Maybe you have, but I just wanted to take some cool pictures :-)

I did a double take when I saw these at the checkout in Bed, Bath & Beyond of all places. At first glance I thought they were cheap knockoffs-- but they are actually really nice quality tins! Sure enough, there is a sanctioned Nintendo seal on the bottom.

In addition to the 1-UP they've got a red mushroom and a ? box.

The candy is probably secondary here, but it is tasty, a little like Sweet Tarts. This was also surprising, 'cause if you've ever sampled some of the toy-wrapped treats the Far East usually has to offer, the candy is not far removed from chalk.

At three bucks, these Super Mario Bros. tins are a steal as far as collectibles go!

A Wizard World convention was in Austin this past weekend... It was pretty cool to be in Artist Alley during the show, and even cooler to meet a few D-toid community members who were able to come by and say hello (thanks guys!!).

But on a whim, the gf and I brought our DS's to the show and popped in a copy of Dragon Quest IX. We hopped into the Stornway Inn and set the mode to "Canvas for Guests." sure enough, by the end of the weekend we had no less than seven new guests!

Not only is that a cool feature for the game that works great in public gatherings (one can only imagine the crowds amassed at something like PAX), but I think it's super cool that there are perfect strangers out there who also got my own character to show up in their game. So if any of you out there have a couple new guests by the name of Edco and Vinx, thanks for the canvas!

UPDATE: This post got kinda jacked during the whole Destructoid changeover and subsequent un-changeover. Looks like the comments were lost :-( and the pic layout changed. oh well.

In my fleeting spare time I like to work on sprites. Sometimes they get into a game, sometimes they don't. The fate of this little lass is uncertain at the moment, but I'm working on it.

The character concept started with some sketches. It's not always easy to translate into pixels, but I'm pretty pleased so far :-) In my fleeting spare time I like to work on sprites. Sometimes they get into a game, sometimes they don't. The fate of this little lass is uncertain at the moment, but I'm working on it. The character concept started with some sketches. It's not always easy to translate into pixels, but I'm pretty pleased so far :-)    

ModNation Racers Career Mode frustrates me to no end, but all I really want to do is make cars-- so here's the Destructoid racecar I just finished!

-- 100% sticker limit!
-- kickass rocket engine!
-- Florida plates, yo!



I think it came out pretty good :-) It should be shared and available if you've got ModNation Racers, the car is simply called "DESTRUCTOID." If it helps searching, my PSN name is Super_Edco.



BUT HEY! Maybe you want to make your own Destructoid car. In that case, I've posted a second car with just the base stickers to do with as you please. It's called "Destructoid STICKER SET." I do have to warn you the stickers add up quick, but if you know your way around the creator, you can ungroup some things and take out some of the finer details that are really only for the larger sizes.



If you make any cars be sure and let me know!

There is a special place in my heart for games and artists who keep the Sprite Train steaming along. Once in a blue moon, I get to hop on board.

Ace Yeti Trapper is an iphone game I worked on recently, it's actually a fairly old mobile game the designer (my boss) wanted to upgrade. And he was insistent on using hand-drawn sprites for the, um, sprites. We did do some preliminary work creating 3D models and rendering them out as frames, but it became clear that the character presentation needed to keep that 2D pixel pushin' love.


Here's a look at the development process to define my little dudes. If you look close you can see the original sprite from the mobile game, as well as early versions at a smaller scale. Would you believe I animated sprites for the entire game at the small scale before it was decided to go bigger? In 2D, that's a total do-over. Such are the perils of game development.


This is a close-up look at the game's hero, Jack Bivouac, the titular Ace Yeti Trapper…


… And the elusive Yeti that must be trapped. If you want to see him animating in action, click here.


There are other beasts in the game to be trapped, too. The animals were not done by me, but by a buddy sprite enthusiast. My man Jason totally went to town on these guys-- check out the spots on the snow leopard, which he then animated! Insane!


One of my favorite things to do are object sprites, all the cute little pickups and FX in the game. Above are the various baits you use to catch beasties in the game, they were a lot of fun to create.


For a little more background on how it's done, I do my preliminary sprites and art targets in Photoshop. Then I use a program called ProMotion to animate-- one pixel at a time. Well, ProMotion certainly has a lot of tools to make things easier, but it's fascinating how much nuance can be achieved at the single pixel level.

To see these sprites doing what they do best, you should check out Ace Yeti Trapper for iPhone. I know that's a(nother) shameless plug I've made for it here on D-toid, but trust me when I say there's no crafty marketing team behind this. Modern sprite games are a rare breed and I'm just trying to give the game to get a little attention. Plus I genuinely hope fellow d-toiders and retro-fans would like a look behind the scenes.

Since I live all of five minutes from a Best Buy, I thought I'd just stroll on over for the special Midnight release of FF13. And that's was the jist of it, no giant crowds to fight through here in North Austin. There were about 20 dedicated FF fans waiting by the door, half of which were revealed to be pre-orders. So, in and out in the time it would take to get back home.

But anyways:



Yes, I am totally psyched to finally have this in hand! I will work diligently to carve out the necessary time needed to enjoy...

Anyone brave any late night release shenanigans?