gamedev.blogspot.com/
http://www.iheartactionscript.com/coding-movieclips-as-buttons-in-as3/

http://www.flashden.net/forums/thread/as30-jump-to-frame-of-button-click-demo/5948
http://www.gskinner.com/talks/as3workshop/
http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/
http://shop.gamersquarter.com/

http://www.vtc.com/
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/

Advance Wars 2 [Black Hole Rising]

2008-11-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

It’s a good game, deceptively challenging.
Its no Military Madness as you may have guessed after spending a few months in an asylum because of "the Madness" it was a refreshing change to play turn based strategy game that tried to actually have a story line. Obviously this game is a cool breeze at a vacation resort compared to "the Madness", but it is very refreshing to play as different charcters each with different stats and special abilities. The storyline is written for six year olds- but at least its not trying to be something that its not. The feel is seamless and the concept is solid, the artwork is nice and keeps the entire feel of the game consistent. The music is superb it’s simple and doesn't get in the way and lets you think. The units in this game are pretty evenly matched so there's no incredibly unfair "blowouts” like the "hunters: vs. the "Falcons". And every mission has a different objective-, which mixes up the fun.
Easy as pie though, I blew through this game all the way up to one of the last board before I finally was defeated, but then again the sill level is set to a lower bar.
This is a very fun game - Good times!

I am so bored

2008-11-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

Ooh, Klitus im bored!
this is what comes to mind nowadays- so Ill let you guys know what i have been up to lately
stay tuned!

NECTARIS "Military Madness

2008-07-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

One of my latest RE-Addictions has been NECTARIS "MinitaryMadness"
originally released for the Turbograpics16 in the early 90's, It has since been ported over to the PS1.
This is THE console strategy game of the 90's the only competition It had was Herzog Zwei for the Genesis (Which was an RTS). This game pulls no punches, it is a turn bases strategy game that is so straightforward that it only uses two buttons and just about zero storyline.

It's also on the Wii vertual console, but please be warned : this is a highly addictive and frustrating game I've spent many a night yelling at my TV about how much the computer cheats!
But seriously there are site dedicated to explaining the game play mechanics as well as tips on how to play just visit Base NECTARIS and they will fill you in
Enjoy!

P.S. there is also a PC version that is almost twice as big with up to for player but i can't get it to work if anyone out there has played this let me know.

Plastic Little

2008-07-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Plastic Little is a very wonderfully executed terrible show.
What? what does that mean?
Ill tell you.
Plastic little was one of my key reason why i stopped watching Aime for a number of years.
the character design was well done, the vehicle design was excellent and the animation was nice, even the voice acting seemed on point.
But the story, oh god the story- so horrible!
it goes a little something like this:
A 14 year old girl named Tita lives on a ship with her father and his crew.
the crew of this ship are called "pet-shop hunters" whose occupation is to capture aquatic life in order to sell to , well, pet-shops.

Things get cooky when Tita's father dies and the 14 year old girl becomes the captain.
so captain Tita commands grown men to do her bidding as the go up against the nations army(and win ) to unearth some big government secret experiment.
It actually gets a little more ridiculous than that but i just hate the storyline too much to continue.

If you don't like your Aime to have any story what so ever and just like good animation you should check it out(if you could find it)
if you do like a good story stay far far away for fear of losing your sanity.

ROBOT super color comic

2008-06-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

ROBOT
in case you guys never heard of this, its a book that comes out every once in a while(im not sure how frequent) with some of the best artwork out of japan.
here's the discription fom Anime News Network
enjoy!

Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

2008-06-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

During my many travels across cyberspace i came across Scarlet Weather Rhapsody
a Dojin thats kind of a creative mix of Shmup (shoot-em-up to you noobs) and fighter. looks pretty cool.
This came to my attention while visiting Maidens of Kaleidoscope a site devoted to Dojin.

Comiket 73

2008-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys "n" gals, looking for something different?
of corse you are , thats why your here!
Tenka Seiha has a reviev of some of the best games from Comiket 73
on his blog here
Why, whats Comiket? and why is it important to Dev Locke?
well at Comiket every year there are a slew of Dojin games from idipendant developers and they look good! i think we should keep a close eye on what comes out of comiket becouse the indie game scene is already there!

