Just wanted to throw down a quick update here, since it's been quite a while, and I'm sure many people out there are sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering if I'm lying in a gutter somewhere. Many sleepless nights were had, courtesy of my lack of updates, and I am sorry.
Fear not, however! I am alive and well, and have just been busy with a lot of work and, of course, a lot of play.
I don't think I'd posted the above picture on the blog yet, so there it is - a tree painting I'd done some weeks ago for a contest and auction for the Sacramento Tree Foundation. Sadly, it didn't get accepted into the limited space of the show, but I'm glad to have made it, and I have more ideas for some other paintings in this style.
This painting was done in acrylic paint and paint pen on a 15" x 30" canvas. Here's the sketch the painting is based on (ink on 5.5" x 8.5" sketch pad):
During my time away from the blog, I got to go up to my parents' house for a bit one weekend, and went out on a small vacation to Sonoma with my girlfriend too. I had a great time with both, and the time away from doing work has been refreshing.
Speaking of work, I've got more work lined up for No Love Skateboarding - along with the rat image I posted a while ago, which was used for a shirt design and then reconfigured for a skateboard design, I've done a Denver cityscape and have a few other projects for shirts and boards on deck which I'll post here eventually.
I'm also working on a disc label and CD jacket for a friend of my dad's, Johnny "Guitar" Knox, who is a local blue guitarist in the Sacramento area. That project is going a bit slower than originally planned, but it's getting done slowly.
I've also got a logo to design for my girlfriend's cousin which I have yet to start.
And finally, probably the biggest time sink of them all, I've finally completed Dragon Age: Origins, after about 60 hours of play. The game was good, long, and fun. I'm glad I finally got into it. I've already started another play-through, but I think I'm going to take a break for a while so I can finish on my aforementioned projects, as well as re-acquaint myself with some of the other games I've neglected over the months.
After the somewhat botched Gears of War 3 announcement last week, I've been thinking about running through Gears of War 2 again on Insane difficulty, so I can grab all the collectibles I missed and have some more action-oriented fun for a change. I also want to sink my teeth into some of the Mass Effect 2 DLC that came out while I was playing Dragon Age, but I'm just not in the mood for another epic gaming marathon right now.
Anyway, thanks for checking in, hope the lack of posts hasn't kept anyone away, and (again, I know!) I shall try to be better with the updates.
Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose - I'm back from BlizzCon 2009, and though I don't quite feel ready to head back to work, and all the other responsibilities of non-vacation time, it's good to be home.
My trip started off as the typical Marty-planned trip does: poorly. I happened to hear about when tickets were being sold for BlizzCon 2009 only a few days before the first sale, but I wasn't able to grab any of the tickets in the first round, as I wasn't home that weekend. My luck turned around somewhat quickly though, and I was able to get in and score a couple of tickets very early in the second (and final) round. I also got two cheap plane tickets. As was the case last year, this trip was to be for myself and my brother, to celebrate his birthday.
As the old saying goes, however, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry, and Spencer (my brother) found out only a week before the trip that his work couldn't give him the required time off. He was upset, and I was faced with a dilemma; I wanted to go on the trip, but I didn't want to go alone. Geeking out simply isn't as much fun by yourself. I felt bad too, since the trip was originally for Spencer. So I could skip the whole trip and just spend the time off with him instead. A friend of mine was attending the show this year, and he could pick up our goody bags if I chose to stay home.
After a few days of mulling it over, I decided I'd just go on the trip by myself. I wasn't entirely pleased with this, but I didn't want the money spent on tickets for the show and for flight to be a complete waste. This way, I would also be able to pick up our bags of junk myself, so my friend didn't have to bother with it, and I could attend some of the panels of the show, which I knew would be interesting and fun. I made some changes to my flight times, jumped on a plane, and made it down to BlizzCon for a fun couple of days.
