Screenhog.com

I’m Not Dead!

2010-03-02T02:58:40Z

Hi there! Yeah, I know that I’ve been neglecting this site some, but it’s for a good cause! I’ve been working on bigger things!

I can’t share much about them now, but they include music composing, more work on that Wii game idea I had, and card game codenamed “Jacks Out The Window”.

However, it’d be pretty lame for me to end my first post in over two months like that, so here’s something new for you. A fan named Zach e-mailed the idea that Screenhog should meet Porky Pig, so here it is:

Late Christmas Present

2009-12-27T00:57:53Z

Hey there!

I haven’t been around for awhile, I know, but I have a small Christmas present for any aspiring artists out there… check out my new GET FREE ART STUFF! page. I will be updating it later, but it should be a good resource for a few of the more avid readers of this blog.

Takin’ It Easy For Awhile

2009-11-21T22:49:58Z

Hello Screenhog.com visitors!

Since last November, I’ve made it a priority to update this site at least twice a week. It was important, not just because I wanted to let people see a lot of the creative stuff I work on, but also because I wanted to give myself a schedule. You see, I’m not always the hardest-working person, and this was a good way to force myself to work on artistic stuff outside of work hours.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem. Most of the things I do for Screenhog.com take a few hours to make, but there are bigger projects that I want to work on, too. I have ideas in mind that would take weeks, months, or even years to build, and updating this site takes time away from those bigger projects.

So, I’m going to be updating Screenhog.com less often.

Don’t worry, this site isn’t dead. In fact, if things work out as I hope, you’ll see bigger and better things here in the next coming months (as well as the occasional random doodle, Jellyfish in Armour comic, and puzzle).

See you soon.

Video Game Review: Scribblenauts

2009-11-15T21:58:47Z

Scribblenauts is the game of my dreams. I mean that literally… it’s the type of game that an 8-year-old version of myself would have dreamt about, without believing that such a game could be possible, and yet here it is on my Nintendo DS.

The concept is simple, yet profound; you are an odd-looking boy with a rooster hat named Maxwell, and there are a series of minor tasks for you to complete. The reward for solving these tasks is a starite. However, instead of taking the usual video game route where you have very few items to work with and must rely on your skill, in this game, you can summon into existence ANY OBJECT YOU CAN THINK OF to help you on your way. (There are restrictions to the “anything you can think of” rule, like not including vulgar terms, shapes, Latin names, or copyrighted things, but those restrictions do make a lot of sense, and don’t ruin the overall game.)

For example; on the far side of a lake, there is a flower that you have to pick, but between you and the flower is an angry bee that won’t let you go past it. How do you get rid of it? That is entirely up to you. Flyswatter? Sure, it works. Bug spray? That works too. Boomerang? Yep. Sword? Absolutely. Venus’ flytrap? Um… actually, I’m not sure about that one, let me check…

*a few seconds later*

OK, Venus flytrap doesn’t actually try to eat the bee. However, dropping the plant on the bee’s head seems to kill it. This illustrates one of the downsides about Scribblenauts. Just because you can summon nearly anything doesn’t mean that it will always act the way you may expect. An ostrich will not bury its head in sand. Playing the flute will not make rats follow you. A ceiling fan will not automatically attach to most ceilings.

In making this game, 5th Cell – the creators of the game – were doomed to at least some level of failure, because everyone who picks up the game will eventually find something that the game will not do. It has no hope of living up to anyone’s wildest expectation. However, it does do at least half of the things that I could dream up for it, and that’s amazing in itself. Monkeys will eat bananas and swing on vines. Elephants will run from mice (and so will mammoths). Electrocuting a corpse will turn it into a zombie, who will in turn try to turn any living human around it into a zombie.

It is a game that amazes me, but I couldn’t have a proper review of the game without mentioning its biggest flaws. There are two big ones that have dominated game reviews for Scribblenauts since the game launched, and I have to mention them here as well: player control and camera control.

All player movement is done with the DS stylus, rather than most games where control is done with the pushing of buttons. The problem with this is that the manipulating of objects in the game is also done with the stylus, meaning that you frequently move Maxwell around when you mean to pick up an object (or vice versa). When I first started playing this game, this annoyed me, but I’ve quickly found the solution for this… move Maxwell as little as possible. If there’s an enemy between me and the starite I need to get, I don’t give Maxwell a machete and try to fight the enemy myself. Nope, I send a T-Rex after him, or bury him in quicksand. The less that Maxwell does, the better.

