Zombie Eunuch

Funny title comming soon.

2010-07-06T21:16:00.005-06:00

It's been a little while since the last post. Things have been rolling along. I got some updates made to the main page. I got a couple more Asimov books read in the "Foundation" series. Right now I'm on the last of the 3 books that were part of foundation, but by different authors after his death. They are all great books but I'm excited to get back into the books that Asimov wrote.

I'm getting pretty close to getting a new computer. It's not going to be anything super crazy, but it will be quite an improvement over my old computer. This poor thing has 512 meg ram. This computer is long overdue for a replacement. I can't wait to get back to pc gaming. I usually play quite a bit of pc games but I haven't been playing many lately just because I don't really have the specs to play many of the newer games. Eve online has been calling me back, I can't wait to get back out into the asteroid belts and start mixing it up. A lot has changed since I left, you can mine planets now apparently and you can finally get out of your ship and walk around. I had no idea my character even had a torso. I kinda liked the idea of being a floating head zooming around space, hehe. I plan on mining until I can't take anymore so I can scrounge up some money then it will be back into my stealth bomber. I like scouting around doing recon and picking off the odd soft target. I hope to talk a couple friends into rejoining so we can set up our WW2 U-Boat tactics again. The plan was to get a few cloaked stealth bombers and fly deep into enemy space. Then we'd look for easy targets and cause some havoc. It's not the greatest way to lay down damage but it's great fun. Not many people use stealth ships so it's always fun to shock some miner, half asleep, by popping in out of nowhere with rockets already on the way. It also diverts quite a few ships to come watch over them and look around for you. I miss the openness of Eve. It has that "Wild West" feel I like in a MMO. It has an unscripted, new feel. For me Eve has that feeling that you get from a brand new MMO. There is no "Best" way to do anything. People are forging their own paths, not following guides or going with the established ways of doing things. All the games philosophies help to support this feeling. From the deep combat system that ensures that there is no one setup to dominate combat, to the player driven events and economy. One of the things I love about Eve is that it lets the players loose and lets them do as they please. If you want to set up a fake bank and scam people out of money they won't stop you. The makers won't punish you in any way. If you came up with a a way to make money, so be it, it's your business how you make it. It really adds to the wild west/outlaw feel. It's a tough game that reflects both the harsh coldness of space and the pioneering spirit. It's a real "buyer beware" environment, but they do a great job of keeping it fair and fun. So if you are on Eve hit me up (Kisarazu), I'll be looking for a new corp. I've also been playing some other games while I wait on my new pc. Transformice is a great free online game for killing some time. It's hilarious. I'd sum it up but the video is perfect. It reminds me of the design philosophy of the tabletop game "Paranoia".

In other random news, they brought back Futurama. Everyone must watch now so they don't get canceled again. I'm really glad they brought it back, it was one of my favorite shows. I was a little worried about the new shows, but they are great. I also got glasses, I was tired of contacts and needed some new backup glasses anyway if I do decide to get more contacts. Oh, and I updated my resume and made it all 8 bit. I think it turned out really well (its the pdf on the main page).

Tron ARG news

2010-02-22T02:14:00.003-07:00

It looks like the Tron ARG is still going. I got a really cool "neutral state bit" in the mail recently. It's that small bit in Tron that follows Flynn around and says "yes" or "no". It was very exciting, I was really hoping that the ARG wasn't over. We also got a new lead to a website with a countdown timer. It had been a little while since there had been any new leads. It also looks like there will be something going on in Salt Lake. I should know more in a couple days (when the countdown timer goes off) but it lists Salt Lake in a list of cities. I'll try and get some pics up of the bit soon. Other than that I got the prototype of the AR card project up online at my site (www.rosssewell.com). I also prototyped a user interface for a flash project but I'm not sure if I'll put that online or not. My cousin came down and we played through "Bubble Bobble Plus" for the Wii. We have the original "Bubble Bobble" for the NES memorized so it was a lot of fun to play some new challenging levels/modes. I've been pretty swamped lately with different things but it looks like I'll have some more time to work on the ARG. Oh and some other great news, it looks like a friend of mine will be moving to Salt Lake. We've been friends since before I can remember so I'm really looking forward to that.

Working on AR for ARG. I think the "reality" groups are someday going to spell out Argonaut.

2010-01-09T03:33:00.006-07:00

Got back from vacation recently. Had a good Christmas/New Years. I went back to Kansas for awhile to see family. It was nice to see everyone for awhile. My brother and I played a lot of Magic and Final Fantasy Tactics (psp). I got a really interesting book about augmented reality (AR) that I just started. I'll talk about it more once I dig into it. I finished "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. I'd reccomend it. It was the first book of his I had read. He has a nice writing style, simple but not oversimplified. It works well for the story. I also got Little Big Planet for the psp. Once I finish the story mode I'll start uploading some levels. I got a webcam, so pretty soon I will start working on some AR elements for the ARG. I already have some software so it shouldn't take long.

Inflatable toast bed invented, dream I didn't know I had comes true.

