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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Robot in the City Plush - Preorders Open! Listening to: Andy McKee - Keys to the Hovercar 
Good news, everyone! The Robot In The City plushies are now online and ready for preordering! I've got 200 slots waiting to be taken! These little Ritz the Robot plushies want a good home and would love to visit the city you live in. Go and check out the product page for more information on how you can get one of these very limited pieces of awesome. :) Product Link: Wandering Panda Store posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:04 PM Permalink | | Vend-O-Matic Listening to: Andy McKee - Ebon Coast 
I remember making this joke this past weekend. I just don't remember the exact context of it. In any case, I thought it was funny and figured the non-laughter of the other people in the room simply emphasized that fact. Oh, and Andy Mckee is one of the most amazing musicians. Writing to this music has definitely helped me keep the typing hands strong. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:45 AM Permalink | | Monday, February 23, 2009 If you watch the movie "Jaws" backwards... Listening to: Nothing. There's been a recent thread over on reddit.com about summarizing a movie in one sentence. The kicker is that the movie is summarized as if it were played backwards. Some of my favorites... "If you watch the movie 'Jaws' backwards, it's a movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach." "If you watch Scarface backwards, it's about a man who gives up cocaine and crime to follow his dream of becoming a dishwasher to earn enough money so he can visit Cuba." "If you watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy backwards, it's a saga about a little guy who gets a cool ring from a volcano and spends the rest of the films walking home." Link: Reddit.com Link posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:21 PM Permalink | | Saturday, February 21, 2009 My Flash Game Experiment - Dress-Up Games - Part I Listening to: Boyz II Men - Doin' Just Fine 
So this is part of my experiment with the Flash games world. Specifically, this is an experiment with dress-up games. Even more specifically, it's dress-up games for the male audience. I don't simply mean "pimp my ride" dress-up/customization games because stuff like that already exists. What I mean are games that will appeal, for a few minutes/seconds a time, with the nerd/geek culture. This demographic makes up a very large group and, for me, makes up a very important part of the community I interact with everyday on the internet (reading blogs, forums, etc.). I feel that one of the main reasons people dislike the dress-up/customization genre is that every "game" (I'd like to more accurately label it as a "toy") lacks a soul. If I can add something to the shallow experience, then maybe I've got something on my hands. Graphics Many of these games already have pretty good, manufactured, artwork. So "good graphics" isn't something new that I can add or really change. At best, I can utilize my style of drawing. Game Mechanic The game mechanic? It's pretty much the same across the board. You either drag and drop or you press a button that will change the model for you. For the sake of this first experiment, I'll be going with the latter interactive mechanic. What else is there? I decided that my tongue-in-cheek humor is what I can add. Pablo Neruda said that "Laughter is the language of the soul." Hopefully this element can go some distance before running out of steam and exploding in a fury of sprinkles and cupcake batter. I have also decided to use the idea of "action figure" to appeal to these people. That's basically what the "boy version" of a dress-up doll is, right? It's an action figure. While your sister was playing with a Barbie and dressing her up in the newest clothes, you were probably fighting with your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures and accessorizing them with the right weapons for a battle. What's the first one about? I decided to go and do something based on one of my favorite FPS experiences: Left4Dead. I thought it would be entertaining to show different weapons and battle damage for the character I always use, Louis (named Louie in this case). Another features of action figures I always liked was the "voice chip". I remember having the "voice chip" feature in demo mode so you can test it out at the toy store. Kids loved pressing that thing and by the time you actually purchased the toy, the batteries were dead. The last voice used for this game is actually from a wonderful episode of The Simpsons (Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey). What did you make? Outside of the Left4Dead silhouette background, everything else (illustrated) was made from scratch. I noticed that the "texture" used for the game cover was essentially a highlighted, saturated green with an overlay of scratches. A blood splatter also helped make it feel more authentic. The illustrations I did on my tablet in Flash. The voice work was ripped from the game. The music was also ripped from the game. Anyhow, let's see how this goes! Play: Action Figure - Left2Die: Louie posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:23 PM Permalink | | Friday, February 20, 2009 Super Fast Mario! Listening to: The CalTrain. To be honest, this probably won't be nearly as funny to other people as it was to me. In any case, this is a video of a Japanese gamer playing the first Super Mario Bros. at an incredibly fast speed. I believe this is the kind of thing you can set up in readily made emulators. The thing he keeps repeating in the beginning (chotto matte) is basically him interjecting "wait". Ah, makes me laugh. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:17 PM Permalink | | Thursday, February 19, 2009 Auto-Tune Fun - Buy U A Drank Listening to: That Guy Alex - Buy U A Drank (demo) I decided to have a little fun with Auto-Tune today. I let the software take care of all the auto tuning. I just wanted to see the kind of audio effects I could get to be a folk-pop version of T-Pain. The guitar went through a distortion filter that boosted the highs. The voice went through some processing to secure sharper/clearer tones. As you can tell, the software's automatic auto tuning is pretty good. It still takes certain slides and vibrato to a strange place. Luckily, you can tweak it. I think I'll do that when I do my true covers of this song and possibly a Kanye West tune. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:01 PM Permalink | | My Portal Experiment - CutiePlay - Part 1 Listening to: Nothing. 
