Arvale, Episode III is trucking along at a nice pace and there are lots of nifty screens to share.

And now we’re all curious… can barbecue be used in the singular-plural form as Duncan just did above (like sheep and fish)? Beats me. What I do know, is that’s takes place on the Kytar continent in an area called Majesto Grove.

And this takes place in an ancient Apothecary.

While this takes place in the Valley of the Gods on the Gargan continent.

And this little piggy had none… err. This took place in the Forest of Giants…

… right before this happened.

And this little piggy when wee, wee, wee, wee all the way home.

Anyone who is unfamiliar with how to count your toes shall do your research.

More to come!

Good stuff.

Promise.

Continuing the theme from the title sketches for Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode II (which you can find here and have a good laugh, or an epiphany, or both!).

Above is a general sketch using stick figures for Arvale, Episode III. Zoom in for all the juicy details 🙂

I guess some explanation is in order… Since the cast of characters is piling up, the artist and I decided it would be best to divide the scene into a foreground and background; so as not to have too much distraction or general business from the main composition. So the foreground has the new characters plus Duncan and Silk, while the background will include the other characters as silhouette in the background.

Firstly, Duncan is in the center, casually strolling and casually pointing at something of interest, sword sheathed and at his side. Easy enough.

In front of Duncan and on to the right, is Brodyn (a new character, unless you’ve played Arvale: Journey of Illusion), with his back half turned towards the ‘camera’, mostly showing his cape and holding his spear in his left hand.

Noko, the little girl (brand new character), has both hands tugging on Brodyn’s spear with a pouty look on her face (zoom in to see my awesome rendition of pouting :P).

Silk is on the left this time looking slightly… worriedly (is that a word?) at Noko and Brodyn.

You see Chev on the back-left side with his hands drumming away on a barrel (don’t ask).

On the right in the back, you have Sakyra  reading the latest Placebook entry while Cyper is at her side explaining away, politician style, with both hands the intricacies of how Placebook is affecting modern politics.

And lastly, in front of both of them is Krygnk, with axe in hand, and staring up in awe at the really tall structures of Garga.

A bit clearer now?

No?

Well, we’ll see how the final turns out. If it’s anything like the previous title art I know it will be awesome.

More to come soon!

I’ll make it quick and just post some pretty shots of the Capital city of Garga, like above. And below:

…which is situated on top of a mesa/tableau/mountain or whatever you wish to call it.

It also has meticulously pruned gardens and nicely paved roads. Unlike…

This town, where the roads have fallen into disrepair. Unlike….

The continent of Kytar, which has no paved roads at all (outside of the castle, of course).

Right, that’s enough for now. Look forward to some of my famous sketches soon 😉

Been awhile since I posted on the progress of Arvale: Treasure of Memories(Episode III),  so I thought I should do so.

The game is coming along, and if all goes well, I hope to release it at the end of this month; that would be July (right?).

And above is a screenshot from the upcoming game. It’s in the town of Portophus on the continent of Garga.

So is this one. Garga is an interesting continent, being the largest in Arvale, with the biggest political power. Yet, it clings on to many of its old belief systems (and looks a lot like Ancient Greece/Rome at times). I’d go into more detail, but hey… let’s save that for the game 🙂

One more of the same town before I go. Hope that tides some of you over 😉 It should go without saying, any of the above screenshots may change by the time the game is released. They may also turn into cheesecake, pizza, or meatloaf. I shall not be responsible for any of those possibilities.

More to come soon! Bur for now, I gotta get back to work on it.

I have tons of posts sitting in my ‘To Finish’ drawer. Including the one about my recent birthday, my anniversary of Blogging, and a ton of stuff on Japan. I probably even have a bunch of info about the upcoming Arvale. But for now, you get a nifty screenshot of the mostly finalized new menu thing.

Enjoy 🙂

Stuff is possibly one of the most versatile words in the English language. However, you really shouldn’t use it in a headline like I just did. Google will probably hate you and no one will take you seriously.

Anyway, here are some wonderful updates on Arvale: Treasure of Memories: Episode 3 🙂

The first thing you may notice (if you click on any of these pics and see their actual size) is that the screen resolution (and map size) has been made quite a bit larger. These is even more noticeable if you play the game in full screen (no more black borders!). Also in the above shot, you can see a mouse-over icon above the door to the shop. It’s a temporary icon, but nonetheless, I said mouse-over, which means…

Episode 3 will have mouse support for the entire game. Which also introduces the new menu you see above. That sort of menu is called an HUD or Heads Up Display. You can also call it a GUI or Graphical User Interface. I call it awesome.

Of course, this allowed me to re-work ALL of the menus to make them a bit easier to access and remove the constant pressing of the Escape key and using arrow keys a bunch of times just to get to one menu (like items or magic). Now you just click on *one* of those icons at the top.

Okay, the menus aren’t completely different, but they are much better. The items menu now allows you to select by category, so you don’t have to hurt your eyes looking through your whole inventory simply to find that Potion you want to use.

The stats menu is a bit different, has some logical, new shortcuts, and it even includes a neat new biography page with all sorts of extra information about the character which you can use to impress your friends at that next holiday barbecue.

The game now will keep track of the amount of steps your party has taken and also shows your current playtime. At the bottom you can also see some contextual help for each menu which can be turned on/off.

This screen doesn’t look all that new, aside from the higher resolution. But everything can be controlled by simply clicking on stuff now, which is nice 🙂

The battles scenes with the mouse are super-cool and along with a few other tweaks here and there, it’s even more enjoyable to play. So enjoyable…

That I took two screenshots of it. That’s how excited I was.

