It dawned on me that I haven't let all you wonderful people know about my new sketchbook blog.
It all began when I noticed that conceptart.org completely disappeared! This was a bit of a shock because it seemed to me to be a fairly active community, at least when I was posting there more often a couple of years ago, but I suppose things might have changed. What this meant though was that all of my sketches, doodles, and studies that I had uploaded over the years had been snapped out of existence. Thanks Thanos...
So, I had decided to start another blog just for that kind of content, Sketchbook Vorgus!
I realize it won't ever have as much traffic as it did over at conceptart.org, but maybe it will get some. By putting it on blogger my hope is that it'll be less likely to just vanish, though who knows with Google because they make a lot of things that sometimes just vanish. I'm hopeful though. My other hope is that by creating a blog for that kind of content I'll be keeping myself to a semi-regular posting schedule. I still do a lot of sketching and drawing and doodling so the content is there - now I just need to post it!
Here's a taste.
If you're interested in this kind of stuff, drawing, sketching, study, perspective, etc. then I hope you'll check out Sketchbook Vorgus some time. It's still early days so there's not a ton there at the moment, but with time I'm hoping I'll fill it right up!
That's right! The board game I've been been working on, for longer than I'd like to admit, is finally a thing that actually exists. It's printed. It's playable. It's available for purchase! It's a real thing.
All the parts of the game!
Here's a quick blurb about the game:
A lost civilization known only as Superbia has been discovered in uncharted territory. Ancient and valuable tank part artifacts have been uncovered. Now, military organizations around the world have pledged to fund expeditions for the retrieval of these artifacts.
Players give their tank commands to progress through the expedition. Shoot opponents to set back their advances, research locations to find powerful new tank part artifacts, and move all the way to the end to win! Develop a strategy utilizing a wide array of artifacts to complete the expedition and become the ultimate tank commander.
A game mid-play.
So, some thoughts...
One, as I mentioned, this took a lot longer than I thought it would. The game went through various revisions and one huge revision where half the game completely changed. The gameplay should have been hammered out first and foremost before I started creating art for the project. Luckily, I was able to reuse most of the art throughout the various revisions, but there were definitely some things cut that I had spent lots of time on.
The board and accompanying hex tiles were completely cut from the game!
Two, I think I've learned how long I can work on something until I start getting tired with it. Not to bash the game itself, but the process of creating the game was becoming a grueling slog. I was ready to be done with it a long time ago. The broken gameplay and subsequent huge revision to the game was a swift kick to moral, but I'm glad I stuck through it despite wanting to give up.
And three, I'm really grateful that my friends helped test the game out - especially one long night where it became clear the game was nigh unwinnable. I really appreciate the critiques and ideas from my friends and wife. Also, how awesome is it that there is a print-on-demand board game store? I'm glad to live in an age where something like The Game Crafter exists.
Well, thanks for reading, and if you ever get a chance to play Superbia's Tank I hope you have a fun, good time and thanks for trying it!
I like making a new Magic The Gathering deck every once and a while - but it's often a hefty undertaking to create a deck I'm somewhat happy with. There are so many card choices and it often involves doing some research and exploring on the Gatherer site. Afterwards, I like to check the availability and pricing on the cards on sites like Magic Stronghold, Face to Face Games, and lastly Troll and Toad (I try to avoid the US sites ever since the loonie fell). I want to be able to get the cards I want at a reasonable price!
Depending on the type of deck I'm making there are all sorts of little guidelines to follow.
Balance the land - around 40 in an 100 card EDH deck and about 20 in a regular 60 card deck.
Check mana curve - you want a decent spread of 1 to 4 mana spells with select 5 and up spells.
Non-creature to creature ratio - this depends on your deck, but you always need some creatures.
EDH decks demand another way of thinking and the choice of a legendary commander. Currently I have Animar, Tymaret, Noyan Dar, Zada, Kemba, Doran, and Thelon EDH decks.
When I want to make a new deck I sometimes like to use the site DeckStats. You can create your decks by searching the database and dragging and dropping cards into your deck. Afterwards, you can see a nice little graph and pie chart showing things like Mana Curve, Card distribution, Mana distribution, and Mana Source distribution. Then, you can save your deck (just make sure to make a profile on the website).
