Could you stop playing with that radio, Lord?

Just posting a half day viking

2011-05-04T22:08:00.002+01:00

Discovery: World is Round

2011-02-26T22:22:00.002Z

Final Submission for the LBP2 sackboy minicomp on Gameartisans

Vyse sack 6

2011-02-25T15:42:00.001Z

Vyse sackboy iteration 5

2011-02-23T21:58:00.003Z

The problem with sackboys is that no matter how much work you do to something, it'll still look really unfinished until you put a sack texture on the head

Vyse of the Sack Rogues takes to the skies

2011-02-10T22:19:00.003Z

in this handy base diffuse. You always wanna see what a model finally looks like with things coloured.

Sackboy Contest 2

2011-02-06T18:35:00.002Z

Concepts. Most likely gonna do Vyse

Lido Corinth and the abscence of detail

2011-01-26T22:07:00.002Z

Coloured sketches

2011-01-17T19:42:00.003Z

The Chronicles of Insomniac Detective Lido Corinth: The case of the broken aboriginal Panpipes.

It's named as winter girl but it's not a very wintery outfit. Wintery hat and cowl though so it's perfectly legit

The crazy space rabbit Mad Chun

Completed Shadow

2010-12-16T15:55:00.003Z

Shadow Progress

2010-12-06T20:58:00.000Z

Layton final shot

2010-12-06T20:56:00.001Z

Hi Professor.

Ah Luke, your face reminds me of a puzzle.

Shadow update

2010-11-22T22:10:00.001Z

Shadow is modelled

2010-11-20T22:09:00.001Z

2996 tris or something very close.

Dom War Pre-war concept

2010-11-16T17:51:00.001Z

Class is shadow, race is undecided hohoho

Layton's Apprentice strikes again!

2010-11-14T20:40:00.003Z

Luke is now also finished. 500 tris also and 128x128 diffuse+alpha.

Puzzle 138: How many tris?

2010-11-13T21:39:00.005Z

If Professor Layton is modelled in a Low Poly style, bearing in mind he has a face not too dissimilar to a tin of baked beans, how many tris could you model him in?

Answer: 500 Tris. 128x128 Alpha+Diffuse

Zuruggu complete

2010-09-27T20:45:00.004+01:00

This little Zuruggu is 995 Tris. The left model has a 256 diffuse and the one on the right has a 512. I wanted to compare but you only miss out the scaly skin in the lower texture map.

Zuruggu

2010-09-25T18:06:00.002+01:00

This is my new 5th gen pokebro. He wears his shed skin as pants but they're too baggy so he needs to keep pulling them up. 975 tris. Gonna texture on a 512 or 256.

I didn't draw that picture. It's just so people know

I was gonna do Scott Pilgrim

2010-09-11T17:11:00.002+01:00

His Tshirt and Jeans just bore the hell out of me for a Comiccon entry. Especially for a 12k tri limit and I'm barely pushing 6.5k so I'm gonna do King of Bandit: Jing, as I was gonna do 2 years ago.

Character artistings

2010-08-26T17:36:00.001+01:00

Some arty paintings. I much prefer the first two to the third. I should start doing those more often when designing

Bus shelting

2010-08-18T18:04:00.001+01:00

988 tris. Lovely

Mage finished

2010-08-12T20:29:00.002+01:00

5745 Tris, 1024x1024 - Diffuse/Specular/Bump, 512x512 - Self Illumination.

Pretty happy with how it turned out. Least its something much higher poly than the last few characters I've done.

Face and Shoes

2010-08-11T22:06:00.001+01:00

Mage progress

2010-08-10T21:37:00.001+01:00

A gnomey-mage

2010-08-08T18:14:00.002+01:00

A gnomey mage that I'm making to flesh out my character portfolio. It's gonna be stylised but not too heavily. Still needs a staff

Skulfinishery

2010-08-03T17:48:00.001+01:00

Skulduggery finished at 5,065 tris, 1024 Diffuse/Spec/Normal/Bump/Alpha

Close up of the skull

2010-08-01T16:39:00.003+01:00

The teeth aren't done as they came out really badly and low res so I'm gonna put them on the bump map.

Sculptduggery

2010-07-30T00:18:00.001+01:00

Using the Xoliul shader 1.5

Skulduggery Progress 5025 tris.

2010-07-23T18:33:00.001+01:00

Skulduggery Progress

2010-07-20T19:23:00.002+01:00

Ignore the hand, I like to keep a spare horizontal one in the scene incase I need to change the hands.

Skulduggery is 4370 Tris. I gotta find where to put extra loops in and ill be good

Low poly park finished

2010-07-17T19:19:00.001+01:00

a Low Poly park, 460 tris all assets on a 512x512 Diffuse with alpha.

2 New projects

2010-07-15T21:07:00.004+01:00

Low poly park scene which is around 400 tris and using a 512x512

And a model of Skulduggery Pleasant from the books of the same name.

Faign

2010-07-14T20:05:00.005+01:00

A fake doll Faign, be careful or he'll steal your soul in the night.

Diffuse/Spec/Alpha/Bump all 1024. Haven't moved them to 512 yet for fear of losing the detail for the fabric.

TF2 Polypack

2010-07-02T17:26:00.004+01:00

I entered the TF2 Polycount Contest. I entered for the Scout with the theme of Baseball. Lets hope I win on the 12th July

Racing Ship

2010-05-14T17:26:00.000+01:00

A low poly Race ship, 230 tris, 128x128 Alpha and Diffuse map

Zombie

2010-05-13T14:05:00.001+01:00

Final Zombie Renders, 6020 tris. 2x1024 diffuse/bump/normals and some specs and illuminations

Final Cinema

2010-05-13T14:02:00.001+01:00

Well these will be easy to see. So dark. But these are my final renders

Finalish progress

2010-04-28T19:59:00.002+01:00

The first two screenshots are a bit of a duff pose but thats how it looks. I need some screenshots of the cinema as its lit now but this is pretty much how its going to be. Only that crappy design document to go. Oh and burning it to a CD so max can say LOL NO YOU MOVED EVERYTHING

12 hours progress

2010-04-27T00:30:00.001+01:00

Yes hands

2010-04-26T17:40:00.001+01:00

I like these hands

4 days left

2010-04-26T13:49:00.001+01:00

HOW I LAUGH IN YOUR FACE

Evolution of Cinema Lobbies

2010-04-22T14:22:00.003+01:00

The only difference between the Cinema and Macdonalds

2010-04-16T01:09:00.003+01:00

Is the quality of the uniform.

5904 Tris. Might add a torch when I model that

Zombie tiem

2010-04-15T22:43:00.001+01:00

Todays bloody progress

2010-04-14T16:10:00.002+01:00

Worked on blood and a bit on lighting which I think I'll leave until the end.

current progress

2010-04-12T16:52:00.001+01:00

Decided to grunge up the walls, be brave and make it real grrr.

And a render of my walle which isn't the finished version. I didn't put blood on his hands as the looked like jam

zombies

2010-04-11T21:43:00.003+01:00

Work in progress for my zombie. Got a friend to be my reference. 1754 triangles which i will no doubt have to trim down a bit if I want to keep within the 9000 tri limit I set for the whole zombie

4/3/10

2010-03-04T16:48:00.002Z

Finally got all my current assests compiled. Still a few things i need to add to the main room and finish for behind the counter too

FMP progress and low poly pirate

2010-03-01T02:11:00.002Z

My low poly pirate sitting at 485 tris. Harder to do than the highwayman as he doesnt have a whole long coat but at least he has thumbs.

