Gamerlad Ep16 Liquorice Chocolate pt3

This page concludes my 4th doodle notebook. I normally post the covers at this point, but to be honest, you would be getting 4 pictures of almost pure black. So I'm going to skip that small tradition.

Today I got the latest Owl City Album. I totally forgot it got released in June until I read in the paper that he was touring for it at the moment. In Auckland he was accompanied by Alaska. So woo. It's cool to see those guys getting out there. Wow, I didn't realize I got into Alaska in January. That feels like yonks ago.

Anyway, The new Album is pretty much the same as all his others, until "Kamakazi" half way into the album. The songs generally have heavier drums and beats than his other stuff did, relying less on the cosmic bell sounds. Oh yes, there's rapping in there to. Which seems strange. I'm not sure I dig that. But if your an Owl City fan you'l like it, if you were keen for a whole big pile more of the same plus a little new stuff.

Gamerlad Ep15 Liquorice Chocolate pt2

I think it's fun to have a character who's a bit of a dick. Its a change from my blobby people I guess. Speaking of which I've been meaning to start a series on my axe dudes. Watch this space.
Do you know what I miss? Door mats. I've never felt more welcomed into a home as when I'm ready those big friendly words on a rug as I'm wiping my feet on it. Why don't people have door mats anymore? Perhaps I'm being sentimental. Now a days I just end up traipsing mud through a home grumpily having not been welcomed in by a rug.
It hurts.

P.s. My Girlfriend is awesome

Gamerlad Ep14 Liquorice Chocolate

This new rubber I'm using is useless. it's one of those pliable ones. Why you would need a pliable eraser is beyond me. To get into those hard to get nooks and crannies on your perfectly flat piece of paper perhaps? Either way I have never needed one for anything I do. To compound the weirdness it has the same colour and consistency of not very sticky blue tack, which traditionally isn't really blue, but more of a depressing grey that reminds me of lumpy apathetic rain clouds. So I'm starting to wonder if some smart cookie suddenly realized that if you rubbed blue tack into a bit of paper you can rub pencil off it (as well as a layer of paper as an added bonus) and realized they can sell twice as much of the stuff if they advertised half of it was an eraser. That's my conspiracy theory anyway.

Maybe Worry

Recycling images ftw! Three more pages on my current doodle book and then I get to use my sexy hardback. People sometimes take for granted that sometimes a guy just wants a firm black exterior. Something we can rely on and know won't get to knocked up. Totally worth the 20 bucks I shelled out...

I'm talking about a notebook you sicko. Wish I wasn't.

Don't Worry

Worry is quite a useless emotion. If your anything like me, the initial thing it makes me do is ABSOLUTELY nothing. Which is really not helpful, cause the worry is usually about something I'm supposed to be doing. And not doing it perpetuates the worry.
This is my first post using the new Blogger layout. I've been blogging for so long now that I've seen a lot of changes happen around here at Blogger, a lot of them being back end stuff that you dear readers, never see. But I have to say, this ones the most dramatic. I almost feel like a new user again. Everything's all slick and white back here. To be honest it kinda resembles what my actual blog looks like. Makes me feel all professional as I write my mind numbing drivel. Now where's that publish button. ah! Ther-

Afraid of the Unknown

I'm really not sure how the blobby people get in these situations. Perhaps they find it easier to talk about things when they're in a location that reflects their own emotions or something.
Oh well. I guess it's time to get onto my Magazine article. Gotta get it done before Monday or I'm screwed.

Hustled for Bread

Don't you hate it when birds do this to you. They come bobbing up to you, all threatening like, staring at you with one side of their head because their eyes aren't situated on the same bit of face. I was considering doing a crust joke next. In fact I still am. But I guess I can't now.

P:S Birds & Baby Squox

So I was itching to draw the Squox again, so as to not cover old territory again I did a slightly smaller version, which wasn't as elongated.
I also drew birds. And it's hard to draw stylized circular birds these days without being called an angry birds rip off, so I decided to just reference it and be done with the thing. To be honest I've only played a few minutes of Angry Birds, and that was on Google+. It's not really my sort of game. It's not what I would call "addictive pulse pounding action" or anything like that, but I'm sure no one has described it like that. In fact a quick google search has indeed told me that no one has ever described Angry Birds exactly like that before.
Wow, three Google references in one post.

