As the few of you who come here may have noticed I have changed the layout of my site a bit. Pretty nice, right?
Also I decided to change the title of my site. "Carrot v Stick" obviously is not something coined by me, but it is always a key aspect of design I come back to on a very regular basis. The definition is obvious and simple, because as a designer you are creating a world and inviting a player to explore that world. When the player, inevitably, does things in this world which you never intended for them to do you are ostensibly left with two choices: punishing the player for doing something you don't want them to do, or rewarding them into doing what you want the player to do. Punishment and reward.
I am a big believer in positive reinforcement in all facets of life, and it is such a part of me that it finds its way into my design with little resistance. But I feel a common misstep among many designers, and would-be designers, is to immediately go for the stick. It is the easy answer If the player is doing something undesirable then the first thing to do is punish them. Of course this may be the ideal answer when the player is outright capable of breaking the logic of the game.
I think a great example of well implemented Carrot is the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2. I could only imagine how play sessions went during development, but if it is anything like the flow of "anger" from the mouths of scrubs playing the game then surely there were major balance decisions to be made.
A common complaint is the power of the grenade launcher, or noob toob. Now the developers can either nerf the launcher; make it less accurate, less powerful, slower reload time, (all examples of "stick.") Or take the carrot route and introduce items like the riot shield and blast shield. When combined, explosions do little or no damage. But now you have a turtle running around the stage invulnerable to many attacks, so now what do you do? Slow their speed down more, have the shield break over time, don't let them carry a second weapon? Or follow the path of the carrot again and introduce the Semtex grenade, which sticks to whatever it is thrown on. The shield is a larger, slower moving target, and is a guaranteed kill when stuck to the riot shield (though my wife swears wearing the blast shield in tandem will save you, but I never had such luck), and is a really quick way to accomplish the challenge of sticking semtex to 25 players.
That is the only good example I can think of, but I know the moment I come across it in another game I am going to make hop on here and write about it immediately. In the meantime I am looking forward to analyzing my own approach at design and hunting down the carrots and sticks in any games I play from now on.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
On Reading and Proofreading
I enjoy reading Kotaku. Whether I agree with the person posting for them or not, they are on top of most of the goings on in games and I have fun commenting on their forums. Two days ago Stephen Totilo of Kotaku wrote about his hesitation to kill buffalo in Red Dead Redemption. I had written of the same hesitance in a post on the 20th of June, so I linked him to my blog to show him my thoughts. I guess I could have copied and pasted it into an email, but I thought it would be fun to send him along to my blog and see what transpired. Much to my chagrin he wrote a Kotaku post about it, with a very large image of a Bison, and at the time of this writing has received over 18,000 hits and nearly 400 comments on the subject. Not the highest Kotaku reading of the day, but on average not too shabby.
It was pretty neat seeing my name on there, and completely unexpected. I had anticipated some kind of email from Stephen, but not a direct quote to my shitty post I wrote when I was very, very tired and on the verge of passing out from sleep deprivation and gaming to all hours of the morning. And in a few ways, maybe this was a bad thing. A lot of the Kotaku readers who shared in their comments were either upset and criticizing me for not being able to discern reality from fantasy, and others were agreeing and sharing their own hesitation to kill the buffalo in the game because they found it deplorable (though there were a rare few, and you know who you are, and you are rad). To me it was very odd because in a lot of ways my blog post had nothing to do with either opinion and I probably did a shitty job making this clear.
For the most part, it was an introspective look at WHY I was having any hesitation at all. I was actually quite shocked that I felt any hesitation as it was a rare occurrence when playing most of these games, and I commended Rockstar for inciting this kind of reaction in me. It is something I rarely encounter and I found it fascinating and thought provoking and I had to let it out in writing. And now I am struck by a whole new fascination; the idea that people do not read shit.
