I'm feeling more optimistic today. Just got 250 quid remitted to me as a wedding present, and I just watched the new "Hills Have Eyes" movie which was hachet-in-your-skull sweet.
Hell, let's skip video-games for a minute and let's talk about horror movies. If you're not into them, roll on down the page some.
Let me tell you, I am more than qualified to make a zombie-game due my Tarantino-esque obsessiveness for gore flicks. Here's a presentation of a few superb movies for you guys out there with *BitTorrent*...ahem....sorry I meant 'time to see'.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The new one. I loved this more than the original. Embedded in my brain is the memorable scene of one of the victims having his leg chainsawed from behind a washing sheet line, and Leatherface giving a hammer-sandwich to some guys head.
Most memorable scene: The prior mentioned hammer to the head. SMACK!
Dawn of the Dead
Both the old one and the new one are good flicks. The first one starts off at a fast pace, but wanes toward the end. It's actually in some ways more of a social commentary than a clear-cut horror movie. However, it is still superior to the second one, which is somewhat formulaic for the most part. Saying that, it's a great Friday night.
Most memorable scene:A zombie baby being born.
Hills Have Eyes
I haven't seen the first one so the only thing I know about it is that it starred the mongoloid guy from Weird Science.
This is a great movie. It's part of this new wave of gore-out, scare-packed horror movies that you just can't get enough of. This one goes that extra length to shock and has truly horrific and delicious moments.
Most memorable scene:Mum and daughter coming in to the trailer to save their daughter only to get blown away.
Jeepers Creepers 1 & 2
Whilst the second one is slightly better, the first one is still high viewing. The director has made good use of jarring imagery that sticks with you, such as;- two kids watching a body being dumped into a pipe, only to see the murderer/monster turn to notice them; the monster exposing his face to the kids on the bus as he 'scents' them (very nice moment), and the flying monster snatching a kid into the sky whilst being chased by the family. Excellent movies. Probably the ones responsible for this resurge in good-quality horror movies in recent years.
Most memorable scene:Ah..too many to mention
Imprint
Very rare 1 hour Takeshi Miike special, and one episode of an American show called 'Masters of Horror'. To be honest with ya, I thought the Ring and the Grudge were both shite. What's so scary about a teenage ghost-girl with hair issues? Nothing. I see she's even making her way into video-games, which sucks.
No, you could say I was skeptical about this offering, but how can you go wrong when a horror episode is taken-out of a horror series for being too grisly. I just had to have it. It wipes the floor with the other directors efforts (even f*&king Argento screwed his one up, twat). A stylish, unpredictable and ultimately sickening period piece, which I can do nothing but recommend. Though I have to admit I generally enjoy the simple Hollywood horrors more, Imprint is an hour of madness you will do well experiencing. One last thing to mention is the marvellous acting of the lead Billy Drago (Snow from that movie Vamp). This guy, with his gaunt features and demonic grin, was born to do horrors. So why isn't he in more? Come on directors, get him into some good flicks before he croaks!!
Most memorable scene:Kumomo getting tortured with pins to the fingernails. Yowch!
Silent Hill
Wow, a highly original paranormal horror. This doesn't aim to get you behind the couch as much as go for the long-term creep out. It does well in absorbing your attention for the entire runtime. People who have played the Silent Hill game will adore this. It is the best attempt of a faithful conversion of a game to the silver screen I have ever seen. It beautifully captures that mixture of mystery and the traces of ethereal sadness that the game expounded. Resident Evil was cack (how dare they fire Romero when they pawned his invention!!), House of The Dead was...ummm fuck House of the Dead. S.H. will probably remain the popular choice of the People-Who-Know-A-Good-Horror-From-Their-Arse crowd for a measure of time.
Most memorable scene:Without a doubt Pyramid-Head tearing a girls flesh off and chucking it at the door.
The Descent
Oh yes. I've left the best for last. Do yourself a favour and watch the others first because this one is the chocolate at the bottom of the Cornetto. You will benefit from that lingering taste that should be maximised. In comparison to the others mentioned here, I can only sum it up by quoting Lance as he talks to Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction "These are all real, real good shit, but this one is the the f*ckin madman". The Descent is absolutely terrifying. Believe me, I haven't reacted to a horror this way since Aliens. Everything in this movie is perfect. The cast, the music, the lighting, the residual fear of the whole situation. And it continues to scare you, again, and again, then when you've already shat yourself, one last time. Then finally, the ending is poetic, and yet deeply disturbing and memorable. Watching this movie is like going down the gym for all the constant heart-rate fluctuations you go through. Horror movie of the decade.
