Martin Crownover

Hey, I'm back from my blog hiatus! Miss me? I thought so.

As anyone who's followed my various exploits over the years might have guessed from my lack of posting, I've been a busy guy lately. This is partially due to my job, to my constant tinkering with Game Maker, to my spending time with my girlfriend, to a minor car accident, and to various other endeavors that will go unsaid. Don't worry though - all is well with Marty. I'm just a teeny, tiny bit tired right now, and barring some sort of spontaneous bout of sleep, I'll do my best to talk about some new stuff here before I sign off tonight.

First though, since pictures are worth a lot more words than I could (or would) ever type here, I've got an image for you:

Pretty neat eh? If all goes according to plan, I'll hopefully be able to take a little time off from work tomorrow and go check out the expo at GDC 2008. I'm pretty excited about it!

And if it turns out that I can't go, well... at least I got a chance to hit San Francisco for a while earlier in the week. And I've got some good (and legally burned) tunes, and a wireless headset for my 360 / PC gaming needs. Call of Duty 4's been a blast lately.

As far as serious projects with Game Maker go, I really haven't had much time lately to code. This is good though, because as some of you have spotted, I am actually working on a collaborative effort right now, with a fellow by the name of Mr. Chubigans. We're working on a sequel to his previous game, Sandbox of God; a sequel which is appropriated titled Sandbox of God 2. The full title is actually Sandbox of God 2: Ancient Warfare - we're hoping to enter the game into the latest YoYo Games competition, whose theme is "Ancient Civilizations." I'm working on the graphical end of things, and we've also recruited MischiephX / Ds (of Aces High Over Verlor Island fame) for music, so hopefully we'll be able to get something fun and impressive put together. Win, lose, or fail to finish, I am really enjoying this so far. It's actually quite a relief to be able to leave other important aspects of the game in someone else's hands, and just concentrate on the part I am most skilled at.

Normally at this time (9:44 PM PST), I don't feel all that tired, but tonight I feel especially exhausted. I've been putting a lot of hard work in at my job, trying to finish up a movie loop for a big expo coming up, and I've also had to create a lot of random things in a very compressed amount of time lately. I did get to see a Flash banner that I created up on ESPN.com though, so that was exciting. All in all it's very rewarding, but just the same, I am really pooped out, even with the short work week.

Another tidbit for those of you who have read my posts on my various blogs over the years - I have finally been "inspired" to get that painting job done for my buddy. It's a good thing that he's a patient guy, but I think that with my new inspiration, the trifecta of paintings that have taken me over a year to get done will be worth the wait. I'm probably going to try to get that rolling this weekend - I'll post some pics.

Well, anyway... Marty's hittin' the sack. Thanks for reading my blog, and hope to see you back here soon... I'll be posting more often again, so don't be a stranger!