The explosions start raining down around 3:30.

Just found this cool collection of electro songs. A “christmas present” from graphic designer AKUTOU‘s “HEY KIDS!” blog. One of the tracks is from band “Lo-Fi-Fnk” which is a pretty good description of the genre – 80s, funk, electro, disco… I can’t describe it.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy and you’re ready to do some butt-shakin’ to some funky rhythms the download link is on this page.

While you are there, check out AKUTOU’s designs. Great vector art.

As I mentioned earlier this week I gave a presentation at Pecha Kucha 62 in Tokyo last night. I built 10 brand new tiny games in less than 10 hours for the event. I know at least one person was recording a video so there may be video footage soon. If not I will do a screencast of the presentation for the web.

Although the games were mostly (completely) silly they seemed to go over well with the crowd and I got some laughs. A full set of photos is available on Flickr.

Right now I don’t have the time to post all the details of all the games but will do so in the near future. For now here is the game list, in the order they were presented:

1. “Can You Say Pecha Kucha?” – iPhone – Rhythm game
2. “Shinjuku Shame” – Web (Unity) – Homeless staring FPS
3. “Game Developer Life” – Web (Flash) – Game industry wage slave simulation
4. “Scream Test” – iPhone – Screaming competition
5. “Voice Invaders” – iPhone – Voice controlled vertical shooter
6. “Surfing on Sine Waves” – Web (Flash) – Procedurally generated surfing game
7. “Architris” – Web (Unity) – Blueprint Tetris
8. “Para Para Punch” – iPhone – Hooligan punching game
9. “Blind Masseuse” – Mac – Sound based massaging simulation
10. “Basket Bomb” – Web (Unity) – Basketball terrorist physics game

I leave you for now with this photo of the crowd as I was speaking. You can see some laughs as well as some contorted faces filled with horror. :-)

package
{
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.geom.Matrix;

	public class SinDraw extends Sprite
	{
		private var sinWaveData:Array;

	    [SWF(width=500,height=300)]
		public function SinDraw()
		{
			sinWaveData = new Array(200);
			onClick(null);

			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);
		}

		private function generateWave():void
		{
			var amplitude:Number = 100 * Math.random();
			var frequency:Number = 0.0174532925 * 2; // 2 degrees in radians
			var phase:Number = 100 * Math.random();

			// intentionally goofy
			var r:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 16;
			var g:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 8;
			var b:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 24;
			var color:uint = 0xff00000000 + r + g + b;

			for (var i:int = 0; i < 200; i++)
			{
				sinWaveData[i] = amplitude * Math.sin((i * frequency) + phase);
			}

			for (i = 0; i < 200; i++)
			{
				var index:Number = i * (500 / 200);

				graphics.beginFill(color, 1);
				graphics.drawCircle(index, sinWaveData[i] + 170, Math.random() * 5);
				graphics.endFill();
			}
		}

		private function onClick(e:MouseEvent):void
		{
			graphics.clear();

			var matrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
			matrix.createGradientBox(500, 300, 90);
			trace(this.width);

			// intentionally goofy
			var r:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 16;
			var g:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 8;
			var b:uint = (255 * Math.random()) << 24;
			var color:uint = 0xff00000000 + r + g + b;

			graphics.beginGradientFill("linear", [color, (color - 0xff222222)], [1, 1], [0, 0xff], matrix);
			graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 500, 300);
			graphics.endFill();

			generateWave();
			generateWave();
			generateWave();
			generateWave();
			generateWave();
		}
	}
}

The bird above is fully animated and moves about the scene. As the project’s animator (gasp!) I have been forced to learn a lot about animation to take the illustrations of Hamada-san and make something that looks halfway decent.

I got some great advice from my talented animator friend Leo Martinez on a squirrel animation I was working on. You can see a test below. The sequence is animated from only two illustrations (a stand and a jump pose). I had no idea it was possible to create so much motion with Flash’s free transform tool. I don’t think I have a knack for animation but I am having a lot of fun working with it.

“Linger in Shadows” – the recent PlayStation Network release – is yet another part of the long history of the crossover of the demoscene and the game industry. For a nominal fee the user is greeted with what is largely a traditional demo. It has all the classic elements: lots of procedural content, mix of 2D paintings and 3D imagery, “greets” to other scene groups, and a soundtrack that matches the visuals. It is looks impressive, doing well to showcase the talents of the programmers and artists of the development team at Plastic.

