Tuesday, December 31, 2013

First post of the GMT -8 year!

I can feel a surge of regular updates coming. I want to do all the LudumDares, Publish 2 games. Sell 100 digital downloads of music and 1000 of an indie title. Make an Aristocrat effect and run a test app on the Monome. I also want to hack something and make 10 new friends. Start a sentence without using I as the first word [x]

-AC

Friday, December 20, 2013

Keep on keepin' on.

I've had a couple of serious snags in the last couple weeks of HTUR development. As always the development version of the game is the top hit of the games tab over here ^^^. 
In the last week I went from gung-ho to nearly defeated and back. I know what it is that I have to fix but generally it takes a while to figure out how to do it in a way that isn't completely broken or hacked together too shamefully. The next little stretch ... huh 'little' ... is about 5 pages of features that all support a new parry action in the game. I feel like I'm going to have to make the game easier overall. It's not the worst move but sometimes you just have to change perspective a bit. Umm. ramble ramble ramble. I'm up early so I'm going to get back to it. 

{Peace}

Friday, December 13, 2013

Ludum Dare Once Again!

So I've basically vowed to tackle this well known game jam every time it rolls around for the foreseeable future. It's about two hours before the theme is announced and I am hyping myself up for what will be I'm sure another great experience. One thing that has happened since the last LD is I've been getting involved in more projects and becoming a better developer in general. If I make at least 3 games a year then I'll be rather satisfied. The main reason for entering this event is to have a new little project that I can throw up on this blog every few months. I like what I did with the notebook while I was working so I'm going to keep doing that. Still going to block out time. Still going to avoid the creeps. I'll be back on Sunday with the AAR. - Peace! 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

I complained very much about the chromebook.

Then.. I discovered Chrubuntu. Long story short. It's super badass OS. My only regret is that the hardware itself can't handle what the OS has to offer. Things like the wine layer in particular just don't support the small processor to memory ratio that this thing is packed with. But.. for $150 Chrubuntu ( linux ) makes this a heck of a whole lot more of a machine. I'm still trying to work out just how I'm going to get back to full on work. In the meantime I'm doing a lot of reading on the CLI thing. I have music and sound editing covered ( to an extent ) I have a pretty nice IDE ( gedit is the best thing I've seen so far ) of course Gimp and Blender work like a charm. Alls I really want is a solid game framework that I can grow with. I am running tests on Cocos2d-html5 because I think it's the way to go. In the future. Apps will download you. Shoot .. they already do.

I'll keep you posted. ... person.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Angrycrow's Best of Ludum Dare #27

Well the results are in. The judging is over and the competition was grand with over 2200 games that were submitted by teams and solo developers. I was particularly impressed by the number HTML5 games that were submitted. I think for the next competition ( in December ) I'm going to take that route. Without further ado here is my list of best Ludum Dare #27 games ( in no particular order .. actually in the order that I played them) 





















( also this was the coolest thing that I've seen for this compo. Real good interface. I just wish that it had more of a checklist feature because there are so many things. It get's hard after testing a few hundred games to remember if you've played something or not ) 

That's all folks! See you next time! 

Never give up.

I've been doubting myself a bit lately. It comes from a range of sources. But I have to believe that what I do is right and that I'm doing everything I can to grow and to make things better. At this point in my life there are few things that are as valuable as my friends. Mainly artists and developers that I have grown up with over the last six years or so. They give me crucial feedback and the occasional reality check. The over-arching theme is to 'hang in there' because if you chip away at that rock for long enough you will make a hole. If you hit your head against the wall enough you will make a dent in the dry wall. That sort of thing. It's kinda hard to describe to non-creative people how this feels. Fortunately I'm surrounded by a solid community of support and honesty. It's important to make clear to yourself the things that you are passionate about and be open to as many things as you can stand. Never stop learning and perhaps most importantly, never settle. This isn't really about the American dream where anyone can make it if they just put in the work. It's more than work and it's more than America. The world at large is connected via electronic communication. It's like a huge mixer. Always up to you how you conduct yourself at the party or whether you get too drunk to stand. I put some effort into making sure that my presence is honest and polite. I care less and less each day about being known. I'll put in the footwork when I reside in a place that has more pavement to offer and preferably more than 3 cross-walks. This is the waiting place. There are about fifteen weeks left in the year and I'm doing what i can to continue. Reminds me of Super Metroid. Often times when you're on an adventure you may find yourself stuck. But it's almost impossible to get stuck , at the very least you can reset the game real quick ( most of the time ) and work your way back to the frontier. Anyway. This ramble has gone on for quite a while and I have more things to take care of. More to make. Even more to do. Never give up folks. 