P:S Wallbot 2

Nothings more interesting than robots that double as walls, that's for sure!
Yesterday Codemonky and I set about creating a website. About 8 hours, from absolutely nothing to finished product. It was pretty awesome how fast we managed to work. My web based design style is quite sparse though, so I guess that helps. That and Codemonkey is officially a pro now.
Hopefully when we have some actual cash rolling in we'll be able to afford the hosting etc for a portfolio site that will earn us money. Catch 22 there.

P:S Wallbot

This is just a simple bot, with the sole aim of slowing you down. The bottom drawing is if they became stackable. So they would jump on top of each other, lock into position to become a larger wall. I would make the design interlock on the sides as well, but since the game is 2D anyway, the character wouldn't have much choice but to go through just a single layer of these guys at a time.

Gamerlad Ep.13 Introductions

So I figured you guys should know a little more about Gamerlad. So I set up this totally non-contrived conversation between him and blowy hair guy. Hopefully this answers some burning questions.

P:S Slinky Slug Hermit Crab bot

This guy is an instant favourite of mine I think. He would be a bit of a pain to animate, but he looks so friggin cool. Almost like an upgraded version of this guy.
It's edging towards the "holidays" and I have to say, I think I'm doing ok. Our next assignments will consist of building brand manuals and pretty much coming up with all the big picture stuff on how our companies will represent themselves. Either you have no idea what I'm talking about so you don't care, or you're in the business of doing this, in which case you don't want to read about it in your valuable mucking about time.
In other news I've been feeling peckish for shooting people online. So if you see a guy running around on Battlefieldheros.com called Himlik, then that's me. Schooling you.

Gamerlad Ep.12 Religious Kindastremists

I don't know if I have mentioned this one before, it's based on a conversation I overheard last year between two girls discussing what sort of religious people they don't mind. "Oh not those religious extremist ones who hand out flyers at the mall and stuff. Those one's suck." I thought it strange that they would use a soundbite used so often on the news (usually talking about people blowing up a whole bunch of other people) to describe fairly normal people as extremists.
Well I'm glad the closest New Zealand has to extremists are guys handing out little comics about going to hell and old ladies meekly knocking on your door.
Now what I can't stand are those marketing extremists who call me up wanting to do "brief" surveys and help me with my home loan just as I'm about to have dinner.

Gamerlad Ep.11

Ah Gamerlad, you have such great people skills, especially with those shop assistance that don't deserve your arsery. I think this is a mistake that a lot of people have. The belief that the kid who's on minimum wage doing stink hours in a workplace that's designed to oppress any feelings of hope, ARE IN FACT the people who decide all the big picture type stuff that happens in the aforementioned workplace. Working off this brilliant train of logic, they then make the kids life even more horrible by venting their frustrations onto them. It makes me glad that I have never been in nor never will be in a place of customer service. Not for lack of trying. But apparently you need customer service experience to work in customer service. I'm not sure how that corner of the industry got off the ground really.

The Chain Gang Kids / theCGK.com

Can't Sleep

Don't trick yourself folks. "It's funny because it's true" does not mean "It will ALWAYS be funny because it's true." In fact there's overwhelming evidence to support that "It's almost always isn't funny because it's true."
Funniest Home Videos, The News, and this comic are all great examples.
Funnily enough I was listening to a fantastic podcast by Kris Straub and Ethan Nicole as I wrote this. A little way in they mention that the Scott and Kris, Kris and Scott Show. In about a week we shall be blessed with episode one! Excited!

Gamerlad Ep.10

Continued from here, It's nice to have a bit of a break from that boring stuff isn't it? Oh yeah, look up at the tab for this on your browser. Totally rockin a favicon there. Tell me what you think, I wanna make something that looks good on your computer to represent this place. The last thing I wanna do is stink up your favourites/toolbar up the top with an ugly icon. A +1 at the bottom of this post will also suffice if you think it looks aight.

