Multiverse Works presents: Creativenessness

King "Simulator"

2008-05-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. It kind of reminded me of Dark Chronicle, in that you have to create your own town or city. I always thought that these games were rather limited, so I have this cool concept for on the PC.

First of all I need to say were I ever to make this, I would make it moddable, in a way that people could add new content either commercially or freely. The game itself would be completely free, of course, but because of this I wouldn't make it an open source game.

Okay, now for the concept. You are an adventurer of an unknown world. You start out with four different world sets, with four different clothing sets. You can freely design your own character, even after you've started up the game itself. This way if you would love to change skin or hair colors, it would easily be possible. New costume packs can be downloaded, either freely or payed. So, the story goes like this.

A not so long time ago, there was a world, full of life, until one day an evil force came and destroyed the world. Nothing was left, except for the spirits of the world that once was. You are one of those spirits, and you are granted the ability to bring back the world once more.

You start in a void, where you will need to create your base character. You can name him / her to your liking. Next, you will have to choose between four town sets. This will affect the basic layout of your first town, and where you can build your buildings. To keep it simple, the roads are already built. You can only place new buildings on certain lots. You are free to choose where on the lot you'll place the buildings though.

To build new buildings, and later decoration, you will need building material. Smaller roads can be built and removed freely though. To get new materials, you'll need to fight in dungeons. You can either do this alone or in a party. Dungeons are randomly created the moment they're built, and the closer they are to a town, the more levels the dungeons have. This does mean that each time you visit that dungeon, you will always get the same layout. That's why there are also some special dungeons, who either only have changing dungeons on certain levels, or are completely random.

Placing dungeons further away from a town raises the difficulty level of the dungeon. You can place new towns on the map, but they will only affect new dungeons. The difficulty is also determined by the proximity of other dungeons. Placing a new dungeon near higher level dungeons will raise the difficulty level drastically. However, a town will lower this value too. This does mean however that the amount of levels this dungeon will have will be high also.

A good thing is that you can't die, but you will loose some precious time in town trying to recover, in which time you could actually have done certain other things.

But anyway, about towns. Towns need people. These people are the spirits who lived on this world. By rebuilding the world, you are able to bring back new people. These people will see you as their leader, and will give you money periodically. With this money you can do new things, like buying better items and hiring adventurers who can fight alongside you. When you are fainted however, you won't get income for the time you fainted.

Maybe I'll update further on this subject, so stay tuned.

Global look on what's needed

2008-05-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

An important stage in starting a project is the planning stage. You'll need to plan out what exactly you need to have before you even start. Also, in the planning stage, you already put in big lines the functionality of your program, for example, what should interact with what.

Creating a new Adventure Engine isn't that simple, so going trough these steps helps a lot. Knowing what's needed may prepare me of how much I need to add. This list doesn't need to be complete, its function is only to sort everything out before you start coding.

The main things I need are costumes (to define character graphics), rooms (places where characters can walk trough), actors (mostly characters, the objects in the game the player can interact with) and a vocabulary (to interpret the actions). These things are the basics. Without either of them, you wouldn't be able to play the game.

We start out with costumes. Costumes consist of graphics or images, which may or may not have palettes. In the case of the version one interpreter, all images use palettes.

Rooms too require graphics and palettes, but there are also other things required. For example, the game needs walking areas. There are two ways to choose from, pixel-based, which means that the walking area is defined by a certain color, and vector-based, which is defined by area boundaries, lines which form areas. To keep it simple, I decided that the version one interpreter would only use pixel-based areas.

Another thing I decided was that for now the room would handle objects. It is true that actor-based objects are more dynamic, but I do think using actors for most objects would probably be a waste of memory, seeing as almost all objects are only bound at one place. However, this does not mean I would never include such features.

Next up are actors. The most used type of actors, and probably the only type, would be the character. Characters link to costumes. They also are the most dynamic objects for the games. When using certain characters for more than one room, you should always use one character, even though the character in the other room has other functions or even a different costume set.

