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Archive for September, 2010
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
This is by far one of my favorite characters in the Star Wars Universe and definitely one of my favorite prints in the Mondo Universe, Rhys Cooper’s SALACIOUS B. CRUMB!
Poster by Rhys Cooper. 24″x 36″ screen print w/ metallic inks. Hand numbered. Edition of 325. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Click HERE to buy.
Salacious Crumb is one of the first characters I brought up when brainstorming for the STAR WARS series. There are several things that make him stand out from the other characters in Jabba’s Palace and one of those is his design. Remembering how crazy detailed Rhys was with his past posters for us, we decided to let him attack Salacious. Here is what Rhys had to say about the project:
“I always thought Salacious Crumb is the kind of character that makes Star Wars great. Little personalities like his are what give the galaxy far far away its depth and diversity.”
Obviously this is on sale now online, but we are also offering a few copies to our Austin/ Fantastic Fest fans. Run over to 1120 S. Lamar Blvd. to grab your copy now!
-Justin
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Sunday, September 26th, 2010
Justin Smith is a funny, funny man. The lengths he goes to for his humor are pretty mindbending though. Enviro Bear 2000 isn’t a throwaway- it’s a pixel art driving game with simulated 3d and physics- and an angry badger that gnaws on your face… and mushrooms. It’s also an experiment about emergent gameplay (and comedy) coming from breaking, rather than improving controls. Enviro Bear is hard. You have only one point of contact with the screen- one bear hand (what is the bear doing with that other hand, anyway? Actually, don’t answer that). So you need to pull complex tricks off like wedging heavy objects on top of the gas pedal if you want to steer and accelerate at the same time. And then you’re in trouble if you need to stop suddenly. The forest is full of other bears in cars.
Justin gave a runthrough of some of his latest games for us yesterday, after briefly relating his early career and disillusionment with big budget games. Here’s a couple of clips.
-Wiley
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Saturday, September 25th, 2010
Everyone I spoke to after the Nacho Vigalondo and Jonathan Blow panel yesterday had a similar reaction to what they heard- that this was an intense discussion about the actual nature of games as narrative and their influence on the language of moving images that they never would have been able to witness at the overcrowded established industry gatherings. We expect to hear theory and sharp criticism out of Jonathan Blow, but the big surprise of the panel for Americans was that Nacho knows his games, and he’s put a lot of thought into both what makes a good game and what makes a good film. I couldn’t agree more with him on the point that it is very different qualities for either. Games need their own language to function, and when they rely on cinematic crutches like cutscenes that mimic gameplay with the freedom to play removed, or exposition to replace gameplay- or when they ape the themes, plots, and style of films already past- they are generally failing to be good games and end up as bad films. I can start and stop a movie with a remote control, that may be interactive, but it’s not a game.
In Who the Devil Made It? Peter Bodanovitch’s amazing look at the first wave of films ever to be made, and the trailblazers who invented cinema, he talks to directors who literally changed the way that viewers think. Things that seem so utterly basic to us now were actually at one time so bizarre to audiences that they cased vertigo and confusion. Viewers actually walked out of silent films at one time because they were confused by close-up shots of actors walking. Without seeing their whole body and feet, the audiences couldn’t understand what was happening in the scene. At the sight of the first shots where the camera actually moved as well as the actors it showed, audiences became sick from the unexpected change in perspective.
Sadly, I ran out of space on my phone for additional video while Nacho related his anectode about playing the ZX Spectrum game Way of the Exploding Fist Part II as a child. He talked about how the game was poorly coded, but as a child he had no concept of the limitations of the game, so when he found a bug that dropped him into an empty level where he was walking forward for an infinitely long stretch without facing an enemy, he thought it was part of the game- a fighting game turned into a confrontational game about patience. He ammended it with a story about another early game that in trying to faithfully recreate a conflict between Zulu warriors and British troops, ended up being impossible to win- and Became a piece that explores failure, something that never would have been done in a commercial game and may only just now be acceptable as our expectations of what games are slowly changes.
Just as these additions to the language of cinema have changed the way we think, the still-forming language of games is changing the way we think, and it’s informing cinema. Nacho was brave enough to utter something I had been thinking but that I figured no one would agree with- that Gaspar Noe’s film Enter the Void is a film highly influenced by the language of games, and a film that might actually lend itself to being a game. Enter the Void is a brilliant experiment in perspective- something that can actually be explored in a game world as opposed to just theorized about in the narrative of a film. A real camera can only do so many things, but a ‘camera’ in a game world can do just about anything. The shifting perspective in Enter the Void behaves like the camera in a game. It can go anywhere, it can be anything.
