Before going on vacation I wanted to talk about the cancelled game (prevous post) I was working with because it was a big hit, I know it happens in this field but this actually hurts because the product was completed and now it cant be used, but oh well.
Now yeah I am fucking out of here, going on a cruise and won't be touching a computer for a week, only my Nintendo DS, PSP and couple books. I know things at my work will be hectic without me, but its a good thing they will miss me.
I wish I could visit NORMAN ISLAND .. its a pirate island... you know sometimes.. I wish I just could sail away or something on a total random place either some weird island or fucking norway and just be away of all these technoogies.. I could keep some of my video games I dont mind. But I wish I could stop doing multimedia and stop making other people richer and instead fulfill my own dreams... my college degree is not my life.. is just something I use to earn money thats it, love doing it, but is not what my life supposed to be. Its just work... we work earn monay pay bills.. and geta little taste of vacation then the same thing then we die... I wanna do more.
Let me see how this trip triggers my impulsive self... I might come back of course 90% sure... but I never fully understand myself... might stay away on an island and get a bout and just be there... I wish... but who knows... life sometimes is unpredictable... see ya.... gonna go now.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
CANCELLATION of a game of Colgate piece of shit toothpaste
THIS IS THE SECOND PART OF A POST POSTED ON MAY 30TH.
Its sad.. sad sad. I feel sorry for agencies and its clients sometimes and even myself for wasting so much effort, creativity and neurons on something that it was cancelled after completion. Why? Who knows why. Maybe the agency fuck up something.
I don't agree how this game production was set. There was no contract anywhere... I didn't knew about it until it was cancelled, so its like... why I wasted so much time on something that wasn't even 50% sure it will be approved by the client... COLGATE. How the agency expect me to do a GAME.. its a game is not a fucking website or ad, its a game.. it involves planning, programming, audio editing, illustrations.. problem solving testing... etc. Its fucked up, and they wanted me to finish it in what? Less than a week? 2? I I said on the earlier post about this game, we had a meeting on May 23, and they wanted the game ready for June 2nd. And on May 30th I already had the game programming working, I did enhanced it later on but the core of the game was working. After that date instead of using simple squares I added a mouth illustrated by the practice student of mine Gabriel, here is how it looked the test game by that time:
It looks Ugly I know, but it was for testing purposes, I already had a quality bar of the toothbrush -which you suppose to switch every 3 months, (nice way to get money assholes)-, I also had the health bar, which starts decreasing if many teeths are dirty at the same time and on the right I had the 3 month calendar, which of course was the game's time, each level was a different 3 month. And yes the points on the top. The game worked... but I wanted to make it better by reprogramming the toothbrush to actually brush the teeth instead of just clicking on it. I came up with this techinique -programming and graphic wise- that actually ended up being pretty impressive making the game more fun. Gonna re-use it on a Guitar Hero type of game I am working with Misfits songs -which I dubbed an extra guitar played by myself- to use the mouse to strum the strings.
After the agency tested it, they still were like.. WHERE ARE THE PRODUCTS WHERE IS THE ART!? Of course they know shit, we gonna add that later on, we are still working with the game... is not like.. we do all the art then we jsut click a button that says... ADD TOOTHPASTE GAME WITH A 3 MONTH CALENDAR AS TIME. I know there concern is branding... they give a shit about the core mechanic of the medium, if its either a website, ad interactivity or game... they jsut wnat the PRODUCT BIG AND NICE. BUT, they need to know that this multimedia / web field is waaaayyy different thatn the traditional mediums... the main difference is lets say.. one medium is linear and the other is non-linear... in the linear one you just look at it and have no control, on the non-linear you consumer controls it and well there is the non-linear 2.0 were the consumer not only controls it but customize it as they want. So this means I was working on a non-linear medium.. it was a game... people interact with the product having fun of it.. dedicating more time being exposed to the product visuals than flipping an ad page on a new paper that was exposed for what? 2 seconds?
Agencies here in Puerto Rico KNOW SHIT. This makes me make my own or be a director or something and take controls of things on agencies since I know the limits of this type of field... I fucking studied multimedia and web so I know whats the deal of it.. not some asshole that studied communication or something and then they say all we know this or that... FUCK YOU.