Friday, September 13, 2013

Spark of Life OST for sale! Three bucks for four songs! Please share!

Thank you!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

On the legacy of Art in human history.

I was up late last night. I had this idea rolling around in my head since then and I've recently discovered that it's best to just let the brain-twisters out so you can free up the core(texes) for other things that are less... esoteric. Anyway. It all started with the idea of how communication and art forms are related. Imagine that you're an early homo-erectus kind of creature. Somewhere in the vein of 1.5 to 2 million years ago. The main form of communication is body language and perhaps grunts. Soon enough these gestures become a language that you may call acting. Hundreds of thousands of years later this language becomes more refined. Along with language comes visual art, you tell everyone to get together in the cave and tell tales via shadow puppets. Audio images are culturally established at this point and so a new art form takes place. A quick note about these methods; they seem to have a relationship to each other in the same way that you could say a child class inherits from a parent class in OOP structure. Where... a picture or a word can be a gesture but a gesture is not by definition a picture. This tradition of imagery evolves. Finer arts emerge and at some point writing is invented. Writings are words but language is not explicitly writing. Eventually as we skip through generations hybrid forms of Art emerge ( sculpture, architecture, poetry, theater and so on ). Another interesting aspect of this tale in human art history is how quickly these forms synthesize and take shape. Let's start with the photograph. Compared to cave paintings the siblings of the photograph combined much faster than any previous forms ( save technology, we'll be there in a flash ). So.. remember. Film or motion pictures are pictures. But a photograph is not a film. The art of audio/visual/text imagery matures in the 1960s ( see 2 million years, no sweat ) and at that point the videogame hits the scene. A hybrid of most previous art forms ( including games ) but using technology as an interface. That pretty much brings us to present. In the last 40 years of this industry there have been many in-corporations of older art that draw from the entire spectrum of human art history. But now we get to the frontier and 20/20 hindsight is useless. A video game is in some way a film or a book or a toy. But neither of the latter are by definition the former. So what could possibly lie ahead after this medium matures? Some say virtual/augmented reality ... I remember in particular the PS2 ad where they illustrated the PS9 ( or Play Station for all you non-gamer folk ). Aside from naming this future art, how can we imagine it's content? What will the videogame breed with? My wildest guess is interdenominational. That's correct. Essentially, contrived quantum points of view where reality itself is the clay. It's very dangerous and there are many steps between here and there. There is no way to tell how or when this kind of thing will happen. But my guess is that we may be able to communicate with each other on an almost psychic level and tell tales that way. Would it include technology? Probably at first. But. Imagine if that standard of expression were to survive ( along with humanity itself for that matter ) another 2 million years. What then? 

As an Audiophile.... I kinda need this.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

MINI PROJECT : Slyly Teach your kid cousin some drawing rudiments.

So... I had a small party celebrating my birthday and that of a few others in our small community here in Copperas Cove. And my kid cousin Mallory accidentally left her sketchbook at my house. At first I left it alone and had it set out on the table where she left it so that I would remember to call her mom and have it picked up. After a couple days I decided to flip through it and see what the girl had been doodling. She had trees and animals and little drawings of princesses and trolls. Curiously there were some blank pages between her drawings. Eventually I took it upon myself to impart some of my knowledge to her in her sketch book. I covered a few techniques that she could learn with a number 2 pencil and I included a chunk of my kneaded eraser that I happen to carry with me at all times. In a matter of hours I had created a bunch of little tutorials and worksheets that contain beginner to intermediate rendering techniques and I threw in some math terminology as well. I took my time and underlined some artist vocabulary that she would need if she were to take this little hobby into high school. This is my first attempt at making a drawing tutorial for an eleven year old and I liked the project so much that I decided to share my mini project with the internet. Enjoy! 








Monday, September 9, 2013

Well Played Google.

