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Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Oregon Trail Listening to: A truck that's dying. 
I've been playing Oregon Trail on my Blackberry recently and it's been an interesting experience to play something that's been remade from my childhood. The graphics have all been updated, but the core gameplay is still the same. You gather up your family, name them, and set off at a grueling pace to Oregon. The mobile version, though prettier, lacks some of the crucial elements that made Oregon Trail on that floppy disk as fun as it was. You don't have the option to actually purchase items for your wagon. There's now no need to purchase wagon axles or wagon tongues. You just pick a wagon and you have a "Wagon Status Bar" that depletes over time. I guess it's like one of those "all in one" packages for the mighty, Oregon Trail traveler. What about hunting, right? That's the part people enjoyed the most. Shooting 14,000 pounds of food and bringing back seven. The reticule is controlled via the keypad and you move it and shoot. Then you click to retrieve your kill (which appears as a chicken drumstick). You just can't hunt anywhere you like anymore. You just have to happen to cross a certain point on your travel where the wagon leader asks, "Hey, buddy, you want to shoot some animals in the face?" Well, not exactly like that. You do, however, now have the option to also go fishing. I enjoy that mini-game the most. 
The game, unfortunately, is buggy as hell on the Blackberry. Sometimes it doesn't run, sometimes it crashes. It's worse than buying a used copy of Grand Theft Auto IV from Gamestop where it looks like someone used the disc to wax their car. It costs about $9.99 for your phone, depending on your carrier. In any case, the game seems to have been dumbed down a bit to adhere to the "casual mobile game" rule. Something that won't have you engrossed for more than five minutes at a time or make you think too hard. A game that is essentially easy and lets you continue after everyone in your party has died. As for my progress: Two of my family members were mauled by bears. One got lost and we left him behind. One died of measles. I'm the last one left, I've traveled about 1,000 miles and I think my character has Alzheimer's. Can't remember. Who are you people? posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 6:51 AM Permalink | | Monday, September 29, 2008 Stimulating the Economy Listening to: Ne-Yo - Miss Independent 
I spent this weekend stimulating the economy. That would be the excuse I'd use if I ever had to justify it to anyone. Specifically, it was a Japanese toy/figure hunt. I was looking for very specific items: a Hatsune Miku Nendoroid figure, any of the Lucky Star Revoltech Figma figures and a Toro Revoltech figure from the Doko Demo Issyo series (it's basically Sony's cat mascot). I was able to find all of these figures at one store in Strawberry Park, a Japanese shopping center off of Saratoga in San Jose. I could have gone the path of ordering from eBay, but you know how those auctions go. You find a good MSRP type price, but they charge you $32.90 and a baby for shipping and handling. In the end, it costs you the same price of a brand new 2009 Kia. Zing! 
Something else that I find incredibly interesting is the mainstream attention that the character Domo-kun has gotten in the United States. I mean I see his image on more and more merchandise, but they've gone and put his face all over this year's Halloween advertising/POP displays at Target. It's crazy! What turned out to be this niche stop-motion animation for Japan's NHK broadcasting station on television has turned into this cultural phenomenon. 
I don't know about you, but I believe that Domo-kun can fix our economy single-handed. I will admit, however, that seeing him in this adver-campaign has made him look like a corporate shill... a corporate shill that sleeps on mountains of money. As far as game ideas and whatnot, I was designing the engine beneath Summer of Lawn 2: Electric Boogaloo, but put it on the back burner for now so I can get this other game to see the light of day. It's basically another menu driven simulation game, but this one revolves around item shops in RPG games. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 8:23 AM Permalink | | Thursday, September 25, 2008 Stinky Train Listening to: Ne-Yo - Fade Into The Background 
So I've been commuting into San Francisco, "The City", for the past two weeks. It's been an overall good experience. The train ride gives me time to do work (the company gave me a laptop with "anywhere" wireless to use), read or play my Nintendo DS. The worst part, however, are the smells that seem to linger throughout the cabin. One time, when the train was delayed for over an hour and a half due to a horrible accident, I was sitting in front of a woman that smelled like B.O. that had been bottled to ripen with age. I felt like my skin was going to fall off. I will acknowledge that my complaint, as stinky as she was, is not to be compared to the unfortunate accident I mentioned prior. Another time, tonight actually, a woman farted. It was not any normal fart like the kind you find at a K-Mart. No, sir. It was a very potent fart. Like, I smelled it and it felt like someone punched me in the face with a brick. A stinky, green and brown brick. I tried staring really hard at the back of her head so as to proclaim to the rest of the passengers, "This lady was the one who atomic bombed us." It smelled like someone hadn't used the restroom in seventeen years and these were the spirits of the damned, haunting us for eternity. This is what it felt like... 