As a video game developer I am starting to get used to it, and that kind of sucks. For each game design document I write, I can tell who does and does not read the design document and/or pitches, and who just looks at table of contents and pictures. "Please make sure we do this in the game" a publisher will say, and all I can respond with is "oh, did you miss page 37 of the gdd?" when all I want to say is "yeah, I know, I already accounted for that, read the goddamn gdd motherfucker!" But of course someone paid to read documents would read those, but why would some random person cruising Kotaku bother to follow Mr. Totilo's link and read my blog post, even when instructed to "Read the whole post. And explain your buffalo-killing ways."? I mean, why would they bother to read beyond the two paragraphs Mr. Totilo felt were a good representation of what I had to say, to be sure they didn't take anything out of context, or to be sure Mr. Totilo didn't grab paragraphs in which I did a shitty job fully encapsulating my thoughts?
I can not IMAGINE being a writer, especially on one of these blogs. It must pain people like Stephen Totilo to write an article only to have a majority of people read only the headline, misinterpret it, and then post their messages as fast as they can just so people can see what their opinion is. That kind of thing would aggravate the shit out of me to no extent. Although, I can relate in a few ways. In my short five years in the industry (I am a veteran in gaming years mind you) I have released a handful of games mostly to shitty reviews, and I have seen a very similar thing in both reviews and message boards. Some people want to go out of their way to have an opinion and beat down your game, but not really take the time to understand it (I guess this is kind of a vague statement, but anyone who has worked hard on a project can relate in one form or another I am sure.) I am really hoping people will be able to play Galactic Tazball, Despicable Me, and the game I am currently directing, and look at them objectively for what we attempt to do, and not just what the reviewer is expecting from the game based on some arbitrary biases they bring to the table. But in some ways, every review is approached with this same shitty bias, so maybe the playfield is even.
In other ways, I should be a better writer and a better proofreader. If, in the future, I want people like Stephen Totilo to quote me and take my professional opinion seriously, then I should have paragraphs which are easily more quotable with less that can be misinterpreted. I may forever go down as the wuss who could not shoot Buffalo in Red Dead Redemption when googling my name, when I could have just as easily (with the simple stroke of some keys and better grammar) been the guy who pointed out how buffalo don't come back and it is a rare thing in games. I suppose from here on out I will proofread my writing better, and become the writer and designer I want to be, and perhaps incite as much thought and debate as I did today with a large number of Kotaku readers (but after tonight, because I have had way too much wine to validate any proofreading.)
And to anyone who actually ventured to this blog and read through each shittily worded paragraph, I thank you and ask you to comment here so that I can someday high five you and call you my friend.
It was pretty neat seeing my name on there, and completely unexpected. I had anticipated some kind of email from Stephen, but not a direct quote to my shitty post I wrote when I was very, very tired and on the verge of passing out from sleep deprivation and gaming to all hours of the morning. And in a few ways, maybe this was a bad thing. A lot of the Kotaku readers who shared in their comments were either upset and criticizing me for not being able to discern reality from fantasy, and others were agreeing and sharing their own hesitation to kill the buffalo in the game because they found it deplorable (though there were a rare few, and you know who you are, and you are rad). To me it was very odd because in a lot of ways my blog post had nothing to do with either opinion and I probably did a shitty job making this clear.
For the most part, it was an introspective look at WHY I was having any hesitation at all. I was actually quite shocked that I felt any hesitation as it was a rare occurrence when playing most of these games, and I commended Rockstar for inciting this kind of reaction in me. It is something I rarely encounter and I found it fascinating and thought provoking and I had to let it out in writing. And now I am struck by a whole new fascination; the idea that people do not read shit.