The camera control problem is a harder one to deal with. You see, you use the buttons on the DS to scroll the camera around to the part of the level that you want to put an object in. The unfortunate problem is that the camera will automatically recenter you on Maxwell after a few seconds, and while that’s sometimes good in large levels when you have forgotten where Maxwell is, it usually is a pain in the butt. It makes levels longer and more tedious than they need to be.

There is a wide variety of things to do in Scribblenauts. The game contains 220 levels, although the game shines most for me in levels where you have a very simple task to do and can choose from a hundred different ways to do it. I should also mention that this isn’t the type of game that you’re likely to play for five hours at a time. I find it best to pick it up for twenty minutes, do a level or two, and shut it off again, because then the whimsy of being able to make any object I please to solve a problem stays fresh in my mind, and I enjoy the experience even more.

Scribblenauts is definitely worth buying, despite its flaws, and if the creators of Scribblenauts were to create a sequel that had better controls and more types of item interactions, I’d be first in line to buy that too. 5th Cell, my inner 8-year-old thanks you.

Scribblenauts Items

2009-11-12T06:17:56Z

I intend to do a review of Scribblenauts later this week, but before that, I’m going to give some lists of notable items you can create in Scribblenauts. Of course, not all of these items are notable for being useful, but they’re all worth mentioning.

Unexpectedly Useful Items:

RAMP: In Scribblenauts, there are these annoying buttons that are on the side of a wall. The level can only be passed if the button is continually held down. Ramp solves that problem… just roll a ball down the ramp, it will press the button and stay there.
AIR VENT: Blow things in any direction you want. Useful for avoiding certain enemies or blowing a starite towards you. Similar objects: LARGE AIR VENT, FAN
BLACK HOLE: At first I expected that a black hole would destroy absolutely everything, making it useless, but instead, a black hole only works in a localized area, which can be very good for clearing out enemies. As an extra bonus, if you create a LHC – which stands for “large Hadron Collider”, the world’s largest particle accelerator – and interact with it, it creates a black hole. Synonyms: NOTHING, ANYTHING
HAIR DRYER: This is really quite useful, but not for the obvious reason of being able to blow air (it’s actually not particularly good at that at all). No, hair dryer’s are great because they kill sea creatures. You know how you’re not supposed to drop a hair dryer in the bathtub because it will electrocute you? It works in Scribblenauts… you can get rid of sharks, pirahna, and barracudas quite easily this way. TOASTER also works for this, and as a bonus, if you use a toaster, you can kill sharks and get a loaf of bread at the same time! Other similar objects: BLENDER, WAFFLEMAKER
WINGS: I went into this game fully expecting that I would make a lot of use out of the JETPACK. It is indeed useful, but I hadn’t considered that there are situations (such as falling into water) when a jetpack will break down. Giving your character wings to fly takes away that problem. Of course, if you don’t need to fly into a small space, it’s a lot cooler to ride a PTERODACTYL, SPACE SHUTTLE, or PEGASUS.
ICEBERG: If you need a flat surface to reliably float on in an open expanse of water, I’ve found none better than putting in an iceberg.
CHERRY PICKER: Got a place that’s too high to jump to, but you don’t feel like flying? This may be just the thing for you. It’s a little difficult to use sometimes, though, so you may want to try other things that will lift you, like ESCALATOR or ELEVATOR.
FISHING ROD: Are you close to the starite, but can’t quite reach? Do you need to get a small object from far away? Fishing rod may just be your best friend. It’s quite useful for much more than just fish.
CARROT: If an enemy is standing on the edge of a precipice, the easiest way to get him out of your way isn’t to shoot him… it’s luring him with food. I chose “carrot” to represent this, but really, most foods will work just fine.

