funoodle - design-videogames-etc

Invisible

2010-08-15T22:54:00.001-07:00

Just for kicks I'm considering trying my hand at printing at selling some posters. This is a peek at the first of the bunch.

Racketboy Podcast logo

2010-08-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Podcast logo submissions for Racketboy.com. I've never bothered to enter any sort of design contests before, so this is a first for me. Not like there's any big reward or anything for this, but it is nice to actually get some work finished and put it out there for people to see. More after the jump.

Admittedly the grungy looking banners don't go with the page aesthetic as well as the clean ones, but I really do like them. I'm not even sure how the final logo is being chosen so I guess I'll see what happens in a couple weeks.

Keldor: The Thoroughbred of Sin

2010-08-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

My sister had My Little Ponies, and my brother and I had He-Man toys. Oddly enough they never really mixed, the toy dinosaurs just seemed more fitting than horses.

On a side note the librarian in my high school was nicknamed Skeletor. I'm not sure how many people in my class even got the joke.

Source: Mari Kasurinen

Also: Another My Little Skeletor , Bad Horse

Bionic Kittycat

2010-06-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Besides being pretty amazing and being a medical breakthrough, I love how the surgeon clearly really loves the cat. If/when this sort of technology starts getting used on human prosthesis it'll be really interesting.

Games of Summer

2010-05-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Summer is a wonderful time for gamers. Lazy weekends, schools are out, friends are visiting, there's tons of great reasons to pick up a controller. Though the more recent trend towards overbearingly brown color schemes and games that take themselves way to seriously may make it a little obscure summer is a big theme in many games, especially slightly older ones. Besides just being set in the summertime these games I've found to have something distinctly summery about them. A part of it is nostalgia, I think everyone has at least a few games under their belt that were summer projects that they worked on in order to get finished before school started again. But beside that there's a certain element of plain old fun, simple playability, and great colors that make games just feel right. Whether playing them during the summer, or brightening up a winter day there's just a bit of summer magic there. So here we go.

Summer Games / California Games

As part of a larger series of sports titles both these games are nothing but simple, classic sports collections. Summer Games included; pole vault, platform diving, sprinting, gymnastics, freestyle swimming, skeet shooting, and rowing. California games included fewer games with; half pipe, roller skating, surfing, bmx, footbag, and flying disk. Looking back on these games now they have pretty primitive looking graphics, but like all the best C64 games the animation, responsiveness and depth of the games makes the visual capabilities of the system largely irrelevant. And with all the variety in these two games it's easy to sink a lot of time into them.

Animal Crossing Wild World

Really I'm sure any of the Animal Crossing games could fit here, but Wild World is the only one I've put serious time into, and by serious I mean I played it for at least a few minutes just about everyday for nearly a year. The game isn’t as much of a soul sucking time sink as most MMORPGS seem to be, but it's up there. Granted the game can get boring, even though I turned it on everyday for nearly a year, most of the time it was just to pull weeds and water my flowers. But summer is probably the best time of year for the game, there's a large variety of fish to be caught, bugs to collect, and everything just looks really nice. In it's heyday my town was covered with flowers, and while it meant I had to be careful running around it was damn pretty, and trying to breed hybrids is pretty fun. AC definitely isn't a game you can put hours into everyday, but it's fun to sit down with for a quiet 15-30 minutes at some point in the day, visit with your favorite townie, and then get back to real life.

Wii Sports / Wii Sports Resort

As far as games to play with a group go it's though to beat either Wii Sports game, anyone can pick it up easily and it's perfectly suited to short play session before you head out side to get some fresh air like the game constantly insists you do. The games can get old after awhile, but like the better casual games they keep you coming back for at least a few minutes. Even after months of not playing Wii Sports I got sucked right back in by the fitness mode. It's much like Animal Crossing in that you won't spend hours playing it, but it's easy to play for 5 minutes daily.

Sid Meier's Pirates!