Last, the vocabulary. Vocabularies in adventure games consist of just two things, the verb and the noun. The noun is always the object or character currently in the room or in your inventory, or even a hotspot in that area. The vocabulary always has to be flexible.

For this flexibility I have decided to make use of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_list]linked lists[/url]. This allows me to dynamically insert or remove new items. I do not plan on using the built-in classes, I'm making my own, since that allows me to add new functions which helps me optimize the code and running speed.

I think I've pretty much covered everything needed for this game. The start is there, now I only need to map everything, and then the real fun can begin.

Multiverse Works Adventure Engine

2008-04-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm working on an engine to create both point & click adventures as well as parser-driven adventures, kind of like the SCI (Sierra's Creative Interpreter). It should even be possible to combine both, allowing for more flexible games.

But why should I ever do that? There are already a lot of adventure game engines, why create a new one? Well, the answer is really simple.

Creating my own engine allows me to add stuff that other engines can't. But, more importantly, this also allows others to add the things they want. With this engine, I'm planning on releasing its source code itself as well, allowing people to improve on it, or port the interpreter to other systems.

I'm planning on doing this in several stages, each with its own interpreter. This means that there will be multiple versions existing next to each other. If there's a new functionality, it will be applied to that version. If there's a change in mechanics, there will be a new version made.

I already have an idea of how to do this, I made a start for the data structures, so you might see something soon.

Yummycakez 2008 Remix

2008-03-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally had the greatest idea after playing Audiosurf. Why don't I take some old songs I did and mix them up to come up with a great song to play in Audiosurf, specially forged for Pixeltendo? So I did, and this is what came out:

Get this widget

Track details

eSnips Social DNA

Well, what do you think? I'm currently uploading some videos I made with Audiosurf. The song is quite challenging on pro, but doable I think.

For those unfamiliar with Audiosurf, Audiosurf is a game in which you control a spaceship like car. The goal is to hit blocks, although which blocks and how depend on the character, or game mode, you chose. The speed, length, block placement and overall track shape is defined by the song playing.

EDIT:

EDIT2:

Jump vs Capcom

2007-12-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

In 1998 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a game based on the same manga, hit the arcades in Japan and America. It was actually one of the few comic-to-fighter releases by Capcom, the other being the Marvel series. But what if Capcom would release a Jump vs Capcom game?

They already have the base: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. So wouldn't it be fun to see Luffy or Goku duke it out with Megaman or Ryu? Or have L as a striker? Sure it won't happen at Capcom's side, but who needs Capcom anyway?

You see, real fighting games, real arcade fighting games are always static, non-changing. But for a few years a new sort of community has arisen, that of MUGEN. I myself am sort of part of it, as you could see from a previous blog entry. So, what about an idea that could actually work? It could take ages, I know, but it could happen if somebody is crazy enough to pick up the idea. Hell, I might even work on it.

Wait a minute, why am I blogging while I could be making characters for this game at the moment?

Peach & Daisy: Double Dashing

2007-12-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

So, imagine this. A perfect game movie, which is mostly fan service, but can still appeal to an audience the movie is targeted at. Sounds impossible? Not really, it's only hard to do. But I have the perfect idea for a game movie, which would at least cater to the fans of the games, and maybe even the company.

We all know that the Mario series often use refferences outside the Marioverse, like adding a Samus or a Link cameo. Nintendo often does that in many Nintendo games by the way, and maybe that's how the Super Smash Bros. series came to life. But there is one series in particular, within the Marioverse, which uses every in-joke possible, or at least tries: the Mario RPGs. While I haven't played them at all, I do know they contain these in-jokes and outside refferences in general. In particular the Mario & Luigi series.

So, what would be the best idea for a game movie? We all know the previous Mario movie project failed horribly. So, why try it again? Well, first off, we always want to see the back story of the characters, while the Mario series don't need an introduction. Second, people grow sick of Mario. They want another hero to rise. So, when you combine these two demands, what do you get?

Enter the following teaser.

"They are ordinary princesses, often in need of saving."

"This time they're double dashing."

