MobiBlogOfBlob

(UPDATE) An old screen mock up..and my blog is now wider!!

2011-12-06T09:30:00.000Z

I've widened the width of this blog! Yay let's all have a party! Ok it's not that big a deal but it does mean I can fit some Amiga size screenshots in now without having to scale them down and in the process losing that retrotastic scanline effect I like to add.

To start it off here's something I found recently from 1994. It's an old screen mock up of a game I was going to do with a couple of old mates of mine called TMR-II for the PC. For those interested the art was drawn using Brilliance on an Amiga A1200.

Paris with or without top?

Looking at the width I still think there's some adjustments to be made but it's better than it was. Only real tweak I've had to make so far was the blog header which needed expanding to cover the extra space.

I almost forgot there was also a female character called 'Paris'. Can't think why I did a lesser clothed version? Hmmm...
**** UPDATE ****
Me mate Gary Symons just reminded me that the game was based on an old arcade title called 'Search and Rescue' by SNK which I was aware of at the time but due to creeping old age had totally forgotten about.. So to remind me and anyone else who is wondering, which is probably about 3 people here's a youtube clip of said arcade game being played.

Revisiting 1995: The Sensible Golf level editor

2011-12-01T11:00:00.000Z


Define new map?

It's screen shot time again folks! I've taken it upon myself to provide a few screen shots for the GamesTM article that's currently being written. 'Yeah no probs' I said thinking I'd load up the old Amiga emulator, take a few screen shots and be out in time for the virtual pub to open.. Nope!

Hang about, go back to the start, what am I talking about 'again' I've not done any for a while, damn I must be getting on a bit as I'm time warping back to 1995 and the many hours, days, months spent designing and editing golf courses for Sensible Golf. Strange.

Anyway as I was saying it took a bit longer than I thought but after several failed attempts to get me USB joystick working,(subject of a later post) I managed to sort out the shots as promised and just as I was about to close down the emulator I saw a disk image of the Sensible Golf map editor. Hmmm.. I wonder if it works? And if it does work will I be able to actually use it again? (cue tick tock music) It loads! Cool I thought... then.. well.. that's about as far as I got. The memory banks that stored the 'how to use it guide' have become somewhat corrupted so I'm relying on that old favourite , trial and error.

Something is working here...

Unlike Cannon Fodder these tiles are 16x8!

A brief break for some food followed by much clicking and pointing with more clicking and pointing thereafter revealed what can only be described as a light from the heavens. Well actually it was a loaded golf course map but you get the idea. So I'm now seeing a loaded map and those corrupted memory banks have began to self defrag. Result! Joyous triumphant cheering would be heard if I could be bothered. Strange thing memory, if you had asked me this morning how to use the Sensible Golf editor I would have look bewildered and puzzled, more than I would on a normal day.

So what's the point of this somewhat pointless exercise? Well I was kind of thinking how cool it would be to hack the original game graphics and levels I did back in the day with a newly created one off map and graphics, as you do.

Then I thought apart from me I doubt anyone would really be that bothered by it, my to do list is quite big and if I was going to do something along the hack route I would suspect Cannon Fodder is a clear winner for this kind of retro tom foolery.

Ah well the idea was good for all of about 5 mins including ad break. ;) That Cannon Fodder idea is starting to linger...hmmm....

I once did a pixel version of the World Cup...

2011-11-30T09:30:00.000Z

And here it is...all drawn 1 pixel at a time using the most excellent ProMotion from the most excellent Jan Zimmerman & Cosmigo!

Unfortunately due to licensing regulations that are tighter than tight things wrapped in latex rubber, shrinked, re-squeezed and then cling filmed to the extreme, this humble image can never be used anywhere without permission from some man in a suite who works for FIFA.(Commercially anyway)

So I thought I would donate it to my blog and give it an airing for bit, poor thing has been stuck in my footy art folder for ages..

Still not all is lost, I have a growing collection of pixel designs for various shirts and other suitably worthy attire waiting to be finished so there! This concluded this rather pointless yet mildly satisfying post to my blog. Good day to you all.

