Making a game for COLGATE toothpaste

This will be a post I'll be updating every now and then during the production of a game I am developing for the COLGATE toothpaste brand so you guys can see the different stages I went thru.

Client: COLGATE / Agency: MecGlobal
Objective: Do an interactive application based on the product which is a tooth brush that needs to be changed every 3 months. Make it fun, make it viral.

With this in mind I went to a meeting with the guy from the agency, donwstairs from were I work, my boss wasn't there, so I took the opportunity to ask him what he wanted to do with his product. To be honest I didn't knew what to do with the product, I knew I wanted to do a game... but how I could make it fun and challenging at the same time? Well, after couple minutes of discussing the matter, the idea just popped in my head and I started drawing on the board. The idea came alive, to do a whack-a-mole type of game (those you bang with a hammer on the dying arcade places) but using a mouth as a back drop and each teeth would get dirty and with your toothbrush (linked to the mouse) you had to click and brush the dirt away.

Here is a sketch I did based on what I had on the white board in the meeting:


On top of that, even thou the mouth would be illustrated, the face had to be an image uploaded by the user and calibrated with a mask that fits the position of the mouth. Kind of challenging, never done that from an user upload point of view, but still on the works. The game time will be represented as 3 months, in the game real time, each day will be a second, since the game is running at 30 frames per second that means each "month" = around 30 seconds, so the total of 3 "months" is 1 minute and a half. After the time is up, you pick a toothbursh and go the the next level. Four levels total, 3 months each = one year, so the total gameplya time is 6 minutes, which is perfect for the target audience, a short rush fun game. See, this type of web games are targeted for an audience form the newspapaer website who are jsut passing by looking and interacting with promotion on a short term. SO hte shorter the better.

Couple more subjects came in as a highscore board, the upload image feature (which could be substituted by avatars...Wii likes), tips, product placement and so on. Everything was fine until the deadline was spoken.... June 2nd 2008. Lets see, the meeting was on MOnday May 26th 2006. So that means I had a week to do all this, when I am actually working with another big project for 3M which is another breakthrough story I will talk about later on. One week for a game like this is not enough... I mean its doable if I was cloned like 5 times each of me doing something different, graphic, audio, programming and so on. But no, jsut me, and it was my concept, my programming etc. To be honest I started working with this yesterday.. thursday 29th, like an hour or 2 before leaving, working mainly on the programming, and this morning also, I worked with the programming because the agency started harrassing us. And to be realistic this is NOT DUE for the june 2nd, at least maybe 5th of june, and with out image upload.. unless like I said I was cloned already. So I jsut concentrated on the base programming sent it to the client so he would be happy for the moment so I could then work on the graphics... here is a screenshot of it:
Right now I am still testing the gameplay, but I will leave it simple as it is. Thats it for now, hopefully I will do more updates to the game the last couple hours left today. I do love designing games, it just sucks when I have to do other work at the same time that require the same level of concentration and creativity... it just makes me not do high quality projects since everything is due around the same date. But oh well, but thanks to the encouragement of my co-workers it keeps me motivated, specially when I received a call from my friends downstairs were someone asked if Angelina JOlie was showcased pregnant in Kung Fu Panda..... its like... ok thats stupid... maybe she was pregnant on the voice over.... but c'mon a pregnant cartoon? hahaha oh well why not? oh well.. time to keep on working! Funny shit.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