The movie starts out with Peach, who is about to get kidnapped by Bowser, when Daisy rushes in, saying there will be a new Double Dash! tournament. While Peach gets left behind by Bowser at Peach's castle (racing is way more important than kidnapping princesses), Peach and Daisy both get ready for their preparations of the racing tournament. Since this year there are a lot more applications, they need to make sure they get trough the preliminaries. But while every hero and villain is prepairing for the Double Dash! tournament, a new force is rising to disrupt the tournament. Or is it a new force?

The movie will mainly focus on Peach and Daisy. During the movie they get sidetracked by this force. On one occasion the princesses need to go to the Star Haven, where the Star Rod got missing. They search for a while, but when finally finding it and arriving at the spot, they find the Star Rod at the proper place. So when the princesses wonder what the rod they found is, a pink blog tugs on Daisy's dress and takes back the star rod. Only Nintendoids get this joke.

And there will be many other refferences and jokes. Hopefully Nintendo listens to this idea, because I really want it to happen. Nintendo, do your Google stuff!

Finally some MUGEN exposure!

2007-12-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

It seems that a certain MUGEN stage is finally used in several MUGEN videos! Check them out:

Given, it's not much, but it's still freaking awesome!

Anyway, for the people who do read the blogs, I have a little secret about what my next stage is.

I have been working for a while on making the Airship stage I was working on really awesome, adding floating ships in the background and having clouds. I also wanted to add some moles to it, but I figured I am as lazy as Flash animators can get. Maybe they will get added, maybe they won't, but it's all up to me actually.

But anyways, let's not get too carried away, the real point is this. Secretly I'm working on a special stage, which will be my biggest project ever. I can't say much, and I can't promise you that it will ever get released, but if it does, then you will be as happy as I am with the stage. The main difficulty though is the background, which will have various animated sequences.

But anyway, we'll see about that. Maybe you will find what I meant.

NO!

2007-11-28T14:20:00.001-08:00

Hi. My name is Gary Kertopermono, as far as I know, I've been hetrosexual for all my life. I did open the posibility of me being homosexual, but so far everything points out to be that I'm not. I fell for a lot of girls, even if they weren't as attractive. It simply is not very likely I am a homosexual.

However, I'm not a homophobe. It really pisses me off that there are still homophobes here in the world, and even on the internet. While the internet isn't always a safe place, heck, it's the most unsafe place in the world, I still feel homosexuals deserve some respect. Even during online plays. They should be able to be proud of being homosexual, of being gay.

I am a supporter of these guys, as long as they act normal. But we, as hetros, should also act normal against these people. They're not different. They share the same DNA. They don't have a special "gay-gene". They don't have a germ that can make you gay.

Don't be such a faggot. Say no to homophobia.

Cartoon Cartoon Clash!

2007-10-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

What if there was a game in which all of your favourite cartoon heroes duked it out? At least characters from Hannah Barbera and Cartoon Network. And what fighting game system would work better for this than the Super Smash Bros. style?

Of course, the game would play very different. For starters, the controls. We have three buttons to attack, like in Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars. However, they function differently. They are all three combinable, making it a little more complex than other platform fighters. Two are regular attacks, while one is a special attack. It doesn't use any special bar though, which makes it resemble Super Smash Bros. more. A difference however is that it not only has a different effect when tilting the stick, but the effects also get determined by the attack currently running. Of course, not every attack triggers a special special move, some just won't work. Oh, and you can also special from a grab.

Now for the characters. Characters are devided into four categories: Hannah-Barbera, Cartoon Cartoons, Next Generation and Adult Swim. For Hannah-Barbera, there are characters like Yogi Bear, Tom and Jerry, and of course Secret Squirrel (god I love that squirrel). Then you have the Cartoon Cartoons, like Dexter, the Powerpuff Girls and Courage. Next Generation contains cartoons like... eh... well, Samurai Jack, for example. For Adult Swim I only have Robo Chicken. Don't ask me how he should be played.

For the rest, I don't have any original ideas, other than the fact that it should definitely be made, and it should definitely be at least on the Nintendo Wii. I truly hope Cartoon Network will contact me for it. So that I can earn lots of money.

