Where HAVE you been?
So, what has Ska Studios been up to other than avoiding writing Friday blogs? We’ve been making Charlie Murder and, oh yea, totally finished up Z0MB1ES (on teh phone)! It’s in the chamber and ready to be launched very soon. We can’t say yet when you can expect to find this three-games-in-one amazingness on your Windows Phone but as soon as we know, we’ll let you know.

Ahhhrt, Darling, Ahhhhrt
James wrote a draft rant about KNOWMAD, aka Rug Doom, last November that he may or may not post. It does get rather ranty and can be compared to his last rant on the topic of idealism vs opportunism. This time he tackles modern art and what he thinks about it. He doesn’t hold back. I’m not afraid to admit I don’t 100% agree with him, just as I don’t 100% agree with him on any given topic, but that’s the art school student and BA in Fine Arts in me talking and also the beauty of having separate minds. Perhaps this is a topic I’ll cover on my personal blog one day soon. That being said, I hope he posts it.

There’s a few new pieces of art in the Art Unicorner as well as on our Facebook Fan Art Album. Check them out! Send us those fan arts to michelle(at)ska-studios(dot)com!

Where’s My Charlie Murder Update?!
We’re working on it. Deal. (Happy face to lessen the blow.) We’re also working on Z0MB1ES(on teh phone). I’d like to take this time to answer a few FAQs we hear. Don’t forget we also have a Formspring for most questions.

Q: Where can I download X song?
A: All of our available Ska Studios music can be found here! It’s a pay what you want system so feel free to donate whatever amount you want, including zero dollars.

Q:Will you ever remake X game or make a sequel to X game?
A: This is the question we hear the most. No matter if it’s a remake, a sequel or a brand new game, we will always announce it when we’re ready via our social media such as this fine blog here. You can ask to your heart’s content but we’re not going to tell you until we’re good and ready. :> (Cutesy smile to lessen the blow.) When we are ready you will be sure to here about it because I’ll be spamming it on our blog, Twitter, Facebook, and so on.

Q: When will X game be done already!?
A: When it’s ready. Games take time and it’s nearly impossible to know exactly when it’ll be ready. Like the above question, we’ll tell you when we’re ready to and we’ll do our best to announce it and make sure you know. Checking back to our website here is the best way to find the latest information.

Q: How can I be more involved as a fan of Ska Studios?
A: OK, so no one really asked this but in case you are secretly wondering, there are many ways to be involved. Fan works are always one way. Sending us tweets, posting on our Facebook or asking questions on Formspring are a few other ways. If you have any suggestions as to how we can better reach out to you, please send them our way! I haven’t received new fan art in a good while and I’m craving it! Also, don’t forget there is still ample time before Halloween to carve yourself a Dishwasher or Charlie Murder pumpkin. Don’t forget to send me pics of your Jack O’Lanterns! I need them…for work purposes…

Of Pennies and Arcades
This is really awesome. Back at PAX Prime, Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade asked James to write up his proposal story. James did and now it’s on the site! I cannot say enough how amazingly amazing this is.

Pumpkins!
With the bitter cold of fall settling in, the smell of burning pumpkins fill the air and all we can think about is spooky specters and sweet, sweet candy. As you might have guessed, Halloween is a special time of year for Ska Studios as is evident in the kind of games we make. We’d like to celebrate this month’s fall festival with some pumpkin carving patterns!

We’d love to see any fan-made Ska Studios pumpkin designs so please send pictures my way! I will place a few or all of them over at the Art Unicorner. Of course you can always create your own pumpkin designs, you don’t have to use my patterns but if you do want some, download them below and get carving!

Download the ZIP of all the files here!

Included:
The Dishwasher Pumpkin
Yuki Pumpkin
Cat Pumpkin
Crow Pumpkin
Vampire Smile Pumpkin
Z0MB1ES Angry Face Pumpkin
Charlie Murder PunKin
Lester Deth PunKin
Tommy Homicide PunKin
Rexicutioner PunKin
Skelekitten PunKin

These patterns rely on using multiple layers and only the Z0MB1ES pattern cuts all the way through. Here is a video and written directions on how to carve layers.

Monster of the Day
As a personal project, every year since 2008, I’ve made an attempt to create a monster a day during the month of October. I wrote a little blog post about it and have made it up to day 6. I hope to keep it up until the end of the month. Check out where I am storing and will be updating them.

Oh yea and we’re still working on Charlie Murder. More on that next time!

Project Polish
Michelle again! Ever wonder what your Art Unicorn is working on? Since I started giving Charlie Murder a makeover, I’ve had to figure out the balance between keeping the rough style the game embodies and giving it just enough polish to make it shine. To do this, I’ve gone over much of the existing art redrawing lines and adding depth. Some things, such as the cars, I tossed out completely and started over from scratch.

Initially, I struggled. I struggled a lot. James can attest to my cries of frustration. In doing my own personal work, even when teaching myself something new, I can do what I want. In terms of doing art for other people, I’ve done much freelance work and even some art when I worked at ArenaNet. All of this was easy. I didn’t have to think very hard about someone else’s style.

James has tried to explain what he’s going for many times but it never really sunk in until one day I was reading an article about Ratfist, the webcomic by Doug Tennapel. James’ art and Doug Tennapel’s are not the same for many reasons but there is an energy and line quality to it that I could learn from. I tried doing some Charlie art while loosely keeping Doug’s style in mind and BLAMMO, I had something I could work with. It’s probably still not entirely perfectly matched.

By the time Charlie Murder is done, I’ll have redrawn same lamppost or crate a hundred times. But that’s OK, because that’s what iteration is all about.

Random Fun

James here!  I got sidetracked by my ubiquitous desire to get good at animating pixel art; I rigged my good old animation editor to let me draw pixel art for each frame.  It’s my first painting program!  It’s super rudimentary right now: there’s only draw and erase (left mouse, right mouse) and no selecting yet!  However, it’s got onion skinning and the same animation/keyframes/frames hierarchy that I’ve been breathing ever since Dishwasher 1. Also, I still have triggers and scripting, so I can map out combos and spawn particles visually.  Here’s the editor:

Right now it stores data in what is probably the most obtuse way ever: a dictionary of <row, rowData>, where rowData is a dictionary of <column, pixelData>.  Each frame is rendered in-editor by iterating through the outer row dictionary, then iterating through each row’s inner column dictionary and drawing each pixel one by one.  Obviously I intend to bake these out into sprite sheets.  Obviously.

The little guy in red is for a game I may or may not ever make called (tentatively) Nails Hero.

Ok fine, here’s a screenie from Charlie Murder

Lester’s in the cemetery, mixing up the medicine!

We’ve been overhauling lots of art and making more game.  This shot is actually from an area that was in the PAX demo, but the new map art really makes it pop.  Depth!

Merch Reminder

On Monday, I made a post about some new shirts in our store! Check them out and buy them! Yayyy buying stuff!