I had nearly forgotten about this one. A few weeks ago I got a copy of the Xbox version and have been playing it of and on since then. It's a great update to the old PC game, it's really hard to say much about it without saying a ton. But to keep it simple, everything holds up great still. Shimmering tropical water, simple but robust gameplay, and charming pirate antics make it really easy to spend a long time tooling around the Caribbean. While the Xbox version is generally inferior to playing it on pc, being able to do it from the couch is pretty nice. A Wii version was just announced recently. It's a surprise to me, but it should be a great game for the expanded Wii audience.

Mario Sunshine / New Super Mario Brothers

Mario Sunshine is a pretty obvious choice, it's the only Mario game to be set entirely in a summer location. It has a resort town, ocean, beaches, boats, and a great summery soundtrack. There's plenty of reasons why people don't consider it one of the better Mario games, but the good easily outweighs the bad in my eyes. The camera can be infuriatingly uncooperative, and some of the levels just aren't especially interesting. Basically when it's bad, it's bad, but when it's good, it's really good. The warp pipe sections are some of the best 3d Mario levels ever, even when they make you want to chuck the controller against the wall.

New Super Mario Brothers is another Mario game that's become a bit of an object of derision. It doesn't add much anything new to the Mario formula, and it is rather easy. But it's still damn fun. Like you’d expect it has the normal desert world, winter world, etc. set up. Except when you hit world 3 there's a small difference, an honest to goodness summer world complete with beaches and palm trees. It's also on of my favorite worlds in the game, there's a nice variety of water elements in the levels without getting annoying, and the music is great. Plus all the enemies bouncing in time with the music seems most fitting in the summer setting.

Outrun

If I were trying to put this list in order from 1 to 10, Outrun would easily be number one. This game is pure summer. Loose story line, fast cars, hot chicks, and great music. The whole point of the game is to grab your blonde bombshell, jump in a Ferrari convertible, and drive like maniacs to your destination. Not a bad basis for a summer game at all. Possibly one of the most unique things about Outrun is that it wasn't conceived as a racing game, but simply as a driving game. There's no real opponents besides the clock, and the traffic. It makes the absurd basis for the game relatable, who hasn't wanted to just run out and do something only to get stuck behind traffic.
I've always been drawn to the original game because of it's great looking arcade cabinet, but Outrun 2 (and 2006) are sterling examples of how to update a classic game. There's some gameplay additions, but nothing that takes away the raw thrill of driving way to fast with your girl at your side. Also Outrun 2 and 2006 include the original music, and remixes that are also quite good. I know I've already mentioned music in other games, but the music in Outrun is truly exceptional, the three song choices in the original game are the only video game music that I keep on a cd in my car. Plus the Xbox versions look wonderful on a hd set.

Naxat Summer Carnival Games:
Recca, Spriggan, Alzadick, Nexr

All four of these games are pretty straight forward shoot 'em ups with any gimmicks that seem to get peoples attention so much lately (Ikaruga). But they're all very well put together shoot 'em ups, that incidentally were all made for a summer competition. Recca is particularly significant for doing downright amazing things with the Famicom hardware. Like all shoot 'em ups these games all make for great quick 5 minute plays, or for spending hours with.

Sonic the Hedgehog

As a franchise Sonic has seen better days, but there's still glimmers of greatness here and there in the newer games. Not that I'm addressing the newer titles, I just wanted to voice my support for what's still great about Sonic, the poor blue fella is hated on by "t3h h4rdC0r3z' as much or more as the Wii.
Like Mario, Sonic games have a variety of differently themed stages. But the first stages are pretty much all straight up summer fun. In particular Green Hill Zone (any of them), and the first stages of both Sonic Adventure 1, and 2. to me the Green Hill Zone levels pretty much are Sonic. They're beautiful looking (love that green color), the level design is smooth and fast, and they just feel great to play. It's a shame that with the exception of a unlockable in Sonic Adventure 2 the Green Hill seem to be getting ignored.
As for Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. in one it has you running along the beach, over board walks, and getting chased by a killer whale. Which while really great, just isn't as fun as the first stage of SA 2, though it does say summer a little louder. SA2 starts out with Sonic skate boarding down a San Francisco looking hill on the blade of a helicopter, while a catchy song about "rolling around at the speed of sound", and "following your rainbow" blares (well at least it does when I play the game, it's a great song no matter what anyone says). All ending with Sonic getting chased by an enormous semi truck and a quick cameo by Big the Cat. The only drawback is that like the rest of Sonic Adventure, it takes a fair number of playthroughs to do it all fluidly. But once you get it it's a blast.