The two significant and unusual things about Linger in Shadows are first, that the group was funded and published by Sony, and that second there are a number of interactive elements in the demo.

Why would Sony fund a small group of developers to create a non-game for their platform? Was it an extension of Ken Kutaragi’s original vision that the PS3 was to be more than a games console? Personally, I’m impressed that they would invest in such a project. I would be surprised if Linger in Shadows is profitable. I believe it could be used as a marketing tool in technology circles to show Sony’s interest in art projects or to promote the abilities of its platform. This is the kind of project that could attract the attention of artists outside of the mainstream game industry. With the current economy though and Sony’s recent sales struggles I doubt another similar project will get greenlit. I hope to be proven wrong.

The other attention grabbing part of the demo is that unlike a traditional PC based demo there are a number of interactive components. At various times while watching the demo, the user can spin the controller to move objects or light sources in the scene, for example. Other times they can scrub the movie’s time line forward and backward. Using the camera to look around can find hidden objects and greets that unlock PSN Trophies. It is certainly no game but the addition of these elements gives the demo an extra layer to peel back.

Linger in Shadows may go unappreciated by the gaming populace and in some ways it isn’t surprising. As a game developer a lot of the appeal of the demoscene is not just in watching something beautiful and admiring the creativity of the human race but in inspiration in both technology and artistry. Users without that specific interest may not find Linger in Shadows or any other demo particularly interesting and so be it. That said, games like Max Payne are widely appreciated by gamers. That game’s developer, Remedy Entertainment, was born out of the demoscene group Future Crew. I’m certain there are countless other members of the game industry who either came from the demoscene or were inspired by it.

Finally, I’m happy to report that Plastic has generously released some of the tools used to create the demo. The content looks like it was developed largely inside of Maya with a custom plug-in that acts as a WYSIWYG real-time renderer. It reminds me of working with the Unreal Engine or Crytek. The ability to edit something and then be immediately able to preview it as it would look in game is very powerful. Below is a video of their tools, more information can be found on Plastic’s main site.

That’s not to say there wasn’t extensive cleanup on the hair, face, and other areas of the image. Separating the girl from the background was time consuming, including making the holes in the hair on the top of her head still show the background through them. Some parts of the image weren’t in the photo and were made from parts and Photoshop tools. I’m still no photo editing expert but I think it turned out OK. Wish us luck!

So I went to the photoshoot about two weeks ago. The model was Romanian, her name was Alina, and yes she was attractive. Ogura-san was there making sure the hair was right and directing the styling. There was also a photographer, a make-up artist, and a professional lighting rig. It was really cool to get to see this kind of setup.

I just recently had the photos delivered and have spent some time editing some of my favorites. Ogura-san and I are still hammering out what the final image will be, and the below two photos I edited are not going to be used, but I thought they ended up looking pretty nice and I wanted to share them. Which do you like? Blue or red?

99% of the credit goes for these images goes to the team who originally created and captured them. My edits primarily involved removing a lot of stray hairs covering Alina’s face, removing minor skin blemishes (if you can even call them that on this girl, her skin was basically perfect), and adjusting the levels and color tone of the images. I also did some shadow tweaking and a minor bit of reshaping.

It was fun spending a bit of time learning about the process. As with all skills, it takes a lot to become an expert and I am far from that. It is scary how much can be edited even at a beginner level. I’m sure everyone knows this already but you definitely can’t trust any image you see in a magazine.

Photo editing skills will definitely come in handy in the future. If for nothing else but to humiliate coworkers by putting their head on this guy (NOT SAFE FOR WORK, unless you are a former coworker of mine then you’ve probably seen this image before).

The girl staring at you above is our main character. Her name is Violet.

I don’t want to reveal too much more at this point. Although we have plans drafted up for the theme and general layout of the story we’re taking a very creative and experimental approach to the development of the project. This is a labor of love – there is no money involved – which of course grants us that freedom.

This isn’t a videogame so I’m also taking this opportunity to use a different approach to fleshing out Violet’s story and world. My background in game development gives me the knowledge of how to produce a schedule of building out assets an code to finish the project on a specific time frame but I’m avoiding that in this early stage in the name of unlimited creative freedom.

Hamada-san and I just had a brainstorming meeting inside an Internet cafe in Shinjuku where we settled on a number of issues for the opening of the scenario.

I look forward to when we can share some more!