2008 Brought many different art adventures for me. Here are some highlights.
Roy's Revenge - My highly anticipated short film burst onto the web in early April and had it's big screen debut on April 16th as a part of the Okanagan Film Festival.
Final Gathering Hints - In late March I explained Final Gathering for newbies.
Smashing After Thoughts - In 2007 I made some predictions of what Super Smash Brothers Brawl would include and this is the result. See where I was right and where I was wrong.
The Fall of Digimill - In 2008 the site formally known as Digimill.net fell off the face of the internet when site editor Graeme Morris failed to sign into Blogger. I saved several of my best posts and posted them on this here Blog, here are the highlights:
1997
Elements of Designs
Principles of Design
Live Action Shorts - I finally upgraded and bought a digital camera from a friend and begun shooting interesting footage and editing it together to Nine Inch Nails.
Reviews - I begun to review video games I've played this year on this here site, here are the highlights:
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Doctor Mario Online RX
Artstyle: Orbient
There you go, 2008 was a weird one for me personally, but if the economy improves I can except even more art adventures. Wish me luck and keep reading.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Live Action Short: 28 Ghost IV
It snowed in Kelowna and as much as I dislike it, snow does create some interesting ideas. I've had and idea to do a short like this for about 2 years now, using the snow and someone dressed in black to push the contrast.
It's best to click on the video and go to Youtube and watch it there. While on the Youtube page select the "Watch In High Quality" text right below the video. Otherwise the video is grainy and low res.
Watch it, rate it 5 stars, fav it and share it with your friends!
You can also rate and view my Ghost videos over on NIN.com . Don't forget to rate them there as well if you're a member.
It's best to click on the video and go to Youtube and watch it there. While on the Youtube page select the "Watch In High Quality" text right below the video. Otherwise the video is grainy and low res.
Watch it, rate it 5 stars, fav it and share it with your friends!
You can also rate and view my Ghost videos over on NIN.com . Don't forget to rate them there as well if you're a member.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Art Style Orbient Review
Suda 51 of Grasshopper Manafature, makers of Killer7 and No More Heroes, calls himself a punk game maker. One thing that lead to the punk rock revolution in the 70's was people being tired of long winded Progressive Rock bands, such as Pink Floyd and their super long songs. The Ramones debut album was shorter then some Pink Floyd songs. Punk rock brought rock back to the basics. In the sense of Punk style games, Orbient is a lot more punk then No More Heroes.
Orbient is apart of the Art Style WiiWare titles, which are the spiritual sequels (some times actual sequels or remakes) of the Gameboy Advance Bit Generation games. The Bit Generation games were solely released in Japan and were simple little games. Orbient is a remake of the Bit Generation game Orbital.
Orbient is a two button game. That's it. Just 'A' and 'B'. No use of the control stick, no wagging the Wii Mote, no directional pad (except in the menus). In the game you control a little sphere/planet and your goal is to grow bigger and get the target sun in your orbit. You use the 'A' button to pull you closer to objects and 'B' button to push you away. Sounds simple doesn't it? But it gets a little more complicated. Your little sphere never stops moving and soon you must orbit around a larger sun and set your path. The game is very much a game of timing. Some suns/planets stay stationary, others move. Then there's asteroids and black holes. Smack into a celestial body bigger then yours and you're going to loose a life (usually start off with 5). So it's kind of like Asteroids meets Katamari. Once your planet/sphere gets bigger you can then get smaller planets to orbit you. It can get pretty neat when you become one of the larger bodies in the stage and you have 14 things orbiting you. At the end of the level you're judged by time and how many objects are in orbit around you. The levels can be tough, but in a good way. I never found myself so frustrated that I couldn't play anymore. Chances are you will die several times in a level.
The music of the game ranges from simple little tunes to haunting. The music is fitting, sometimes there's a sense of wonder and awe to it, other times it's menacing, like something off of Alien. The real problem is the sound effects. The music is about half the volume the sound effects are. When you crash into a different body you'll hear it. On top of that, when a single planet is oribiting your sphere there's a little 8 bit-ish jingle added, when you get three bodies around you the other music stops and you're stuck with a repeating every 2 second bit high pitched melody that gets tired fast. Sometimes found myself looking for a 4th just to get the song to change. Once you get a 4th the music shifts to a peaceful tune that gets a little more complex the more things orbit you, I think it caps at 12.
Graphic wise, don't expect anything too pretty. Like I said, you control a sphere. The backgrounds are kind of nice, would have been even nicer to see Hubble Space Telescope backgrounds, or better 3D effects on some of the background stages. In one stage there's a giant rotating moon that looks like it's a sphere with only 30 polygons and a stretched texture. But overall, the graphics works.
I'm adding this game to the list of great puzzle games mentioned in my Doctor Mario Online RX review. At 600 Wii Points (6 bucks) it's a great deal.
