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 ^_^

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

I am going to go against the grain of pretty much every review I have read with this...

TROF fucking owns. It's not Reign in Blood, but it could definitely be Seasons of the Abyss. My experience with the film went something like this.

At 2 PM the lights went down. Roll Harry Potter trailer...doesn't look bad, but *yawn* magic/wizards is not my deal. Then blam, straight into TROF. The film is basically structured like a video game. Short objectives and plot elements are dropped in between scene after scene of robots annihilating factories, houses, cities, aircraft carriers, you name it. There's a lot more of the robots and the humans are way more tolerable because..well there's more of the robots.

I've read many times this movie has no story. I think it has a solid, if a bit simplistic, story that moves at a breakneck pace. There's a few continuity errors, but nothing that seriously breaks/detracts from the experience of 50 foot robots raging full spectrum warfare.

Probably the best testament to the pacing was that when the lights came up, the only indication that 2.5 hours was that I had to take a leak. Bad. I wasn't alone either. The line for the toilets was well into the concession area ^o^

So yes, it's not written as well as it could be, but seriously...are there any well written scifi movie epics other than Alien/Aliens/Alien3?

Invincible Gate Mind of the Infernal Fire Hell

Is at the printers. This record took about a year to write, 4 days to record and mix and over 6 months to get the artwork complete. It will be out late July/August 09 on vinyl, followed by a CD release 2-3 months later.

Since I get a fair amount of inquiry about working on projects I wanted to go through the general creative and production process for creative/design projects I work on.

First, get the music done, to the point where I am fairly comfortable there won't be any major changes to the lyrics or music. Often this is the day after tracks have been committed to a master. After 10+ years of this stuff, a very specific pattern has emerged on everything I've been involved with. Changes are made right up until material is committed to tape. This has led to everything from lyric sheets with completely inaccurate lyrics to designs that had to be rebuilt from the ground up because there was suddenly a need to fit twice as much information in the same space.

Next, begins the discovery process. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year in the most extreme cases (especially when large projects are on the table and multiple concepts are developed and taken to a point that can be evaluated beyond some sketches or ascii). This latest HD project had a very short incubation time. I saw the works of the photographer Chen Zhun and was inspired.

Then comes the budget. My ideas often far out strip the budgets attached to projects. With about $250 left to spend on the art, I made the personal decision to start liquidating collectibles if I even wanted to approach the vision I had in my mind. At the end of the day, we still didn't have enough $ or time to create my "true vision" of the project, so I scaled and worked with materials available to get as close as possible. It turned out pretty good I think ^_^;

At the end of the day, we spent over $1500 on the production of this specific piece including photography by Mr Scott Kinkade, wardrobe by Michelle Bowlin of Assassins Boutique, modeling by Hannah Craft of Rabbit Hole Bakeshop and finally the cosmetic works of Jenny Kline aka facemakerj. Each one of these people played an integral part in making the art come together and look the way it does. Note: that figure above doesn't include the original Scratch Trigger Era comic that comes with the record! Featuring the writing of Mark Gilson + Jon Chang with the artistic talents of Mr Stan Sakai we are finally releasing a prologue story to STE! And yes, it's that Stan Sakai! When it comes to making the stuff shine, I don't half ass anything ^_^

However, none of that $1500 includes the time I spent in post working the art to its finished state. I spent about 2 man weeks to produce 3 different layouts before I picked my winner. I've found that this horrific burn rate of man power and time is what it takes to bring something in at a quality level I consider professional.

Projects with a decent budget get decent creative. Projects with proper budgets, come out looking amazing. Projects with low budgets, I/we simply pass on. If it's not worth doing well, it's not worth doing.

Have a better one!