The Captain's Log

Today I put together the fist proper documentation for Blade Kitten.

A simple four page run through of the prologue which will also serve as our vertical slice demo. It contains one of every feature that I want to show off in the game. I'm sure much will change from now until the game gets released but its the first steps on a long journey that I'm happy to start on.

I feel really psyched and a little tired :)

In not so fun news this paid Live journal is about to run out so I figure it's about as good a time as any to move this elsewhere since I don't really talk about my boring life and also when I do get to do something interesting I usually can't talk about it anyway. Artwise I post more on Deviant art anyway. It just seems really quiet around here anyway and its just as easy for you to find my stuff on the other sites.

If you're reading this at www.spacecaptainsteve.com don't worry it will still be here, just in a different form.

I thought I'd try out Red Bubble with some new T shirt designs. I want to do some Blade Kitten shirts with a strong graphic bent as opposed to just pictures of characters and scenes. First one up is called "Noink!" and features a distressed look Skiffy emblem in white and red. It's designed to work on a dark shirt but I can easily pop out one for lighter colors if there's any interest.



You can get it and more info here... http://www.redbubble.com/people/falterdan/clothing/954358-1-noink

I have thoughts for another couple of designs but I haven't really made any movement on that front until I see who this one turns out.

The Force Unleashed site has been completely updated with a lot of new stuff.Go check it out especially the latest webdoc "The TFU Experience" which is mostly about the Wii, PS2,PSP version of the game and features a lot of footage of the game in action so you can finally see what I've been crapping on about for the last year. Please not the appearance of the yellow jacket as well as my two Darths (there's a TV show that needs to be made)

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/theforceunleashed/

The other cool thing is you can finally hear some of the awesome score - Which is one of my favorite bits of the game because I didn't have do anything for it. I just get to be blown away whenever we get new music to put in.

Don't forget I'll be at Supanova this weekend with Blade Kitten comics and I'll be doing panels and a talk with some behind the scenes stuff.

We got the cover of the latest Gamepro AND most of the write up is for the Wii version.


Which they liked... a lot.

The online version is here http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/wii/games/previews/173588.shtml

There's a nice shot of my gal, Darth Phobos fighting the apprentice from the Jedi temple. Fans will be able to tell the only part of the Jedi Special Edition I liked and there's a little nod to battle of Endor in her too.

The only problem with the article is them intoning that we didn't focus on giving the Wii HD visuals like the PS3 and  360. Sorry but no, that was Nintendo's doing not ours the Wii can do 480P that's if folks there's no other magic in it.

Don't forget to come to Supanova this weekend to see glorious me in action or... inaction.

Some SW:TFU news...

The game made the cover of PlayStation: The Official Magazine. There's a big 8 page article with some shots and info on the PS2 and PSP versions. It's mostly about the next gen versions but that's to be expected. The one to get is the Wii version but that's not going to appear in a Sony mag is it? When the editor of the mag was playing the PSP version he was so wrapped in it they had to pry the PSP from his hands. A lot of people are blown away by what the PSP version is doing - If it wasn't available on every other console it would be reason to buy a PSP. The PS2 version is easily going to be the last best PS2 ever (It would have been God of War 2 but we're better)

I've also got a bunch more TFU toys - Titanium Rogue Shadow = Cool, Unleashed - unleashed figures (you know the packs of four figures that aren't posable). Still waiting on the rest of the figures - I ended up finding an assortment that had doubles of the Stormtroopers so I ordered that - They ship in May. But I did get the Secret Aprrentice Evolutions set. The Sith figure is pretty spot on to the costume in game - the others are good but the Heads don't look enough like Sam (The actor who plays the SA) and the hair is all wrong. Still it's a cool set of figures.


Some Game news
I've been playing a lot of "Patapon" on PSP and "Zack and Wiki" on Wii.

Patapon is fun but has a few humps in the gameplay that can easily stop you. They're basically questionable design decisions that hamper the fun. If you slog past them some really fun gameplay opens up. I like to call it a kind of RTS (Rhythm Turn Stategy) and it is a lot deeper than it initially looks.

Zack and Wiki is Capcom's answet to a modern day console point and click adventure. It's basically a set of room based puzzle locations with Wii motion controls to manipulate objects. Control is all handle via the remote with the player pointing to where they want to go or what the want to interact with. Like Sierra adventures you die a lot if you do the wrong thing but since the puzzle are limited to one room its not such a bad thing. You can also use money you collect to buy hints and extra chances between rooms. All in all it's presented well and looks great. The only problem is you can't really sit back and play since you have to interact a lot and you get a sore arm too.