Author Archives: omegaCarotene

telc-Tonic series, no.001: power-UP

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telcB-2o14tonicEquatn_n01_P-iichug chug chug…

And what is it that we’re talking about today?  After a night of no sleep (yet), i’m not entirely sure anymore myself… Something about tonics and equations, possibly the fact that i consumed a can of Kirin ビール (beer) with my late-night snack each night for the last 3 nights in a row―except for this past night, and talk of…er…long-eared woodland creatures.  Or perhaps in my case, probably not so long-eared (considering my leporine-design preference).

Lest this recent bout of light-weight lager-consumption should continue on for a good several months uninterrupted, it seems unlikely Continue reading →

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Telc Blast: kickin’ off the 2nd week of the New Year with a nifty new jetpack~

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telcB-2o14jan_jetPk-NYy01_P-ii Telcihc の 2o14 new year’s jetpack-thingamjigger … 

7~8 days into the new year 2o14 is still new, right?  At least we’re still in the first 14 days, heh~  So…happy 2nd week of 2o14, everyone!

So far the new year has consisted of some NYE-partying with family & friends, vector Art-drawing, a bit of wine-tasting and one can of beer (so far), and a decent bit of Spelunky ‘ing with some shameless damsel & yeti-sacrificing plus reckless idol-grabbing.  ‘Tis kickin’ off to be not to shabby a year, i’d say.  ^__^

I must admit that the above image may be a bit potentially misleading, as Continue reading →

nearing the edge of 2o13…or that of 2o14, depending on how u look at it~

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gam03-1_vwHO_Gam-sc02-telcJ-iiHeyo!  After a long hiatus, we’re now right on the brink of the end of 2o13…or the beginning of 2o14, depending on how one looks at it.

So, what better way to wrap up the end of the year than taking a look at the past…from the year before?  Okay, so that probably doesn’t quite make sense, but what the heck.   So…here’s my first vector concept-illustration (from april 2o12) for how i pictured my signature character , the cyborg-bunny dr. julius “oC” telcihc,  would look in a 2D platformer. 

Happy New Year everyone (we’re almost there!), thanx for reading, and cya next year~!       >[:) 

vid-games’ baddies: the vampiric swarm~

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’cause nothing else makes your day  during a leisurely romp through a game-world quite like being chowed on by a couple dozen lil’ hungry critters that slowly–but surely–sap away your sweet, sweet, precious HP…and the only way to get them off is to run around thrashing like a bloomin’ idjiot~       >[:) 

cHompa! : fake game boxArt 1

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an old mock-up of mine (from 2oo7, i think it was?) with ‘shoppery & illustrator.  Contra 4 , developed by the awesome WayForward Technologies and released in 2oo7, was—not that i’m comparing this to it in any way—simply sublime…if your idea of sublimation includes dying over and over again as you learn to platform your way through environments ranging from lush jungles to fetid alien interiors, blasting away endless friggin’ hordes of alien scum without dying so much, and loving every masochistic moment of it.  i believe the DS was in its heyday at the time, heh~

yeah, it’s true that you totally can’t tell what type of game (concept) this cHompa!  is supposed to be, just based on the front panel, but meh…  perhaps an update one of these day…       >[:) 

when you just slap something down and call it a publication~

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so i have this lil’ animation idea just flip-booking away in mind, like one involving my signature character, the mad scientist cyborg-bunny, dr. julius “oC” telcihc…but, at this point in time, it’s just not quite coming together yet…  so meanwhile, there’s this.  and what does this mean?  i’m kinda in the process of trying to figure that one out myself…

er…….yay~       >[:p 

Telc Blast: dev-Journal entry no.003: sprites

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Telcihc sprite-Sheet no.1

It’s been just over a month since i’d posted the previous entry my dev-Journal for my w-i-p flash game Telc Blast (working title), as i’ve been rather occupied talking about spam, wall-Chicken, and various other twistedness, but now we’re back at it again!
…Wait, come back!  this isn’t some creepy Smeagle/Gollum or Venom like situation where i constantly refer to myself as we ; rather, i like to think of it as we : you the reader(s), and i, the person who has written that which you are now reading.  Without readers, a blog might not cease to be  a blog, but it would certainly be a rather sad example of one.  But, silly quasi-existential drek aside, now let’s move onto my ramblings about some of the games that i enjoy and—for this project and some littleBigPlanet  levels— turn to for inspiration…

