Dos Art
Posted: April 24, 2012 Filed under: Animation, Art, Music | Tags: album, animation, art, chiptune, games, howto, music Leave a comment »Mah friend Dos recently released a chiptune album, and I did the art! It was a super cool day of drawing and conceptualizing. He gave me a few of the tracks-to-be to listen to for the purpose of coming up with something appropriate (I feel this is especially fitting for “Valkyrie“), and I came up with this!
It’s the first time I’ve really done something like this, and it was a great experience. For awhile now, I’ve been really interested in building portfolios for things that I do. That’s been hard to do because I never tend to finish anything or work on something that I’m interested in calling a final project despite the fact that I’m pretty comfortable with what I do with music, art, writing, event coordination, etc. Not sure I would put something like this in my portfolio because of issues I have with the space above the running man’s head and his indiscreetly large right hand and etc etc bleh bleh blooo mblehh, but y’know. Y’know. I think it’d be interesting to have a portfolio of wallpaper/media cover art images, even if I made things like that for existing media. DeviantArt stat shit. Y’know. And voice acting/event/music reel? Fork yeah. Y’know.
SO ANYWAYS, right before I got started on the Dos art, I thought it might be cool to get screenshots entailing a progression of how I came to what I came to. SO HERE IT IS. HOVER YOUR MOUSE OVER AN IMAGE FOR MAD DEETS.
So yeah! Boom and all that! Hope to do more ‘a this sometime soon. In the meantime, here’s a new STTG! Super happy with the brutal ending ;D
PIGSquad Party + A New STTG!
Posted: April 16, 2012 Filed under: Animation, Art, Events, Games, PIGSquad | Tags: collective, game, party, series, videogame Leave a comment »So, as of this recent April 3rd, it has been a year since the Portland Indie Game Squad’s first meeting! We held a party on the 13th for the occasion, and it was bamb. There were about 35 of us, everyone brought beer/food, we had 3 TVs going (one of which ran FEZ all night 
), we played some Johann Sebastian Joust outside, and… it was a hoot and a half.
I also (finally) released another So There’s This Game! I hope to finally start doing them weekly now, but we’ll see what happens with that. So here’s to that and all that.
(I also did the album art for a chiptune artist’s new release, which I’ll post about latore!)
Lots of PIGSquad Stuff! MusicComp/PAXPrep
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: Art, Events, Music, PIGSquad | Tags: art, competition, convention, design, discount, fundraiser, music, pax, shirts Leave a comment »I totally bombed the hippety boppity out of the PIGSquad forums with AWESOME stuff today.
Whenever I feel a bit uninspired, I think about how PAX is the coolest thing known to my face, and today thought, “Shit, PAX is awesome, but I pulled my goddamned hair out about PAX last year. So PAXXETY PAX PAX send me a FAX MAX WAX.” I’m happy that they didn’t turn out in any pictures, but I seriously had hives all over myself for each and every day of PAX Prime last year, and we all decided that it was because I spent the four sleepless days before PAX getting PIGSquad stuff like shirts, cards, bumper stickers, etc. ready for the weekend. BUT FUCK THAT.
So I posted a little diddy about people making recommendations for shirt designs. Something SICK will come out of it, I’m sure.
http://pigsquad.com/forum/topics/pigsquad-pax-shirts-2012
I then thought, “Damn poopa daddy ding dong, I need to make some business cards for myself and for any projects that I’ve released (perhaps Bullet William and Space Eulogy) by PAX as well. Wait. Maybe other people need that, too..!” So I posted this little snittley slag offering discounted graphic design services for the purpose of producing a logo, business cards, t-shirts, decals/stickers, and stuff like that for people who need to showcase themselves at PAX this year. Not only is that craip offered at a discount, but 80% of what I make from it goes to a PIGSquad general fund! If you’re reading this blog and want to take advantage of this, my offer’s open to you, reader, so hit me up via my e-mail address or Twitter or whatever other contact method you find via the “About” page on this site.
http://pigsquad.com/forum/topics/i-ll-do-design-work-for-you-pigsquad-fundraiser
THEN I thought, “Whaaaapadooodashnabubulagoogadadoo, since I’m PIGSquadin’ so hard today, I should probably start working on building a team for the PIGSquad-hosted, Beep Box-endorsed Game Music Composition Competition!” So I did.
http://pigsquad.com/forum/topics/beep-box-music-composition-competition
Boy, I am quite the scat man this evening.