Lobby progress

2010-02-28T00:00:00.002Z

Gonna upload some old renders that I have for my cinema lobby.

Got most of the assests at uni and the main bits at home so they arent compiled

Zomblie concepting

2010-01-09T17:28:00.001Z

Looking at 3 different things for my zombies. Firstly is the uniform colours since I plan for the zombies to work at the cinema. The first 4 are probably the most likely. If I stick with a red/blue/purple colour scheme it should all fit in. The red could be turned down and maybe not use the cyan.

Second was the blood splatters over the face. These are drawn from my research from other zombies and barely any had clean faces. Surprisingly my research showed alot of zombies without the blood around their mouth but mainly around their eye/cheek/forehead.

Lastly was different eye variations. The first doesn't work as it seems to be more based on vampires. Only one zombie had an empty eye socket and the majority all had their limbs attached and everything there that should be. The most common are 4 and 5, with glazed/white eyes. Bright orange eyes could work in the dark but with a fully lit face, probably not as well

zomblie

2010-01-09T00:51:00.003Z

Painting of a zombie to get an idea of skin colour and stuff but will need more more to become intersting

Change of Direction

2010-01-06T23:41:00.003Z

Zombies in a cinema screen. Easy to produce. Two easy focal characters (survivor and zombie) many props but repeated props (because I don't wanna make environments but my props are fine). Chairs being the main one, can produce 4 for a bunch of variation across the cinema. Simple lights, stairs, fire exit and the main props like popcorn, popcorn bags, drink cups, slushies (which are really common now), pick and mix bags and hot dogs. IF this is too small a focus, it can be pushed into the lobby but I'd rather have a small good looking thing than an overambitious project.

Sides, Zombies are cooler and easier to research than persian things.

FMP sketching

2009-12-28T18:33:00.003Z

So after getting on my pc and going around the net a bit I was looking through about what I could find to do with my fmp and came up with a lot of great reference pictures to do with persian clothing. Not as many as I'd hoped but to be honest I should be thankful I found anything at all. So with my references in hand I silhouetted 12 different figures that I'd use for the hero of my story.

I've also looked a bit at Seahorses after realising my initial monster design looked like one and theyre quite interesting, just a bit thin and weedy for my liking and I'm not sure a tail that curls in front would be a great idea for my monster.

Also lead onto doing a little pied piper character who controls the main monster with his left arm a violin, and right arm, a bow. He will be dressed in persian dress as well to make him seem more like an Imp or a vengeful persian spirit coming back to exact his revenge. Of course he is really trivial and can be left until the end or just as a side project.

I got around to doing a speedpaint of what I wanted things to look like and having a look at colours to use which is mostly in the browns, oranges and yellows.

Finally all my reading brought me around to One Thousand and One Nights that I'll be looking for in the library on Wednesday as from what I garnered it's full of great tales that would no doubt feed my mind if not only for my FMP but forever. Not to say I haven't heard of it before as everyone has heard of Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad.

Woo work time

2009-12-16T10:56:00.002Z

Now with what I have managed to get done this year, I'm not gonna have to spend every single day of christmas trying to do 12 weeks worth of projects in 3 weeks.
Just some minor changes: making the lid of the chest bigger, fixing my trash to Jolynns paintover and finishing my crab with some zbrushing on there too. Seems like an easy enough task, and many many sketches to do with my FMP to get a visual idea of what I'm gonna be doing.

Never been too good at drawing but I gotta do my best so I'll probably start doing a bunch of sketches tonight and everyday so I can have a massive log of stuff to show Chris, then he'll be really impressed and amazed and I'll get a super high grade for lots of development.
So I need to make a final decision though it doesn't help that Heather seemed really unimpressed when I explained it to her. LOL IDEAS

Alchemy

2009-12-14T20:33:00.003Z

For the last day, I have been using Alchemy to generate shapes for me to draw over and hopefully help me with some monster design. I've never been too good at thinking outside the box with most things, like generating 25 variations of the same outcome. Alchemy has helped though, I've gotten a unique image from every random shape it's made, most of them being monsters/creature designs which are really going to help in the long run.

Blitz

2009-12-14T20:22:00.002Z

I must say it was really useful having a word with Mr Web today as he highlighted many things I never would have looked at when modelling or when planning a piece.

Firstly we discussed my FMP about how it shouldn't be created like a wedding cake and only finished when the last bit is done. It should be more comprised of elements that stand well on their own so that if I run out of time, I will have something to show. So it totally leaves me with some planning to do regarding what it is I actually want to make for my FMP and how I will go about it.

I do enjoy making assets/props just not whole levels, having to plan where everything goes. This is referenced in my little alley way environment which is turning out great and isn't a whole large thing as it just bogs me down. Hence why I quit the rooftop and went back to the crab.

The other two things he helped with were the Trash and my Chest project. The chest, he said, was a bit drab and should really be more contrasting with much brighter colours to keep the interest in. Bringing areas out and giving them more punch so tonight I will be working on that, also to my specular. If I make the grooves less shiny, it stops them being so bright like in real life and gives the rest of the gold more punch.

My trash needs some scaling work, as I never really considered how big things are in real life. He said the cans and bin were about right so everything else needs to be scaled to fit. Have to change the shape of the bin bags to make them seem as though they are leaning onto the bin, and make them bigger so they seem more realistic. The other point he made was about story. He pointed out that there wouldn't be trash around the outside of a bin if the bin wasn't full. Hearing him say that it just comes out like common sense.

Stumble Upon

2009-12-13T00:22:00.002Z

After Eavesdropping a conversation, I took a note of Stumble upon and checked it out when I got home later and I have to say it is really amazing.

There are so many sites that I have been to that have just had excellent things to save into my inspiration folder. Lots of great graphic design and lots of art. A bunch of fonts and hilarious pages and online games. Though I do look forward to it pulling up a page of someone else's pictures and seeing how others think and work.

I don't wanna be a concept artist or anything but I still love the look of pretty pictures and those of well dressed characters of course. Headphones and angst is the future I tell you.

And my chest

2009-10-15T20:31:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-10-14T20:11:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-09-02T11:41:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-28T00:37:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-28T00:30:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-28T00:18:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-28T00:11:00.003+01:00

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

Sack Scyther

2009-05-28T00:25:00.001+01:00

A quick normal texture to see what its like and it certainly helps a lot more than a flat colour. Ill make it more intricate as time goes on but for now i wanted to see what it looked like, those blades could be a pain though

Sword

2009-05-11T19:14:00.000+01:00

A pretty basice painting and i need to learn how to waste less time when i paint. The front arm is cut off btw

WHOS THAT POKEMON?

2009-05-10T23:33:00.002+01:00

???

ITS SCYTHER

My latest model, a bit of a fleeting one but it kept eating at me until i made one. So ill texture this in the next few days i believe

Could this be our BG&E2?

2009-05-09T14:10:00.004+01:00

Personally I'm hoping it is. Compared with the first trailer it looks like Jade. There is a Bo staff there to. IT also sounds like her. A little wierd that shes gone MGS4 and travelled to the middle east to do what shes good at. Running from the authorities in a very stylish fashion. I hope this turns out to be it but that even will be a cutscene, a quicktime event or ingame but not as cool, with running into walls without hands being put up. That said BG&E had some impressive animation, for Jade anyway.

Ooo I hope it is, its been like 10 years since we got that wonderful underrated and underplayed game.

How many games people lost their jobs?