So I've decided to try a new Flash portal experiment. I had a good time with Casual Weekday, but realized that with my limited time and Flash abilities (though the latter really isn't an excuse), I had nothing new to offer to the general gaming public that NewGrounds or Kongregate couldn't. I decided that I would try my hand at a much more interesting angle in terms of Flash portal sites. I would focus my energies at creating the ultimate tween girl Flash portal. Your one stop to play all the coolest dress-up games, Mania/Dash/Rush games and even jigsaw puzzle games! Spot the difference? Sure we got them! The reason I figured tween girl was a viable option was simply because of the influx of games I've recently seen hit the handheld console market. Ubisoft has been releasing, like it's going out of style, their Imagine Line of games for the Nintendo DS at an alarming rate. Aside from the possibility that Ubisoft can print money like Nintendo does, I believe there is actually a market for this. Ah, gold star! Then I started thinking about the tough economic times the good old United States is currently in. Parents can't afford to drop $30 for a new Imagine game for their kids, but the kids want to play something new. Free girl games have been available online for quite some time and are widely popular. I mean if you're stuck at a library all afternoon and don't have a Nintendo DS, what else can you do? Read a book? Bah! Ridiculous! You hop onto a computer and play free games (to the dismay and irritation of others actually trying to do research). What can hold the five minute attention span of a tween? Why, tween games of course. Gold star #2. I do possess the ability to create dress-up games in Flash. It's a chance for me to showcase my cute drawing abilities and practice writing a dozen lines of code at a time. Gold star #3! So, what was there to do? Step 1: Come up with a name. A lot of great domain names, as any domain hunter knows, have been taken. I wanted to avoid anything that used the word "girls" as I didn't want to have people to think the site contained adult material. I decided sticking to things like "cute" and "having fun". So with a little creativity and a huge stroke of luck, I registered CutiePlay.com. Step 2: Build the site. I spent a few hours Wednesday night building the site. This essentially meant creating some simple graphics, coding a little HTML and CSS, finding a proper layout that worked (well enough) and building a very simple PHP/MySQL interaction to store the games. The reason for the latter was that I didn't want to have to create new HTML pages for every single game that got added into the system. I also wanted enough pieces to be modular so I could make one change that populated itself across all pages on the site. I also didn't want to have too many different categories. The idea wasn't to be the place where you could play everything. It's supposed to be the place where you can play a lot of what you like. I stuck to three categories: dress-up, puzzle and fast fun. The first two are pretty self explanatory. "Fast Fun" basically consists of arcade type games, your Diner Dash type games or anything that involves faster reflexes than a "Match 3" or "Spot the Difference". I also created a "Free Stuff" tab because, well, everyone likes free stuff. This basically would just have free wallpapers, artwork and buddy icons for all players. I mean enough of the "cutesy" stuff I draw is stolen off of deviantArt, so why not get a few ad views from it? Step 3: Install some ad code. The given path to go with ads was simply becoming a publisher with MochiAds and Google's AdSense. MochiAds offers free content to publishers. The rate isn't terribly high, but it's free content. In the olden days, I'd have to "save as..." this content from other sites and I'd be making 0% per impression instead of the 10% I earn now. Google AdSense? It's a given. No complaints here. 