Jack Sparrow Pixel version!!!

2011-11-25T15:45:00.000Z

Argh me hearties it be that time of the year when all that swashbuckling and rum drinking be a taking over the erm... well you get me meaning... My son is playing Lego Pirates of the Caribbean at the moment on the XBox360. So I thought I would post a few animations I did of Jack Sparrow 'pixel stylee!!' just to bring them out for a few rounds on the screen before retiring them back in the old stuff folder.

Now then me dears these grafs (techie term that) were originally created for an official game of the movie . Unfortunatly said game didn't quite make it past the galley before being abruptly shoe horned off the ship via a very short plank..Sploshee Splash... Plop!

Retro Gamer & GamesTM Interviews

2011-11-22T10:01:00.001Z

So I did this interview recently for Retro Gamer magazine where I answered a few questions about my days at Sensible Software and the joys to be had creating art on the wonderful Commodore Amiga.

Issue 94: Art Attacktasticles!!!

Come to think of it the interview isn't that recent now but just like the good old London buses you wait ages for one and two come along, so not only am I in the 94th issue of Retro Gamer I've also just given an interview for GamesTM who are doing a feature on us bods at Sensible Software.

I believe this issue of Retro Gamer is still available on back issue for the sum of £4.99 + P&P.

A new blog entry

2011-07-05T12:01:00.000+01:00

This is a blog entry to let you know (yes 'you' that solitary soul peeking around the door at the back of the room) that I shall be writing a new blog entry very soon.


This is a rock!

UK Government...

2011-05-20T19:03:00.002+01:00

If you're in the UK like me and attempt to watch this video via YouTube you will get this rather bizarre message appearing instead of the expected video feed. The video in question is titled, "Lawful Rebellion in Birkenhead" , please take some time to read up on the events surrounding this video as it will illustrate why the UK Government probably doesn't want you to view it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8JL4oDRx54

Now then to get around this unnecessary tampering from those silly fellows in Whitehall who really should stop treating us like kindergarten kids, there is a way. You view it via a free proxy!! YAY!

So without further ado try this link. View the video! courtesy of http://hidemyass.com/

Just paste the URL of the Youtube video into the box and away you go!

Sorted!!

And here's a picture of the MP who decided that we really should not be allowed to view those nasty things on YouTube as it may give us a few ideas..

Bottom about face....

2011-05-10T18:57:00.114+01:00

I like pixel pushing, I like pencils, I like my Wacom tablet, I like water colour paints, I like.... I like...

I realised the other day that I've spent most of my professional life drawing digitally. When I say digitally I refer to the creation of graphics (mostly for games) on a computer screen using a graphics program without a pencil or sheet of paper in sight!

As a child (still a child some in the know would say) I used to enjoy drawing and painting, what child doesn't? I sketched, painted and even managed to fail my art 'O' level for taking too long in the exam(ever the perfectionist). Then I discovered video games and thus my digital artistic journey began and my artistic endeavours switched from the analogue world to the digital. Commodore 64 sprites and character sets in glorious chunky fat pixels became my new canvas!

Fast forward a few years and the advent of graphics tablets and art applications introduced a whole new way to create art digitally. Don't get me wrong I'm a huge advocate of this technology but there's something rewarding in using a pencil, a pen and a splash of water colour that never fails to make me smile. Maybe I'm becoming less geek as I get older? Perish the thought...Next I'll be growing my own veg and painting sheds.. (Did I tell you we've got a new shed and I'm growing pumpkins this year?)

Take this recent illustration which started out as a pencil doodle and ended up as a new plant species in the Blobbit World, inked in and water coloured with Blobbit friendly hues. I asked my son Jack to come up with a name and he suggested Bloobelly Spikey plant which almost felt right so after further discussion we ended up with the title Blooblee plant!


