Running Skiffy

Running_Skiffy, originally uploaded by falterdan.

More dog pictures.

Took a little break this afternoon to play with the dog. I've been chained up to the computer for the last few weeks working on the scripts for Blade Kitten, which is fun but also pretty draining.

Skiffy is fun to watch as he bounds around with his winter coat. Note also that he looks happy with a big grin on his face (even though dogs don't smile) I guess it's just the marking on his face and his pale eyes.

Just a really fun, cool dog all around.

Back to Comicking

While things have been a bit busy lately I've been trying to chip away at the next Blade Kitten comic.
It's slow going because
A)I'm out of practice and
B)I want it to look better than the previous ones
C)Skiffy keeps deciding that my lap is the best place to be when I'm trying to draw. (At least he keeps my feet warm)



On the plus side I've already penciled the next 4 pages so the hard work is mostly out of the way. Still there's another 30 or so pages to do after that so I'm not going to get ahead of myself with the counting and chickens and all.

Also actually writing the Scripts for the game today - at home because it's the only quiet place to do it :(

A dog walks into an office...

DSC01884, originally uploaded by falterdan.

Skiffy came into the office today... I think he wanted a raise.

Blade Kitten rumblings

The Blade Kitten site has been getting a major overhaul at work thanks to our talented media people. Along with a new version of the original comics there's a bunch of extra content like more background material and development blogs for the game.

As a little sneak peek I thought I'd post a link to the teaser which was shown at Gen Con Brisbane last year. Expect to see gameplay trailers and behind the scenes fun in the coming weeks/months.

Tales of E3 presently passed

This year was the return of the "old" E3. The past two years have had depressingly small shows designed to focus on the games and cut costs. Really it was an attempt by some of the larger companies to try and take better control of the media by focusing on their own events. An understandable proposition but ultimately the wrong path. The way I see it games NEED a big show like E3 still - partly it's for the developers and publishers to get to show off their work to the outside world. It's much like a gallery showing or even something like the Academy awards - these things are events that showcase products in different ways. Sure we've got a few public shows like PAX and Blizzcon but E3 was always the crowning "night of nights" as it were.

So how did this year's version fare? Actually I thought it was pretty sweet. Yes it did have some faults but generally I had a great time at it.

What was good?

• Size - not too big, not too small. Plenty of room to walk around and enough to see. I was pleased that by Thursday's I had felt that I had seen everything I had wanted to see and them some. Usually there's always the feeling of "I missed a lot of stuff"
• Body count - Just the right amount of people. You could move around easily and play most games without a huge wait. Of course there were lines for games like Halo: ODST (I don't get why - It's Halo with a new hat. If you liked Halo 1-3 chances are you going to like this right?). I think the higher admission requirements helped a lot.
• Sitting space - as flow on from the above there were actually plenty of places to sit and take a break with some food or drink which just made the whole thing that much more enjoyable

And the Bad?

• Not enough pods/games - It felt like there wasn't enough games on show. There were plenty of stretches of open carpet and booths didn't seem to have a lot of pods or variety of games on show. That said this was a really minor complaint.
• TV crew and junior staff - These are two wildly different things but I'm lumping them together because of my solution. With all the online blogs and sites there was an abundance of people walking around with cameras blocking the the thoroughfares. The other group spend the show running around hunting down freebie crap to hoard or sell on ebay and filling up the lines. It's understandable for the first few shows when it's all cool and fun to see this stuff. Really to solve the above issues E3 needs to be longer and have public days like TGS. Have two days for business and two days for the general public. That way people can go do work there then every gets a chance to see the games. (sorry if you are one of those folks mentioned above but in a few years you'll understand what I mean - I did the same crap at my first few shows)
• So far away :)Ok maybe I'd rather have it in San Diego because it's a nicer town for conventions.
  
  
  

I think my most favorite thing at the show was the Bayonetta model. There were a lot of booth babe types but this one really stole the show and I'm not even a fan of the game character - I don't get the whole Sarah Palin witch with guns thing. But the chick they had had a real presence. If I was just a fraction sadder than I am I probably would have sat around starting for a while but in the end I was there to see games. Wait... that might actually make me sadder :)

Sega was kind enough to post some info about the show and included a link to an interview with the model which is kind of cool to get her take on the whole thing. http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2009/06/05/bayonetta-e3/

Neglected but not forgotten

I've been very slack about this blog which is a bad start. Getting a puppy didn't make it any easier but that has been an interesting experience watching and seeing how he learns first hand. AT 16 weeks he's really becoming a dog.

Yeah he's still super cute, just a LOT bigger. I was away for a week at the Game Developer's Conference and came back to find that he was quite noticeable larger. In the one month between Vet visits he grew from 8kg to 11.6kg (which is nearly 8 pounds heavier. Also intriguing to watch his personality develop. I had dogs as a kid but when you're that young you really don't notice as much - probably because you're going through the same thing. I know some friends that are parents that have expressed the same joy in watching their kids grow - I get it now and it's really cool.

