An Awesome Commission

Got something REALLY big to show off today. This piece was commissioned by a friend of mine for use on a Magic: The Gathering play mat, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

For anyone not familiar, this particular scene is from the game Dark Souls, by FROM Software. Anyone that's played the game probably remembers this scene with some dread, as the Capra Demon is one of the nastier encounters early on.

Anyway, just wanted to share this piece, as I'm really pleased with the end results. Can't wait to see this bad boy printed up...

Good DSi Game! Ace Mathician

What the heck is a Mathician, anyway?

 
So math was really never my strong point. Some of that had to do with my gnat like attention span as a student, as I spent most of my time doodling Saint Seiya and Fist of the Northstar during math class, but I think I can safely say that math and I never really got along. Knowing this, I was somewhat hesitant to download Ace Mathician, fearing that I would lose interest once the math element frustrated me. I'm pleased to say that this was not the case.

Ace Mathician is basically a simple platformer, with an interesting twist. Platforms can be moved by entering an equation, similar to the graphing function on a high end calculator. Luckily, the game only gives players a handful of options in each stage, which are all single screen affairs, so the correct equation or series of equations is never too far out of reach. As the game progresses, levels introduce new elements, including simple enemies, multiple equations, and even some slightly advanced math type stuff. It's nothing you need to crack a text book open for, but it's nicely challenging.

Although it's usually pretty simple to get to the goal, each stage has three gold stars that require some tricky math and careful platforming to  collect. Snagging all three stars in every stage of a world unlocks a bonus stage, and collecting every star in every world unlocks a whole bonus world. There are stars to collect in the bonus world, of course, but they don't unlock anything. The game's gotta end eventually, right?

This is my first experience with Goodbye Galaxy games, but after playing Ace Mathician I'm very interested in checking out their previous work, Flipper and Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish. The charming pixel art, catchy music, and quirky gameplay make for a very appealing and approachable package, and the $1.99 price tag certainly doesn't hurt.

If any of this stuff sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend you check out Ace Mathician on your DSi or 3DS, or at the very least take a peek at the official website.

Quick Update

Don't have a ton of free time today, so just a quick little post. Got a little tired of doing fan art, so I decided to return to a character I haven't drawn for some time. So here we have Johnny Matchead, former protagonist of my web comic, Basurake, discovering some kind of elder horror.

Like I said yesterday, I might be reposting the comic he starred in, or maybe doing some new ones. I guess we'll see.

More Super Mario & Luigi

 Sorry this next batch took so long, got a little distracted with other projects.  Before more talk, though, here are the pages.

 Okay, movin' right along! I don't like the way Luigi turned out in that last page, but whatever. I've got the next 5 pages storyboarded, and those should be pretty fun, as we'll finally get to see Donkey Kong. Hope anybody that's reading this is enjoying.

Been keeping fairly busy with various artsy things, some of which I unfortunately can't post here as they are either for paying clients or are part of bigger projects that won't be revealed for some time, but I am trying to make sure I have a good deal of stuff for this site.

Recently I've been going through some of my old comics, and thought I might start periodically posting pages of some of the longer ones, just for the sake of having them readable again. I used to do a pretty long webcomic called Basurake, which I unfortunately had to stop because it was very time consuming and no one was reading it, but I may get back to it just for yucks. I guess we'll see.

In the mean time, here's one more bit of artsy goodness. This is my entry for a Zelda tribute called Link's Blacklist. It's the Nightmare, or Dethyl, the final boss from Link's Awakening. Enjoy!