Who's the Boss?

2008-06-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

So you make it trough this treacherous labyrinth to finally make it to "the boss". At the end of this tunnel you find this scantly clad virtually naked woman who’s about the size of King Kong, looking like she's chained to a pinwheel.

Congra-ru-lations you’ve made it this far!

So its a war of the rations and resurrection magic for the next twenty minutes or so, and you beat the crap outta her.
So...
Who the hell was she?
Why was she so big?
And why in the hell was she chained to a pinwheel?
WTF?
When you think about it, you really have no idea. All you know is that to progress in the game you have to slaughter everything in sight.
These "bosses" are the bad guy only because that is what your told- and in most games all you do is what you’re told.

But lets analyze this for a second- why are the bad guy's bad? What is their immediate purpose? What do they do on a day-to-day basis? Lets ask ourselves a few simple questions to help enrich this “BOSS” experience
Using the above example we will call her YABREZDA.
Q: So, why is Yabrezda in a tunnel in a cave all by herself?
A: Maybe she sits there waiting for the smaller monsters to get her food
Q: why is she so big?
A: she was summoned there by a dark wizard to protect a treasure
Q: what does she do for fun?
A: knit sweaters out of the bones of the fallen
Q: What is her social network like?
A: she has the power to summon smaller demons to do her bidding, so evil lords will come to her to hire a demon army in return for favors or gold
Q: personality?
A: pretty mean likes to torture people before slowly killing them and making a sweater out of their bones.

Now if the above scenario was expressed to the player via either character dialogue or cut scene or better yet an in game scenerio, we could be compelled to have our own reasons for killing her.

What if our party made a deal with her and she betrayed us, so now we are inclined to kill her for breaking our deal. Or what if one of her demon servants assassinated (Permanently and Un scripted) one of my party members?
The above scenarios would give the player a personal stake in the game play with the boss.
This can cause a more memorable game play experience and isn't this why we play games in the first place?

No Hero worship?

2008-06-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

You know what i'm tired of in games? The lack of hero worship.
You save the town beat the crap out of the bad guy- rescue the princess from the castle- and yet you STILL have to pay a million dollars for that new gun, or pay full price for those rations!
Damnit, where's my respect. Didn’t I just save the shopkeepers daughter a few days ago? Doesn’t that at least get me a discount?

Shouldn’t you people be throwing a parade in my honor and throwing women at my feet?
It’s gotten so bad that monsters don't even run away from you in games anymore.
I remember playing Dragon Quest One, and how happy I was when those miserable slimes ran away from me when I was at an Uber high level.
It was like- take THAT you cretins! Yeah that’s right, I’m the MAN!
Games need to give players a sense of accomplishment.

I think developers are neglecting the fact that gamers are playing their game to have a unique experience. It’s an obvious form of escapism- so give the player some gratification for his accomplishments in that world.
Is that too much to ask?

Im back on the job!

2008-06-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

after a short hiatus im back to blogging!
i have now put every post into catagories and am working on updating all posts.
I started this blog without much of a direction, but now i have a specific goal in mind and future posts will reflect that.
I hope you enjoy my posts becouse there are alot more on the way.

When you can't Kill

2008-04-17T11:19:00.001-07:00

Here is the basic game design set up:
Start at level 0
Kill something gain points or skills+
Kill allot of something to raise levels 1>
Finish game, see ending,
Replay for bonuses
Get bored
Buy a new game and forget virtually everything you did in the past couple of days or weeks.

Rinse, Lather and Repeat.

Apparently, according to video game logic- there is no consequence or repercussions for your violent actions killing is just "all good".
Lets think about the old batman addage "i don't kill because if I did it would make me just as bad as they are"... what does he mean by that?
As a kid I always thought- just kill the joker and get it over with, but as an adult I say Ahhh now I see!
What do I see you may ask? Lets think about it, why is killing bad in real life, other than the law (and GOD) says so.
In real life when a Criminal robs a bank he brings along guns and yells really loud to scare people into listening to his demands so that he can reach is goal- which is to get the money.
He does not want to kill anyone, why? Because that is not his goal and he does not want any further complications in his plan. Complications? What complications could arise from killing an asshole during a bank robbery?
O.K. Lets run down the line of the list of complications and consequences:
1. The bigger the catch the bigger the consequence:
Rob a person, a beat cop is tracking you down, rob a grocery store and the entire department is looking for you, but rob a bank and the feds are tracking you down. You see the bigger the catch he bigger the consequence.

