How My Grandfather Won The War: The Game

After roughly 7 weeks of working on a Flash game from conception to completion, I can now finally show you my entry in the 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition hosted by jayisgames.com, a game I lovingly refer to as How My Grandfather Won The War.

The game is hosted along with the other entries for the competition, and voting is open to anyone and everyone. If you happen to like my game, I wouldn't mind at all if you helped out and gave a helping vote. So, click below to go to the competition page and check out all of the unique games. My entry features a picture of a red airplane, which is placed randomly in the set of thumbnails.

--> Competition Page

And because I always make sure to post something visual, here are a few screenshots from the game:





So, in summary, I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you enjoy playing it as well. If it seems a bit difficult, just keep on trying, and I'm sure you'll make it through. Afterall, the game takes about 5 minutes from start to finish.

Many thanks to my testers for helping me make the game playable (but not necessarily easier).

Oh, and voting is awesome, so go support indie games.

Enjoy!

Network is the Name of the Game.

So, during the first week of August, I traveled down to New Orleans to take part in SIGGRAPH's first ever gameJam! competition, willing to spend 24 hours in a chair to create a game out of thin air (with the help of my wonderful teammates of course). The experience was fantastic, the food delicious, and the game... experimental. We spent about 3 hours just coming up with what you do in the game, constantly throwing out ideas that had been done before. Our final result was something special (which is what you get when you toss out things you know were successful elsewhere). The good news is that we won the Committee's Choice Award, which effectively granted the three of us passes to next year's SIGGRAPH in LA. As for the bad news, there is none. Awesome, right?

I would be apologizing for the 2-month tardiness of this post (the competition itself taking place exactly 2 months ago today), but I was waiting for something special. That something finally arrived in my mailbox this week, which greeted me with some fantastic postage in the corner. I'm too used to Liberty Bells and Homer Simpsons on any packages I get, so this was a wonderful treat.


As far as what was inside, that would be September's issue of Animation Reporter, "Asia's leading Animation industry magazine." And inside on page 18? That would be my first ever appearance in a magazine, an almost full page feature on my team and our game Network. It was part of a larger feature that covered both the gameJam! and the FJORG! competitions from SIGGRAPH 09. A lot of my Ringling friends were featured in there, along with their own interviews, so go check it out!


And since you've been wondering this whole time, yes the game is playable right now. So go play and enjoy!

Also, there may or may not be a two-part behind-the-scenes video of the experience at gameJam... Okay, there is.

A Picture of My Face and a Faraway Place

Here's a self-portrait I threw together in about 6 hours. The hardest part was bringing myself to cut my glasses in half ;]

In other news, I'm off to New Orleans next week in a two-fold plan that involves both breaking my 22-year timezone curse and participating in SIGGRAPH's 1st annual gameJam! 24-hour game design competition. The awesome part is that by this time next week, I will have created and finished a fully functioning game (with the help of my two teammates, Jonathan and Drew). That's saying a lot, what with how many games I've finished otherwise this summer (official count: zero). The important part is that they're seeing progress, so rest assured that they will one day be available for the world to enjoy. I suppose playing other games along the way isn't necessarily helping get my own done, but it sure does allow me to see what else is going on out there. I warn you all to stay away from Kongregate. There are quite a few gems there that sneakily make time fly like no one's business.

Apparently I Make Miniature Houses, Too.

The project here was to make a Wizard of Oz-themed retirement cake that leads to a house with the phrase "There's No Place Like Staying Home." I was tasked with making the house and helping out a bit with the cake (grass and brick laying, below).

Working from memory rather than reference

Plans for the house made in Flash. I tried to create it
in as few pieces as possible, for stability's sake.

Pre-taping phase

Chimney, bushes, and Roosevelt

I don't even think people could get this low to the cake.

Sunroom located in the back. Windows were made
super tinted for lack of better materials
(we're talking 1/2 in. width for the whole thing)

Assorted views. Coloring done with Prisma Colors.

Beginning of cake. That lemon brick road was delicious.

Coconut grass. And lots of it.

Not as grandiose as Emerald City,
but it sure seems a lot cozier.

EDIFICE

So, my senior thesis at Ringling has finally been completed! Production started in December of 2007 and really hasn't taken a break since. I couldn't have done it without the help of my teammate, friend, and partner in crime Patrick Haskew, the other half of Team Bonesaw. Clicking the image above will take you to my website where you can (finally) watch it. And for those of you wanting a few more pixels for your pleasure, here's a link to the HD version on YouTube.

In other news, my second project for senior year is also completed, though it's of a much smaller scope (17 months vs. 4 weeks). It too is available to view on my website, under the Animation section.

Other than that, I'm off to graduate from Ringling in a few days. What I'll be doing after that, I'm not too sure. I have a few Flash games I'd like to polish up and finish, so look out for those in the coming months.