PROLOGUE:
Before talking about the movie I want to say that I must admit I was quite desperate for the realease of this movie since it was announced.. even before that when I heard the rumors and the change of hte scripts etc. I always loved the indiana jones trilogy. Since a little kid my dad let me see Raiders of the lost ark and temple of doom every day, so I grew up with that (along with Conan and star wars, althoug can't wait for King Conan to be released). Besides that, Indiana JOnes and the Last Crusade, I think it was the last movie I saw with my dad before he died 2 years later. I consider Indiana Jones its a great movie series.. and also have some great sentimental value for me. Indiana JOnes is the true action adventure hero... he inspired so many games and movies... lets say movies like The Mummy, National Treasure, many more advanture movies have clear resemplance to Indiana Jones, also games like Tomb Raider, God of War, Pitfall, and many more... have their action and puzzles straight out of Indiana Jones. That means its a classic... its a stepping stone for every action adventure movie. Recently at work when they said we got the movie account for web publishing.. I WANTED THE PART, even thou I was working with something else I took my time to do a splash page (which I posted the link at the bottom of this post). I wanted to do the splash page and its funny because 20 years ago I would never imagined that I will have the opportunity in the future to work with the movie advertising for the web, so I added some extra elements. Not only that, because of the promotion we received a 7 foot tall poster of the movie.. and since it had a small tear it couldn't be given away to the public so my boss gave it to me! That was really cool from her, and not only that.. I got tickets for the premiere. So right now I just need Indiana JOnes toys.... and of course the trilogy in dvd since I lost the trilogy on VHS. OH fuck I am so excited.... so now read my half assed review... SEE THE MOVIE!

REVIEW:
GOT TO SEE INDIANA JONES tonight in the PREMIERE (which is 2 or 3 days earlier than USA). ALL I WANT TO SAY ITS A DAMN GOOD MOVIE. But to be realistic, I think Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Ark still can't be topped. I did liked Temple of Doom, but I think it was more obscure than the others. This movie is good but it wont be fair to compare it to the others from 20 years ago, for various factors,.. including that Indy is older now and they had to impress an already how can I say it..special fx hollywood spoiled audience?

But the movie its really good on its own purpose. It has good humor, action, some nostalgic moments, great characters and special Effects. But for some reason the movie didnt have that punch... for an example the bad guys didnt felt that intimidating... they actually felt dumb and harmless. So the movie at some points feels like... "so what are we suppose to do, who we running from" the y did exactly what the bad person wanted... all along. So Idont know... that part of the script felt a little vague. But besides that the movie is really entertaining, it was meant for all the public, I have to admit there is some slow parts... but is the scholastiv part that explains what are they looking for.. then straight to the action. If I had to compare the plot... it looked really familiar to Last Crusade... like these key elementes: add family factor, bad guy captures indy, indy helps bad guys, indy escapes with loot, bad guys try to keep up with indy to the final spot where bad guys catch up and then the tables turn; what they wanted is what kills them. Its a classic indy formula it happens in Last Crusade and Raiders of the lost ark... so no spoiler.. But yeah I think the movie is a success, it made people from this time to go back and see the old movies and see this one... and relive the joy... The characters (good ones) did an amazing job, maybe the female character overacted on some parts but fuck it. ITS GOOD.

I just said what I think of it, and yes I WILL SEE IT AGAIN AT THE THEATERS... I got luucky I got to see it on the PREMIERE since where I work they had some tickets for it so at the last minute I was granted 2 tickets. PRICELESS, literally. Go see this movie, I think Harrison ford did an amazing job, I think is the best Indy performance from all the movies... even thou I think Temple of Doom Indy ahd its moments, but still this Indy is more mature, more wise, and jsut.. INDY! Go see this movie.. its fucking great... The best summer movie so far! check the splash page I did here:
http://www.primerahora.com/promociones/indianajones/

The show must go on...

It's been a month since my last post, and yes like always lots of things happend in that time. As far I can remember the spot lights were, having a family weekend... maybe the first in many years.... many years. My brother came down from Jersey with his wife and 2 kids who are real fun to be around with, since they are into retro video games too and are just.. crazy. We all met along with my other brother and his son, my mom, my girlfriend and last but not least my son. It was a great experience, I jsut hope it happens again here is a pic of me and my son and nephews:


The moments were unforgetable but I won't recount them now. Besides that I went to an 80's party were I dressed.. not so different of myself actually but my theme was SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, and my girlfriend tried a Cindy Lauper / Madonna thing:


And besides that... another thing was that the guitar player of my band got a hold of a warehouse and he managed to get a Vert RAMP there for skating and I went there and I just felt like back in high school, felt intimidated by the ramp drop but after some half ass runs I got it. I jsut can express how good it felt to be on that free warehouse with punk music on the background and some other band memebrs around just talking and others skating along... it was priceless.