Gary's Life - Part 1: History

2007-09-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

Dear bloggers,

I'm sick and tired of the internet. It seems people there mistunderstand me even more. They don't know who I am, what I've become, but mostly, what I mean with certain things. Somehow people always act offensive around me. It makes me offensive.
Tonight, I'm clarifying it all. I'm going to write down my entire history. From front to back.

As a kid
When I was younger, I used to cry a lot, even when I was already four years old. There was almost not a day I didn't cry. When I was a baby my parents first thought I had a blockage near my eyes, but that wasn't the case. I always cried. And it wasn't just things like falling, it was everything. Maybe I am a little bit autistic. Maybe that's why I can understand people like me more.
Eventually I had to go to the psychiatrist, at the RIAGG. I was placed in the pediatric department, because they could help me more, naturally. I believe I never took it all that serious. Eventually I found out that mostly my youth played a big part in my dysfunctions in life, but that was only after a decade or so.
I went to school in a place where mostly kids of foreign origins. My parents were both born in Suriname and were Javanese (people who live in Java in Indonesia or who have their roots in Java), and in that time there weren't many people of that origin. So, naturally I was kind of special. I felt special anyway. But anyway, I was often afraid of certain kids.

My parents noticed that I was different than others. They actually had to adjust their lifestyle to me, despite having another child, my younger brother Anthony. We were and still are best friends. He relied on me, and I relied on him. We were each others support. Of course, we had friends, but there wasn't any friendship bigger than ours. Heck, even now we're the closest friends.
For me it wasn't really that hard to start a new friendship. I talked with people whenever I wanted, where ever I wanted. People liked me for who I was. They knew I was a little bit weird, but hey, aren't we all?

High school

After elementary school I went to something similar to your high school, we call it "middelbare onderwijs". I followed VWO on the "Zaanlands Lyceum". It wasn't a good period. It was then when I started to be shy. It was mostly the circumstances though. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I rarely grew up. I lost faith in friendships, I began to distrust people, I became a social wreck. I was about to quit therapy, when the thought hit me that I actually needed therapy, would I want to go on. But it was already too late. I left people who wanted to be my friend, and I said the wrong things.

Eventually I didn't pass fifth grade. I was forced to go to another school. That's when I started HAVO at the "Regio College". I finished it after a year, and the year following I finished VWO. But I already wasn't the Gary anymore I used to be. I knew it would return someday, perhaps not completely, but at least part would return.

Now

Currently I'm studying Medical Informatics at the "Universiteit van Amsterdam", and I still need to get things at order. It will be a hard task for me, but I eventually decided I should just go on without therapy. I shouldn't rely on it. I already lost a big part of my life. I never really grew up like normal kids did. In a way I'm more mature, but in many points I lack.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say about my past for now.

Powerweb Perils #1: Fandomness part 1

2007-07-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a regular visitor of the Dutch Powerweb, a site for the Dutch gaming magazine Power Unlimited. However, they often just piss me off, because it seems they don't really care about journalism or Powerweb visitors. In this issue I'm discussing how they handle the fandomness of gamers, specifically their tendencies to take the story "too" serious.

Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Command and Conquer. All these games have one thing in common. They all rely on the storyline. Of course, gameplay is important, but what's as important for these games is the story. And if there's even one flaw in the story, it could break the story.

So, why this introduction? For a long time Command and Conquer fans have complained about a few small inconsistencies in the story of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Why should they care, I hear you say. They're just small parts of the story, these games aren't meant to be taken serious.

However, when saying this we forget the one basic concept of all methods of storytelling. Story does matter. A good story can suck us inside any form of art, even a painting. A good story keeps us interested, keeps us thinking about it. It doesn't even have to be a written story, as long as that form of media has characteristics, the image tells the story.

And that's the point the people of the Powerweb forget. For real fans, story does matter, no matter how trivial it sounds, how dumb it might be, how pointless it is, story does matter. Even for a game like Command and Conquer. In fact, for a Real Time Strategy set in modern times it has a true epic story. There are a few RTS games which have a story as epic as this one. Linking each game to each other is something that brings them closer to the games. It's what makes the game interesting and appealing, it's what makes them loose themselves.