2009-05-09T14:04:00.003+01:00

12% of the entire games industry it seems.

This personally isn't that good especially since it isn't people being cut from studios, we have the entire game studios shutting down. Like 3D realms this week. They brought us Duke Nukem, they didn't bring us Duke Nukem forever. Must be hard 'making' a game and then having the hardware change so you have to do it all again.

Wanda Meloni has worked out these numbers and 12% is 8450 people that lost their jobs due to this recession. I wonder when we'll be getting out of that, it has been quite a while since we got into it, also seems that Swine Flu hasn't been spoken of for a few days.

She also claims these people are working at other studios or making their own which can be good in ways but then it means theyre filling up all the jobs before we get there :( But good for them getting those jobs back.

I just thought, i hope its those people who make crappy shovelware Wii and DS games that lost their jobs, then again, they probably make enough money to never worry about it again

Artsy games Persona 4 spoilers

2009-05-09T03:06:00.004+01:00

My artsy game of the moment is Persona 4. Its a great looking game and has a fantastic atmosphere for a little rural village.

It has a great use of colour and the detail they have on every model is very impressive. I love the characters and i stare at their clothes as often as i can to see if i can pick up anything for my own modelling. Obviously i can't put a massive gap between the thighs as all these characters seem to have but the texture space must've been used well if they can show alot of detail on each character.

The point of this post is to show one of the models from the game that i was really impressed with. And that is one of the later bosses, Shadow Teddie. It was a great concept and it was modelled and textured great and i couldnt help but think i want to model something like this at some point.

This is the concept for him showing size and his general prescence on the screen.

And this lame youtube shot shows how he fully looks ingame, a cracked face to show how hollow he is inside. Poor Teddie, though those eyes and expression are really damn creepy for the comic relief of the game

Final Texturing renders

2009-05-09T02:47:00.001+01:00

The final renders of my piratey babe. Done on the 512 diffuse with no speculars of normals. I kinda like it this way and flat diffuses always have a charm, especially since all the games I'm playing at the moment don't have any of that.

I wanna learn how to paint like persona 4 T_T

Inflation

2009-05-09T02:43:00.003+01:00

MY first speed painting in a while and I am gonna aim to do one each evening over the summer so that i keep painting. This one is about an hour but i was constantly distracted by msn to have my full attention on this. I hope to get quicker.

I will also aim to learn how to draw animals as I have never drawn them properly before and itll be helpful to finally get some things right.

Why are pirates called pirates?

2009-04-26T23:00:00.001+01:00

Getting towards the end of this project now. Got a few little things left to work on and then ill be calling it quits on this so I can do a little bit of Dom War work whilst Dom War is still on.

Ken Sugimori art <3

2009-04-25T23:19:00.001+01:00

I'm so happy, I managed to find a Zip full of Ken Sugimori's art. If you didn't know, he's essentially the main artist behind Pokemon. As you can see from this array of 3 Pokemon themed images. It's great to see how far he has developed his style since he started with Pokemon Red and Green. I have no idea why this first picture has such strange proportions for everything but it is great to see Red again after all this time.

The second image from Pokemon Gold and Silver. Sporting its brand new character and a new colouring style. I did love his initial style as he didnt fill in the image fully and tended to use white as a highlight making everything look really shiny. As a kid I didn't care, this art was amazing and it was pokemon flavoured. Its delicious art through and through. I'm so jealous.

He is also the first artist next to Richard Elson (From Sonic the Comic) whose name I actually remember.

And a final action image. It has humour, it has action, it has suspense. I love it. Shame its the only one thats like this, the rest follow his Fire Red/Leaf Green style. I wish I could see more like this though, nothing like having two Trainers being chased on bikes by a legendary sky dragon. He no longer uses white as a highlight, and it moreso seems that they are so much more subtle. However this could just be the lightning lighting things up. All in all I love Ken sugimori.

Following his colours from Red/Green will be fun for a change but his drawing style....perhaps not

Todays current progress is...

2009-04-24T18:55:00.002+01:00

Looking much better than before. After working out a few snags, I got around and did more texturing adding alot more detail than i had before. Mostly on the jacket and skirt.

Texturing comp progress

2009-04-22T02:48:00.002+01:00

Texturing competition time.

Going for a piratey theme after seeing some of the unattached triangles on the skirt looking like a pirate coat. Now I gotta unify my colours and add more detail and research more pirates for the dom war.

Ingame upskirts

2009-04-13T15:38:00.003+01:00

No longer will the discerning otaku have to fumble the crouch button and the camera up button at the same time, hoping the camera gets stuck against a wall and it forced downwards showing the goods.

This article explains how we can finally have full control over an ingame camera by where we look. Of course however many games can make use of an upskirt camera like this I'm not so sure but it might make fps' easier to control so you can see the Hot dancing girls over there <--

Tohohoho

Games with new themes

2009-04-07T03:44:00.001+01:00

Coil: Coil is definitely one of those artsy games, that if you didn't read too much of a description, you wouldn't instantly understand what its about.

It turns out its a game about pregnancy, or moreso the conception. With the creepy music constantly playing in the background its really hard to know if its a game about consenual sex or rape but then wishing the rapist was still around. I couldn't tell but it was certainly an interesting play as it only used mouse gestures, no clicking or keyboarding. I enjoyed it but was pretty creeped out by it but kept playing as the text inbetween the little games was very gripping and written in in a great way.

And yet it moves: AYIM is your standard platformer but its really taking a different approach to it, much like Braid did with all of its levels revolving around the control of time. You control your unnamed character with A and D and jump with W but then rotate the world 90 degrees using the left and right arrow keys. Having to rotate the world let for some puzzles, which is mostly how to get around things by moving it round a few times to get around an obstacle but at the same time very infuriating because he kept his momentum as you rotated so you can rotate and still die by falling 2cms.

Something else i loved was the art style. Everything looks as though it was cut out of paper. The main character is plain white and looks like he is wearing socks, but the world has some nice textures over it and overall a great looking game.

Mevo and the Grooveriders: A new sort of rhythm game. In the style of Beatmania when you press a key when it goes over an indicator. This is a sort of platform game however with no platforming involved. You play as a grooverider, you chose a stage which is essentially a song and they run across the platforms passing through the left and right beats. To which you press that button. Its a very simple concept but kind of a hard game. It offers a wide range of customisation. I liked it because it was different from the usual rhythm genre but the songs were too bland and monotone to be a decent music game .

Self Portrait

2009-04-03T04:05:00.003+01:00

Is it done?

Why yes it is

Inspirational moodboards

2009-03-29T13:11:00.000+01:00

This is a collection of images that I've saved that I thought were funny or inspirational. Actually its just the first one thats funny. the rest are things that i liked the look of that I may call upon in the future.

Fable 1's art team was wasted

2009-03-28T12:21:00.002Z

Just reading on Kotaku about how Fable 1 didn't really know what they were doing because things weren't planned out too well.

For a start there was apparently no concept art so the modellers didn't know what they were making in the first place. And then the artists couldn't put the models into the engine and thus submitted the assets blind without knowing what they would look like. According to the article 40% of the games assets had to be scrapped. I guess from either taking too much work to redo or them being far too far from what they were going for.

Fable II knew about this and completely changed it all and had a better way of working and only wasted 2-3% of assets.

It's strange how important concept art is. But then which parts of the game need concepts? Just main areas? Big areas? Atmospheric areas? General areas? I'm a bit cnfused but it does make sense. Doing the work for the group project I couldn't really see how my assets would work in the unreal engine unless I submitted them. They could use work after but it woulda been nice to know before hand.