As a video game developer I am starting to get used to it, and that kind of sucks. For each game design document I write, I can tell who does and does not read the design document and/or pitches, and who just looks at table of contents and pictures. "Please make sure we do this in the game" a publisher will say, and all I can respond with is "oh, did you miss page 37 of the gdd?" when all I want to say is "yeah, I know, I already accounted for that, read the goddamn gdd motherfucker!" But of course someone paid to read documents would read those, but why would some random person cruising Kotaku bother to follow Mr. Totilo's link and read my blog post, even when instructed to "Read the whole post. And explain your buffalo-killing ways."? I mean, why would they bother to read beyond the two paragraphs Mr. Totilo felt were a good representation of what I had to say, to be sure they didn't take anything out of context, or to be sure Mr. Totilo didn't grab paragraphs in which I did a shitty job fully encapsulating my thoughts?
I can not IMAGINE being a writer, especially on one of these blogs. It must pain people like Stephen Totilo to write an article only to have a majority of people read only the headline, misinterpret it, and then post their messages as fast as they can just so people can see what their opinion is. That kind of thing would aggravate the shit out of me to no extent. Although, I can relate in a few ways. In my short five years in the industry (I am a veteran in gaming years mind you) I have released a handful of games mostly to shitty reviews, and I have seen a very similar thing in both reviews and message boards. Some people want to go out of their way to have an opinion and beat down your game, but not really take the time to understand it (I guess this is kind of a vague statement, but anyone who has worked hard on a project can relate in one form or another I am sure.) I am really hoping people will be able to play Galactic Tazball, Despicable Me, and the game I am currently directing, and look at them objectively for what we attempt to do, and not just what the reviewer is expecting from the game based on some arbitrary biases they bring to the table. But in some ways, every review is approached with this same shitty bias, so maybe the playfield is even.
In other ways, I should be a better writer and a better proofreader. If, in the future, I want people like Stephen Totilo to quote me and take my professional opinion seriously, then I should have paragraphs which are easily more quotable with less that can be misinterpreted. I may forever go down as the wuss who could not shoot Buffalo in Red Dead Redemption when googling my name, when I could have just as easily (with the simple stroke of some keys and better grammar) been the guy who pointed out how buffalo don't come back and it is a rare thing in games. I suppose from here on out I will proofread my writing better, and become the writer and designer I want to be, and perhaps incite as much thought and debate as I did today with a large number of Kotaku readers (but after tonight, because I have had way too much wine to validate any proofreading.)
And to anyone who actually ventured to this blog and read through each shittily worded paragraph, I thank you and ask you to comment here so that I can someday high five you and call you my friend.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Extinction within a game?
Recently I have been up to my eyeballs in Red Dead Redemption. I am quickly coming to the end of the game and starting to pursue achievements I feel I could easily... achieve. While looking over the list of achievements I came across "Manifest Destiny", worth 5 achievement points, where I must: "Kill the last buffalo in the Great Plains in Single Player."
For some reason this makes me feel oddly uncomfortable. This is strange to me because it is a feeling I have never come across in a game before. It is one thing to run around shooting animals I know to be on the endangered species list. So far I didn't mind shooting beavers, cougars, or owls; there seems to be no end to them. Like most games they are killed and replenished.
A part of me feels that if the achievement simply called for killing a whole number, maybe 30 buffalo, and knowing that more will appear on the plains at some point, is something I am ok with. But in a game where storytelling elements have pointed out the stupidity of the white man, and the atrocities imposed on the natives of the land, I feel like I am morally wrong to pursue this achievement.
Now maybe I would be less inclined to care if it was simply a hunting game, instead of a game which introduces many moral dilemmas throughout the narrative, and a character who, surprisingly, is of a higher level of moral fortitude than I was expecting. And because the game so liberally portrays characters and situations in a strong good and evil light, I feel like I am partaking in too much of the evil. Perhaps it has more to do with the context of the game itself and how I feel I will shape the world of the game than it does with feeling like I am recreating a horrible portion of the past.
I guess I feel almost sad in the same way I would feel sad to kill a major character in Fallout, knowing full-well that they are never going to be alive again within my saved game, and that is the end. It is truly the exception, game characters which can be killed off at the discretion of the player, not by the forced narrative or intended structure of the main game, never to be respawned again. It is something that literally makes me stop and think, because I need to weigh whether I will want this person around in later playthroughs of the game.
