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7/16/2008 11:07PM Added some new art and FINALLY put up the Off Road Velociraptor Safari Dev-log. BAM! |
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1/30/2008 11:27PM I am super pleased to announce that Off Road Velociraptor Safari is live! For those of you unfamiliar, OVRS is the latest project from Flashbang Studios. It's completely free to play, and has some rad features you don't typically see with free web games like leaderboards, gamer profiles, and achievements. Go play it and tell me what you think!
Keep your looking balls on the project page, because the OVRS dev-log is going to go up relatively soon. |
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1/24/2008 2:24AM A lot has happened in the last couple months, alll of it wonderful and/or awesome. I have added the highlights of the crap-ton of art I have done in the last 60 days to the Art section, which you have no doubt noticed is the main page. It should have always been this way. Forgive me, visitors. I have also near wrapped up two projects which I will be posting dev logs for very soon, and in general just tightened up the site. I hope you enjoy the new art, world. It was made for you. |
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12/04/2007 10:58PM With Shred Nebula getting so close to the end, my responsibilities at Crunchtime Games have all but diminished. So in order to stay in the biz I love so much while Shred Nebula gets ironed up and shipped out, I have shifted much of my time and energy over to Flashbang Studios. Run by guys that are both mentors and old friends, I am very excited by the opportunity to help them out right now.
The interesting thing about Flashbang is that their business model is based on quickly prototyping games that are designed for the casual space and publishing them to the web for anyone to play. FOR FREE. They generate enough revenue to run their sick hot studio space by sharing games developed by affiliates of theirs. Check out all of the cool casual stuff they got going on at http://www.flashbangstudios.com. It's an interesting change of pace for me, what with all of my professional experience thus far having been on games designed for more hardcore players. But the studio is fantastic, my bosses are total badasses, and the project we are working on is so rad. To give you a hint: you chase velociraptors in an off-road jeep. Yeah. You heard me. If you are going to tell me you have never fantasized about this before then you are a LIAR. And this is for you game dev tech nerds, but we are using a new development platform called Unity. It's a super powerful prototyping and publishing interface, and it lets you quickly create games and then effortlessly publish them to the web. Link it to your friends and family and they're playing your game in their web-browser the day you've wrapped it up. Of course you can create a standalone just as effortlessly, but at Flashbang, we'll be relying on web builds to quickly infect the internet with our creations. Just recently, Flashbang created Splume, a Bust-A-Move style physics game. It won them the Unity Top Dog Development contest in which they scored a bunch of cash and a professional Unity license! Check out the trailer. Look fun? Play it here for free! You'll need to donwload the Unity Webplayer, but it's quick and safe. If you end up liking this game and want to know about more awesome physics games, you can take a look at Matthew Wegner's (my boss at Flashbang) physics game review site at http://www.fun-motion.com. And if you maybe just want to read some great articles on game design theory, check out Steve Swink's (designer at Flashbang) personal site at http://www.steveswink.com. |
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11/29/2007 11:29PM Very, VERY exciting news from Crunchtime. We have officially come out of the missile silo with pallid flesh and squinting, vulnerable eyes to announce the game we have been working on for almost two years. It is called Shred Nebula, and it is something to see.
Gamespot.com is the venue in which we are unrolling our information for the gaming community. Having Gamespot cover us is pretty exciting, as 8 man teams do not typically get mass traffic coverage like that. But apparently they are excited about this game and the opportunity to host all of our pertinent press. It started with a story about Crunchtime being a "hot indie studio" that you can see here. Then just a few days ago, they busted out the press release for the actual game, which you can see here. And while Gamespot is our exclusive broadcaster, it was only a matter of time before the community sites got their hands on the info. Tommacco over at XBLArcade.com got us as well. And to top it off, xbox360fanboy.com scooped up some hotness. As sweet coverage piles up, I might make another post. In the meantime, check it out and tell me what you think. |
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10/14/2007 11:29AM Guess what, suckers? I am now a judge for the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival. I am tremendously honored and excited. Honored because I get to contribute to the most collectively meaningful movement in this industry's history, and excited because I get to evaluate some sick indie creations. It just so happens that the submissions this year are looking particularly AWESOME.
