May 17th. Be there.
May 17th. Be there.
;)
The baby is, naturally, a genius. A genius who happens to barf a lot.
The other baby of note has two heads. In mid-October, Whitney is saying a fond farewell to big games-- at least for a while. She's going to China. Then she's going to Greece. Then Turkey. Then Egypt. Then Indonesia. Then perhaps Komodo, where she'll promptly be bitten by a giant lizard, a pit viper, or a saltwater crocodile. Perhaps all three.
Mostly she wants to look at stuff, or maybe eat some bugs and then brag about it, but she'll also be working on ghosts and myriad other things from the road.
And there's your baby news.
]]>Like this deviled pudding:
;)
I'm about to get on a plane and go to E3. If you find me and want to poke a ghost, perhaps that could be arranged.
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Expect some gameplay videos (yeah, for real) when spring rolls in.]]>
Ghosts in all shapes and sizes, ranging from Waffle House short order ghost to spermatozoid gumdrop ghost. I particularly gravitated toward the "Zut alors!" ghost in the lower right. Simplicity was the prime directive, and we'd begun eyeing the titular Blob from A Boy and His Blob as a reference.
He's only a few lines, but is overflowing with personality. If the three minute mark in the above video doesn't elicit some sort of emotional response from you, get off my lawn.
Round two for the ghosts involved more calculated experimentation with body shapes and features-- namely, small mouths versus larger, more expressive ones.
The small mouths are considerably cuter, but since this is a console game, the ghosts' expressions had to read well to someone parked several feet away on a couch. Bigger features were a necessity. We also settled on the third body shape. Along came:
So close. Not quite there, though, and the arms were the culprit. They were a bit too masculine for our asexual ghosts, and my animation budget quivered at the detail on those spectral claws. Steph and I were simultaneously struck by the solution:
Steph cleverly worked it so that we can have our Kraken Cake and eat it too-- the ghosts' expressions and appendages are context-sensitive. Flippers and big expressive mouths appear when the situation requires them, then vanish into cute oblivion when there's nothing to get uppity about.
Oddly enough, one of my initial requests was that the ghosts not be "too cute"-- because that would be girly and predictable! Cute is so passé! I cannot deny my inner sensibilities, however, and ended up eating a seven-course meal of crow.
Fluffy, adorable baby crow. In a bonnet.]]>
I mean, just look at that. At the time, I assumed that making a plush required, like, an entire factory in China and a fleet of children to staff it, so I forgot about the initiative.
LITTLE DID I KNOW the depths of Steph's awesomeness.
She secretly commissioned this ghostie from the exceptionally talented LANA CROOKS. Check out this video of Lana making other stuffed stuff.
While you do that, I'll be just over here, snuggling my ghost.]]>Ladies and gentlemen of the Intertron:
I’m pleased to announce GHOST CHEF, an upcoming revolution in interactive spectral cooking.
Micro-interact your way to glory in SOLO or CO-OP MODE.
Send a rival’s kitchen up in flames in VERSUS MODE.
Savor the whimsical nuances of unlockable narrative VIGNETTES and a smorgasbord of otherworldly RECIPES.
GHOST CHEF will release on Xbox Live this fall. Until then, your every waking moment should probably be spent in its ANTICIPATION.
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