Playing Games & Doodling

Right now I’m playing Plants vs. Zombies, Musiac Box, The Path, and a bit of WoW here and there. Considering there have been cricket noises coming from my guild lately, I’m going to check into Free Realms this weekend. They’ve gotten a million players in less than a month and that’s pretty impressive. I’m curious to check out what they are doing right.

And in the meantime I’m drafting my own mini-campaign and back to doing wallpapers and doodles. It’s been a rough start to May for me so far and I’m hoping to harness that and turn it into something other than focusing on the loss in my heart.

Random Images (after a long deserved update)

I could go on and on about things that have happened but instead I’ll just update with some images that I’ve worked on in the meantime. I feel like less is more right now.

This is about keeping it simple.

I have a hard time with this sometimes. For example, I came up with an idea for a Gamasutra design contest they held. The idea was to create a game that would feasible in the year 2020.

“Therefore, for this competition, devise the name of a game that will be popular or cutting-edge tech in 2020, and write a description of how it is controlled, as well as its chief design concepts and innovations.”

Now, I love researching. I love looking up and reading about all sorts of things – especially when I’m trying to build something. The problem I ran into with this was that I had a really fun idea but I felt I didn’t know enough about the background of sleep studies. So I spent way more time reading about different things and complicating my idea than just doing what I should have done in the beginning – keep it simple.

With that said, I decided to unwind and present my idea the way I should of previously.

Name
Sleep Series Games

What It Is
Customizable downloaded audio tracks that trick the brain into creating specific play environments while the player is sleeping – turning normally random dreams into a playground.

Desired Outcome
People being able to use sleep as a way to become personally immersed in gameplay created either by themselves or by other people’s designs.

Description & Concepts
When the player goes to bed, audio will play that has been enhanced with precise rhythms and keywords that will trigger particular images in the player’s head. This can include playing a game of chess with your grandfather or placing yourself in first person player gameplay.

The player can create these audio tracks via an online service. You can grant it access to your photo albums, social networks, or point it to specific key words and information via Google. You can also choose from professionally designed sleep experiences. In addition, you will be able to use licensed properties that have granted permission.

After you determine what type of game you want to play and all the criteria and conditions have been set, the player can then download the track to the player of their choice. When they are ready to sleep, just hit play and the encoded audio with set up the building blocks for their play experience including a buffering audio to allow the player to achieve REM before starting.

Considering even in 2020 we have yet to figure out everything abut the human brain, it is possible to listen to the same audio and have an entirely different experience. This will allow for replay ability.

Other Notes
This was created with the idea that as we go forward, our time is going to be consumed by more and more things. If we can combine our dreams with the types of experiences we want from our games, it could be a win for all parties involved.

Little Pieces of Paper Meaning So Much

A lot of thought goes into business cards.

I liked my old one… the goats.

However, after receiving some cards lately have come to three conclusions:

1) It’s rare to find 3D modelers with attractive business cards. Well, except those who are using professionally designed company cards. Even the programmer’s fear of touching the design aspect of things keeps it classic – for the most part.

2) I really should tweak mine. In fact, I should just retire it.

3) I need to pick words like the way you pair wine with cheese.

This process has plagued my brain for a bit and probably took me two weeks to come up with something I was happy with. I had several designs I came up with, one that came to 99% completion before I gave it “the mouth wiggle” and decided I liked it but I should change the path that I am going. Oddly enough it was not until today (when I knew I needed to get the order out or I was not going to see it in time for GDC) that something “cardppropriate” came to my brain.

Because I want to start in the middle, let me introduce the one rejected as a card design.

Now, it’s an odd format for a reason. I was 95% positive I wanted to go the Moo Mini Card route. Link for those unfamiliar: http://www.moo.com/products/minicards.php

When I joined the paid version of Flickr, they offered me a free sample of the mini cards. What they sent back were these awesomely fun little cards that I had put my name and email address on. I fell in love. Cute, wonderful color, matte, and they felt great. They really did win me over in the quality department. So much so that a year later I was still convinced (mostly), that these little guys were it.