So there we go, even the industry can make mistakes like this sometimes. Gotta know whats happening and how to do it effeciently.

Picture unrelated, it's Kite 3D model from .hack

Zelda and the Spirit Tracks

2009-03-26T12:55:00.002Z

So here it is, our new Zelda game has been announced and I must say its not quite what i was expecting.

It's Link

On a Train.

Link the Train driver.

But I dunno, it works the exact same as the phantom hourglass. And the only gripe I had with that game is the Temple of the Ocean King having to be visited like 5 times throughout the game. It got repetitive and was a bad move in my opinion. And now I can't really finish the game because I don't want to learn how to do all the puzzles again.

So if Spirit Tracs doesn't have another Temple like that the Ocean King, it could be a very enjoyable game. I just want to know how limiting having a train is going to be. But maybe thats the point of the spirit Track. Drawing your own to go wherever you want. I'll give it a go but I must see just what is going on with it in the coming months. Maybe games need more trains...

Important games for me

2009-03-04T13:11:00.013Z

Skies of Arcadia: A timeless RPG for me that is about Pirates. Not just any pirates; Sky Pirates. And not the whole crusty long john silvers; pretty stylish characters who get away from the eyepatches and wooden legs. Though Vyse does have an eyepatch but that has a zoom on it and Drachma who has a metal arm because it was bitten off by a whale. A game about exploration and seeing different cultures across the world. The tagline is pretty much "Seeing what lies beyond the sunset" and there is pretty much loads of people to see, the Arabian "Nasr" continent, the Amazonia continent "Ixi Taka" and the Japanese "Yafutoma". There is also the alaskan "Glacia" and the standard Valua and Pirates Isle areas too. It's a very well made game even if each area has a town and a dungeon to it. Its definitely fun flying around in the airships that everyone has, starting off in a tiny two man dingy and eventually stealing the latest ship from the Valuan Armada along with the Prince of Valua. Of course it does turn into the Save the World biz but its fun still having the brave young Vyse turning into a heck of a pirate.

Jet Set Radio: Jet Set Radio is here for 3 whole reasons. 1) The cel shading. One of the first games to feature cel-shading was JSR and it even did it well and was original without trying to be a game of a cartoon. 2) The music. JSR is pretty famous for this and Hideki Naganuma being the composer of these fine techno tracks. They are love 'em or hate 'em but I love all the tracks though it is a bit annoying you can't chose what you listen to during each level as some of them are a bit lacklustre compared to the others. 3) A skating game that isn't a sports title. JSR is a game about being a deliquent really. You begin tagging up your bus terminal after a rival gang comes over. Then you tag other peoples turf. Then you do it more while avoiding the police, the army, tanks, swat choppers, suicide bombers, exploding cars, pyromaniacs with flamethrowers, guys on flying bikes and a group of Assassins called the Golden Rhinos. The thrill of the game keeps you playing. "Shit they just sent in the tanks to stop me from graffittying up a wall" then seeing how things progress from there. A complete thrill ride to see if you can finish tagging a wall for max points before you get jumped on by the bombers. It's a fun game if not short. JSRF didn't live up to the challenge that was JSR but still a fun series. Roll on the Wii version.

The World Ends with You: TWEWY proves that the DS isn't full of 10 hour play it and leave it family games. Drawn by Tetsuya Nomura, all the characters have size 0 waists but also hard and thickly outlined edges. It brings a great style to the game and fits in perfectly with the music of the game which is another marmite job. It fits with the mood and this game demonstrates great writing from start to finish. Starting as Neku with no memory (yeah yeah) you learn more and more about where you are and why you are there. The game is also structured into Days with everyday after the first leaving with you a major cliffhanger making you want to start the next day even if you have to go to bed. The game also introduced the Dual Screen battling. You controlled neku on the bottom screen, moving him around with the stylus and drawing different symbols on the screen to unleash the numerous attacks you have while on the top screen using the d-pad (or face buttons) to control the character on the top. They fight the same enemies but you must control both to win. It's a very fun way of fighting and keeps you engaged making sure neither of your characters die. Gameplay, music and writing, this is definitely one of the best games on the DS.

Persona 3: The latest game that I can thank for many sleepless nights. The Shin Megami Tensei Persona games are games that balance RPG elements like fighting monsters and using magic, with going to school, living a normal life and harbouring friendships. It's a great mix and I thought it worked well. It was always fun talking to the friends the main character had made in order to advance them as characters too. The characters that you had in your party were also totally seperate and very well developed (considering the game lasts an ingame school year, you do learn alot). The student council president, captain of the boxing team, a 10year old genius, the deliquent first year, the girl with family problems, a monster fighting robot, a dog whose master died 10 years ago and Yukari (There is just no bracket to put her in). The main draw of the game is the story that from the off is about saving the world. However even the story only gets exciting towards the end. The largest draw is the large amount of people you can learn about, especially since there are around 30 well developed and individual characters. It is a fun game I must say and its definitely hard nowadays to find a game that will last 90 hours on a standard first run through . Onto Persona 4 now.

Team Fortress 2: Talking of game length, Team Fortress 2 never gets old. A game I have already put around 250 hours into and never thought I would like. TF2 is an FPS, an online one at that but its a totally balanced game. Every class has their own strengths and weaknesses and is good against at least one other. There may be a learning curve to some but its very easy to pick up and play. I also like the graphics. TF2 has to be the first RPG without an overabundance of grey. It suffers from a red flood though. They need to stop doing deserts and go with alpines. The characters are just that, characters. A different personality floods through each one that isn't a Recoloured Masked Soldier. The environments are nicely put together and it avoids being many FPS cliches. Overall its impossible to say it isnt a fun game, the graphics are great and a great try at something new (See battlefield heroes lolololol) and it's gameplay is fair to everyone and promotes teamworking which does lack alot online.

Visually striking characters in games

2009-03-04T13:11:00.010Z

Nathan Drake (uncharted): One of those everyday heroes, the kind that is unrealistic without spikey hair (Oh wait, he does). A plain grey long sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans he really is normal but with those chiseled good looking features in his face. IT may also be part of his voice acting and his lines that complete the character but he's still one of those top normal characters to me.

Neku Sakuraba (twewy): Drawn by Tetsuya Nomura so he looks like an stick with a 0.5 waist size but then that is just the style of the game. His character design is pretty striking, not many characters can pull off wearing purple and yellow, not that many even really try. The collar he wears covering his face and his large headphones point out how much he hates others.

Vyse (SoA): Vyse the Sky pirate. Its pretty rare to see pirates that don't try too hard to look like pirate cliches. Then again he still has an eyepatch but not because he only has one eye but instead it is a glass eyepatch with a zoom feature. Har Har, they sure turned that around. The also his blue top with the separted sleeves attached with buckles. I wish i had a top like that, and his red kneckerchief. Lets also not forget his dual wielding cutlasses especially the one he holds on the handguard.

Roxas/Final Form Sora (KH2): Roxas gets a vote from me for once aagain being a relatively normal character. A mostly white and black costume with offsets of red to keep it interesting. A jacket that looks alot like a shirt and a shirt that looks a bit like a wetsuit (to tie in with sora). And being first shown in the game trailers, he was also dual wielding is also a big plus for me.

Final Form sora has the main form of sora but using a strong use of white on everything and using black elements for the details and seperate designs. These are taken from Roxas. It seems I'm mostly drawn to any characters that have strong white elements. It's a colour that can be powerful if used well but not all over like an Ice maiden. And once again dual wielding but instead the blades are kept in orbit of him and attack with mind control.