The power of creating a game world is the power to play with the basic rules of the universe, or to subtract superfluous things until you are left with one concept that you want to explore. Jonathan Blow’s Braid plays with variations on the rules that govern time. Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes helps us understand time as an unchanging 4th dimentional sculpture- where even attempts to manipulate time never change its shape. They are almost sister works.
-Wiley Wiggins
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Saturday, September 25th, 2010
In a world where art is continually gang-borked into homogeny by commerce, no form is bullied quite as hard as games, the much-maligned younger sibling of movies. Games, at their best, require you to actually interact- instead of just staring at them while you pound chee-toes into your face. But since humanity has a rapidly diminishing ability to solve problems (or speak in complete sentences), any game that forces you to think or feel anything beyond the limited sugar-high of shooting strangers in the face and then grunting out slurs on their sexuality is immediately looked at as profit-killing poison. That’s why an independent game festival is so needed, and to have one under the nurturing canopy of Fantastic Fest is godsend. There are incredibly weird, imaginative games being hatched out there in the margins, and they may not appeal to any ‘corn-sugar’ fattened rugrats or dead-eyed gun-nuzzling fratboys. I like death and destruction better than most, but sameness and withered imaginations are what sell now, and what sells shouldn’t decide what the rest of us get to experience. Especially when so much is possible.
 IGF chairperson Brandon Boyer conducts a panel with “Spelunky” creator Derek Yu, “Braid” Creator Jonathan Blow, and “Everybody Dies” creator Jim Munroe
Fantastic Arcade is Curated by Mike Plante, who originally nurtured the idea for CineVegas during his time as director of programming. The festival, in it’s first year, features panel discussions with some of the most interesting personalties in the scene, indie games from around the world, built into beautiful full-size arcade cabinets and Rows of gaming PC’s, loaded with more competition and showcase games, and with an awesome recreation of the Alamo South Lamar theater and The Highball as a Left4Dead 2 mod. Console stations with indie offerings already in distribution line the walls, and also have featured play areas in the Highball’s Karaoke rooms.
I’m going feature a few of the games that are in the festival with each of my posts during the week, as well as show you pictures and video clips from some of the happenings as I stumble through them.
Sword & Sworcery EP
‘rustic 21st century minimalism’
Sword & Sworcery isn’t out yet, but it has already created quite a buzz. It’s a stark, fat-pixeled adventure game that recalls quiet, moody and cinematic games of the past like Out of this World- when developers and animators did so much with such scarce resources. I haven’t got my hands on this one yet, but the developers are going to be here at Fantastic Arcade to show it off, and I wanted to prep you with a peek at what it looks like. This one is an iPhone/iPad game, and it uses the touchscreen for controls, and orientation to switch between exploration and battle modes.I’ll be posting a longer S&S:EP piece today after Craig Adams’ talk.
It’s no surprise that a lot of new indies are eschewing pre-fab 3d engines and embracing their roots with 2d graphics and pixel art. Either for fast prototyping of games where concept is the key, or a feeling that basic tenets of gameplay need to be rethought and mastered rather than hidden, sometimes simple is best.
Norrland
Norrland is what would have happened if, in the 80′s, nihilistic Swedes were allowed to make a hunting game for the Atari 2600. This is a menacing and hilarious game that involves humping dead deer until a seminal geyser eructates from their neck-stumps, drinking beer and shitting in the woods with track-and-field button tapping, and bizarre dream-sequence minigames that feel like the designers of Swordquest went on an ether-binge in the carpathians. Frequently, I completely misunderstood the object of a minigame while playing it- but again, frustration and a little drudgery is part of the theater of this game, and for its surreal qualities and meanness of spirit (one of the most entertaining moments of fun is to be had when an animal charges you while you are out of bullets, and you have the opportunity to punch it in the face. On top of all this, Swedish title cards with English subtitles make this the most cinematic 2600-style game ever. Fuck you, E.T.
Every Day the Same Dream
Every Day the Same Dream uses video game conventions to satirize real life- Repeating the same workday infinitely until every possible deviation can be mapped out (for instance, going to work without putting on any clothes). The limitations of linear games lend themselves easily to a parody of an actual work day. EDTSD pushes the player to rebel against the sort of cow-clicking zynga grind that some games impose in a warped assumption that exploiting people’s task-completion/reward psychology equals “fun”. Here repetition is attrition and failure, and any deviation from that repetition, even suicide, is a success.
EDTSD was coded in a 6-day game programming contest, and as is often the case with games that come from these contests (cannabalt by Adam Atomic is a good example), it’s quick, pure, and to the point.
-Wiley Wiggins
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Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Today we have a very special release in our Lucasfilm Star Wars poster series. We are proud to present Ken Taylor’s Bounty Hunters- Wave 1…
Poster by Ken Taylor. 12″x 36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 425. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Click HERE to buy.