So.. I've been thinking about this for a little while. Google has won. Many times. I assure you that Facebook's golden age is over. I've been getting a lot of things together in order to end out this year. Cleaning up inboxes and the like. I noticed that I was running low on my Gmail inbox space. That never ending well of storage that we all couldn't believe was 'free' later capped at 15GB. This was well planned. Let's say I have over half of that space full. I will soon need to upgrade my googleDrive storage. I didn't expect that time to be so soon. I thought the free space would last me a lifetime. Now.. I humbly face defeat. I am more than willing to pay 5 dollars a month for something that, by the time I need it, will probably cost me about 5 dollars for a one time purchase of a usb stick anyway.  So you got me. I am going to be sweating fivers through my thirtys. Why not let us all join in? Flippin Brilliant. 

I've been curious about the Google 10 year plan for quite a while now. And now I see that I'll have to do the same in order to make some of these things happen. Good on ya. 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Waiting. For ... Amazong approval.

Yo. So I'm going to let the spelling errors ride on this one. I uh.. Am about ready to launch the kickstarter. One thing that I learned is that the overhead for prizes is much more money than I ever needed for the actual computer itself. But I was able to budget all of it out. Time was probably the hardest thing to budget. I made the video with my smartphone , a chromebook and... just a bunch of practical effects... It's all good. And I am real proud of it. I have a couple of other small projects that I'm going to handle while I wait for the chance to get a new computer. Until then I'll be on this chromebook trying to figure out if I can make video games with it. Because. There seems to be a good amount of online audio software. Since I have to wait I'll give up the picture of the kickstarter page. It's about a week away from going down. So keep out an eye!


Friday, September 6, 2013

5AM , I'm still editing.

The video length is coming out to be near 5 minutes. I think I'll save the credit roll for the blooper reel. And I don't know when i'll be able to re-upload a bunch of stuff and get to that. But I'll do the best that I can. Some things really work out. Others were kinda close. But my goal of having this project up and running by Friday / Saturday is going quite well. It's been a hell of a week. And instead of posting all my notes because that takes a ton of work. I'll just kick back and silently move on to the next project. Then the next one. And of course that other one. And the one that I came up with along the way. I guess there is some good news. The Spark of Life OST is finally complete. I'll post a playlist here! 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Getting Ready to Sell Some Soul.

I've spent the last 4 days working on my KickStarter project. I want to get a new laptop you see. So.. As part of the prize pool, I will be giving away some select art pieces from my past. Uhh.. and I wanted to see if the Picasa SlideShow embed tool still works. One thing that I've learned in this process. It's amazing what a smartphone , a chromebook, and five dollars will get you. When the time comes, you'll know what to do. 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

In cat face.

About to wrap the shoot. You'll see.

Giving up.

Been smoking for about eight years. I'm turning twenty six next weekend and I think its time to put that vice aside. A tiny little gift to me. Been working hard this week. Gotta finish this solar cycle on a high note. I am quitting the underground art business. Angrycrow and I are about to take flight. 

Ghetto Rig

This is my camera stand. I'll upgrade it a few more times before I show you how to make one.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #9

This week using the Abbey Road mug: we have what appears to be two suns and the hero grasping at power with two powerful gauntlets.  What do you see?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

All I Ever Wanted.

There's a song in there somewhere. 
So... I'm planning on making a move or two. I guess if you aim for Saturn you'll probably make it to Mars. Seems like all I ever wanted is going to happen before I know it. We're getting to the point where we're going to have to come up with some new dreams. It's almost too much to handle. Soon come. This has been the most interesting year of my life so far and it's just beginning to finish. The next Solar cycle is about to start. The first act is near complete. But will he get the girl? 

That's the song. 

GAMES TAB REVENGE !!!

Thanks to the typo rule you can now play the less buggy version of my #LD48 entry at the games tab! 

Please let me know what you think! I'm real excited about this one. If you don't know where the games tab is and you just want to play click HERE

- Peace! 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #8

Using the Abbey Road Mug:

Here we see some other form of sealife. Or an ION CANNON weaking havoc on some prawn aliens. What do you see? 

LudumDare 27 : 48 Hour Entry : Development log and how this project changed my life.

