Moral choices can be silly . . .

I threw these together in my spare time with some friends the other day.

I entered one of Cracked's photoplasty contests.

On a sunny day in the Green Hill Zone, Sonic was enjoying a morning run. The blue streak sped by, dashing across the checkerboard landscape without a care in the world. Suddenly, Sonic tripped and landed into the deadliest trap he'd ever encountered...two springs facing each other. He tried jumping to safety, but the disorientation caused by the impact of the springs proved too much for the blue hedgehog and he lost consciousness. When Tails found him, it was too late...

It's on page 4.

Busy busy.

My nonexistent readers,

I won't be updating this writing exercise in which I pretend I have readers and comment on video games as consistently after all because I'm currently involved in three game projects! This is fantastic because these projects will be better portfolio pieces than whatever I write on here.

I designed genre seperators.

To celebrate moving in with my girlfriend I designed genre seperators for our combined DVD Collection.

 More after the jump!

Halo

Unsure of what to write about this week, I was browsing through a few videos I had favorited on Youtube when I came across this little gem. It's really worth watching to the end if you've got a moment as a true testament to the time and effort put into crafting the worlds we regularly stain with alien guts and zombie giblets. This video inspired me to speak on a subject that has been a long time coming for me.

I'm a big Halo fan.

Halo has become somewhat of a punching bag among gamers. The series has been accused of being stale, unoriginal, milked, and responsible for the rise and domination of first person shooters we see today. There are plenty of good arguements on this side and I'm not here to try and disprove or devalue any of these opinions/accusations. I'm just here to defend one of my favorite franchises to the best of my ability.

The Player-Funded Development Process

If this were a popular blog with readers and not a personal writing exercise/portfolio, I'd apologize for the lack of recent updates due to end-of-the-semester projects. This summer I should be updating once a week on Wednesdays.

If you want to develop a game independently with no intention of seeking out a publisher, any expenses are likely going to come from your pocket. It can be a great investment, especially if you manage to create a huge hit like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Hell, now you can apparently get a grant for your game. Even still, independent game development is a tough business that can easily result in lost time and money.

The good news is that with more and more professional development tools becoming easier to access, the indie games scene is growing every year. Indie developers are finding new ways to fund their development. Two developers have taken a new approach to getting the funding they need by allowing players to pay to play early builds of the game before it's released. It's basically beta testing that requires a credit card instead of an application with your computer specs attached.

In the Defense of the God of War

There's no denying that the God of War series is a fantastic achievement. In a world of quick-buck sequels we don't often get a series of video games that retains and enhances its quality with each new installment. Even the unplanned entries on the PSP are absolutely worth playing.

In spite of this, there have been some understandable complaints about the motivations of Kratos after the first game. Many consider Kratos to have unreasonably directed all of his rage at the Gods with no real motivation. In many ways, this is true, but sometimes I think we're all being a little hard on Kratos. Today I'm going to discuss my personal feelings on the way the overarching narrative of the series changed with each game. Obviously this will be chock full of spoilers in case you haven't played the series yet. So yeah, spoiler alert.

New Graphic Design Stuff!

Check it out here.

Video Games and Power Metal

After continuously refreshing The Escapist’s homepage around 10am this morning (don’t judge me), I watched the newest episode of Extra Credits. In summation: go watch it.


Now that we’re on the same page, the episode got me thinking about one particular bit of EA marketing for Dragon Age: Origins that really confused me. Anybody remember this trailer?

Anybody else bothered by the music choice? Don’t get me wrong; I’ve got no issues with Marilyn Manson. However, I don’t believe his music fits the soundtrack of a fantasy RPG. As long as you ignore the song’s message about a dying music industry it would probably suit a trailer for Bulletstorm or a misguided, overly angst-ridden AMV. (the editing in the video is actually pretty good)

With all that said, pointing out a problem without proposing a solution is a practice I look down upon, so let’s get to the point of this post. Have you, dear reader, heard of Power Metal?

Silly Album Cover Meme

I'll admit I've paritipated in a few of the facebook trends. I've copied messages into my status, changed my profile picture, etc. This one, however, was actually a lot of fun.


1. Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
...
2. Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

In fact it was so fun, I made three! It was actually an interesting exercise in type placement.

How I wrote a research paper about Assassin’s Creed 2

 

Have you ever been excited to have one of your parents watch you play a video game? I know I have. Back when I lived at home, I loved hijacking the family projector with one of my consoles and waiting like the Old Man at Sea for one of my parents to notice what I’m playing and sit with me to experience what their strange child is doing with his free time. It would always be worth it when I got any kind of positive feedback like, “This has a pretty interesting story” or, “Wow that must have taken some critical thinking to figure out."

If there’s one aspect of my personality I have figured out, it’s that I love to spread the word about stuff I like, especially to those with little to no exposure to it. Like many of those who enjoy video games out there, I want the world to know how my favorite hobby is becoming an important form of artistic expression on the level of film and literature. Naturally the world includes my professors, and thus far three of the major papers I’ve written in my college career have been about video games.