Powerful Pro Baseball

I don’t think I could get away with calling this a summer games list without including at least one full baseball game (Wii Sports baseball is little more than batting practice). The Powerful pro series of games has been around for quite some time now, though it's only found it's way into US release in recent years. It's in many people opinions the best baseball game out there. If you’re a big baseball fan there's an obsessive amount of stat tracking (what is it with baseball fans and tracking stats?), and deep gameplay. For more casual players it's easy to pick up and have a good while not being intimidating despite it's amazing depth, the adorable super deformed characters don't hurt either. Definitely a great summer game, you play for as much or as little as you feel like, it looks good, and well it's baseball. And what's more summery in the US than baseball?

Earthbound

I had to squeeze one longer game into the list, and I couldn't think of a better choice than Earthbound. In a way Earthbound is very much like summer. There's a lot of things the you have to do that really aren't much fun, but all the little things that happen over the months easily overshadow any annoying or boring parts. There's the obvious reason why Earthbound makes a great summer game, pretty early on you visit the resort town Summers, which much like Outrun gets all the colors of a sunny beach town just right.

But it's not just Summers, color wise the whole game is spot on. The bright, but slightly washed out pastel greens of Threed and Twoson with their sun bleached roads, picket fences, and nicely cared for houses are all just how they should be. There's so many more locations in the game, but these early ones are by far my favorites mainly for the colors.
That's not all the summery things about Earthbound though, the basis of the game is pure summer. I think everyone imagined the grand adventures they'd go on with tier friends while school was out for three months and their parents insisted that they stayed outside till it got dark. Well that's Earthbound, it's a impressive adventure with Ness (if you don't choose your own own) and his friends. They go to exotic places, fight, aliens, dinosaurs and,,, hippies.
What really impressed me about this game is that unlike every other JRPG I've played is that there's a pretty meaningful message about personal growth through the game, and it didn't make me roll my eyes and groan. It's implemented well and is actually quite touching. Also being a longer game than any of the others listed here it's an easy game to sit down with when there's more time available, like to unwind at the end of the day, and have a grand adventure while still getting all these other summer titles in.

2010-05-02T14:20:00.001-07:00

So here's the plan as of now:
-Games of Summer
-More renderings
-Something GBA related

I'm not so sure if I can keep up with three posts a week, but it's worth a shot.

2010-05-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

There will be a new post very soon I swear. It's something I wrote for last summer but never posted. Plus some end of semester work from school.
I've been working on quite a list of summer projects, so hopefully there will be fairly regular postings here for awhile. Stay tuned.

More render goofing

2010-02-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

The reflections are goofy (besides the compression), but I like how it's coming along. I'm kinda surprised at the kind of results I've been able to get after just a few weeks of class. I barely know anything about how this all works but I can still come up with stuff that looks pretty alright imo.

Studio Product Photos

2010-01-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

I did a handful of product photos for my rendering class this weekend. The idea was to get a feel for lighting and camera work in real life before we get more into doing it on the computer. My girlfriend's Powershot S3 did a admirable job as usual, for being a sub SLR camera it can take some really great pictures. Plus we got to do products of our choosing so I could have a bit of fun. I wound up using a Hudson Shooting Watch, a Trexi (don't recall the artist for this one), and my Seimitsu LS-32-01 that's been sitting around waiting for me to finish my stick.

Quickie DCM

2010-01-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

I was fairly pleased with how this came out, I put it together over a few hours with Rhino, Grasshopper, and used Auxpecker for the textures. It's nothing amazing, and there are

inaccuracies for sure but after using only Blender for a few months I was surprised how easily I was able to jump back into Rhino.

If you don't know the chair is a Herman Miller DCM. The wood versions of these seem

to get more attention than the metal ones, but I really like the metal version. It's like a

much classier version of the chairs in a elementary school.

Stereo rendering test

2010-01-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

cross your eyes to see it

An early attempt :/ I'm not sure if there's enough depth to the scene for the effect to work very well, I have a feeling the lighting is a factor also. The biggest thing I'm unsure about is how exactly to place the cameras. I currently have the two cameras tracked to the same point, but I don't know how much distance to put between them, trial and error should sort it out though. There is a guide I found for making red/blue stereo images, I think I'm going to trying and muddle through the python and see if I can't make that work for my purposes.

New semester, new blog

2010-01-12T20:30:00.001-08:00

So the spring semester of school started this week. I've only had each class once so far, so nothing to special has happened yet. In my digital rendering class this morning I found out that we're going to be required to keep a blog of sorts. Partially to act as a way to keep track of out stuff, but also as kinda a note taking tool. I'll probably be sticking more finished renders up here as we make them, but if anyone who might see this is interested at all ther will be much more here.

On a slightly related note I think I'm going to adjust the look of this place a bit. Nothing crazy or anything, just more tweaking. I threw it together pretty quickly before and I've been meaning to do more since then but just haven't. I rather like the dingy retro style banners I made for this and the school site plus they're quick to put together. Hopefully there will be a snazzy wallpaper here to to with the new banner before long.

2009 GOTY (more or less)

2010-01-06T22:27:00.000-08:00

I had no intention of doing something like this, but because of a post over on Racketboy I figured why not. So without any further fuckery here's my personal games(s) of the year for 2009.

Pac-Man Championship Edition

What's that you say, this game came out in 2007? Well you're right, but

it's new to me (this being a personal goty and all). This was actually only the second XBLA game I've bought so far, and it's actually lived up to it's hype. I read all sorts of things about how this is THE example of how to update a classic properly and I'm inclined to agree. Of course making everything all glowy and shit isn't going to work for everything (though it seems like some want it to), it's perfect for Pac-Man.

Anyways to the point. This game is just stupid amounts of fun, and

with it's different modes I have a feeling I'll be playing it for a long time to come. Which is quite similar to my second GOTY, which actually came out this year. Yeah that's how I justify not being able to pick just one.

Mushihimesama Futari v1.5

This title deserves a fair bit of credit for reasons besides being a great game. It's the only Cave game for 360 than can be played on a non JP console. The only region free Japanese exclusive 360 game. And a shining example of how to do an arcade port right. It plays as is should, has a multiple extra modes, worthwhile dlc, and a ton of video options.

It's a shame there's so much doubt and uncertainty of future Cave releases being region free or localized, because they really did go all out on this game. Like Pac-Man CE I know I'll still be playing this game for a long time to come. Ignorant reviewers like to slam shmups for "only being X minutes long", but even if you were a master at one mode of Futari (no small feat whatsoever) there's still plenty of content to keep you occupied for a looong time.

Really quick Shadow Complex impressions

2009-12-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to picking up Shadow Complex last week since it was on sale for a nice 800 ms points. I've heard so much about it that I figured at the least it should easily be worth the $10. So in a nutshell: It's short, very easy (on normal at least), the story is bland, the locations are completely unmemorable, not all the mechanics work that well, and it's actually a rather fun game.

Mushihime-sama Futari v1.5 LE Unboxing

2009-12-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a looong time since I've done anything here.There are a few posts in the works, and some from earlier that never made it up, so there may be some semblance of activity for a little while.
The big news here is that I finally got around to making a youtube account for this place, which should make semi regular posting a tad easier. The first video posted up above is a quick overview of the Mushihime-sama Futari LE packaging and whatnot that goes along with that.
Things aren't exactly set up ideally for taking video like this yet so it's a bit more of the shaky cam variety than I'd like it to be, but it is still very watchable. Enjoy!