I've wanted to be a game developer since I was four years old. I remember playing 1942 for the NES at my cousins house when I was a kid and have been glued to the video game culture ever since. I went to college for game design and have been making games for a living ever since. It hasn't been easy but I am quite blessed to be able to do what I love to do every day. My buddy Slugger turned me on to Ludum Dare when we were still in school and I didn't man up to take the challenge until LD21 came around. Me and 2 friends ( Cislunar and PooLatka ) got together for a weekend and did our first game jam ( Hipster Park in the GAMES tab of this site ). We were really proud and transformed by the experience because of the intense work that it took to get three people to communicate and work toward our goal in under 72 hours. I've worked on and with several games and game engines since then and this time around, in the middle of my HTUR ( also GAMES tab ) project decided to go solo on the next Ludum Dare 27 as a sort of 48 hour amnesia exercise to test out some of the things I've learned since the competition a few years back. 

I'm going to start with the development log because the competition is still on and I haven't digitized my notes yet... Actually. Let's start with the notes. During the project I dealt with the Pen and Paper approach almost exclusively. So here are the images from my notebook, I'll transcribe my terrible handwriting so you can see the major events during the development cycle : 








So it gets a bit rushed and more messy near the end. For those of you who can't read it ( most people ) here's what went down : 

8PM
The theme : '10 Seconds' is announced. LudumDare website is down from all the refreshing at the start point so I find the theme on twitter and get to work on brainstorming.

855PM
I pick the first concept that makes me laugh uncontrollably " 10 Second Pay Toilet Adventure ". Immediately get to work on fleshing out the flow of the game. The game idea gets very deep very fast. Different settings Hazards and actions come in to focus. During this process I nab an idea from HTUR where I decide that the level is going to move around the player. I make a Component list and a rough list of the art assets needed.

1030PM
The concept phase is coming to an end. I come up with the idea of context based actions and decide to make little quick time event mini games for variety. Here I make my first list of things that I want the game engine to be able to do by the end of the first night. ( Starred )

11PM
Started unit testing, Also implemented the camera look and had some time to figure out how the toon shader works. 

1125AM
Begin Scripting .

1211AM
Make Interact Icons.

1258AM
Finished Context Icons.

116AM
Mouse context implemented.

135AM
First BUG : FIXED @ 1140AM.

234AM
Started working on player movement through the world. Build myself a little test level.

305AM
First problem with version control ( or the lack of ) and I have to go back and fix a mouse Down error.

319AM

333AM
Debugging player movement

340AM
Made a 2d chart to help me find the cleanest way to lerp the world around the player from move node to move node. 

353AM
GOT IT!

416AM
Move on to the 'Sign" object so I can label different things the player can interact with. 

457AM
First Asset : Urinal 

507AM
Event Manager Skeleton made.

517AM

555AM
2 Assets complete!

607AM
"HOLD" minigame prototyped. Started planning for other game events. 

636AM
Event Manager prototype completed.

643AM

726AM
HOLD minigame complete! 

733AM
TIMED minigame prototype started . made a chart for budgeting time in 4 hour chunks/sprints.

815AM ( 25% of time limit )
another minigame started. Completed @ 952AM

10AM 
Toilet asset completed. Went to work on the animation and the other stall assets. Originally I wanted to have the player turn around but rotating the whole world didn't work the way I wanted it to.

...

130PM
Finally the 'sit' action works but the art doesn't make any sense.

205PM 
JAPANESE SQUATTER TOILET SOLUTION!!!

225PM
Re-modeled the toilet to be more like the Asian style. No world rotation needed! 

318PM
Almost finished stall sequence. Found a bog where the player can jump through walls.

408PM
Fixed movement bug and stall action bug @ 446PM.

~430PM to ~8PM considered sub actions or things that you can only do once you've used the restroom like... using toilet paper. 

830PM ( 50% of time passed )
Back to work, , Make another chart to re-prioritize the remaining chunks of time. 

840PM
Set up milestones for 4AM.

856PM
!!!

959PM
Basic X-Level complete.

1021PM
More art assets are made.

1041PM
Found Bug with multiple stalls.

1141PM
Basic art is ready to go. 

1142PM

1149PM

1222AM
Begin work on REPEAT mini game. 

1244AM
Repeat minigame out to testing. I decided to go nuts and found a great way to fix the implementation of the Event Manager.

103AM
Decided on a song to play that I cannibalized from another project. Did some brainstorming on the full paper towel ball minigame. Started first round of polish. 

122AM

141AM
Testing paper towel minigame. 