2009-12-09T14:09:00.005-07:00

Seriously...I need one.

I'm excited. It looks like we may have a sequel coming for the DS game "Contact". Contact is one of my top 10 favorite games. It isn't quite clear yet if it will be a sequel or not, but the contact designer is working on a new DS game so eitherway it should be good. In other good news "Kids in the Hall" will be doing a miniseries.

I've been researching augmented reality. I've been looking into it for the ARG I'm working on. It has a lot of potential and I'm really looking forward into intigrating it into a game. It has a lot of interesting aspects, one thing I'm looking at now is using some of the free software available using webcams to create a 3d image on a monitor over a card. It's pretty simple, the webcam recognizes high contrast images and tracks them. On the monitor you can call a image up over the card. "Eye of Judgement" for the PS3 does similar things. I'm looking to really push into some new areas with augmented reality. The images displayed over cards is just a small aspect of what is possible.

Well I got the watercolor study done. I need to punch up the colors and I think I'm going to add hand done pixel art instead of using a filter but it came out ok. My scanner blows, it really washes out the detail and color, but I'll mess with it more on the finished work. Here's a couple of different versions of the study.

I spend way to much time creating "funny" titles

2009-12-03T16:27:00.006-07:00

Just finished a series called Gurren Lagann (available to watch on Hulu). I really enjoyed it. It seems like it has been awhile since I have really just enjoyed something. It seems like I'm always over analyzing and trying to learn or get something out of everything. It is a bit difficult to put into words. Point is, I guess, that I'm always thinking. Thinking of how I would do things or worrying that characters or events won't turn out how I want. It's more than that, but back to the point. There was just something about Gurren Lagann. It was great, start to finish. Enjoyable in every aspect. That doesn't mean that there weren't interesting things to think about and reflect on. It wasn't just mindless fun, it was just presented in a way that kept me from ruining the fun. So thanks to the Gurren Lagann staff for creating something that I needed right now.

I finished Marvel-Civil War. Towards the end it seemed like work trying to keep reading. I think part of it was that it was a bit heavy handed for my liking. It also seemed to hit a single note for way to long. I enjoyed most of it though. I think I was just trying to get through it too fast, so I didn't take time to enjoy it. I should have waited until I was in a better mood to read it, instead of forcing my way through. I think that part of the reason I was so eager to continue is that I have so much to catch up on. The world is just so massive, it can be daunting to jump in and read it at a normal pace. It's a bit like Dr. Who, there is just so much content out there, where do you start and how much time do you put into trying to learn everything? Looking at this text kind of gives the impression that I didn't like Civil War. I did enjoy it, it's flaws are few and mostly exaggerated by my overcritical brain. It was a fun read and I'm glad I gave American comics a fair shot. As I explained earlier as far as American comics go, I never really got into them much. I read some Spawn and X-Men etc. but never really gave them a fair shake....where does "fair shake" come from anyway, what a weird phrase. Anyway I'm looking forward to catching up more on Marvel. I'm thinking of following Iron Man, Wolverine, and whatever multiple man is part of, I just forgot what team he is on...anyway it was really well drawn, oh and Deadpool is always fun.

On that same note I started reading "The Maxx". Another series I always meant to get around to. It shouldn't take to long to finish. It only ran to like 35 so I'm halfway done. More on the pointy fingered purple one after I finish.

I've started a new short story that will have new artwork. I have the rough done of the story. I plan on breaking out the old water colors tonight for some studies. I'm exited about the artwork but I need to do a study to see if it will turn out ok. It will be something that I have never seen/tried before. I'm going to attempt to do scenes in water color and then add in some 8-bit art on top of it. It will hopefully make an interesting look, like I said I've never seen it before. I just hope it will mesh. Maybe that's why I haven't seen it before. Anyway that's what studies are for. Should have a decent idea of whether it will work or not tonight.

Ahab-1 Whale-0....or Grape Ape would be pleased

2009-11-10T21:03:00.004-07:00

Short post today. To all of you that know me personally, you know of my maddening quest...well one of my insane quests anyway. The quest to find Grape Ice cream. Now my long and weary odyssey is over. http://www.farrsicecream.com/ makes a lime rickey ice cream. It is half grape and half lime. It isn't really mixed up, it is separated like in Neapolitan (at least it wasn't mixed in the one I got). I've been looking for grape ice cream since the late 80's. I've looked everywhere. I could find all kinds of other crap, honey, ginger, mango, you name it, but never grape. I even hassled a Baskin Robins guy that was working at a bridal show. He had no explanation and seemed tired of my relentless questioning. I told him that it would have to sell better than red bean ice cream...It's a basic flavor. I can get an apple that tastes like a grape. http://www.grapplefruits.com/. He didn't seem interested in my plight. Chunk even mentions grape ice cream in "Goonies". Anyway, they get an email from me stating that they are my personal heroes.

