More gamer stuff in an art blog

I should start a gamer blog, but who the darn would read something they've already read in every other gamer blog on the internet.

But anyway, some quick notices on gaming news that I actually care about:

1.

While a preview isn't availible anywhere on the internet right now, I recently came across some CHOWDER gamer pictures over at the Xbox Live Marketplace. I love Chowder and this made me very happy inside. For 100 MSPoints, you get six gamer pictures featuring those of Chowder, Mung Daal, Shnitzel, Truffles, Panini, and ENNNNDIIIIIVEEE.... >B[ Just check under the Cartoon Network section of the Gamerpics marketplace. Flapjack Gamer pictures can be found there, too.


2.

Banjo-Kazooie's enlarged text is now availible as a downloadable patch for the game. See the BK Blog for details.

I still haven't drawn in a while and .... if I do shell out a christmas pic, it'll be late, so for now...

Have some mail-ordered Chowder i drew for Tora's package last year!

Nothing for show today, but I promised my aunt Medi I'd show off more pictures of little Mikey. Where are my others?

Xbox 360 Achievements

I was going to put these on my DeviantArt blog yesterday. Forgot to, of course, as I actually went back to some of my older games

Banjo-Kazooie 8/12
There's an achievement I can't get now because of the Bottles' Bonus problem, but given this game file has 11 hours of gameplay clocked in (4 hours tied to Mad Monster Mansion alone), it's best if I started a new game anyway, do a proper speed run and get myself somewhere higher than 3000 on the leaderboard once I do collect everything.

Jetpac Refuelled: 10/12
All that's left is to complete all 16 levels of retro (made it to 14 at most) and all levels of the Refuelled mode, but I keep dying at the Outpost Kazooie (level 93). It feels impossible! XD

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts: 33/50
Some of these are wierd, the rest just relies on more game completion and multiplayer whoring. The whoring I'm not very good at.

Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise: 7/50
I should really try sprucing up my babies for the challenges rather than complaining about having to master-romance all mother of Flutterscotch varities again! Something I've still failed to complete in the first game!

Viva Pinata: 44/50
I still need a single pinata to be worth 10,000 coins and the rest are SECRETS

Bully: 21/38
Perfectionist, clearing side missions, and pulling hundreds of each kind of prank. All doable, but will take a while.

Crash of the titans: 47/47
I'm very proud of this. I really am. Still the only Xbox 360 game to date where I've nabbed every achievement.

Mind over Mutant: 19/48
Minigame arenas, voodoo doll collecting, and I have to fully upgrade everyone. I'm missing a Wumpa Voodoo doll and I have no idea where it is despite circling Wumpa Island a lot more than I already have to for storyline progression!

Aegis Wing: 10/12
Need 185,000 points and to clear all the enemies in a single stage. what?

Kameo: 21/50
A-ranks? Expert Mode? Co-Op A-rank? Multiplayer whoring? PFFFF!

Castlevania: 2/12
I'm still stuck at the first boss.


Other games I play on the system are:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Psychonauts
Freaky Flyers.

If Ghoulies was ported to Xbox Live Arcade, I would totally buy it again.

New Art Supplies

New Bristolboard and pens sent to me as an early Christmas present from my friend Elegance Liberty

And a new tablet from my mother.

Now I'm just like, stumped at what to draw. I tried out Tegaki with the tablet
I'm happy that I don't have to rely on anymore pen-mashing to swap colors and pen sizes. I'm also greatly amused that in Banjo-Kazooie, everytime I go into the Mad Monster Mansion bathroom, an epic Stop-n-Swop fanfare ensues. I paid little attention to the hack spoilers back in the day, so this came as a total surprise. And given I spent four hours in gameplay looking for the four missing notes in MMM that the Bottles Bonus challenge took away, I made more than ten trips into that bathroom. Fanfare after Fanfare after Fanfare even with the egg long gone. All that's there is a happy toilet. Maybe I'm too easilly amused!

But yeah. Bamboo tablet's doing good so far but I should try it in a real art program before really deciding if it does me justice!


Oh, and for the relatives, here's an update on my nephew.

Comic-Con Portfolio Reviews

I had these written down on my cellphone back when Comic-Con International was held at the end of July, but never got around to posting these. I probably have somewhere ............. pfft!