New TIGSource Compo!

2009-07-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

"The two themes are adult games and educational games. Many of us have played both types of games growing up. So what do Leisure Suit Larry and Mavis Beacon have in common? What would happen if Custer got his revenge in the middle of the Oregon Trail? Maybe nothing. Maybe a LOT. The choice is yours."

This is looking like it will quickly become one of their most ridiculous competitions yet, it was only announced a week or so ago and there's already a few demos up on the forums. It runs till August 9th. The TIGSource compo entries never dissapoint, I'll definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Wii Sports Resort Island: Then & Now

2009-06-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm a tad late in actually posting this here (even though I commented on this when it was first posted), but there's some good conversation over on Phantomleap about the changes between the Wii Sports Resort Island from the first time it was shown, to now with the game finished and soon to be released.

I'm a little torn, I do like the new island overall the saturated colors and the mountain texture just don't work for me. The mountain just looks out of place, the semi realistic texture clashes with the striped grass. While on the old island the mountain was textured in a similar fashion as a 2d Zelda game.

I'm not too concerned about the mountain though, the colors bother me more. In the old picture, it could be partially meant to be an atmospheric effect since it's such a high altitude shot. But all the colors are more washed out and pastel like, not unlike the grass color used in Earthbound. While the water is that nice bright light blue, like you'd see in shallow areas of the Caribbean, y'know the sort of place where a resort could be located.

Another thing I didn't initially notice, but was pointed out by a commenter, is the smaller surrounding islands in the old pic. It's tough to say if they're still going to be there or not based on the picture used here. But it would be nice for some sports events to be located on other islands, or say if they were used as a part of the golf course.

There really isn't anything bad about the current island though. My feeling is that part of the reason for the changes made may have been to give it a more 'anywhere' feel. It does seem a little for grounded in reality location wise since the surrounding seem so generic, while the island itself is rather fantastical. Thinking about it in that manner the island could be anywhere, be it the south Pacific, near the Americas, or more towards Europe. It does seem like there's a little more universal appeal, but it just seems to lack some personality. However the lighting and color in each game does seem to have a bit of nice variety, which is really more important since I doubt you'll be seeing much of the island as a whole.

Fischerspooner: We Are Electric Vs Live

2009-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

I stumbled into this video just recently, and was amazed at just how similar it is to Fischerspooners live show (I saw them about a week ago). Besides looking amazing in it's own right, the music video is like their whole live show compressed into 4 minutes. Luckily my girlfriend was able to get some very convenient pictures at the show to compare with the video.
Incidentally the photos from the concert are even in the same chronological order as the music video. It's really amazing how well the video captures the live show, or how the live show recreates the video. With the exception of the neon sculpture everything from the video made it into the live show. I'm curious to know which was put together first, I'm thinking it was the live show, then the video, but I doubt I'll ever now for certain.

2009-06-04T10:53:00.001-07:00

Well I guess my little plan for regular updates has pretty much failed. Even with all the E3 blog-fodder I haven't made any posts recently.
Hopefully I'll be fixing that after work tonight. I really should take advantage of forward posting so ~ ca write a bunch over a weeend then do nothing for a couple weeks. Though I have started playing with Flock a bit, that may at least make things a little more cnvient for posting. Between Flock, posting from my phone, and twitter on my phone you'd think I'd keep thingsup to date better, but oh well. Hopefully by the end of the summer I can make this more of a habit instead of something I remeber to do once month.

Thrift store find #1

2009-04-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

I went to a different Salvation Army store than I normally do today and I realized something. I need to start carrying a camera that isn't in my phone, and I need more disposable income to collect random stuff with.
I don't make it any sort of secret that I have a kink for beefy buttons and knobs, especially metal ones. Needless to say I'm a big fan of vintage electronics. There's something incredibly satisfying about interacting with the controls when they aren't made of cheap plastic painted chrome, or (gasp!) touch screens.