But with the buffalo, there is no real benefit. They are simply animals wandering a section of the game world. So in a way I suppose there is a combination of guilt and discomfort, performing an act with overarching social implications. Knowing that the thing you are going to do will set a chain of events creating years of despair and completely ruining the lives of millions of people. It is different than simply killing an individual character in the game which is a carbon copy of a seemingly endless supply of the same character.
I have no problem killing an individual character in a game, usually because I have no idea who this person is or how they exist in the world. But I suppose if I saw a flash into this characters life the moment I pointed a gun at them I would feel different. Imagine it: you aim your pistol at their head, then the screen flashes to white. You are given a glimpse of them at home, providing for their family, playing with their children, and other happy things. Then you are brought back to the game with the crosshairs on their head. Do you continue and kill this character, or are you second guessing?
I know I was in a similar predicament when I knew I was face to face with a cannibal in the game, and I had to hogtie a man and bring him to the cannibal. I didn't want to do it. I already knew this guy was bad, I had seen multiple family members crying over missing loved ones, seen the piles of bones out in the wilderness, then heard the cries of the man I chased down as he said "Don't do this, he is crazy." But when I tried shooting the cannibal first, I failed the mission. I begrudgingly did the mission again, and was able to kill the cannibal before he killed the man, so I felt ok in the longrun, but I was really sucked in by the whole thing, and I am still impressed by how emotionally swayed I was by this simple mission.
And as for killing the buffalo? I don't think it is weird for me to feel this way. Yes these are just characters in a game, but so was Aeris and I cried when Sephiroth killed her. But there is a lot more going on here, everything I listed that I don't feel like listing again, which the developers did an amazing job layering over and over in order to illicit and emotional response and investment from the player, and I have to applaud Rockstar San Diego for creating such a moral dilemma for myself.
For some reason this makes me feel oddly uncomfortable. This is strange to me because it is a feeling I have never come across in a game before. It is one thing to run around shooting animals I know to be on the endangered species list. So far I didn't mind shooting beavers, cougars, or owls; there seems to be no end to them. Like most games they are killed and replenished.
A part of me feels that if the achievement simply called for killing a whole number, maybe 30 buffalo, and knowing that more will appear on the plains at some point, is something I am ok with. But in a game where storytelling elements have pointed out the stupidity of the white man, and the atrocities imposed on the natives of the land, I feel like I am morally wrong to pursue this achievement.
Now maybe I would be less inclined to care if it was simply a hunting game, instead of a game which introduces many moral dilemmas throughout the narrative, and a character who, surprisingly, is of a higher level of moral fortitude than I was expecting. And because the game so liberally portrays characters and situations in a strong good and evil light, I feel like I am partaking in too much of the evil. Perhaps it has more to do with the context of the game itself and how I feel I will shape the world of the game than it does with feeling like I am recreating a horrible portion of the past.
I guess I feel almost sad in the same way I would feel sad to kill a major character in Fallout, knowing full-well that they are never going to be alive again within my saved game, and that is the end. It is truly the exception, game characters which can be killed off at the discretion of the player, not by the forced narrative or intended structure of the main game, never to be respawned again. It is something that literally makes me stop and think, because I need to weigh whether I will want this person around in later playthroughs of the game.
But with the buffalo, there is no real benefit. They are simply animals wandering a section of the game world. So in a way I suppose there is a combination of guilt and discomfort, performing an act with overarching social implications. Knowing that the thing you are going to do will set a chain of events creating years of despair and completely ruining the lives of millions of people. It is different than simply killing an individual character in the game which is a carbon copy of a seemingly endless supply of the same character.
I have no problem killing an individual character in a game, usually because I have no idea who this person is or how they exist in the world. But I suppose if I saw a flash into this characters life the moment I pointed a gun at them I would feel different. Imagine it: you aim your pistol at their head, then the screen flashes to white. You are given a glimpse of them at home, providing for their family, playing with their children, and other happy things. Then you are brought back to the game with the crosshairs on their head. Do you continue and kill this character, or are you second guessing?