Grade: B
Orbient is apart of the Art Style WiiWare titles, which are the spiritual sequels (some times actual sequels or remakes) of the Gameboy Advance Bit Generation games. The Bit Generation games were solely released in Japan and were simple little games. Orbient is a remake of the Bit Generation game Orbital.
Orbient is a two button game. That's it. Just 'A' and 'B'. No use of the control stick, no wagging the Wii Mote, no directional pad (except in the menus). In the game you control a little sphere/planet and your goal is to grow bigger and get the target sun in your orbit. You use the 'A' button to pull you closer to objects and 'B' button to push you away. Sounds simple doesn't it? But it gets a little more complicated. Your little sphere never stops moving and soon you must orbit around a larger sun and set your path. The game is very much a game of timing. Some suns/planets stay stationary, others move. Then there's asteroids and black holes. Smack into a celestial body bigger then yours and you're going to loose a life (usually start off with 5). So it's kind of like Asteroids meets Katamari. Once your planet/sphere gets bigger you can then get smaller planets to orbit you. It can get pretty neat when you become one of the larger bodies in the stage and you have 14 things orbiting you. At the end of the level you're judged by time and how many objects are in orbit around you. The levels can be tough, but in a good way. I never found myself so frustrated that I couldn't play anymore. Chances are you will die several times in a level.
The music of the game ranges from simple little tunes to haunting. The music is fitting, sometimes there's a sense of wonder and awe to it, other times it's menacing, like something off of Alien. The real problem is the sound effects. The music is about half the volume the sound effects are. When you crash into a different body you'll hear it. On top of that, when a single planet is oribiting your sphere there's a little 8 bit-ish jingle added, when you get three bodies around you the other music stops and you're stuck with a repeating every 2 second bit high pitched melody that gets tired fast. Sometimes found myself looking for a 4th just to get the song to change. Once you get a 4th the music shifts to a peaceful tune that gets a little more complex the more things orbit you, I think it caps at 12.
Graphic wise, don't expect anything too pretty. Like I said, you control a sphere. The backgrounds are kind of nice, would have been even nicer to see Hubble Space Telescope backgrounds, or better 3D effects on some of the background stages. In one stage there's a giant rotating moon that looks like it's a sphere with only 30 polygons and a stretched texture. But overall, the graphics works.
I'm adding this game to the list of great puzzle games mentioned in my Doctor Mario Online RX review. At 600 Wii Points (6 bucks) it's a great deal.
Grade: B
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A Strange Week in Releases..
Sorry, but this isn't an art post, just a far fetched theory, not crazy or deep enough for it to be a conspiracy.
This week there's something very odd happening. A movie is being released on DVD on Friday. This wouldn't be odd if it was a Friday the 13th movie, or if there was a special holiday that had some tie in with the movie. But the movie in question is Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda comes out on Friday November 7th, 2008 on DVD. But why not Tuesday?
On Tuesday Dreamworks Animation released Shrek the Halls on DVD, a made for TV X-mas Special. Then why not just push the movie to next Tuesday, the 11th? I'm sure It would sell better then Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
But there's something else a foot. You see on Friday, November 7th Dreamworks Animation releases Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Let's review.
Tuesday 4th: Shrek the Halls on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Kung Fu Panada on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in theatres (Dreamworks Animation)
So why would Dreamworks (or Paramount, the parent company) release a Dreamworks Animation in theatres and on DVD on the same day? Are they sabotaging one of their own movies to do bad? I think so. But hear me out. Madagascar 2 opens on Friday, and the next week (the 14th) Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie opens up. Could Dreamworks/Paramount by sabotaging Madagascar this week so it does better next week against Bond? Perhaps..
Anyway, a happy Guy Fawks Day to you, I'm going to go watch V For Vendetta.
This week there's something very odd happening. A movie is being released on DVD on Friday. This wouldn't be odd if it was a Friday the 13th movie, or if there was a special holiday that had some tie in with the movie. But the movie in question is Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda comes out on Friday November 7th, 2008 on DVD. But why not Tuesday?
On Tuesday Dreamworks Animation released Shrek the Halls on DVD, a made for TV X-mas Special. Then why not just push the movie to next Tuesday, the 11th? I'm sure It would sell better then Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
But there's something else a foot. You see on Friday, November 7th Dreamworks Animation releases Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Let's review.
Tuesday 4th: Shrek the Halls on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Kung Fu Panada on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in theatres (Dreamworks Animation)
So why would Dreamworks (or Paramount, the parent company) release a Dreamworks Animation in theatres and on DVD on the same day? Are they sabotaging one of their own movies to do bad? I think so. But hear me out. Madagascar 2 opens on Friday, and the next week (the 14th) Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie opens up. Could Dreamworks/Paramount by sabotaging Madagascar this week so it does better next week against Bond? Perhaps..
Anyway, a happy Guy Fawks Day to you, I'm going to go watch V For Vendetta.
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