Archive for July, 2010
Transformers 25th Blu-Ray Mockup Completed!
Done! Sorry it took so long - my computer was on the fritz for a week, had to wait for a replacement video card.
I could have gone even more overboard, but decided to stop, as I felt I got the concept across. The disc art was hastily thrown together. Wanted to put Cybertron or Unicron on there, oh well!
I had a lot of fun creating this unique DVD case. Would make for a great collectible! I certainly hope Hasbro does something even half as cool as this next year.
With all the stuff I made for this concept expect to see some more cool DVD ideas. I already have something in mind for Aliens, which is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary next year.
5 comments July 31, 2010
Magnetic Table Hockey A Reality!
Well great minds think alike! Seems my idea for a magnet-based table hockey game is an actual product that’s been around for over 3 years. Jason Rosenfield commented on the post and alerted me that not only have they made it, but patented it too. Check out their official product website here. Here is a video:
It operates much like I thought it would. Meaning it would keep the basic ‘lanes’ of the players, otherwise it would overlap and the rods would collide with one another.
I’m surprised by how much quieter it is than a normal table hockey game. I thought maybe having the players roll around on the surface would be noisy. I do like that satisfying ‘snap’ sound when you shoot/pass the puck.
They went with sculpted hockey figures rather than flat players - I figured the sculpted players would be too heavy to move and turn, but I am happy to be wrong in that regard!
I think it’s awesome how you can operate the goalie with your foot. That really frees up your hands. I think that should be a standard fixture in table hockey.
I’d love to get my hands on one of these, but I don’t have the $ or room! I do work in a video game studio, and I know many other game studios here in Vancouver would love to have one of these, as the ol’ foosball tables are gathering dust. No word on the pricing, but it’s likely not cheap!
It’s great to be wrong/late with this one. It makes me smile to see it in action.
Add comment July 30, 2010
Creativity Wasted
I tuned in to watch Bravo’s The Next Great Artist, hoping to see some creativity and talent on display. What I ended up witnessing was your typical reality show train-wreck, the carnage amplified by a group of shallow, pretentious ‘artists’. The result is a huge step back for artists and art.
In this episode, the ‘contestants/artists’ were charged with creating a piece that revolved around their visit to an Audi dealership, and the subsequent test-drive of an Audi A4. Very subtle product-placement, Bravo. Worse, the artists tried to validate the experience by describing it as ‘overwhelming’, and ‘emotional’, and many other adjectives that would have you think they visited Auschwitz.
And while all the artists were plugging away on their ‘art’, they showed-off their winning personalities: Narcissistic, two-faced, whiny, petulant, jealous, judgmental, self-absorbed, and arrogant. Way to go artists! Be what society has envisioned you to be! And there wasn’t much intelligence behind it. If I wrote down what they said word-for-word, half of the text would be in italics.
The art itself was horrid. I can appreciate that they do it in a given time frame of 8 hours, but it was very high school quality. I believe these people were selected for their looks and behavior, as opposed to their actual talent - which undermines the whole search for the Next Great Artist. They even have an obligatory Barbie doll who made a self-serving piece about all these guys leering at her. The humanity.
There was one standout in my opinion. A young black man who made a winning self-portrait. He was mostly positive, and actually had the ability to recognize he was working on something that could possibly be considered ‘selling-out’. Of course, he didn’t get as much attention as the Barbie who was always wearing a low-cut top, and happened to keep working on art that required her to lean over. She will probably do a painting about the camera men always surrounding her. It’s a cruel world.
The stereotypes were cringe-inducing. The way they dressed and talked was so conformist and cliche. Why oh why do all artists have to look and act like this? They cannot even create a unique identity.
If you are looking for great art or artists, look elsewhere. If you are looking for reality-show fodder that appeals to the lowest-common denominator, then check out The Next Great Artist, on Bravo.
2 comments July 25, 2010
Fireworks For All
I live in Vancouver, and we are currently enjoying our annual ‘Festival of Light’, 4 nights of fireworks every July. These fireworks take place in English Bay, which is a picturesque location. However it is somewhat secluded in my opinion, and the festival could be better enjoyed by many more people.
I’ve often asked this growing up: why don’t they just set the fireworks off the tallest building or landmark in the city? That way, the entire surrounding city could enjoy it, instead of being crammed into one area.
In Vancouver, that would mean setting the fireworks off at the Shang-Ri-La Hotel downtown. In the GVRD, perhaps one of the buildings near Metrotown. Maybe Grousse Mountain on the north shore would benefit everyone?
I believe Paris does this appropriately - igniting fireworks off of the Eiffel Tower so all of Paris can enjoy the show.
Add comment July 25, 2010
Progress on Transformers DVD Case
So some more progress on my DVD Case. I shrunk down the figure to fit the art. I might fix that later. The box art isn’t done yet, but now you can see where I was going with this.
I’ll update this one later this week. I will try to squeeze in Starscream. Megs will move to the right to accommodate this.