No poop fetish here.
Sequelitis > Day-to-Day Upkeep
Posted: April 7, 2012 Filed under: Games | Tags: design, game, prequel, sequel, videogame Leave a comment »UGHHhhhhggggghhhh, Egoraptor came out with these amazing educational-esque videos describing game design elements and their successes/failures in relation to games and their sequels, and they are amazing (I just said that). They’re super insightful, funny, entertaining, passionate, and – to me – true. So many of the concepts explored in these videos are things that I admire so much about game design; I’ve picked up on them time and time again, and it’s so good to hear someone lay them all out in a structured, lecture-like setting.
And that’s just what makes these these videos so amazing to me. They organize these concepts in such an appropriately coherent manner, and I just want to watch them over and over again. None of the game design elements should be all too new to anyone who’s been playing for… their entire lives…. but just the way they’re organized in these videos, step-by-step… It’S gReAt!
For awhile, one of my big issues with developing Space Eulogy was my reservation about Space Funeral‘s existing fan base, and how this fan base would interpret a prequel developed by a totally different person. I’ve hurtled dat ‘ol hump as of awhile ago, but making Space Eulogy an ultimately entertaining, definable, and worthwhile experience will still require that I make a good game, as it stands alone and as it stands side-by-side with its inspiration (Space Funeral). I’ve explored all of these game design concepts brought forth by the Sequelitis series so many millions of times in my head, but I’ve never really organized them. I tend to explore just one single topic super thoroughly, and it’s hard to keep track of the other things you’ve observed and/or taught yourself when you’re in the midst of building your interpretations and perceptions of one specific little thing.
Sequelitis helps to collect all of these stray, yet complete, thoughts regarding so many important things about successful game design. And I want MY game to be a good sequel/prequel, of course!
In the end, I’m just posting this blog as a complaint. I’ve probably watched each in the Sequelitis series about four times each, but have yet to complete the sought-after task of sitting down quietly to take notes on all of the points that Egoraptor makes, taking advantage of the structure of the videos to eventually make my own prequel/sequel the best it can be! But alas, I am faced with the duties of PIGSquad Crunch Wrap Supreme, and that is not even a real thing 
GAWD I DONT EVEN HAVE EASTER TO MYSELF
PIGSQUAD DAY and other things
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: Animation, Art, Events, Failsafe Clothing, Games, Music, PIGSquad | Tags: ah, fun, happy, inspired, lol, stuff Leave a comment »So yesterday was PIGSquad Day! As of yesterday, it’s been one year since the first Portland Indie Game Squad meeting took place, and it totally shows! There are about 20 of us who are showing up to a vast majority of events/meetings with a huge pool of irregulars who stop by/say hi every once and awhile, we’ve hosted chiptune shows, held OMSI exhibitions, met regularly every month, curated two Game Jams, etc. etc. etc.! So many of us are coming out with our first games (some our second and third) with the support of everyone in our great community, and it’s been a wonderful experience! Makes me want a GROUP PHOTO.
But alas. No group photo
This past week, we helped host Indie Game: The Movie (a very very very very inspiring experience, to say the least), held a discussion about crowd funding and indie game projects at Portland’s Barcamp, and had a general meeting on our normal Sunday day day! After dreading such a busy half week and then thoroughly enjoying the whole thing, I’m super excited. Not only am I crawling with ideas – I’m ready to capitalize on so many projects. Space Eulogy, So There’s This Game (finally), Bullet William, Failsafe stuff, some album art for a friend, new business cards, the arcade cabinet, a music making contest… ETC.
ETC. I SAY. ETC.!
What are you working on!?!?!?!?
