November already

Time has really blown by this year and things seem to be finally coming to fruition with Black Powder | Red Earth, the facebook game. Most of the images have been post processed and I'm building templates for use in the production front end by Altay. It's unbelievably satisfying to see something come of this property after so much blood and sweat.

Right now, I feel pretty good that release one will be a unique experience among the hordes of facebook games and we're hoping to elevate that next year to something more resembling some of the recent entries into the RPG space. It's a strange journey to go from working on an FPS for almost 6 years (starting as a mod all the way up to actually working with a legit dev kit) and now transitioning to a role play format but really, this is where our strengths lie.

The multiplayer game, which we are still iterating on, will likely see release some day, but there's so much polish and shine to the game play alone needed before that day will come. Not to mention, we've taken a honest look at what a game about our subject matter would be composed of...and it's more Deus Ex than Call of Duty, ie a totally different experience from the run and gun TST style missions in the BPRE multiplayer game ^_^;

Meanwhile, I've got some ideas on how to spin up a rapid prototype tool for a choice/result based system ala some of the Bioware games. We'll hopefully explore that next year.

We've also been working on a prologue video piece with Tim Tracy. Yes, that Tim Tracy. We have such a complex back story for the game that we wanted to communicate with the players, it was a challenge to widdle it down to a core time line of relevant events and then figure out a stylish presentation that would actually hook someone versus alienate them with a lot of Arabic names and history. It's not the "documentary" we had originally wanted to do, but when one has no $, one gets creative ^_^;

Speaking of creative, between hammering through the lyrics to a new GridLink and planning the art/layout for "Orphan". I've also begun work on the new story arc for the BPRE universe entitled Black Powder | Grey Skies. This content will first appear in the facebook game and then hopefully, as a novel based on the same content. I already have a working outline and some characters, but there's a lot to work out. I can say that the story in Grey Skies is actually the events that lead up to the stuff in Red Earth.

But I'm not getting involved in another book until I finish this record ^o^

In other news, I've been playing Modern Warfare 2 on 360...and while I really love it. The lack of dedicated servers really, really sucks. I can see it in the kill cams. I bean a guy in the melon and he head shots me instead. I watch the kill cam and not only did I not fire, the shooter emptied a mag into me. Sigh. Also really hate some of the new perks. Heart beat sensors and turrets have no place in these games. Some of the maps are really great, but I'm not sure if I will remain engaged with the MP as long as I did for MW1.

The single player experience was really well crafted, I especially enjoyed the bits in South America, but overall...I was left unsatisfied with the story. It's...terrible. I may suffer from some serious suspension of disbelief issues because of our background on BPRE but this game has the worst story I've suffered through since Halo 2. It's like they built all the levels and then, Harmony Gold/Robotech style, tried to tie everything together and then add a series of, what can only be described as, fucking idiotic twists at the end. The only positive I got from it, was that it inspired the ending for Grey Skies in a way so starkly contrasting what you get at the end of MW2...I'll leave it to your imagination until I can get it down in ASCII for public distribution^_^

I also picked up and played Flashpoint 2 on Xbox360 and have been playing with ARMA II at the office. I say playing with ARMA II because it's more of a toy than a game. So much shit is broken in it, I enjoy just trucking around and seeing some of the capabilities that were included with the product. Flashpoint 2 is also, not without it's own bugs, but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it enough to buy the expansion pack and spend some time in co-op online...which of course made the transition to MW2, all the more painful. New controls, new expectations of weapon performance, etc.

When I finish with MW2 I think I will pick up Dragon Age...not sure if I will go PC or console with it...probably PC since it's $25 cheaper on that platform ^_^;

Happy holidays!

Busy month

BPRE Facebook game is plowing ahead. Lots and lots of progress made. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping release one "hits the streets" in November.

Hayaino Daisuki "Invincible Gate Mind of the Infernal Fire Hell" hits in November as well. No idea when the pre-order goes up with Hydrahead, but I designed 2 new shirts for them. Maybe one will hit as a pre-order bonus?

Starting work on the Black Powder | Red Earth novel/book which will probably serve as structure for missions beyond the first story arc we've designed for the Facebook game. Not sure where I am going with it but the story is entirely self contained and features a totally different crew of characters.

Since I've gotten my 360 I've played games. A whole lot of games. Gears 2, 50 Cent Blood in the Sand, ODST, etc. But the one that has been the stickiest has been the new Flashpoint title which plays like an expanded version of the original SOCOM games, without the need to shoot everyone in sight. It's got bugs galore, but I am hooked.

More here soon, but I've got to run.