I know I wnet to a birthday to the restaurant EAST, it was one of my friends/co-worker birthday... it was a nice surprise for her... we all ate there and the master chef cooked for us in front of us. Later we went to a place I really like.. DRUMS I talked about it on some earlier blogs, but it was ok... many things happend. It was good.

Besides collecting other consoles like Gameboy Color, and the NES... something kind of fucked up happend... one member of my close family was shot dead at his house. The reasons? Are many, considering his is a Director of Planning at the City Hall and had many people who envy him. The situation just took me and the whole family by surprise. I t was a really sad stituaion, it filled me with sadness, anger and just awareness because we live on a fucked up society where you need to be always on alert and be ready to defend yourself. My brother is the most affected by it, since he was the person closest to him, its sad taht situations like this need to happen for the family to get more united and stronger... we arent made forever... even thou I have plans of how I want to die which is fighting a Giant Squid... I never know what might happend.. now... tomorrow or the next day after that. Dont feel like writting anymore... many projects on my mind... wanna make a video game fanzine.website and other stuff.... for now I did something with my website...
www.rexcartagena.com oh well gonna go now.. the show must go on.

First Father and son theater movie matinee

This post is not about video games (although I will mention one) neither of me talking sh!# about something, instead, this post is about the first time my son and me went to the movie theater. You might say, "why the hell do I care?", well there is a red x on the top right corner of the browser, click on it, and go fuck yourself hilariously to death.

It is hard to remember, but I think the first movie I went to see on the theater was either Conan The Destroyer or Robocop, not sure, I know my dad took me, I could ask him but he is dead right now, so I might try my older brother 'cause I think he went too. But, I think it doesnt matter, after that first movie day, we created a ritual that like every other week we went to the movies on a Sunday Matinee show, and it was perfect, my Dad always took me to see cool action movies, only once we went to see a crappy one, The Little Mermaid, maybe it was my idea, very stupid, not a bad movie thou, but I remember I left my jean jacket, and my dad called so he could pick it up later on. Besides that there area other memories of it, very special ones, considering the short time I spent with my dad, and I may outlive him, since he died young.

Now, I started that ritual with my kid couple days ago, he is 3 years old, doesn't have that sitting on a whole movie calmed attention span just yet, but he is getting there. We went together to this familiar movies, little empty, old looking, easy to access no fancy shit. Pretty good. Well my kid gave the money to the ticket girl and she gave a ticket to my son and me, I want my kid to have responsability on handling things, like money and tickets. He did pretty good, he didn't ate the ticket or something, as a matter of fact after the movie I collected both tickets as memento, I'l show it to him in like 15 years or something, since it was a special day. The movie we bought the ticket for was "HOrton hears a who", a children movie, is not bad, but is not excellent either. Is just ok. It didn't grab that much attention of my kid on some parts, so after couple minutes playing with the seat, he felt asleep midmovie. It was all right, until he started snoring outloud. He is a cool kid for real, I cant be more proud. After the movie, he woke up, and we went to hte arcade upstairs, and played air hockey and then later on we played Mario Kart on the Arcade, its nice to see Mario Kart on the arcades since it always had that entertaining potential for an arcade room, and by the way, the game even had a built in camera so the player could take a picture to be displayed on the game with the resemblance of the character you picked... my son selected Bowser as his first choice, so if you played mario you know Bowser looks like a demon... so here is the picture I got with my cellphone:

Thats Niko my son, all evil and stuff.

Later on we took some pictures as Mario but it sucked. Anyways we had plenty of fun, after the movie people usually go to the ice cream store next door, but my kid ate a bag full of Kisses, so he had plenty of chocolate and sugar on his system. I can't wait he grows up so we can see Indiana Jones 5 (joke), or the other Lord of the rings related movies. As a matter of fact, I do remember the best movie I went to see with my dad, and it was WILLOW, fucking great movie, he even bought me the Willow figure, and I don't know where the hell I put it, but I will find it. Now thinking about it, I am in no hurry for my son to grow up quickly, that child phase is the best.

I think thats it for, its all good man, its all good.

The zero tolerance to the amazingly stupid FAKE MOHAWKS

Ok this is going to be quick and to the point.. FUCK FAKE MOHAWKS and the FAKE people who wear them.