Every judge gets assigned a handful of submissions to evaluate and score, and then an additional handful if they feel like doing more. It evens out the coverage of the submissions, you know? If you manage to get through all that, then you can evaluate anything you want. The titles assigned to me were: Crashblock I have posted these so that if any of the individuals who submitted these titles wish to speak with me about my experience playing their game, my evaluation, or the IGF in general they absolutely can. I would actually really enjoy that. And just so everyone knows, my evaluations are based on two criteria. One of them is what I believe a game is trying to accomplish. The other is just how much I straight up enjoy it. I do it this way because maybe "Don't Drink Root Beer: Tournament Edition"* is a title I wouldn't neccesarily enjoy based on who I am, but perhaps it is a good damn Root Beer abstinence simulator. Basically, i'm minimizing the personal punishment and keeping my brain open. Which I enjoy. *I would seriously never play that garbage. |
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10/1/2007 1:43AM Allright gangsters, I finally finished the sweet model of Forward Kommander Sorscha I said I was going to do. I mostly like the way she turned out so I've added her to the -Arts- page, and now i'm moving on. But here is a link to the image before I do so.
REMEMBER! I did not design, nor do I own Sorscha or the Warjacks. They are trademarks of Privateer Press and I only did the 3d models and textures you see on this site to pay tribute to Warmachine and to have something fun to do. Anyway, i'm getting back into the contracting game. Things are still progressing beautifully at Crunctime, it's just that I still really enjoy creating art for clients. So i've revamped the -Abouts- page a little to reflect that, and just generally increase the professionalism of my humble e-folio. So if you or anyone you know wants some sick art, I would love some sick money. Email me and let's talk business. |
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7/24/2007 11:51PM "Projects" section? DONE. "Others" section? DONE. I am very excited about the Projects section as I fully intend to document major undertakings. It's essentially a journal, but that's not gonna stop it from being very cool if you get something out of it. Maybe you avoid a mistake I made. Maybe you *crosses fingers* get inspired. Maybe you just experience a good read. If none of those things happen that's cool, too. My favorite artists in the whole wide world sit honorably around the "Great Circle of 12". My rule is that at any given point, there can only be 12 artists in the Circle. If I stumble across a new artist that tingles my eyeballs, I will replace one of the other artists in the circle, and this will sting. But since I monitor the Circle constantly, this will help me maintain a fresh inspiration paradigm, which will be good for me. |
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7/22/2007 10:53PM I finally yakked up an "about" section. I never bothered with a dedicated "about" section when I was crafting earlier iterations of this site. The way I see it, anonymous viewers shouldn't really be investing anything in the artist, just their art. But if i'm going to snag myself some Sorties ("contracts" for those of you who don't play Armored Core) then i'm going to need to do a little marketing. I've always had good experiences working with other people, and I want them to get a sense of this when they take a look at the site. So if you, gentle surfer, have some feedback on the general presentation of this site at any point, drop me a line. It's always appreciated, even if it's negative and you swear a lot. |
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7/17/2007 2:24AM Soooo...I did a model for graduation (over a year and a half ago) that was actually supposed to be TWO models. I didn't end up getting around to part two until the day before yesterday. It's all done now, and I made a render of both models. Check it. Here is a sweet reference photo of the mini's they are based on. |
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If all goes according to plan, Sorscha (that female-type standing amongst the warjacks) will be next. Good times, great oldies. Oh, and HEED THIS! These miniatures were created by Privateer Press® for their Warmachine Prime© tabletop game, and these models are not endorsed in the slightest. Please don't sue me, Privateer Press. I really, truly, love you guys. |
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7/11/2007 12:42AM You are staring into the sexy face of my new site. For now it has the same cluster of art it had before (new ish imminent), but with a few new sections for anything I feel is of interest. For those of you who are curious, a Tactical Culture Injection is something one throws out into the world in an attempt to make it more colorful. I am not implying that I myself am a Tactical Culture Injection, even though it very much looks like I am implying that. I just think it sounds way radder than "portfolio". |
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| Quick update time. Crunchtime is still grinding away on our on a sweet, sweet alpha. Are you wondering if it looks phenomenal? Because it looks phenomenal. You can check out the site for a little bit of low key information to furl your brow hair at. Remember, once we're alpha and this project hits the world, both www.crunchtimegames.com and www.benruiz.net will contain more pertinent information. |
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Unless specifically stated, all arts belong to me, Ben Ruiz. ©2007 |