2.Who you kill:
During the bank robbery if you kill Gus the orphan loner guy who tries to play hero, no ones gonna care, but if you kill Thurston Howell the 3rd, you've got major problems.
Misses Howell is going to use all the money at her disposal to hire private investigators and gain publicity trough the media and get your face plastered on Americas most wanted and on every news paper in the county and hire the best legal team since O.J. Simpson to make sure your ass fries like over cooked bacon!

For every action there should be a reaction, for every kill there should be a consequence. One of the few games that that did this well were the WIZARDRY series of games for P.C.
I remember in WIZARDRY7 I killed a Ratman for whatever reason and when I imported my party into WAZARDRY8 the Ratmen remembered that and were reluctant to do business with me, so what happened? I found out that a Ratman had a particular item that I needed to finish the game and rather than go on some long ass exaggerated quest to get a password and some other nonsense- I just killed him!
The consequence?
Well the little bastard was hard as hell to kill and I made it with only two party members left alive and afterwards every Ratman on the planet was out for my head! I would be wondering through the forest and a party of like 20 Ratmen would try to ambush me because of what I had done.
Perfect.

This is what we need more of in gaming.

Fighting with fresh eyes.

2008-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months I have been coding in flash as part of my senior thesis. I am a programmer more by necessity than naturally, so code does not come easy to me. This being said, my process for programming is more creative than methodical. Ill code and code and code until I run into a hump in the code, and then ill walk away from it for a while and then "POOF"! The answer comes to me.
Nine times out of ten the answer to my coding problems is right there in the code I already have.
My question is: why isn't this process implemented in games nowadays? No I don’t mean the resident evil style puzzles (which is fine) but I mean like using what you already have naturally in the game. Kind of like how in street fighter you have to change you’re tactics or your style of playing or even your character depending on your opponent.
For example in street fighter, lets say your using Zangief and your damn good at him, you kick everyone’s ass as Zangief, Until, of Corse- you have to fight Ken you always loose to Ken. And so you challenge ken as Guile and you kick ass.

So the Point is to use a different strategy to beat the same foe, it’s as if you were born with the sword that slays the dragon, but you just didn’t know it.
I remember playing 4D boxing back in the day, one of the first 3d boxing games ever created, and everyone you fought has a different fighting style- so your tactics had to change with your opponent. Not an artificial change like buying a new upgrade- but a mental change in tactics.

I think if you give the player the ability to fight with fresh eyes this will make for a more memorable playing experience.

Earning the sword that slays the dragon.

2008-04-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

I was playing an RPG the other day when I realized something; I did not have to do any work to get a new weapon. All I have to do is buy it. Need to beat hat boss faster? Just grind in the fields and buy a new one!
Any monkey can grind and buy a weapon, so the weapons and items lose all meaning.

More and more RPG's are becoming mindless shopping malls, where all you do is buy stuff and you don’t even bargain hunt when you do it, there’s not even any cheaper stores that sell the same item or one store that trades certain items for more money- things have gotten pretty drab.

What ever happened to going halfway across the world map, bribing the toll bridge guy, running an errand for the barkeep for a map to go deep into the forest so you can slay a whole camp full of ogre’s just to get the only sword that slays the dragon!
Instead all we do now kill 20 pigs and 16 ravens for a new ability, I think as technology grows designers are using less and less of their imagination.

I say bring back the quests and the bargain hunts!
It made things more interesting- it instilled in us a personal connection with the game and its items. Every so often you had a story attached to your weapon like:
"What? Sell my +5 Blue dragon slayer sword? Are you crazy? Do you know what I had to go through to get that thing?"

Now that’s an item.

