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Saturday, May 30, 2009 A bird outside our door. Listening to: Nothing.  
A bird built a nest outside our door a few weeks ago on top of the fire extinguisher case. There were times that we thought the mama bird left the eggs, but sure enough, she'd be back on them the next day. I decided this would be a great opportunity for me to take some photos of birds up close as I never really have the chance to do so. Rather, I never have the chance to do so without birds trying to peck out my eyes and steal my wallet. Also, I don't like pigeons. Actually, in general, Birds Are Weird. Hooray for opportunities to actually feel like a photographer! As an added bonus, these photos aren't in black and white (or sepia) nor are they of my feet. 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 1:07 PM Permalink | | Thursday, May 28, 2009 Eternal Bakery Battle - some sprites! Listening to: Nothing.  
Here are some sprites (double sized) for my upcoming puzzle/strategy game Eternal Bakery Battle. This is probably my biggest project to date with a bevy of original characters, a story, mini-games and two different gameplay mechanics combined. Because of all of these things, this will also be my first attempt at actually "selling a game"--initiate collective groan. I'll admit that the game is definitely inspired from Corpse Craft, where you have some kind of puzzle element that allows you to generate resources that you then use to create units to send across towards the enemy. You'll have multiple plains of battle as well as different units to send across, each with their perks and drawbacks. All of this takes place during the Age of Bakers, where different lands with different baking styles vie to be ruler of the world. I think I'm going to have a bear chef in there too. I'll post some more artwork in the near future! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 4:38 PM Permalink | | K-ON! My new manga drug. Listening to: Power tools. 
I've recently discovered the manga K-ON! over at One Manga. It's something I notice more and more people referring to, so I decided to give it a go. It's presented in a four panel comic strip format, which is quite nice as that's partially what initially caught my attention with Azumanga Daioh. The humor's light and the characters are distinctly different, allowing for quick "I like her the best" attitudes and judgments to be formed. I'm inclined to pick up the Japanese versions and do some rough translating to practice. That's all the news I got for today. Move along. Nothing else to see here. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 3:01 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Ritz in Spain! Listening to: John Mayer - Dreaming With A Broken Heart 
Shakey:Teese has posted some new photos of Ritz in the Robot in the City Flickr Group! He's in Spain! It's really exciting to see him traveling around the world! I'm glad he's not stuck up in a moldy basement in the backwater sludge factories of Poop Town. Keep those photos comin'! ...is it just me, or does it look like Ritz is putting on a few pounds? posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:51 AM Permalink | | Sunday, May 17, 2009 It's too much Cantonese... Listening to: Eihanna - Rehab 
I got a haircut this weekend at the usual place: a Chinese barbershop in Fremont, which is the capital city of the Chinese community here in the south bay. One of the most peculiar tendencies I've seen at Chinese barbershops is that they never ask my what I want done with my hair. They automatically assume that I just want a shorter version of what my hair currently looks like. I imagine that if I went in with a wispy afro that they would just give cut it to an afro junior. They also don't know the meaning of sideburns. They just automatically assume that the sideburns that took several weeks to grow are like weeds and should be eliminated just below where my glasses arms rest. I have the hardest time growing anything that resembles facial hair, so now I've got another few weeks ahead of me to get back to where I was. Anyway, the bleeding around me ear doesn't represent the barber nicking me. It's actually my ears bleeding from all of the Cantonese that they spoke. It was as if someone take a tin can of rocks, placed it in a cannon and proceeded to shoot my head with the projectile. It was awesome. 
Josie suggested I draw an image of myself and my water levels because it has been quite hot here in the south bay this past weekend. I think it may have gotten to around 100 degrees or so. It's too hot to do anything. It's hot to stand and it's hot to sit. Hopefully it cools down this week. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:16 PM Permalink | | Friday, May 15, 2009 Working on new game... Listening to: Something on "slacker.com". So, the next game I'm working on will be one of those "point and click" games where you either have to solve some murder case, escape the room or none of the above. In any case, the style will be very Hotel Dusk: Room 215 where the main character (which will be me in this first title) will have that hand drawn look (it's called "rotoscoping"). As you can see in the video above, I've tried my hand at it before and it looks quite interesting and unique. Let's just wait until the effect gets played out like match-3 and we'll be good to shove it off to the wayside like a moldy sandwich. More details as they break the surface of my brain or forehead. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 1:06 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, May 13, 2009 SHEEP! Listening to: Bel Biv DeVoe - Poison 
I'm not sure if I ever posted this, but I completed that card game I was working on called SHEEP!. It's a very simple card game where you basically use fence cards to fence in sheep. If you use the exact fences to fence in sheep, you get double the points. If you fence all the sheep in, you play another round and add to your score. Think of solitaire with sheep. I sure said sheep a lot. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 5:54 PM Permalink | | Monday, May 11, 2009 Dollfie Dream - Art Project Listening to: David Choi - Always Hurt 
I was a bit reluctant to post anything regarding Dollfie Dream dolls at first, but decided that it's really no different from me going about and painting a new garage kit. Just a little background for those who are curious on "what the dealio". Dollfie Dream dolls are about 1:3 scale and are created by Volks, a company in Japan that specializes in ball-jointed dolls. This essentially means the dolls use ball joints to allow for more points of articulation, as opposed to the peg-in-hole joints you find in other American dolls or action figures (i.e. neck to torso or arm to torso). They're also very well constructed and of a high quality. My weekend project was simply taking a blank head and apply "make up", essentially painting it to my liking. The eyes and wig are things you can purchase, but the whole thing requires assembly and a little bit of craft knowledge. I also spent the time creating a tutorial for anyone who was curious about doing it themselves. Personally, I think they look really fantastic and I'm satisfied with how it came out. Link: Dollfie Dream Tutorial posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:47 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Ritz is on Internet TV! Listening to: Andy McKee - Rylynn Ritz the Robot makes his internet television debut on this week's episode of Toy Break! You can see him at about 15:30 into the program, after the really neat Keliens toys (which I may have to pick up), where the hosts of the show touch him in all the right places. I like how George gives a really long blank stare while Ayleen talks about the intricate details of the plush and comic. George has more hair than a woolly mammoth and that makes him PG-13 safe, kids. "In a world of overpriced plush, that's a deal." Straight from the fancy lady's mouth, folks! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:17 AM Permalink | | HULK SMASH! Listening to: David Choi - Always Hurt 
This didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to. Oh well. I'll chalk it up as experience! I hope I can apply these experience points to my agility attribute points. I have some beef with Spiderman. I did this illustration this morning--30 minutes on the Wacom tablet. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:24 AM Permalink | | Friday, May 1, 2009 My head asplode... again. Listening to: Nothing. 
That's right! My game has now officially hit the mainstream, folks! (Don't) Save the Princess! has been posted about over at IGN as their indie game pick of the week! HOLY SMOKES! I can't really describe how this feels. It's a bit overwhelming. In any case, I'm extremely grateful to the entire indie gaming community and everyone who even checked out the game at all. Maybe you just downloaded it and never got around to installing it. I thank you too... and so does the bandwidth with my server. Kaloo Kalay! posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:40 AM Permalink | | |
       
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