Saturday Morning Cartoons

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Just in time for 'em with a new Warpaint:

Man. Typing up that title brings back a warm squishy wave (or at least a mild slosh) of nostalgia (kinda sounded like I was talking about some sort of unusual fluid problem), remembering trying to drag my elementary school weary husk out of bed early enough to catch Saturday morning gems like Exosquad and The Tick. All while cramming my face with over sugared balanced breakfasts and toy commercials.

Where have all the good cartoons gone? And I mean those bizarre-high-drama-but-still-made-for-kids-and-to-sell-action-figures shows like Batman: The Animated Series, or X-men. Have all the Westerners been replaced by Anime? Maybe their like still exist and I'm suffering from a bout of Ignorance brought on by an extended lack of cable TV.

Maybe it's time to call Time Warner, purchase a box of Capt'n Crunch, find couch and a TV somewhere.

... Sort of makes my next stop sound like prison, actually.

-Matt

Concepts and Barbaric Bugs

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Not too many NEW newness to report on Savage today besides some gameplay tweaking and minor (but annoying) bug squashing, so I thought I would share some concept sketches from mah little pad:

Excuse the crudeness of the drawings and if they come off a bit... savage (Haha Heehee ho... *ahem*).

Anyhoo, cruel and unusual punishment aside, next up on the to do list is to inject some fight into our enemies for our barbarian to squish, get some serious AI in there, some combat (XP, stats, the like), and maybe some items... Ooh! And don't forget run-on sentences!

-Matt

Colours Are Magic

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And I have proof:

It looks like there will finally be an update schedule I can commit to (who says dudes are incapable of such feats as this) thanks to Eric - weaving his magic wand all over the dry erase board and whatnot.

Mondays and Wednesdays will see new Nocturnal Transmissions comics (as soon as we inject some pigment into the old hags) - huzzah!

-Matt

New Warpaint (finally) And Other Junk

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I never thought it'd happen again, but here ya go:

Progress, as promised; featuring the coloring talents of one Eric Hansen - forgive my curtained physical jubilation!

 

I don't know how this escaped my attention for so long, but I've recently become addicted to a couple games on Kongregate. Kingdom Rush, for one, is probably the only reason I've been interacting with the internets on my computer for the past few days.

Speaking of rad, I've always been a big fan (drooling mongloidish addict) of Mount and Blade (or Mount & Blade, or whatever) and Mount and Blade: Warband. BUT! That coupled with a shiny new mod for vanilla flavored Mount and Blade that goes by the name of The Last Days (of the Third Age) of Middle Earth has me breaking out in gooseflesh, fevers and shiver spells when I'm not getting my damn fix.

The mod is incredibly detailed - like if you tried to shove all of your paperback versions of Tolkien's works into your damn hard drive and then digitally run around with a Rohirrim slaying Orcs hither and thither. Super sick (like the good kind), despite having a very unwieldy title... Let's try to acronym-ize it to make it less... ( TLDotTAoME ) - Ack. Nope. I just bashed my shin into an angry vowel.

-Matt

End Transmission.

 

 

Back On Track

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Ok - first off, I'd like to say that I will endevour to update this dev journal for Savage much more frequently and on schedule (which I'll get to later - probably every Friday). That will keep me going on this project and force me to produce a playable demo very soon. Cautious optimism is my bestest friend.

Anyhoo, on to the updates! (in bulleted form for now, with some screenies)

  • Completely scrapped and redesigned the engine with more efficient code and to make everything more feature friendly
  • Fine tuned and added new animations (new attacks of all kinds and states, lifting, carrying, pulling, pushing, skidding)
  • Added a humble lighting engine where a "fire" object illuminates and casts shadows
  • Created a player naming system
  • New text system with dialogue trees
  • Started on a melee impact system
  • Widescreen format
  • Ramps, stairs, ledges
  • Created and added some menu and dialogue box sounds

      

 

So, there we have it - ugly untiled graphics and all. More to come soon!

Savage Update

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I thought I'd post some screens for Savage and let the interwebs get a look at this thing I've been monkeying around with. I'm still pounding the kinks out of the engine and might have a little demo version of the game ready to be fondled, caressed and wholly abused by those so compelled in the coming months.