Yes, so what if the date didn't match with what's previously stated. It is still inconsistent. The fact that the Tacitus was found in 2030 and not in 2028 is important to the story, in any way. Every important event has its influences. For people who don't know it, the Tacitus was the alien artifact found, which served as a base for the most recent technological advances, as well as the discovery of a potential alien invasion, which later appeared to be true, in the form of the Scrin.

One year earlier would mean a one year head start for both sides. It would mean one year of technological advances and one year of damming in the tiberium infestation. Two years make even more of a difference.

The question is, if one source, Tiberian Sun: Firestorm, states one thing, and the other source, Tiberium Wars, states something else, would that make the story less believable? The answer is: yes, it most certainly will. If Frank Herbert didn't care for the consistencies of his Dune books, it wouldn't have been nearly as popular as it is now. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings wouldn't even have the movie to begin with. So why shouldn't we care for the storylines of video games? Why should we shove it off as nerdiness?

RESTART: Project Captain N

2007-07-27T06:37:00.001-07:00

Project Captain N is going trough a great overhaul. Basically I'll make it more accessible than before. But I still need your help.

I need help in the following departments:

Story and scriptwriting
Voice-acting
Spriting and background making
Designing and artwork
Flash-animating

Despite this list being big enough, I might have forgotten a thing or two.

Project Captain N: The Future Quests needs your help!

You can apply on the Captain N forums (if you are a member), Pixeltendo (again, if you are a member) or at the following board:

http://projectcaptainn.proboards85.com/index.cgi

Beyond Good and Evil: the Animated Series

2007-07-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love Michael Ancel, oh how I love the French, but especially, how I love Beyond Good and Evil. It wasn't a bad game, really, in fact it was a good game. Too bad this game is underrated. This game had so much potential. But I do believe this game needs a second chance. Perhaps even as an animated series.
Think about it. Animated series always attract a wide audience. The story lends itself for it. And I know just the right company for it: Marathon Productions.

It doesn't have to start right away with where the game ends. In fact, I think it has to start way before the original game began. Why did Jade decide to be a reporter, or at least photographer? What made her quit or what happened to her previous job? And what's with the orphans? Most of us who played the game know her background, who or what she really is. But it's still a great mystery for people who hadn't played the original game.
After this short introduction, the actual events of the game begins. Jade is just meditating with one of the orphans, when the lighthouse gets attacked by the DomZ. This triggers the event where Jade has to photograph every type of animal on the planet to earn some cash. But then a mysterious person contacts Jade for something...

The thing which could make this series even more interesting is if the series will be localized to the fullest, meaning, every frame with text will be translated to the language of the county it's being aired, just like in the game.

But what's interesting about BG&E is that it's made by a Frenchman, and Marathon Productions is also French. If Marathon does this, they would make themselves legendary. It would be a real hit for them.

I really hope it will one day happen. Most won't share my opinion, but the game was too good to be shoved aside. Let's hope for the best.

My own dream girl

2007-05-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever dreamed of meeting the person of his / her dreams? There are quite a lot of people dreaming about that single person. It's often a perfect girl, one with no flaws. Or, it's someone who fits or completes that person. But such girl does not exist.

But that's alright for me. I can't settle with the perfect girl. I want a girl who isn't perfect, who does have her flaws and such. My girl is normal. As far as you can call it normal.

Now I don't know what her personality exactly is, what she does and what her future holds, but I do know what she looks like, and maybe I might be right when I guess what her personality would be. My girl would be long-haired, most likely loose. She has dark hair, which suits her very much. She has a pretty face, kind of cute actually. Of course, she isn't the most beautiful woman in the world, but I have a tendancy of not falling for beautiful girls.

No, I fall for people who are a diferent than me, but more often for girls who are nice. And that's what she is, nice. She might be playful, which is fine with me. She's someone who drags me to places I would normally never get.

But she's not some dumb girl. She's quite intelligent. She does spend at least some of her time behind books, or behind her PC. It's probably why you won't often see her brown eyes, because of her glasses. I somehow have a fascination with girls and glasses. It makes them look sexy. But that's just me.