Lucky for me, I didn't have to go it alone after all; my girlfriend happened to have enough miles on her frequent flier rewards card for a free flight to Anaheim and back. So, my trip, which had up until this point, looked like it was going to be lonely and somewhat disappointing, actually turned out to be quite fun. My girlfriend isn't really into games, but she still had a good time as I showed her around the exhibition, explaining all the odd sights and sounds. And we got to venture out and do some shopping, as well as just hang out and relax, something we'd both been needing. I really appreciate the effort she took to come with me, and it was a great impromptu vacation!
But now we're both back at home, and at work. My new World of Warcraft pet, Grunty, is prowling around in Azeroth. My n00bz is guarding the rest of the junk on the shelf in the computer room. And even though I'd rather be off on vacation again, I'm happy to be back. Hopefully my next vacation isn't so long in the making - and better planned to boot!
The inevitable end of my holiday vacation has arrived. Actually, it arrived yesterday, since that was my first day back at work after a New Year's four-day weekend, but I was feeling too lazy to post anything. Technically, I guess my brain was still in holiday mode, so maybe it is right to say that my vacation ended today. In any case, it's the new year, I'm back on the blog, and I've got a lot of gameage to talk about.
I had a great Christmas at home - it was nice to spend an extended amount of time with my family, play (and lose horribly) at Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and other non-electronic games. We watched movies and sat around talking and joking with each other. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my mom, dad, and brother. And later on, after Christmas was over, I had another fun holiday weekend spent with my girlfriend. This included an awesome birthday (I'm 27 now, yikes!) with a nice dinner with my parents, a lunch the next day with just my girlfriend, a trip to the theater to see Yes Man (which was hilarious), and lots of cake and presents. So maybe you can understand why I've neglected the blog lately!
Like many people out there, I've also been sucked into playing a lot of games lately, since I got a few of them for Christmas. My mom and dad got me Fallout 3 and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and my brother got me Prince of Persia, so I've had my hands full. Of the three, I think my favorite is Banjo-Kazooie, since you can build just about any kind of vehicle you want, and thus, play the game just about any way you want, but I am enjoying all three for their own merits. Fallout 3 is proving to be the time sink that is par the course for Bethesda games, and Prince of Persia has been a surprisingly fresh and fun experience, akin to the Sands of Time game, though with less frustration (so far).I'll write more about each game individually in the coming week as I continue to play through them, but for now I just wanted to drop a note to let everyone know how things are going for me. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!
Oh, and I'll be raffling off the copy of Half-Life 2 + HL2: Episode 1 again soon - so stay tuned!
I'm finally back from my Thanksgiving holiday at my parents' house, and I can hardly believe it's already December! Where has this year gone?
Anyway, I had a couple of things I wanted to post today.
A recent episode of The Simpsons took Apple down a peg, as Springfield mall got its first "Mapple" store. It was quite enjoyable. Of course, all the YouTube links are gone now, so you'll have to find the episode yourself.
The next thing I wanted to post, also a video, is a new trailer released yesterday for the Black Mesa mod - a Half-Life 2 mod that is looking to recreate the original Half-Life with the Source engine, but with more content, higher resolution textures and models, and environments that take better advantage of the engine than Valve's original port of the game. Normally I don't get too excited over Source engine mods, since they rarely make good on their promises, or even get finished for that matter, but the amount of polish that has gone into this trailer makes me hope otherwise for Black Mesa. You can view the trailer below and find out more about the mod at the official site.
I played through a huge chunk of Half-Life 2 this holiday weekend, so I guess I'm a little bit excited about Half-Life in general again.
I'm glad to see that people found my recent set of examples interesting too, and I hope to get a fixed GM6 version of the 3D Rain example up sometime tonight. Sorry about the slow rain example, I'll play with it and see if I can get something up that's a little easier on the older machines soon as well!
That's all for now - thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving (or just a good weekend if you're not from the U.S.)!
Update: I've made a new GM6 file that should run better than the previous rain example, and which should load correctly in GM6. The area that the rain covers is a bit smaller than the original example, and the rain is a bit more sparse, but you should get the idea.
You can download the new example at the link above!
