Thursday, February 26, 2015

The Hudson Arcade, Demo of Maya Breaker



The Hudson Arcade: The Sheep's Meow

Had a great time demonstrating Maya Breaker at The Hudson Arcade in Hoboken NJ last night. Thanks to everyone who helped by playing.

With this new data, a release build is right around the corner!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New Sprite Art


Redid the platform support beams. They were looking a little bleh.

Also, new design for the spikes.

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Angry Video Game Nerd Movie Review

I have followed James Rolfe for many years. I was on Youtube searching for clips of the old Karate Kid cartoon show, when I came across his review of the NES game by accident. That was back in 2007 and I've been a fan ever since. I am also a fan of his Monster Madness series, and I have the t-shirt.

When I heard that his crowdfunding was funded and he was making a movie, I was overjoyed. I would stop by Cinemassacre.com on a daily basis looking for updates, but they were few and far between. I could understand this. AVGN was a small movie with lots of post production special effects. Most filmmakers do something simple for their first indie film, like Juno.

Still, James pulled through. After a year he announced the premiers at several theaters across the country. I wanted to take a road trip to the on in PA with my friends, but we couldn't get it together. So I waited until the special edition Blue Ray was released. Lo and behold, that day came and I ordered it. Before I knew it, it was in my hand, but I was resident to put it in my PS3 and watch it. I had waited for so long... what if it sucked?

With much trepidation I forced myself to watch the movie. I was relieved to find that it lived up to the promises. Retro game references? Check. Cameos by other online reviewers? Check. Homages to shlock B-movies? Check. It was all there on the screen.

But there's more to a movie that just checking off a list of features. A movie needs characters and plot, so lets review this.

Nerd is an angry man who makes retro video game reviews in his basement. He has obtained fame and respect from fellow gamers, yet there is one problem. He can't bring himself to review the 'worst game of all time' E.T.  However, they could not secure the rights to use images from the famous Spielberg movie, so it's depicted here as "Eee Tee".

That's the weirdest thing about this movie. Where the online videos had Fair Use, the movie doesn't. Whenever a game is shown on screen, it has to be a flash animated recreation of the game--a parody. That alone must have taken months of post-production.

Nerd travels to the desert to try to dig up the landfill and prove that there is no conspiracy to cover up the destruction of E.T. cartridges. With the myth dispelled, there will be less interest in the game itself, and he will feel less pressure to review it.

The only problem is that the conspiracy is real, and it's even more deep and interesting than he had bargained for. At first Nerd tries to cover up everything and make it go away, but later is forced to confront it and overcome his fears to review the terrible game. Also save the world from a giant monster.

All I wanted was a fair watch of a film. But after watching it once, I found myself re-watching several times. I got more than a simple plot from James. Here, we have a hero who starts off in the wrong and is only forced onto the path of truth and freedom after being pushed several times. Nerd generally acts selfishly, but deep down he wants to save his fans from playing terrible games. However, what the fans need and what he thinks they need are very different.

While everything else is silly, the motivations of the protagonist are complex. This juxtaposition is what makes the movie work. I would definitely recommend this film.

Maya Breaker on Steam Greenlight

Please Vote Here.

Just need to remind everyone that we need votes over on Steam Greenlight!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Star vs The Forces of Evil is a cartoon about a 14 year old girl's sexuality

If there's one thing I love as much as video games, it's animation. Cinema and animation in general are a great pastime of mine. It's a great way to unwind and not think about writing code. The rule is that most new animation just-aint-as-good as the cool stuff we grew up with, e.g. He-man and the Transformers and such.

Lately, things have been changing. Adventure Time, Legend of Korra, Friendship is Magic and others are changing the landscape. TV animation is now capable of great characters, stories and even subtext. And that brings us to Star vs the Forces of Evil. It recently premiered on Disney, but it will be a while before we get another episode, giving us just two short stories to speculate on. So, let's start speculating.

I could talk about the creator, or how it has great animation and theme music, but others have brought that up. I want to talk about the subtext. Spoiler alert. The show is about a girl being unable to control her sexuality. That's right, I said it. I don't have a problem with this. In fact, I give the creators credit for making such a bold choice. Sure it won't dawn on the kids watching it now until they are much older. I can see them having a forehead-slapping moment.


The show starts off with the precocious voiceover of Princess Star as she receives the Royal Septer on her 14th birthday. This is followed by a smash cut of her nearly destroying the city with its uncontrolled power. This begs the question, why give her the Septer is she's not ready for it? They answer this in the voiceover, "they have to". PaleoSterno called this a flaw in the show. But we both know the creators are too smart for that. The reason they have to give her the power is because it's not really a magic wand, it's her budding adulthood.



"But Mike!" you say. "There are lots of shows about the fear of growing up and life changes. Just look at Steven Universe." Very true, but there is other evidence that points to this being about her sexuality in particular. It's not about her learning to drive or something--they would have made Star 16 instead of 14. The age they chose is a good median time for a girl to reach puberty. When she first shows that she can't handle her new power her first thought is that she will be sent to "St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses". This is obviously either an all-girls Catholic School or an outright Convent. It's exactly the kind of place parents would send their daughter if they suspected she could not handle her newfound powers of procreation.

They don't send her their, obviously. They send her to Earth. Here she can engage is all sorts of quirky misunderstandings. They pair her up with Marco, a "Safe" boy. Yes, they use that word. Marco is just the type of boy parents can have around their daughter without fear. He's a passive B-type personality. No testosterone to be seen. I love Marco. He's a great character--a B-type personality living in a world where A-type personalities are given all the fame and fortune. He is conscious of this and doesn't want to be left out. There is so much potential for this character.

Back to Star. There is one last clue that shows the subtext. It's the wand itself. I'm not going to go into the irony of a woman's sexuality being represented by a wand. I'm just going to say that if you observe closely, you will see that the wand has the power of creation only. They say that is has destructive power in the wrong hands, but the wand only creates things. Rainbows, puppies, narwhals, monster butterflies--these are all acts of creation. It never "zaps" anything or blows it up. Granted, it creates thing that light themselves on fire, but that is still a form of creation. This is much like a girl gaining the ability to create new human life when she reaches puberty.

Is this going to be a show about a girl discovering her body during puberty? No. That's the subtext. This is a show about friendship. Star really needs a safe boy to be her friend. Marco really needs an A-type personality around to learn from. We need more shows that emphasize the value of friendship and how its not just a consolation prize for not winning romance.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Either way, it will be a while before we see more of this show.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Heads up: Maya Breaker

Just a heads up for everyone. I'm going to be making some other posts on my blog from now on. I'm reaching the testing phase of my game, Maya Breaker, and I haven't had a lot of screen shots to show. That should change in coming weeks, but for now, I want to keep the blog going though the end of this development and the time til my next one.

I'll be reporting on animation, movies, current events and whatever I feel comfortable commenting on. But mostly games

Here's a screenshot for ya.


And a special thanks to NYU Gamecenter.