(Mobile phone photo so not the best quality, scan should look better I'd say)

There's something about water colour that just works for me... simple yet effective! And with that thought next week I shall be painting in a cave using chalk and water... and talking of caves I don't believe that Bin Laden died this year.. 2001 seems more likely surely? Here's the most excellent James Corbett with a pretty good summary of why I like many don't believe the 'official' story.

Vernimb reveals bum Shocker!

2011-03-24T18:07:00.001Z

There I was doodling away recently on the back projection of a Vernimb when it dawned on me that I in order to preserve the correct detail I would have to draw a Vernimb bum! Bit saggy but it's not real so none of that cosmetic meddling required here thank you..

That's all for now, you can go...

Cannon Fodder disk box...

2011-03-20T19:15:00.000Z

During a recent clear out and tidy up..hang about that reminds me does anyone remember that show that used to be on in the UK many moons ago called Stoppit & Tidy Up?? Narrated by Terry, oops Sir Terry Wogan? No?... oh OK...as I was saying I was in my garage doing some "conversion" work... Conversion being the conversion of old stuff from shabby cardboard box to clean solid weatherproof plastic cube thing (with lid!!) when I found a box of 3.5" discs.(remember those?)

Wearing my techie geek hat as I often do when I find myself rummaging about in old boxes of tech, I often snap a pic or two of any notable finds along the way. I was happily snapping away (resisting at this point in the blog entry to type 'as you do') at lost treasures I'd forgotten I'd owned and came across this....

This is the very box I used to store all me Cannon Fodder art disks, demo disks and beta tests of the game. As you can see I never did get around to buying a proper box and used this bulk unbranded x50 disc cardboard box as storage complete with masking tape repairs to hide the mistreatment the poor thing endured over the years.
Now the question remains do any of these discs actually work since being exiled to planet forgotten about since 1993. Hmmmm I might have to set up an Amiga next weekend and find out... On further thought will any of my Amigas work long enough to test them out and/or(nerd mode) will the disks be damaged? Perhaps I'll leave it "as is" for now...
Note: Will climatise them to the house temperature well in advance to avoid any of that funny electronics failure malarkey if I feel lucky as punks do...

Oh and I should also mention that the Podcast from my appearance on the most excellent Cafe Calcio radio show is still up if you haven't had a listen yet..It's 1hr long and yes the music at the start is part of the show.. (Yes Mum...)

I was on the radio I was.. last Friday to be precise @ 9pm..

2011-03-17T12:35:00.007Z

So there I was last Friday having a cuppa tea when out of the blue at zero hour I read an email asking if I would like to be a guest on a football themed radio show called "Cafe Calcio" on London based Resonance 104.4 FM. The subject of discussion was 'Games' which for me meant only one thing, Sensible Soccer!!!
What could I say??

I had a great time meeting the gang (in the pub) Chris Dixon, Chris Roberts and David Stubbs and fellow guest Daniel Tatarsky who's knowledge of Subbuteo was mind blowing to say the least which is probably why he wrote a book about it. (Amazon linky here)

The podcast is now up and you can click here to listen (there's a download link on there too)

The music at the start doesn't last too long so don't do what my mum did and think you're listening to the wrong podcast! ahh bless...
http://cafecalcio.posterous.com/cafe-calcio-ii-the-sixth-podcast-are-there-an

Not one to alarm but...

2011-03-17T00:48:00.001Z

I've been wrestling with Blender in an attempt to make a 3D version of a Vernimb Sentry this week. So far it is starting to look less like a deformed plum and more like a video game character.

Once he is done I can then proceed with the exciting bit , the animation!! Oh and of course creating a bona fide 3D Blobbit too.

The sketch to the right is the literal version I did for the book I'm writing. They're a tad more serious than those seen in the game version that's for sure. It's exciting indeed!!

Original Vernimb
Sentry Sprite

Texturing phase 1 - 90% complete

2011-03-10T20:18:00.001Z

Still a bit too clean to be accepted into the blobberhood but a few bits of dirt and grime should sort that out.. :)

Did I say that I really really like using Blender?