153AM
ITS PERFECT!

308AM
TRASH CAN GOAAAAAALLLL! Working! 

314AM
Ball game is done. 

316AM
Back to the multi Stall bug FIXED @ 515AM

524AM
Restructure of Event Manager. make notes on game rules and the requirements for the next milestone.

550AM
Notes about some level design concepts. 

633AM
Begin scripting game rules 

710AM
Structure in place for game rules. Found some new bugs, went after em.

800AM
World structure in place.

802AM

810AM (75% time passed)
Breakdown of the last 3 chunks/sprints left. First is game rules. Second is Feedback design. Third is polish and testing and posting. 

943AM
Timer started, FINISHED @ 1035AM 

1035AM
Most of the GUI is blocked out. 

1052AM
Finalizing GUI.

121PM
EventManager OVERHAUL ( breaks many features of the game while I'm at it ).

158PM
Made list of things to finalize by the second to last chunk ( 4PM ). Around this time I was pretty loopy. I made 3 new stages for the game and spent most of the remaining time fixing things that I had previously overhauled to death. The move was a good one. But I had to re-tread much of the code to get things like End of Game functionality to work. I spend the next hours fixing what I can and breaking things along the way. I took a couple more breaks. But I didn't have time to make notes on what I was doing. 

815PM ( 100% time passed ) 
THE SUBMISSION LINK IS STILL OPEN ( probably due to the halts at the start and end of the competition ) I make my submission entry and start winding down after submitting a not perfect beatable but still broken game. 

1000PM
(Much needed at that ) 

SO... THIS IS WHERE THE REALLY INTERESTING STUFF STARTS TO HAPPEN : 
I wake up, Thrashed from the excitement of the event and immensely proud of what I was able to output in such a small amount of time. But during the night my brain must have completely reset. I used to say "Make stuff for the sake of stuff existing". But this morning ( Monday after the compo ) I felt quite different. Obviously after a weekend like that I wasn't in a rush to get back on my computer and go back to work on HTUR. For the first time in my life I realized that across the table from me, my mom was watching this crazy person dance around the house when he hit milestones and as she describes it ; " A concentrated injection of who I am " unfolded in front of her eyes. I was hyper-focused , organized, excited and hard at work. I didn't see myself in this process. But it made me realize that a large part of who I am is how other people perceive me and not just me in my own head and how I get through my different creative efforts through techniques that I've picked up in a life of art and design. I became curious about my outward appearance during my early childhood and I started asking my mother about traits of my personality that have survived my experience. We took out some old photo albums and for the first time I saw my sisters as people. And I saw the photographs as context for me to build memories around ( during that time I of course came up with a couple of other mini projects to do ) . We spent all day talking about my early childhood with her and I was able to re-form a whole new sense of self. It was like hearing your favorite song for the first time. When I took a break from that conversation and sat down to play some piano it was an entirely new experience. I still knew how to play "One Note Samba" for example. But now, instead of simply playing the song as well as I could, I could hear the song for the notes and the melody that it was made up of. I could play with the experience of HEARING the piece instead of just executing technique. The jazz standard found a new life in my performance. It became more dynamic , I had access to the feel of the tune. I could play with the pace and the volume , begin to make breaks in the main idea of the song and start to experiment with my own ideas while still considering the position of the observer. 

A week prior to this I was on the phone with TheUrchin on the topic of our project HTUR. He's always been an influence to me as an artist since we first met. He talked about this thing he heard or read somewhere , basically he said that most of the time when we make art it's for the sake of the finished product. ("Make Stuff for the sake of Stuff") But he said that was kind of backwards. If you instead put your ability and concept aside and place the USER/CONSUMER/AUDIENCE at the center of your creative process then you will make something that speaks with people. You'll have a whole new range of levers and buttons that you can push and tug to invoke the people who experience what you've produced. "Ten Second Water Closet" was my first project where I didn't realize it but I focused mostly on rewarding the player for being adventurous and for playing the game. Often times , in games at least , there is a need to balance out rewarding experiences with punishing experiences. But I didn't put any time into the hazards that I had planned for the player. And the result was very pleasing. 

The PRIZE of Ludum Dare is that by the end of the 48 hour competition, you have a game that you can do whatever you want with. You've already built it so you know all of its ins and outs. AND ITS YOURS. You can sell it, post it on kongregate or make a mobile version and give it away. In my case I ended up with a cute little FPS ( First Person Shitter ) that was built on a really smooth point and click game engine for unity. I can re-purpose that code for anything in the point and click genre. I intend to complete the game and put it in the GAMES tab on this site at the very least. Just another mini project I guess. But never again will I say "Make stuff for the sake of stuff". I learned that I am not completely defined by my choices and specialties. The other half of my identity is in my impact on the environment. And if I have to comment on content creation in the future. It'll be more to the tune of :

"Make stuff for the sake of enriching the life of the audience"

Thank You Ludum Dare. You have changed my life. 
-Ben 'Angrycrow' Nix-Bradley 8.27.2013 


Sunday, August 25, 2013

LD48 hour Game! ( Ludum Dare )


I was so close ! 

I think I'm going to keep tuning this one. it got complicated real fast! 

BUT I HAD A GOOD DARN TIME. 

Play it! Let me know what you think ! 

Thanks! 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Get ready! #LD48 is going down (LD27)

I only have a few words for this. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TXK_2Igx-WY#t=507

Expect updates while I get things going. 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

After a little reading.

I realized that the internet has a very interesting effect on kids who will grow up reading it. I've been checking out a few articles on different sites all day. Writing and language used in each market or hobby is very interesting to me. For example. If you look at the writing directed toward a younger audience, There is a lean language for kids. Then there's the writing of news and mainstream entertainment. Where the target is broader and catches/propagates colloquialisms/memes that are very current. There is always a slang of today and the internet makes that turnaround very rapid.  So then from that point there is a spectrum that spreads into each interest. Some places already expect you to speak the language. Other places understand the gap for new readers and will even go so far as to bring them up to speed. This is probably painfully obvious but I am impressed in particular by the Scientific/Technological community ( in most cases ) and the understanding of the language for documentation and references. The pillars of the internet between those two fields stand on a foundation of explanation. Where usually conversations about music don't require as much context because the knowledge of history needed to enjoy it is practically nothing. I guess the only loss is that I didn't enjoy learning in school to this extent. What do you wager that this is the case for many people? How will society be different as this research behavior becomes a gene?

Monday, August 19, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #7

To each his own numbering device. 
This week we're using the UVI mug. 
There appears to be a dragon ascending over a sea of froth into the sun and beyond. Kissing a falling serpent on the way down. Sorry for the late post. Been busy on HTUR. 

Tell me what it is that you see?

Thursday, August 15, 2013

How I do it.

So I've compiled quite a bit of feedback from people this week. The first order of business is to re-work the map interface. Many people have been talking about changing the animation and using the buttons to reinforce the main game mechanic. So... I'll totally do those things. Here's the first thing I do when I'm working on a system. I think about it. Then comes the sketch of the re-work on paper. This is a most valuable reference in the context of this feature. Image related.


I love paper. Soon I'll be out. Gotta get more. 



Monday, August 12, 2013

So we're rolling forward again.

Got some real good feedback over the weekend. Right now the return rate of feedback to add to the game is in the 'hood of 10% or so. I expect about 3 times as much a week from now. Lately my wishlist has been thin. But with this feedback there are some good things that I'm going to move forward on after this post. If you haven't checked it out yet please play the game and send me a message/leave a comment with your thoughts. You can catch it on the games tab or you can play it here: 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1710407/HTURWEBTEST/HTURWEBTEST.html

Help us get to beta. This game could always be better. But it's UP TO US! 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #6

This week we have what used to be a tarantula. Underneath Thomas the train engine. There is also a curly mustache. We're using the President Obama birth certificate mug. 
What do you see?

The more you know.

So we've begun to do mass testing of HTUR! It's going real well so far and I look forward to as many insults to my work as possible. Also been busy making a nerdcore album. Because I really love those dudes. We're gonna kick off the week with some new features based on the feedback from our testers. If you want to be a part of the beta experience please email me angrycrow at Gmail dot com! Thanks!