Anyways after re-working the game and many illustrations by GABRIEL which were all declined.. - I thought the mouth he did was pretty good - because the client was TOO traditional... fuck them, if you want to reach a younger audience you better be not traditional asshole. Anyways the agency sent an illsutration and said make the avatars look like these. Yes, the game ALSO had an avatar selection screen, which you could modify, so after GABRIEL actually traced waht the client sent - I told him so- I started doing the other features of the avatars, I did a martian, a clowen, a pirate along with other traditional faces and it was awesome... but when the client saw it, they were like NOT SURE THERE ARE GREEN PEOPLE WITH CLOWN NOSES AROUND...you and then they said THE GAME WAS TOO FUN. Dude... its like.. its a game it supposed to be fun. This reminds me an episode of EL CHAVO DEL OCHO where chilindrina wanted to watch tv and asked her dad don raon and he said YES YOU CAN WATCH IT, BUT DONT TURN IT ON. Its stupid.
After making some adjustments here and there and taking many avatar features out and only leaving CAUCASSIAN, LIGHT BROWN AND BEIGE as the skin colors - black wasnt allowed- the game ended up looking like this:
You can even play it here http://especiales.primerahora.com/promociones/colgatejuego/!
The game works, its all there, did what they wanted... then they decided to cancel it on the day it was suppoed to be delivered beacuse it didn't met their expectations. Its like, if they sent an emai lsaying do these adjustments AND i DID... how come then they said NO? And saying it didnt met their expectiations when they were FOLLOWING all the game process? Its like having a girlfriend all this time agreeing on buying a house making all the wedding arrangements then at the altar saying I dont wanna marry you. WHY ALL THE HASSLE AND PRESSURE? Fuck the agency and fuck the client. Even the agency got screenshots of my game and did some graphics adjutsments to make it look like an infro graph of colgate and still they declined it. All I got of the agency who harrassed me during all the process was... MAYBE THEY ARE NOT READY FOR THIS MEDIUM, THANKS. ...Thanks? Does that "thanks" pay me for all the pressure I went through? No... the worst of all is... there was no contract... so all that effort was worthless because we did a game customized to the client specific requirements... whcih cant be used for another client. Its my fault of my department then. No contract no sample or demo. Fuck it. I was just giving away MY IDEAS and concept.
So there, the game was cancelled, I was pretty excite about this game... maybe I'll rework it or something... I dont know... for now I jsut want to can the mother fucker.
Because of things I am thankful Im et the team of POR DIVERSION who make games here in Puerto Rico, we are trying to form a game developers group locally and we had this meeting at Chilis:
We gonna make things right.
Its sad.. sad sad. I feel sorry for agencies and its clients sometimes and even myself for wasting so much effort, creativity and neurons on something that it was cancelled after completion. Why? Who knows why. Maybe the agency fuck up something.
I don't agree how this game production was set. There was no contract anywhere... I didn't knew about it until it was cancelled, so its like... why I wasted so much time on something that wasn't even 50% sure it will be approved by the client... COLGATE. How the agency expect me to do a GAME.. its a game is not a fucking website or ad, its a game.. it involves planning, programming, audio editing, illustrations.. problem solving testing... etc. Its fucked up, and they wanted me to finish it in what? Less than a week? 2? I I said on the earlier post about this game, we had a meeting on May 23, and they wanted the game ready for June 2nd. And on May 30th I already had the game programming working, I did enhanced it later on but the core of the game was working. After that date instead of using simple squares I added a mouth illustrated by the practice student of mine Gabriel, here is how it looked the test game by that time:
It looks Ugly I know, but it was for testing purposes, I already had a quality bar of the toothbrush -which you suppose to switch every 3 months, (nice way to get money assholes)-, I also had the health bar, which starts decreasing if many teeths are dirty at the same time and on the right I had the 3 month calendar, which of course was the game's time, each level was a different 3 month. And yes the points on the top. The game worked... but I wanted to make it better by reprogramming the toothbrush to actually brush the teeth instead of just clicking on it. I came up with this techinique -programming and graphic wise- that actually ended up being pretty impressive making the game more fun. Gonna re-use it on a Guitar Hero type of game I am working with Misfits songs -which I dubbed an extra guitar played by myself- to use the mouse to strum the strings.
After the agency tested it, they still were like.. WHERE ARE THE PRODUCTS WHERE IS THE ART!? Of course they know shit, we gonna add that later on, we are still working with the game... is not like.. we do all the art then we jsut click a button that says... ADD TOOTHPASTE GAME WITH A 3 MONTH CALENDAR AS TIME. I know there concern is branding... they give a shit about the core mechanic of the medium, if its either a website, ad interactivity or game... they jsut wnat the PRODUCT BIG AND NICE. BUT, they need to know that this multimedia / web field is waaaayyy different thatn the traditional mediums... the main difference is lets say.. one medium is linear and the other is non-linear... in the linear one you just look at it and have no control, on the non-linear you consumer controls it and well there is the non-linear 2.0 were the consumer not only controls it but customize it as they want. So this means I was working on a non-linear medium.. it was a game... people interact with the product having fun of it.. dedicating more time being exposed to the product visuals than flipping an ad page on a new paper that was exposed for what? 2 seconds?
Agencies here in Puerto Rico KNOW SHIT. This makes me make my own or be a director or something and take controls of things on agencies since I know the limits of this type of field... I fucking studied multimedia and web so I know whats the deal of it.. not some asshole that studied communication or something and then they say all we know this or that... FUCK YOU.
Anyways after re-working the game and many illustrations by GABRIEL which were all declined.. - I thought the mouth he did was pretty good - because the client was TOO traditional... fuck them, if you want to reach a younger audience you better be not traditional asshole. Anyways the agency sent an illsutration and said make the avatars look like these. Yes, the game ALSO had an avatar selection screen, which you could modify, so after GABRIEL actually traced waht the client sent - I told him so- I started doing the other features of the avatars, I did a martian, a clowen, a pirate along with other traditional faces and it was awesome... but when the client saw it, they were like NOT SURE THERE ARE GREEN PEOPLE WITH CLOWN NOSES AROUND...you and then they said THE GAME WAS TOO FUN. Dude... its like.. its a game it supposed to be fun. This reminds me an episode of EL CHAVO DEL OCHO where chilindrina wanted to watch tv and asked her dad don raon and he said YES YOU CAN WATCH IT, BUT DONT TURN IT ON. Its stupid.
After making some adjustments here and there and taking many avatar features out and only leaving CAUCASSIAN, LIGHT BROWN AND BEIGE as the skin colors - black wasnt allowed- the game ended up looking like this:
You can even play it here http://especiales.primerahora.com/promociones/colgatejuego/!
The game works, its all there, did what they wanted... then they decided to cancel it on the day it was suppoed to be delivered beacuse it didn't met their expectations. Its like, if they sent an emai lsaying do these adjustments AND i DID... how come then they said NO? And saying it didnt met their expectiations when they were FOLLOWING all the game process? Its like having a girlfriend all this time agreeing on buying a house making all the wedding arrangements then at the altar saying I dont wanna marry you. WHY ALL THE HASSLE AND PRESSURE? Fuck the agency and fuck the client. Even the agency got screenshots of my game and did some graphics adjutsments to make it look like an infro graph of colgate and still they declined it. All I got of the agency who harrassed me during all the process was... MAYBE THEY ARE NOT READY FOR THIS MEDIUM, THANKS. ...Thanks? Does that "thanks" pay me for all the pressure I went through? No... the worst of all is... there was no contract... so all that effort was worthless because we did a game customized to the client specific requirements... whcih cant be used for another client. Its my fault of my department then. No contract no sample or demo. Fuck it. I was just giving away MY IDEAS and concept.
So there, the game was cancelled, I was pretty excite about this game... maybe I'll rework it or something... I dont know... for now I jsut want to can the mother fucker.
Because of things I am thankful Im et the team of POR DIVERSION who make games here in Puerto Rico, we are trying to form a game developers group locally and we had this meeting at Chilis:
We gonna make things right.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
SUMMER MOVIE BLAST FEST 2008! part 1
I think this year has the best summer movies so far in a while. If I recall correctly, 1989 was a good year of summer movies too, with movies like Batman (Tim Burton version) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the roster was enough to make it amazing. And its interesting, since this year we also have other versions of Indiana Jones and Batman billing on the roster, which makes it a great nominee for best summer movie year along with other amazing yet to be released movies like Hulk, The Mummy 3, Hellboy 2,and more! So many good ones on the way!
Other years I can recall are 1991 with Terminator 2 (good fucking year), 1992 with Batman Returns and 1993 with Jurassic Park, that was kind of big actually. Oh and 1996 with independence day. So many years with great stuff, but again this year is pretty consistent, we just needed a 4th Pirates of The Caribbean out of nowhere to completely satisfy the overall audience.
But since we live on the present (which is a gift... thats why its called present.. see Kung Fu Panda) gonna mention the movies I've seen so far since the beginning of this summer til today (this doenst end here!).
In order of screening (not of best):
This reminded me of Spy Kids 3-D and Shark Boy and Lava girl, special fx wise but in a more presentable (better quality) and highly entertaining way, not that the forementioned are bad but oh well. This movie is not for everyone I must admit, and I even fell asleep in some earlier scenes (I was damn tired and it was a late showing, midnight?). But besides that I can say that I did liked the movie, its just fun to see, although some editing could've make this movie more justice but hey, I am not the director. What made this movie special is that I went to see it with my brother from New Jersey and best friend after eating some Pizzeria Uno. I think the last movie I went to see with my brother was 13th Warrior back in 1999 before I headed to college in Florida. Back to the movie, the ending well the last race at the last seconds was just how can I say it.. heroic? epic? It felt like a rush on intense emotion, I was like actually grabbing the seat. In other words I liked it, it felt really really intense that race ending, with everyone screaming, with the visuals just going over the top psychedelic it was amazing really, Ill try to look for it in you tube. Good movie, again not for everyone, if you are into unreal special fx, cartoon characters or just plain action flick (minus boring dialogues) then look for it if still at the theaters!
Iron man is a good movie, not great, but its the right type of summer movie (not an all timer). It has great special fx, the main character is not boring, has some (rather few) action sequences and its just feels fun and straight to the point. My only complaint is the movie is that, it just wasted too much time telling the story of the developing of the Iron man, I mean, they could've included that developing but as maybe cutscenes or some quick story telling, and maybe focus the movie on other situations. Because of these, the last fight seemed dull and just rushed, nothing special happend, really.. all this time getting ready for what? Wont spoil it, but I was like.. ok so this was it? Besides this, I consider it a must see summer movie anyways, its just fun, makes me wanna get some Iron Man toys, and even the game, what the hell.
Won't talk a lot about the movie since I dedicated an earlier post about it. But, I did went to see the movie a second time, and yes.. its a dissapointment, sadly to say, if you are an Indy fan. But if you are just an average mainstreamer, yeah, this is THE SUMMER MOVIE. Has plenty of actions, good moments, but it all falls flat on another viewers perspective. But we al lsay the same, hey its Indiana Jones! The second showing wasn't that enjoyable cause I was sitting alone, and the theater was full of lame people, kids screaming... I liked the premiere better, because I got some vip tickets from work, and I was among the first people to see it in my island and even before USA (since movies are released 2 days earlier) it just felt a good experiene after 19 years since the last one. But would I see it a third time? Who knows I might! Maybe its the last time I will see an INdiana JOnes flick on the big screen, think about that. Unless the do a Mutt Jones movie, in which case I think they might if george lucas or stven are still alive... hum thinking about it lets leave it there, lets just dont overkill it. See this movie! This is like the perfect sunday matinee movie before some pizza or ice cream! I still got the big ass poster in my room for like ever.
NOT A SUMMER MOVIE TYPE WHATSOEVER! But hey, we need to have soemthing for everyone. Since my girlfriend likes sometimes lame romatic comedy movies (some are funny like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or the likes) but these independent kind of movies some times are just like a dull blade, its there it still works, but not as it suppose to. But actually the movie is not bad, Sarah Jessica Whoreker is in it and of course she makes her bitch character well, WHO WOULD BE INTERED IN SOME ONE LIKE THAT BITCH WHORE CHARACTER, she has issues... maybe I hate Sex and the City and almost hate this movie because of her, yeah she should get a STD or something. What saves this movie is Ellen Page and her adopted uncle. They bring fun to a stale movie. Talking about Ellen Page, I do admire her, she is fucking pretty and her way to be its similar to mine, just being asses sometimes no matter to who and not caring afterwards, but still have some good behind the evilness. I can live without this movie and I dont recommend it unless you have a vagina. Looking forward to other Ellen Page movies :).
Go and see this movie. Have kids? Don't have kids? What you waiting for? I haven't seen a good animated movie since The INcredibles, and I am talking overall. Characters, lighting, color scheme, story (although I wasnt really into the story) etc, everythng was into place. They avoided fart jokes, unnecesary clumsyness and let me tell you Po the panda was a clumsy guy, but it all fitted all right, not jsut falling out of nowhere, it just felt justified. The story I think lost it purpose at some point and the ending felt again.. rushed and what happend to _____ kind of way. But all this I htink was on purpose to make a short delivery straight to the point fun movie for all audience. I got to see this movie along with my co-workers and girlfriend thanks to the premiere vip tickets, and I got to work for couple minutes taking pictures of the audience for a web photo gallery, and got some promotional merchandise and they even had some chinesse drums playing and some people dressed as traditional chinese dragon costume. It was well done and fun. Loved it. Good summer movie. Afterwards some of the group along with Emma (daughter of one of the work mates) went to eat at a chinese restaurant down stairs just to complete the experience. This is the type of movie nights I just dig. Try it.
Well this is the first part of summer movies maybe the second part Ill post it in July or something, but I am really eager to see The Dark Knight (batman), the incredible Hulk, and the Mummy 3. Maybe I'll see this days Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian... but I have my doubts... and maybe Sex in the City, just to be a whore. But seriously I will need to see it (and give it a critique) since its a sadly summer movie too, and we need to have a movie for everyone including nymphomaniac narcisist whores. Fuck you Sarah Jessica Parker.
Other years I can recall are 1991 with Terminator 2 (good fucking year), 1992 with Batman Returns and 1993 with Jurassic Park, that was kind of big actually. Oh and 1996 with independence day. So many years with great stuff, but again this year is pretty consistent, we just needed a 4th Pirates of The Caribbean out of nowhere to completely satisfy the overall audience.
But since we live on the present (which is a gift... thats why its called present.. see Kung Fu Panda) gonna mention the movies I've seen so far since the beginning of this summer til today (this doenst end here!).
In order of screening (not of best):
SPEED RACER
This reminded me of Spy Kids 3-D and Shark Boy and Lava girl, special fx wise but in a more presentable (better quality) and highly entertaining way, not that the forementioned are bad but oh well. This movie is not for everyone I must admit, and I even fell asleep in some earlier scenes (I was damn tired and it was a late showing, midnight?). But besides that I can say that I did liked the movie, its just fun to see, although some editing could've make this movie more justice but hey, I am not the director. What made this movie special is that I went to see it with my brother from New Jersey and best friend after eating some Pizzeria Uno. I think the last movie I went to see with my brother was 13th Warrior back in 1999 before I headed to college in Florida. Back to the movie, the ending well the last race at the last seconds was just how can I say it.. heroic? epic? It felt like a rush on intense emotion, I was like actually grabbing the seat. In other words I liked it, it felt really really intense that race ending, with everyone screaming, with the visuals just going over the top psychedelic it was amazing really, Ill try to look for it in you tube. Good movie, again not for everyone, if you are into unreal special fx, cartoon characters or just plain action flick (minus boring dialogues) then look for it if still at the theaters!
IRON MAN
Iron man is a good movie, not great, but its the right type of summer movie (not an all timer). It has great special fx, the main character is not boring, has some (rather few) action sequences and its just feels fun and straight to the point. My only complaint is the movie is that, it just wasted too much time telling the story of the developing of the Iron man, I mean, they could've included that developing but as maybe cutscenes or some quick story telling, and maybe focus the movie on other situations. Because of these, the last fight seemed dull and just rushed, nothing special happend, really.. all this time getting ready for what? Wont spoil it, but I was like.. ok so this was it? Besides this, I consider it a must see summer movie anyways, its just fun, makes me wanna get some Iron Man toys, and even the game, what the hell.
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Won't talk a lot about the movie since I dedicated an earlier post about it. But, I did went to see the movie a second time, and yes.. its a dissapointment, sadly to say, if you are an Indy fan. But if you are just an average mainstreamer, yeah, this is THE SUMMER MOVIE. Has plenty of actions, good moments, but it all falls flat on another viewers perspective. But we al lsay the same, hey its Indiana Jones! The second showing wasn't that enjoyable cause I was sitting alone, and the theater was full of lame people, kids screaming... I liked the premiere better, because I got some vip tickets from work, and I was among the first people to see it in my island and even before USA (since movies are released 2 days earlier) it just felt a good experiene after 19 years since the last one. But would I see it a third time? Who knows I might! Maybe its the last time I will see an INdiana JOnes flick on the big screen, think about that. Unless the do a Mutt Jones movie, in which case I think they might if george lucas or stven are still alive... hum thinking about it lets leave it there, lets just dont overkill it. See this movie! This is like the perfect sunday matinee movie before some pizza or ice cream! I still got the big ass poster in my room for like ever.
SMART PEOPLE
NOT A SUMMER MOVIE TYPE WHATSOEVER! But hey, we need to have soemthing for everyone. Since my girlfriend likes sometimes lame romatic comedy movies (some are funny like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or the likes) but these independent kind of movies some times are just like a dull blade, its there it still works, but not as it suppose to. But actually the movie is not bad, Sarah Jessica Whoreker is in it and of course she makes her bitch character well, WHO WOULD BE INTERED IN SOME ONE LIKE THAT BITCH WHORE CHARACTER, she has issues... maybe I hate Sex and the City and almost hate this movie because of her, yeah she should get a STD or something. What saves this movie is Ellen Page and her adopted uncle. They bring fun to a stale movie. Talking about Ellen Page, I do admire her, she is fucking pretty and her way to be its similar to mine, just being asses sometimes no matter to who and not caring afterwards, but still have some good behind the evilness. I can live without this movie and I dont recommend it unless you have a vagina. Looking forward to other Ellen Page movies :).
KUNG FU PANDA
Go and see this movie. Have kids? Don't have kids? What you waiting for? I haven't seen a good animated movie since The INcredibles, and I am talking overall. Characters, lighting, color scheme, story (although I wasnt really into the story) etc, everythng was into place. They avoided fart jokes, unnecesary clumsyness and let me tell you Po the panda was a clumsy guy, but it all fitted all right, not jsut falling out of nowhere, it just felt justified. The story I think lost it purpose at some point and the ending felt again.. rushed and what happend to _____ kind of way. But all this I htink was on purpose to make a short delivery straight to the point fun movie for all audience. I got to see this movie along with my co-workers and girlfriend thanks to the premiere vip tickets, and I got to work for couple minutes taking pictures of the audience for a web photo gallery, and got some promotional merchandise and they even had some chinesse drums playing and some people dressed as traditional chinese dragon costume. It was well done and fun. Loved it. Good summer movie. Afterwards some of the group along with Emma (daughter of one of the work mates) went to eat at a chinese restaurant down stairs just to complete the experience. This is the type of movie nights I just dig. Try it.
Well this is the first part of summer movies maybe the second part Ill post it in July or something, but I am really eager to see The Dark Knight (batman), the incredible Hulk, and the Mummy 3. Maybe I'll see this days Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian... but I have my doubts... and maybe Sex in the City, just to be a whore. But seriously I will need to see it (and give it a critique) since its a sadly summer movie too, and we need to have a movie for everyone including nymphomaniac narcisist whores. Fuck you Sarah Jessica Parker.
Friday, May 30, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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/
Sunday, May 11, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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.
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.
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