Elenin = Nibiru

Sketches of the teleport door and pad

2011-03-09T13:59:00.028Z

Here we have two sketches... But not just any old sketches oh no oh no oh no... These are sketches of something that is in my book (yes that book!). These are sketches of a Blobbit repaired 'Matter No Splatter' transportation device. Usually these devices appear unbroken but sadly this one wasn't so lucky. But all is not lost as our hero Blarold Blobbit has made good using some wood, a couple of metal shoes and a rivet gun.Wowsers! Will it work? Hmmm that's a good question... Only one way to find out and that's to see it in action in Blobbit iDash. Yay!!
(Now I must go and finish texturing it in Blender, chie de chie my luvvies!!)
Elenin = Nibiru

Oh joy of Joy Division...Texture Paint is jolly good.

2011-03-02T22:51:00.000Z

I have discovered that the 'Texture Paint' mode of Blender 2.5 is indeed rather awesome!! I've been playing with seams and one of the most frustrating things I've experienced is shading up a nice texture only to find that one of the seams doesn't quite look right. But all is not lost, oh no!! You see there's this rather nifty (not heard that word for a whole,'nifty' not 'rather') that lets lazy oiks like me paint directly onto the the model! Now it's no Photoshop or Gimp but it does have a smooth and smear mode which is fine and dandy for smudging out those bleedin' angular 'stand out like a sore thumb' joins!! YAY but no hay!!
Look no wires I'm flying!!

Cuppa tea now to celebrate my new best buddie in Blender 2.5..

Seams... but no Mrs Slocombe..

2011-02-28T16:18:00.000Z

As a relative of newbie who is still learning the ropes with all this 3D modelling, texturing and animating malarkey (yes I'm so 2D I even have a travelator in my home instead of stairs), I have discovered that in order to make a UV Map fit like a glove without an obvious stretch or skew the right approach to unwrapping is required; to avoid pixel tomfoolery anyway.

Now just last week and a year I was getting a bit ahead of meself and thought I had it in the bag. 'Ahhhh' I said to meself as it become quite apparent that the art of unwrapping is indeed an art in itself (on a small scale, not that I'm comparing it to drawing and modelling, that would be like comparing decent choccy to that cheap muck you get off of Romford Market sometimes. Maya Gold for me all the way!). I digest...Careful thought on where to place those seams is important if a nice clean texture layout is required. Which it is otherwise what's the point...Yarse.. (Getting the hang of this me is...).. This is the concept sketch of something I'm 3D'ing at the moment....will post the final doo-dah once it's done..

This has been the ramblings of a solitude moi under-dubbed with a slice of WaveStar "Mind Journey" working from my space pod in near Earth orbit.. Si

Elenin = Nibiru I reckon...

Blobbit T-Shirts are now on sale!!!

2011-02-22T13:13:00.004Z

It's that time again, that time when dreams of running a fashion empire start knocking at the door. Yes I've uploaded a couple of Blobbit related designs to my shop (Cool Blobbit Shirts)
I'll upload some pics as soon as I get a moment spare...

>>>Cool Blobbit Shirts<<<

What? No... Surely not.. Oh yess indeedy deedy dee...

2011-02-02T12:41:00.000Z

Work on bringing Blobbit Dash to iOS has resumed after what seems (and probably is come to think of it) an absolute chasm of time.

So without wasting any further cycles typing endless letters into something half eligible I'm outta here to get this bleedin' game sorted with me ol' mucker Mr.Ripley of Effervescing Elephant He has a new site don't you know!

First job to be done is to get the background art into some sort of structure and thenbuild up a list of what is going where and by whom, what time and at what point the nasties make an appearance.. There again I may just be saying that in a cunning rouse to mislead and misdirect.. (what the blinkin'ell is he going on about?) Beats me... Cuppa tea methinks..

Might be using Art Rage to do the BG art on this one.. Can't beat a bit of pencil sketching without pencil and without paper.. hang on that's not pencil sketching is it? Well I suppose it is in a sense.. but I ramble onward and upward...

