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Wednesday, July 30, 2008 I'm all moved! Listening to: Coworkers type. 
Here is the first page to a short comic story about two Mormon pandas and their journey to locate a lost backpack and stolen bike. The story was inspired by a coworker whilst we were eating at a fine establishment in Milpitas called Pepper Lunch. In other news, I've moved! The move was a long and arduous one (I have one more trip to make with my car), but we're practically moved in. The place is nice. It's 900 square feet and there's a lot of room for Mr. Peterson to run around. I think there's too much room, actually. He doesn't know what to do with himself it seems. While you're here, why don't you guys go treat yourself to a new game: Soul Calibur IV (XBOX360) See you later! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:15 AM Permalink | | Thursday, July 17, 2008 One Hour Game - Mary Poppins Feeling: Somewhat tired and restless. 
This is a game I made at lunch today. It's a very simple shooter with no real goal except to the get the highest score possible. It stars our favorite English nanny, Mary Poppins. She's been transported to the 21st century to defeat UFOs. The controls are simple: arrow keys to move Mary, spacebar to shoot and collect five (5) sugar boxes to unleash the Sugar Barrage. Scoring: 10 points for a UFO, 100 points for a sugar box. The more sugar boxes you collect, the more points a UFO is worth. For example, you have three sugar boxes so a UFO is worth 40 points. Download: ZIP File (1.7 MB) posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 4:37 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Immortal: Naked Skull Man Eating: A tiny bag of Cheese Nips.  "The first condition of immortality is death." -Stanislaw J. Lec Story: Before a spirit is able to take their place as a demon or god, they must complete the Oni Gauntlet at their journey's end. This gauntlet is a right of passage. It is comprised of 20 floors filled with traps, dangers and other unspeakable things. The catch, however, is that when the spirit is defeated in the gauntlet they are not left there for all eternity. No. They are resurrected at the cost of a human life. The number of lives claimed at the end of this trial determine where this spirit will be and what their place is in the universe. Gameplay: Essentially this is a platformer where you try your best to get through the 20 floors, dying as little as possible. There are no enemies, just traps to avoid. Each floor will pull from a database of 10 stages, so there are 200 different stages to see. Every time you play it will be different. At the end of the trial, a document will be created that lists the number of lives you have claimed. This will contain their full name, age and country they are from. All names are randomly generated and any relation to an existing person is completely coincidental. Your main character is this Naked Skull Man. I have a working one level demo of the mechanic and game. Check it out! Controls:
Download Link:ZIP File (1.2 MB) posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 6:11 PM Permalink| | Monday, July 14, 2008 A Typical Evening Listening to:John Mayer - Comfortable 
I've actually never had pink eye before (knock on wood, friends). I know my older brother did at one time. I forget how long ago it was. The only information I have/remember about pink eye is that you can get it by farting in each other's eyes. I believe that fact was bestowed upon me by the wise and interesting movie, Knocked Up. 
This is a typical night with Josie. That girl has the "stay awake" capacity of an 80 year old woman. She's actually sleeping right now. There was a volcanic eruption outside and thousands of people were screaming at the top of their lungs. I don't think she stirred at all. I wonder what it's like to be able to sleep through almost anything. I've got this weird affinity to sound where I will be able to hear the most minute detail in a cacophony of sound. However, it's not like I have super hearing and will be able to hear everything... on the contrary, I will most likely ask you to repeat something multiple times because I didn't hear you the first seventeen times. It's something about the wiring in my brain. It's probably somehow related to the problem I have where everyone looks like someone famous. Time to go check out the Too Humandemo I just downloaded! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:19 PM Permalink| | Sunday, July 13, 2008 Just Ordinary Listening to:Okami OST - Shachimaru's Theme 
So, I forget if I've mentioned this to anyone but I've been contacted to do some of the art for the upcoming graphic novel anthology called Secret Identities. It's coming out in Spring 2009 and is going to be an Asian American themed superhero graphic novel/anthology with many talented contributing artists and writers. It's an honor really and I'll do what I can to do what they need. 