Add comment July 21, 2010
Editorial: Why The Microsoft Kinect Will Fail
I recently had the opportunity to play with the Kinect device. It is an impressive piece of technology. What it can do with a single camera as far as motion capture is an achievement. Unfortunately it translates into a very short list of gaming possibilities.
If you think about it, how much can a person do in front of a camera while facing a TV set? Not a whole lot.
Kinect in a nutshell: you have a trapezoid-shaped playing area you are restricted to. There is room for two people to stand side-by-side. You have to stay in the field of view to play games.You can jump, pose, and move around within your playing area, but that is it.
So the game types you are reduced to:
- Exercise games. Your basic stretching or aerobics or Tae-Bo thingy. I’d include very basic fighting games here too.
-Dancing games. Shake your booty.
-Mime games. Simple posing in front of the camera.
-Singing games. The Kinect has a microphone built-in.
-Sword-swinging and fencing games that don’t require a lot of movement.
-Anything on rails. Lets face it, you can’t run into your TV. You also can’t turn - that would nullify your ability to keep an eye on the TV.
-Racing games that rely on tilting your body to steer. I’m not convinced how they can incorporate breaking and accelerating effectively.
You can forget about any shooter games, again not being able to run around or turn in place, not to mention shoot a gun effectively.The Kinect knows when you are pointing your hand at the screen…but firing? Maybe if you made pew pew sounds.
No platform games. It’s hard to move your character in any direction freely. Kinect can detect jumps. Basically any platform game would have to be ‘on rails’. Think of Donkey Kong Country’s ‘mine cart’ gameplay. The cart moves forward automatically - you input the jumping.
Sports games? Maybe golf or bowling, as you are mostly stationary there. Hockey? Football? Basketball? Soccer? Nope. Unless you like playing sports ‘drills’, where you are stationary and tossing the ball around.
Rhythm Music Games are also limited. The Kinect can see you playing Air Guitar, but nothing as detailed as using specific keys, similar to what would be needed to play Guitar Hero. So strumming, foot tapping, and drumming gestures, and that’s about it. The Kinect does have a mic, so expect karaoke games to outnumber ‘instrument’ games.
Skateboard games? The Kinect 2009 E3 demo showed a kid scanning his skateboard prior to playing - not sure if this just created an in-game prop, or if the kid actually used the his board to play too. The game can see you in different stances and grabs, maybe an Ollie jump as well. I wouldn’t recommend playing like this! You could probably tilt your body to turn, but expect exploring an open-world skate park to be problematic, again with the not turning or moving freely.
For that matter, forget open-world games like Grand Theft Auto.
RPGs are a big no. Not only is running and turning ruled out (see a theme?), but frequent menu navigation will be a headache. You have to point a cursor (with your hand) around like the Wii, but you need to hold your cursor over a button for a few moments to trigger a button-press. It’s a huge flaw in my opinion. You’ll soon find getting through the menu of a Kinect game to be a time-consuming ordeal.
Puzzle games might work if the game was slow in pace, and not too prone to misreading gestures.
So there you have it. The Kinect will fail because of it’s limitations. It’s not nearly as limited as the Wii Balance Board, but it will become evident that Kinect will be home to many exercise games, or games that are very shallow in gameplay depth. I predict some games will eventually start using a controller to help out as well.
Don’t get me wrong, the Kinect is a very decent first step technologically-speaking, but as a gameplay tool, very limited. I originally envisioned many possibilities for this platform, but now all I can see is the ceiling.
15 comments July 20, 2010
Transformers 3 Plot Ideas
Not a post really. Just wanted to show-off my awesome Megatron here. What a bad-ass.
I do have some opinions about the upcoming Transformers 3 movie. Apparently, Shockwave is the villain and defacto ruler of Cybertron now. Not sure if he is in cahoots with Megatron. Some plot ideas:
- They should make Shockwave responsible for the icy crash-landing Megatron endured in Transformers 1. He has the motive and the uh, shockwave capability.
- You really can’t kill Optimus again, that was done in the second film. If you kill and resurrect characters in each film, it gets ridiculous - see Neo and Trinity. Though Megatron is probably due for another death. I’m guessing Bumblebee dies in this one too.
- Remember that lame G.I. Joe film from last year? Reboot that series using Sgt. Epps and company from Transformers to do it. it would help justify the constant military presence.
- I would have used Unicron as the big bad. Maybe he can be hinted at in the end of the film? Sort of like Pirates of the Caribbean 3 hinting at another trilogy (which they are doing now, ugh).
-No more MacGuffins please! Isn’t a war between two factions of robots enough to go on?
-No real suspense has been had using these robots ability to transform. I would have had a scene where a character stumbles upon a parking lot full of cars, and any one of them could be a robot in disguise. Have some fun with the paranoia. Keep the characters and audience guessing.
-I would have placed Sam’s family in the Witness Protection Program. He could then adopt a new name: Spike.
-On the other hand, I would not have used the same humans in all three films. Feels rather contrived to keep reuniting everyone.