Most memorable scene:Can't spoil it for you. I'm not that cruel.
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Back to Video-Games
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm forced to make my death-scenes with some simpler animations. Truth be told, Snakeman's one is done now and it's not half-bad.
I'll post a pic today or tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Monday, September 04, 2006
Don't you just hate it when you spend a great deal of time on some element within a game, only to realise it'll never work?
I came to this conclusion the other night after I irritatedly tried piecing together a decent animation.
After discovering that Flash could embed avi's and compress them into satisfyingly small files, I thought I might try to make some decent cutscenes for The Damned for when you get killed by the bosses.
However, I got as far as a Snakeman animation with him pulling the main character out of the boat and down to the depths, when I suddenly realised something very important. It looked shit.
I don't have the skills in Max yet.
Bugger.
It was taking far too long, and for all the effort it still never looked anything better than what it was, a beginners effort to make something that looked pro.
Oh, it could have been great. Let your imaginations play on;
a) Snakeman biting the hero, and then dragging the paralysed meat down to the bottom of the lake.
b) A quiet EvilK scene where you see him tossing a blood-drenched burlock bag off a cliff, which opens to reveal all the hero's chainsawed body-parts inside.
c) Lucifer tearing out a chunk of hero neck. Then almost as soon as the hero has died he is raised to be undead, and follows Lucifer out of the scene.
It sucks, but what can you do?
For the time being I suppose I'll finish the death-scenes with simple animations alike to the one you can find in the game now. No wow factor with any of that crap.
So hey, if any 3d masters out there fancy getting their names on a game, (and maybe some cold hard cash IF it sells), how about you rustle up a few nice animations for me?
Pretty please????
I came to this conclusion the other night after I irritatedly tried piecing together a decent animation.
After discovering that Flash could embed avi's and compress them into satisfyingly small files, I thought I might try to make some decent cutscenes for The Damned for when you get killed by the bosses.
However, I got as far as a Snakeman animation with him pulling the main character out of the boat and down to the depths, when I suddenly realised something very important. It looked shit.
I don't have the skills in Max yet.
Bugger.
It was taking far too long, and for all the effort it still never looked anything better than what it was, a beginners effort to make something that looked pro.
Oh, it could have been great. Let your imaginations play on;
a) Snakeman biting the hero, and then dragging the paralysed meat down to the bottom of the lake.
b) A quiet EvilK scene where you see him tossing a blood-drenched burlock bag off a cliff, which opens to reveal all the hero's chainsawed body-parts inside.
c) Lucifer tearing out a chunk of hero neck. Then almost as soon as the hero has died he is raised to be undead, and follows Lucifer out of the scene.
It sucks, but what can you do?
For the time being I suppose I'll finish the death-scenes with simple animations alike to the one you can find in the game now. No wow factor with any of that crap.
So hey, if any 3d masters out there fancy getting their names on a game, (and maybe some cold hard cash IF it sells), how about you rustle up a few nice animations for me?
Pretty please????
Sunday, September 03, 2006
New Weapons
BEAT-EM-UP TUTORIALS
It seems like the beat-em up tutorials I wrote on GotoAndPlay() are gaining in their popularity or something because recently I've had quite a few folks out there sending me their own home-grown examples of their own fla files complete with a million bugs and a beg to save their game. I'll likely make a FAQ, because it's always the same problems that pop-up. Basically, too many people out there are trying to make SF2 before they can even make DragonNinja. Doh!
Because of the amount of requests, the tutorials updated with new improvements and better code are being linked on the blog today. I also felt guilty for using code on movie clips so that has also been corrected.
I'm a little unhappy with GotoAndPlay.it because despite having sent them a couple of tutorials (of which the originals were wiped from my pc that exploded), they haven't done anything about publishing them. Oh well, you will find the tutorials on the sidebar, and future tutorials on here or FlashKit, if they'll take them..?
