And my chest

Not my cleavage, that comes later.

This isn't the most recent version since I forgot to put a keyhole in it but that is now done. All I have to do is sort out of UV then start work on the zbrushing.

3rd Year Post.

I have been working on things just not posting on this blog for lack of not wanting to update with a three line post. Though thats sort've what this is gonna be anyway.

Just finished the modelling for the trash project. Wanted to branch out and model a dumpster and a wheelie bin to place near shops, restuarants or flats. This is pretty near the 500 tri limit.

I did want to unwrap and zbrush my mimic chest today but then because the labs are now on 3DsMax 2010 we have the same problem as last year with the labs being one version of what I have.

This is my current progress into the 2D to 3D sprite contest that Game Artisans was running. I was unable to work while it was on but liked the idea so I made a model following the guidelines. It's Django from Boktai sitting at 3k tris which is the limit.

Shall we take Risks?

Apparently not. According to this Kotaku link there are people in the industry saying games aren't that creative anymore. Industry veteran and Zoonami CEO Martin Hollis compares films to games saying that films were about two things. Romance and Guns hence the "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" phrase. Bond films in a nutshell really. Then saying that games were all guns and killing with "Bang bang, Bang bang" Apart from games which aren't meant to have enemies in them (puzzles and sports games) what was the last game that didn't have a certain degree of fighting or doing harm to another? (Yes whacking an animal on the head with a net counts as violence)

Violent scallywag

None really come to mind. I look at my collection and only those you'd expect not to have violence don't. What is it about violence and killing that makes us play loads of games about it? Is it that all gamers are repressed criminals and use games as an outlet? Do we enjoy murdering other people, nazis and ambassadors of other races using all sorts of weaponry? I suppose we do.

I look at prototype and remember that there are no children walking down the sidewalks. Then I remember that Alex Mercer is an over powered psycho who can fling people up in the air like a 10ton truck just by running down the road with a shield out. 

The majority of grunts can't even touch you in this game.

But that isn't the point of this article. We are here to discuss that all games are now similar and don't stray from working formulas. This is one of the reason I hate games about war. Not just any war. The two world wars. They have been done to death and back and that's the reason Wolfenstein has Nazi Zombies. All the characters are generic army guys who shoot army guys wearing different colours with a range of automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. There may be jeeps or tanks but there'll be many town levels and some field/forest/jungle ones maybe even a few in the snow. If you don't kill all the bad doods, they will chase you throughout the level until one of you dies so you have to kill everyone. How many times have there been war-based games? Too many for me to count. 

I like new games, I like fresh characters. Stereotypes are fine. They provide foundations but don't make everyone look and act the same; Army guys, RPG characters like Cloud, little girls holding massive weapons. At least Max Payne is slightly different, Kaim Argonar from Lost Odyssey and Tingle in Zelda.

No character in the world is as unique as this 35 year old Fairy man.

The article later says that new IPs fail because it's new and it is not what people want in their Testosterone man games. MadWorld, the black and white Running Man-esque Wii game went down and even that wasn't a kiddy game. I still want to play it but I've heard good things. Same with No More Heroes made by the people who made Killer 7 about a schizophrenic serial killer.

No More Heroes. Cel Shaded Assinate em up

People know that they like to shoot and kill. They don't quite know if they like new characters like the one in Scribblenauts. I've seen this receive much hype, especially since you can put a steak on a baby and get it eaten by a lion and I think they have God fighting Satan in it too. Fez is a 2D platformer that then rotates the world 90 degrees a time so you can reach other platforms. It looks great and is only being made by 3 people. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was an amazing platformer that used the bongos but now it's been ported to the Wii it doesn't use the bongos. That's half the fun taken away.

See, look how fun it is. Accessible to kids without being crap to adults

I feel saddened when I look at the game shelves and I see games that were obviously just knocked out such as the Wii and DS plague of Brain Training, Dog Training, Toilet Training, Train spotting style games. Then the rest on those systems thats all casual or for kids. 

Xbox is plagued by shooting games and RPGs, I don't even look at the Sony shelves.

In years to come I see developers only taking the safe options in FPSs or casual/kids games instead of taking risks and doing something new and different. Like the whole point of games is supposed to be about. I come to games either looking for a Narrative or an awesome experience. Some games are falling by the wayside these days, though stalking Kotaku it's hard not to see what's going to be coming out that has potential. However looking at a release schedule for Europe holds no promise at all. It seems to be one promising title per 5 cheaply made game.

Can't wait for the 18th of September on the Wii. Great day for gaming.

I wanna change that. I want to make games that aren't the same or have been done before. I want new stuff.

Fun fact. Searching World War 2 Game character in google, the first image is a gypsy. Actually only the 5th/6th image onwards are of war.

Some interesting images

The first up is this picture of an Aye Aye Lemur baby. Search Aye Aye Lemur and it's all that comes up really. So for a little while I had a warped view thinking theyd all lost their hair and the looked like wierd  batty gollum monsters. Certainly a unique animal. It's the one that taps on trees with its long boney fingers to find bugs.

Next is this image done by an artist who modernised old retro games like Sonic, Mario and Megaman into fresh new colourful pieces. Of course these kind of things could be remade to look like this nowadays. I suppose it's the nostalgia and then seeing everything in a brand new lease of life.

Presumeably this picture was done in biro alone and it really goes to show the scale of how big Giratina is compared to the Trainer. The moon being the main draw and seeing a collosus in front of it, then it's giant wings and leading down its body to the dead trees really brings in a haunted atmosphere.

And this, I think, is a character from fighting game Blazblue. I like the design as she has the big hood, hidden face and massive hand image going on. Alot like Vivi in FFIX. The constrast between her dark face and bright clothing makes me wonder just what kind of character she is.

Current WIPs

I thought I'd post these up too just to have a record of my summer progress.

First is my Azure Kite/ Lucario All star cosplay for a Game Artisans mini comp

Second is my entry for Comic-con: the Phantom Stranger. Due to going away for a week I couldn't finish it before the deadline so I'll be sure to finish it now that I have more time and make it look better than if I'd rushed

We don't call it Summer

We call it the Rainy Season. Yes its an old photo but I wanted to post it up. I want it to rain again now. Or at least have the swimming pool open again >:(

DS Style models

Recently I've been making some Low poly models after I found people had ripped a model of the GTS from Pokemon and the Link model from Phantom Hourglass.

The first one is a Highwayman which i think i was subconciously inspired by the guys Gambit Comicon entry.

And this one is the Pokemon Typhlosion inspired by the news that Gold and Silver will be remade.

But this is it for the DS models. After this I'll finish the Phantom Stranger and another model hopefully by the time Uni starts again