P:S Big Bot

Just a bigger punchy type robot. I'm wondering how long I can keep doing robots till I'm completely sick and tired of them. I should probably come up with some more fleshy wildlife, just so the world feels like it's living and breathing.
I discussed the story a little with that girl today. She helped a little with the text adventure, and a bit more with the Femur comic I did. So she's a fairly safe bet when it comes to writing.

BLIP VF/ REBLE

P:S Old Guy NPC 2

Having a retry of the old dude. I think I want him to look quite strong willed, rather than defeated and droppy, AKA, the guy in the bottom right.
I'm starting to find Holigraphic Pokemon cards littered everywhere. At first I thought it was my lucky break finding a holigraphic Tepig. I was told they were rare and worth up to FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS. Then I noticed that they were stuffing these cards into all the happy meals at Mc Donalds. Way to flood the market McD's, Cheers. (Picture Unrelated)

VADER

P:S Pig Robot

I think this little guy is kind of cute. I finished it with an adventure time-esque gag by giving him a butt.
Talking about robots with human qualities, the fantastic webcomic, Bohemian Drive, finished today. If you have ever wanted to read a comic about an intergalactic road trip in a world that only contains robots, then this is for you. It uses the medium of the internet and infinite canvas to do stuff a lot differently from what your probably used to seeing in a webcomic. Which to be honest, normally doesn't look a whole lot different from a newspaper strip.
Read it from beginning to end and enjoy!

P:S Yet More Robots

These ones are starting to look to much like spaceships.
I mentioned earlier that I was working on a font. I've pumped one out rather quickly. Ill be test driving it for a while to see how it looks and feels. I'm considering doing a version that has actual lower case letters, rather than squashed down uppercasers. Looks like the typography class from year 2 is actually coming in handy! I don't think anyone would have thought we would actually be using what we learnt in a real world situation.

P:S More Flying Robots

Getting a tiny bit more intense with these ones, going with a horizontally based design, rather than the vertical ones that kind of resemble the ship Jango Fett mooches around in.
We had a presentation the other day for our portfolio. So the day before we took our files in to the printers to get them printed and bound. Unfortunatly they were pretty busy, but promised we could pick them up by 8:30 in the morning the next day, half an hour before presentation. The next morning I get my two copies. The trim on them was atrocious, and one side was totally crooked. It was as if they were freestyling with how they threw paper through the printer or something, and then using guesswork to cut everything.
Anyway everyone runs into uni, dead on time to hand in and present. Our lecturer tells us he's "very glad you are all here on time, now stick your stuff on the table in the middle." so we did. And that was the extent of the presentation. I think a lot of people were gutted to not show off their work. It was seriously impressive. Afterwards a bunch of us started going through the pile, reverse engineering absent peoples portfolios to see how they achieved awesomeness.

P:S Old Guy NPC

I started with a quick go at one of the first NPC's and then moved on to flying bots. I think I'm digging the one on the left for its simplicity.
I've started creating a font to be used throughout the game. It's a simple pixel font. Nothing fancy. But I'm excited anyway. A font of my very own! More on that later.

P:S Skinny Concepts

In a google+ conversation I was having with my partner in crime I was complaining that I didn't have a cool 8bit avatar for my user photo like he did. He mentioned that there was nothing stopping me from rectifying that. So I used the powers vested in me to make a stylized NPC of yours truly.
I named him Skinny. After a character I wrote into the initial script (Initial as in current script that needs to be thrown away.)

P:S Fire Robots

So today I decided to think about robots that might wield fire. I ended up with a weird portal shaped one and a drawer full of fire one, I guess I have the furniture thing still on my mind. Look at them ugly squares go!
I ended up rendering the Yack Cube from a couple posts back. His official title is now "Squox".