Anyway, that's all I can think off, asides from some other small details, like the fact that she's not taller than me. Not too short, but at least not taller. But most importantly, she loves me. And that's all that counts, isn't it?

TTATSD - Reloaded

2007-05-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

TTATSD - Reloaded

A Flash project.

A continuation of the original.

It will feature the original shorts.

Still don't know what I'm talking about?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/137755

It's a very old animation, but this time, we can make it as big as we want.

Actually, just under the 10 MB on Newgrounds. And for SFDT, it's 8 MB, and that's what I'm aiming at.

Anyway, I'm planning on making a Reloaded version. It has all the original animations, but it will have more.

MOAR.

And, as it was planned, it will be a colab project. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get many participants, but this time I hope to get moar.

A short introduction, in 200x Dann Demazure made A True Stick Death. I then wanted to recreate some of his animations, and add some more, as a tribute. I then made short tributes to other animators, like Felix and KoRRupt.

The original ATSD wasn't much animating. It was actually a perfect example of how stick figure animations were, and how it's supposed to be. Entertaining. Sure, Dann wasn't the best animator, but at least he brought us fun.

And that's the feeling I wanted to bring back. Of course, there will be quality control, as I really do want a true tribute, but the bar isn't set high. In fact, I'm not aiming at the best stick figure animation at the moment, I'm aiming at a community project. Something we all have a part in. As a whole.

So, in this colab, you won't be competing against each other on who has the best animation. If there even is a competition, it's a competition on who can bring the biggest giggles or ROFLs. And since these things are not measurable in an objective way, there is no competition. It's all about fun, fun animating it, but also fun watching others animations.

So, to get things started, I've uploaded a template for everybody to download.

TTATSDRTemplate.zip

Have fun, and enjoy animating.

Let's make the best thing that has happened on the stick figure animating community so far.

LET LOVE RULE!

Spread the word.

The Adventures of Greg Kurtis: Interdimensional Traveler

2007-04-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Greg Kurtis, as he would appear in Project Captain N: The Future Quest.

For a long time I have created an alternative version of me, Greg Kurtis. Only since a few months I have actually thought of an actual television series for this character, the Adventures of Greg Kurtis: Interdimensional Traveler.

The style of this television series is like the recent Marathon Production animations like Totally Spies, Martin Mystery and Team Galaxy. It actually is a mix between a children's show and a teen's show. It references a lot to the internet and its slang. Basically Greg Kurtis is just an over-the-top version of me, only much more positive in life.

I first give you a short history on how Greg Kurtis came to be, then I'll give a fictional biography, the way it would be in the television series. Greg Kurtis was basically made for a Flash animation project. I wanted to feature in it myself, but I thought it would seem too cocky if I actually put in myself. That's why I put in an alternate version of me. Later, I had this fantasy that Greg Kurtis actually dated Sam from Totally Spies once. In the end, this became the base for the Greg Kurtis animations.

In the animation his history is slightly diferent from that of the original Flash version. Both originated from the Netherlands, and both moved to America at the age of twelve or thirteen. They both started a group called the Eleventh, together with his brother Ashton Kurtis and his friends Carol and Marco Keithon.

From here things get slightly diferent. First of all, to avoid any copyright issues he won't meet his big love in Kanto, a Pokémon region, but on his own world. Also, to make it more suitable for children, Greg and his team won't get stuck on a hellish dimension, where he will lose both his brother and one of his friends, Marco, although later it would appear this was only temporary. This was also an event which caused Greg to persuit his dreams of becoming an interdimensional traveler at MultiWorks, an organisation which deals in interdimensional traveling, both as an express service and as an interdimensional agency. The team is then disbanded.

In the series version, he just persuits his dream. The team still exists, only without Greg. Greg also breaks up with is girlfriend, because of the time he can't spend with her, and because he doesn't want to break her heart more than he already has. This is a crucial part in the series, as Greg often chases other girls. However, he never manages to be longer with them than the duration of the mission (often because of the fact that either the girl doesn't want to, or because Greg spots something he doesn't like), with only one exception: Samantha. Yes, the spy from Totally Spies.