Bayonetta (Bayonetta): Bayonetta is the product of the Devil May Cry creator not doing DMC. So she is a bit like Dante that she uses pistols and they both star in Hack and Style games. What makes a change is that B is not a 18 year old chest and high skirts character. Well she is sexy but she is definitely in her late 20s which makes loads of difference. A funky hair accessory keeps her hair tidy (It transforms into things like dragons and i think I read that her hair is her leather suit). Those pistols of hers are pretty ornate and special too. Kinda rare to see pistols with two barrels and they certainly add to the look. Lets not forget the pistols in the heels of her boots that she fires while doing handstands.

Orpheus (Persona 3): Not even an important character in the series, hardly even a character at all. He is the Main characters first summoned monster in the game but visually he is a strange character. A jet black face with two glowing red eyes topped with pure white hair. A body of pale sea green and white arms and legs. A strange organic face and a mechanical body also make him seem strange, paired with his non existent feet. (keeping with the old jap robot style). Orpheus also has a red scarf/necktie that breaks up the monotony of his costume. Finally his giant lyre, his weapon, is linked to his greek mythology.

Zack (Zack & Wiki): There is something charming about Zack. He leaps off the page being a small child in large clothes. His colour scheme being the 3 primary colours helps show how child friendly he is. His yellow coat flies around him as he runs. His giant red hat seems to be made of paper as it only covers the front of his head, with a nice rounded skull on it. He's a very cool character, he is bold, out there, eats chocolate all the time and is of course a pirate.

Playing the Nostalgia

2009-02-11T13:04:00.002Z

Lately I've been playing Mario Sunshine again and while being on this course, you look a little more subjectively at the games you once knew. You start to ask how things are made, are buildings 4 sided shapes with maps on them, how are these walls and grasses done and the general other assests.

For instance, in Delfino Plaza, going to the back of the map by the Shine Gate, there are some grassy knolls and looking at these, most of them have the grass texture just stretched over them. Many of the windows in the houses are all the same window, the roof tiles are the same just recoloured and there are a lot of noticeable seams between three of the same area.

Then in Ricco Harbour, an area with lots of grating and metal sheets and bricks you notice that on different polies some of the bricks are different sizes. The chicken mesh grating is a slick single plane and all of the circles are 8 sided cylinders. Its pretty cool to see that we're kinda keeping up and making sure we avoid these things. Well, the texture seaming and stretching anyway. Most of the areas in the game look pretty slick, even if the letters on the hotel are really low poly. I think its darn cool. Even better is performing the glitch to walk underwater at the end of the game shows more info. The doors become painted on, the manhole covers are also flat textures. It's all over a cool glitch.

I'll keep looking around at these old games and see what theyre like. I do wanna look at the DS games more, probably Phantom Hourglass as thats the only one that i think i own thats in 3D, cept for starforce. I'll look at these things dammit.

And gosh darn it I hope to learn more by seeing how these are done. And its not "I'm playing CoD4 doing research" it'll be staring at everything in my game time. Shame most things don't have a first person view. Least not RPGs. TF2 would do and that's a decent looking game, regardless of how simple it is. So seeing whats out there at the mo and what I can get away with would be pretty decent. Even if those game artisan people make me feel really bad all the time with their great models. I really need this summer to come along and give me the time to get on with what i want

The worst game ever

2009-02-11T12:37:00.002Z

No matter how much I delude myself into thinking it is good. And no matter how much I play it. Sonic the Hedgehog 06 (360/ps3) is the one game that is like suffering to play it. There are just so many things in the way of it that could make it a good game. The main one is the loading times and the way they handle sidequests. Instead of it being a simple talk to someone, then a brief load time and then the mission it goes

Talk to person with quest>Accept it>Load for 90 seconds+>Have the mission reiterated to you>Load a further 90+ seconds> Complete 30/60 second mission> Get rank> Load a final 90+ seconds>Carry on with your enraged time wasted life.

The traditional Sonic plagued camera, being every but where you really need it to face. You can get it rotated but it'll sometimes bug out, get caught behind a wall, not catch up to your character and a bunch of other unhelpful things.

Enemies in Silver's story. Seriously who is silver? Why is he here? A psychic hedgehog. Another one. He has no direct attacks and can only hurl shit at his enemies. Most of those being wooden boxes which do jack all damage. Other kinds of boxes or rocks do damage but even then you need to throw the same thing around 7 times to kill something.

There is too much to list. I'll admit this game looks and sounds pretty nice sometimes but other things are just the worst. Having to hold down to rotate 340 degrees on a snowboard is pretty lame. And Mach speed sections. Its like on rails sonic but one hit kills.

Human Eggman: I hope whoever came up with this got fired.

Don't worry kids, I'm a professional. I'm finishing this game so that you don't have to.

Subjective style

2009-02-04T20:13:00.005Z

So just now I had the thought that everybody has totally different opinions. Ok maybe not the first time but looking at the range of threads on gameartisans has me thinking that many people have totally different aversions to it. Would this mean that people would hate any sort of work that was in a certain style and that doesnt agree with it?

The answer is probably yes. People are fitted into their own genres and niches and that is where their interests lie. Just playing Prince of Persia, Mike really loved the environments and thats what converted him to environmental artist. But I really loved the Prince. I couldn't get over how amazing his hair and scarves were. I could still see that the environments were cool (purified ones anyway) but it didn't really interest me massively.

Take for example "The Ranger" by Mike K Website here

While it is a nice model, has amazing detail and is overall flashy, great and looks like a guy, its pretty boring to me. I've seen enough game characters that are buffed up super troopers who could take on whole armies by themselves. So kudos for the model but the subject matter is a bit bland to me. Below is the ranger.

On the other hand there is another thread created by heribertovalle posted the models for the three main characters in Imagineers Games "Shades of Violet" Website here.

Instantly I was like Wow, this is interesting. I don't know anything about the game but already I'm interested in the characters. Even if they are all androgyenous. (He did say he'd look into that though) A game with a graphical style like this, and characters like this too are rare to find out of MMOs nowadays. Below is the character Violet Vendetta. A sort of Guybrush Threepwood tomboy:

This is the direction I want to go. More cartoony fun games. DS models with lots of style, character and colour. I know I'm gonna need to work on my painting in order to match the textures but I will make it so. First DS style character will probably be Persona 3's Aigis to go along with a painting a want to do of her. From there, i need to find wireframes and other reference images from similar games and bobs my uncle. We'll actually Pete is.

And I know that in industry you do what you told but this is the whole point of a hobby and a life. Doing what you want and being happy.

And I'll add on the Final Submission of Kuzco for the GA Kingdom Hearts war. I just couldnt get my head around the shadow thing.

Another post

2009-01-29T00:54:00.002Z

Things are a bit up in the air right now. I havent really done any gaming except for my daily dose of animal crossing. Gotta mind the grass/snow or ill have none left. What a stupid game mechanic. My entire town will be consisting of plants, trees and blank patches before long. Cant even run anymore without fear of the entirity of the grass wearing out. Gotta spend everyday watering plants and trees when the number goes up by 6 each day. And those couple of hours i watch Dave playing Mario Galaxy. I wonder whose idea it was to let P2 have a shocker which freezes everything that can hurt Mario barring bosses. It makes it fun and i suppose I have to make do with that since i can't fire his star bits at everything. He is quite the kleptomaniac.