For example, here's what my Tymaret deck looks like on DeckStats.
I can easily see that the majority of my spells are quite cheap with 3 mana spells being my most abundant. From this I can hope (getting mana-boned happens to the best of us) that I shouldn't have trouble getting most of my spells out.
Here you can see that I tried to balance my instants, sorceries, and enchantments while balancing the total non-creature spells with my total lands and total creatures. Creature (31%), Spells (31%) Land (37%). You can also take a look at a more detailed view showing artifacts etc.
With this pie chart I can easily tell that I have more black cards than red cards (shown on the left). This will inform my decision on how many swamps and mountains to put in the deck (shown on the right). Taking the information from the previous pie chart I made sure that my Swamps and Mountains were balanced to accommodate my deck being more black. I've made sure to add a few more swamps (20) than mountains (16) in this case.
There we go! There are others things to consider when making a deck of course. The specific abilities and effects the cards do are also incredibly important! However, I like to use DeckStats because it keeps me organized and lets me quickly see at a glance the other information to keep in mind when making a deck. Happy deck building!
I went to my local toy and game store the other day (which is totally rad and deserves its own post one day) and found some of those Lego minifigure packages. I've seen them in a few different stores and was always wanting to get one or two or some, but the price always deterred me. They're about 4 dollars for one guy!
These guys are so cool!
Last weekend I caved and bought two of them. I was so excited to see which figure I got! My girlfriend helped choose one from the basket and I chose the other and when we opened them we saw that I found a very dashing snake charmer and she found the hot dog costume guy!!
Looking good little Lego people.
The hot dog guy was one of the one I totally wanted and I could hardly believe she picked it!! Does the hot dog guy still like hot dogs or maybe he's sick of them by now and his smile is all part of the sell... It's hard to tell when Lego people are being genuine or not, but I believe this guy loves hot dogs! Delicious round cylinders of meat (or in my case veggie meat, mmmm).
There's so many!
The are 16 different figures of all sorts and kinds and there are different series and sets of them. It's really sweet to have such a unique character. I really want to get the unicorn girl next... We'll see...
Ever since I saw the first Mad Max: Fury Road trailer in the theaters I've been slowly hyping myself up for what was looking to be an amazing new Mad Max movie. Pure chaos and action rolled into one heaping wreck of scrap metal and inhumanity. I'd never even seen the originals - sure, I'd seen bits and pieces here and there on TV and had a rudimentary idea about the plot. Before seeing the new Mad Max this weekend (it's amazing and you need to go seeeee it, liiiive it, breathe it) I decided I should watch the originals!
Here's the Fury Road trailer. So much awesome.
*MAD MAX PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD*
The first Mad Max movie came out in 1979. Despite the great ratings over at rotten tomatoes I'd probably consider this one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Not the absolute worst, but it's down in the dumps under a mountain of other terrible, but not quite so terrible, movies. Despite the overuse of dramatic music, confusing shots, and bad parenting I was still glad to get an idea of what made Max Rockatansky into Mad Max. That is until I watched the second movie and they summed it all up in the first 2 minutes. Honestly, the 2 minute summary was far better than the whole hour and a half of movie.
Even the tagline is cheesy.
So, who is Mad Max? Max Rockatansky is an officer who gets caught up with a terrible biker gang. The world is far from apocalyptic at this point, or is it? I really couldn't tell, but it seemed there was still some sort of regular civilization going on. Anyway, a member of the notorious biker gang dies in a police chase (totally his own fault) and the biker gang blames the cops. The gang causes some other mischief and offs Max's partner (Goose) by setting him and his car on fire.
All that's left of poor old Goose. :'(
Later, they taunt and threaten his wife, but she gets away with their son only to be run down on the highway a little later in the movie.
Meanwhile, Max has been struggling with his sanity. Questioning whether he's any better than the biker gang (he is). He quits, takes his wife and kid on holiday, and when they finally die he snaps. Mad Max makes it his mission to go after and kill every member of the biker gang. He's successful and the resulting carnage is fairly entertaining, but definitely shadowed by today's action stunts and sequences.
You're going down evil biker gang!
