Greatest Fortune Cookie Ever.

Hahaha. I love it.

An Introduction In Part.

I never was much one for either reading or making blogs. But it seemed like a good idea tonight. So, in any case, hello random people reading this to find some joy in reading random peoples random thoughts about random situations in random places and random times. Hmm... i've said it so much that it's lost all meaning. Oh well. I haven't fully decided what type of topics I will be discussing, or ranting upon, depending upon the situation, but if you wait long enough for me to think of something suitable, then I pity you, I truly will.
In any case, most people on the net will know me by the names Genji, Blackflame, Benkei, or some other random (ah...see..I've said it again, pretty soon the word will just dissapear entirely!(Eww...the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II....)) name. If you've chosen to read this this far. Then, congratulations, there is a new car waiting for you outside. Go ahead, go look, I'm sure you'll find the results of that little journey out of your chair and into the sunlight very rewarding. You know, if you enjoy a good bit of sarcasm mixed with your own niavety :D.

My Talented Pencil

Yo guess what! I'm my pencils bitch...thats right, I'm a slave, to my pencil. It should come to your surprise, Unless you know me, that I don't mean that in a deep metaphoric way, its actually quite literal. The pencil controls me, Instead of I controlling the pencil. I have been a sketch geek since birth, and oddly enough, it wasn't till yesterday night that i realized i have been drawing the -wrong- way all these years. Usually, I don't really think about what I'm drawing, in fact, i think about other things in the day, things that has happen to me, thing that I have to get done, things that worry me...but not the drawing in front of me. instead, the pencil dose all the work.

You see, my eyes go numb, my hand quickens, and my mind drifts away. I draw with a blurred vision, and without ANY ONCE of focus. My pencil tells me when I'm finished, this is when i look at what i have created, and of course, nothing better then my average. But why? Why do i stroll away from my canvas and go in meditation on all but the single and most important thing in the moment?...The god damn sketch. This puzzled me, for i realized that this is my custum way of drawing...in a sort of a subconscious state.

I put down my pencil, and looked at it....with focus, and i told myself...IMAGINE, FOCUS, UNDERSTAND. So for a moment, I drowned in my imagination...something i have not done in ages, and never done in front of a Pencil. It was less then a Instant and BOOM, this creature, in an almost perfect dynamic posture, with perfect detail, and the textures all there, a 3 dimensional vision. I cannot believe myself....Dynamism, something that i have had a struggle with for a long time was solved so quickly. Now, my next step was to mentally zoom in to this scenario, examining this humanoid piece by piece. And then I begin to draw. As expected i begin a struggle with my pencil, it continuously tires to block out my eyes and take over...but i fight back and focus deeper into my paper. 20 mins passed like seconds, and BLAM! A Sketch, only merely a sketch but a defendant one. Above my average.

Visualization, My new weapon in a limited Arsenal. A new tool to master! Thats all for now! Til next time make sure to stray away from pornography and get your Vitamin D from the Sun, unlike our friend gorilla.

Take a dive

I had originally planned on doing some sort of witty introduction, introduce myself to the readers of this blog - all four or five of them, so far - slowly. And then I realized how utterly incapable of that I am, and how inefficient it'd be. Like the title suggests, I'm going to just dive in, palaver with you folks, and kick things off with a lackluster bang. It's 4 am where I am right now, and I'm tired, roleplaying on a mush. So I don't have anything amazing to say. Brief introduction:

I am James Mancuso. I go by the cognomen Gorilla J. I am an atheist Caucasian male on the heavy side of the weight spectrum, and well above six feet in height. I have pale skin from my lack of sunlight, but the Italian in me is strong: I tan easily, well, and for a long time. I don't know if that's an Italian trait. I'm sleepy.

I'll probably just talk about the various games I play here. Au revoir.

From Idea, to Idea Graveyard

Ey Yo, you there, Yea you! Put your shit down and listen, very intently, especially the ones who have all these great game ideas. I intent to break down in pieces of WHY game project fail, well, in my case anyway.

I am a very creative person, I usually look at something and come up with a million ways to make it better. Likewise, I have too many ideas stored up in that oddly flat head of mine, So many in fact, that I find myself getting pissed at my TV for shows taking "my idea". Thats probably one of the reason I stopped watching TV as much, besides who needs TV when you have the internet? Me being Myself, its natural for me to have a ton of game ideas, and me being my stupid self...I go ahead and try to make them, ultimately to fail. I once read that 98% of games fail in production, but why?

I cant give you laws and rules of why every single game goes down to the grave, but i can in fact, share some of my experiences. I will start by telling you about a bad leader, especially in non professional environment, and even more so, working for people over the net. When i first started teaming up with random people online to make a game....I found that those jerk team leaders always make you wanna kill your monitor. SO for tip #1 that mostly applies for no-budget teams is:

Remember that they are doing you a Favor by helping you make this game.

But, this tip is kinda iffy seeing as this would kinda sorta give your team leeway to slack off. But if your a jerk, your team members are bound to leave, if you "rule with an iron fist" you KILL the creativity all other members, and even of your own. I have been in this position before...in both ends, working with a jerk, and being the jerk. The second simply applies for any game that has a budget, even if its a small one. In fact, even no budget games benefit from this. A contract, coming to agreement that:

All works belong to the team, and not a sole person in the team.

If you don't do this, you will be getting a lot of "ITS MINE BECAUSE I MADE IT" type of shit. And this will just lead to people bribing/blackmailing you to keep in in the team treating them like a prince. Another problem i run into a lot is:

Project leader: "We need to get x feature done."
Programmer: "I don't want to work on that, I want to work on this system."
Project leader: "We don't need that system yet, we need this feature."
Programmer: "If you push me, its not going to make me work any harder."

Yes, the insubordination. This applies to the Artist as well:

Project leader:" I need a "Boss Creature" as soon as possible."
Artist: "I'm working on goo monsters right now..I'll get to it when I can."
Project leader: "Please work on the boss for now. Its needed more."
Artist: "You can't make me drop a project in the middle to work on something else
You asked for my help and I'm giving it to you, but some things need to be done my way."

You solve this problem easily....GET RID OF THEM, don't even waste a small bit of your time on these losers. Even if you cant replace them right away, just get rid of them. The MOST horrifying Reaper of Games is.....self discipline. That's right... the hardest cookie to bite on. If you push your self TOO hard...you ruin your mojo, if you DON'T discipline yourself....NOTHING will get done. The best solution to this is to keep a steady work speed. Even if your not in the mood to work on stuff...Do something. Because when you do, at least now you have something to work on the next day.

Thats all for now, I will probably be posting some art on my next Blog, till then, make sure to eat sleep and shower daily.