But yes, for the Queens Project, I'm a modeller, so I'm doing all the little bits that aren't really main geomotry. Which is pretty good for me, i have the attention span of a magpie in a cutlery shop. As always, texturing isn't my strong point, so I will do my best to at least get a basic texture over everything and then if it needs changing its there to be changed. It's coming along well i believe. The first render i saw made it look pretty darn good, lets hope the other areas we do will turn out that well.

Just an initial texture.

Gameartisans Kingdom Hearts competition also prays on my mind a bit. I have to get it done by friday but with the other projects i don't really know how to prioritise. The whole "I have to do one but i have three and then don't do anything" sort of thing going on. But I'll probably work on Kuzco a bit, since its now just texturing. Then get textures for my Queens Assets and finally over the weekend, Chris' interesting person. HOORAY SCULPTURE. My favourite thing next to having my feet stamped on and finding out all the biscuits in the packet are broken.

Seems like a plan because I don't wanna miss a competition this big, its even bigger than the sackboys so I gotta work hard. Also for when the Dom war comes. There is no way i want to miss out on that. Shame it starts like halfway through the Queens project and assessments too if we have them. But i suppose we get the last few weeks of Easter to finish it. Wonder what it'll be this year. My first Dom war, its pretty exciting. Should be a compulsory part of the course in my opinion. IF anyone on the course doesn't want to do it then perhaps they are on the wrong course. Though it is a little intimidating being against all those big wigs, especially since the standard will be raised even more than last year. Still, I'm gonna try, then over summer work on a bunch of little projects to improve my standard, and even do some digi paintings i guess. Maybe an hour speedpaint every night would be good.

We will just have to see now won't we?

An entry at last

2009-01-21T00:55:00.002Z

Its been an entire week since I made my last post but I havent done too much work wise. I tried to paint Mac Anu from the .hack games but funnily enough not a single picture of the town online to use as reference. Today I painted a random girl, probably totally wrong in the face but i wanted to paint something. And also tried to use Dels method of only using the flow to paint a picture. That didnt work out too well for me. It gave a nice effect to the edges and whatnot but rather than use opacity to sort out your shading and colour blends, you have to pick out the exact colour you need to put in the middle.

As for my modelling direction, I am gonna keep working on my Kuzco entry for the competition but dismayed that somebody else has done him too. While it isn't something thats illegal in terms of the competition, you feel slightly proud and unique that you're doing a character nobody else has thought of. Also I was trying to copy the head from a model someone else had made, for an animation id be guessing from all the polys, instead of using it as orthos. Boy did i feel silly. Hope I can finish soon, there is only a week left and it would surely be better to finish it now before the hit of all the work for chris and heather hits.

Gotta get an interesting character and turn him into a character, id still like to do Elder Busch though, that is a name and a half for some sort of holy knight

One Semester down

2009-01-13T03:00:00.002Z

Two more to go.

Lol obvious I know but its always nice to count things down.

Tonight will be the first night in a week that I'll be back on my normal sleeping pattern. Somewhere around 3 to whenever i have to be up, this being 8:30 so i can get ready in time for these presentations. I'll probably be first, being the only A name.

It sucks but am I nervous? Not really. Presentation is a presentation is a presentation. Talk about work, don't feel bad for what you've done. What sucks even worse is having to redo 9 weeks of work in 3. Sure I should be able to knock each of these out in a week, but for some reason they all took so long to do. Was I being slow? Was msn distracting me? Did I lean back to take a breather a little too often?

Answer to this question and more....probably never.

I'm always finding the 3D stuff alot more fun than the 2D. Sure there is a high chance that I'm not doing a great job of the 2D but I do enjoy modelling things and to an extent, texturing them alot more. However a lot of the 2D work is environments and I'm pretty set on not going into environments, just really not my thing no matter how nice some of them look. The characters in each game are the main draws to it. BG&E has Jade, a normal girl with green lipstick. World Ends with You; Anorexic kids but all have their own culture to them. Even TF2, every class is designed so differently but with class.

Guess thats why I'm going to use this week to do a good job for their Kingdom Hearts War 3Dmini. Mainly in the way of Kuzco. The hippest cat in creation, the coolest king of the nation.

Theme song guy is optional depending on how many tris I have left over.

Currents WiPs

2009-01-07T20:11:00.001Z

So this is how my self portrait looks with the mudbox normals applie to it. Looking pretty spiffy i think. Needs a few additions to it though. So it only really needs a face, hair, arms and shoes. And a specular.

This is the progress of my environment, it all kinda comes together and doesnt look as random as before. Gotta do things on a simple small scale. So general texturing and bumps here.

And my airship. This is just a general colour thing I have going, it has no normals or speculars and most of the textures will be kinda painted.

Christmas...oh wait

2009-01-06T04:46:00.003Z

Can't really have all that snow and then not record it in such digital media.

I managed to get a few photos of it all. Some at night and some in the morning.

So one of my sisters car without flash. So this is how it is normally

Same but with the flash so everything looks different and the flash picks up on the snowflakes.

Then did the flash on my mums car to get another view.

My mums car in the morning around the time the snow stopped falling and all those college kidsruined it.

And my favourite shot of my garden. I just like the blue hue it put over everything.

Work is coming along alright fyi

Work progression

2009-01-02T00:29:00.003Z

Not too much of a serious post but I submitted my sackboy for the GameArtisans competition. With all the other work I had to do it got pretty crammed into the 30th until 6am so it could've been better than it was. Rigging was also a pain but i managed it in the end. With all the great entries there I don't think I'll get near the top at all ;_; but I didn't wanna miss out on something this big. MY layout could use a bit of work too but as I say it was 6am and its lucky I finished it. I did nothing on New Years Eve

FredH will be making a wallpaper with all the sackboy entries in it so it'll be really cool to see all the sackboys in one sheet.

And also today I have finished modelling my vehicle. An arcadian airship and this stands in at 7774 tris and was a little bit more complicated than the War of the Worlds thing. Makes me happier now that I've reached some checkpoints but yes it is one week left and that is totally fffffffff. Still, make my own head tomorrow, few more props for my environment and thats all my modelling done. And just for tonight, i will sleep as my blackeye bags had red in them which im sure isn't a great sign.

FUCK DIS FILM SHEYET

2008-12-31T06:04:00.002Z

A poigniant title I'm sure you'll all agree.

This is mainly onto the point of why we are writing blogs about films. And no its not just because I didn't write my blogs about them for the first 12 weeks. Its more to the point of analysis.

You see we're watching this films on wednesday and then we are dissecting them into seeing what it is that makes them good. In a film its either Camera work or set style. It gets a bit repetitive in that respect. I'll admit that some of the stories are good too but is it only that the films are good because theyre using a different story to everything else that comes out and thus requires greater effort than the other rubbish.

As it was discussed at the beginning of last year, games are becoming a huge player in the entertainment industry, almost grossing as much as films themselves. And thats what they are, interactive films that last between 10-60 hours. So why can't we be looking at games instead of films? I don't see film studies students looking at games.

Sure, I've been alerted to the point that its because its easier to get 70 people watching a film, since watching is all you need to do, compared to 70 playing a game. Games do need to be experienced. So why not just write about a new game every week that has shaped us for who we are and what we think are the best games of our times? I got into gaming pretty late so I missed out on alot of the N64/PS1/DC era and a lil behind on the GC era too but now I'm keeping up but I've played a huge number of games, many that are good for many reasons. Looking at them now there is Viewtiful Joe; a comic book style fighter, Smash Bros Melee; an epic nintendo fighting game and Pikmin which is an amazing concept which has hardly been done before and thats just the first 6 games I looked at.