So, while Mad Max 1 was utterly terrible... the second Mad Max movie - The Road Warrior - is an absolute gem! Made in 1981 this film clearly takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopia setting. While you really don't need to watch any of the Mad Max movies before seeing Fury Road I'd still recommend watching The Road Warrior. The action is good, the story is good and easy to understand, and the details and true spirit of the Mad Max world shine through.
Alright... starting to look a little more awesome.
In The Road Warrior Max learns of a gas refinery under attack by a local gang. This isn't no ordinary gang - it's a crazed mad max style gang complete with ridiculous mashed up vehicles and crazy get-ups. They obviously want the gas inside the refinery, but it's being defended by the good guys - a group of people that just want to find paradise.
A fairly well defended pump and refinery.
Max helps bring one of their members back to their base, but dies shortly after. He offers to help find a rig to pull their tanker full of gas and he sets off. Max brings it back to the group while fending off the crazy gang and they fix it up and plan to head out the next day. The community escapes in one direction while Max drives the tanker of gas off in another direction. The climactic sequence of events is supremely entertaining and I'm still blown away at how good it was considering it was filmed in 1981.
Watch out Max! That crazy guy is after you!
As for the third movie - I haven't finished it, but I can tell you right now that it didn't hold my attention like The Road Warrior did. It was nice to see the world of Mad Max fleshed out in more detail however.
This duo was one of the best parts of the 3rd movie.
*END OF SPOILERS*
Finally, we come to Mad Max: Fury Road. It is literally the best action movie I have ever seen in my entire life thus far. I could have walked straight back into that theater and watched the whole thing over a second time. The details of the Mad Max world, the crazy characters and vehicles, and the action... oh the action. Watching the movie is almost a workout. My heart was racing nearly the entire movie. As the Warboy says... What a lovely day! Oh, what an amazing, incredible movie. I can't wait to watch it again.
In the words of a young Grade 3 student, "Yum yum yummity yum yum yum." Granted, he was talking about Tacos, (also delicious) but I think I could apply that phrase to Runts as well. These tiny, sweet, chalky, fruity candies are so good. I can't stop myself from eating a whole box - plus they contain the coveted banana flavour candy. Real bananas are like gross socks, but candy bananas are a little slice of heaven.
Banana, Orange, Peach, Grape, and Strawberry. Oh my glob.
Surprisingly few places regularly carry them - I've found that only certain dollar stores seem to be guaranteed to stock them. When I do find them I make sure to buy at least 3 or 4 boxes. Heck, maybe 6 boxes. Let's not joke around here. Only 10 boxes will do. Just look at this delicious little fruity bundle of joy.
If these were jumbo sized it would be like one of those ball pits at the mcdonald's jungle gyms. I'm lovin' it.
Just thought I'd let people know about the Fan Expo in Vancouver this April! Of course, only people in or near Vancouver will probably be interested in reading about it unless you plan to travel far away from whatever chair your butt does rest upon to the Canadian west coast!
There's going to be celebrity guests like Hercules, Batman, and the Hulk, as well as other anime guests, comic guests, and video game guests! Lots of exhibitors will be there with plenty of cool stuff to see I'm sure. There's the artist alley which I am definitely going to stroll down. One day... I'd like to be in an alley of art. Oh yes. There's the batmobile exhibit, panels, q and a sessions, etc etc. lots of fun!
It all takes place down in Vancouver at the convention center I believe! Here it is! April 21-22 2012
Ever since I read the little blurb about this game in my Nintendo Power magazine months ago I've been excited. My last issue had more of a preview and after looking at videos on youtube... I'M STOKED. I GOTTA TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT IT. Basically, it's the best rpg you'll play on the wii, and some have said the it's the best rpg of this generation over all consoles. I love rpg's, but the wii lacks 'em. I've had to settle with rpg's on my DS in past years and looked to the wii for other types of games. Technically yes, Zelda is an rpg, but that's an exception (and I'm still getting through skyward sword).
Xenoblade Chronicles by Monolith Soft is being localized for North America - I guess technically we're getting a European version but that makes it more awesome because of all the excellent British voice acting. The game takes place on the bodies of two huge giant god things. Ya, we're not on a sphere or a planet or Earth or any of that nonsense. You are standing on a dead god thing! It's actually really wicked to see a huge hand in the background of the world and know you could go stand on it.