P:S Porta-Drawer

The box in the top right is a porta-drawer. the dashed bar on the right of it is its little charging indicator. When it's fully charged it suddenly teleports onto it's enemy, displacing them and hopefully maiming in the process. Perhaps if people approach it, it's drawers could shoot out suddenly and knock them back. Never before has furniture terrorized the way this one does.
The bottom left is just a dude in a suit that kind of looks like a robot suit. It helps him get around, robots are gullible little critters. They don't have room in their circuits for recognizing fancy dressers... I might make a teleporting dresser next.

Mouse Trap

The conversation this image was spawned from is probably best left unrepeated. Much like most of the conversations that come out of my families few gatherings, its "guy funny" not "girl funny". It becomes more and more evident with each gathering, since the male to female ratio is dead even at the moment. So one side is howling with laughter at the many ways of how to dispose of one of my brothers cats, while the other half finds itself conflicted between the sanctity of life and just how stink that cat really is.
Seriously, it attacks my nephew. It's pretty much the same size as him. Imagine getting attacked by a lion on your way to the fridge. Yeah, it's just like that.
It turns out that when you google "are some cars racist" my blog comes out on top. That will be my pick of the week of favourite search terms to find this blog. the runner up is "Invisible Chair Clothes".

Wake Up

This morning I was sure someone was praying to Matthius for me. It kind of snowed today in Auckland. Kind of, probably people who normally get snow would just call it cold rain. But its the closest I think we have come since 1939. When I was little I always wished it would snow in Auckland, like full on snow, foot deep. I also wished my fixed cat would have kittens, and if that failed my backup wish was that I had a helicopter that wouldn't run out of petrol. People laughed then, but they didn't have the foresight to see how crazy gas prices would be. They would all be grounded but not ol' Izak. I would be flying around all the time, and the only thing that would make me come down is if I got hungry. I would let people take a ride in my helicopter for some food, totally undercutting all those other helicopter people. Yeah, I thought about it.
Lately London has been burning itself down, sparked by the shooting of an "Afro-carribean male" by police. Opportunists have taken this opportunity to pillage and burn the place to the ground. It made me a bit sad watching the below video. It's been a couple of generations since my ancestors decided that they would like to go to an equally cold place to go hunt whales, but there's a certain pang of seeing the epicenter of what used to be referred to as an empire, getting the shit kicked out of it by its own people. Oh well at least we still have the bastion of the west to-CRAP.

P:S Driller

This guy is pretty rad. Would be fun to animate. I got the drill bit right on the first attempt, which I was stoked with.
Today has been pretty intense with the amount of work I have churned out for uni. But nothings better for the soul than an honest days hard work. Unfortunately that saying doesn't seem to factor in how much the screen KILLS MY EYES.
Download this font and do something cool with it. Just do it. Come on, your obviously not doing anything better with your time if your on this blog.

Project:Snow Bombot

This guy fires a high powered grenade from his massive gun a whopping one foot. Scary lookin', but he's really not so bad if you just don't get close. I realized that I would have to draw two sets of sprites for each side of him, so I gave him a unicycle for legs to cut down the effort exuded on my part. Get to do lots of fun effects for him though. Smoke, explosions etc.
I whipped up a business card this afternoon, all my stuff seems to have a "woop woop woop" vibe going on which almost clashes with the clean lettering and square formatting. It's like saying "I want to work somewhere really swish, but not somewhere where humour is considered 'so uncool.' "

Project:Snow Hurt

We're not sure if we want a hurt animation or not. We might just make him flash. I'm having to redo the punch animation at the moment. The current one makes him look like a spaz with a limp wrist. We're also splitting the characters in half. so the legs are their own little sprite animation. this means the upper half of the body could go into a punch any time during a walk cycle, or a jump, or standing still. Hopefully it works out.

Snow Girl

Remember to always dress appropriately! (For those of you in the wrong hemisphere It's winter here, and over the next couple days we're expecting a polar blast.)

Last night looked amazing. I was walking home at 1 in the morning and the clouds had decided that they were tired of floating around up high. Things just disappeared into the fog. Made me wanna watch this movie again: