Monday, December 22, 2008

Re-Balance

So many points, so little time so lets make it quick,


||Current Tasks:
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[Override]: 9 page comics, 2 week deadline.

That completely slipped off my mind, a friend on entervoid.com recently freed up for a Christmas battle and spontaneously sent the challenge last Thursday. Had to accept Saturday to give us both that "last minute Saturday rush" pad we'd get around the deadline date. And i thought i would have had time to clear the local commissions i pushed back every battles and portfolio constructions....blast, really bad personal management or..... [
Thoughts#1]

[First Priority] Portfolio V1.5

Ok so my digital coloring doesn't reflect what i really do, it just looks clean, alot of people keep telling my that not everyone look for "clean work" so i should stop beating myself to play with the digital took and just "Do-the-Do-that-i-do-do" but brush it up with the lightbox aid. And i always get this annoying feeling that i shouldnt post anything anywhere till i get better but, seriously, that idea can go to hell. If nothing is shown nor done then no experience and no one knows you at all. And as much as i want to perfect my construction method melting pot, at one point, i gotta move on...[Thoughts#1]
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|--[Branch] Beat em up project

Cleaning up that quick walk and run then import and color.

[Third priority] Local Comissions

Ok ill cancel my 1 hour morning anatomy study to get the comissions done, the correction lists have been recieved so i have to strike them down ASAP.



||Thoughts:
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#1 Mental motivation method

You guys know I have the Procrastination sickness, i wont lie, im at a dangerous state. I have the stupid little voice in my head continuously telling me that id do better inside the game industry because id have close feedback, real experience and id be doing drawings for something i actually love.
Now that annoying little message pops up in my head from time to time the goes on and when i have alternate [non deadlined] tasks to accomplish, i usually let them slide saying id do them the next morning (and that gets canned because of sleep-ins due to late gaming...) or i just hate how long ive stayed on a certain piece of work then detest it since by the time i look back at it, id have learned a few new tricks somewhat evolving my style further on and making it easy to notice mistakes. YARRRRRGH!!!!!
Ok so thats a pain in the ass and theses thoughts constantly roam in my head all day long, until, this afternoon, something clicked.
Why not work on theses tasks, as if i was working on them for the industry?
I remember doing this kind of self-brainwashing while working on a few projects back when i was in Illustration and Design, it definitely gave me good results back then, even in essays.
And looking back at this way of thinking, i always get this brain surge, imagining that im working with the Team of Abes Odessey or Prince of Persia, giving context, meaning, a goal other than just making pretty images. Thats bloody hard to tap into. They had never tapped inside that part of us back then and thats what got me jaded about the Ill and design program, i personally dont care about making pretty images, im searching for a soul and i cant tell you how often that keeps me up at night. Im being torn between trying to get anatomy and construction at a high level OR getting all the glitter......wait, counter argument right there, is the pretty glitter anyway related to having soul in your artwork, unlikely. So what the hell am i stuck at. Huh, oh right, anatomy and construction versus meaning. There we go, so im spending too much time worrying on the anatomy instead of having "meaning" emerging in the end. Man, isnt that an interesting struggle...I think getting this mental brainwashing pushes me to think beyond anatomy or actually go past that point, past and current "artisticly great" games have always gave me this extra glee of joy and inspiration, ill see if i can tap that same glee when doing personal work and comissions.

#2 Bad design or Personal Preferences

Ive heard certain people complain about Prince of Persia and other new games, not having punishment for death or being too easy because death doesn't happen that often and this gets me to wonder, what the hell?
Some of theses games have great setting, storyline, artistic design yet people still seem to complain about such a thing as being punished in-game.
Thats very odd, i mean, i lived through the super mario bros 3 era and i do see how that can alienating yet ive also tried games like God Hand or Devil May Cry 3 US and certainly had my moments throwing that ps2 controller on the floor which i had never done before with a snes controller. Why is that? Is ridiculous game difficulty a bad game design, are the controls too complex for smooth and fluid gameplay? Or is it just personal preference?

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Godhand had an engine which was more fit for ONE ON ONE combat, not full fledge free for all. This forced the gamer to Pick fights one by one by taunting each enemy or run away from a group or the camera would eventually kill you (straight on camera). The game had hilarious potential if only the engine was made for its purpose instead of forcing you to resort to cheap tactics and move spamming in order to finish a level.
That can possibly count as bad game design.
Devil May Cry 3's normal mode -US- was the -JAP- hard mode. There is a sense of pride when completing certain bosses at that difficulty level. You really learn to use ALL your moves and to time things right.
Tekken 5 had a final boss that could stun you up close ignoring any moves you perform at him (later removed for the psp version.) Bad..part of the game?

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Ultimately, feels like personal preferences, some people like hard games, some people like going through a story, everyone is different, the interesting part would be having a serious debate on that subject relating certain games yet, with internet, getting a good debate is hard; typing time, typos, non willing agressivity, words being taken out of context, its a real hassle, why cant we all pick up a mic and skype it out :D.



Next post...?
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Possibly Podcast shoutout as ive been listening to alot of interesting "Game related" podcasts and im sure theses shows will have you thinking alot on the industry as a whole, maybe too much?

back to drawing.

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