Its all fashion everything is fashion we copy stuff, for example I have dreadlocks, doesnt mean I am Rastafarian.. I listen to thrash or crust music, and they have dreadlocks too.. are they rastafarian fuck that shit.. no, they have mohwaks cause their life style of wearing spiked hair with strong gel eventually tanlged their hair and since crusty punk dont shower that often its evident that their hair locks forming dreadlocks. My dreadlocks were formed naturally, I mean I helped but it was because I used to go to the beach a lot and one time I used this strong gel and tangled my hair, then I did some braids and locks started to form.. since I listened to a lot of crust bands and it was a similar style then dreadlocks was ok for me, I still have it. See I have dreadlocks..not half assed fake dreadlocks. About Mohawks, they go back hundred years in time before the punks who were the ones who would have a mohawk on their head. Why Punks used mohwaks? Because back the it was a sign of rebellion... (remember I said back then), then after couple years people would would eventually have mohwaks but they didnt had the same purpose anymore.. but still wasnt socially acepptable because it was still from the punk culture that wasnt commercialized just yet until couple years ago thanks to fucks like Hottopic.
Hottopic took everything what punk was and jsut made a profit out of its fashion. PUnk is fashion now. So mohawks slowly started to pour in as socially acceptable. As proof... lets say 10 o 12 years ago you couldn;t work at a store or some place having a mohawk.. unless it was an indy rock store or something related. With Hottopic taht were located at the mall, mohawks was like a pre-requisite to have or something like that. I think I can deal with that.. its fashion and those people with mohawks of fake hawks (they wouldnt dare to have a real mohawk because still they can be rejected by society) at least were into the punk music. Whats a fake mohawk of faux mohawk or a fake hawk? well its people jsut combing their hair like a mohawk and use gel to sustain it... still they dont shave on the sides... I mean its a hair style... but dont say to people "HEY CHECK IT OUT I HAVE A MOHAWK.." because no.. man you are lame. You are jsut trying to have a mohawk and ended up with a fake one. So be it. That is one thing.. but what really bothers me is that now EVERYONE uses mohawks or fakehawks.. and they can be Salsa or Merengue singers or rap singers and they use Mohawks... I mean MR. T had a Mohawk and wasnt punk.. but at least he was a thug a badass... but not like these candy asses fuck heads... they have fake hawks and want to be socially acceptable etc. Just gets on my nerves... now the punk fashion is not even a specific fashion anymore.. everyone wants to copy rebelion... rebelion sells. So its like you see a person at the mall (usually) looking all punk and then he listens to fucking...lets see whats lame... he fucking listens to I dont know.. something stupid. Anywyas the point is I know its a fashion and is for everyone to choose.... BUT people that talked shit about punk and its fashion, now have mowaks and wear punk accesories.. its like.... WHY YOU TALKED WHIT ABOUT PUNK IN THE FIRST PLACE ? TALKED SHIT ABOUT THE LOOKS, ABOUT THE MUSIC! Now you dont listen to the music but you look like you do. And now they all have a fakehawk a little more real... so I can call it hald assed mocrap. Or something... it jsut stupid. I see all this people that hate rock, metal punk, becuase they are into regueton (the stupidiest music genre in the universe) and they have the hawks... its like man... get your own style..get your own fashion. Also I hate when parents do MOhawks to their kids... its like.. they see some real punk with a mohawk and they are liek "LOOK AT THAT HOW HORRIBLE" but then their children gets one... and everyone is life "OH HOW CUTE... HE IS SO HANDSOME LOOKS GOOD", waht looks good is my boot in your eye socket... stupid... Anywyas this was a hate post. Fuck you.

The Unchained Olympus

God of War - Chains of Olympus (PSP)

I want to start this with, if you own a PSP you must get this game. Buy it, cheap bastard, dont just dowload it for free on a hacked psp. To complement my previous blog, if you think you are not stealing, answer this then: Many people download games illegally into their hacked system because they think the games are expensive and they rather get them like that instead of paying for it.... so if you need a car, and you dont have the money, you going to steal it? Of course not, even thou the size of the product is different, still is stealing, you are getting something without paying for its actual prize, you are cheating and stealing, so FUCK you. Pieces of fuck like you destroy the video game industry. Try doing something for a living and then find out someone is making illegal copies of it, AND that someone is making more money than you... by stealing your creation.. doesnt feel that good now right shitfart?
Now getting back to the game, the game is good, the game can be finished by ANYONE on easy mode. I know many casual gamers finished the first and second God of War with ease. Because its like... trial and error, you just keep restarting on the area you died, its like... people will eventually do it sooner or later... so in that part, is not really of a challenge after all, because just anyone can do it, even if they dont play video games, and that its my only complaint about the God of War series, is more as a interactive action adventure story telling than a real challenging game. But still, its a great game, the original God of War is on my top ten games of all time, because its a well designed and produced game, its very motivational. Now, this PSP version of God of War, all I can say is... is a more watered down, bite sized version of the previous 2 console God of war games. If the first 2 are easy to play, this one is like a boot camp for those games, like a training ground for the real deal. But, dont get me wrong, this PSP version of God of war has visuals that equal the console version, everything looks amazing, the lighting, the backgrounds, the models its all good. I think ofr myself this is hte most visually impressive game I've seen on the PSP. Also the sound track couldn't been better, orchestral greek period type of music, its just awesome. With the game controllers, having in mind that with a psp you have some limitations, I htink they really pulled it off greatly, still its kind of confusing sometimes becuase you need to press some buttons simultaneously to perform and action, and if not pressed correctly you will eventually execute another action, like the shield button combined with others you can do couple of stuff but still, you can get the hang of it... even thou I was near the end of the game and had some button press confusions... but I blame it on me I guess. Moments ago I was talking to Jolge my friend about the game, he never played the earlier versions of GOW but had an Idea of waht was waiting form him, and yeah he did like the game but hated the combat system, since he got the chance to play other games like Conan were the combat system had more depht. I jsut told him that really GOW specially the psp version is simple, and yes it borrows the same engine as the others, and they didnt really messed up with the combat system.. is good as it is for what it is. The focus of the game even thou you have plenty of combat options like special attacks and combos, the central idea is the epic action adventure story telling and puzzles (in which in this case..arent really puzzles). We both agree that is a good game, but I wont complain much about hte combat system as it is, I played the earlier games and liked it, so yeah its cool, except the fact that you really cant cancel combos leaving you an open target for the gorgons stoning magic..in which a hit means instant death.

On the story department I am glad David Jaffe contributed with it because he created the GOD OF WAR and I htink he should decide the outcome of his character. So about hte story I kind of find it a little rushed like, and that it could've been more complete, for an exmaple you never face MOrpheus, he is one of the main reasons of the conflict and he jsut..dissapears, unless I didnt geti t right.. but still. And the last boss, doenst look that evil at all, I mean its evil but is not impressive, and it osunds more like a cry baby character than having a real reason for the evil unleashed. I dont know... but there is some impressive elements in the story like.. hte Titan Atlas, and it explains the fate he had in GOW 2, it explains a lot... and I thought it was a really great piece of story, it really impressed me. But besides that... I think it could've been better. But overall is good as it is, having in mind that is a portable version of the game and they need to make it the less dependable of the other GOW games. The idea is to expand the audience and have a easy to access version of a GOW game to all those casual gamers that own a PSP, so it makes sense that they did a Prequel instead so the story didnt require to know about the other games. I dont know the total hours I played to finish this game but I know that I got the game like last thursday and finished it like at 3:00 am today tuesday, so its a really short game ocnsidering I only played couple minutes between sittings, but I did enjoy it.To finish this, its a good game if you want to know about GOW for the first time, but if you really want the best impression of God of War play the versions of GOW and GOW 2 for PS2. Good games, very similar to each other but good, lets hope on GOW 3 they keep the same vibe but with newer stuff, like a better combat system and more hardcore puzzles. SO DONT FUCK WITH THE GOD OF WAR!

Games piling up

I think I mentioned before I am into video game collecting and I am becoming quite obssessed with it. I think I buy a new game every 5 days or something, it can be for any system, cheap or expensive, I just buy one and most of them are games I do really want, I just dont buy any game. My main sources of getting games are:

1- My local GAMESTOP in which is really cool to pay a visit because one of the employees was a student of mine, so he gives me cool extra stuff, like demo games, accessories, discounts, etc. It is awesome. Most of my PSP and PS2 games I get them from there. And sometimes I end up talking to other employees or confused customers about games.

