This is a machinima talk show within Halo that I love. It features DJ Octobit ripping out some great 8-bit tunes, a host by the name of Damian Lacedaemion that interviews all their great guests, their own “Solid Gold Elite Dancers” that use choreography and game glitches to effect dancing, and even some bodyguards to keep the pubescent players at bay in the “unpredictable multiplayer universe”. They talk about things ranging from virtual spaces to machinima itself. Visit thisspartanlife.com for more episodes or wait for them to be syndicated here.

This first episode (28 min.) features guests Bob Stein, founder of the Voyager Company which was one of the first CD-ROM publishers in the coming digital era, and Peggy Ahwesh, creator of She Puppet (2001), a machinima film featuring Peggy playing Tomb Raider with various female voiceovers to create a narrative.

Continue »

Okay, well, maybe not, but I do like this one. I am, of course, a bit biased as it was created by some students of a friend of mine. Although, I have to say, the video contains the best use of a shooting star effect that I’ve ever seen. You can see my friend, Finnie, next to his fly, fly rims about a minute or two into the video. He was also the person doing the camera work.

Continue »

Here was a rough draft of a comic strip idea we were throwing around at one point. The concept was to use a virtual world for actors and sets. Then to post process the resulting screenshots to effect a comic look. (shading post processing absent in this particular draft) Ultimately I think the “plot” and resulting writing wasn’t what we were looking for. I wouldn’t mind taking the visuals into a more non sequitur approach.

 (Note: This isn’t the full strip, if you were wondering why it wasn’t that funny. It’s missing the last two panels from the original script. )

This is the Unplayed Namer blog at Downloadable Suicide. These are some words. In the future, I’ll be writing more words, maybe even some of the ones I just put right here. They’ll probably be arranged differently, though, and in a manner where they relate to things like video games, technology or even comic books. I may also come up with one or two regular segments to post. We’ll see. The only thing that I can promise is more words.

This video podcast takes you through the early concept art and design of the original HL mod Natural Selection to the current development of Natural Selection 2. Cory, the primary concept artist, joins Flayra and Max this time around to talk about source material, tools, and iteration.

Continue »

With tomorow being the beginning of the work week, I thought some people out there might appreciate a little something from Nick Swardsen. Enjoy!

[funnyordie eab643de2f I.F.H. MONDAYS]

Welcome to iteration #3 of the DoSu site. We’re trying to find the right combination of elements and tools to inspire us to contribute regularly. If successful, I might actually link this site more often. (imagine that)

So, this version uses WordPress. I’ve installed and used it before on other sites, and it’s a decent tool. I tried using just forum software in the past with the first two versions by just outputting threads chronologically by topic date, but people seem less interested in creating regular entries in that “hackish” way. Now the forums are just there as an archive.

Iteration #2 was an attempt to focus on streaming videos, which seemed to only interest me in the end. I still like what I created and I’m going to maybe implement some of those ideas into something in this version.

I’m hoping everyone likes the new tools. I’m still working on the template and sticking in some plugins, so if you have any requests, let me know.