Screenplay in the "can"

After 5 years and 2 different planets, the Black Powder | Red Earth screenplay is complete. We're hopefully going into production sometime in the next few weeks with Josh Taylor at the helm as artist. What started out as Halo meets PMCs has become more an Akira meets Body of Lies type thing, but peopled by the characters from Way of the Gun LOL

I fought against writing this kind of story for a while as I wasn't sure it would stand alone in the market place, but after a lot of trial and effort, it seemed best to let the story take itself where it wanted to. We're making the final adjustments to the game story line to accommodate the "canon" as detailed in the graphic novel, but they are pretty minor. Once we changed course about a year ago, the whole thing fell into place pretty quickly.

I can tell you it has been a labor of love that could not have been completed without the help of many people, who shall not be named at this time ^_^;

I have begun outlining the second story arc (Black Powder | Grey Sky) which will feed into the first expansion pack, hopefully out within 3-4 months from initial release. But that is still in research phase.

We are beginning work on a short doc piece that will give new folks a quick outline of the BPRE world. Inspired by other doc work and in no small means by the work of Neill Blomkamp, the piece will hopefully provide insight and some ideas about where the game came from and where it will take players.

Last word on Echelon stuff, we had a visit from Markus Eslitzbichler about a week ago. We discussed a lot of ideas we would like to try for an advanced BPRE game play demo and are trying to figure out when we can get a moment in edgewise to prototype our ideas. There were 4 maps in prototype form for BPRE when we hit the pause button on the FPS. I've got lots of ideas on how to take those maps to the next level, but that's the fun thing about time. It always let's you learn new things and form new ideas :)

In other news, the wife has started work at REI, my new favorite place to buy kit/gear. I snapped up a Timbuk2 Hemlock, a micron light, some Kuhl Ryder pants(for the winter) and Garmont's vegan hikers. We've been planning an emergency bag for sometime and with REI now front and center (15 minutes from home versus 1 hour to either CAMPMOR or Tent & Trails) we can actually put together a solid emergency pack rather than ordering from 20 different places across the Internet and getting bent over on shipping >o<

A new pet project I want to start a new blog called vegan gun fighter...I mean I have never taken a shooting class where the targets were deer or bunnies...it's always evil evil humans ^O^ I recently parted with my MAV in favor of a Mayflower Research QD low Pro rig. I figure, how many mags do I really need and I am looking for something as flat as possible. Mayflower seems to make pretty bomb proof kit too :) Hopefully I can take some more classes next year.

Have a better one.

Why do IP based comics consistently suck?

Maybe I'm just stupid for keeping the faith but seriously...Today I picked up the latest issue of the Halo ODST comic(issue 2 of 5 - I gave it 2 issues to go somewhere) and I am speechless. It was so bad, it actually diminished my interest in the game. And that's saying something considering I got my latest 360 pretty much to play ODST.

The dialog is generic and seems to be there to explain what is happening in the terrible panel art rather than building mood or character. The panel art doesn't tell a story...it's just a series of drawings with no sense of drama, character or flow. If you took away the crap words, I would probably have no idea what is happening at all. Compare this book to the work of Otomo, Shirow, Kirby, Sakai, Jock or Risso and just try tell me there's not a substantial quality gap.

But this crime is by no means limited to this book. Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, Gears of War, Mercenaries 2, Army of Two, you name it, they've blown it. Is it just that today's comic writers and artists are lazy or that fans simply will buy anything?

The stories are cookie cutter from the games and the panel work is at best pretty and at worst a fucking train wreck...I mean wtf...are there only like 5 guys in the world who can do good panel work anymore?!! It's like the creators are just trying to get through the source material rather than using it as a spring board to do something creative?!

Maybe it's that I am jealous of squandered opportunities...or maybe I'm just surprised...or more accurately, horrified. The Halo 3 "Believe" marketing campaign was the most amazing campaign I ever saw...it drive me to go out and buy a 360 and Halo 3 on day of release. However, the comics (even the Bendis one) have done nothing but disappoint. And this ODST thing has gone so far as to actually make me feel less interested in the game.

Good job Marvel. I hope Mickey Mouse cuts off your head, shits down your throat and throws the body to the carrion crows.

Back to work.

District 9

In case I haven't mentioned it...District 9 was awesome. Can't say enough good things about it.

Saw the Avatar in theater 3D teaser....it didn't rock my socks off. I hope the humans kill them all.

j

Remote

I've been down in Tulsa, OK on an emergency project this past week, doing 16 hours a day for pretty much 7 days straight. It's taken me back to the days at Interactive8 when we would occasionally have stretches of hell like this. I suppose we have them at _Echelon as well, but those are more "fun" ^_^;

This week I reunited with my old adversary, Howard Coale. I use the word adversary in a loving way. Howard and I worked together at Interactive8 when I was 22 and he was around my age(36). It's amazing how time changes perspective on how we approach projects and creative, but more on that some other day.