THE DAMNED
Shotgun now available for the third level of The Damned.
I was considering only having the handgun for the entire game, but I figure every good zombie game has got to have a couple of chainsaws and a shotgun, so I went ahead and rendered me up some 3d models and voila!
Actually the code to operate switching between weapons have been finished already. However, I'm thinking the shotgun will be more of a special weapon that only lasts 10 seconds or so but does immense damage to the enemy, to keep the balance in the game.
Something else I have to do is some more death-scenes. There's only one at present, when you get killed by the water-zombies. So today, I shall be working on something for Snakeman, perhaps a little embedded video of our hero getting dragged to the depths of the lake, like that scene in Friday 13th.
It seems like the beat-em up tutorials I wrote on GotoAndPlay() are gaining in their popularity or something because recently I've had quite a few folks out there sending me their own home-grown examples of their own fla files complete with a million bugs and a beg to save their game. I'll likely make a FAQ, because it's always the same problems that pop-up. Basically, too many people out there are trying to make SF2 before they can even make DragonNinja. Doh!
Because of the amount of requests, the tutorials updated with new improvements and better code are being linked on the blog today. I also felt guilty for using code on movie clips so that has also been corrected.
I'm a little unhappy with GotoAndPlay.it because despite having sent them a couple of tutorials (of which the originals were wiped from my pc that exploded), they haven't done anything about publishing them. Oh well, you will find the tutorials on the sidebar, and future tutorials on here or FlashKit, if they'll take them..?
THE DAMNED
Shotgun now available for the third level of The Damned.
I was considering only having the handgun for the entire game, but I figure every good zombie game has got to have a couple of chainsaws and a shotgun, so I went ahead and rendered me up some 3d models and voila!
Actually the code to operate switching between weapons have been finished already. However, I'm thinking the shotgun will be more of a special weapon that only lasts 10 seconds or so but does immense damage to the enemy, to keep the balance in the game.
Something else I have to do is some more death-scenes. There's only one at present, when you get killed by the water-zombies. So today, I shall be working on something for Snakeman, perhaps a little embedded video of our hero getting dragged to the depths of the lake, like that scene in Friday 13th.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Blogger is behaving today.
Here are the other bosses that have been created so far;
EVILK
A pyscho based on LeatherFace who tries to carve you up with a chainsaw. EvilK is a shite name for a game boss, but leaves no mystery as to which flash coder authored the original game, in the case of E.Baum or another criminal stealing it and claiming property rights. The showdown with EvilK is 100% complete already, and I'm 100% happy with it. You fight him in a dark cave, and I've used an Actionscript generated tint to colour him black so that you only see him when he comes running out of the shadows. It works surprisingly well, and has the desired effect of scaring the poo out of you on first sight. He also has a blood-curdling scream to go along with the ear-ripping chainsaw sounds. (Update 8/2010 'EvilK' became 'Project K' in 'THE INSANITY 1 & 2'
LUCIFER
Lucifer is a demon that was accidentally raised by a necromancer who foolishly believed he had will enough to master. Unfortunately for him, he raised a sovereign monster far beyond his control and was slaughtered. Lucifer is a quick boss that grows wings in his second stage of battle, and can also raise other creatures to his aid. He doesn't have any special weak points, unlike Snakeman or EvilK- you simply have to be nimble with the mouse to catch him under the crosshair.
Lucifer has been rendered but I've yet to get him into code. I figure after he's done I'll tweak the game up, see what the public thinks, and then maybe make a few more levels if it's popular.
Here are the other bosses that have been created so far;
EVILK
A pyscho based on LeatherFace who tries to carve you up with a chainsaw. EvilK is a shite name for a game boss, but leaves no mystery as to which flash coder authored the original game, in the case of E.Baum or another criminal stealing it and claiming property rights. The showdown with EvilK is 100% complete already, and I'm 100% happy with it. You fight him in a dark cave, and I've used an Actionscript generated tint to colour him black so that you only see him when he comes running out of the shadows. It works surprisingly well, and has the desired effect of scaring the poo out of you on first sight. He also has a blood-curdling scream to go along with the ear-ripping chainsaw sounds. (Update 8/2010 'EvilK' became 'Project K' in 'THE INSANITY 1 & 2'
LUCIFER
Lucifer is a demon that was accidentally raised by a necromancer who foolishly believed he had will enough to master. Unfortunately for him, he raised a sovereign monster far beyond his control and was slaughtered. Lucifer is a quick boss that grows wings in his second stage of battle, and can also raise other creatures to his aid. He doesn't have any special weak points, unlike Snakeman or EvilK- you simply have to be nimble with the mouse to catch him under the crosshair.