I know I was in a similar predicament when I knew I was face to face with a cannibal in the game, and I had to hogtie a man and bring him to the cannibal. I didn't want to do it. I already knew this guy was bad, I had seen multiple family members crying over missing loved ones, seen the piles of bones out in the wilderness, then heard the cries of the man I chased down as he said "Don't do this, he is crazy." But when I tried shooting the cannibal first, I failed the mission. I begrudgingly did the mission again, and was able to kill the cannibal before he killed the man, so I felt ok in the longrun, but I was really sucked in by the whole thing, and I am still impressed by how emotionally swayed I was by this simple mission.
And as for killing the buffalo? I don't think it is weird for me to feel this way. Yes these are just characters in a game, but so was Aeris and I cried when Sephiroth killed her. But there is a lot more going on here, everything I listed that I don't feel like listing again, which the developers did an amazing job layering over and over in order to illicit and emotional response and investment from the player, and I have to applaud Rockstar San Diego for creating such a moral dilemma for myself.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Monday, October 26, 2009
Halloween 2000
Wow, I can't believe it has been more than 3 weeks since my promise to write more on this thing. Stupid deadlines and paychecks.
There are so many video game related pumpkins this year, I had to get in on the action.
Back in 2000, I carved this Akuma / Gouki pumpkin. I think this is the only picture I took, and it is at night, so you can't see the actual pumpkin in the shot. All of the sections are completely cut out. I apologize for the poor scan and picture quality.
I miss the pumpkin dearly.
There are so many video game related pumpkins this year, I had to get in on the action.
Back in 2000, I carved this Akuma / Gouki pumpkin. I think this is the only picture I took, and it is at night, so you can't see the actual pumpkin in the shot. All of the sections are completely cut out. I apologize for the poor scan and picture quality.
I miss the pumpkin dearly.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
My First Pixel Art Painting
Here is the final result. See below for a walkthrough of making this painting.
Noteworthy:
On an occasional basis I run across someone making some piece of art, reminiscent of classic 8 or 16-bit gaming. I always love seeing them, whether they're made out of paper scraps, colored magnets, or paints. But one day it clicked: why the hell haven't you done one of these?
Inspiration struck. I had a big canvas sitting at home, waiting to be painted on. I had purchased it 5+ years ago at a BigLots for few bucks. I originally drew a design to paint, and never got off my butt to do it. I no longer liked the design, and couldn't think of a better thing to paint. But what should be the subject?
Seeing as how Super Mario World is my favorite game of all time, I opted for a scene from it. With the canvas measuring about 22x28 inches, I didn't want to paint the "pixels" smaller than a half inch each, and after some soul searching I found my subject and arrangement. It was a perfect fit.
Prepping the canvas
First thing to do was clear out all the pencil drawing which was already there. I layed down a few layers of gesso until I couldn't see the original pencil marks very well.
Then came the meticulous task of drawing a grid across the whole canvas. There were a lot of crooked lines, and there are a number of non-square pixels in the painting, but they are hidden better after painting.
After creating the grid, I did another thin layer of gesso to be sure the pencil wouldn't smudge. I then drew out the basic outline of the character, with a focus on which pixels would then be black.
Attacking the Background
After that it was on to the background. You can see I took up most of the butcher pan to mix the background green.
For those who don't paint, the pan is a simple metal pan for mixing with a palette knife, with all the sample colors sitting on a damp paper towel to help them dry slower. Simple stuff.
The Right Tools
At this point I am a few days/sessions in. I had done a lot of the earlier work during the daytime with plenty of daylight, but later moved a nice lamp from the living room. My lovely wife took notice of this and went and bought me a new desk lamp.