Oh yea, I was working at my temp job today and we had some down time. One of my co-workers was messing around on the computer and asked me how to open a new tab in the browser. I told her ALT+F4. She actually hit it, it made my day. It took me back to sitting in Battlenet and people asking how to get rid of lag. I'd say alt f4 and half the names would drop off the channel. It sure helped my lag.

Other than that I've been working on some Shadowrun stuff and kicking around a few ideas. The ARG is still rolling along and I plan to get a good chunk of work done this week.

I think I have created the most paranoid Shadowrun character ever.

2009-10-25T15:48:00.004-06:00

Well I've been pretty swamped lately. I got a temp job working in a mail room. It's ok but I'm lifting boxes around all day so when I get home I'm a bit tired. Haven't had the time I'd like to work on projects. I did get a bit more done on the ARG. It's coming along pretty well but with only two people working on it I think it will take a while. I really like working on projects that take some effort. It's nice to have a project that lasts awhile. You can put a lot of effort into it and get something great out of it. I have also been working on a Shadowrun mission. Shadowrun is a tabletop rpg that I've played for probably over 6 years off and on. I haven't played recently but I am throwing together a mission for my players. Hopefully I can get everyone together for Christmas and play. Once I run the mission I might add it to the site. It should be pretty epic. I'm planning it to be good enough to be a fitting "last sendoff" in case we don't get to play anymore. The group is my brother (who lives in Topeka), my cousin (in Vegas), and my friend (in Pittsburgh Kansas) and I GM. So it can be pretty hard to get us all together. All this planning for the new mission has made me want to play Shadowrun again. I end up as GM most of the time whenever I do a tabletop. I miss playing, so if there is a game in Salt Lake shoot me a message. I just finished up one of my characters. I think it would be a fun character to play and want to test it out. I might post it up here soon. I want to finish fleshing out some of the contacts and back story.

I've also been reading Marvel Civil War. I know I'm quite a bit behind, I think it finished in 07, but I never really got into American comics. I followed a few here and there and keep up with most of the movies but for whatever reason never really got into it much. I'm enjoying the Civil War series though. I should go back and read House of M. I started it but never finished. I think I'm about half way through Civil War so once I finish it I think I will go back and finish House of M. If your looking for something fun for Halloween I'd say go read Marvel Zombies. It was a fun read.

I still need to finish Scribblenauts and put up a review. I was pretty close to finishing it, just need to sit down and beat a few more levels. There are so many good games comming up, I need to finish it before Little Big Planet comes out for PSP and I spend all my time making levels. I finished maxing out my Final Fantasy Tactics PSP save. I've got 5 chr all the way mastered so I'm ready to play my brother at Christmas. We have been waiting to square off since the original PS1 release. We would argue all the time who would win in a VS match. Now we can finally see, I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

Scribblenauts release date snuck up on me like some kind of ninja covered in WD-40

2009-09-17T14:22:00.011-06:00

I beat Tron 2.0 finally. It was a pretty enjoyable game. Had a few problems here and there, but nothing to major. The ending was a bit abrupt. It reminded me a bit of an old NES game. "Bam, you killed the end boss!"..."The end, go do something else now" kind of thing. The only other complaint I had was with the upgrade system. There are little guys wandering around, code optimizers I think they were called. Say you have a sniper rifle, it starts at red and takes up 3 slots of memory. If you find one of the little code optimizers you can upgrade it, it will take 2 slots of memory and up the dmg/acc etc. Upgrading to gold will make it take 1 slot and better stats. Point is, the code optimizers are pretty few and far between. That would be fine with me, I get that I don't get to upgrade everything, but some of the weapons and items you get really late in the game. I might have just missed some of the optimizers or found one of the weapons late but I had no chance to upgrade it all the way. I might pull up one of my old saves and hunt around a bit more. After I beat the game I checked out the light cycle section. It was a neat little addition where you battle in different arenas for unlockables. I was a bit surprised at the thought put into the different arenas. Some had tight areas with a speed curse (all players are forced to turbo boost) and others had different themes. All the arenas had a different feel without really using that many different items or upgrades. It was a great use of resources. They got quite a bit of mileage out of it and unless they were just making it look simple, it didn't eat up much dev time.