Step 4: Populate the site with games. This basically consisted of me finding games in the MochiAds database and throwing them up on the site. This will take time as the front page showcases five (5) games from each category and the main category pages showcase twenty-five (25) at all times. These games are randomly selected from the overall database. The reasoning behind this is based on my "thinking as a tween girl" gaming experience. I would come to this site to kill time. If I come back everyday and see the games keep changing, I would think there was always new stuff to try out. Also, I expect the bounce rate in the "dress-up" category will be extremely high, which also supports my theory that they want new content all the time as opposed to extended stays with the same content from last week. I'm curious as to see how the "puzzle" and "fast fun" category pages will do. So, if you go and visit CutiePlay.com, you can see all of this working. What's next? Next Step 1: FULLY populate the site. As of now, there aren't enough games to fill the category pages. Because of that, the category pages just shuffle the games around as opposed to showing completely new ones. It should be a sense of "something new to discover", not "someone messed around with the things on my desk". Next Step 2: Create some original games. Another reason that Casual Weekday didn't have the stickiness of an Armor Games is because there wasn't enough original, "play it here", content. It was just stuff from the MochiAds library. So the next step is to create original games that have a proper introduction Splash sequence that points back to CutiePlay.com. These games will always receive top billing on the site, never to be lost in the shuffle of the rest of the site. These games will also earn a much higher cut of the CPM for ads displayed. Outside of sponsoring games, this is pretty much the way to go. Next Step 3: Additional revenue streams. There are already ads running on the site. What else can I add? I'm planning on implementing a portion that will showcase great new tween type console games that are available for purchase on Amazon's Affiliate Program. To make sure to keep the trust of both the playing public and their parents, I will make it very clear that the links are links to the product page for purchase with actual money. Next Step 4: Drive traffic. I've already inserted a traffic share ad on the MochiAds network. Now I need to find another way to drive traffic to the site. The introduction Splash sequences may work, but more needs to be done. MochiAds now offers self-serve ads, so that may be an interesting investment to try (targeted at dress-up games, of course). What I hope to see from this is that a player will eventually use that page (most likely a clearly marked section on the "free stuff" page) to show their parents. They can point to the page and say, "Mom, I want this game! Can I get this?" They don't have to search Amazon.com's site to find it because it is clearly displayed on CutiePlay.com. What I'm not trying to do: I'm not planning on creating a site that has persistent user data like logins, virtual currency or virtual goods. It's meant to be played from anywhere by anyone. You can enjoy it in spurts. You should come back everyday to see if there's a new game you haven't seen yet. It's a discovery process. It's free entertainment. That's the goal. I understand that creating that community is important, but I'd also like to get the approval of the parents of these tweens. If they can trust the site, then allowance to play on the site is secured. Anyhow, that's it for now. I'll keep you updated on how it goes! Wish me luck! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 1:13 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, February 18, 2009 It's Link! He go to town! Listening to: Nothing. 
I'm not sure if I should be ashamed or not, but I've never actually finished a Zelda game. I mean I've played a number of them, but never to completion. I really like the series as a brand, but I'm actually not sure why I've never been compelled to finish any of Link's adventures. Huh. Strange. In any case... Link! He come to town! Come to save the Princess Zelda! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:09 PM Permalink | | Mistaken identities. Listening to: Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold I had a humorous interaction with a friend the other day on the program known as "Google Chat". Her status message had proudly displayed that she was on camera during a live taping of the Conan O'Brien show. I watched the clip, saw her and decided to congratulate her on the appearance. The following conversation has been paraphrased for grammatical fixes and the like. Me: Hey, I just saw you on Conan O'Brien! Congratulations! Friend: Thanks! Me: That's pretty awesome. You looked so happy. Friend: Ya! It was really exciting! (a few minutes of conversation pass...) Me: That's pretty awesome. Sounds like you're having a great time in New York! Friend: Totally. Hey, I heard that the improv group got some girls. Me: What? Friend: Someone told me that the improv group you're in got some people with two X chromosomes. Is that correct? Me: ...you think I'm Alex Choi, don't you? Friend: ... So, she had confused me for another Alex. Perhaps that was a good thing. Had she known that she was talking to Alexander Shen right off the bat, she would have mysteriously signed off, blocked my screen name and thrown a rock through my window. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:24 PM Permalink | | I'm full jealousy and rage. Listening to: War - Why Can't We Be Friends 
I'm full of jealousy and rage because I did not come up with this idea first. This crap is adorable and makes me want to... what's the word? Oh yes, it makes me want to do this: 
Original Link: IGN Forums posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:20 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Home Movies - Brendon Small Listening to: Smashing Pumpkins (not Josh Groban) - Disarm 
I'm continuing to do artwork of favorite cartoons of mine. Here is Brendon Small from the television series Home Movies. I think I may hit up some video game themed work tomorrow. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:05 PM Permalink | | Monday, February 16, 2009 Home Movies - Jason Listening to: Nothing. 
