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Dashing Dinos

03.14.2016

While working on Bush's Bean Dash at Psyop, I had an idea for another infinite runner based on evolving a creature to overcome hazards. I chose the “Dashing” title before Bean Dash had its, so this wasn't a case of imitation.

At the start of every playthrough, the player egg hatches into a random prehistoric creature. Additional ones can be unlocked by earning achievements or by purchasing them from the in-game store. Skills vary by creature, but all are vulnerable to falling meteors and stampeding woolly mammoths. After the creature's eventual death, the player chooses from a list of perks to augment the next creature for its run, playing on the theme of adaptation.

The game concept didn't get much further than this image, mostly due to Bean Dash's ambitious development cycle.

Keep the Bottlecap

02.22.2016

Outside of freelance work, I occasionally find the time to enter the weekly art contests at Pixel Joint, an online gallery for all things pixel (of which I am a moderator).

Last week's challenge celebrated the 25th anniversary of the classic game, Lemmings. The rules stipulated a limited palette, one derived from the original Lemmings sprite:

Lately, I've committed a healthy amount of time exploring the wastelands of Fallout 4. In fact, when I spotted a pack of cigarettes in the gutter my first instinct was to collect it, since I need the cloth to build beds for my settlers. The post-apocalypse is a tough place.

A pinup poster in the game caught my eye, channeling the vintage format to advertise a fictional soft drink. With its bold, simple layout and plethora of specular highlights, it suited the contest's required palette. Plus, the nuclear-waste green reinforced Fallout's setting.

Because I decided to enter the contest a few hours prior to its deadline, I had to finish the piece in a single sitting, which took 4.5 hours. I could have shaved off more time if I re-sized/indexed/traced the logo text instead of replicating it freehand, but cutting that corner felt antithetical to the spirit of the competition.

I tried to apply the campsite rule to the original, abandoning the standard Z-shaped composition in favor of something more customized to the elements. To keep the lines crisp, I made a conscious effort to use only one midtone at a time for anti-aliasing.