Of Design Docs and Sketches.

The past 2 weeks I've been burying my head into design documents, trying to distill the distinct fragrances and facets of a game prototype. It's very hard to nail down what is essentially a definitive document for a loose game concept ["Definitive" being relative to the duration of that project cycle]. By the end of this week I'm hoping to have a rather simplified yet concise document that can be deciphered to make a game concept within a 2 week cycle *crosses fingers*.

In the meantime, I threw together a piece depicting Mandy's character Julian for the Paperchain Project. There's still some more good work needed to go into this piece but I am quite content with the layout. Just need to create a more apparent urban middle ground between the building and the exterior. Enjoy :D

Studio Move

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."
-Benjamin Franklin

An apt quote for the times seeing as I will be spending the next few weeks slowly moving into a new space for the studio.  My brother has given me access to an entire basement equipped with all needed facilities, so a newer and more elaborate workplace is in the works.  Most importantly, our bedroom and home studio will be once again separated.  No TVs or computers in the bedroom, only in the studio.  I'm going to be quite adamant about that.  Hopefully this should help further develop a proper workplace mentality and professional vibe. 

Oh, and today's transit sketch for the peeps:

Upcoming Game on the Flash Platform.

Heya folks!

Just spreading the news that a simple Action-RPG I've been working on will be released in the next week or two.  It's quite a rush job [due to me miscalculating the necessary documentation to make this project feasbable] but it's also a labour of love... plus it will be free to play anyhow :B.  I'll make sure to post a link to the game once it's officially available. 

The game is a continuation of the first Castaway and uses pretty much re-engineered backgrounds.  The sprite handling system along with battling, however, is completely new.  What's most interesting was our decision to "regress" from an isometric view to a simple cartesian grid [x,y].  Although I think isometirc views can be more visually interesting from a game point of view, you still run into collision and depth sorting issues.  Since we were a skeleton crew of 2 people, with some help from :thumbazreet911:, we were willing to use a simpler tiling system.  This was in hopes to include some battle elements we discovered in Diesel Valkyrie, but also to really change up the core experience from the first game.

Enough banter, onto the screenshots:

Comfort Zone and Art.

"Comfort makes cowards of us all."
~Michael E. Gerber

I do realize taking only the last line out of a paragraph can erode the strength of a quote. In this case however, the lack of context can allow for a much wider interpretation and can make the short snippet even more poignant. I have recently finished reading Michael E. Gerber's book, The E-Myth Revisited, and i would have to say it's a recommended read for any of you embarking on a journey of starting a business, and the eventual self-discovery that will come about.

At this point however, I'm not here to discuss the book, just this juicy little tidbit he threw in near the end. Under a broad scope, this quote pretty much echoes what most entrepreneurial war cries try to get across: If you are not challenging yourself daily [ie. breaking your comfort zone], then you aren't getting better. A good concept, but one that I only recently internalized on an emotional level, as opposed to just nodding my head towards what I read.

Breaking one's comfort zone really does sound as uncomfortable as it should be. The fear of not-completion, the fear of ridicule, or worst of all, the fear of falling short of one's own expectations, intangible as they may be. All of these should be experienced in some form towards your craft on a daily basis. The more obvious examples would be challenging ones self on an artistic level: Experiment with media, poses, themes, studies etc. Good advice as always but I find it is only a part of the discipline as a whole. Breaking one's comfort zone in art also implies shaking one's social and organizational structures: Randomly initiating contact with folks, Getting used to rejection or indifference [it does tend to be less painful each time], learning how to register/run a business, delegating tasks without stepping on other peoples toes [at least not too heavily], etc.. The list varies for each individual and can probably go on indefinitely, but the key point is that this list is much larger in scope than one would expect. Everyday doesn't have to involve some form of artistic challenge, but having a self-appointed challenge nonetheless is important. Just remember, it's perfectly natural, and in fact healthy, to feel a sense of unease when performing a challenge for the first time. That sense of unfamiliarity can be a bigger sign of impeding progress than you may realize.

On a side note, transit sketch:

Some simple logo variants.

Here is what I would call a "Second Stage" set of logo variations, submitted for final approval to a literary services company.  At this point the core shape and design is already there, but now I needed to provide the final iconic graphic within.

Sketches and Pimping Commissions

Hello folks, another quick series of sketches for today.

Most importantly however, I would like to bring an important matter to you're attention, yes, you wonderfully awesome dozen who watch my journal. My dear fiancee Mandy is in a financial pickle and is offering sketches for $25 a pop. I know I cannot shift masses of people to other sites like Mandy and her friends, but I thought I'd at least try to send her my trickle of folks, in whatever capacity I can muster. Maybe I need more Tiger Blood... Anyhow, at least drop by and say Hi or pass the word along the ever ascending internet grapevine

Set your Warp Drives to destination  !!!

Cheers!
Sean

Oh wait! Sketch:

New Month, End of Projects

Everything is coming down to this week to get the current projects out the door.  Once that is done I can spend more time elaborating on my own and lavishing them with the attention I have withheld so cruelly for so long.  Stay tuned folks :D