Films, with all we've seen, seeing something new becomes few and far between. We should get into learning about games. Besides, its all well and good to watch a film but playing a game and seeing how things are done, how things are made and what it is that sets them apart. Even from playing Beyond good and Evil for 90 minutes I saw so much more about that game then i did before and it still looks amazing 7 years on. So inspiration, collborating ideas throughout our blogs about games we may not have even noticed before. Mitch pointing me out to syndicate wars, a great matrix-esque concept. If each first year has one game like that, imagine how much we could learn.

Beyond Good and Evil

2008-12-30T00:51:00.003Z

So I was talking to my friend about Ubisoft, then about this, remembered the steam sale, saw it was £3.50 and purchased it there and then. To be honest so should everyone else.

Beyond Good and Evil follows the story of photographer and owner of the lighthouse, Jade. With her green jacket and lipstick and short hair to boot, she isn't overly sexy but seems pretty normal. She looks after orphaned children at the lighthouse, keeping them safe from attacks by the Domz (Galactic menaces) along with her uncle Peyj, a pig, or Sus Sapien. Probably uncle through lots of care and living together.

The story opens with a Domz attack and meteors falling across Hyllis. One of the meteors crashes in front of the lighthouse and the Domz inside take control of the children. Jade has no choice but to fend them off and this begins the start of the game.

The game is pretty short numbering in only 4 main areas and clocking in fully at maybe 9-10 hours however the game is pretty unique by most standards. Its an action/adventure/stealth game. You can explore a decently large part of the world, fight domz and other monsters and sneak around Alpha section facilities in order to expose the truth to the world. That is only after Jade is recruited by the rebellion to show the people of Hyllis who the Alpha section (their protectors) really are.

For a game of its time BG&E looked quite amazing. Everything was nicely drawn, textures were believeable and the landscape was pretty serene, if mostly flooded by water. The stylised parts of the game include most things being rounded or off centre. Not much in the game is parallel to something else, giving a really smooth look overall. The characters are also pretty different by the standards 7 years ago. There are goat, pig, shark, walrus, cat and Rhino sapiens. Special props to the Rhinos for owning Mammgos garage and also being jamaican rhinos too.

Overall likeable characters and great character development through Jade, especially after you return from the Slaughterhouse. The lighthouse destroyed and the children taken, there is nothing left for Jade anymore, considering Peyj was taken earlier. So you get a Space engine off the Rhinos and jet into space to save the world :D Then it took them these 7 years to tell us there would be a sequel. Bout time considering the ending they left us with.

Anyway, another factor of the game is the camera. The initial mission is to get money and this is issued by the science people to take photos of every animal in the world. Its pretty good when you take into account there are about 50 or so different animals to take pictures of, this includes the people, the enemies and general world animals. Its always great dodging a bosses attacks just so you can get a photo of them. Then the bigger meat of sneaking into Alpha Section bases of operations so that you can get proof that they are not as great as they say. Taking photos of certain crates and Alpha Section members with their helmets off really draws you in. Seeing the boxes for the first time you realise its worse than you thought, then seeing them in the slaughterhouse being packed for the moon is even worse. They mustve taken half the population. Its quite an emotional journey and spurs you on to rescue them and Peyj. By the end of the game, you've made a big enough difference to the people of Hyllis that no one believes in the Alpha sections and an uprising has started.

And to think, this was just one planet out of hundreds that the Domz and Alpha Sections are at

Current progress

2008-12-28T00:20:00.003Z

These are the points on my 3D that I got up to last night. MY self portrait is pretty self explanatory while my environment is now my back garden. I'm going to try and make my props work well even though that area is really cluttered its pretty hard to find a decent composition without changing the entire scene. I'll be seeing what I can get away with modelling and what can be alphas and hopefully improve my quality of texturing.

Gonna do an airship for my vehicle, something small-ish. Not too busy either. Skies of Arcadia style too. Gotta scan in the orthos and thatll be good to go. Seems pretty easy to do in 3 weeks really.

I do really want to work more on my sackboy, actually i might do a bit tomorrow

Children of Men

2008-12-26T18:01:00.004Z

Children of men is set in 2027. It is a ruined future in which no children have been born since 2009. Due to the decrease in population in some of the third world countries, they all move to the UK and the americas in hope of a cure and company. This isn't the greatest idea as factions created chaos and violence throughout the country.

The film opens with a news report telling the death of Baby Diego, the youngest human on the planet. Why someone would shoot him, we do not know. Maybe one of those circumstancial celebrities like big brother winners who think they're famous but really aren't. But most of the time we don't even have a point for celebrities, theyre famous people who have gotten above their post. There is nothing wrong with famous people, the game creators, authors or illustrators but the people who relish the limelight for kicking a ball around a field better than others are pointless. We need to idolise the people who have talent. Heck not even the gold medal winners get as much attention as your average Primier Leaguer. Yes I hate football.

Back to the story, Theo Faron takes the day off work to see his friend Jasper. They talk and eat and smoke and have a great time in this bad future. It is on his way home that Theo is abducted and taken into a newspapered room. It is here that he is asked to join in the activites of the rebellious group to reform the country. Theo refuses to help and is let go, it is only when he is thrown in at the deep end and asked personally by Kee to help, that he does.

From here, Theo, Miriam, Kee, Luke and Julian drive through the countryside to escape to the coast, from the coast they will send Kee to a Sanctuary where she will be save and even help restore fertility to the planet. They leave in a single car yet get attacked by a group of Forest dwellers, who can hardly do anything running to it with just sticks. There is one dirt bike however that catches up to the car and fires through the windscreen. Even though it was a little obvious to duck at this point, Julian gets shot through the shoulder and dies shortly after. Its a little strange having the death of a main character happen casually like it did and then still being inside the action to accept it. It was a good idea to have a section in the forest where Julian was buried and Theo needed time to himself to grieve her death.

On the road, they find a little settlement which promises to help take Kee to the coast and then to the people she needs to get to to be safe. They all go power crazy and decide to kill everyone except Kee and claim the glory. Theo takes his group and they escape to Jaspers, then arrange to be arrested and put into the immigrant slum town. Unfortunately while on the immigrant delivery bus, Miriam is thrown out into one of the stations along the way while protecting Kee whose waters have broken. As the bus drives off we get to see the timeline of the people taken off at this point. Their heads are bagged and knocked to the ground in front of everyone, they are killed in front of the cages and finally their bodies are thrown onto a corpse pile. It is only to be assumed that this was Miriams fate too.

They get to the slum town easily and Theo delivers Kee's baby in an empty shack room. This may have been to recreate the nativity, having such a simple birth for something so special. There is no time to dawdle as it seems the inhabitants from oversees are going to start an uprising against their overseers. It wont be safe to stay still and it is also the pefect distraction to get to the coast unnoticed. A dash from the room Theo and Kee were staying in to the coast begins but alas, they get stopped by the evil people from the shack that wanted to kill them before. They wheel off Kee (in a wheelchair at this point) and are told to execute Theo, the gypsy lady who gave them the room and an indian guy who knew the way. Unfortunately the indian guy is the first to go but fortunately the group gets ambushed and the Shack people are forced to fight. Theo runs off and discovers a large building that Kee is inside and gets inside just as it becomes underfire. Kee is found inside the building along with the Shack Dweller leader. He weakly tries to get Theo to hand over the baby one last time, commenting about his sister and how beautiful they are the whole time firing through a hole in the wall. Theo takes the chance to escape but gets shot in the shoulder before the shack leader is hit by a tank shell. The baby cries and it causes everyone around to stop and look at the baby.