I need to pick up a copy of Scribblenauts. It seems like it was made for me. It really looks like it fits with one of my favorite game philosophies. Give players a toolbox and let their creativity solve the problems. I think some of the most entertaining games let the player be creative in the solutions. Take Eve online for example, there is never a set way to do things. If there is a preferred way to do something there is always enough wiggle room left by the designers for the players to use. For example, Titans can take a year just to be able to pilot. They take unimaginable time and resources to build. When I was playing I think about 7 had been built. The titans main weapon was a doomsday device. If it fired it off pretty much everything was gone, wiped out. It could only use the device like once every 2hrs if I remember right. So the strategy was to pop the doomsday device and warp out of there before they could send a wave of ships to destroy you. The general strategy for fighting a titan was to send in a first wave of attackers in junk ships, then once it used its doomsday device send in another wave. It didn't work often though, by the time the second wave warped in the titan had warped away. None of the ships that could knock out a warp drive (and hold the titan in place) would survive the doomsday detonation. So the strategy remained the same for quite awhile. It was costly and pretty ineffective. That is until one player decided to find another way. He outfitted a ship to knock out the titans warp drive with all the armor and shields he could possibly add. It had been thought impossible to create a ship capable of locking down a titans warp and surviving the blast but when he maxed out his skills and got the best equipment he could he found that he had just barely enough armor to survive. Like I said, the general knowledge of the time thought it was impossible. So when the titan pilot popped his doomsday and started to warp away to safety I'm sure he was in disbelief to find he was unable to escape. The second wave of attackers warped in and blew him away. It completely changed the tactics for titan combat. That's why I liked Eve, there was always some new tactic that defied the conventional wisdom of the day that was changing combat. In one of the tournaments BoB had created a setup that was thought of as unbeatable. They had one every tournament with pretty much the same set up and were thought to win this tournament as well. Some group took a look at it and came up with a strategy of outfitting super fast junk ships with a type of jamming drone. The drones would interrupt the healers BoB were using and disrupt some of their attacks. The jammers were thought of as completely useless, almost nobody ever used them. They used the fast ships to close the distance and get in close, launched the bots and shut BoB down. It wasn't even close. Now if they would have tried the same thing next year it probably wouldn't have worked. Point is, Eve gave players enough tools to create their own strategy, not just follow what was thought of as "best". A lot of other games there is a "best" equip or a set way to do the most damage. I'm for giving the players a sort of toolbox, or set of flexible mechanics and let the players intelligence and creativity craft some of the gameplay. Scribblenauts seems to really encourage players creativity. It doesn't lock them into the idea that there is one way to solve a puzzle. I'm sure I'll have a extensive write up on it as soon as I get a chance to play it. For now I'll just say that I'm eager to get playing. It looks like the type of game that I'm excited for the series. Even if the first game has a few bugs or issues it looks like the type of game that can just keep improving and expanding. Armored core was like that for me. The first game was pretty good, but you could tell that if the series was allowed to keep going that it would add more and more detail. If it had time it could just refine and add depth and keep getting better and better. Anyway, here's hoping Scribblenauts has a long life and has time to keep getting more refined and even more expansive.

Humorbot 1.0 has deemed this post long and not up to whatever units a fictitious bot designed to be humorous, measures funny in. Humorbot has just informed me that he measures humor in contractions, like when your muscles contract to laugh. It is the most scientific and also slightly humorous way to measure funny. It also explains why he thinks childbirth is hilarious. He has also informed me that the first sentence of this paragraph is pretty much unintelligible. Sentence readability aside, Humorbot will now report his humorous observation.

Humorbot 1.0 loading
loading humor matrix
loading observational humor
loading logic....failed
logic error detected....failed check
continuing load
Dispensing witty observation 89.0

Have you ever noticed how the fewer wheels a mode of transportation has the cooler it is? Example to follow...

Example, a bus is not very cool, due to its excessive wheels. A car is noticeably cooler in comparison to the aforementioned bus. To continue the comparison in its logical and laugh educing manner, a 3 wheeler is cooler than a car...

warning...logic error detected
evidence of statement not found
creating img
uploading img

as is clearly evident in this undoctored image.

a motorcycle is cooler than a 3 wheeler. Therefore logic deems the unicycle the coolest mode of transportation available to humans.

warning...critical logic error
system error

well the joke almost worked humor bot, better luck next time. While he recompiles I'm going to try and get some work done.

Insights from "Mallrats" and some game news

2009-09-08T15:35:00.006-06:00

I love how cops on t.v. only have enough manpower to catch one criminal at a time. The cops always have the hero surrounded and are prepared to arrest him, when some convenient jumbotron behind them lights up with footage of the bad guy. They immediately forget about whatever laws the hero broke and hall away the villain. So when your mom was telling you that you should stop hanging around with your friends because they were no good and the wrong crowd, it turns out she was wrong. Police can only arrest people one at a time, so they nab the most evil. So as long as you hang around with friends worse than you are you are practically unarrestable. Of course this is subject to the "Diabolical group" or "Evil super team" rules. They will arrest a group of evildoers, for example the "Legion of doom" etc. If you are in a evil super group, then it's best to be the most evil, only underlings get caught. Other than this slight rule modification your plan should be to find a friend that enjoys doing something evil. Something with kittens, that seems to be a big one. Then you can get away with whatever you want. When the cops have you surrounded you just point at your friend who is constructing a kittencatcher (similar to a dream catcher, but made entirely out of kittens tied together. Also instead of catching dreams it catches angry letters from P.E.T.A. and it also catches dreams. but refuses to return them in a timely manner.). The cops will promptly forget all about you and arrest him. As a side note, always behave yourself in the twighlight zone. Don't even do anything jerkish. That zone doesn't take any crap.

