It’s Official

The DS can now do everything, including phone calls. I need to try this out.

On another note, I have an unusually strange urge to play with K’nex right now. I’ve devised a gun in my head that will shoot rubber bands at either semi or fully automatic speeds. Once I get home I’m building this sucker, and torturing peeps at the next LAN party. Mwahahahaha!

Spring Break in a week! Me + Sydney + Cairns + Sun = Happy

Now that this week is done I can finally concentrate on Flash games again. I had 3 papers due in the past 4 days, so as you can imagine there was little time for game making.

Oh! I almost forgot, I released another one of my games, Coin. Now I know counting coins isn’t your ideal game, and this is a rather poor looking one, but I thought it was an interesting concept nonetheless. Took about 15 hours or so to make, and got me $200. Can’t complain with that.

In a few days I’ll be releasing Spheric, and I’ll link it in another post. Got a sponsorship with Armorgames on that one, and they’ll pay me more the better it does on Newgrounds. So vote 5 for it damnit! Perhaps after that I’ll release a demo of my latest and greatest creation. Once completed it’ll be delicious…oh so delicious.

Bloxorz

I love puzzle games, and this one is pretty damn good. I only got to stage 13 before my head exploded.

Footy, Spring Break, and other shtuffs

Australian football is a strange beast. On one hand it’s a lot like our football back home, on its twenty other hands it isn’t.

The field is big. Very big.

The game requires teams to kick a football (much like ours, only flatter on the ends) through goal posts. There are three possible areas to hit it through. Kicking it down the center gets 6 points, while hitting it through either side of the center earns only 1.

The crowd after Geelong scored a goal.

The game I went to Sunday pit the #1 and #2 teams in the nation against each other, and it was a wild game. It was the Geelong Cats (my team) at home against Port Adelaide Power. Geelong had a 15 game win streak coming in (there are only 22 games per season). Geelong played like shit in the first quarter, only getting 13 points (that’s low in case you didn’t know). By half time they were only down by 6. The third quarter was more shit, and by the beginning of the fourth they were down by about 20. Then, somehow, they pulled their collective heads out of their ass and started doing decent. With a minute left, we were ahead by one point, 101-100. They were trying to move the ball around and kill time off the clock, but Port ended up with the ball and with 5 seconds left kicked a goal. It was devastating. Still a great game though.

Spring Break is in a month, and I have my trip all planned out and ready to go. Friday, Sept. 21st I’m taking a flight to Sydney to see all sorts of things. The Opera House, Bondi Beach, and the Australian Aquarium. On Tuesday it’s off to Cairns for a few days. I’ll be diving on the Great Barrier Reef! How awesome is that? The trip ends Friday, where I come back here for another month or so of school.

As far as other things go, Flash games are still being chugged out. I have another one that’s sponsored for sure, while a few others are being shown about to various sites. Two more are in the works. One involves lots of enemies, bosses, and bullets everywhere. Another is a puzzle platformer. Each will take at least a month to make. Hopefully they’ll pay off.

Everything I’ve been reading online has been giving Bioshock glowing praise. Which of course means I HAVE to play it when I get home. That and Super Mario Galaxy. And Phantom Hourglass. And Smash Bros. Brawl. And Guitar Hero 3. And Rock Band. Damn you Fall and your onslaught of awesome games. Why must I be so poor?!

Destiny Reunion

Just got back from Destiny Reunion, an orchestra quintet that plays video game and anime music. And it was AWESOME. The performances were great and sounded fantastic. Here’s what they played:

Final Fantasy 3 – Main Theme
Romeo x Juliet – Kakki
Noir – Canta Per Me
Rakugaki Oukoku 2 Game – Hako no Niwa
Romeo x Juliet – Oshyaberi
Odin Sphere – Main Theme
.hack//Liminality – Grandpa’s Violin
Princess Mononoke – Main Theme
Laputa: Castle in the Sky – Main Theme
My Neighbor Totoro – Main Theme
Hitoshi Sakimoto – Kanransha (Ferris Wheel)
Gundam Seed – The Song
Kumo no Muko, Yakusoku no Basho – Beyond the Clouds
Romeo x Juliet – Main Theme
The Seventh Seal – Sailing to the World
Rakugaki Oukoku 2 Game – The Hill Overlooking the Windmill
Xenosaga Episode 1 – Pain
Neon Genesis Evangelion – Thanatos
Chrono Cross – Radical Dreamers

Then after the crowd begged for an encore, we got two more songs. I’m SO happy they played these.

Super Mario Bros. – Various Tunes
Chrono Cross – Scars Left by Time

Videos of my favorites below. Apologies for the shitty quality:

My Neighbor Totoro

Radical Dreamers

Scars Left By Time

Super Mario Bros.

Arrrghhh! The bandwidth! It burns!

Afterwards they did autographs and I got a T-shirt with all of theirs. Coolness.

Overall I had a fantastic time. Totally worth $50 and an hour long train ride.

With The Good, Comes The Bad

So got some news to post. Like, some ACTUAL news, not just filler for when I’m bored.

In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, everything here in Australia is bloody expensive. EVERYTHING is. Pretty much take the price of something in the States, double it, then shove a giant cock up your ass, and you get the wonderful experience of shopping in Australia! I mention this because, before today, I had no source of income. “What? Did he get a job?” is what you’re probably thinking. I guess you could kind of say that. It’s more like I’m getting paid to do something I’ve been doing for a while.

Just yesterday I was browsing the Newgrounds Forums and read a topic on Flash game sponsorship. I’ve never really considered sponsorship in my games before; it always seemed like something a step up from my level. I never thought a site would want to sponsor me. I mean, my games are fun, but not half as good as some of the games out there. Reading through this NG forum post and looking at some of the games that have gotten sponsored, I thought “Shit, my games are better than these”. So I started emailing Flash game websites and showing them Pyrotec 2, which I’ve just completed. I’ve received responses already from a few, and the offers are good. Not amazing, but good enough for a poor college kid. I can get at least $300, and I’m still negotiating. I mean, $300 to put a few links, a preloader, and 5 second intro into my flash? Fuck yes to that. The high caliber games (Fancy Pants Adventures, Desktop Defense) can pull in as much as $2500. How crazy awesome is that?

So yeah, that has me totally psyched, and now I’m gonna chug out as many games as I can and rake in the dough.

Now, as the title suggests, with the good, comes the bad.

Some asshat stole my jacket from a nightclub I was at on Thursday. This isn’t some $30 piece of shit jacket either. This thing is a fucking Columbia jacket, was about $150 (I got it for cheaper, around $100), and was amazing. So fucktard is now walking around in MY shit. Thanks, asshole!

Also another bad: The Simpsons Movie. Yes yes, I know it’s the Simpsons, so everyone HAS to say it’s good. But fuck, the last 8 years have been shit, and the movie isn’t any different. I can’t really think of a moment that I had a hearty laugh during it, just a few chuckles here and there. And, like I mentioned before with things being expensive, that’s $13 I’ll never get back. But hey, it’s the Simpsons. Being such a big fan (of the earlier episodes), I’m obligated to see it.

Phew, quite the post I got going here. I think I’ll wrap it up.

Good: Moneys! W00t!
Bad: No jacket, Simpsons woes

Overall Mood: Excitedly pissed off

That is all.