Other things you can’t really see until you play the game have been added as well, like the music continuing from where it left off after you finish a battle (finally! You have no idea how long I’ve wanted that working just right).

Oh, and I have to say this: Any of the above screenshots can change at any time during the development of the next episode. Yes, they may turn into a cheesecake, a pizza, or even a piñata and I will not be held responsible.

In fact, the current icons being used for the spanking-new HUD are just temporary and were taken from a handsome, young, talented artist named Ails which he graciously allows anyone to use for free. The new art for the HUD is being worked on, and will look something closer to this:

If my artist has anything to do with it  (and he does) 😉 And before you suggest it, a random wheelbarrow button would be funny, but not practical (uhh, I think?).

Anyway, the game is well under development and is coming along quite nicely. I’ll keep you posted on updates as soon as I think of them 🙂

This has nothing to do with Arvale. Well, not directly 🙂

You see, I am working on the next Episode of Arvale. However, I am currently not working at a formal job. And… a man has to eat. A man has to pay for other development costs too (like art). In any case, Japan has surprisingly many opportunities for Voice Over/Talent work in English.

Not quite as surprising, I actually have quite a bit of experience doing that very thing over the past few years. I recorded many of the voices for the Virtual Villagers series of games (yes, even the women and babies, don’t laugh),  and recorded all of the voices for around 15 games while working for PDAmill, LDW, Trisystech, and others. Not to mention the American English voice for GPS directions on the iGO Navigation software.

So, I spent the last week putting some demo stuff together for some of the agencies here and I thought I might as well share some of the stuff with you here (just click on them to listen):

VO Commercial Demos: A collection of 6 famous Slogans (or Tag lines) from fake Japanese companies. Changing a letter and a word here and there in from the real company names and slogans just for fun (and to be safe).

VO_Announcer Demo: A quick, 15 second clip of the common announcer voice used on many Television and Radio programs, not just in Japan, but pretty much the world over. The idea was taken from the famous SmapXSmap television program here, which usually features lots of famous musical acts and whatnot.

VO_Audiobook Demo: A 1 minute quick reading of a book (extra points if you guess the title). Ironically, when I wanted to do this, I could only find one English book in the house. Some of the timing is a bit iffy on some phrases, but it’s perfectly fine for a demo (I think).

VO_Interview Demo: A short (really short) version of the wonderful interview I did with Al Lowe.

VO_Cartoon Demo: An edited version from one of the cartoon cutscenes from the PDAmill game, Rats!! I recorded it directly from the game, which is on mobile devices, so the quality is a touch lower than I want. Not sure if I’ll use it or not, but there are some cool moments in it. The voice was obviously pitch-shifted, but some of the phrases and inflections are so neat, it doesn’t matter.

Strangely enough, the talent agencies in Japan are also curious if Voice Over people can sing too. I won’t complain. If it can get me some work, why the heck not? So I also put together the following clips of singing work (again, just click on the links to listen):

Pop Vocals Demo: This is still one of my favorite songs.

Ballad Vocals Demo: Japanese musical tastes are no different than most of the developed world. Meaning, they love sappy ballads just as much as you do (even if you won’t admit it).

Kids Vocals Demo: No, not me singing when I was a kid, but for a kids-type program. You know, those silly, nonsensical songs that get stuck in your kids head and then get stuck in your head from them singing it all day. Yeah, that type 🙂

Rock Vocals Demo: A quick verse and chorus of singing in a rock tune.

Kids Vocals Demo 2: I just like this tune and it could really apply to anything, but I think kids would like it the most 😉

In any case, it was fun putting the portfolio together. Now I just have to figure out how to fit them all into one email to the agencies… Or actually burn a CD and use postal mail? Ugh…

Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of it 🙂

Since I released Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode 2, there has been a lot of interest in the game. And possibly a bit of confusion about what’s new, what’s different, and what’s awesome.

So, I figured I would make a video showing off the latest additions to the series, some new battles, new characters, new places, new scenes, new wheelbarrows, and (of course) some new gags 😉

I probably should have made the video earlier, but you know what? I forgot to Sorry! 🙂

Look forward to new tibits of information about the latest Episode coming… soon.

It’s been awhile since I posted some projects using the Free Royalty Free Music, so I thought I’d share some recent ones 🙂

The Admiral Digby Museum in Nova Scotia (that’s in Canada), is doing some video about promoting archives and museums. I love museums!

Some promo video about a Red Balloon and a Boy: While the concept is not entirely original (I have vague memories of a weird French film I saw in elementary school), this children’s book (written by a dentist) is planning to donate 10% of the proceeds to two charities: Autism Speaks and Make a Wish foundation. Very nice. 🙂

A video from IdeaPotion, an iPhone App Developer which released a really cool looking game where you build up massive Domino sets and then knock them down 🙂 (and you can view the results from a bunch of different angles) Awesome idea, and you don’t have to clean up the mess when you’re done! (or leave them on the floor and then step on them with your bare feet and oww… those dominoes hurt sometimes, painful memories…)

A lovely video of a Water Vole (what the heck is a water vole? watch the video to find out!).

A Hypnotherapist working in Ireland is using the Egyptian music for a project about hypnosis, Egypt, Pyramids and Sleep Temples and something called Somnambulistic trance (which makes me dizzy just trying to pronounce) 🙂