Month: March 2014

Undertow

So poking around in my recent comics, I found one I wanted to mention to you guys:

 
Undertow #1

Image
Steve Orlando, Artyom Trakhanov, Thomas Mauer
Undertow is spectacular. The first issue just came out last week. It’s a comic about primordial Atlantis, while humans are still savages without language or any but the most rudimentary tools. Atlantis is an autocratic, almost fascist society, and the story follows a group of rebels and refugees looking for a better life. The writing is great, the art is spectacular, and if you can, grab the spectacular Simon Roy variant cover art. (I’m a huge fan of the current run of Prophet, so his variant art is what made me pick up Undertow in the first place). It sadly fails the Bechdel Test, but that’s hardly surprising, given how many comics do fail, and it doesn’t fail egregiously. Nothing that the Hawkeye Initiative would need to look at. Also, since the characters aren’t humans, it takes a second to figure out some of their genders anyhow (though some are much, much more obvious than others). Anyway: Great comic.

Current Project Tally

Hey, so here’s what I’m working on project-wise right now:

  • Siegebeast: Hex-grid-based strategy game. I’ve mentioned this one already, I’m aiming to do a Kickstarter come late spring. Lots of revisions, testing, and art to do.
  • Basilisk Street: 5 part comic book miniseries. I’ve got all five scripts complete, coming in around 130 pages. I’m currently editing the scripts and preparing to hire an artist to do the pitch (First 5 or so pages). Once that’s done, I’ll start submitting it to various comic book publishers. Basilisk Street and Siegebeast are the farthest along of my projects. The biggest remaining task here is finding an artist. Good artists are expensive, and usually have very little free time. (more…)

Weekly Pull Review #1

So I’ve decided to do a weekly feature on my blog where I review all the comics I get in my comic book pull and hold. I’m just going to do quick and dirty reviews, though I may do more in depth on special issues I think deserve it. I’m currently getting my comics from Excalibur Comics, and have loved the place so far. (I do still miss you, Astrokitty!) So, without further ado, let’s get started:
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Texture issues.

My board game has a number of different terrain types, including the basic lava, water, rough terrain, and open ground. Water and lava are super easy to do, as is open ground (grass, dirt, snow, etc.) Rough terrain and impassible hexes are the tricky bits, though. I’m not sure how to show with just textures that a hex is impassible or difficult to traverse. I’d thought about using a rubble texture for rough terrain, and a rock texture for impassible, but I worry the rock texture would be too easily mistakable for open ground. One solution I’d thought of is using parallel lines over the rough terrain texture, and crosshatched lines over the impassible terrain. This would let me have multiple textures of each, but I worry it would be jarring/incongruous. Any thoughts?

I’m doing stuff with my time, I swear.

I’ve probably told some of you (Oh nonexistent readers!) about the board game I’m working on, but for those I haven’t: I’m making a fantasy strategy board game! I’m planning on crowdfunding it through Kickstarter sometime later this year, hopefully by this summer. I’ve designed, built, and tested the first alpha version (v1.0) already, and I just finished the first draft of the second alpha version (v1.1). I’ve been working on it since late September/early October. The working title is SiegeBeast, but I’m not entirely set on that.

As for actual gameplay: I’m not going to throw the game on the internet for all and sundry to see (in the case of my blog, nobody, actually) until I have something a bit more polished. It is going to be a hex grid based game with a number of different factions, and a wide range of playable scenarios. Before too long I’ll be looking for playtesters for the new version, so let me know if you’re interested!