-Since the robots were ‘outed’ in the second film, they should have some kind of celebrity status that mimics their actual pop-culture fandom.
-The Autobot base could be called an Arc! Autobot Rendezvous Center. Autobot Rally Command. Something interesting.
4 comments July 20, 2010
Transformers: The Movie 25th Anniversary DVD Case
UPDATE: This is actually completed. To see the finished design, click here.
Note: the above prototype is not completed. I have to texture the case and insert.
So next year marks the 25th Anniversary of Transformers: The Movie (1986). Back in 2006, the movie was released in a 20th Anniversary package. This was a huge success, due in part to the first live-action Transformers film that was released the following summer.
Make no mistake, there will be another major DVD release in 2011, this time in a Blu-Ray format as well - something only enjoyed outside of North America so far.
Now, I can go into a long diatribe about the evils of DVD double-dipping. I remember buying the Jaws: 20th anniversary edition, only to see a 25th and 30th anniversary editions hit shelves, each with more and more extras and goodies. Long story short, if you want me to buy the same movie again, you better make it worth my while.
So I have designed a cool case that would entice me. It is a Soundwave case that actually comes with a Laserbeak figure. The jewel case has an opening in the front that works like an old-school tape deck.
Sorry it’s not done yet! But I will update this idea later this week. The front of the case will feature Soundwave in cassette mode, doing a video playback of Optimus Prime on a monitor, like in the movie. A transparent Megatron will be shown on the outer sleeve (like he is being reflected). The case is clear, so an insert featuring Optimus will be used as the view screen image. This insert can be swapped out with other images.
And of course the Laserbeak figure. The one here looks like his movie counterpart, with a new head sculpt and pivoting neck. There will also be a camera attachment, like the movie as well.
I had a whole bunch of ideas regarding DVDs, but figured it was a dying medium. I’ve reconsidered my stance so you’ll see more DVD gadgets here in the near future.
1 comment July 19, 2010
An Alternative To All-Star Games: Mid-Season Wild Card Games
The MLB All-Star game awards the winning league home playoff advantage for the World Series. Other than that wrinkle, All-Star Games are quite meaningless. What I propose is a new system that scraps these All-Star Games in favor of mid-season wild card games. And perhaps some wild card games to cap the season too.
Usually, a full 80+ game season (using the NHL and NBA as an example) will help determine the playoff seeding order. The team with the most points in a conference is awarded the 1st seed, and will play against the 8th seed, 2nd against 7th, and so on.
What I propose is 2 mid-season wild card games which are determined by the points standings prior to those games. I will use the NHL as an example:
There are 82 NHL games during the regular season. The matchups for games 41 and 82 are determined by team rankings after completing games 40 and 81. The matchups will look like this:
1st from the West will play 1st from the East. A Stanley Cup preview?
2nd from the West will play 2nd from the East.
3rd from the West will play 3rd from the East.
4th place teams will play 5th place teams from the same Conference.
6th place teams will play 7th place teams from the same Conference.
8th place teams will play 9th place teams from the same Conference. This could be a pivotal game 82 to see who gets in.
10th place teams from the East and West would meet, and so on for the 11th to 15th place teams.
With these mid-season playoff games, the games would require a few extra days off to allow teams to rest and make proper travel arrangements. Teams would have to alternate between hosting and visiting to ensure owners are compensated. If a team has to be a visitor twice in the same season, that will carry-over to next season.
Not only would this add some excitement, but would add much more anticipation. Who would be the opponent for game 41? Will my team be playing a tie-breaker in game 82?
There would be some scheduling problems - all teams would have to book their venues for a 2-day period in case a home game might occur.
Add comment July 18, 2010
Smart Phone Backup Battery System
Everyone has been there - the battery on your phone dies and your call is dropped. Or you have to go scrambling to recharge your dead phone. In either case, the consequences of a suddenly dead phone can range from irritating to life-altering to catastrophic (depending on how melodramatic you are).
What I don’t understand, is the linear thinking most phone manufacturers take with their products, such as: one phone equals one battery. I think that is limited thinking.
If I was making a phone, I’d design it with human beings in mind. Ones that, despite their best intentions or most routine phone charging ability, will eventually be confronted with a dead battery.
So I propose the inclusion of a second smaller battery that would be available for just such a contingency.This battery would offer up a short-term solution, one that features limited phone functionality to ensure communication necessities are available for the User.
This safety-net would be a no-frills feature, meaning the operating system would be disabled, and all the applications that come with it. This helps preserve power consumption, and reiterates to the User: this is your communications lifeline right now, not the means to play Tetris or Farmville.
While the phone is on the backup battery, it is basically reduced to a cell phone. Call and texting functionality only. Plus the displayed graphics and text would be very low-key.
I think this is a feature everyone would appreciate as a backup, especially when it comes time to use it. I do think there is plenty of incentive to stay on top of keeping the primary battery charged, to ensure full phone functionality.
What do you think?
3 comments July 17, 2010