The story apparently starts off really default, orphaned boy, destined hero, etc., but I've read it has lots of twists and the story is amazing. Graphics look great, remember it is the wii though so I'm talking "wii great." Environment is amazing, battle system looks fun, and it just looks like a blast. I'll totally be getting a copy when it hits the store shelves this April.
Today, I have come to tell you about probably one of the most amazing "web comics" I have ever had the pleasure to read. MS Paint Adventures is amazing! I am currently reading "Homestuck" which is the current story in progress.
The comics are based on old school text based adventure games. The "Player," AKA the reader is typing in commands to progress the story and the characters. This is not to say you can actually control the characters or the story - it's just been set up to look that way. Instead of a typical "Next" button to continue to the next page the reader clicks a command which relates to what is currently happening. This was a totally original and creative thing to me and it works very well.
The comic pages usually comprise of an image and some text below it for the reader to read. There is more however, as many pages are also animated gifs and some are even full flash animations with sound. It's quite the experience to read through.
The humour is great and the story is even better. Homestuck's storyline involves numerous characters, time travel, video games, and all sorts of crazy happenings and shenanigans. I haven't finished Homestuck yet, (the comic is still a work in progress at the moment) I'm on about page 2000... and there's still a bit for me to get through before I'm all caught up.
Also, there's some excellent music made by all sorts of people to go along with Homestuck.
Anyone remember Adventure Time? I hope so. And if not it's not the end of the world, but if you miss this then it might just be the end of the world! OH NO! Fire, everywhere, just all up the place ya know.
So I promptly watched the first season over and over again and waited for the second season then kind of.. umm... forgot about it... NOOO! But luckily I've found a website where you can watch all the episodes online! :D
There's other cartoons on this site as well, but I've mostly just checked out Adventure Time.
I've recently been obsessed with watching some anime. It's great - what can I say. I recently finished watching Gundam Wing Double Zero (or something along those lines, honestly there's like a bazillion different Gundam shows!) and also Inuyasha!
Both great! Inuyasha has close to 200 episodes! It's nuts, I don't wanna do the math and think about how much time I spent watching them all over a period of three weeks.
Anyways, I found a great site with lots of anime for you to watch via the internetz!
Ever hear of Scott Pilgrim? Well you're about to so sit down and pay attention. Scott Pilgrim is this awesome guy who fights evil dudes and gains experience in life... there's more to it than that, but all you really need to know is that it's great. Great fun to read and look at and drool over.
I had bought the first book after hearing about it through surfing the netz and thoroughly enjoyed it - I planned to slowly buy the rest of them and read 'em. THEN, I learned that it was being made into a MOVIE! Also a video game. Soo I jumped on that Amazon Site and splurged (well okay, they're not that expensive) and got the rest of the books. The last one is ordered but isn't released yet, July 20th.
So why did I go crazy and get 'em then and there? BECAUSE, because, because not only was the first one great, but the movie is coming out this summer! August 13th people. I read through 'em lightning fast and can't wait for the movie - also... it's sparked me into maybe revisiting... a TRIANGLE DUDE graphic novel I started a long while back...
Check out the other Trailer here. It's gonna be great. Did I mention it's directed by the same guy who did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz? Yeah. Super Rad.
The internet likes to be random. It can't really ever be predicted. From the random people on the internet to the random failure of my router and service from Shaw - you can never be sure of what you're going to stumble upon.
Randomly generated ads and security captcha codes are pretty cool - and sometimes if I pay attention I'll catch something... different.
Of course there's always Facebook's random ads of crazy not english text 'cept for a couple words.
Then there's ticketmaster, which seems to know exactly how I feel.
Random Youtube error is one of my personal favorites so far
So here's a sweet site I just kind of came across somehow through the random clicking and blindless following of links on various pages, The Music Ninja. I like the name, its got music... AND a ninja.
It led me to the Axis of Awesome, and there's a great song by a band called Tunng. Tunng - an electronic folk band... Radical! It's on the front page somewhere if anyone bothers to do a little scrolling, it be called "Bullets." Or check it out on Youtube Here!
