Get him to an emergency room.

[via Eye on Springfield]

How Freelancing Works

In the defense of the client, they got to a point where they're able to actually pay you by making good decisions at one point in their careers. That or they inherited a bunch of money from a pirate ship.

[via drawn.ca]

Watching Pencils Being Sharpened

[via drawn.ca]

Webcomics and Flash Distribution

A thought came across my brain this morning regarding webcomics and distribution. I was thinking that it would be a good idea to package up my comics, either in volumes or complete archives, and then place them all into one Flash file for easy distribution.

Now this isn't to say that I'll change my site to a Flash based one. No, that would simply be awful and an SEO nightmare. It's to package it so people can enjoy a huge chunk of it at their favorite portals or simply download the SWF so they can enjoy the comics on their computer at their leisure without an internet connection.

Does anyone remember webcomic lists? It's definitely a very useful service, but navigating through those directories is a horrible experience. There's just too much content and it can be overwhelming. Webcomics can also fall victim to "horrendous web design", like your comic is buried 900 pixels beneath the fold where you've pasted your blog, tumblr, three ads and picture of your cat. It's not that you're a bad comic artist, you just may not know better.

In any case, I hope this idea is something that works... but is one that is only used for good. I can see it quickly taken advantage of and worthwhile distribution networks getting spammed up to their necks in these "comic compilation Flash travesties".

Are there any other avenues of distribution for content like webcomics? I'd be willing to give up all of those ad impressions (one per comic view) on my site if I can simply reach more people to just read the dang thing and minimally utilize ads at all (maybe one at start).

52 WOGD Week 4: Failed... but here comes another week!

I missed week 4. I couldn't finish the game I was working on. The game I wanted to do was inspired by the old arcade game called Timber. You would be controlling a lumberjack as trees popped up. Your goal would be to cut down as many trees as possible before time runs out.

Then my mind shifted and I had a slight change in design. The game would still revolve around the lumberjack walking around and trying to chop down as many trees as possible. However, the goal would be to survive as long as possible as the screen would continue to populate trees on the game board. Each step you took would increase the "tree deploy" counter. When that counter hit the "deploy" mark, a tree would be randomly generated on the board. Ultimately the board will fill up before you could cut down any more trees.

That also didn't happen since, well, I didn't finish the game.

Some of the reasons that it didn't work out:

• I wanted to use HTML5, so I employed the efforts of the Construct 2 engine. I literally got as far as having the lumberjack move around that ultimately wouldn't be the way I wanted him to move around. It's a nice environment to work in, but I just wasn't able to get it to do exactly what I wanted right away (what I would know how to do with AS3). I may have to stick to languages I'm familiar with until I get a better grasp on this HTML5 stuff.
• I completed a bathroom remodel with my wife. I spent most of my free time painting, knocking down drywall compound and installing fixtures.
• I had to finish up a freelance project due last Wednesday.

In any case, I'll be able to revisit this idea some time in the future. It also doesn't mean I'm giving up my quest! It just means I no longer have a blemish free record. Wins: 3 Losses: 1

On to next week!

PS: It's funny as the Global Game Jam also happened last week, something I really wanted to participate in. Go fig!

Related Link: Lumberjack moving in HTML5

PAC-MAN & Blinky Pillow

This last Christmas my family decided to do Secret Santa. Out of all of the gifts bestowed upon other folks, I think I got one of the best ones and thought it appropriate to share. My cousin pulled my name from the hat and decided to make me this awesome PAC-MAN themed pillow.

That's how I know that she thinks I'm a pretty cool cousin: Blinky is actually white fleece, but the blood from her sewing mistakes made it that deep red.

Thanks, Jessica!

Dumb Puppet Sonic

By Richard DaLuz

I've seen a few of these and enjoy them thoroughly, but this one takes the cake thus far.

Source: Dumb Running Sonic Tumblr

Retro Gaming Stuff: 1989 Topps Nintendo Cards

I found this pretty awesome card the other day from the 1989 Topps Nintendo trading card set. I'm surprised I still kept it somewhere.

When Topps was commissioned to do these cards, they made some pretty neat scratch-and-win Zelda themed cards. You basically had to just try to scratch off the right areas in a certain order to obtain the highest score possible. It was like playing a game where you only had one life... or a child's version of Lottery scratchers.

Either way, it was great.

Related Link: Topps Nintendo Cards

The closest I'll get to Super Potato for a while.

SUPER POTATO from studiodonbe on Vimeo.

When I go to Japan one day, I will sleep here.

I guess Kal Stin doesn't get it...?

It's actually probably my fault that Kal Stin doesn't understand the idea of a game made for the blind and visually impaired. I wish I could give them their 99 cents back. I hate to sound like I'm deceiving someone. I've updated the game description to make it more clear that the game lacks visuals. They questioned my integrity and actually said "how low can one go?!". I guess sometimes people forget that not everyone out there is trying to steal from them.

Hi:
Then how in the world am I expected to view the jumps?
Have I gone and wasted my money for a totally lame, useless game?!
Thanks,
Kal

To answer your question: I don't know how you're supposed to view the jumps. You just listen for when you're supposed to do it.

Related Link: Audiorun for iOS