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Monday, March 30, 2009 Jumping Man! Listening to: 
This is one of the jumping people in my newest game: Naked Skull Man - Attack of the Evil Egg Assembly. He represents 1,000 people on the main map screen of the game. The basic idea is Power Ranger Superhero + Solitaire. I've always had this thing for tabletop card games and always wanted to make them, but printing/cutting the cards were always a pain in the butt. It also made it difficult to get the game out there for people to play since either I was unable to do make enough sets or people didn't want to print it out themselves. So, a digital version was born. There are 25 enemies that get launched four at a time. They start out as eggs. Each has their own monster inside (power level) and hatching time (days). When they hatch, they become monsters and destroy the population of the world. So you, Naked Skull Man, have to defeat these eggs or monsters. That's the gist of it. Below is a screenshot and image of Naked Skull Man in his superhero form.  
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:22 PM Permalink | | Sunday, March 29, 2009 2008 Tax Time! Listening to: Nothing. 
So, it's that time of the year again! I finished my taxes a few weeks ago, but kind of let it sit there as I was having trouble deciding between investing in my IRA or not (I think most of the US lost 40%-50% in their investments this year). Josie is currently doing them right now and she's having a ball. I like to think of the entire process as a game where the dollars earned are like the stats that you've accumulated throughout the year. Will I become a Level 23 Warrior or will I end up as bones in a dragon's poop? If you get a return then you win the game and get to play again next year! I spent most of today doing MochiAds work as well. The first part was sitting around working on a tiny Powerpoint for tomorrow and really figuring out what it means by "what is a new game worth?". I also spent much of the afternoon compiling a bunch of entries to send over to Warner Bros. tomorrow. It's just been a busy day. At the very least, I was able to watch a few movies (Singin' in the Rain and Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) while doing it. I'll post some more art later this week. I've been slacking as of late and that hurts my creative soul like a hot poker in the testicle (left or right, equally bad). posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:02 PM Permalink | | Monday, March 23, 2009 Fall Out Boy Trail Listening to: Nothing. 
So a new microsite called Fall Out Boy Trail has launched to coincide with their newest album and concert tour launch. It's a pretty neat take and remake of the original Oregon Trail. Like any red blooded American, my favorite part of the game was shooting a bear and being treated to an explosion of chicken nuggets. It's nice to see bands that make an effort to make their marketing attempts somewhat relevant to the audience that actually buys the stuff. Now I'm shaking in anticipation for a relevant Hannah Montana game! Thanks to Super Punch for the news! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:13 AM Permalink | | Friday, March 20, 2009 New Game - Dodge 'em Close  Listening to: Nothing.I've finally finished my latest game called Dodge 'em Close. The premise of the game is pretty simple: you basically dodge the enemies to gain points and survive. The catch is that the only way to gain points is if you dodge the enemies closely, hence the title of the game. It's all about calculated risk and whatnot. The game, as of now, is still one of those Windows XP only things. I do hear, however, that the folks at YoYo Games are working on a Mac port of their game maker, so that means I'll be able to port the games over to Mac soon. I should just pick up and learn Flash, shouldn't I? [shrug] Download: Dodge 'em Close Game Page posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:18 AM Permalink | | Thursday, March 19, 2009 Robot in the City - Photos Listening to: Nothing. 
Here are some photos of the Robot in the City plushies! I took these when I went home to pick them up from my parent's house (I live in an apartment and wasn't sure of how large the boxes would be or how safe the delivery would be). It's all very exciting. Nothing else worth mentioning in this post, really. Just photographs. Oh, just a note. Because of work and whatnot, I'll be shipping out outstanding orders this Saturday. Expect them in your mailboxes soon, kiddies. Go order one if you haven't already. :)   
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:21 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Spell of Play? More like Spell of Awesome. Listening to: Nothing. 
So the righteous game developers over at Spell of Play have posted a contest regarding, well, posting. The rules are as simple as my writing a little blurb about them on this blog here, or as I call "Mr. Shen's Bucket 'o Chum". The winners get a free game from their studios and I want me some game. In any case, you should also check out their work. It's all pretty well polished stuff and the pirate game just screams "pirate" and "match-3". Two of the things that get this American public's blood boiling. Me? I can't help but enjoy a good match-3 game. Heck, it doesn't even have to be that good. As long as it can make me feel smart, then I'm all for it. Link: Spell of Play Website posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:29 PM Permalink | | Pikachu Black - Revisisted... sort of. Listening to: Nothing. 