My girlfriend had some business to do in Las Vegas this weekend, and I tagged along for the trip. It was my first trip to Vegas, and definitely won't be my last; I had a great time, and even made it out with only a small gambling debt.
I flew out on Friday and met my girlfriend at the hotel, a small-ish but nice place only a half block off the strip, which proved to be a great location for refuge after a lot of walking in the desert sun. I was surprised to see the rows of slot machines inside the airport terminal - it seems one can gamble from the moment his or her plane arrives to the moment it leaves again.
That night we went out to take in some of the typical tourist stuff: the local hotels, casinos, and the sights around them. The Bellagio was probably the nicest spot, with the amazing fountain show out front (synchronized to the tune of Chicago's "All That Jazz"), the glass ceiling in the foyer, and the beautiful fall conservatory display (which was sadly under partial construction at the time).
Caesar's Palace was also pretty incredible. We wandered around the indoor casino sections, clubs, restaurants, shops, and other faux sky covered venues 'til our feet hurt.
The next day, my girlfriend had to a work event in the morning and afternoon, so I spent a good deal of time just walking around, looking at everything. After we grabbed an awesome breakfast at Paris, I hit the Miracle Mile Shops, and then the Vegas strip. I ducked into the odd casino here and there to cool off (it was hot outside), and before my walk was through, I'd finished off two sodas and a bottle of water. I got to see some more great stuff, like the Venetian gondolas and the pirate ship at Treasure Island, and of course, I did a little gambling on one of my breaks from the street. Throughout the trip, I only gambled about $40, and though I did have small winnings here and there, I lost it all in the end. I had a good time doing it though, so I have no regrets.
After getting some much-needed rest in the hotel, my girlfriend arrived and we went out again. We had a great dinner at Pampa's in Planet Hollywood, and then took an impromptu limo ride over to the MGM Grand to catch Kà, one of the handful of Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas.
Kà is the second Cirque show I've seen, and though I imagine it's quite hard to be as blown away by the wonder of a Cirque show as the first one you see, it was an absolutely amazing show. Through a series of performances which expertly mix theater and acrobatics, the tale of two siblings and their travels to re-unite is told. This show's signature is a moving platform which serves as floor, wall, and everything in between as the performers run, climb, fight, bounce, and slide over it. It's hard to describe it in words without giving too much away, but I highly recommend seeing Kà if you're even in Vegas and have time to see a Cirque show. It was truly incredible.
My girlfriend and I finished off the night with a quick walk over to New York New York, and just barely made it onto the roller-coaster there. It was fitting to end the last night of a whirlwind trip on a whirlwind ride.
On Sunday, we got up early, had one final breakfast (a champagne breakfast!) at the Caesar's Palace buffet, gambled a few more dollars, and then headed to the airport. A fun weekend for sure. Hopefully we can visit Vegas again someday when we've got a little more time to play around.
After a few well-deserved days off, I'm back on the mean streets of California, choking on the smoky air, navigating the dense freeway traffic, and cranking my air conditioning up to 11.
I bet you didn't even notice I was gone, did you? (Don't answer that!)
I had a great time though, and I wanted to post a bit about it here before I return to the doldrums of my normal updates... and before I get back into working on my competition entry, which I'll be showcasing on the blog as soon as I can.
Anyway, my girlfriend had to do some traveling up north for her work, and seeing how we both love it up in Seattle (and we both needed a break from the California heat), we decided to make an extended weekend out of it. Our legs are sore from all the walking around, but we both had a great time, and got to see and do a lot of cool things on the trip.
Fremont Summer Solstice Parade
Our first stop, after dropping off our bags at our hotel and grabbing a bite to eat, was the Summer Solstice Parade in Fremont. My girlfriend, having lived in Seattle for a few months some years ago, had already been to the parade before. I had not, and was pretty excited about it. Watching a throng of crazy people parade down the street is always fun, right?
Turned out it was. The parade, which was founded on the principle of being entirely human-powered, was filled to the brim with neat ideas for floats, interesting costumes, and awesomely-demented people. The Fremont street fair, a large gathering of local crafters and merchants, was equally cool, and was about ten times larger than the last time I'd seen it, presumably because of the number of people at the solstice parade. I liked the "art cars" they had there as well.