I used to have a 2 lamp setup back in the college days, which is VERY useful for both painting and sculpture, but have given the lamps away since then. It was so nice of her to get the lamp for me, and it made my life so much easier. Plus it is very flexible and doesn't get hot to the touch. Good deal. Viva Ikea.
Only bad thing was the light showed me all of my mistakes I had missed in the simpler light. I then had to re-mix the right shade of green and do touch-ups to a large number of areas. This had a huge impact on me, and I made sure to mix plenty of paint and do it right for every color I was to lay down from here on out.
If you look close you can see a splotch of brown at the base of Yoshi's foot. I hadn't realized until after I started painting that I had no Mars Black. I tried mixing some colors to see if I could get something dark enough to pass as a base, but quickly opted against it. I went and bought some new paints the next day.
Going Black
The black pixels seemed like a great anchor to be able to count and measure all the other pixels from. Knowing this I painted in all of the black pixels
Going for Yoshi
Yoshi seemed like the next best thing to hit. I purchased a lime green tube of paint to require less unique mixing with my phthalo and hooker's green. A touch of raw sienna and a hint of titanium white and he was good to go.
I got through Yoshi faster than I had originally anticipated. I figured I would start some other night, but then I dove in and was done with it fairly swiftly. I was also surprised to not see much aliasing in his colors, and how orange the cinch of his saddle is.
Here you can get a pretty good sense that this is an acrylic painting. I didn't mix any kind of matte medium so the paint is thick and fairly glossy. Personally I love seeing the brushstrokes and thicker sections of the piece from up close, it gives it a lot of character.
Wait, that's not Yoshi's Saddle?
I was shocked to learn, after completing the painting, that the big orange object in the dead center of Yoshi IS HIS ARM! I have no idea why his arm is orange, but nonetheless, it is orange. A small part of me feels like my childhood has been ripped to shreds. I was tempted to take a blade to the thing and destroy it, but I held back the urge... for now.
Process Discovery
On occasion my unsteady hands were creating sloppy results. I tried my hardest to be careful, not wanting to re-mix paint, but then decided to allow myself to bleed the brush into the areas with black or white. Because I wasn't mixing those colors, I didn't need to be as meticulous, and could go back over the sections later. This allowed me to work a little faster and ease my brain a bit.
Looking back it seems like a no brainer.
Full Setup
Here you can see the arrangement I have been working with. I always had the laptop off to the side to match colors and count pixels. I almost knocked my water cup into the laptop only ONCE.
You can also see the outline of Mario, which I was surprised to find was a very dark red, and his glove.
The Cape and Nose
Another shocking thing I learned while making this, most of the cape has the same color pink as the bottom of Mario's nose. The whole time I was painting the pink on the cape, I thought it looked odd and I was doing it wrong. But I kept going, and after taking a step back noticed that it finally felt right.
And upon further inspection, the pink I had used was far too saturated. So when I mixed the pink for the cape, I went back over the nose, hence the sloppy bleed into the mustache.
Proofing
Saving the red for last was a choice, and a somewhat stupid one.
A little background: I am always the biggest proponent for proofing colors when making art which is either going to get printed or put onto a TV.
Here is an example of proofing. On the left is the Mario image pulled straight from the game rom snapshot on a pc. Running it through the proof feature of Photoshop (ctrl y) displays the colors as they would appear in their final medium, in this case NTSC TV.
I first noticed when I was mixing the red, and it wasn't very red, but more pink. I opted to fake the colors a bit and pump the red a touch. In the end I think the red I ended up with was a great result.
Final Touches
And finally I went back over the sloppy overlap with the mars black paint. I tried using a bit of drafting tape at first, but it wasn't keeping the paint out very well, so I went back with a steady hand to finish the job.
It's a me
Everyone I was showing pictures to thought the painting was quite small. So I had someone take a picture of me next to the piece to show the scale. I was quite happy to have a picture taken of me.
The End
Thanks for reading. I hope it wasn't too wordy. And if you have any questions about the process, or anything else, please feel free to contact me.