Friday, August 9, 2013

Ramen Review 007

As the name implies this is number seven of what could be hundreds of these. As of this post my ramen supply is out. But I still have some good things to say. This is the "Fresh Soup Noodles Creamy Tonkotsu". I held out for a long time on this one. I have to say still that the broth while creamy is a little bit sour and doesn't quite deliver the same experience has the big yellow bowl from weeks past. Next time around I'll know to not put such a large weight/wait on such a small package. Comes with dried seaweed and green onions and of course a package of slightly sour tonkotsu concentrate and a sealed bag of large squishy noodles that somewhat smell like playdough. I'm gonna go ahead and give this one three asterisks. Ramen safe everyone. 
***

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #5

This time we are using the Dunkin Donuts Drives MA mug.
We have what appears to be a joshua tree under the stars. Or perhaps an angelfish navigating through the sea. Likewise it could be a Protozoa searching for food particles in the form of smaller near shapeless lifeforms. What see you ?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Time for the talk.

I had a little pow-wow with my buddy Cislunar the other day. We uncovered some serious bugs in HTUR and I'm tackling them this weekend. Not to go into too much detail but I have encountered what is known as a showstopping bug. In this case. Once you get a game over and restart the game. You won't be able to move when you start up the first level. The other bug. The INVINCIBILITY bug .. also came as a surprise. I'm really shocked. I feel like a total of perhaps 50 people have played this game in its infancy and yet I've received little to no feedback as to whether the thing is broken or not. I am immediately disqualified as a tester because when I go back and play the thing for the three-thousandth time, It's to check on specifically if a feature is working or if I still have a bug to take care of. Ummm... Recent news.... I've completed the second track for Cislunar's upcoming artGame called "Spark Of Life". I plan to do between three and six more tracks for his game before his dev cycle comes to a close. You can check it out here! : 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Coffee Stain Art Week #4

Don't you love it when you're right about the number scheme you're using? I do. 
We have what appears to be an under water rollercoaster. A flaming manta ray that is collecting ballons. The elephant ballerina. Some other forms of extinct animals. And children with mustaches. 
What do you see? 

Friday, July 26, 2013

I asked shorty if she wanna get inside. She said might as well.


HTUR !!! 

Is ready for show. The demo is up on r/breakmygame and.... I'm taking the day off! But please check out the project if you haven't already. Also thank you +Vinny Parisi for hosting! 


It's time ( part one )

To sleep. If you get a minute check out the games tab. There have been about 20 new builds of HTUR in the last two days. I'm running on fumes basically. It's not a bad game after all. People seem to like it. But What do PEOPLE think? Anyway. I'll update soon. Waiting and restless and all that stuff. It took me about seven years to get over the artists postpartum depression. Now I'm ready to let go of all that. Continue to fight like we used to do. Above all; make stuff for the sake of stuff being made. 

Goodnight.

Monday, July 22, 2013

So. Here's the plan.

I've got quite a crunch this week. I'm adding another dimension of mechanics to HTUR and optimizing as I go. You can play the new version in the Games Tab as usual. Basically this is a whole other game. If I had the time to enumerate all the things that I've learned so far on this project ( as we reach the halfway point ), I absolutely would. Maybe I'll have the time to do a recap when the project is through. But as it stands I'm pretty booked till the end of the year. Travel prices are going to suck. But I have faith in the hard work paying off. Take care you folks. Also check back in this weekend for the interview with IGXPro on HTUR. ( The reason for the crunch. Gotta keep the eyes on the prize I always say. Once you know your goal, all you have to do is take the steps to get there. Did I say peace?

Ramen Review 006

I know. It's too soon. Today we have ' fried noodle soup'. It's kinda the same. Buckwheat style noodle. Not a real distinct smell. But what I found interesting is a mint like leaf among the freeze dried things. Actually compared to the other day the noodle is really good. And wide so that it catches more soup in each fork. It's good. But not remarkable. It's fresh, satisfying. Yea.  Four asterisks. ****



Sunday, July 21, 2013

Ramen Review 005

I've been holding on to this one for a while. Right off the bat it's really miso-ey. That's a promising thing. Smells good and all. One thing that I don't dig on the appearance is the large 'fresh' noodles. Smaller would've been better methinks. Despite appearance the noodles are better than most and the re-hydrated seaweed is a fine touch. Ummmm.... it's a little sour. It separates the broth from the noodle a bit too quickly.
Gotta give this one four asterisks. ****


Coffee Stain Art Week #3

Again we see a Mickey Mouse figure. Possibly a dragon shooting the flames. The famed mouse appears to be giving the finger to the firmament. This was done with the graduation cut my head off mug. What do you see?