I was surfing the internet the other day (gasp, shock, inconceivable) and came across different artists "re-imagining" their favorite characters from cartoons, video games and other ilk of that nature. I decided to try my stab at it tonight with a little rendering of Jason from the hit animated cartoon: Home Movies. It's a shame that it only lasted four seasons, but maybe it was good that it finished off strong like this other commercially unappreciated series than wear thin and be utterly unfunny during the entirety of the last disc. In the end, the only thing that matters is that it's rice flavored. Seriously. Take 20 minutes out of your day and find out that it's rice flavored. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:47 PM Permalink | | Thursday, February 12, 2009 I'll take a case please. Listening to: Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm I'll take a case of these pills, please. I'm sure I have plenty of people to force feed these things to or, if need be, grind into their mashed potatoes without them ever noticing. Thanks The Onion! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 4:04 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, February 11, 2009 We're local famous! Listnening to: Justin Timberlake - (Another Song) All Over Again 
Josie had a little interview segment for this show we're going to on Valentine's Day. It's a semi-improv show where the cast recreates stories of the "how we first met" incidents of the audience. I hope it's amusing. If it's not, I hope they serve alcohol. Quote: "It was love at first click for Josana Kuivenhoven, a San Jose State University student who met her boyfriend, Alexander Shen, on Craigslist (after trying eHarmony with no luck). She picked him out of 100 responses. "At first it felt awkward to admit it," says Kuivenhoven, 25. But now she freely credits their meet-cute story to "the information superhighway and the free services available to frugal, half-drunk people." After 18 months together, the San Jose cyber-sweeties say their song is Del Shannon's version of "Sea of Love." Their big challenge is the cat sleeping between them." Happy Valentine's! Link: San Jose Mercury News posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:24 AM Permalink | | Oregon Trail - Classic Fun Listening to: Nothing. 
Well, look what we have here! Apparently fording a river that is 4.3 feet deep has caused numerous casualties on my trip to the west. Manifest destiny, my foot! The worst part of it is that I was no more than a few days away from the start of the journey and my monkey already passed away. That general store swindled me! Those oxen turned out to be nothing more than dogs with a yoke attached. Lame. I didn't even get a chance to hunt. Enjoy this Apple IIe classic with the online emulator! Link: Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:42 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Denpa Shonen Finish! Listening to: Nothing. 
So Hulu went and uploaded the last few episodes of Denpa Shonen. I watched the last two episodes at lunch and was entertained throughout. I haven't seen much of the second season (a woman has to find the best deals on groceries and has to bike to those places to get them), and I don't actually plan on doing so. In any case, the show is worth watching. It's amazing to see that Japanese television would allow such a show to be produced and aired. Honestly, Nasubi (the main character) was probably starving most of those days. Anyhow, just wanted to share. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:27 PM Permalink | | A PBR cartoon commercial? Listening to: Nothing. 
Now that's something I'll drink to! Apparently, back in the 1950s, they advertised beer commercials with the love and care of a hand drawn animated feature. Had I been a child of the 1950s, I would have eagerly awaited the moment that I would be able to drink me a can of delicious PBR, the most bitter water you will ever have in your entire life. You will, however, feel like a man because you can drink 16 cans without a least bit of inebriation. If anything, I think PBR is a hangover cure. Thanks Cartoon Modern blog! You've truly made me start thinking about beer at 9:47am. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:43 AM Permalink | | Sunday, February 8, 2009 Robot In The City - 1-5 Listening to: Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison 
The new Robot In The City strip is up. I noticed that I'm using this strip to really go and push myself to draw backgrounds. Backgrounds are generally something that I'd really skimp on unless I was in a really patient and/or inspired mood. I'm not saying that I'm doing anything amazing, but I am in a place that I'm not familiar with. I guess a person can fall into bad comic stripping habits when all they're drawing is the most interesting thing all the time (the main character) and ignoring the other complimentary items (backgrounds) that actually are just as important. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:29 PM Permalink | | Friday, February 6, 2009 My 360 pooped on itself. Feeling: Rather heartbroken. 