“Both infamous and anonymous at the same time, Bounty Hunters are far more than mercenaries for hire – they’re heirs to a professional legacy – an ancient brotherhood with a glorious history.” -Anonymous
The amount of time it took to read the above line is roughly how long the bounty hunters were on screen in Empire Strikes Back. Think about that for a second; what other characters in cinema history can boast that claim? On the deck of the Executor, Darth Vader tasks six Bounty Hunters to find the Millennium Falcon. As he says this, one Bounty Hunter growls and one says “As you wish” and that’s it. No massive firefight ensues, nor is there an origin given and hardly any of them are ever seen or talked about again! They are merely seen standing, yet they are some of the most popular characters in the entire Star Wars Universe.
For this reason, we chose the Bounty Hunters as our next poster release and decided to give them the royal poster treatment. Instead of doing a traditional large format poster featuring all of them together, we would produce six character posters that could either be displayed as a group or individually.
The posters are on sale now and just to clarify, you get ALL THREE posters in the set. When you make the purchase, you will also get first crack at buying Wave 2 of the Bounty Hunters. When checking out, make sure your contact email is updated as that is the email we will send the information to regarding the Wave 2 advanced purchase. We also just confirmed that Wave 2 will be revealed on G4′s Attack of the Show very soon, so keep a look out.
-Justin
Posted in Miscellaneous | 23 Comments »
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
The Alamo Drafthouse has been having some amazing shows lately and we are thrilled to have been able to create posters to commemorate them. First up is the classic German film DER GOLEM…
Poster by The Silent Giants. 18″x 24″ screen print w/ glow in the dark inks. Hand numbered. Printed by VG Kids. Edition of 100. Click HERE to buy.
We love working with The Silent Giants and as you can see, they really did a great job. No expenses were spared with the details on this piece. It was printed with metallic and glow in the dark inks and they also added secret messages to the poster. Here are some detail shots of the actual poster…
We asked Methane Studios to produce a poster for the Terror Tuesday screening of Westworld.
Poster by Methane Studios. 19″x 32″ screen print. Signed, numbered and printed by the artists. Edition of 200. Click HERE to buy.
The detail on this poster is incredible. Notice the circuitry in Yul Brenner’s hat…
-Justin
Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Today we offer our sixth poster in our ongoing Lucasfilm poster series. We reached out to a new artist named Shan Jiang and he turned in this exquisite work…
Poster by Shan Jiang. 24″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 410. Click HERE to buy.
Shan took some time out to talk about the thoughts that went into making Dawn of Tatooine:
“Imagining what those people on Tatooine see in every day life is something I wanted to create for this Star Wars poster. One of the Sandtroopers is patrolling on the night shift and decides to stay up on a high rock with his Dewback. Maybe he is waiting to see the sunrise or just wants to be alone for a little while. It s a little peace before things eventually go wrong.”
Check out these photos of the actual poster and the amazing detail Shan put into it.
-Justin
Posted in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
We’ve decided that since this is a holiday and since we haven’t had a sale for a while, we’ll give all you people out there 30% off of shirts for the weekend. This will be good for online and in-store purchases. We’re trying to clear out a little space because we have a bunch of new designs coming very soon. When you order, the discount will be taken out in the shopping cart. The items will still show full price, but the discount will be there when you check out….don’t worry.
Not only are we giving you 30% off, but we also got new stickers in from Skinner. Well, we’ve had the Medusa stickers before, but we reprinted them on clear vinyl with the green eyes knocked out. Those with Macbooks, check out what you can do with this!
Enjoy the extended weekend!
-Justin
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Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
This marks the third release in our Star Trek series with CBS and we decided to use one of our favorite artists to tackle one of Star Trek’s most cold and sinister villains….the Borg!
Poster by Ken Taylor. 24″x36″ screen print w/ metallic inks. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 210. Click HERE to buy.
We also made a glow in the dark variant where we printed EVERY INK WITH GLOW. This has an edition of only 80 and is available HERE. Here is a photo of the glow in action.
We are unbelievably proud about how well these came out. Ken did an amazing job on capturing the look and feel of First Contact. The first two releases in our STAR TREK series focused on episodes from the original series. SPACE SEED and THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES both featured iconic characters and creatures, so we decided to put the spotlight on one of the most recognized and loved of all STAR TREK characters…the Borg. Not only are the Borg incredibly interesting and visually stunning, but they function as a cohesive unit with the queen as their leader hence the reason we chose to focus on her for our newest poster. We are proud to have First Contact as our third entry to the series. I’ll leave you with some detail shots of the poster so you can see all of the many details including the metallic ink we printed with…
-Justin
Posted in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »
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