We got a lot of stuff done but we used to push each others buttons...will sledgehammers. Ultimately we learned to work together and made a hell of a team...so much so that when an opportunity presented itself that seemed to be "impossible" he was on my list of 3 people to call.

Working like this, while not healthy or even productive long term, does have a weird effect on team. I guess nothing brings people together like an impossible situation. Well...if you have the right people it does. It's strange how no matter how far I go, I always go back to Interactive8 as one of the best jobs I ever had in terms of the people/team. We had that magic chemistry that one team in a hundred has. At _Echelon we've been very careful about how we grow the team. In fact it's barely grown at all. We have 2-3 guys we go to for consulting when there's cash in the bank but for the most part we still go it alone. Slow and steady. Not rushing to market.

Be it gaming, creative, music or whatever, it always comes down to the right bunch of people being at the wheel.

Speaking of the right people, when I get back we should begin production on the BPRE graphic novel. The screenplay is in the can and I am meeting with the Josh Taylor, the artist, next week to kick off the project. We'll do a read,rough out the book and then identify all the images I need to capture for the appendix of the book. There's so much detail in the script we decided it would be best to make an artist's reference appendix to the script that showed images of everything I wanted in the finished book.

This is going to be my first published full length graphic novel and I have to confess...I am pretty excited.

When the 2nd Hayaino Daisuki EP is released(looking like October on vinyl and January 2010 on disc), a Scratch Trigger Era (you remember STE right?!) mini comic will also drop that was written by Mark Gilson and myself, though I will say the lion's share of the credit goes to Mark on this one.

In GridLink news, Takafumi busted out 2 finished GridLink tracks this week. They are hell on wheels to write to. Crazy parts that go all over the damn place. I have no idea what Fajardo is going to do with them.

I also cashed in some of the Amazon mp3 credits I received for buying a 360 Arcade this week and picked up the first 2 1349 records, which I had never heard in entirety. They definitely helped me drive through this project and combat the alien world that is Tulsa, OK (more on that someday >o<). These 1349 records are pretty insane. I picked up "Hellfire" a few years ago and there were a few tracks that had some cool hooks but, it never stuck with me. There's definitely things on these records that are far more sticky. I need time to digest though...

Home again, home again. Good evening JF!

Just got back from Fayetteville, NC. We shot about 15 gigs of photos for use in our upcoming Facebook game. We're getting closer and closer everyday to some sort of release. It's quite exciting after so many years to get even 1 of these games out the door.

We also had a few script meetings on the BPRE graphic novel. I need to add a crawl to the beginning as well as a few points of dialog. I wanted to just drop the audience into the story in progress and explain on the go. I think it gave the story a very immediate feel, but it also disoriented the hell out of half the people who read it LOL

I also made a decision to rewrite one of the major action pieces as well. It was too big...and just felt wrong for the the story. I am hoping to be ready with revisions by the time our artist arrives in September.

I've been trying to squeeze in all the new Comicon stuff since I returned. Last week was a non-stop run through hell featuring daily temperatures of 100-110F with 90-100% humidity, intermittent rain and block after block of chain stores and churches, which are admittedly a chain store of a less interesting variety. As a side effect of living my dreams, I missed all the live Comicon covergae and have to play catch up.

Despite following a bland and mediocre first title with an even worse graphic novel, I must confess I am a bit curious in the new Army of Two games. Not enough to place a pre-order mind you, but interested enough to tune in. I think the allure is pretty obvious. Similar subject matter...radically different approach to what we are doing. The first one was boring and tedious. I still am not sure why I bothered to finish it. The story, acting and level design was all fairly generic, with the conclusion being face punchingly textbook. It was like Lethal Weapon 3 bad...

On the other hand, Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer videos are starting to surface. I can't say I'm really jumping up and down with excitement, but they've got my $ anyway LOL

I also canceled my preorder for the US edition of Bayonetta and ordered the Japanese version from ncsx.com (since the jp version is out in October versus January). Also pre-ordered Lost Planet 2 and Halo ODST. Now that 360's with the Jasper motherboard are arriving in stores, I can finally get one without worrying about another RROD.

I also just finished Red Faction Guerrilla...It put me in the mood to play Black again. Which I promptly did last night ^_^ If you are interested in my copy of RFG let me know - $40 shipped baby. If not I will be parting with it shortly via ebay.

Just starting the new book by Charles Stross, to be followed shortly with The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century and Death's Head: Day of the Damned.

Have a better one ^_^