      

   

 

     

 

 

What is best in life?

It's (still) Alive!!

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Still kicking. So much has happened since this dern place was last updated. Where to begin? 'Beau and I relocated to Austin, Texas the second week of January to fantastic results. I've still been working on Savage when time permits, and now that the dust has settled from of all the busy ( Halloween wedding, out of state move and life change will do that, sometimes ), we can get back to updates!

Mmm... updates.

We were fortunate enough to move in above some really cool neighbors, one of whom is doing some awesome coloring for the coming Warpaint pages and is quickly becoming a huge contributor to the site and all the random projects going on around here. His name is Eric Hansen. And you will know him by the trail of dead. Or something.

Observe our refreshingly unexampled fervor:

But, yes. Supremely blessed and happy to have him on our side.

To the future!

 

p.s. I also couldn't let this hilarious tidbit from my 7 year old brother's history class activity book go unnoticed:

Diminuative Undertaking

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For the Emperor, indeed.

 I have been supremely excited about all the goings on in the Warhammer 40k franchise lately what with the recent release of Ultramarines, the film, and the slow, steady drip-feed of information on the Vigil Games MMO, Dark Millennium and Space Marine (bom bom BOM), the game. ... And, who knows! - if all goes well, we might even get some games/films with some more inspired titles! Keep your chainswords crossed.

Fanboy puns/awful jokes aside, I loved Ultramarines, despite the low production values. My mortal coil would be shuffled loose (and I'd probably poop) if the team responsible were given a bigger budget to work on a sequel. Seriously, the lads at Codex Pictures who threw the film together deserve a medal. Or a Space Ork head on a pike. That ought to satisfy, I think. I sense myself getting off track - The film is going to be screened FOR FREE at select theaters at the end of this month stateside. I am totally going (or, deploying. *geekishly amused chuckle*) to the showing in Los Angeles on Sunday.

I thought It appropriate, too, what with all the hammering going on and the comic's esoterically nerdy subject, to upload these little guys (For those interested (who I'm willing to wager are very few): two tactical squads of Ultramarines and a captain whose colourschemes I altered to suit my newly discovered Crimson Fists fetish):

 

 

Dear Internet - Hopefully nothing too incriminating is given away in the background...

  I also gave Dawn of War II a try. So far, melikes what meplays. I was wary to try the thing when it was released due to all the backlash it got for straying too far from the series' particularities established in the first Dawn of War and it's myriad expansions... but I am enjoying myself - so nyah.

Ok. No more Warhammer, now. I promise.

-Fitz

End Transmission.

 

I WANNA (HAVE TO) HOLD YOUR HAND

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*ahem* Better late than never, right?

What's with video games forcing a darkness dwelling, anti-social, awkward and agoraphobic troll like myself to engage in intimate and personal (No, I don't mean that. Well, actually, sometimes that) activities? I play video games so I don't have to do things like keep real life relationships going. Answer obnoxious phone calls and drive my "friends" around to do the things that they want to do. Take middle aged men by the hand and traipse about through the damn forest! Gamers (mostly) are an inherently irresponsible lot - so why heap irritatingly mundane responsibilities on our frail, unsunned shoulders?

Social dynamics are like the new water levels - annoying and necessary to complete a game. Well, mostly necessary. It seems that with Fable III you can more or less skip the whole friend making thing altogether to get to point B, but the overall suggestion I'm getting from the developers is that I'm missing out on, like, two thirds of the experience should I overlook it. The game, the series as a whole, seems to have a habit of taking complex ideas and trying to distill them down into something much simpler. Or raw, or whatever.

Not my cup of tea when I'm having stupid days, I guess.

But it's ok. I have a new (virtual) Man-Crush; In the form of Geralt of Rivia. I had always been itching to give the Witcher a spin and I'm so glad I did. I know he may be a moody, substance-abusing mutant-junky of an anti-hero- but he's my anti-hero. Hyphens and all.