This user over at the SSB-Fan.com posted some screen shots for some custom skins they made for the game. Apparently they made one based on the custom version I did (seen above). From what my rudimentary high school French has taught me, he says that it is a reproduction of this Pikachu and it is very black. Too black. He might as well be Mr. Game & Watch. Kind of neat to see my work go to new places. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:36 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Entire Music Video in Tiltshift Listening to: Nothing. Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo. An entire music video shot in the tiltshift photography post-production technique. The song is apparently called "Clementine" by Megan Washington. One day I will make take and make some tiltshift photographs of my miniture models. Then there will be nothing at all! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:41 AM Permalink | | Monday, March 16, 2009 I bought an umbrella for a homeless person. Listening to: Josie's crazy white person music. 
It was raining when I arrived in San Francisco this morning. I used to have a nice umbrella but had left it on the train a few Wednesdays ago. I knew I would have to get an umbrella and today was the day I made my purchase. There's a Walgreens right by the station so that was naturally my stop. Being raised in the way of Penny Pinching, I purchased the umbrella that would provide me the biggest bang for my buck: a "jumbo" umbrella for $9.99. After the transaction, I left Walgreens, tore off the wrapper and proceeded to fight against the elements. To my dismay, the umbrella I purchased really was jumbo. It was ridiculously large. This thing could easily canopy the state of Wyoming. I felt like the biggest douche in the world. I could imagine people looking at me and thinking, "Why's this guy need a six foot wide umbrella?" I made my way to the Walgreens across from my office building and purchased a smaller umbrella. I decided to give the giant umbrella to the homeless person standing outside of the Walgreens. I basically said to him, "Would you like an umbrella, sir? It's going to rain." He mumbled something incoherent. I felt like I did a good deed. If anyone was going to look like a douche bag, it was going to be that homeless guy. And all is now right with the world. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:10 PM Permalink | | Saturday, March 14, 2009 Robot in the City Plushies - Now Shipping! Listening to: Nothing. 
The Robot in the City plushies are now shipping! Woo-hoo! When I opened the box of plushies this afternoon, I was pretty overwhelmed with how cute these darned things are. That's when I started thinking that I'd like to see as many people have these as possible. In order to do so, I've gone and dropped the price down to something less of a "indie designer" price and to a "mass market" price. All plushies are now $11.99! For those who pre-ordered with me, you will be getting an extra plushie for each order. This way you can go and give your favorite friend one too. Unfortunately, I've also had to change the package a little bit to compensate for the price drop. This new $11.99 price point only includes the card that tells you which #/200 you got and the plushie itself. There will still be pin sets for pre-orders only. Overall, I feel that the price change makes everything more accessible to more people. Hopefully you feel the same. :) And as always, the comic is free to read online. I'll post some photos of the unboxing soon. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:43 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Wheelman Demo Impressions Listening to: Nothing. 
I downloaded and tried the Wheelman demo the other night on my XBOX360. It's an action/racing game that utilizes the 3D likeness of famous actor and bald man, Vin Diesel. Overall, I was slightly underwhelmed by the entire experience. For a game that desperately relies on tension and a sense of speed, I never really got a feeling for either. I made plenty of mistakes (there's a woman telling you to do certain things to escape the police), but was never punished for them. I might as well have just driven around the city and purchased some gelato on the way as the outcome would've probably been the same. The game also kept telling me I was "speeding" (and thus filling my "Burnout" meter), but it never felt like I was driving any faster than a 100cc race in Mario Kart. I was always just slowly... getting... away. 