This weekend is Brisbane Supanova which I'll be at and giving a few talks (event guide)- I'll be doing a talk about what's coming up at Krome hosted by Matt and Yug from Australian Gamer - I love talking with those two so that talk should be a lot of fun. And I'll also be running a panel with some Krome concepts artists where we'll be talking about work and also answer question about getting into the industry.

So come along and visit the Krome Studios stand - I'll be there most of the time so come and say "hi" or whatever. We're right next to the pizza (gee how did that happen?):)

The little things

I have been meaning to post something wise here but I have to admit I've been distracted by the imminent arrival of a new puppy. Well I picked him up a few days ago and we've been playing ever since. I've named him Skiffy and he's an 8 weeks old chocolate merle Border Collie.

It's fun to watch him explore the house and find the bits that where he's the most comfortable. For example he's taken to sleeping under the table here by the computer or he's go out and sleep on the tiles when he gets hot. I'm also having fun trying to come up with new games to keep him stimulated - he's really surprised me in that he understands the concept of uncovering things. I forgot how smart Border Collies are.

So far he's been pretty good and no more of a mess than your average puppy.

Where do Blade Kittens come from part 1

Over the years I’ve had the habit of coming up with a lot of ideas for bit’s of universes. I’m pretty sure that’s not just me, a lot of creative people tend to have the same problem of too many ideas. You quickly discover that life is really short and there’s just not enough time to do all of them. I found it was best to start focusing ideas into different universes. By that I mean story universes not actual other universes, although that would be a pretty neat trick. I’d always want to go down some new path when inspiration hit and I hit a wall where while an idea was cool, it just didn’t fit in a certain story reality.

Sure some properties like TY let you do wild stuff like giant marsupial robots but even then there’s stuff that I just wouldn’t put into that series because it would be… well wrong.

Since the mid 90s I came up with a good half dozen sci fi concepts that really seamed to fit into a similar universe so I started reusing elements and back histories when I would start new ideas. Eventually I found that they all ended up linking together in a grand tapestry of a sci fi universe and thus the Blade Kitten universe was born. This was around 2001 (before the first TY game was even had a publisher) and I’ve been working on it in my spare time ever since.

BK is my universe of cool ideas and designs all strung together. It’s a cool playground that can be as dark or as funny or as dramatic as I need it to be – sometimes even all at the same time.

Next time I’ll go into the design of Kit.

New year and a new home

Since its the the start of a new year I figured it was time for a bit of a change in my life - blog wise.

Previously I've kept a Live journal mostly to display may drawings and designs but all to often to whine about my life like so many others. After a bunch of years of whining about the same stuff I realize that that won't change unless I make it happen and my god that really is boring to read.

So what I'd like to do with this new forum is to keep posting the art but maybe concentrate a little more about expressing my views and thoughts about the games industry, game design and just things in general.

So for the uninitiated I'll give you a little background on myself. My secret identity is Steve Stamatiadis, billionaire playboy (of please...mild-mannered is so freaking dull) Creative Director and co-founder of Krome Studios. We're now in out tenth year of making games and growing larger like a little Aussie Katamari of game development. I say that becuase we were lucky enough to form two more studios outside of our Brisbane office when we formed a Studio in Adelaide of Ex-Ratbag members when they got shut down and later when we picked up Melbourne House. I'm pleased to say that both studios have worked out really well and its an honest pleasure to be able to work with them.

Gameography wise you've probably never heard of me but might have heard of or played some of the games I was involved in.

The old shareware Halloween Harry/Alien Carnage where I did a lot of game design and all the art andanimation.

Flight of the Amazon Queen which I did all the art for an co designed.

Zombie Wars - a sequel to Halloween Harry but this time running on Windows 95 and the first game I had htat got published in Japan - which was very cool at the time for me.

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger Series - I co-designed and co-created the games, designed the chracters and art directed the series. It was Krome's first BIG seller and one of the biggest selling Australian games. TY 2 was also my debut as a voice actor giving life to the character of Gooboo Steve.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii, PS2, PSP versions) - I'm listed as the director on this one A) because I did a lot of different things on the project form design to artdirecton to character creation and I thought it would look stupid having my name everywhere.
B) If you can tell me there's anything cooler than having your name come up as "Directed by" on a Star Wars game when John Williams end credit theme start's playing and I'll just call you a douche.

TFU has sold amazingly well (not surprisingly) and will probably easily outsell the entire TY series. Oh and they made toys and stuff from some of our versions designs with possibly more to come.

That's just the stuff you may have heard about there's a lot of other titles out there that aren't as worth mentioning. Hey I've been doing this for over 15 years now - people don't realize it's hard enough just to get a game finished having somethinhg that's better than good is a minor miracle.

So that's me and my day job for now. I think next itme I'll talk a little about what I do fun fun, a little project I like to call Blade Kitten