Up next... either Super Metroid, or chibi Ken from Puzzle Fighter.
Noteworthy:
- Measures 22"x28"
- All colors are mixed except Mars Black and Titanium White
- Completed off and on throughout the month of September and in the first week of October.
- Each "pixel" is 0.5" square
- Painted with acrylics
On an occasional basis I run across someone making some piece of art, reminiscent of classic 8 or 16-bit gaming. I always love seeing them, whether they're made out of paper scraps, colored magnets, or paints. But one day it clicked: why the hell haven't you done one of these?
Inspiration struck. I had a big canvas sitting at home, waiting to be painted on. I had purchased it 5+ years ago at a BigLots for few bucks. I originally drew a design to paint, and never got off my butt to do it. I no longer liked the design, and couldn't think of a better thing to paint. But what should be the subject?
Seeing as how Super Mario World is my favorite game of all time, I opted for a scene from it. With the canvas measuring about 22x28 inches, I didn't want to paint the "pixels" smaller than a half inch each, and after some soul searching I found my subject and arrangement. It was a perfect fit.
Prepping the canvas
First thing to do was clear out all the pencil drawing which was already there. I layed down a few layers of gesso until I couldn't see the original pencil marks very well.
Then came the meticulous task of drawing a grid across the whole canvas. There were a lot of crooked lines, and there are a number of non-square pixels in the painting, but they are hidden better after painting.
After creating the grid, I did another thin layer of gesso to be sure the pencil wouldn't smudge. I then drew out the basic outline of the character, with a focus on which pixels would then be black.
Attacking the Background
After that it was on to the background. You can see I took up most of the butcher pan to mix the background green.
For those who don't paint, the pan is a simple metal pan for mixing with a palette knife, with all the sample colors sitting on a damp paper towel to help them dry slower. Simple stuff.
The Right Tools
At this point I am a few days/sessions in. I had done a lot of the earlier work during the daytime with plenty of daylight, but later moved a nice lamp from the living room. My lovely wife took notice of this and went and bought me a new desk lamp.
I used to have a 2 lamp setup back in the college days, which is VERY useful for both painting and sculpture, but have given the lamps away since then. It was so nice of her to get the lamp for me, and it made my life so much easier. Plus it is very flexible and doesn't get hot to the touch. Good deal. Viva Ikea.
Only bad thing was the light showed me all of my mistakes I had missed in the simpler light. I then had to re-mix the right shade of green and do touch-ups to a large number of areas. This had a huge impact on me, and I made sure to mix plenty of paint and do it right for every color I was to lay down from here on out.
If you look close you can see a splotch of brown at the base of Yoshi's foot. I hadn't realized until after I started painting that I had no Mars Black. I tried mixing some colors to see if I could get something dark enough to pass as a base, but quickly opted against it. I went and bought some new paints the next day.
Going Black
The black pixels seemed like a great anchor to be able to count and measure all the other pixels from. Knowing this I painted in all of the black pixels
Going for Yoshi
Yoshi seemed like the next best thing to hit. I purchased a lime green tube of paint to require less unique mixing with my phthalo and hooker's green. A touch of raw sienna and a hint of titanium white and he was good to go.
I got through Yoshi faster than I had originally anticipated. I figured I would start some other night, but then I dove in and was done with it fairly swiftly. I was also surprised to not see much aliasing in his colors, and how orange the cinch of his saddle is.
Here you can get a pretty good sense that this is an acrylic painting. I didn't mix any kind of matte medium so the paint is thick and fairly glossy. Personally I love seeing the brushstrokes and thicker sections of the piece from up close, it gives it a lot of character.
Wait, that's not Yoshi's Saddle?
I was shocked to learn, after completing the painting, that the big orange object in the dead center of Yoshi IS HIS ARM! I have no idea why his arm is orange, but nonetheless, it is orange. A small part of me feels like my childhood has been ripped to shreds. I was tempted to take a blade to the thing and destroy it, but I held back the urge... for now.