Knock knock

2010-11-18T12:59:00.000Z

Who's there?

Updates are coming... (soon'ish after some sangria and Ron Trinidad)

2010-08-03T23:49:00.000+01:00

I often feel obliged to write something here when there's nothing to write other than endless meandering dribbles of uninteresting facts about this and that. Today however I decided I would write something, so here's some text... oh hang on a mo.... I've already finished....Oops...

Here's a pointless sketch about arrows..

The wit that follows will astound, amaze and have you scratching something in bewilderment, hopefully your head but anywhere else is fine...(hang on again.. erm you really should have that looked at don't you know.. eww looks kind of... infected..doors over there... yep see ya...(phew))

I should remind you , yes you with the wild eyes, iPhone, you phone, we phone, who phone Blobbit is still going strong it's just on hold until Mark and I finish our contract jobs. Then it's manic dev time again.. yay taday tomorrow and last week!

What?? HD art for iPad?? Oh.....Erm... right then..

2010-04-13T20:05:00.003+01:00

I've been rather busy of late creating, converting and tweaking various art assets for inclusion into Blobbit iPush. Some via Unity as rescaled sprites, others taking the form of new 2D & 3D art, not bad! One thing I didn't really want to do just yet is take on the seemingly mammoth task of up-scaling the original game art to iPad and HD resolutions. Arghhhhhhh!!!

Ok well perhaps that's a bit of an overreaction but with a looming deadline for the iPhone version on the horizon and time at present being very precious for me a bit of thinking was called for. Ponder, ponder...

Here's a tree from the Sand Sludge Bog level, or to quote from me book, a G'Wahlah'lahlah tree. This version is from the original Web game and was drawn in ProMotion a few years back in good ol' retrotastic pixelvision.

Now then, how do I get that scaled up from 25 or so pixels to something that is probably going to push 60 to 100+ without loosing definition and quality? Scale - No. Apply some fancy filters - No. Vector art the sucker - Yes!!

So after a short fiddle with me Wacom pen and a few reference pixels I think I've sussed it.

Not only does the new version look clean and crisp it is also totally resolution independent meaning I could use it on the iPhone version too if need be. Niiiice!!!

(Shadow edge is pants, I know) lol

A little test anim to pass the time today

2010-04-01T15:47:00.003+01:00

I've been experiencing a few problems importing some anims into Unity from Blender recently and decided to take some time out from the hair pulling with this being the result.

Bit flakey around the edges but not bad methinks! Now I know how to use the 'node' editor in Blender the possibilities are quite staggering . A few tweaks here and adjustments there will yield some quite nice results I reckon.

The more I use Blender the more I love it!!

Box Droid Concept Prototype 001 Sketch

2010-03-09T23:17:00.002Z

Late 2006 I started designing the sprites for Blobbit Push and one of the characters I came up with was a small droid known as a Box Droid which later became a series of droids all based around the same box like design.

With the new game in development and the totally separate but loosely linked book on the back burner I wanted to create some proper art for the Blobbit characters. There are various reasons for doing this but the main reason unquestionably is I just want to see these characters visualised how I imagine them rather than as 48x48 pixel sprites. Of course having proper images also helps to create 3D versions and will also do wonders for marketing the game(s) later on.

Anyway here's the initial pencil sketch I did of the Prototype Box Droid with which all other Box Droids were based upon. I suppose you could say this one pre-dates the sprite version seen in the games. Initially drawn on Saturday afternoon over a cup of tea or two, proceeded by the finished illustrated version Monday. Cheers me dears! -Stoo-

Design & Images (C) Copyright Stoo Cambridge 2006,2010

Save as Draft

Is there anybody out there?

2010-03-05T09:57:00.000Z

I was just thinking as I look into my Blobbit stars, 'is there anybody out there?' Then it dawned on me, what I need is some space junk and some stuff to plonk in the background.

Background - check

Twinkle stars - check

Big Moon - check
Stuff - Yes

That's that then.