Recently I've been looking forward to the Dante's Inferno game. The marketing for it has been kind of hit and miss for me though. At least they are trying something new. They got a bit of the old interbus outrage over some of their earlier promo's, I thought this newest attempt was really pretty cool. I wonder how many people cashed the check. I'm sure not many did, and they certianly got their moneys worth on marketing. The box itself looks really well done and I love the fact that the memo on the check says "Abandon hope". The whole thing is a great concept and well executed. It's the kind of thing I'd love to have in my arg, if I had a budget. Though we are working on doing some really cool stuff. I wish I could talk about it more, but can't spoil anything. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the release, each developers blog on it gets my hopes up a little more. I hope it turns out well and they do an artbook. Also put me on the swag list for future stuff! Sure I'm of no importance to the media, but I love free swag ...and since I'm one of the only people on the internets that likes free stuff I'm sure it can be easily arranged. Thanks in advance for my buckets of stuff (I assume it will be sent in buckets but crates work as well).

SUNDAY! SUNDAY, SUNDAY! See Mishes, the monster truck mistress of mayham!

2009-09-06T14:54:00.008-06:00

Well, as some of you already know, my wife recently had a flashback to her monster truck days while driving. She tried to crush the car in front of her in a display of carnage and unrestrained brutality. She apparently forgot that she was not in a monster truck with 40 foot tires and a novelty plastic frame that looks like a ninja turtle, but instead was in a 2000 eclipse. The clearance of which is not enough to get over speed bumps without leaving half of the undercarriage behind in a shower of sparks. So needless to say, she did not fly over the car in front of her in a majestic show of steel and rubber, crushing it while sailing to victory and impressing every 12 year old boy in a mile radius. Nope, not even a pyrotechnic fireball. It did pop the airbag and in its over exuberance it blew out my windshield. Good effort airbag. At least someone was trying to impress the prepubescents. Anyway, she is fine. The car is apparently totaled because it is old and airbags are expensive to replace. Needless to say this has set back progress a bit. Might be able to make up some lost time on Monday but I've got to get a new car around midweek. All of that is going to eat up a bit of time but I'm really going to try and stay on track. My conversion to Linux has been going well. I just need to remember that "ls -a" is not the same as "ls -A". I finished "Pebble in the Sky" by Isaac Asimov. It is part of the Foundation series. I'm reading them in chronological order, or at least trying to. I already read the next book in the series first ("Prelude to Foundation") on accident. I figured a book called "Prelude to Foundation" in the foundation series would come first...it's 9th. For the most part it doesn't make a huge difference but if you're planning on reading them I'd stick with chronological order. I might read something else next, switch it up from sci-fi for at least a book. I'm eager to read the next book in the foundation series but I like to try and keep myself well rounded. I've become pretty engrosed in sci-fi lately. I think it's always good to mix it up. It's good to be able to draw from many sources and to be exposed to as much as possible. Often times I will draw from uncommon areas and get ideas from unexpected sources. So I think I will switch to some classic that I've always ment to get around to reading. For now though, back to work on the arg.

Sony disputes usefulness of my PSPig (PSP wrapped in bacon)

2009-08-31T21:11:00.009-06:00

Been pretty busy lately. Got Mandriva Linux set up. I used to run Mandrake and OpenBSD back in the day. I'm pretty much all switched over now. I still have a windows partition for my games but everything else Linux now.

Looks like a new Lost Winds for Wii ware is coming out. I still need to finish the first one, but I liked what I did play of it. It has a great feel, it's relaxing and it is welcoming. It has an inviting art style and seems new and fresh but familiar. It looks like how 8-bit games looked in my childhood dreams.

Got some work done on the arg, but not as much as I'd like. I got really swamped this weekend. Then a friend invited me over for a Street Fighter 4 tournament. I got stomped. I think a series of drinking birds set up to hit buttons randomly would have done better. Though the last time I played Street Fighter it was for the SNES. I'm ok at Tekken, but not great. I may suggest a Goldeneye tourny next time or something I have a shot at getting less embarrassed at. PROTIP- Don't jump on Blanka when he is a ball of lightning just sitting there.

Bacon, now available in tactical.

2009-08-26T17:04:00.005-06:00

I found this in one of my books about Unix.

"Suppose that your friend Tracy has a program named pornotopia in the bin directory. (No, we don't know what it does, either.)"

Well "Dinotopia" was a hidden land of dinosaurs.

Work on the arg is rolling right along.

Oh, good news. Our bacon technology is growing by leaps and bounds. We already have such products as gummy bacon, bacon mints (with the breath freshening power of ham), baconaise, and now tactical bacon. What makes it tactical? The fact that it lasts 10 years? No, my Atari Jaguar is way over 10 years old and its tactical value is minimal at best. I think it is because you can open the can and leave it in a pit trap to collect people like this. I believe we are coming closer to a world with a true "Baconator". Wendy's is headed in the right direction, but for a true "Baconator" you need to weave the bun out of strips of bacon instead of bread and use baconaise instead of mayo. I know your asking "Why not just eat a ball of bacon?". Because that is my new Atkins friendly desert. An ice cream substitute, start with a ball of bacon to sub for the ice cream scoop. Then cover in baconaise for the chocolate syrup. Finish with Baco's for the sprinkles.