Ah, the mysterious odors that appear on CalTrain. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:48 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Starmile - Chapter 1 Listening to: Ne-Yo - Why Does She Stay  Where to Play: Play on Kongregate.com Play on Newgrounds.com Play on My Site What you see above is the "introduction comic" for my most recent Flash game, Starmile - Chapter 1. I guess I'm just on this crazy trend of trying to make games that they're coming out of my ears! Well, not really. Anyway, I'm starting to find that Flash is a pretty good platform for me to continue to push my games of the card and adventure genre. Adventure genre? That's right! My next game will be a point-and-click adventure game. My goal is something half as engaging as Samorost. Anyhow, this game is one of those "click and match" ones. You're presented with an active tile in the corner, and you have to click on cards that match that ACTIVE tile. It can either be the same color or same mileage. If you click on tiles of the same color, your multiplier increases... so it's in your best interest to leave higher values tiles near the end of a color run to get a x10 on 100 miles as opposed to the x10 on 10 miles. I know I have a picture of my cat somewhere... but I guess I'll upload it later. I'm afraid that I'm turning into one of those crazy cat people. I mean, maybe I am going crazy. I'm wearing my headphones right now and there's no music playing. It's actually an old trick I used to play when walking down the streets of Berkeley in my college days. Headphones on, wire in my pocket, too poor to buy an audio device... but bums leave you alone. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:53 PM Permalink | | Thursday, September 18, 2008 Summer of Lawn Listening to: Ne-Yo - Nobody   
Hello! Summer of Lawn is now released in all of its 1.0 glory! I haven't seen nearly enough menu driven management games on the internet, so that was where I decided to go with this one. This is the game description: It's summer and you only have $15 to your name! Spend the next two weeks to tackle 14 lawns in the neighborhood in this menu-driven sim game! Upgrade your mower! Buy enhancement items! Gamble your winnings away at the casino! Things you remember when you were a teen... a Summer of Lawn. In either case, feel free to play the game on Kongregate (if you have an account already) or on my site. It doesn't matter either way. I'm actually here doing some research on the different Flash game networks and see what it's like from a "developer's point of view". If anyone does know of menu driven games that are similar to Football Manager or My Life As King, please let me know. Thanks! I'll admit that Flash, at this point, is just a way for me to make interactive drawings/doodles/comics. I guess that's what I always wanted. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:36 PM Permalink | | A Tale of One City Listening to: That Guy Alex - Ramona (cover) So this has been roughly the third day at my new job at MochiMedia. I've been so focused on my first project that I haven't had time to surf the internet. I haven't even been able to read any articles over at Gamasutra or check up on indie games being posted in the forums. I've just been all about Summer of Lawn all day long. Anyway. Instead of the typical post about a drawing or whatnot, I decided to upload some photos I took with my cellular telephonic device. 
I was walking and I saw this sign for a car spa. Look at this thing. I would never send my car to this car spa. It's not that I don't believe that "Speed's" would treat my car well, but rather the panther that is this car spa's mascot and logo scares the crap from my pants (not to say I've crapped in them). 
This is the kind of thing that is responsible for night terrors. Look at it. Look deep into its eyes. This panther is completely crazy. It's got those crazy eyes. It's the kind of panther that would eat a tire just because it could. It looks like it eats the souls of virgins for breakfast. Are those vampire teeth? He must bleach them with the bones of children. Why does it have four nostrils? Is it so it can smell your fear two times as easily? Needless to say, I shimmied my way toward much safer areas like Bum Town and Crack Village. 
I spent this afternoon in a team building experience at the Yerba Buena Bowling Lanes. After three games in two hours (my team is apparently one of the slowest bowling teams to ever exist, but we're still cool... like China), my arm felt like it was going to fall off. On the plus side, I scored a 111 in my final game. I know, there are people out there who bowl much better with their eyes gouged out. You probably look at this score and compare it to a five year old getting an A+ in "finger painting". Hey, I take any wins I can get. Another interesting item to point out is that lanes 11 and 12 did not having seating at the "scoring console". All the other lanes did. Lanes 11 and 12 were bestowed with two metal folding chairs. I felt like I was at a church function and/or pot luck. 
On the way back, I saw this forklift on the sidewalk. There was a warning sign that openly described the types of activities this forklift was not made for. Apparently you are not supposed to crush people nor raise them to new heights. Or perhaps one is not to wear a red sash in the vicinity of this forklift. In any case, it was possibly the most boring forklift in the world (as it was not being driven by myself) and children cry because of it. Well, that's all I got. It's obviously way too late and I should be sleeping. I could not, however, because I spent most of my evening inking pages for an upcoming graphic novel anthology to be released in Spring 2009 by The New Press and other freelance work. I'll finish off with a song that I covered for Josie a while ago. Yes, I diddle on the guitar too. It's not terrible. Feel free to stuff your ears with knives if needed. 'til we meet again! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:40 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Summer of Lawn - Elements Listening to: Nothing. 