KNOWLEDGEBASE @ FLASHKIT

2008-03-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Flashkit Knowledge base

All kinds of links to all you need to know about indie flash dev.

More Indie rescources

2008-03-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

Adam Tierney
pixel artist and game developer

konjak
excellent indie developer

The-Underdogs

DrPetter
An Indie developer with a retro "feel"

Clickteam
home of Multimedia Fusion2

origamihero
More indie development excellence!

http://www.strille.net/
For a classic set of flash tut's

a flash game blogger like me

2008-03-04T08:03:00.000-08:00

YD Japan

Phantasy Star Universe : Ambition of the Illuminus

2008-02-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

Phantasy Star Universe : Ambition of the Illuminus

Sucks.
It just sucks terribly.

Phantasy Star Universe Ambition of the Illuminus sucks so badly that it just makes me angry.
I am a long time fan of the series; actually my entire family is a fan of the series ever since Phantasy Star I with Alys.
My personal favorite was Phantasy Star II when Nei died I had a fit- THAT was my girl! And Wren was cool in PSIII- so you see where I’m going with this.
STORY people, Story.
It’s like the slogan for Clinton in the nineties "the economy stupid!"
in this case the slogan needs to be: "The story stupid!"
I’m tired of role-playing games written for five year olds! My Old school "find your fate jr." books treat me with more respect.
Lets backtrack a little Phantasy Star Online- it had absolutly no storyline.
But that was cool- because it didn't try to have one, and I was fine with that.
Now onto Phantasy Star Universe. This game sucks beyond belief- I HATE the main character Ethan Waber.
Number one: I HATE saying his ENGRISH sounding name! WTF is a waber? Is it supposed to be Webber or Walberg or what? It just sounds wrong pronouncing it it just rolls off the tongue all wrong. This is poor Character design ladies and gentlemen.

So after renting this filth from blockbuster my entire family and me denounced this game.
Keep in mind that we play all the PS’s (old and new) on a regular basis. After that Harrowing disappointment known as Phantasy Star Universe- the expansion pack Ambition of the Illuminus was announced and it was promised- NO MORE CRAPPY ETHAN WABER. I was happy to hear this, the R.P.G. system itself was not bad its just the story was horrible.

So I buy the game.
BIG MISTAKE.
Such a big mistake!(holds head in frustration)
After a few hours of playing it I see my hated foe Ethan Waber! What in the hell is this clown doing in my improved game?(wags fist in anger)
I bought this playing experience under the silent agreement that Team Sonic had learned its lesson just as George Lucas did with Star Wars- do not put JAR-JAR in t the sequel!
So Team Sonic- do not put Ethan in the sequel! And please, oh please get rid of those stupid ass brakedancing brothers! I refuse to play the game because they are in it!
I will only play it if I get the option t chop their heads off (or at least kill them). Why are they there in the first place? All they manage to do right -is raise my blood pressure and aggravate the hell our of me.
But the biggest thing that I can't understand about team sonic is this: they have money, why don’t they just hire a decent wrighter? theres tons of 'em all over the place! The’ll work for penults just to pay their rent- just hire one of 'em- PLEASE!
Especially with the writers strike- (the union allows writers to brake the strike for video games) they should have tons of talent working on this.
But I think the most ironic and backwards part about this whole PSU and Team Sonic thing is that guess who’s working on Sonic the hedgehog RPG?
BIOWARE!
WTF?
So team sonic works on PSU and mucks it up, and Bioware works on sonic the Hedgehog...
The world is truly a strange place.

INTERESTING FLASH GAMES AND EXPERIMENTS

2008-02-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

http://box2dflash.sourceforge.net/

http://www.phong.com

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/start.html

pixelate & cgEmpire

2008-02-15T16:47:00.000-08:00

a blog about making games in flash!
http://www.pixelate.de/blog

and here's another blog about games
http://www.cgempire.com/blog/

MMO Workshop.com

2008-02-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

A free Torque mmo engine
http://www.mmoworkshop.com/trac/mom

vectorworks

2007-12-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

vector works video tuts

Good 'ol Jack Tramiel

2007-12-19T14:05:00.002-08:00

interview with Jack Tramiel on youtube
this guy was the head of commedore and then atari in the 80's.
these interviews are very interesting.
Oh and heres the archive on the computer chronicles
computer chronicles
an old show from the 80's to 2000 that focused on computers

money for nothing

2007-12-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

money for nothing wiki

money for nothing you tube

Spitting image

2007-12-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

your never gonna believe this but when i was a kid this was all i used to watch-
it was funny political satire as acted out by puppets!
check it out!
wikipedia
spitting image you tube

digital tools

2007-12-16T19:11:00.001-08:00

digital tools

Pixel art masters!