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ramen Review 004

Today we have what appears to be another super big ramen. And I'm gonna shoyu like soysauce what I thought of the experience. It came with a little packet of oil along with the dried and powdered ingredients. Looks and smells like a serious shoyu style ramen however. It even has freeze dried fishcakes ( that sink to the bottom) but nonetheless deliver a semblance of the image on the lid. The noodles seem thicker than the tonkotsu counterpart from last week. Surprisingly it's a little less salty. I give this one five asterisks. 
*****


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Entrenched.

I've been nose deep in watching the entire ExtraCredits catalog all weekend. I discovered that it's actually kind of an amazing thing to be so far behind or out of the loop on something that you're interested in. There are 2 major reasons for this. One is in your pursuit of fulfillment in an area of interest. You will likely find expansive and relate-able materials that people somewhere are pouring their soul into. Second is the flip side of that journey. Where you feel like nobody is listening to your rant or appreciating the soul that you've put into the path that you're on. In any set of experiments you have to grow past the need for recognition and CONTINUE your adventure for the sake of the experience itself. As an artist my highest aspiration is for the internet to protect what I spew and the small links between those artifacts so that one day I will be discovered and explored by ONE PERSON. To eventually communicate by having a trail instead of taking every opportunity to gain a following. Sure it'd be nice to have been heard while I'm alive but the journey is rolling with the punches and acting on the inspirations that come along the way. All the while respecting each crest or valley for the moment that it exists in. I used to tell my circle to make stuff for the sake of stuff existing. Not for you, not for your audience, but as a contribution to our duty of representing reality and a spiritual nod between us and the moving mountain of inspiration that we choose to climb. I'm lucky to have shaken hands with a few of my living heroes. And pay respects to the past or distant hands that strengthen the climb. 

Coffee Stain Art Week #2


Using the Abbey Road Mug. 
We have what appears to be dreams of the flying spaghetti monster. There is also a wicked motorcycle Perhaps a man in a wheelchair, frowning, looking into the sky or blowing bubbles.
What do you see?

Friday, July 12, 2013

Ramen Review 003

This one ... yea. It's tonkotsu flavored. At first I didn't believe it but the broth alone certainly does the trick. It's fatty and kinda creamy. A bit more salty than the last 2 bowls. But it's savory. As good as I was hoping. This one's a favorite. 
*******

I'll let you know if a bad one comes along. I promise. 

Return of the Games Tab.

If you saunter on over to the games tab today you can hear the first pass off the audio for the game. As well as one new enemy. Ummm.. I'll be working on some wishlist features for the game all this week and next. Don't plan to re-master the audio until after the game is more complete/balanced. We're 1/3 of the way there! This is turning out to be quite the adventure.

Also.

If you haven't checked out /r/breakmygame on reddit .... you're not missing much. YET!

We're going live as soon as we get 10 developers to post their works in progress on the site. ( HTUR is already there if you'd like to break my game. Please feel free. )

Uhh... That's it for today. Please come back around for more coffee art and ramen reviews.

ALSO!

Follow this blog on google plus or by entering your email at the bottom of the page!

Peace! \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Ican hakz.

Using tcl. My cat has made a Facebook robot that impersonated Satan. 


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Ramen Review 002

Ahh the path of a thousand ramen. It was pretty darn good. Buckwheat style noodles and soysauce / miso flavor broth. The best thing about this was it came with these other packets including a sauce pouch, dried vegetables and a pouch of mushrooms! This is pretty close to delivering the image on the cover. This experience was twice as goo
d as the last! **

Pulling it all in.

Today we're going to get all the audio assets into the game with little script hooks. Make sure to check your OGG vorbis files in everyone! 
Let's see if I can get this player working... 

Monday, July 8, 2013

This week in HTUR Development.

I'll be working on the music as well as the sound effects. I should have everything I need implemented within the next six days or so. There are about ten songs in the game and about thirty sound effects. Umm... Here's a picture of what I'm working on today. 

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Instant Ramen Review 001

Smells alright. Seems to have a tempura vegetable patty. And buckwheat noodles. 
It's not too salty. The tempura thing gets real soggy. It all mixes together pretty well. 
Vague overall rating. Pretty tasty.