kobun-Sack by vin-[oC]Being a MegaMan /ロックマン fan, i’d originally planned on making the game a 2D platforming shooter, and had even played some MegaMan2  (technically the Rockman Complete ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎 version that is available on PSN) for some reference; we tend to be inspired by what we like after all.  I’m currently still stuck on the Wily Machine (UFO?), as this game is rock-hard.  Later, i’d changed this to a melee-attack, hence the “melee-01” pose in the image above.  Thus, aside from my opinion that the Castlevania  series contains some pretty friggin’ fun games, i’ve recently been playing both some Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge  and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia  (released 2oo8 on the Nintendo DS in NA regions)  for reference.  Should you care to read about some other opinionated rants regarding some specific game elements from the aforementioned series, such as Robot Ride Armors and wall-Chicken, then click the red links in this sentence.

Live + learn + play (my variation of what a fellow gamer/blogger-duo ConnorBros likes to say), and please feel free to comment!       >[:)

SPAM musubi & digital shenanigans

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Unlike most  of the other photos displayed on this blog (or all  the other photos, at least as of this writing), this one is actually not my own.  the truth is i’d stolen it from somewhere off the interwebz (via google search, though i suspect this as a likely origin), so in no way do i intend to take credit for the cooking + displaying + photographing that went into creating this tasty looking morsel/appealingly simple food photo.  kudos to whomever, somewhere in the world!  But, i will  take credit for the leporine ‘shoppery that had been afflicted upon said photo, which was some amusing bit of fun in the execution.

LBPr-iConRus_artsy-Paint1_P-iNow…does this make me a bad person, or could this be interpreted as vandalism in some way, shape, and/or form? (**proceeds to search web for a satisfactory definition for the word “vandalism.” **)  And in an almost entirely unrelated experiment, i present to you:  http://bit.ly/14pIFSY ( <– click if the thought of fish brains tickles your fancy).  To those of you, my anonymous readers of the world, who have actually read this far, i give you me genuine appreciation.  Now imagine that in a Scottish accent (Glasgwesian, perhaps?), a la the phenomenal Trainspotting , a film by Danny “28 Days Later” Boyle about skag + life + Obi-Wan Junkie.  Because Scottish accents are cool.  (This is what happens when one attempts to blog about an insubstantial topic after a night of sub-4hr of sleep and a day of errands.)

Mastication is good, and hooray for the amorphous concept that is potential internet indecency!  signing off~       >[:)

WYREwork: bC-sinD

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bC-sinD (WYREwork no.13) – dec.2oo8 ~

WYREwork is about creating spacial forms from metallic lines, finding the balance between structure and flexibility. this is a “bottle crab,” with the concept extended from real-life hermit crabs; note the bottle cap for scale.  as a crab, this lil’ guy is short  2 pairs of legs, but that’s stylized design for ya.  for a quadruped (lolz) like this, balance is a much simpler matter than for bipedal sculptures; nevertheless, it has always been important to me that my sculptures—should they have  legs—be able to balance steadily without the aid of any external armature.  please feel free to comment!  ^-^

sometimes, it’s good to be twisted~!  more in omegaCarotene’s WYREworks gallery …       >[:)

the Culinary Mystery of classic Castlevania’s Wall-Chicken

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Picture this: you are Christopher Belmont, Simon’s ancestor from 1oo years prior to the events of the original Castlevania , and basically a Conan the Barbarian look-alike.  It is 1591 AD, five years prior to the birth of René Descartes (nothing to do with Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge , really, but his evil daemon/evil genius concept is fun),  and you’re trekking your way through the spacious 4-shades-of-gray halls of  Cloud Castle, the airy—yet (oddly) fully enclosed—home of Angel Mummy*, one of ol’ Dracula’s dusty, dual-skulled lackeys.  Trusty Vampire Killer whip in hand, you have endured unholy horrors like flaming knights and knife-throwing lizard-men, survived spiked ceiling and deadly mechanized pulleys, all in the quest to save your bewitched son Soleiyu…but now you’re tired, hungry, and in need of some HP-replenishing nourishment.  So what do you do?   Continue reading →

the forgotten Journey

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Ah, it has been many months since i’d last played Journey , an experience that was beautifully sublime the first time through (i have completed it twice to date, and currently have a 57% trophy completion rate).  Since it’s release via PSN digital download on the ps3 over a year ago (mar13th2o13 in North America), there have been countless fan-art created and blogs written about the game, with some reading religious themes within its wordless tale.  I personally see the entire experience of that game as an allegory for life and reincarnation, the latter of which is a concept that i find fascinating to read about, but am uncertain about when it comes to belief.  I consider myself agnostic, and i feel it’s more truthful to say that i want to  believe—rather than do  believe—in something greater than our tangible human experience…whatever that means.