Theo leads Kee down the stairs, the whole time the baby cries and the people stare and sing. Near the bottom they encounter the soldiers who call a ceasefire. The baby is carried between the lines of soldiers who pray and look on in amazement until someone decides to ruin the magical moment by firing a grenade. From here, Theo and Kee are given a boat by the gypsy lady and row out to the buoy, before the sanctuary ship appears, Theo gives in to his injuries and dies.

This film is quite well done in its camera work. We saw the making off and how they'd rigged up the car to have a camera pass through it without once having to stop the filming. How they hid everything and got it all to flow so well i dont know but it was very interesting to see how it was done. The again if i hadn't i never would have noticed.

I'd also heard that many shots in this film were done in one take, such as the driving section and the climax near the end of the film. From the point the group first see the fighting until Theo gets shot is more than likely one take and that is around an 8 minute take. The giveaway are the blood spatters on the camera lens which do decrease in number within the minute after they're splattered onto it.

I also read on Wikipedia that the book is totally different to the film. Kee doesn't exist in the film at all and Theo's government position is more evident. The fish use him to ask for change in the world rather than delivering the pregnant woman to the coast. Also the father of the baby is known and overall the film seems less like a journey and much more like an Overthrow of a powerful figure.

The film itself is a good one, its filmed well and the story is easy to follow, even if there are alot of characters. The sets are well designed showing a great contrast between the forests and the bombed out cities. 9/10, could have been better if we;d seen the making of second so that we didnt have to see almost every scene 4 times

Twas the Fortress before christmas

2008-12-25T11:27:00.004Z

It was the night before christmas

And all through the house

Not much was stirring

Except for a mouse

It was pointing and clicking

And aiming and shooting

Killing all the soldiers

Who were rocket jumping

But then on the Bridge there was such a clatter

I sprung from the fort to see twas the matter

I dashed through the halls,

ran like the wind

Shooting the enemy and protecting my kin

Then out on the bridge what do I see?

A sentry gun, not one but three.

I thought to myself this is quite a feat

But I should run before I get turned into meat

I dashed back inside and gathered the troops

I needed to tell them of my awesome dupe

We'd be rid of those sentrys once and for all

And after this, intel for all

We set up the heavy and medic and demo

The pyro and soldier waiting for the get go

Zed three I press, Go Go Go he cries

And forward we charged though it took a few tries.

I AM THE UBERMENSCH came one cry

HAHA LITTLE BABIES as the bodies began to fly

The uber was activated

The plan was initiated

A screen of tracers and smoke filled the screen

It was all fuzzy and fluffy, like a christmas dream

The damage from our team beat all the records

So soon we'd have all the rewards

Then the stickies landed at their knees

Then exploded they did, one then two then three

Our team all jumped and filled with cheers

The enemy respawned and were adorned with jeers

We had one, we had prevailed on this christmas night

For sure it was great and quite the site

And as I left the server to all I said

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Brazil

2008-12-24T14:37:00.003Z

Brazil is another film in the Dystopian future series, lets face it, they're pretty cool.

The main gist of the film is a single Administritive error gets Harry Buttle arrested on Christmas day and then killed for illegal maintenence on heating fixtures. This is all due to a single fly in the printing room causing the T to be a B. So of course when this is discovered that it was the wrong man, the department has to fix things before it gets to the higher ups.

The head of the lower down department is quite useless when it comes to anything involving computers or sorting things out so he calls to Sam Lowry to help with the matter. A technical wiz, even if he downplays his skills, assists with everythign and is told he can be promoted if he wants. Being the modest man, disliking most of the work he does and the environment hes in, denies it and sticks to his easy job. As he meanders through life he dreams of escape, grass and freedom from technology and the city. Sam is a form of angelic knight, able to fly and is always saving a certain girl from any dangers that might befall her. A complete contrast to his normal life where he blends in, being as meager as possible just to get through life hoping his dreams will come true.

On with the story, in an effort to correct the error by the department, Jill, the Buttles neighbour, tries to file an error report but is being given the run around by being told to go to two different places to get a form filled out. This girl is the one from Sam's dreams, albeit she does not have the long damsel-in-distress hair, and he frantically looks around to find her but alas she is not there. He carries on through security and meets one of his old friends, Jack, who know works in the department above him. Jack urges Sam to take the promotion yet he once again declines especially since he has to fix the Buttle mess. Later that day, he drives out to the Buttle household to personally deliver compensation money to the family. However he is attacked by the distressed son. In a daze he notices the hole in the ceiling and sees Jill looking through. He is overjoyed and dashes aroudn the apartments to find her deluded by love. Once again she is gone driving off in her large jeep. Lowry gives chase in his little company car, probably the most determined hes ever been in his life.

Unable to convince her to love him back, he returns home to find two of the official heating engineers destroying his repaired home and later on, they claim it as their own until repairs are done, meaning never. A day or so after that Harry Tuttle, switches the oxygen pipes and the sewage pipes, thus flooding the engineers suits with sewage and drowning them and consequently exploding over the entire apartment. A prime example of Tuttles renegade nature and his sense of humour too. That same night, Jill appears to Sam for help. At this point she is suspected of setting the bombs around the city that have happened recently. A slight crack of weakness in Jills constant hard of nails personality. Sam of course promises to help her out. He appeals to get his promotion into Information Retrieval in order to see and change Jill's file to Deceased. It is a few days prior that he discovers his friend Jack is the man responsible for disposing of criminals and Buttle of course.

Following a truck chase through the city, Sam and Jill are inevitably captured, then released and able to spend their one night of loving passion together. Luckily this wasn't a gratuitous scene of sex *cough*underworld*cough*. Sam believes that he has finally fulfilled his dreams and rescued the girl of his dreams and they can live happily ever after however they are awoken the next morning with paratroopers tearing into the room, much like the same as Buttles arrest. The soldiers have probably done this so many times they can run it off perfectly.

In the cell, Lowry is confronted by the president of the company and told that Jill is dead. Sam realises that this is only because he changed the records the other night. As a viewer you feel happy that she is still alive only to be told "Well it seems she died twice". Quite breaking when you know that Lowry's world has now collapsed and he is sitting in a stupidly large room, rocket silo size, strapped into the single chair ready to be tortured by Jack. Sam pleads to be released and not tortured however it falls on deaf ears and JAck begins. Fortunately Tuttle, and the rest of the illegal heating engineers (bizarre heroes) abseil down the stupidly large walls to save Sam. They escape the building suffering many casualties but manage to get to the borders of the city. Strangely Tuttle is surrounded by newspapers and somehow consumed by them, then breaks into his mothers friends funeral. His mother looks about 34 and is chatting up all the waiters there uncaring that Sam is in the room too. Paratroopers break in from both sides surrounding the room but Lowry falls through the coffin and into the truck of Jill. Estactic that she is still alive, they drive off into the sunset for their happily ever after, safe from pursuers.

To which the camera fades back to the stupidly large room. Lowry still sitting there, a hole through the middle of his forehead, singing the main theme to the film.

A very powerful ending especially since you are lead to believe for 10-15 minutes that he does escape and gets the girl. Alas, in a technological society, there is no way that a Heating Engineer renegade is going to be able to save you every time.

Lowry is added to the list of those arrested, and taken care of by Jack. A great film, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But why the baby masks? They're just freaky.