Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Little Things

I've got a new show coming up in July in Okayama. It's at Mai Mai in Okayama, in Toiyacho. The exact date hasn't been set yet, but it is surely in July. It had been planned originally for a date in late May, but things were just too busy around here. 



My main project is my graphic novel, The Zoo, however I spent some time being distracted to work on other small commercial and personal projects. I made a video game, 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator, for my two brothers. I also illustrated a cover for The Objective Standard


After working on 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator, my wife and I went to Tokyo to see the exhibit by Otomo, Genga. It was absolutely amazing. We stayed in Tokyo for 3 days. We had a small vacation on the second day with some friends before going to a show by Amano on the 3rd day. My wife and I usually don't get to take vacations because of our work, so this was a real treat for us. 




I worked on 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator for close to 3 weeks. It's difficult to not show any work, material, process or images when you're working on a gift for someone for 3 weeks. It was a good distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. It makes me think about how I've been working on my graphic novel for almost a year now and I've been keeping all of the material close to the chest, yet now I've got another distraction lined up in July. 




I don't know if this gets easier or people develop into a smarter artist, but I'll certainly say that I'm getting exhausted from staying up all day and night and then into the next day and night. I've been lucky enough to have a few people, that I'd call digital studio mates, that I've gotten to show some material too. Bless you folks and thanks for the support.


For you folks in Okayama, I'll hopefully see you at Mai Mai in July!

Friday, May 11, 2012

2020 Wheelchair Gladiator


I have been a little distracted from my book while making a computer game, 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator. It has many players from my family, including the dogs. Everyone rides a wheelchair and has two weapons, one that hits and one that shoots.

There are about 30 weapons, 10 characters and 12 wheelchairs. It's a two player battler.

Title Screen

Character select screen


In the heat of battle at the purple stage.


It can actually be played online at http://2020wheelchairgladiator.com

The game only works with an actual computer, so no mobile devices, needs a keyboard and will only work on Safari or Google Chrome. Chrome, is the fastest browser out there, especially when using the JavaScript language, which I used to make this game.

It will not work on Firefox or Internet Explorer. If you do play the game however, you can play as a dog riding in a wheelchair with triangular wheels while hitting people with shark-chucks and shooting stars and stripes out of a patriotic dinosaur hand puppet... amongst other things.

The game is controlled using the keyboard



Player 1 Controls
Attack 1/Enter - 1
Attack 2/Back - 2
Up - W
Down - S
Left - A
Right - D


Player 2 Controls
Attack 1/Enter - <
Attack 2/Back - >

Up - Up Arrow Key
Down - Down Arrow Key
Left - Left Arrow Key
Right - Right Arrow Key

Here's a video of some demo game play.