With its unspoken philosophy that has been deliberately left open to various interpretations, Journey  stands a shining paragon of video games as an art form, and a fine contemporary example of how the story of a game can be told through visuals and music, rather than through text or recorded speech.  And my, are the atmospheric visuals truly something to behold.

As for the music, the game surrounds one with a layered, epic score as varied in tone and mood as the environments that one will traverse throughout the quest.

The image at the beginning of this post is one that i’d created for my sackiCon series in adobe illustrator (i love vector art!), with the look for this particular sackiCon based on the Journey Costume in littleBigPlanet .       >[:) 

say “Cheese,” burger, cuz you’re on a blog

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in-N-out Double-Double:  animal style (with pickles and onions grilled in mustard)~

Sometimes, nothin’ else quite satisfies you like a nice, juicy cheeseburger.  It’s not exactly the ideal gaming food, and definitely not something you’ll want to eat while driving, unless having greasy morsels of beef and bits of lettuce falling in your lap is your idea of enjoying a meal; in my opinion, any good  burger is one that will inevitably get messy while you eat it.

culinary sackiCon

If one is truly hell-bent on mixing gaming and gastronomic activities (and i’m not talking about wall chicken*, either), one solution includes using a fork + knife + plate.  But that’s no way to really dig into a sauce-dripping, succulent burger, as many games require two hands to be played properly, and those that ones that can be operated by waggling a single Wiimote…almost don’t qualify as games.  At least not ones really worth my personal time.  When it comes to gaming & snacking, one could also consider options like eating sliced fruit or chopped meats (i love dry salami and coppa!) with a fork, or even potato chips with chopsticks.  Yes, i’ve done that before.  ‘Cause greasy controllers are just…wrong.

But, back to the picture-related topic: in my mind, a good burger should always contain some crisp lettuce and sliced tomatoes sandwiched between the [ideally] lightly toasted buns along with the melted cheese and savory beef patties.  The veggie & fruit help balance out the flavors, providing a cool & crisp contrast to the salty greasiness of the ground beef…not to mention that they add to one’s diet some small amounts of dietary fiber and lycopene.   Aesthetically, the edible flora also add some delightful reds and greens to usual meaty textured-browns and shiny yellows.  While cheeseburgers are quite a different animal from the dishes in Taiwanese cuisine, i believe the concept of “色，香，味” (literally color, fragrance, flavor ) also apply, with “color” referring to the visual aesthetic appeal of a dish.  Btw, while writing this, i’d not only salivated profusely (something which my keyboard can attest to), but also found a cool lil’ blog with some tasty burger tips (amongst other food-themed wordery).

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Though it’s often mildly—if temporarily—torturous on one’s stomach, there’s this strange satisfaction to be had from taking macro photos of food prior to consumption.  Click!  nom nom nom…

In-N-Out Burger joints are available in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Texas.
* Fans of the pre-Symphony of the Night Castlevania games are likely familiar with this gravelly and inexplicably situated, yet oddly nutritious HP-replenishing item. 

Mastication is good!  For a somewhat different (and less carnivorous) perspective on food & nerdery from a different spot on the globe, check out Put-Putt’s Blog~       >[:) 

the Room of game-Geekery

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GCR by vin-[oC]
when games collide no.o2  –  dec2oo9 ~

here we have what is essentially a geekified version of my room, modeled in Maya and mapped with 128×128 textures (think Nintendo 64 era graphics).  while i do (irl) have a habit of making my bed everyday, the bed is admittedly a bit spartan.  i think all of my cast shadow are way on the light side, too; the whole thing could certainly benefit from some ambient occlusion baked-in.  and the rug design is too light to read as any intelligible image.  the shelves on the wall need some cast shadows.  there’s some oddness to the grass around the base of the Moai in the corner…it could use a couple mounds of dirt around there—and speaking of the Moai Ester Isle head, there’s no friggin’ way that the architectural structure of an average Spanish-style house in the Bay area could support that kind of weight on the second floor… sweet mother of—someone hand me a Gravity Hammer, now!  we’re tearing this puppy down!

3D-art Sack by vin-[oC]how many game/geekery characters or icons can you spot in the room above?

'shroom-Sack by vin-[oC]       Live + learn + play~!!               >[:)