Part of my time spent in Comic-Con that weekend was at Portfolio review sessions. I'll be quite honest, not only have I had no idea what I actually want to do with my art, I didn't get around much to improving my art to more professional standards nor teach myself 3D as I had wanted to this past year, mostly for lack of time and concentration which lead to lack of motivation. So my portfolio had... whatever I could dig up from from my pile of concepts and blatant fangirling, which is kinda shameful coming exactly one year after I sent another of my portfolios to get reviewed by a game company just to see if I had a chance at becoming an artist in that industry.

One piece of advice is to have an idea of where you're going. If you don't, let the reviewer know so you two can discuss options. If you don't know where to go, the reviewer won't know what to suggest and you'll just sit there in front of thousands of other applicants just derping around like.... what?

Also, if you're more of a cartoony artist, don't go to a company that dishes out the complete opposite or vice versa. It's wierd!

I did learn through the reviews that I'm into storyboarding. I just need to come up with material to practice my storyboarding on and I'll be more prepared for reviews next Comic-Con. I'm no writer, so this is kind of hard! c:

But anyway, the reviews:

First one I went to was a company called "Secret Level" which is a part of Sega. I didnt know until the actual review that these people did fantasy fairy painty stuff, hence my advice as to carefully choose who to review you.

According to my notes:
So... my first portfolio review at Sega's Secret Level booth. My style is very fun and very manga-influenced. The guy told me that I either have to be more varied in style to be able to work at a game company, or find a company that my style would fall into. He also told me... To get a book called "Scripts to Screens" And to take up on webcomics. He also told me twice my style was perfect for something like Gaia. But he said to keep having fun what I'm doing.


I'm still lolling at the Gaia part. I know he meant well, but it still felt a bit insulting! Seriously.... GAIA ONLINE!


My second stop was good old Cartoon Network. I seriously have NOT drooled with this much anticipation since I sent my stuff to Rare last year, and I wasn't the only one with the rediculous line I had to sit through.

Notes:

Cn's feedback: I have lots of potential. My stuff is fantastic for someone mostly self-taught. Keep at it. "Your stuff is not quite what we're looking for." Read books And I was handed a portfolio advice pamplet and a doodle sheet to draw some of their characters. The guy wrote down a phone number to someone who he told me to call once I refine my portfolio for another review.

That went well! And no gaia directs!

The major downside of that review was that Chowder creator Carl Greenblatt was the one doing the reviews on Friday, but then two turns before mine came out, he switched out for someone else and my portfolio was reviewed by an artist for Ben10 Alien Force. Not to say he wasn't a nice guy because we had a really nice review session going, but he told me more than once that Mr. Greenblatt was better-suited to reviewing my art.

I saw Greenblatt again at the booth the next day, but I was sure CN was still backlogged with reviewers until next doomsday.

On a side note, I got to meet Greenblatt twice on Sunday- during his autograph-signing and outside the con when he was on his way home. I was happy, needless to say!

But more Comic-Con Fangirlery will come in another post!

I had also signed up for Nickelodeon on Friday, but they were so backlogged that my turn didn't come until Saturday afternoon.

Notes:
"I see you draw anime!"
And he spent most of our time obsessing over my use of prismacolors and how I used them to make a comic.
Took my business card and resume print, scribbled notes all over and kept it.

Overall, we had a nice discussion of stuff.


But it had me thinking...
... Sega told me to read books on Storyboarding (and I would be good for Gaia)
... Cartoon Network told me to be cleaner with my comic inking
... Nickelodeon suggested nothing to me. The guy just spazzed over my marker usage.

Part of me feels that was too easy for comfort.

I wish I could do one more review tomarrow after the Chowder panel, but everyone is still backlogged from Friday/Saturday. I checked out the indies at the exhibit hall but it didn't look like anyone else was accepting portfolios.

So I still have all my CDs. I'll probably trash them in favor of making a better, NOT-RUSHED portfolio over the next while. I did learn a lot. Not so much as to how to improve my art, but how to set my direction when I decide what specifically I want to do in the industry.

That's about it. In the end, I'm glad I did this no matter how much I complain.

And that ends my portfolio reviewing adventures. Photos and stuff will come in the future. For now, here's some of my portfolio entries. Like I said, I didn't know my direction, so a good friend of mine told me to cover as many corners as possible with what I had since I didn't have a lot of time on my hands to draw fresh material.