#Progress Report

Steve
Mar 8, 2013
10:45 AM
Steve Says:
a screen capture of famitracker in action. we're using famitracker to do music for the upcoming game Super Hematoma. this song is used in the alberta oil fields level

Title Theme

Back in 2011, when Matt originally proposed the idea of us working together on a game, the concept was that he would make a game, and I would make music for it. Of course things are turning out a little different now that we’ve actually decided to make a game together, but as you may have seen in the last post, I do have a fondness for music. I think that music is a pretty important part of the video game experience and began thinking about sound before I’d figured out how I wanted anything to look.

 

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#Sound

Steve
Mar 6, 2013
1:00 PM
Steve Says:
a photo taken on stage by Stephen Tucker during the Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses rehearsal in Vancouver, BC in 2012

Preaching to the Choir

I’m sure talking about how awesome video games are to people who are no doubt reading our site because they love video games is a little silly, but how about video game music? One thing that makes me a little sad about mobile games is the tendency for people to play on a bus either without sound at all, or while listening to their mp3 collection. While I’m probably preaching to the choir this time around, I also want to preach about the choir.

 

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#Cool Stuff

Steve
Mar 4, 2013
5:09 PM
Steve Says:
a screen grab taken from the boss Battle website for the megaman art show happening in San Francisco march 2013

Boss Battle

Saturday night: having watched the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies earlier in the week, I was suffering from a distinct lack of pizza consumption. I set out on a quest to obtain some of this cheesy pie and discover that the first place on the to-try list has no seating available. There was the option to head home pizza in hand to enjoy it in some peace and quiet… buuuuut instead I found myself walking even further from home, salivating and dreaming of ‘za. What relevance does all this have to Mega Man fan art you ask?

 

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#Progress Report

Steve
Mar 1, 2013
3:17 PM
Steve Says:
The first logo that we were considering for the game Super Hematoma which Sprixelsoft hopes to release on Steam and PSN

Logo Design

It’s tricky to develop a good logo! You want something that is identifiable, memorable, and communicates a message to those who will be looking at it. Company logos have the luxury of evolving over time, it’s the work that a company does that will make it last, and the logo is rarely a deciding factor in whether or not a company succeeds. But up on a title screen? It’s going to be the first thing that many people see, and it’s gotta put them in the mood.

 

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#Industry

Steve
Feb 27, 2013
3:43 PM
Steve Says:
a screen capture of a quote from a kotaku discussion about kickstarter

The Cost of Art

Better, Faster, Cheaper! It’s been the rallying cry in my vocation for a while now, as I’m sure it has been in many industries. Everyone is obsessed with getting shiny new things at a better price than their last deal. Convinced that if they manage to get something for cheaper this time, then it must mean that that is the new fair market price. It’s a problem in the creative industries because we’re so impassioned by what we do that we’re often willing to put ourselves into unhealthy conditions just to be able to continue doing what we love.

 

 

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#Pondering

Steve
Feb 25, 2013
4:38 PM
Steve Says:
the original nintendo seal of quality

Exclusivity

I only briefly mentioned before anything regarding Steam’s potential change of policy which would open Steam up to be much more of a democracy than it currently is. Not everyone agrees with me… but my personal stance on the issue is that I like that there is a bit of a curation process that helps to promote good games. But then, the ideals are always different from the reality. What exactly makes a game worthy of being put in front of an audience?

 

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#Progress Report

Steve
Feb 22, 2013
3:00 PM
Steve Says:
the concept sketch for an oil sands level which would take place in Sprixelsoft's Super Hematoma.

Levels

We knew right away that we wanted to make Super Hematoma a multi-player fighting game, but that we wanted to deviate from the usual fighting game standard by incorporating somewhat of a platforme-type style into the mechanics. We want players to be able to interact with the backgrounds, and for each level to have a little bit more character to it than a stage for the bruisers to merely move back and forth on while chipping away at each other’s life bar. Hopefully we can add a little more chaos into it than that.

 

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#Industry

Steve
Feb 20, 2013
5:10 PM
Steve Says:
part of the sony playstation meeting 2013's advertising video

PlayStation Meeting 2013

1997. Summer had come to an end. My second year year at Junior High school had recently begun.  I walked into the local GameZilla, no doubt returning a rental that I had recently made on some awesome SNES game. Probably Lufia or Breath of Fire, I’ve always had a soft spot for RPG’s. I would have dropped off the game into the bin next to the door and then, though my allowance only offered so many rentals a month, I probably went over to the shelves to purvey more of the precious lifeblood that filled my childhood veins.

 

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#Pixels

Steve
Feb 18, 2013
2:00 PM
Steve Says:
a snippet from an explosion sprite sheet that was used in the Metal Slug series for neo geo

Visual Effects in Retro Games

As I sat down today and started trying to figure out the workflow for one of our levels, I realized that I’m not as up on my 2D Effects animation as I should be. As a vfx artist for feature film, I’ve been spoiled with getting to mimic reality. I develop procedural systems for effects that react to what’s happening in the environment and just behave the way one would expect based on a pre-determined set of conditions. Simulation! It’s a whole different beast from what I’ll be doing in our game!

 

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#Progress Report

Steve
Feb 15, 2013
4:47 PM
Steve Says:
a comparison of various sprite designs that were attempted for sprixelsoft's super hematoma

Spriting

It’s been a busy week here at Sprixelsoft, developing the graphical style for Super Hematoma. Half of the work is figuring out the look of the graphics; after working out some general concepts for character designs I sat down this week and attempted to refine it into something that matches our retro vision.  But the other half of that work is, of course, deciding on some sort of a workflow to generate those precious works of art.

 

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