A the start of the series, you'll meet with two other friends of his. The first one is Jackie Mill, a partner of him, born in the fifth world of his dimensional cluster. This world is very much like ours, however, some cities don't exist or have been replaced with others. For example, Los Angeles has been replaced with Darla City. At the start of the series, you'll find out that Jackie has a broken foot, caused by his encounter with Alex. Yes, from Totally Spies.

The second person is Jenny Roy. She actually just joined the team at the start of the series, thinking she was applying for a job as housekeeper. She however gets dragged by Greg Kurtis as his (temporary) sidekick. This later becomes somewhat permanent (which is fine by Jackie, since he still gets paid by Greg).

The Greg Kurtis Show, as I would call it for short, is actually a great idea, and I think Marathon Productions should contact me for the idea. You know where to call me.

Crossover VG

2007-04-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

People love to pit two game series against each other, especially series which look very alike. Take a look at the Capcom vs SNK / SNK vs Capcom games. They have proven themselves to be quite popular. And people were always orgasmic about a Mario vs Sonic. There was even something called Halo vs Metroid. Someone must have thought that it would be awesome as well, and decided to create Haloid.

This sparked an idea. What if a lot of animating studios came together, 3D animating studios. They would then pit two videogame characters, or make them work together. Haloid could be the opening video for the movie. Of course, fully touched up, and more professional. You'd step in the cinemas, and then you would get prepared with a movie where the Master Chief fights with Samus Aran. The effects are also very cool for a homemade movie. I bet this guy is a professional, or at least wants to be one.

So, I can hear you say Animatrix. That's right, but it's not called Animatrix. It's called Crossover VG, a whole movie dedicated to fanservice. See Solid Snake fight alongside Pipo Snake, in order to save Otacon, in a comical way. Or get blown away by a massive Fighting Game brawl, where the most prominent fighting game icons battle against or alongside each other (and with those I of course mean Ryu from Capcom's Street Fighter series, Terry Bogard from SNK's Fatal Fury and King of Fighter series, Liu Kang from Midway's Mortal Kombat series, and Jin from Namco's Tekken series). Then follow a trip trough time, where a wandered-off Pac-Man stumbles across the other golden oldies, like DigDug, Q*Bert, Lunar Lander, and even Pong. You will then find that the Duke is very alive, (un)like the tomb raider. Hail to the King, baby!

We could tap trough a lot of crossover combinations, but one is always inevitable: Mario vs Sonic. Who would win the battle?

Of course, this all costs a lot of money. First of all every company needs to give their permission. Second, you'll actually need to buy the license. Then you'll need animators for this job. But I sure as hell want it.

BOTS/HOTS

2007-04-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I had this great idea. It was based on the old musicals like Grease and such, where everybody bursted out in dancing. I called it Broadway on the Street / Hustle on the Street.

For people who don't know, the Hustle isn't something pimps do. It's a disco dancing style back in the seventies. If you have seen the remake of the movie Guess Who you know what I'm talking about. In the ending sequence you can see the cast do the Hustle. It's basically a choriographed dance.

You can find more information on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustle_(dance) about the Hustle.

Anyway, the idea developed further after the newest rage the Jump, which had its origin from the internet, YouTube to be exact.

My basic idea was this. Round up some camera crew, a lot of dancers and a street environment, dress them up as regular people, and start with just a few dancers who actually look like people who are just happening to dance on the street. Make the rest look like daily workers, like construction workers, business people and other types. Take a popular disco / dance song, and perform a choriographed dance. Tape it, post it on YouTube, instant win.

My first idea to introduce this was using the song I Wish by Stevie Wonder. It's a perfect song to start with. It starts in a school or a college hall, where somebody is dancing his way out of school. At the end of the first chorus he then stands outside, at the enterance, where he sees people busy with each other. He then dances his way out, and people join him.