Speaking of Mario Kart, the game also had this weird game mechanic that felt a lot like Mario Kart: Double Dash. If you double-tapped left or right, your car would shift perpendicular to the road in the respective direction. It's like when you press the L or R buttons Double Dash and ram another opponent. Things like this took away from the over-the-top action feel and ended up just feeling cartoonish and unrealistic. Granted, it's "just a game", but the presentation is obviously not meant to be interpreted as cartoonish or unrealistic. It turned out the game wasn't even mildly extreme. I guess I just wished the game had a more exciting feel to it, like the underrated Stuntman: Ignition. It wasn't the best game in the world, but it really got your blood pumping (out of excitement or frustration) during the last stretch in a long stunt run. Hopefully it was just because it was the demo and wanted to be as accessible (often confused with "easy") as possible. The graphics, at least, were nice and the main character sure looked like Vin Diesel. You know, all brooding and fast and furious and furrowing his eyebrows all the time. Fact: Vin Diesel's greatest role ever was as the Iron Giant in the movie The Iron Giant. He was very convincing. Oh, and then there's this instructional video too. That's the most realistic hair I've ever seen. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:44 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Robot In The City - Hot Dog Listening to: Jason Mraz - Geek In The Pink 
I feel like I haven't done enough "pin up" work of my characters recently. Outside of the doodles in my sketch book, they only appear in the panels of their respective comics. The plushies came in the mail today as well. They were delivered to my parents' house. I'll have to swing by this weekend and pick them up and start the packaging process. Then I got to send out a few free samples to the great blogs that did some coverage of the plush recently. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:22 PM Permalink | | Monday, March 9, 2009 Japanese Spiderman Listening to: Nothing. The folks over at Marvel have subtitled and uploaded the first episode of the old 1970s Spiderman television show. It's good for some classic crime fighting action! Whatever happened to the days where all of our problems could be solved by putting on a costume and punching a bad guy in the face? I'll post some art relevant stuff soon. I feel like I've just been whoring out video clips all of last week. Jinkies! Change Leopardon! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:29 AM Permalink | | Friday, March 6, 2009 I must sharpen my invisible swords. Listening to: Nothing. Hey, let's all go to Osaka! It gets progressively more interesting when they move from invisible gun to invisible sword. Any plans for the weekend anyone? I think I may walk around Target and do the same thing. Then I plan on getting escorted to the front door. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:36 PM Permalink | | Thursday, March 5, 2009 This guy totally doesn't like Asian girls. Listening to: DJ Earworm - United States of Pop 2008 
This guy totally doesn't like Asian girls. Seriously. Ew. Asians. Bleh.  This guy kind of looks like what I would look like if I were born in 1972. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 5:44 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Ran Ran Ru! Listening to: Nothing. This may be one of the most frightening things I have ever seen and heard in my life. The Japanese version of Ronald McDonald is the equivalent of a much more musical, albeit just as scary, version of Stephen King's IT. Ran ran ru! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:15 PM Permalink | | A Boy and His Blob Listening to: Hall and Oates - Sara Smile 
There has been news in a recent Nintendo Power that they will be taking another stab at the A Boy and His Blob license. To be perfectly honest, I loved this series as a kid. I never had an American NES so I was never able to play it at home, but it was always something I played when I visited my friend's house. The controls were pretty dismal and floaty, but it was just fun feeding the Blob different jellybeans to see what he would turn into and how that could get you past the current level puzzle. I remember owning the Gameboy version where you had to save Princess Blobette from across the map. If you gave the Blob a red jellybean (I think it was red), he would turn into a rocket and you could propel yourself across the map and to her cage. You'd then proceed to bust open her cage, freeing her, but also kill yourself in the process. I can't count how many times I tried that tactic when I get tired of maneuvering through the tricky flamethrowers in the basement. I'm ecstatic! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 1:24 PM Permalink | | Monday, March 2, 2009 Robot in the City - News! Listening to: The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes
So the internet and those folks running indie toy blogs have been very kind to me as of late. Word of the Robot in the City preorders have been making their rounds and we've sold about 10% of the stock. Not bad for preorders only! I'm hoping things will pick up once the item is ready to ship. :) Links * Super Punch reveals the news. * Toycyte talks a bit about Ritz the Robot and asks some interview-esque questions. * SpankyStokes gives it the royal treatment! * Vinyl Abuse goes and spreads the love! * TomoPop blogs! Hooray! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:10 PM Permalink | | |
       
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