One thing that took both my girlfriend and myself by surprise (in a good way) was the pre-parade bicycle cavalcade. Admittedly, this probably doesn't sound very exciting - until I mention the fact that 90% of the people riding these bikes aren't wearing anything but some body paint and a smile. All I can say is that public nudity is kinda awesome.
Bainbridge Island
On the west side of the Puget sound is Bainbridge Island, a small bit of land accessible via only one bridge to the north, and by ferry from Seattle. Though neither my girlfriend or I have ever explored the island in its entirety, we always manage to find something fun to do there, and usually some good eats as well. For this most recent trip, we made it to Doc's Marina Grill for some excellent fish & chips, and then walked up the hill to the Bainbridge Pavilion to rest and catch a movie. We ended up watching Kung Fu Panda.
I actually really enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, for a few reasons. Probably the first things you notice about the film is that it's a visual splendor. The backdrops are beautiful, the animation is slick, and the characters are amazing - there isn't one scene in the entire movie that isn't a complete treat for the eyes. The all-star voice acting was also very well done, especially Jack Black's performance as the panda, Po, who leads the film. Also well done is the story, which is somewhat predictable, but which is told so well that it manages to stay just fresh enough to be interesting.
Kung Fu Panda is definitely a children's movie, but I liked it a lot, and would see it again. I actually feel somewhat inspired to create a stylish Kung Fu-type game now, but I need to finish my competition entry before I start something like that. Kung Fu Panda was a great movie though, and I highly recommend it.
Dinner with Gunner McJack
If you've followed Reflect Games since its beginnings, you probably recognize the name Gunner McJack - a hardcore firearms master, and a professional ass-kicker. The fictional Gunner McJack is derived from a character a friend of mine and I created back in college. I got to grab a bite to eat with my buddy, who's taken on the nickname of Gunner McJack, which was fun. Not much more to say about that, except that I still do plan on making a Gunner McJack game one of these days.
Experience Music Project
One of the last things my girlfriend and I got to do in Seattle was visit the Experience Music Project, or EMP, which houses some really great exhibits on the history of rock 'n roll, as well as the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
I wish we would have had a bit more time to look through both sections of the EMP. The collection of historic items from rock history was impressive, and the current exhibition, a Jimi Hendrix retrospective, was amazing. The compendium of related items was fun to look at, and even included pages from Hendrix's diary detailing a few nights of gigs. Also on display was a large collection of historic guitars, spanning the range from awesome to eccentric. Upstairs from the main floor are a series of booths where you can learn the basics of playing a variety of instruments, audio mixing, etc. There's also large media room where you can listen to and watch audio / video clips of artists discussing their songs and performing. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but I could have spent at least a few more hours looking at everything.
The Science Fiction Museum also had a great exhibit called Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels, which contained a large number of robot models and toys, including various Transformers, Mechagodzilla, and other gun-toting, plastic automatons. It was a great way to end the tour through the museum itself, which housed a fine collection of science fiction memorabilia from every era since its inception. I'm not sure if most of it was replication or original, but it was awesome to see artifacts like the original Star Trek costumes, the gun Bruce Willis used in The Fifth Element, and the E.T. spaceship. It was also quite enlightening to see how entrenched our culture is in science fiction, and I think that even my girlfriend, who isn't really into science fiction much, got a kick out of some of the show.
And Now I'm Back
So yeah, after a whirlwind of activity in Seattle, I'm back. I'll be picking up production on my competition game again tonight, and probably getting in a little gameage on the side too. You'll be able to read about all that here, and I'll try to get some images (or maybe some video!) of the new game uploaded soon. It was a great vacation, but I'm glad to be back, too. After all, being at home and getting things done now is what makes vacation in the future so much more enjoyable!
Thanks for reading, and if you're up in the Seattle area, check out some of the stuff I mentioned above, if you can.