Eventually this idea could be used in a videoclip, for a disco / dance type song. Face it, it would be brilliant. Imagine the videoclip starting with just one person, and more people join in, as if they were coincidentally passing by and deciding to join in because it looked fun. And it's not just limited to disco / dance. You could use it with hiphop, R&B, country, whatever.

Note that I have posted this on the internet. You can't steal this idea because it has been posted on the internet. However, if you are going to use this idea, please leave me a comment, and show me the progress. If you live in or near Amsterdam, please involve me in it. I really would love to see this idea happening. Even better, I would love to be someone who created a new fad. And you'll have to admit, it does sound kind of cool, right?

Preparing project "Auditioning"

2007-03-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

I finally decided that I needed animators, however, I won't just take anybody as animators. I need to know if the person can produce the same style I use. Not to sound cocky, it's more that I want the same style for every episode. Suddenly a different style just doesn't work. Look at all the years of Dragonball. It changed from very cruddy to very crisp, but this did cause some style conflicts in flashbacks.

Anyway, details on what it means when you get accepted will come when I actually launch the project. I will first try the project out on SFDT.COM, a site with stick figure animators. This is due to their experience with Flash. However, because most don't have a background in sprite animations, it is just as new for them as for most of you.

The way I've planned it now is that I make a library with poses from Kevin Keene. You may add your own backgrounds (within Flash or with bitmaps), but the main focus is Kevin Keene. There will be a few things which need to be included in the animation, like jumping and moving in sync with the music (of course of your choice).

I myself will first try the project out to see if it is doable, then the first auditionings go to SFDT.COM as a Challenge. They can choose to actually audition for the project. If not, they at least can see how diferent sprite animating is from stick, and it can give me more insight on what should be changed. Normally my brother checks for animating quality, but this time I'll judge, mainly because I have more experience with sprite animating than my brother.

Next, the auditions will go to both Pixeltendo and CaptainN.net. I might involve other sites in this, so if you have any suggestions, please comment. For now I'm setting up the sprites for this mini-project.

I can't wait to begin.

Current standings: Episode 1

2007-03-17T06:28:00.001-07:00

Episode one and two are all about the introduction of our main characters. In the first episode only Kevin, Duke, Princess Lana, Pit, Simon Belmont and Pac-Man are introduced. We can also see Princess Peach.

[[Preview Season 1 Episode 1 - 01/02/2007]]

Pit gets a new rehaul. This was going to feature N-Finity's Pit, but because of the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl I decided to change it. There will be something from N-Finity slipped in the animation eventually.

The overall story, and the individual stories

2007-03-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

Project Captain N: The Future Quests is all about the story of a guy named Kevin Keene. He gets sucked inside his Nintendo gaming system into a world called Videoland. There he finds out that he is one of the heroes who will save Videoland from darkness.

Together with his trusty dog Duke, the beautiful Princess Lana, the deadly Samus Aran, and lots of other gaming characters, he must find out what his role is, and how he would ever get back to his own world.

Troughout the whole story, everyone also develops their own story.

Princess Lana has a sad history, where she lost her father, and was left with the responsability of ruling Videoland. She also has the task of marrying a young man. Because of the prophecy she has an excuse to prospone the search for the perfect man, but can she truly escape her fate?

Samus Aran was orphaned at a very young age. Since then she's hunting for Space Pirates. Because of the nature of the metroids and its use as a weapon, she also regularly hunts on metroids. Her plan is to eradicate all metroids in Videoland. Her latest mission is to follow and aid Princess Lana's group, an assignment she got from her mentor.

Pit is an enigmatic angel who joined Lana's group together with Simon Belmont. What his motives are isn't known, but he never lets the group down, no matter what.

Simon Belmont is also trustworthy, but there is some secret he doesn't share.

Megaman is the one who often gets left out in certain missions. When he decides to follow Lana's group in order to join them, he has a very difficult task: proving that he is worthy of working in the team.

Pac-Man has the biggest problem of all, although he doesn't see it as a problem: his bad sense of humour. Although he can be funny at times, his jokes can sometimes lead the group into trouble. The only reason he joined the team is because Lana said "pretty please". Yeah.

Kevin Keene... well, you already know what he will be.