Flash Splash.

Conventional logic says in a troubled economy - if you have a good job you should keep it at all costs! So what did I do with my lush game industry art job at Sony? I put in my two weeks notice.
As of mid November I'll be working full-time on Flash games, scrambling to bring home enough pennies to feed these beautiful hungry babies I got, little Mylo & Jax. Luckily I have some great programmers to work with, including Mr. Nick who I finished ScamperGhost with as well as Mr. Chaz from FlashChaz.com, maker of one of my favorite games: pixelBOMB 2.

Anyhow, on behalf of Jess & Mylo & Jax, please wish me luck on this venture. I have no choice but to succeed at all costs. It's either that or homelessness and hunger. How's that for motivation?

PS. I might re-open my Etsy shop if I can figure out how to manage the time for such a thing. Those extra print sales could mean a chance to go to Starbucks every once in a while. Ah, the joys of a frugal lifestyle!

Pingz! Bouncing balls and nabbing coins!

Tonight I've been playing Pingz! which is definitely in my top 10 favorite flash games of all time list. It has a nice clean menu and UI that makes it feel like a real game, and the gameplay is like a bizarre cross between pool and pinball.

You hit the ball and try to collect all the coins. There are bumpers, physics influences, black holes to avoid, etc... Some of the levels are very challenging, but for the most part it's just a fun little time waster, relaxing to play. I love it, but unfortunately you can't submit your high score 'til you beat it and the game has 50 levels!

My pal Matt Chavis thinks the games I like are too simple... but life so so complex - isn't the jolly joy of a simple game a nice escape? I think so. =)

Click HERE to play Pingz!

Click Able! A reflex/mouse test!

I added a neat little game/test to JunkyardSam.com tonight called "Click Able." It's a set of 3 mouse tests where you complete all three in order to compete with online leaderboards.

The graphics aren't great, but it's a quick and fun little game and it's great to compare yourself with others on the leadeboards.

Click Able is available here: http://www.junkyardsam.com/games/0-h/click-able/index.shtml

Junkyard Sam Flash Game Arcade!

Greetings! Tonight is the soft launch of the new Junkyard Sam Flash Game Arcade! It's a collection of some of my favorite flash games, all with leaderboards. If you friend me on Facebook we can see each others scores and compete!

I'll be posting daily competitions every night and I'll post the winners here at the blog.

Tonight's game is Pixelbomb 2! It's a simple game where you pick up the stars as fast as you can while avoiding the bombs! I scored over 442k! Yay!


I also posted a new aeGenesis gallery for easy browsing of my art! More galleries to come!

PobbleBop, pobbling along!!

So tonight I was going to take the evening off and just play one of my favorite games of all time: DINO RUN by PIXEL JAM. (The most amazing Flash game of all time.) I was so inspired after playing for 45 minutes or so -- I decided to make some progress on POBBLEBOP and here it is:

I'm thinking PobbleBop may be our next game to ship...

Project F: New chickens, audience, baby chickens, egg

This morning I added two chickens, the main one and the Big Red Hen (rare, fat, more difficult.) Also, notice the audience people in the background, responding to gameplay... And baby chickens/eggs. Should be pretty cool if my programmer doesn't freak out at my additions! =)

Animation versus the big picture

Anyone who looks at my rooster walk cycle will say, "He needs more secondary movement." Of course he does. The problem is - this project has just one artist. So I can either work forever on making The Best Walk Cycle Ever --- or I can focus on the BIG PICTURE and create MORE animations and get MORE chickens and MORE characters and activity moving in the world.

In that context with everything moving and alive - the human brain helps to fill in missing details. So wait 'til you see the big picture to judge this.

I did, however, add some more bounce to his step:

PobbleBop is back in action.

Tonight I took a little break from Project F. We shelved PobbleBop(Poppagoose) a while back in order to make Scamper Ghost. We weren't planning to come back to it, but I kept checking in to play with the prototype. It's fun even after all this time... and we're half done, so why not finish it?
I have to rework the graphics and I'm going to take it over the top with some really crazy stuff. Abstract, non-sensical fun. A surreal casual game. =) This is a new frame and time-tube. Time countdown on the left, # of balls(lives) on the right.

The background will have to be dark though... so ignore the bright sky & grass temp art.

Rooster Animation Test

I'm getting into pixel animation at the character level... Here's my first test for the new game: