tux is now a member of the green lantern corps

it is so bad...there are so many things wrong with it, but its done.

Second Batch

of Game design sketches. I like these ones better, I'm starting to incorporate/develop a style. This assignment is similar to the one before only now each sketch is supposed to represent two mechanics interacting. I may put up some of the reference shots we took, cause they're pretty funny. I got some old detective movies and such from the library to watch while I worked on these haha, fun research.
so anyway, the first sketch is Move and block door, the second, move and make a suggestion, and the third is make accusation and look at evidence.

creative geometry

I know you're all curious as to what we actually do in that class...so here it is. lol. see any math here?

Seriously though, i did this really quickly to fulfill a project requirement of artistically representing the fourth dimension. So to me I guess it is literally movement through space, if you want to get deeper meaning from it, she can represent a spirit. To be honest though, I was thinking of the flash when i did this mostly...:P

Secret Passage

Well here it is, four movies and ten hours later, my final illustration for the clue mechanic use secret passage.


ms. scarlet in the study with the knife.

still some things I want to add/fix, but I think I need a break from it for a while. I'm really starting to like using Painter, however :).

Clue Mechanic Sketches

These are the three sketches I did for game design class to describe the mechanics of clue. They're really rough and basic but I'll be doing a finished version of one of them here soon. The first is the use secret passage mechanic, the second is make a suggestion mechanic, and the third is the accusation. I was trying different techniques while learning how to sketch in both corel and photoshop so my skills are anything but honed yet, but this was good exercise. I used my roomies for reference too so if you know them maybe you can tell. My personal favorite is the secret passage mechanic.

well I'm back

at Ringling that is. so that means I'll probably start putting things up here.
So far so good...class-wise that is. Game design is awesome, I'm starting to get the hang of CA.

One project I had a lot of fun with recently was creating my own poker mechanic. I played it with my roomies and they all seemed to enjoy it. Here are the rules to my game:

Royal Suicide

Main Rules:

- Must be played with 6 players
- Each is dealt 5 cards
- If you are dealt the king of hearts your hand is ‘dead’ and must be discarded.
- This effect is nullified if you also have the queen of hearts in your hand or if you pick up a joker (to be explained below).
- If you get a dead hand each of the other players then gives up one of their cards to you as a ‘condolence.’
- They are then each dealt one more card, so everyone has five again, but different hands than they started with
- If someone folds or is out of the game the dealer provides the condolence in their stead.
- If the king doesn’t show up in anyone’s hand (since there are 6 people, times 5 cards and there are only 52 cards, there is a good chance of him popping up but it won’t always happen) it is played like normal 5 card stud.
- Then either way, whenever everyone has his or her final five card hands, whoever has the highest hand wins
- The highest hand in this game is a royal flush in hearts (10 J KQ A)


Jokers:

- Played with 2-4 depending on the deck being played with
- Laid face up on the table
- Can strategically replace the king of hearts in your hand
- Example: if you have a good 4-card hand and don’t need the fifth that would be a good time to use it rather than losing your whole hand.
- Jokers should be used sparingly because each can only be used once in a game.

Betting:

- Betting is basically done as it is in regular poker with some exceptions
- Each turn before the deal there is an ante, but this goes into a separate pot called ‘the condolence pot.’
- This pot goes to the person who had the king of hearts, only if they lost their hand, unless someone has the queen of hearts then it will go to them.
- Then there is a primary a round of betting
- After the first round of betting the person in possession of the king of hearts must announce suicide.
- There is a round of betting before the announcement to throw people off and make it more interesting, to keep with that, the person with the king of hearts may not fold during the first round of betting, they don’t know what their final hand will be yet anyway so it would be pointless to fold.
- After everyone has their final hands, there is another round of betting and so on.

Final ideas:

The idea I had behind this game was to make poker tell a simple story. While play testing my friends and I had a lot of fun with that concept. It was also interesting seeing the ways that the king of hearts’ suicide could be used to screw someone over, not just the person with that card in their hand, but the other people with good hands that had to give up a card. It works well both ways.



Another thing we've been working on is observing real world mechanics and altering experiences with those mechanics. So far I've been looking at the crosswalk that goes from the bayou to main campus across old Bradenton and the lock on my door, because I have been locking myself out quite frequently and would rather blame it on a design flaw than my own stupidity. Just for the sake of this post having an image, one of my quick sketches illustrating opening a door:



Next post I'll put up my sketches for 3 mechanics of Clue, the board game I chose to mod for this semester. Should be cool.

oh, and also, my hobby for game design is costume design so I'll be putting up process work for that as well, as soon as I find time to work on it that is. My first endeavor will be to create a feminine jack frost costume to go with the hat I made over the summer. I'll put up some sketches of my ideas as soon as I get around to scanning.

Just as a side note, a friend told me the other day that the way I try to incorporate my art into my everyday life, most times as a means to make it better in some way or just to better understand it, makes me original (which is not something you hear very much at all in art school). That made me pretty happy and instilled in me a new sense of faith in my work. I think art is something that should make life better, I've always looked at it that way, and that's why I do what I do.

So on that note, I'll end this post with my favorite quote of all time, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, The Beautiful and Damned:

"Art isn't meaningless. It is in itself. It isn't in that it tries to make life less so."