Today marks a milestone as I finally add something new to the “Games” tab here on the site. Chapter 1 of “The Silver Lining” is out, and it’s available for download over at the main site. Some of you might remember the demo we released for it a few years ago, and that’s basically what Chapter 1 is, in terms of puzzles and gameplay. What’s been added is a lot of polishing, as well as cut-scenes. Lots and lots of cut-scenes. And some really cool enviromental effects. And bug-fixes! Graham no longer glides around the island anymore! It’s still a very short chapter, but the game will expand nicely in later parts.
It should be noted that this game does not contain any explosions or farting ducks, as the writing staff has been very wise to keep the script away from me. I have a general idea of where the plot is going, but there’s been a lot of changes backstage, so when all five chapters are finished, it’ll be just as big a surprise to me. I could just download it off the SVN and peak ahead, but it would ruin the suspense.
Personally, I’ve been really impressed with everything they’ve done with the game since the Beta version. My role in this chapter has been limited to animation and some voice-work. The intro and the outro, for example, are my big babies this time around. In fact, one of the directors asked me to re-animate the big five-minute intro sequence about four times, causing me to go into a raging fit on multiple occasions. I’ve learned to be a lot more zen about it as a result. It’s good field practice for what to expect in a real animation studio.
Fun Trivia: I voice the first Winged Guard and only have two short lines in this game. Both of them sound like I’m channeling Kermit the Frog trying to be the Colonel from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Not-So-Fun Trivia: King Graham does not actually play a saxaphone in this game.
But-On-Second-Thought Trivia: It just occurred to me that I have a whole hard drive full of 3D King’s Quest character models – fully rigged and ready to animate. Man, I could do so much evil with these.
At long last, one of the three big projects I’m working on will be finally released as of July 10th. “The Silver Lining” is a King’s Quest fan-game developed by the massive and talented team with Phoenix Online studios, and yours truly has been responsible for a whole ton of the animation in this game. The game will be released in an episodic format starting with chapter 1 next month and so on (or until we’ve got everything in place.) Either way, it’s a BOM milestone. Something I’m working on is getting finished!
Somebody on Newgrounds kindly pointed that “Ducktalez: The Motion Picture” has been dubbed by the on-site engine as top search result for “THE GREATEST MOVIE.” I like to think this places me in at least the Top 100 bracket of best things to get linked from on a search engine (Maddox’s “Safety Tips for Safe Kids” still earns Google’s top spot for “Best Page in the Universe.”)
While this doesn’t count Ducktalez as “the greatest movie ever,” I’ve just made a similar update on the NG page which might change that. Next stop, the WORLD!
King Graham returns in an all-new adventure! What perils await him in this new world? Will he ever find true love? Who dares to stand in his way? These questions (and more!) are soon to be answered!
I placed in first in yet another Cracked Photoshop contest (making this my fourth win!) This one caught me off-guard since I submitted a “man, everybody else’s entries are so awesome, I’m just going to half-ass my entry in under ten minutes” kind of entry. Although in retrospect, it does provide a good punchline for the contest in general. But definitely check out the rest of the contest – there were some excellent entries (I was rooting for the Nigerian Prince to win.)
Now all I need is for the Canadian dollar to go back up so I can finally transfer all this Cracked money out of my Paypal account.
Chalk this one up to all the free time I have being unemployed. The finish line is still way off, but my next update on the game should include a full trailer and not just four screenshots.
Still no update on the job situation, sadly. I’ve often compared finding a job in this economic climate to winning the lottery. Even with the economy getting better, I’m still competing against at least 3000 other laid-off Canadian animators, with over 300 resumes spread out across Canada and the States. I’m pretty sure it’s not my skills or experience, since some of my preferred companies have given me positive feedback on my portfolio. But if things keep up like this, I’m heavily considering selling the place and going to school in Vancouver for a Bachelor’s Degree if that’s what it takes.
In the meantime, please enjoy and try to make sense of the following screencaps from “Incinerations.”
An image I made was featured today on the front page of the Cracked website as part of their Daily Featured Topics segment. They were looking for a header image and paid me a whopping $25 (I’m rich!) to make an infograph about why anybody would ever use a pay phone these days. The article itself can be found here. Feel free to “Digg” it.
I do have to say, the article itself kind of confuses me. The picture I made points out 15 reasons to use a pay phone. Then the article goes on about the top 10 reasons to use one, but then only lists 5. Of course, it should be noted that Cracked’s writing staff is entirely made up of random people from their forums. But oh, well. $25! Yay! 30 more of those and this month’s mortgage should be covered.
Here it is: the next chapter in my trilogy of nephew stories. Time travel has always been one of my favorite subjects, so I had fun coming up with my own take on how somebody could screw up the past, especially if that somebody is Dewey.
I’m still convinced that J.J. “Mystery Box” Abrams is spying on me somehow.
Chris Ushko, Box of Mystery 2010
Today marks a milestone as I finally add something new to the “Games” tab here on the site. Chapter 1 of “The Silver Lining” is out, and it’s available for download over at the main site. Some of you might remember the demo we released for it a few years ago, and that’s basically what Chapter 1 is, in terms of puzzles and gameplay. What’s been added is a lot of polishing, as well as cut-scenes. Lots and lots of cut-scenes. And some really cool enviromental effects. And bug-fixes! Graham no longer glides around the island anymore! It’s still a very short chapter, but the game will expand nicely in later parts.