So, my 360 pooped on itself last night. Strangely enough, I did not get the RRoD, no. Instead, I was pleasantly bombarded with a black screen with tiny little purple and green lines running across the screen like a proverbial waterfall of sorrow. I checked around on the internet and found out that this problem wasn't exactly the most common thing in the world, but it has happened before. It often results in the system exploding in a fireball of sparks and Sparks. I feel that my system has had a good run though. I've attributed the 360's lifespan to be at a ratio of 45:1. Meaning, one year of human time equates to about 45 years in XBOX360 time. It's interesting when utilizing that analogy, actually. "My 360 lived to the ripe old age of roughly 88. We knew it was time when it essentially went blind and could only see a few colored lines if anything at all. It spent most of its latter years watching movies from Netflix and just sitting idly as the rest of the family did chores, forgetting that it was still awake. It will receive a proper burial at the hands of the highest bidder on eBay." Oh, XBOX360. You will be missed. And then you will be promptly replaced with a younger, quieter version of yourself who will also come with a free copy of Uno. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:01 AM Permalink | | Thursday, February 5, 2009 A Memory: RENT Listening to: RENT Soundtrack - Seasons of Love I've been listening to tracks from the RENT Soundtrack lately and I remember how much I enjoyed the movie and the musical. I think it's the only musical that I've seen more than once. My old roommates Derek and Judy really enjoyed it as well. I can remember numerous occasions where we would just gather and watch the film. We even watched the Special Features and I rarely get through anything past a "Gag Reel" let alone an hour long documentary about how the musical came about. Those are good memories. Then I started thinking about the memories that were less good, but funnier in retrospect. I remember going on a date with someone to see the movie. At one moment in the movie, I had tears rolling down my face. I wasn't sobbing, but just staring at the screen as tears crept out like the jerks that they are. I looked over and my date was utterly bored. That was the last time I ever saw her. Another memory was watching the movie with a group of people. In general, they didn't enjoy the movie. They thought the story was silly. One of the people complained that they sang too much. I stated that it was a musical and the movie was a move adaptation of the musical--a musical movie. The person proceeded with the question, "So?" That was also the last time I ever saw those people either. Anyhow, here is my favorite song from the musical/film. I think I should break this out and watch it again. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:12 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Batman: Arkham Asylum Listening to: Nothing. This trailer makes me all tingly inside. Namely, I'm glad they got much (possibly all) of the original Batman - The Animated Series voice cast to do the appropriate voices. I suppose growing up with that has made it impossible for me to imagine Batman or Joker to sound like anyone else. Looks promising, yes? posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 5:30 PM Permalink | | Mario Land Review... Awesome. Listening to: Nothing. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this except completely satisfied. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:45 PM Permalink | | Animated Advertisement on the BART Listening to: Nothing. On the way into work today, I noticed something strange on the BART ride. Looking out the window, I saw moving pictures. It was something very similar to how a zoetrope works. I didn't catch enough of it to make out the content, but I knew it was animated and it was pretty fantastic. I later searched and realized that advertising companies are using this technique to push Target and the iPod. I was pleasantly surprised. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:23 AM Permalink | | UPC Hunter - Launch Party! Listening to: The BART. 
UPC Hunter has launched! It's sitting on Facebook and it has a whopping 11 members right now! Thanks friends! From all the ads that ran yesterday on Robot Battle Force GO! and UPC Hunter, I made a very cool 34 cents. Paltry? I believe not! I can buy a postage stamp circa 2000! In any case, I'm throwing a Launch Party today... and by Launch Party, I mean a Lunch Party... and by Lunch Party, I mean I'll be eating lunch at my desk at the usual time today. Any takers? Link: UPC Hunter on Facebook posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:44 AM Permalink | | Sunday, February 1, 2009 UPC Hunter - My New Facebook Game Listening to: Nothing. 
I am working on a new Facebook game called UPC Hunter. The premise of the game is very simple: a collecting game where you amass as much fortune by discovering treasure. The kicker is that treasures are found by entering UPC codes on the back of normal objects like photo paper, glue or even a can of soda. The game currently only supports 12-digit UPC numbers. You also can't just enter any UPC code as it must follow the formula that is employed every time a cashier scans items for you at the store (you can find this via a google search). So what's to keep someone playing? 1. Every UPC code generates a random item (out of roughly 150+ items). However, even if you generate an item you've generated before (i.e. Boots of Escaping), the value will be different. 2. Inputting a UPC that has been previously entered decreases the value of the object to your specific discovery. So if you sit there and keep inputting your Best of Both Worlds Concert: The 3-D Movie: Extended Edition DVD, the value you obtain will continue to be divided by how many copies of that treasure were found. Thus it pays to enter something new. 3. It will record who was the first one to discover a treasure, thus spreading your notoriety. 4. There are achievements. 5. It's just fun to see what item you'll get from a UPC code. 6. Though not the first usage of UPC codes in some kind of game mechanic (see: Barcode Battler), there aren't any applications like this readily available. 7. There are also special treasures that get generated if a specific UPC is entered. I'll hide these in the game and they're also "fun" to discover. Should be released soon. I'm predicting end of next week. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 8:30 PM Permalink | | FOOTBALLLLLLLL! Listening to: Nothing. 
The Super Bowl is happening today. I'm going over to Brad and Shannon's to watch it. I think there's two teams playing or something. Apparently this happens once a year during the football high season. I think they win a trophy and rings or another piece of jewelery. FOOTBALL! I am clearly a fan of la football americain. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:46 AM Permalink | | |
       
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