So I decided to start designing around the widescreen format.

Fast forward endless mutterings to myself later, when I had it up on the site and I was adjusting the position, a little voice in my head said no. I argued that I had put all this work in and I like the bird tree and I thought it was clever - but that other part of me made a better argument.

Of all the people I hand the card to, I’m going to be the one most impressed with the cleverness and that doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it? And this was what I was dedicating an entire side of the card to.

So a deep sigh later, it was back to the drawing tablet.

Now, I COULD post the new design up here – but I will not. If anyone actually reads this, you will need to find me at either GDC (or Beer Wednesdays) and request one. I will gladly exchange cards and you can tell me whether I was right or wrong. My email address is not too hard to find *cough*profile*cough* and if you want to meet up, let me know.

Couple of things I will share…

1) I still went with Moo.
2) I picked the recycled ones.
3) I finally figured out a good way to display my signature initials.

Mint chocolate is my favorite.

It is easy to get lost sometimes and forget about updating these things.

It’s been a while and I bounce between either being too busy or not in the right frame of mind to ramble on about things on here. Since December I’ve had trips back home and to New York, headaches and smiles, on and off projects (none of which are full time status changers but they keep me busy), and other domestic chores that sometimes I think lose weight in terms of being productive.

I’ve also been taken with playing games, reading books, and keeping up with the news. Film watching has been on the lighter side but I make it a point to hit something up every once in a while. Coraline was my last outing and I loved it, but since I liked the book, it was a given.

I’ve discovered some new webcomics out there – something I’ve tried opening my mind to a tad more lately. For a while there, there were some gems but most were rubbish (much like podcasts). Well, some seeds have started to grow and I like what they are turning into.

http://www.tinykittenteeth.com/

&

http://www.theblackbloodalliance.com/


Two entirely different styles but I dig them both.

Otherwise, I’ll update more later with a proper subject to carry on about. Till then…

Been busy catching up, getting further, and looking forward.

Created in Illustrator.

A snippet of a work in progress - Nerd Pickle lamenting his salty watery prison when there is other "more nerdy" things to be done. It’s missing a lot of details at the moment but I’ll move back onto him as soon as I finish a few other items.

There has not been too much to report lately as I have transitioned out of one job and have found myself working on little things for the time being. I’m back to playing World of Warcraft and I am revisiting Chrono Trigger on the DS. I’m also cooking more thanks to an absence of a commute time in the evening.

I am furthering my skills in Illustrator though - which is helping fuel some more research into putting things into Flash. It was something I tinkered with at my last job but never really sat down and pushed at because I was usually too busy doing things related to my job title(s).

I loves me some drop shadow.

For some people it's lens flair, for me it's drop shadow.



Created this for my desktop at work Illustrator. Photoshop just for sizing.

Been playing with Animal Crossing again - this time on the Wii. It's familiar... possibly TOO familiar. There's not much new, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I think they could have chose to do much much more with it.

A huge thing could have been the way the townsfolk interact with you. Now, I've only been playing for a week... but so far it's been the same ol' behavior. Why not have them recognize when you are wearing something they gave you, or mention how they saw you at Nooks selling what they gave you, or even aknowledge when you take one animal's gift and gave it to someone else. Simple things like this might actually have a meaningful effect on how the player views these otherwise random animals.

I think they could have introduced small games that you could play against animals and could also be played against friends when they are visiting. I'm thinking checkers, connect four, ect. Hell, just throw the clubhouse games in there, Nintendo! If you couldn't give us the NES games like in the first Animal Crossing... this would have been fun too.

I do like the DS connectivity and the fact that I could download my Wild World catalog. Thumbs up for that. I spent A LOT of time in there.

I'll keep playing though to see how things go in the game (tho I have a pretty good idea). One thing that is nice about A.C. is that it is one of the best games I have that I can just relax with.

Feeling wiser...

... prehaps that why this little guy came into being.
(Photoshop and Illustrator)

Test Puppy...

(Photoshop)