Welcome back to the stage of history!

Sunny Koda is a concept artist from Australia who went to the US filming a Documentary about Gamer Culture. He went from Sand Diego to Vancouver, from Comic Con to PAX. Now he's following his dream of working in the daunting US Games industry. Will he make it? I hope so. Because I am that guy.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

A new challenger approaches...


A week in the countryside staying with my Fiancee gave me some time to clear the head but it's proving hard to get back into the swing of things. I've assessed my savings, limited as they now are, and decided that I can still go ahead with the adventure... it'll just be even more er, adventurous.

This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9y6MYDSAww

...is awesome and exciting. Thanks Penny Arcade for yet another valuable resource. They are really doing all the research here, I think that's one of the reasons they're such a popular hub for gamers. Once the website is up (i keep saying that, but I've given myself a deadline of this weekend) I will definitely be in contact. Hope she's still in Cali :)

I've made tentative contact with some wonderful Canadians through a work colleague and that sounds like it's going to be a fun leg of the trip. I've also bought my ticket to PAX so the northern leg of my trip is locked in. I can think of it like this:

July - California, San Diego, California
August- San Jose, Sacramento, San Fran, ????
September - Seattle, Vancouver, Seattle

Two months away, kinda scary yeah? But it will be utterly awesome.

Today's image is Taokaka, my latest favourite fighting girl from BlazBlue which I finally got my hands on. I grabbed it from VideoGames Girls DB, it's like a image-base of girls, but each of them has been designed by a team of artists. I love the idea in the abstract.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Chemical Plant Zone

The honeymoon period for this project has ended and now it's feeling like work, which is good because there's a lot to do and it has to be done well.

I need to start keeping a running map of the connections I'm making with various people. Through a few close friends I've really lucked out and this trip is looking more achievable by the day. The documentary? Like I said there's a lot of work to be done.

I've been working on the elements for the website, as I'm doing most everything myself, but I have yet to write a script for the welcome video that must go up there on page one. I can't imagine people volunteering to be a part of this project if they don't even know what I look like or trust I can make it through a scentence without foaming at the mouth.

Website, meeting local people who can help with the documentary side and wrangling a camera, these are my current priorities.

Being terminated from my current employ (did I mention that? it's making things more difficult than they were going to be but hey, I've already bought my ticket) has given me ample time though, but I must confess to spending most of it playing games and painting artwork for my folio. However by the time I finish one picture I need to do another to replace it, so quickly am I improving.

I saw Kick Ass the other day and although entirely unrelated, I cannot stress how purely awesome this movie is. It's about to come out in the US, so go see it lest shitty 3D remakes like Clash of the Titans enslave mankind. I knew it was going to be excellent and dragging some hesitant friends along for a welcome surprise was well worth the price of admission (now $20+ in Australia).

Finally I leant to play the Chemical Plant Zone level music from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on guitar the other day. Better than most youtube clowns, not as well as this guy. It's my favourite Sonic track, I feel it should be performed on a keyboard but my keys are being stored sideways in a house in the country... rad. Every time I get the idea to do a Metal project, discover it has all been done before. Such is the ultimately nerdy nature of metal. Even my idea to do a concept album where each track is based on an episode of The Prisoner, the show that inspired Lost, was already done by none other than Devil Doll (The Girl Who Was... Death in 1989) fronted by the insane Mr. Docter. Videogames and metal is an awesome concept, but one that is currently being explored by about a million people who are all more talented than I so I'll leave them to it for now... get back to my 'Like Radiohead but darker and crap'.

Oh, after all the shit they've put Sonic through since Sonic Adventure (2 sucked balls) they are finally making Sonic 4! I hope it does well or we are doomed to werewolf/rail-shooter sonic games where you don't play as sonic and the main challenge is the buggy programming. Oh lord let it be good.

PRO TIP: Ducking will make you immune to Dr Robotnik's chemical attack at the end of Act 2.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Ding!

I haven't made a post for a while because, after an anxious week that made her think I was breaking up with her, I proposed to my girlfriend at the base of a waterfall in Tasmania. Our relationship meter was full so it was high time I leveled up the relationship. More believably I wanted to give her a sign of my undying love and commitment to her before I go traipsing off across America.

I know there must be some, but no instances of proposals in videogames come to mind. Even marriages are scarce. I guess it's such a girl-thing and games have only recently become sensative to the female playerbase (outside of The Sims). Although I did find this old Unreality article about people hacking games to propose. At first I thought 'Augh! Why didn't I do that?' but by the end I was pretty sure I knew why. The super mario one has been taken down but can still be found here.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I don't really identify with Australian culture. Brought up in a culturally mixed household I've done more rejecting than embracing. I certainly don't feel any particular affection for American lifestyles. Japanese scare me. But I feel like there is one community to which I am interwoven, whose idioms and experiences are wholly mine. The global culture of the internet (which gaming ties into as the internet is their mmain portal for communication). The western coast of North America (including Vancouver) is the closest I think I can get to a physical location, so that's where I'm headed.