On difficulty levels

An article which discusses... difficulty levels in gaming... Whilst it does make specific references to games and their difficulty levels, I personally thought one of the hardest games for the average gamer to pick up and enjoy in recent years was avoided from the list - Guitar Hero - and so decided it needed some reflection.

The article also discusses that each game has its own version of 'hard', that whilst hard on a shooting game might mean theres more enemies on screen, Hard on guitar hero will fuck. you. up. If you have never played GH before.

 

initial ideas

 

some more initial ideas... and hte first page of design development. I really didnt like what I did with the x-ray...

 

some more development, check below for my fave three from this batch...

On Super Mario Galaxy 2

an article which discusses two things about the new mario, 1. this is the first true sequel to bring nothing new (ala yoshi, world map etc etc) to the platforming mario games 2. mario is not a game for the casual audience, put it in front of your grandpa and watch him cry.

 

initial ideas, mostly riffing off the fact that mario has 'sold out' by just 'doing a sequel', and the questionable quality of the newest iteration. I was considering doing a timeline of mario thing, but Ive seen it on t-shirts all over the place, thought I would try something a bit more subtle...

 

developed ideas...

Conflicting Goals

An argument about Microsofts odd pricing for its new Kinect system, which has been advertised with market expansion in mind, yet it has a price point targeted at the hardcore markets...

 

initial ideas

 

developed ideas

 

some more developed ideas. Not keen on the pie anaolgy in this one, but the dart is nice enough...

 

some more developed ideassss

Magic Playdom

This article is about Disney buying a moderately successful social networking games company... for a billion dollars...

 

initial ideas

developed ideas

some more ideas development... trying to feel my way around this one...

 

more developed ideas...

more subtle illus here, riffing off of the amount of farmville-related status updates I get in my update stream ...

Opinions welcome.

Bad David, no dog biscuit + googles got game

I havent done much updating on my progress, because up until recently I was sitting on my hands deciding what to do. But in the end I decided to do editorials for two different gaming websites. I would explain more but I have been summoned elsewhere and just wanna get the images up on the internets.

I will do each lot of images based on its article, so the first is called Googles Got Game, and is about google expanding in to the social gaming market...

 

initial ideas

developed ideas

 

working up some semi-finals

 

another semi final here

 

 

 

 

OPINIONS, THEY ARE GUD YES? GIVE THEM PLZ. 

 

 

 

Finished this one

Yeah, so colours might are nowhere near perfect, but its a nice full page, and doesnt look too bad for me...

P.S. I have been using an acetate grid for referencing in a couple of images, thats why theyre more accurate than I could naturally pull off.

Some unrelated work

So, I still have yet to make a start on my project, but I have started an art book of haircut cut-outs... odd theme, I know, but theyre cheap magazines to buy, contain good portraiture photography and very interesting haircuts (and in some cases, costumes).

So this is what I have so far, I am just kind of ... doing whatever with each image. I apologise for the incorrect colours, I have been working at night without daylight bulbs, and have yet to sort out a colour chart for my copicsssss...

Book Cover commish

So, a while ago I agreed to do a book cover for a friend, so here is the final image and some in-process shots...

SO. Yeah. Turne out surprisingly well. The funny thing is the image will be printed about 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide, so most of the detail will be lost. Ah well, was a nice little challenge though. Total work load was probably 10-12 hours, in-photoshop work about 8 hours (lots of fiddly bits)

fooling around

So I sort of had this idea for a story. It draws on eastern elements such as the Chinese Zodiac, I wont bore you with the details, but here are a couple of character concepts. The Shogun look is due to a current interest in armour from that period in history, especially due to the Total War guys showing off some amazing stuff for Shogun 2. Anyway, just doodles really, moar later.

MJRyder book covers commish

Just seeing if anyone wants to drop feedback on preference for these covers. Please ignore how rough and crappy they are... they are just roughs after all.....  Wuv Woo All.