Unexpectedly Disappointing Items:

GENIE: He doesn’t give you three wishes. He doesn’t spawn random items to help you. He certainly doesn’t sound like Robin Williams. Nope, he just stands there, and if he dies, IVORY appears. Seriously? Ivory? Not that I’m a genie expert, but that’s kind of random.
DUCT TAPE: In the real world, many problems can be fixed with duct tape. In Scribblenauts, not so much. It’s just a small strip of tape that works the same as GLUE, and while it’s still kind of useful, you’re not going to be fixing a broken space shuttle with it or anything.
TORNADO: Not particularly destructive, just annoying. It only pushes things without destroying them (and yes, I’ve even tried putting it on a TRAILER PARK).
STARITE: It makes perfect sense, but in case you thought you’d cheat on this one, making a starite only creates a toy, without finishing the level.
BRIDGE: I was pretty disappointed the first time I tried the word “bridge”. Not only is it small, but it’s pretty unstable and almost unusable for crossing large gaps. (Fortunately, I found BRIDGE LADDER fairly early into the game, which was much better).
LIQUID NITROGEN: Oh, I had such high hopes for this item. I was hoping for a big tank of it with which to freeze things. No such luck. It’s the exact same item as a fire extinguisher.
ELECTRIC EEL: The electric eel is not a particularly bad item to use. The problem is the fact that it naturally moves so much it’s a real pain to try and pick up and place anywhere in the game. It takes at least 5 times before I can get it with the DS stylus.
FOLDING CHAIR: Completely useless. If anything touches it, it tips over.

Unexpectedly Funny items:

DOOHICKEY: It spawns a Swiss Army Knife, which is brilliant, because if anything embodies the spirit of “doohickey”, it’s a Swiss Army Knife.
CAVE: There are many items that have other items inside them. AMBULANCE has a PATIENT inside, MOLEHILL has a MOLE inside, and CAVE, I was surprised to discover, has a BEAR inside, which promptly attacked and killed me after I found him. Oops!
LAWYER + AMBULANCE: The lawyer will chase a moving ambulance. I kid you not.
TRAMPOLINE: The trampoline, by itself, is not that funny. However, choosing pretty much any small animal and putting that on the trampoline? Priceless.
MONORAIL CAT: If you’re at all familiar with the humor of “lolcats”, you’ll be happy to know that Monorail Cat is there, as well as CEILING CAT, LONGCAT, and PIANO CAT.
LOL WUT: Found this by accident. Typing it in creates… well, we’ll just let you find out for yourself!

JiA #20

2009-11-12T06:20:37Z

Duchess

2009-11-03T15:44:36Z

I was at a family gathering last night, and there was a dog there. The dog’s name was Duchess, and she looked like this:

Yeah, she was one of those Ewok-faced dogs, who’s breed I can’t remember the name of. Despite the fact that I’d expect a dog named “Duchess” to most likely be pretty snappy and mean, she was quite friendly.

It was rare that I was able to draw a dog while they were awake. Usually, when I’m trying to draw a dog from real life, they move around too much from place to place to get a good drawing, unless they’re sleeping. I have quite a few drawings of sleeping dogs, and it’s nice to have an awake one as a model for a change.

Sculpey Head

2009-10-31T22:45:07Z

I decided to challenge myself to work in an artistic medium that I very rarely use… sculpture. I figured it would be an interesting change of pace, so I got out my batch of Sculpey and made this:

Unfortunately, I’m not a great photographer, but hopefully you get the idea… the head of a guy with a big smirk on his face.

Oh, incidentally, if you are at all interested in sculpture yourself, you really owe it to yourself to pick up some Sculpey. It’s pretty expensive stuff, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever found to sculpt with, for two reasons. First, it never dries. Ever. The Sculpey I used for this is 5 years old, and after about 10 minutes of kneading it in my hands, it was ready to go (unlike clay, which dries out ridiculously fast). Secondly, if you want to keep your sculpture, you just bake it in your oven. Easy as that (check online for baking instructions).

Anyway, that’s that. Maybe I’ll try and make the same head in Blender 3D sometime.

TMNT

2009-10-28T05:41:04Z

People should learn something new every day. Today, I learned that if the show had instead been called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turkeys”, no one would have watched it.

Blob Monster – Icon

2009-10-25T00:59:26Z

Creating the animation for yesterday’s blog post took up a significant amount of my free time, so I’m gonna have to be a little lazy about today’s blog post. I know that quite a few of the people visiting my site also visit other forums, so I created these:

They are 100×100 pixel icons, and if you want to use them for any reason, be my guest.

In other news, if you’re one of the people coming to my site looking for new word puzzles, I highly recommend ClockWords. It’s a very simple concept for a word game that relies on your speed and word creativity to beat, and the music is wonderful too.