Back to the Salvation Army, they had a pretty big selection of tv's, a whole lot of your typical matte black/grey plastic clad CRTs, and this little fella. It's a shame I literally didn't have a spare $15 to buy this, which ultimately is probably a good thing. Although having it sitting around with a digital converter box hooked up to it would be pretty fun. It's cheap, we'll see what happens I guess.

At least I'll have to go back with my better camera, these cellphone shots really don't do it justice. It's in great condition, nice and shiny, makes me wonder just how the picture is. For the longest time I had pretty mixed feelings about 70's designs, but I think it's growing on me. I've been looking at a lot of older case racers from around that time. There's some ugly stuff for sure, but there's something nice about the simple blocky layout. It's nothing fancy at all, but the material choices are nice, and it's very unpretentious in it's appearance.

I had one other nice find while I was there, that'll be up later. I'm trying to make it a summer project to actually get in the habit of updating this thing regularly so hopefully this will be a start.

Getting old

2009-04-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a new commercial for the Klonoa. it's pretty cool that they're remaking the game and it's looking pretty nice. A more powerful system definitely does the art style justice.
The thing is I spent the entire time thinking "Hey it's a womb chair, those filthy kids better not destroy it!"
I could just be getting older, or turnng more into a furniture nerd than a game nerd.

2009-04-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-03-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Is looking really great in this first trailer. It's going to be a long wait till October.

Magnetosphere

2009-01-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Alot of people may have seen the generally awesome iTunes visualizer Magnetosphere, it's been one of the only reasons I keep iTunes on my computer. Well if you've looked for it lately you might have noticed they were no longer hosting a download for pretty unclear reasons. I don't know when it happened but I noticed just now that it's now an official Apple visualizer in iTunes 8. Kudos to Apple for making a good pick, the vis in iTunes really needed an update an magnetosphere is really great.

Casio calculator watch gets fancy new colors

2008-12-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting after a nifty looking watch like the ones they have on Tokyoflash for a long time now, but I think I have a new front runner for what to get. Or at least what will likely be the first of many. I've always liked the idea of a calculator watch, even with my cell phone using the calculator on it stinks, and I'm one of those people that compares weight and price in the grocery store. Except that all the calc-watches I've ever seen were nerdy in that repressed basement nerd fashion, just not fitting for stealth nerdness. But the the new colors on these Casios are awfully nice. Apparently they think so too and are charging less for them than the old black one.

My Very Own Designer Knock-off

2008-12-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you model making class.

Coffee Cuffs

2008-11-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

What a great idea, coffee sleeves made from veneer scraps that double as a bracelet. I don't even want to know how many foam sleeves I handed out to the same people everyday while working at Tim Horton's. I only ever saw 2 people that saved their sleeves instead of throwing them away, this seems like a great way curtail a huge amount of waste. I'd love to see these next to the counter in coffee houses.

Contexture design

1 Haworth Center

2008-11-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I visited the new Haworth building in Holland, MI. I can't say i saw as much as I'd like to have, I was there for my internship with the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, so I only spent about 20 minutes taking a tour, and 5 hours sitting in meetings taking notes. But it s a very cool building. Being an office furniture company it only makes sense that their office shows off their products, which it does very well, besides the actual office space there's 12 functional pavilions throughout the building (denoted by the red walls) that can be used a meeting space, for example to make a sales pitch on the very chairs cstomers are sitting in.

I really wasn't very familiar with Haworth before visiting, but their office really got me attention, it's very modern and functional, plus everyone there for the meeting couldn't help but mention how beautiful it is. I think I'm going to try and get back there sometime and see if I can't get taken on a more comprehensive tour, with their free form office setup I'm really curious about how their design department works.

image from geek.com

iBoy

2008-10-28T13:53:00.001-07:00

I'm not much of a iphone fan, I'm more of a real button guy myself. But this re-imagining of the interface as for the original GameBoy by Rob Sheridan is really great. I just had to 'shop it onto a GameBoy with some Apple style reflections to finish the picture.