Do I use the 2D illustrations mapped to quads or do I recreate the drawings in 3D with the drawings mapped onto the newly created objects? Hmmmmm.... Maybe a mixture of both I think.

Ramble, ramble, mumble, mumble...

Ahh so that's what the 'd' means!

2010-02-09T11:36:00.000Z

'Rot' or 'DRot' what the ??

Ahh now I know! Rot is an absolute value overiding the object's values and DRot is added to the current value! Ta da!

Same applies to scale too.

Stars are now converted to use Drot D?? where applicable!

3D is now my best buddy, (this week anyway!)

2010-02-05T17:31:00.042Z

I've been spending an awful lot of time learning all about IPO curves and key framing this week, which you could say is all fine and dandy. Ahhh but the real smile factor comes from looking back over the past few days and seeing how this thing is starting to shape up, how it is fuelling further art, details and refinements to the design. Magic!!!!!

I like the mix of taking my 2D illustrations and whacking them into this unfriendly looking, techie laden ingested program called Blender which beneath the well published hard exterior houses one big bundle of cuddly lurve! I really must commend all the people who have helped create such a wonderful piece of open source, free to use software.Sorted!!

Next week I'll be introducing chilli to the mix for some extra heat!

*using Blender 2.49b

Titter ye not for I been mostly usingTwitter !

2010-02-04T22:42:00.001Z

Over the past few days I've been using Twitter. I can certainly see the appeal of quick easy straight to the point updates of information. I registered ages ago but never really got into it, until now!

As you can see if you glance over the to the right of this blog I've added me last handful of Tweets which is working wonders for my web presence linkage. LOL 'Tweets!', see I'm learning the lingo too!

Over and out for now, I've got some stars to finish animating...

Tron desk v1.1

2010-02-02T21:24:00.003Z

After the rewire and attaching of the lights to the desk, power is now back on and my desk is no longer at the mercy of the Master Control Program!

When I can source the parts my next trick is to turn the desk into a giant light box to aid my illustration work. It works to a degree at the moment but having white light underneath will give me a much better result.

Animation Time Offset is my friend!

2010-02-02T12:11:00.000Z

Animating what seems like a zillion and one stars is not a desirable way to pass the day so I was so pleased to discover the magic animation time offset setting in Blender.

After animating one star I can now link to it from a duplicate, change the offset of the new one and wayhey we have two stars animating from the same data block but at staggered times.

Simple things please simple minds and that's cool with me as it's saving me lots and lots and lots of time!

Ta da!!

Tron underdesk lighting. DONE!

2010-01-31T11:26:00.000Z

Overted a desk disaster. Wire to one of me desk led lights got severed. Works again now. Soldertastic!

Wire does it hurt?

2010-01-30T12:59:00.000Z

Spring clean phase 1 Unplug and remove gear. So many wires. :-(

As Blair is in the news....

2010-01-29T23:11:00.000Z

Here's a little something I did a few years back...

An old Footy gif

2010-01-29T22:47:00.004Z

Whilst trawling through some old files in my documents folder I came across a directory which contained a couple of old animated GIF's created for past projects. Sadly both projects never saw the light of day but it's always nice to see work files one more time before they get filed away for another couple of years in darkness.

The first was created for a mobile phone game about fishing called 'Footy'. ;)

As you can see it's nothing to do with fishing!

Actually this was really starting to look good it was just a shame the phone hardware at the time was dog slow and just couldn't handle the sprites , scrolling and ball at the same time!!!

I'll probably add a section about this game to the new Hobeka site when I get round to updating it.

I especially like the skating players!

Blendertastic knicker elastic!

2010-01-29T15:58:00.004Z

Development of the front end continues with the addition of my Rydek-12 illustration which is sitting inside Blender rather nicely now.

Next step is to get the stars all key framed up and jiggling about doing their thing.

Just discovered a cool Blender material button located in the Material panel called 'Shadeless' which is great for profiling stuff on the quick without having to worry about setting up lights. It saves valuable time trying to get the render to look the same as your 2D mock up. Sorted!!!!