We'll meet again someday soon :]

Must go faster. Must go faster. (A bat's story)

Here's a few screenshots from my latest Flash game I've been working on for a few months. The idea came to me one day when thinking about cool things to escape from. An erupting volcano immediately came to mind, and our lovely bat friend followed shortly after. I'm not sure when the game will be available to the public, but I can assure you it's been a blast to work on so far.




Other than this, I have a couple other Flash games under production as well (yes, the heart game is still beating). I've also recently finished my senior thesis animation with my partner Patrick, so that should be available on my portfolio website in a few weeks. I'll of course make word of it here as soon as it's available.

Just a few weeks of school left, so hang in there. I have a few things to take care of first.

Parry Like You Mean It

This was done as a present for my good friend Berto, but it also stands for a few things - the recent release of Street Fighter IV, a glorified portrait of our virtual battles, how important it is never to give up even when you're down, and of course just how large the moon can become when fighting to the death in a sacred forest. Just something to munch on for now (as we all know my mouth is soon to be filled with a hadouken).

Cardboard Needs Love, Too

Looks like my portfolio website is all ready to go, for your viewing pleasure. I spent a couple months programming, designing, and basically getting the whole thing together, which has resulted in this little cardboard world where you can come see my most cherished pieces of work.

I'll keep putting work up there as I finish them in the coming months (the big update coming in May 2009 when I finish my senior thesis). Meanwhile, stick around these parts for some progress updates on my other side projects in life.

Enjoy,

Still Rockin On.

Hi all. I may not have been posting recently, but I assure you I've been working on fun things. To answer a few common questions:

- Yes, the Heart game is still in production and is coming along nicely.
- Yes, I do make hip-hop instrumentals as a hobby. You can find my finished beats at onemrbeats.blogspot.com.
- No, I won't be posting any animation from my senior thesis until sometime next year. It's a slow and loving process.

Recently, I've been working each day on my senior thesis with my partner Patrick, slowly bringing our vision to reality (I mean virtual reality, right?). I've also been putting together a senior portfolio of my work, so expect a nice little link to my portfolio website in the coming weeks.

Other than that, enjoy the self portrait posted above. I think I was excited to get laceless shoes for the first time. They're treating me mighty fine to this day.

Hearts Are Meant To Be Played With!

I've wasted no time this summer vacation starting work on a new Flash game. I have far too much sudden freetime and motivation to create something new to not take advantage of that dead space between school and a summer job. Production is already well underway in both programming and art direction. Here's some early work I did on deciding upon basic shapes. The colors may change, the shapes may change, but the general positioning of things is set in stone. I can't get too much into how the game works or even what kind of game it is. All I can say is that I'm excited to work on it and I'll keep you updated on any major progress points I hit along the way. Until then, enjoy the sunshine and be productive in your journeys!

Kinkaku-ji: The Golden Pavilion

I recently finished up work on a gaming level using the CryEngine 2 SDK. It was for my world and asset building class in the Game Art + Design minor. This is the first class of its kind, not just at Ringling, but in the world. That pretty much comes down to having the students in the class doing extensive research and trial & error in figuring out how to get things to work in this brand-new gaming engine. It's been a fun adventure learning how to create all elements of a world and make them work together.

My level is loosely based upon an actual building in Kyoto, Japan called Kinkaku-ji, or The Golden Pavilion. It used to be a retirement home for a shogun in the 1300s, but later became a Zen temple. It actually burned down twice, which is cool that it's still standing today. There's even a live webcam feed showing it off 24/7. I picked this building as my reference based solely upon the beauty of the building and the surrounding area during winter, when the snow falls enough to give a great contrast between the dark woods and the pond. The real challenge for this level was to build organic objects - like trees, rocks, grass, etc - from scratch, with no formal training in such a task. All in all, I like how it turned out.




And here's a shot of the temple at a different time of day, making use of a new color scheme to get a different mood.

I would have loved to get video of my level in action, but we're currently trying to work things out with video capturing software. It's pretty fun to move around in there, especially since the pond is frozen and you can run on top of it.

Three D Me

Here's a small taste of my Lip Sync caricature model that's being used for various exercises in Computer Animation this semester. We spent a while last semester planning out designs and storyboarding our animations, and this year we got to finally go ahead and build everything. Being an animation aficionado, I didn't start having real fun until a few weeks ago, so I'm glad things are in motion now.


And while we're at it, let's take a look at the full body, including a t-shirt I wish existed and some Superstar kicks. This also happens to be the stage used for my final Lip Sync animation, to be completed within a week. Take care and enjoy Spring, folks.

It's Animation Time!

And now it's time to show my work from last semester in my Computer Animation III class. We designed, modeled, textured, and rigged a character from scratch (mine being an alien with spikes named Prickle). Then we spent the rest of the semester making three 15 second animations, each one's production time lasting about 3 weeks. Click the images below to watch each one.




Expect some content from the current semester in my next update. In the meantime, enjoy these little guys!