Here are some elements from my upcoming Flash game Summer of Lawn. I'm going to go on a search today for games of similar nature: menu-driven management games that aren't really heavy on, let's say, physics based animations or crazy pseudo-FPS elements. Games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Football Manager. Heck, even EA's NFL Head Coach. Granted they end up adding a lot of polish to the graphical elements within the games because, otherwise, you're wasting all that precious "next-generation power". But for a Flash game? I think I'm going to go all sprites next time for my Legend of Casino game... an RPG/casino hybrid. I'll have to learn save state data next time for that game. Since it's Flash and I don't have a dedicated "secure server", people will most likely be able to edit that save data. How's an infinite amount of dollars? Sounds good to me, Jim. Summer of Lawn should be out this Friday and even you Mac users (I'm looking at you Alameda and Illinois) will be able to play it. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 6:46 AM Permalink | | Monday, September 15, 2008 Lawnmower King - Canned First Day: At my job at Mochi Media. Here we have my first Flash application (it's definitely not a game). Click on the Flash application and use your arrow keys to make the little thing move around. It kind of looks like a poor man's Roomba, doesn't it? Anyway, it was going to be a game where you push a lawnmower around to, well, mow lawns. You have to get enough money by the summer's end for whatever reason children need money nowadays. Then after some thought and memories of My Life As King, a game I thoroughly enjoyed, I decided to change it up a bit. The new lawnmower game, now called Summer of Lawn, will be a simulation title. You don't actually do the mowing itself, but rather the simulation and statistic management. You manage the money, purchase the upgrades, run the promotions in your local newspaper, etc. You try to earn as much money as possible in 30 days. That's the goal. That's what I got to finish, in Flash, by Friday. Anyway, I'll post more about my first day later with, possibly, some drawings. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:41 PM Permalink | | Monday, September 8, 2008 The Blue Bomber First Day: Of vacation. 
The other night I thought to myself, "I'm going to do something with Mega Man in it." I was up late playing Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and didn't get around to it until sometime after one in the morning. I remember seeing these "head on" type images of classic video characters in the first I Am 8-Bit gallery book. Just the heads of famous video game characters on a small square canvas. Their look was simple. Nothing overly detailed or "reimagined". I liked it a lot and wanted those, if not similar, items in my place of residence. Anyway, that's what inspired me to do this vector. There's a wallpaper version of this floating around on deviantArt, if you feel so inclined. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:48 AM Permalink | | Friday, September 5, 2008 It's my last day. Currently Trying: Google Chrome as my browser. 
So, today is my last day here at Namco Networks of America. I will be moving on to bigger and better (hopefully) things at another company in the city. It's been one year since I joined this team and it's sad to leave this position of Associate Producer. To commemorate the event, I decided to create a game for the folks at the company that made an impact in one way or another. The game is Namco Cannon. In an interesting exchanging of information, my old coworker and friend told me that there are people in the marketing and PR world that know of my work and think I do this stuff full time and for a living. Wow, wouldn't that be a treat! If I could just draw comics, make games and make videos for a living... everything would be twenty eight shades of awesome. Namco Cannon: Deluxe Alpha Super DXII (~3 MB) I'll most likely have a games page for it in the gallery soon. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:52 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 3, 2008 What the Dragon Ball? There's Buzz: At the Capcom offices about my video...  Hey, someone got some crap in my Dragon Ball.Now, I know I am biased with this because Piccolo is my favorite character from the Dragon Ball Universe. He fights with honor. He sounds like the new Batman. He can regrow and lengthen body parts at will. Greatest character ever. Vegeta does come in at a pretty close second. This guy? He looks more like Frieza if anything. Piccolo's green. The last time I checked, which I do pretty often, "pasty albino" is not a synonym for "green". It's like someone spilled tile adhesive all over his face and punched him a few too many times. I'm not asking for much, Hollywood. I just want a green alien with pointy ears who wears a purple gi. If I wanted a pasty fellow with unnaturally hideous skin, I'd look in the mirror with my shirt off. Thanks. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:21 PM Permalink | | Sometimes I wish... Listening to: Death Cab For Cutie - Pity and Fear 
...that Mr. Peterson could really do certain things. The other day I had forgotten to bring a peach to work. I had left it on the table when I left the apartment. I was worried that Mr. Peterson might find it and go crazy, tearing it into shreds and having peach flesh all over the place. Then I became intrigued with the idea of how nice it would be if I could call Mr. Peterson on the phone and ask him to put it away instead. Ah, dreams. By the way, did you guys watch the strangely stretched, horribly synced Gamepro Video they uploaded recently? I swear my timing isn't that bad when editing film. It's the player. Please believe me! Please believe me! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:48 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Let's gather around... My Calpico: Is getting warm. ...and watch some crappy programming. 
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