Blobbit sprite conversion

2010-01-27T17:14:00.005Z

Rather than just do a quick conversion job resulting in a load of blurred undefined sprites I've been adding extra glow and opacity to some of them.

When we did the original game the sprites were for the most part quite old school and were drawn in 8bit with no alpha channel data. Not bad but the iPhone has nice transparency effects we can use, so why not use them?

Here's a Binscee Droid before, during and after a little bit of subtle editing...

I've highlighted the transparent liquid bit.
Cut out the area that needs to be transparent and set it at 80% so it's still mostly green.
Next I paste this back into the original frame and the sprite frame is now complete.Ta Da!

Taking this image into an editor you will see that the liquid is indeed transparent which should look quite nice when it's in situ.

Here's the original animated 8bit version...

Damn that Ursula, me tea is missing.

2010-01-27T12:45:00.001Z

An empty mug of tea simply will not do.

Had to be done

2010-01-26T17:49:00.001Z

Nice.

Game developer fuel

2010-01-26T16:49:00.001Z

Another mug or five.

Blobbits' love Unity!!

2010-01-26T16:44:00.002Z

Having written the new GDD(Game Design Document for those not in the know) for Blobbit iPush which also includes a few concept sketches and illustrations, the next step is to start some proper development work. A little bit later than planned but hey, better late than never I say! Ta Da!!

After a few seconds of thought and a couple of emails to Mark it become clear that Flash wasn't really the way to go and Unity the rather most spiffingly excellent indie developer friendly 3D engine and game dev system would do the trick rather better.

Enter Unity...

It's been a few days now since I began my tinkering about with the editor and generally got my head around the Unity interface which is really rather straightforward once you get past the initial bewilderment associated with something new and alien. Well it is to me anyway...So far so good.

I've spent most of today and some of what was left over from last night converting the Blobbit Push sprite set over to Unity. After a false start and a dodgy mouse button which has incidently got worse, I can say that even the added bit of alpha blending is making an appearance on the enhanced set of sprites.

Look it's the death anim... The sprites may be smaller than the original set but I've managed to retain the detail and given them a bit of extra smooochie smooth stuff for their outing on the iPhone. Lubberly!!

-Stoo-

Cool hat!

2010-01-22T12:20:00.000Z

Office Chair - Victory!!!

2009-09-25T12:14:00.000+01:00

I split one of the support legs on the base of my office chair a couple of days ago and have been trying to use it whilst holding off a virtual sense of seasickness. Alas to say it's not been an overwhelming success and my poor old back has been feeling the strain. Enough I said...I have an idea...k'PING!

Well today I dug out the old chair from the loft which incidentally is fine but requires a new gas cylinder, unless of course you have an extremely low desk which would make it perfectly functional. I don't as my desk is slightly higher than average so need every cubic gram of gas to elevate me to the right height.

I popped the old base off the gas lift thingy, with I might add a little bit of persuasion from some 3 in 1 oil and a hammer, off it came and on went the old from me other chair. Sorted!!

I don't feel like I'm on a boat anymore.. cool!!

Development can continue.

Design is fine in the sunshine

2009-09-24T22:14:00.004+01:00

I think I've got the design flow sussed now. It's bloody handy having real hardware to try images out on as I can pretend the UI is working even though I'm just flicking back and forth with the iphone picture viewer.

If I can get the flow finished tonight I can resume things tomorrow with my arty farty hat on and get some of the extra bits of art started without further delay. Sorted!!!!

I am currently listening to Me and Armini by Emiliana Torrini ... nice album...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Armini

Inbetweeny screeny

2009-09-24T17:50:00.004+01:00

I wish this thing had an image rotate option... Bahh

Frontend menu scribbles

2009-09-24T16:56:00.003+01:00

Updating me designs for the iphone version of blobbit push. B-)

Sketch

2009-05-21T11:21:00.001+01:00