Josie and I checked out Hellboy II: The Golden Army this afternoon. I would give it a decent rating, like something along the lines of, "Sure, go check it out." I mean if you enjoyed the first one, you should, theoretically, enjoy the second one. I felt it was a little long-winded at times and there didn't seem to be enough moments of "Oh snap!" like the first one did. I did appreciate all the actors reprising their roles as well as George Bluth Sr.portraying one of the federal officers in charge of Hellboy himself. Very entertaining. I was expecting some folks to pop out halfway through and make rooster sounds. So, three point five stars out of five? Oh, and on an additional note, my neighbors are pretty lame. I dislike them and however many dozens of people they have crammed into that apartment. It's like a siesta and the only people invited are me putting a bullet through my eye. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:35 PM Permalink| | Friday, July 11, 2008 New Gamepro Video: Mr. Shen Buys a New Car Recently Saw:Stomp the Yard 
The new Gamepro.comvideo is uploaded. Go check it out and make sure to give it a ridiculously high score, even if you did more frowning than laughing. [Alex weeps openly] posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:42 AM Permalink| | Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Mr. Peterson's 4th of July Listening to:Nothing. 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:24 PM Permalink| | Monday, July 7, 2008 Custom Toy: Pikachu Black Feeling:Still nauseous. There quite a number of things to chronicle regarding this past weekend, but I'll just focus on one of the more creative efforts. I was at Target the other day and picked up a Pikachu toy on clearance. I thought to myself, "Sure, this would look neat in my cubicle and it's only $5. Hmm... I haven't done custom paint jobs in a while..." and with that, I went on my journey to customize this Pikachu to a color scheme that was more to my liking. 
The first thing I did was primer the thing black. I like to use the Games Workshop primer because it has a tendency to adhere to the surface very well and keep small details apparent. Bad primer will just gloop together and destroy any traces of detail in a model piece. I guess this is why Games Workshop primer is used specifically for the Warhammer minitures. 
The next step was applying the color. If you don't water down paints very well it will often lead to very heavy paint coats which, in turn, lead to very uneven drying. So the first few coats with the thinned paint will look really ugly. They'll show the color from beneath (black especially). You just have to apply around five or so coats to make it look even. The color plan: black Pikachu white stripes, red eyes, red cheeks and white nose. 
After some patience and somewhat steady hands, this is the finished product! I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. I think I'm going to go to the store and even rummage around in boxes at my parent's house for old toys that could really go for some updated colors. See below for a few more angles of Pikachu Black. 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 6:38 PM Permalink| | Wednesday, July 2, 2008 Team Toast: Saviors of the Universe Listening to:The Spill Canvas - Lay It On Me 
I recently completed the game Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. I must say that with all of the deaths that occurred throughout the game and the approximate investment of 20 hours into the dungeon crawling itself, I am thoroughly satisfied. I've never played a Roguelikebefore and thought that this was an excellent introduction to the genre. However, I most likely will not explore other Roguelikessince they are, for the lack of a better word, stressful. Never have I so slowly walked through a dungeon, afraid of the next turn because of the fear of having to face a slew of monsters that would beat me down until I bled tears (or cried blood, whatever floats your boat). I suppose that is why, in the end, I felt like I had accomplished something much bigger than, let's say, completing Grand Theft Auto IV(which I'm about halfway through). I think the last time I died that many times in a game was when I played Dragon's Lairfor the very first time. Anyway, I beat the last boss with my characters at Level 40. The ending got me emotional, but not worthy of tears. The only thing that's made me tear up significantly and on a semi-regular basis is the swashbuckling manga, One Piece. Now it's time to play something new. I wonder what's waiting to be opened on the shelf of Mr. Shen... posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:16 PM Permalink| | |
       
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