Process Discovery
On occasion my unsteady hands were creating sloppy results. I tried my hardest to be careful, not wanting to re-mix paint, but then decided to allow myself to bleed the brush into the areas with black or white. Because I wasn't mixing those colors, I didn't need to be as meticulous, and could go back over the sections later. This allowed me to work a little faster and ease my brain a bit.
Looking back it seems like a no brainer.
Full Setup
Here you can see the arrangement I have been working with. I always had the laptop off to the side to match colors and count pixels. I almost knocked my water cup into the laptop only ONCE.
You can also see the outline of Mario, which I was surprised to find was a very dark red, and his glove.
The Cape and Nose
Another shocking thing I learned while making this, most of the cape has the same color pink as the bottom of Mario's nose. The whole time I was painting the pink on the cape, I thought it looked odd and I was doing it wrong. But I kept going, and after taking a step back noticed that it finally felt right.
And upon further inspection, the pink I had used was far too saturated. So when I mixed the pink for the cape, I went back over the nose, hence the sloppy bleed into the mustache.
Proofing
Saving the red for last was a choice, and a somewhat stupid one.
A little background: I am always the biggest proponent for proofing colors when making art which is either going to get printed or put onto a TV.
Here is an example of proofing. On the left is the Mario image pulled straight from the game rom snapshot on a pc. Running it through the proof feature of Photoshop (ctrl y) displays the colors as they would appear in their final medium, in this case NTSC TV.
I first noticed when I was mixing the red, and it wasn't very red, but more pink. I opted to fake the colors a bit and pump the red a touch. In the end I think the red I ended up with was a great result.
Final Touches
And finally I went back over the sloppy overlap with the mars black paint. I tried using a bit of drafting tape at first, but it wasn't keeping the paint out very well, so I went back with a steady hand to finish the job.
It's a me
Everyone I was showing pictures to thought the painting was quite small. So I had someone take a picture of me next to the piece to show the scale. I was quite happy to have a picture taken of me.
The End
Thanks for reading. I hope it wasn't too wordy. And if you have any questions about the process, or anything else, please feel free to contact me.
Up next... either Super Metroid, or chibi Ken from Puzzle Fighter.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Might as well
And so it begins (again.)
Last July when my father passed away, I created a blog. The first post was a bit of a brain dump, getting my feelings and thoughts out of my head so I could find a little inner clarity. I had intended to turn the blog into a game design blog shortly after, trying to take a step towards a bit of professionalism and critical thinking. The past year has been a roller coaster of chaos and happiness, and I feel stable and driven enough to forge ahead and get these thoughts out more often.
Most of my inspiration comes from reading user blogs and comments on Gamasutra.com and Kotaku.com. There are always strong opinions on a multitude of subjects, both serious and light-hearted, and I often have a strong opinion, which I have molded over the 4.5+ years I have been in the industry. The experiences I have had and the people I have met have helped me grow drastically, and I feel I am ready to get some of these thoughts out to educate and entertain.
So I hope you enjoy reading this, and hope some of it is somewhat entertaining.
Enjoy!
Last July when my father passed away, I created a blog. The first post was a bit of a brain dump, getting my feelings and thoughts out of my head so I could find a little inner clarity. I had intended to turn the blog into a game design blog shortly after, trying to take a step towards a bit of professionalism and critical thinking. The past year has been a roller coaster of chaos and happiness, and I feel stable and driven enough to forge ahead and get these thoughts out more often.
Most of my inspiration comes from reading user blogs and comments on Gamasutra.com and Kotaku.com. There are always strong opinions on a multitude of subjects, both serious and light-hearted, and I often have a strong opinion, which I have molded over the 4.5+ years I have been in the industry. The experiences I have had and the people I have met have helped me grow drastically, and I feel I am ready to get some of these thoughts out to educate and entertain.
So I hope you enjoy reading this, and hope some of it is somewhat entertaining.
Enjoy!
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