Well, back to work. Got to type up more arg stuff and going to try to get some more info on "Despereaux" on the web page.

Fact for the day, If you spell cerebral poorly enough "cervical" comes up on spell check.

2009-08-26T02:47:00.007-06:00

The past almost exists. We can see it, hear it, feel it. It's just out of reach.

I've decided to open the blog up to some more cerebral elements...and yes I did need spell check to spell cerebral. I know that brings into question my ability to do such things. I've had a couple things rolling around in my head for awhile. What happened to art? I know it's a popular subject of complaining, right up there with music today. Now granted I'm nowhere near an expert but here is what I see as a possible problem. It seems to me that some, not all of course, there are still great things being done by great people, but it seems popular today to make a statement instead of something you can tell what it is...welcome to the worlds worst sentence by the way. I shall explain, oh angry internets. Every once and awhile I will venture from my chair all the way to the outdoors to find things to complain about when I get back. Once I went out to a art crawl in Denver, a pretty big one. About half of what I saw was a canvas covered in a single color with texture of some sort. Some used bees wax, others lace, some easily obtained material. The materials were mostly just slapped on, no complex layering or anything. Now I'm not saying that art has to be complicated or time consuming but after seeing about 20 of these I just couldn't help but think that at least some of these were being done because it is easier to make a statement than it is a painting that looks like something recognizable. Perhaps my observation isn't fair or correct but I worry people are taking easy outs because hands are hard to draw. Maybe I don't get postmodern art, maybe I do. I'd hate to see someone slap down some red and some crap he found on his floor, write up a paragraph on his feelings and sell it because he doesn't want to put in the time to learn technique. It reminds me of a story an art teacher told me in school. Great guy. Anyway he was living in a house with 3 others, one of them a different teacher I had that passed away. They were all artists and used the downstairs as a gallery. They were going to do a show but both my teachers were going out of town. The other 2 asked if they wanted to put anything into the show before they left. One of them pulled up his desktop that he did airbrush work on. Just a regular wooden desktop covered in paint and airbrush that went off the page. The other put in a canvas that he found. It had been painted over and was starting to crack so they had thrown it out. He picked it out of the trash, planning to scrape it down and repaint it white to use it again. Instead he wrote a paragraph about how the cracks show the art underneath and some other deep sounding stuff. When they got back from their trip their roommates were pissed, that junk canvas and his tabletop where the only 2 things that sold. He said he was depressed for weeks. I don't blame him. You bust your ass learning to draw, paint or whatever. You practice for years, you spend months creating something. Nobody wants it, but you sneeze in a napkin and leave it on a table, someone makes a bid on it.

Well on to lighter subjects. I've been playing Tron 2.0 for the pc. I think I'm almost done with it, but I think I have said that 5 times already. I keep getting to a point where I'm like "Uh oh, getting near the end. Bet this is the last boss" then the game just keeps going. Part of the game length is probably due to the fact that I drive a light cycle about as well as I drove my big wheel as a child. If I wasn't crashing I was skidding out into the street. I'm not sure if those drivers were marveling at the speed I got a big wheel up to or just freaked out for a second because they thought they had entered a twilight zone and were now enormous. Anyway, I picked it up for my Tron fix while I wait for the arg to pick up. It's a good game, might also try and find a copy of Tron 2.0 killer app for the gba.

What could be more enjoyable than 18 holes with a crocodilian?

2009-08-18T21:31:00.007-06:00

Remember land luge? Yea, me either. I just woke up today and looked around my house and saw nothing but flannels and 90's music. So I assumed I had traveled back in time and shouted "Land luge!", not quite sure what it meant in my confused state. I just knew it was the 90's and I needed to do something EXTREME. Seriously though, what ever happened to land luge? I'm convinced the 12 people that luged (or whatever you call it) must have all been ran over at once by a Hummer. I like to think they all flew down a storm drain and decided to just stay down there and start their own adrenaline saturated society. One where people don't accept it when someone says things like "You can sled in the winter, stop rolling down that hill and come inside".

Got a little done on the ARG. http://www.simonsingh.net/The_CDROM.html has an interesting interactive book about cryptography. History, codes etc. It is really well done and has lots of interactive elements. It also has a virtual enigma machine, videos and other neat stuff. It's also free, can't beat that.

I'll leave you with this fact. I can remember the entire Gator golf commercial, but not my phone number. I didn't even own Gator golf, but I can remember the song, the commercial, the whole thing.