Lucifer has been rendered but I've yet to get him into code. I figure after he's done I'll tweak the game up, see what the public thinks, and then maybe make a few more levels if it's popular.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Apologies for a long absence..
No excuses, other than myself being lazy to update I'm afraid. Well, not exactly lazy- in fact pretty busy. Not with chasing hot babes and driving fast cars, worse luck, but with coding.
I ran into a coding problem with Nexus and decided to drop the project temporarily. I hit a brick wall and realised I don't have the programming know-how to deal with the ever fiddly tile-engine. Instead, I've been working on my first game, House of Splatter (now retitled with the less daft-sounding 'THE DAMNED').
And man, what was a tiny little shooter has now matured into a top-notch game. Who would have known it had such potential. In its current stage of completion it features new graphics, bolder death scenes, extra blood'n'gore, an intro page, and some perversly evil bosses:
SNAKEMAN
Snakeman is a creature kind of inspired by Jason from Friday 13th. He lives in the lake and protects his vulnerable tongue with a tempered steel mask. *HINT*
Go ahead and check out the first level of THE DAMNED on link section.
Sorry the rest will have to wait as Blogger isn't uploading pictures properly right now.
The bosses have some fairly predictable AI patterns, but won't be beaten by any lazy trigger fingers (saying that though, Snakeman is a bit too much of a wimp at present). You also have to time your reloads very carefully or you will get a game over - as a unique aspect of this game is that you have only one life.
I'm quite chuffed with the mileage I can get out of Poser these days. When I first got my hands on the program about 5 years ago, it was of little real use and just a way to waste an hour making two crappy looking-models kung-fu fight, or do 3d humping for a laugh.
Nowadays, it is much improved.
It's a bug-ridden application that crashes more often that not; a pile of cack compared to Max or any of the other big boys, but it certainly can do the job at times. Now that I've figured how to wrap textures around models correctly with UVMapper, deform them with magnets, and have mastered the Cloth room, Poser truly has become indespensible for making realistic keyframe animations. I recommend it to other newbs who are embarking on their journey into the world of 3d animation.
I ran into a coding problem with Nexus and decided to drop the project temporarily. I hit a brick wall and realised I don't have the programming know-how to deal with the ever fiddly tile-engine. Instead, I've been working on my first game, House of Splatter (now retitled with the less daft-sounding 'THE DAMNED').
And man, what was a tiny little shooter has now matured into a top-notch game. Who would have known it had such potential. In its current stage of completion it features new graphics, bolder death scenes, extra blood'n'gore, an intro page, and some perversly evil bosses:
SNAKEMAN
Snakeman is a creature kind of inspired by Jason from Friday 13th. He lives in the lake and protects his vulnerable tongue with a tempered steel mask. *HINT*
Go ahead and check out the first level of THE DAMNED on link section.
Sorry the rest will have to wait as Blogger isn't uploading pictures properly right now.
The bosses have some fairly predictable AI patterns, but won't be beaten by any lazy trigger fingers (saying that though, Snakeman is a bit too much of a wimp at present). You also have to time your reloads very carefully or you will get a game over - as a unique aspect of this game is that you have only one life.
I'm quite chuffed with the mileage I can get out of Poser these days. When I first got my hands on the program about 5 years ago, it was of little real use and just a way to waste an hour making two crappy looking-models kung-fu fight, or do 3d humping for a laugh.
Nowadays, it is much improved.
It's a bug-ridden application that crashes more often that not; a pile of cack compared to Max or any of the other big boys, but it certainly can do the job at times. Now that I've figured how to wrap textures around models correctly with UVMapper, deform them with magnets, and have mastered the Cloth room, Poser truly has become indespensible for making realistic keyframe animations. I recommend it to other newbs who are embarking on their journey into the world of 3d animation.
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