Speaking of catching up on my ever growing backlog of unplayed games, I've jumped back into Dead Space in an effort (and out of excitement for the sequel) to finish the damn thing. My suggested tone is probably misleading: I love Dead Space. I loved it when I didn't finish it and I love it more now. With the exception of Molyneux's latest, so far so good...

... And better late than never, right?

-Fitz

End transmission.

ILL TURISTA

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Actually, the multiplayer in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is pretty awesome, despite what initial worries and fears may have coerced my mouth into expressing when I learned that there would be an aforementioned online play component to the game.

Seeing some of it in action at last year's Comic Con didn't have me convinced.

I recently finished the single player campaign. I don't really remember a lot of it. I know I had fun, but I don't remember. Maybe it's the game's way too samey familiarity to the first (second) game (Assassin's Creed II... I wonder: Would I somehow find myself at the wrong end of a hidden blade if I used a '2' instead of the 'II' the game dramatically insists on displaying...) in the series, or the comparitively uninspired location when juxtaposed to ACII's, like, five (relatively) different looking areas?

Something didn't grab me about the game. I wasn't as invested in Ezio's homicidal exploits this time around. It all felt too easy, somehow. However I do remember every single slaying rendered in white knuckle pulse racing detail I executed (heh) in my first multiplayer session. It really does make you feel like you're getting away with murder - if murder implied you dressed up like a clown and leaping out at your victim from a mound of strategically placed hay, yelling "Blaba-Ha!" while simultaneously trying to evade a poison-filled-syringe-wielding Marylin Manson video reject "doctor" hot on your heels...

But I'm sure for someone somewhere in history, that's exactly what it meant.

 

-Fitz

End Transmission.

(UN)FRIENDLY COMPETITION pt. 2

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The universe's warped brand of justice is served.

 

Red Dead Redemption has my attention once more in the form of the Undead Nightmare pack. I finally decided to give it a whirl and I must say, it's good to dust off the ol' dusty sunbleached hat... thing, and slip into the spurs of John Marston again. Not so good, though, is remembering (which lent to mine brain that grudging "oh yeaaahh....") how Mr. Marston controls. Or doesn't, as the case may be.

I tell ya, there's nothing that shatters the immersion factor into a million little pieces like trying to casually strole through an open door on a second story balcony only to get snagged on the corner of the entrance, overcompensate with the movement stick, spin wildly out of control and take a dive over the railing to the street below. Real smooth, action star. Real smooth. It's enough to get under my nails, sometimes.

Maybe I just have to reacquaint myself with the way the guy handles, having been away from him for so many months; like embracing a long lost friend - relearning their idiosyncrasies, what makes them tick. What makes for a good conversation. What will make him swing the God damn torch in the right direction instead of flailing wildly at open space while a walking husk from hell feasts on your epidermal delights.

But I like it. In spite of the above logorrhea, I do like it. The mood the developers have managed to create along with the reunion of all those classic characters makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Now, I just have to remember how to play the damn thing - a new way.

 

-Fitz

End Transmission

 

(UN)FRIENDLY COMPETITION pt. 1

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Apparently, Nintendo is the only video game big whig out there that is anti-achievement, according to this I was reading recently on Kotaku. Posted therein was also this; an essay examining the ins and outs, ups and downs of the (apparently) much heated achievement debate: Good, or Evil? In the context of game development, that is... I think.

I honestly don't know my stance on the matter, personally, as ever since I purchased an Xbox 360, got a Steam account and mucked around on various other forms of gaming specific platforms and indie titles I never necessarily felt harvesting points of any kind was weighing me down; cramping my style.Yes, there are some achievements that I have yet to ravenously stalk into the gaming twilight that will, honestly, never see the light of day (i.e. Win 50 gazillion perfect online ranked matches in a row without dying or using any ammo!!), and there is an empty trophy shelf, a small pang of regret that is parked in the same imperfect place in my soul that harbours that hankering for a 200.6% (ridiculous) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night file...

But that has never stopped me from enjoying a good game - featured achievements or no.

 

I suppose my feelings on the subject are case to case. If the comic has anything to do with it, or was supposed to, I have no idea, either. Nothing like a gift wrapped in ambiguity to stimulate the imagination.

 

-Fitz

End Transmission.