The glorious return of Humorbot 1,0

2009-08-15T22:21:00.001-06:00

Apparently it is news now to go to failblog and click through some of the images and just read them. I had the news on this morning because I don't have cable and that is all that is on. Fox 13 had like a 2 min thing on how they linked to failblog and you should check it out. They went through and just read off a few of the recent posts. Am I insane or does that not qualify as news? It reminds me of why I stopped watching news in the first place. I was in Kansas watching the news and they had a bit about a jug playing contest. That's right, blowing across the tops of jugs. If I remember correctly it was in some retirement home. This 90 year old lady won, she wasn't even any good. I figured surely it would at least be some guy who had spent way too much time learning some useless skill and had mastered jug playing. Nope, it was just some old granny blowing slowly and with a monotone whoo....whoo....whoo....whoo in a steady rhythm. It wasn't a short bit either, they sent a guy out there to talk to them and had a full story on it. Now I can accept the occasional fluff story, a kitty adopts a bunny or some such nonsense. The news now is half teasers for upcoming stories and the latest results of reality shows. Anyway, enough complaining about the news.

The game design document (gdd) for "Pen" and "Brain Slug" should be up on my site. "Brain Slug" still needs a little work. I should get around to wrapping it up soon. This weeks project will be playing through "The Tale of Despereaux" and screen capping my levels and other things I worked on.

I'm starting preliminary work for an ARG with my brother, should be good stuff. Mail me if you are interested in the project (playing, etc.)

Humorbot demands an article on a random subject. So here is a summary of "Round Robin" style writing.

For those of you who don't know "Round Robin" is basically a story written by multiple people, often with no restraints or overall direction. I guess it is easiest to describe by example. I write up some story about how cool I am and about how I save the earth with my zombie powers. Then I hand the story off to you and you write that my character turned gay and now likes to sleep with grandpas. You then hand the story off to either someone else or me again and I describe that all that gay stuff was all just a dream sequence and that my other friend (you) is actually the gay one....and you died. Repeat. Basically it all devolves into a big slander/kill fest. The big trick to having fun with Round robin is to never make your own character, just have fun with the other writers characters.

Humorbot still down, prepare for newsy post

2009-08-08T08:45:00.005-06:00

Got some work done on the Brain Slug design doc. If I get a little more formatting done it should be up tomorrow. I will also add the doc for Pen. It is a design doc for an unreal tournament mod. All that is left to do on that project is to drop the old sketches I did into the doc.

Fez and Brutal Legend are both moving forward. I was really beginning to worry about Fez. I hadn't heard much about it in awhile. I always had faith that Brutal Legend would make it to market eventually. Schafer can't be stopped, plus he has the power of the D behind him.

I didn't get quite as much done on Brain Slug as I would have liked. I got dragged in by the Tron ARG. I was convinced I could break a new lead...I failed miserably. I must have looked for like 4 hours. I have concluded that nothing besides what is already known is out there. It isn't really surprising that no other info exists yet. The movie isn't out for like 2 years. They normally ramp up towards release, well if they are based on a movie. Oh, I almost forgot to mention unfiction. The forums there are the forums for ARG's. Anyway, the Tron ARG is in its early stages and would be a great chance to jump into the ARG world. It appears to be run by 42 Entertainment. They are the big name in ARG companies. Members of 42 worked on "The Beast" (the first ARG). They also did "The Dark Knight", NiN "Year Zero", "Cathy's Book" and many others. There is always a chance that Tron could be just a short little thing, but with it starting this early and being done by 42 Entertainment, I think it will be a large and rich experience. At any rate, I plan to stay on top of it and I'm excited to really dig into it once more content is available. Well I better get back to work.

Humorbot 1.0 down, pun ratio through the roof. Had to throw them all out, jokes to return shorlty.

2009-08-06T20:16:00.005-06:00

I’ve been thinking of extending the story “Loop See Loop”. I've actually been thinking of lengthening it for awhile now. It was originally written for a magazine called “Eon”. It is a great magazine for the game “Eve Online”. I always wanted it to be a bit longer to build tension and add a bit more atmosphere but the magazine had a limit of about 4 pages for short stories. Still, I think at 4 pages it works pretty well. I might flesh it out a bit more and change some of the details (explain some of the tech that Eve players knew but a general audience would need info) and submit it to some sci-fi short story books or magazines. I've considered trying to stretch it out to a whole book but I just don't think there is that much there. I try to avoid overworking what I am doing. If it feels right as a short story then that is what it is. It just seems like cheating, adding a bunch of filler to stretch something out. So I doubt it will be lengthened much but it could be a richer story.

Humorbot has demanded I include something funny in my boring post. Since Humorbot is on the fritz I will have to do it myself. Without the aid of a humorous robot the jokes will be suspect at best. Read at your own risk, freshness not guaranteed.

Crunchberries NOT real berries. I am looking into his captains license as well but the boo berry ghost assures me that he and franken berry are on the up and up, and only include the realist of ingredients. Boo berries and franken berries do not naturally exist on this plane. They have been made real berries by an octocorn, that is an octopus with with a unicorn horn at the end of each tentacle. He wills each berry into existence, and that is why it is so damn hard to find boo berry even when people talk about it all the time.

Games you can play when the power goes out or with the Amish (why am I still stuck on the Amish...)