2007-12-16T18:52:00.000-08:00

helm profile at pixeljoint
interview with Helm and Ptoing

gfx zone

Pixels in motion!

2007-12-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

delaware

delaware motion painting

fell in love with a girl- shynola

and here's how they made it

move your feet- shynola

go with the flow - shynola

and here's how they did it

insane vector art in illustrator

2007-12-09T22:41:00.000-08:00

creativebush.com
basangpanaginip

google sketch up help videos

2007-12-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Pretty much self expainitory.
you tube videos
aidanchopra.com

honest gamer.com

2007-12-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

they seem very sinsere about their reviews!
www.honestgamers.com

a very interesting blog

2007-12-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

www.dwr.com

life clever

2007-12-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

a dope site about grapic design
www.lifeclever.com
and heres a n article on resume design
the-7-deadly-sins-of-resume-design

Another Excellent manga site!

2007-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

minionserver.com
is an excellent manga download site!

and go toonemanga.com
to view mangas online

some z-brush stuff

2007-11-20T17:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/general/resources/materials/materials.htm

I just found another 3d site!

2007-11-14T07:37:00.001-08:00

the3dstudio.com

free 3d stuff for maya

2007-11-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/

and designers toolbox for all the GD technical stuff!
http://www.designerstoolbox.com/

Nice Toy Customs

2007-11-10T08:57:00.001-08:00

geeb-o-rama.com

paper textures anyone?

2007-11-06T19:33:00.001-08:00

mayang.com

I donno what this is exactly but im putting it up!

2007-11-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

pouet.net

this is some nice demo scene stuff!

More Art!

2007-11-04T16:40:00.000-08:00

maricazottino.com

internationalposter.com

more new stuff!

2007-11-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

ionoi
computerarts
changethethought

Interesting Stuff

2007-10-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

fx_composer
a NIVIDIA shader tool

g2mil.com
a site on various military stuff

wickedstudios.com
home of ine indie adventure game "keepsake"

www.zisman.ca
makes randon "gadgets" looks very interesting

game art site

2007-10-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

more pixelart
pixeldam.net

and a great game art site

creativeuncut.com

for all you type addicts out there!

2007-10-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

if you don't know this site already and your a graphic designer well...

typophile.

NFG MAN!

2007-10-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

while reading the book "Character Design for Mobile Devices" i decided to put some info on the author NFGMAN, a sort of gaming historian.
enjoy!
nfggames.com
lawrence_wright
gamesx.com

JON HADDOCK

2007-10-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

a fine Artist who does pixel Art based on political events
Jon haddock

A site devoted to middleware

2007-10-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

gamemiddleware.org

A Motion Detector for Flash?

2007-10-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

nastypixel.com

More Good stuff!

2007-10-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

mechafetus.com
selectparks.net
Paul Robertson/

pore pixel stuff

2007-10-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

a pixel art archive that focuses on chronotrigger
chronocompendium.com

hardcore gamer 101

2007-09-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

nice site for gaming
hardcore Gameing 101

old school Illustration

2007-09-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

You guys are gonna love this!
coconino-world

Pandora radio

2007-09-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

just a cool internet radio station.

www.pandora.com/

Manga studio tips

2007-09-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

a link to some tips on manga studio!
pencilkiller

textures anyone?

2007-09-30T19:17:00.001-07:00

openfootage

For all you pixel art lovers out there!

2007-09-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

lovepixel

tutorialblog.org

derekyu.com

So you want to be a pixel artist?

graphics.com

im sorry this is just cool

2007-09-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

jacksonpollock.org

indie game dev stuff!