2- PLAY N TRADE, this store is a little further, and I usually go on weekends or during lunch break at my job, since form my job the disntance is less. In this store I only pursue retro games specially Super Nintendo and Genesis games, from this store I had gotten some really good deals on games and systems that sell really high on the internet. Its my favorite store, I always get something when I go, and the best of all is that is really cheap, I can get couple good games for less than $12.

3- EBAY, I spend most of my video game collecting budget on Ebay, since sometimes the games sell expensier (it is justified because they are hard to find) and the systems are more abundant there, than waiting for a call from Play n Trade for a newly arrived system. But, Ebay has its high and lows, for an example I bough a 3DO system but when it came and I tested it, the cd tray didint open... and doesnt play any games.. the seller said it was working, and then I found a big dent on the box it came... so its hard to see whos fault was it... the mail or the seller ripping me off... oh well I had no choice to accept the system and some day take the time to fix it my self, even though a guy in Play n trade told me they fix systems.. any systems... but when I told him about a 3DO that needed to be fix he was like "Are you Crazy? That is old." and I am like.. "Ok so dont tell me you fix any systems... go and fuck your aunt side ways.". Anyways... I also bought last week a Turbo Grafx 16, I was really hyped baout it until when it came... the controller was missing a plug pin, so it was useless, and the system signal was weak... at least I told the seller about it and he will get me a new controller... I hope. So its all about risking your budget for something that might not work at all.

So now, doing the math, I have plenty of games, and I havent finished the 85% of them, so I have plenty of material to not get bored during my lifetime for now, considering some of the games need over 40 hours of gameplay to be finished. I mean, to enjoy a game I dont need to finish it, I am satisfied by just palying couple of levels and getting the idea of it then I move on, but eventually after a couple of months (or years) I get back to the game and decide to finish it. I wish I had a picture of the room where I have my video game collection because you could see controllers on the floor, game guides on the sides, a notebook with passwords, some video game cases on the table and some old school video game magazines. I should get a couch or something so I can relax when playing instead of using the computer chair. I dont know.

The point is my video games keep piling up, but I like that, I see it as an investment for a future, I iwll have games for years to come, and if somehow I get tired of it, If could sell the collection for thousand of dollars. I must be dying or something. Many people tell me why pay for that when you can get emulators or ewven worse... flash cards of games. All I can say about that is that I hate vidoe game piracy, Im ean I use emulators for things that are virtually impossible to find.. like some Arcade games i use MAME, for some Neo Geo (which I htink is over priced) I use an emulator, but my next console to buy is a Neo Geo system, I am jsut waiting for the right price. And about doing piracy with a Nintendo DS or PSP.. its fucking degrading, if you reaaaallly love video games, the last thing you want to do is steal games fomr the net and play them for free. I mean, I do understand video games are not cheap, but that doenst mean you can downlaod them for free and play them for like 2 minutes and downlaod some more.... you know.. people work doing video games... if you dont buy the product the company loses money, and eventually stop producing video games... and no more video games. Many parents buy their kids a Nintendo DS then they get this stupid card where their kids can play 50 something donwloaded DS games... its like NICE WORK PARENT GOOD EXAMPLE.. same as getting illegal dvd movies copies. THe kid will think everything will always be available and the kid wont appreciate the game, he knows DADDY can get more. FUCK THOSE PARENTS really. That kind of people are going to kill the video game industry, I know some people use those cards as an advantage, but htey eventually own the real game cart, and they jsut downlaod an extra copy for space purposes. They shoudl put htose games online and people can pay for them when they download them, like some MP3 stores, that will be convenient. But many people are cheap. And to clarify I am not rich, I just very passionate of what I collect and I know how to support it.

I might sound as a commercial capitalist asshole, but no man, If I was a game developer (actually I am) and I put time on a game and make a good game, of course I will want some compensation of that time spent because thats job, some one is working their ass off so you cna have something to entertain your child while the parents are having alcohol or fucking a neighbor... support video games.