2009-08-05T20:12:00.004-06:00

Personally I love all types of games and I think learning from the different types can add to your abilities as a game designer. I love ARG’s and am always a bit surprised that they never really exploded in popularity. I play magic the gathering when I can, I played shadowrun for years, earthdawn, D&D a bit, vampire a little, pirates, hecatomb, paranoia is a great one. There are tons of great things to be learned from paranoia. How to turn players against each other and have it be fun, how to condition players and tons of other great things. Another thing I suggest is getting a game like the tabletop Baron Munchausen and playing it every once and awhile to exsersize your brain. Its kind of like how an artist will sometimes do warm-ups, draw circles or whatever to get in the swing of things. It’s a great activity to get your brain warmed up and thinking quickly. I have a card game I designed. It's about done, just needs typed up and a bit of playtesting. Once I get some other things finished/polished I think I will put it up on the site. I plan on doing some water colors for the art and maby talking to a programmer to get a flash version you could actually play. Otherwise I may just put everything up and let people print it out and play.

Alternate reality games (arg's)

2009-08-04T21:15:00.004-06:00

I’ve been thinking more of how to include ARG (alternate reality game) elements into “Zombie”. For those of you unfamiliar with ARG’s here is a link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
Im sure you could all find the wiki page yourselves, but here it is just in case you are some kind of space alien who is also Amish, but on Rumspringa (it took me like 5 min to look up Rumspringa, I couldn’t remember the word for the life of me...well at least that joke was so great. If you were unsatisfied with the level of humors in that joke please send hatemail to humorbot 1.0 who is a script designed to increase levels of humor in posts, as well as be a poor attempt at humor himself)

http://www.argn.com/
A great resource for currently running games and info etc.

http://www.personalizemedia.com/alternate-reality-games-in-virtual-spaces/
an interesting article about arg’s and the game second life

I think that ARG elements are a vastly underused and under explored element that could really enhance a video game. It could be a great hook for a game, and a real selling point. Plus they are like living in a game. Who hasn’t wanted to look for real buried treasure or sift through web pages and kinda break into them and not go to jail. For me they are an added level of immersion that deepens play.

From time to time I get questions about how to get started on arg’s. I’m not really an expert on them or anything but I have played a few. http://www.giantmice.com/features/arg-quickstart/ should give you a great start and some basic info. Cathy's Book is a pretty good one to get started with. It’s geared a bit towards a younger audience. There are 3 books in the series so far. The first 2 have been solved I think, not sure about the third. The fact that they have already been solved means that you can go online and look up solutions to puzzles and get a feel for how things work. It also means that you will miss out on being the first to crack something or help find a new lead etc. And that is really a big part of it. Also depending on your personality if a puzzle is already solved the temptation might be to great to just look it up instead of challenging yourself to solve it. I would still recommend that if it’s your first ARG you start with one already solved, just to give it a look and see how things work. Though all ARG’s run different it should give you a good idea on what types of things to look for etc. Or if you are a bit more adventurous just jump right into one that is live. Another good one that is long since solved is perplex city. The sequel has been in limbo since like 2007 but if it does ever release I would definitely recommend playing that one when it’s live. If your looking for a live game check argn.com they have a section for it. Then just find something that sounds interesting to you. For example say you love zombie movies, check out zombie truth. Or maybe that new movie district 9 looked really interesting. There is one for that. There are all kinds of different ARG’s for all kinds of different things, movies, video games, even nine inch nails had one. Just pick one that seems interesting to you. Anyway, point is I'm working on some arg stuff for "Zombie". I found the design doc for "brain slug" and started organizing it and adding detail. Should have it up on the site before the end of the week with any luck.

First post

2009-08-03T20:31:00.002-06:00

Well I suppose it is my turn to shout into the internet and see if anyone hears me. This random shouting into the cavernous maw will be brought to you buy me, the zombie eunuch. I am currently unemployed and looking for work in the game design industry. I have been working a lot on different projects here and there. It has really been nice. I have made some real progress in some of my designs. Most of this blog will be about those projects, they are my heart and soul. Though I'm not really sure why they say heart and soul. Heart in that example seems interchangeable with soul and redundant. redundantly redundant. The rest of this blog will be about me, whats going on etc. Also included, randomness. Bathtub fire. Anyway it should be fun.

Today's news
Had a hard drive go down, well technically it was 2 hd in raid. Luckily it was mirrored so I’m getting it back up and running. Once I do I’m thinking of polishing my game design doc for a project called “Brain Slug” for now. It really needs a better title. It was a game I roughed out for a Nintendo DS pitch I was going to give to Sensory Sweep but never did. When I started it I wasn’t really excited about it. It was a cute little game that would be pretty fun and just something I was halfheartedly working on to see where it went. I stuck with it awhile longer and it really turned into something fun. It just kept getting more interesting and showed a lot of promise. Now I’m trying to flesh it out a bit more and add more humor. It has a lot of room for some good comedy. I'm really trying to get something up on the site (www.rosssewell.com) every week. Be it a game design doc, short story or whatever, I'm really trying to push to get something good up each week. Well that's it for now, thanks again for reading and I always appreciate feedback.