2007-09-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

indiegamer.com

amazon

marks

amazonbooks

idevgames.com/

Illustrators I like

2007-09-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

JasonRaish
onesickindividual
shaneglines
arthurdepins
gianlucamattia

More Manga

2007-09-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to Phase3, fore up to date manga translations from japan!
My Personal favorate is Gantz- Take a look and let me know what you think-
http://phase3.nyaatorrents.org/

More toys

2007-09-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

check out this toy archive site
toys

Strike Gonzo!

2007-09-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Gonzo, the big Japanese Anime studio has online games!
gonzo

Strike Witches!
cute little girls wit guns and & WWII propellers for legs, interesting.
s-witch

Gena6 and Genna6

2007-09-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Off topic, is a link to a tragedy that has happened in America, visit the link and draw your own conclusions.
http://www.colorofchange.org/

In an interesting twist, while searching for the above topic i came across this definition on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genna

Sabra.jp

2007-08-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

a japanese website with a bi-monthly magazine to match.
its good for japanese models- a lot of girly pictures, but no nudity!
its sort of like maxim in japanese.
sabra

Cell Phone Blues!

2007-08-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

if your looking for a new phone thiese are your best outlets!
http://www.gsmarena.com/
www.cellhut.com

SUE

2007-08-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is going to be the first boss encounter, sue is a charismatic lazy brat, wit sex appeal and money ta boot! here are some initial pixels- enjoy!

Fenris

2007-08-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

well heres the first look at the heroine for the video game im working on,

her name is Silica Fenris (for now)

and shes's a bad ass!

i had problems with this first version, she looked too much like a heroin addict! i lked the concept of her wering a sheer dress and high heel thigh high leather boots so i just needed to refine it a little as shown below:

here ive given her a haircut and smoother her out some, and refined her shpe.

ill upload more later...

Study of Capcom Pixel Art!

2007-08-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

in my study of POISON as seen in street fighter 3
poison is sporting 9 seperate skin tones!
3 for the highlight
3 for the shadow and
3 for the out line!
this is insane- and also explains the level of detail that they are able to acheve
in streetfighter3.
what i will do from now on is pick my 9 colors beforehand and paint in index mode
CapCom produced these images using less than48 colors in a 64 color palette.

today in pixel test 8 i used part of this knolage by using the pantone pastel and solid uncoated palettes. with an imediate color selection in front of me this makes color choice a lot swifter.
I am also only using the pencil tool and only one layer.
im doiing this in order to keep my pixel art from becomming "muddy" and antialiased to death!
KISS!
im looking to Alphose Mucha and the Beggarstaffs for influence.
Update!
after hours of study and sleepless nights ive decided to give illustrator a try, With beaming results!
it took me about 2 minutes to do a line drawing that would have taken me an hour to do in photoshop.
Just rememder to draw in illustrator as one point stroke- becouse thats how nit will come out in photoshop if you make the line any smaller.
All i have to do is draw the line drawing in illustrator and then EXPORT the file to photoshop as 72 ppi.
Write layers
maximum editability
NO anti-alias
in photo shop ill clean it up and color it- and then change it to index and save as a PNG.

RaidenX

2007-07-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

As usual im in my schools computer lab trying to call myself programming in flash, so in yet another hour of despiration i have to dig up an old flash game site for code!
its raiden x and its an excellent flash game with code availible for all the Noobs out there!
http://swift.atspace.com/index2.htm

and below is some aditional ai code for enimies in flash!
http://planetoftheweb.com/components/promos.php?id=214&channel=ActionScript

3d and strider

2007-07-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

I came across another 3d model download site today
http://artist-3d.com/

and this a classic site devoted to my favorate game charicter of all time...
Strider!
enjoy.
http://www.lscmainframe.net

game stuff i stumble on...

