~MONSTER DESIGN IS MY PASSION!~

That has always been a big draw in for me when it comes to video games. You'll see giant robot dinosaurs, undead flying dragons, floating cities with eyeballs, things you can not imagine. It's always been about cool bosses, clever enemy design, even vehicles. Most of the time the bad guys get the best things possible. They get decked out rides, flying robotic fortresses, the works. Rarely do the good guys get anything as cool as what the bad guys get. So many games have pulled off such incredible assortment of bosses and enemies, obviously the two that comes to mind is the Castlevania Series, as well as Contra. I can't forget Amano's monster designs either. I think I am well around average artist at best, but I feel like my ability to create interesting monster designs is my strong point.

It's fun to get a txt from someone who writes something incredible vague and just says "make something" out of this tiny blarb. It's like constructing something creative out of your own mind from thin air with only a base to go from. Something like that feels to me, when your imagination and your artistic ability kind of flows together to create something neat out of nothing. You aren't being asked to create a stupid Anime portrait that can be done by anyone because Anime art can be taught in tutorials. When you get good at Anime, that's the extent of your creativity. If someone asked you to draw something beyond that, I'm sure it would be difficult. Personally I would find that less satisfying. There is a difference from creating your own art and creating something you find in some kind of Anime tutorial. I am sure anatomy design is very useful, and there are a lot of artists who actually blend Anime and different styles to construct something new. Something like that I can appreciate very much. It always sounds like I am knocking Anime artists, but I'm not. It is still impressive regardless.

It's like, being a musical composer. Being influenced by other composers and creating something but still retaining your own sound. I'm sure there are a lot of different examples that can be applied. But, I am sure there is a difference between having an influence and simply taking a song and changing a few notes and saying it's "my original piece".

~Technobabel~

I've been focusing all of my energy on this Android Shmup Firas(RPG) and I are working on. I prefer this project over RN for many-many reasons. Essentially with Technobabel I can do whatever I want from a creators standpoint without the hindrance of RPG related content(battle system, story, characters, etc). I've touched the RPG genre, it's fun for a while, and I plan on releasing RN on Android in the future, but I'm just done with it. Eventually you just want to expand your creativity. I want to make platformers, puzzlers, beat em' ups. I'm being honest when I say making an RPG is god awful. If you want to burn yourself out, try to make an RPG. I do not understand how people can churn out the same thing over and over when it is essentially the same thing. We call those people "Chumps".
Technobabel is not a normal Shmup. We want it to go up-down-left-right- we want you to dodge enemies, and terrain, we want to add obscure and abnormal bosses, a card system, an endless supply of support characters to enhance the replay value. I feel stuff like that is real game design, not laying down tiles and going "hurr". I'm starting to value spriting a lot more because of this project, slowly learning how to create bigger sprites. I get back more than most people, improving yourself artistically while creating something.

Basically, when we finish this project we either know a lot about Game Design or jack shit about it. If it's successful, we might be onto something, if not, well maybe it's not our thing. But, games aren't exactly rocket science in the first place. A game that is a Shmup/Contra hybrid with some cool jams from Chef.

~BEAD ART~

My good friend Kim has been working on bead art recently. The stuff is really neat and thought I would post a few since I find it interesting and creative. We've done a couple projects together, and she is very fun to work with. Few people get my vibe I guess! Someday I want to just, sip tea and surround myself with artistic and creative humans and just talk the day away about art. But alas, tis a dream.. Kim has an Artfire account selling these for fun in the form of jewelry and other cool stuff in the future. If you have a nerdy girlfriend it would make a pretty rad gift. So check that out.