Hulk Hogan vs Macho Man

OH YEEEEAH!

I know when I was a kid, I enjoyed professional wrestling. Since then, I've become less of a fan of these athletes with over-the-top personalities fake being the crap out of each other, but that hasn't stopped me from creating some fan art that lets me reminisce about my childhood.

Hope you all like it!

-Dave

Umbra Update - Boor: The Sequel

Hey everyone!

I wrote a blog post early today showing some of the concepts I had done for the game Umbra.

Now here is some work that a friend and fellow member of the team, Joe Matison, has done.

Joe's Concept (v3.5)

 Low Poly

High Poly

 Mind you, this is without the skin on, but by-gum I think it's pretty damn sweet!

What do you think?

-Dave

HatJam - The Random Game Jam

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently producing/running a game jam for my fellow students!

It's called the HatJam!

The blog of said game jam is over here.

Once this one is done and we all have more experience under our belts, I intend to open it up to more people from near and far to join us in this fun experience. I'll make a new post with an email address to register you and/or your team!

To make the HatJam different than other jams, the subject for the jam is picked randomly from hats that have been populated by participants. It also has a more relaxed time frame that focuses on self-discipline, work ethic, team work, creativity, and fun.

Anywho, check it out! (here is another link.)
I try to update every day.

Thanks!
-Dave

Valve: Champion of the Gamers (Opinion)

I just read an article in the New York Times by Nick Wingfield that really made me smile and take note.

The article I'm talking about is on the New York Times site that reads almost like a manifesto calling to how the new game industry should work. For 3 pages, it lists some of the magic moments that Valve has brought to the industry; not only in development, but company structure and video game economy.

Now, I'm not much of a PC gamer right now since I haven't had the financial means to create my dream work/gaming machine as of late. Yeah, I've picked up a few indie games from The Humble Bundle and a couple on Steam, but for the most part, I don't like the idea of having an untested service trying to sell me something that has such heavy DRM that it would prevent me from playing my purchase if they go the way of the dodo. And considering how cut-throat things have been getting, I stand by my choice.

But, what I do know is that Gabe Newell and Valve is fighting for not only the customer/gamer, but for creating a great example to those of us trying to share our passion with the world. By having a dynamic workforce that is encouraged to be creative, it brings a ray of hope to us developers who want something better out of the industry than a 9 to 5 cubicle hell.

A good chunk of the article also talks about Valve working towards creating a set of augmented reality glasses, which doesn't appeal too much to me, but maybe that's just me.

What did strike me was one comment about the augmented reality was brought up by COO of EA, Peter Moore. Moore stated "It's appealing to them because they live in that outer fringe of I.Q. and money," doubting it will connect with consumers. Now I don't think EA should be ruffling too many feathers and talking down too much since among gamers, EA still isn't exactly loved.

Microsoft is brought up a little bit too, but I haven't really been too keen on their gaming practices as of late.

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, this article has helped establish my appreciation of Valve and of Gabe Newell.

If you want to check out this article yourself, check it out here. (Game Maker without a Rule Book - NY Times) It's a pretty good.

Thanks for reading!
-Dave

KickStarter - A Tool for the Game Industry (Opinion)

As far as I can tell, we all love an underdog story. The stories where the nice guy gets the girl and wins the lotto. I think that's why all those '80's movies had the nerdy kid gets away with the stealing exotic cars, getting cheered on by his team, or impersonating a secret agent. I think it appeal to everyone.

Now, I think that's why KickStarter has gotten so big lately, especially in the games industry. There are these games on there that people can get behind because they like the idea. Or it could remind them of their dream game that they would make up and scribble out on a stack of note book paper until they thought it was perfect. It brings to light our hopes and dreams and giving us a chance to see them made real.

But what does it really mean for the industry?

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, especially after seeing a few of my favorite old game studios and IP's start hitting up KickStarter to be brought back into the lime-light. These were/are games and studios that had major publishers back in the day. They had proven financial success and cult followings to this day.

And I think thats where the problem lies. The video game industry is still being run with a "shit rolls down hill" method as far as I can tell. It doesn't take a market analyst to see that innovation and new IP's are nearly gone from the main stream, "AAA" titles that get released. And the reason the same old, busted crap is getting released is because it sells at a consistent rate. They don't break records and don't revolutionize the industry as a whole. If they did take a chance on something new, there is a better chance that they won't recoupe their expenses. Expenses that pay for a board of directors that never touched code, giant marketing campaigns that cost millions to push a 3 hour game, and pay for CEO's to try something new while their original company drowns in debt from miss-management.

Corporate greed. It seems to be real and it's one of the reasons I think big players have gone to KickStarter. Who wants to pay for a year of mortgage on the executives house(s) while you get a month of instant noodles? I dunno, doesn't sound fun, but we all have to work.

But as KickStarter becomes more and more laden down with video games that want to get funding, to me it has lost some of its luster; its magic. Everyone who loves video games has an idea for one and everyone wants to get it made. Though the games I view on there now are less original, less fun. I can't imagine them being someones dream game. To me, it's like they're going the way of the major league, "AAA" titles. They are starting to look the same to me and I get the feeling that they are just in it to get any game made so they can make a buck.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that KickStarter is a good tool that is getting used in the wrong way by some people and to me, some of the amazement and wonder of finding a hidden gem is gone because those gems are surrounded with the same old crap.

...
Anywho, that's just my opinion.

Thanks for reading!
-Dave

Creepy Guy

Yeah...like that...

Umbra Concept Art: Boor - 10Sept2012

Hey there!

Being re-invigorated to work on this blog, I figured I would update with some of the concept art that I have done for a game I'm working on. This stuff is nearly 6 months old at this point, so please bear that in mind.

The monster below is called the Boor. He's an 8ft tall beast that lives in a mysterious plane of existence that is deep inside of a black hole. When he spots his prey, he marches up to it with a ferocious determination and wails away with his clawed arm. This kind of brute-force and arrogant attitude comes from being near the top of the food chain for eons. They know nothing of fear or pain.

Boor v1.0

Boor v2.0

 Boor v3.0 

Some background on the game project; Umbra.

As students of game design/development, my class needed a project to work on.
One of the students came up with an idea that resonated with us all as something that could be interesting and we all helped develop it into an idea we could get behind.

That idea became Umbra.

Umbra is a game where you play as a star that has taken the form of a scantily clad woman named Sola. She has entered a black hole in order to fight off the ancient evil race that resides inside that swallow up her kind and imprision them, taking their energy and killing the other stars.

The game is a 3rd person shooter/platformer being developed for PC using UDK and it's currently in early alpha.

As for the Boor itself, it is designed to be humanistic in profile and have a recognizable silhouette from a distance. The fact that they have featureless faces helps to create more mystery to their motives and the asymmetrical design is a subtle way of giving them a natural "S" curve that the human eye finds appealing and interesting to look at while at the same time giving the viewer the impression that the Boor is flawed; not in design, but in nature.

I'll be updating later with the model that is created by Joe.