2007-07-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

fighting fantasy project
its basically a pen and paper RPG, just viewed through your browser
http://www.ffproject.com/cgi-bin/pg?f=index
capcom backgrounds anyone?
http://www.slateman.net/images/gaming/backgrounds/vs/
and last but not least is an excellent site with oldschool videogames
but there's only one drawback...
its in spanish.
have fun.
http://postback.geedorah.com/principal.html

think geek.com

2007-06-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

i just came across a site with allot of oddball stuff.
and another site wich is a company that specializes in 3D model printing, which is
taking a 3d cad drawing from the computer and producing an actual physical structure.
(nice)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6748/
http://www.modelshop.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.3dmodelprinting.com/publish/3d_model_printing_links.html

Elephants Dream

2007-06-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled across a 3d movie done in BLENDER
an open scource 3D program.
this stugg is amazing (the fact that its all free), you can even download all the scource files and movie for free as well, im thinking about checking out blender!

http://orange.blender.org/blog/mancandy-updated/

ARMATURE

2007-06-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

today i found a site on making ball and socket "ARMATURES"from scratch!
armature is another word for professional puppet, like those the used in the corpse bride-
enjoy!

http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2006/06/how_to_make_a_b.html

http://pharosproductions.com/aosma/aosma_masters_danforth.html

China Town Game pt2

2007-06-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been very consistent with the china town game but whatever...
Today I feel like I have a real handle on it, by the end of the semester all the coding was done and all the assets were put together but it was not a cohesive final effort. So for my final I just handed in a previous version and not the intended final build (if that makes any sense?).
Over this summer I will tighten the screws, and give this project the T.L.C. it deserves.
So far all I need to do is plot the courses of the streets that you walk down and rotate the background movie clip accordingly.
The next big development would be to make the enemy placements coincide with where you are at on the given screen tomorrow I will post some rough version of the game so that you could get a better idea of what i'm talking about.
Well that enough for now, ill update tomorrow.

Toys, Toys, Toys!

2007-06-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

when im not Graphic designing my eyeballs out, or studing flash until my brain fries i like to do something that doesn't involve looking at a screen. So i spark my imagination buy customising miroman figures. listed below is a link to some guys who do a pretty good job at it.
Baybe layer ill put some of my own stuff up, maybe.
http://page.freett.com/gigatrance/index0.html
http://microotaku.blogspot.com/
and lastly this is a hobby shop online with decent prices
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/

flash sites

2007-06-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

I was showing a good friend of mine, my blog and he sugested that i put up some flash tutorial sites that i know of, so here you go ROMAN!

http://www.actionscripts.co.uk/tutorials.asp

Swift 3d homepage with tuts
http://www.erain.com/support/Tutorials/

http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Games/

http://oos.moxiecode.com/
http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/

http://www.actionscript.org/

http://www.gotoandplay.it/

http://www.video-animation.com/flash_28.shtml

http://www.kirupa.com/

http://www.flashvacuum.com/flash.html

http://www.gotoandlearn.com

unreal engine

2007-06-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

ive been contemplting what 3d engine i should learn for the games industry and have decided tat unreal seems to be the best bet! it was between Unreal and Virtools, but Virtools is not as widly used!
so these two links are to unreal engine2 FREE DOWNLOAD and support.
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/homefold/home.shtml

http://www.udn.epicgames.com/Main/WebHome.html

2007-06-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

a new link to dope artists
http://www.barksbookmarks.com/engine/index.php?search=illustration%2C+art%2C+design&tag=true

3d game engines

2007-06-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

i was just surfine around and stumbled on these engines:
http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
http://www.cipherengine.com/

China TOWN GAME

2007-06-07T15:48:00.001-07:00

this is a clip from the chinatown game i was working on last semester, tere is more to it but i don have it on me right now. within the next few weeks i will be making this little game tighter so that i will be portfolio ready.

what you see here is just an engine really
more update will come soon!

video tutorial sites

2007-06-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

lately on my all consuming quest for knolage,
i've been serching for video tuts(as i like to call them)
becouse reading on a screen all day tires my eyes and i don't always have acess to a free printer.
creative coww is really the best out of the bunch but video tuts has a lot of stuff on it as well- but be forwarned; some tuts are silent so you may need to keep itunes open for some background noise!
enjoy!

http://www.good-tutorials.com/
http://www.3d-tutorial.com/
http://www.creativecow.net
http://www.video-tutes.com/packages/AfterDesign1.php