We’ve just released a gameplay trailer for Itemania!  Hopefully this gives everyone a clear idea as to how to play the game!

If you like what you see, please don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages!

I also joined Dominance War!  Hopefully I manage to finish my entry this year XD

Like Hai, I was also on the 3dTotal team last year, but I decided to join the Chinese forum HXSD this time around.  My Chinese is pretty bad, so fortunately the famous Fan Yang is kind enough to help me out with translating (even though she should be entering the competition too!).   谢谢您姐姐！

You can see my thread here, but you have to be registered and logged in in order to see any images.

We haven’t been able to update this blog lately, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy!  We’ll be posting some info on our main project soon.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to enter this year’s Dominance War, the annual 3d modeling and 2d concept art competition, now in its 4th year (I never finished my entry from last year).  I was representing 3dTotal last year, but this year I’ve joined GameArtisans (I have no particular allegiance to any forum- I pick according to what best suits my entry since the rules require incorporating forum colors/logo).

I’m really just looking to take this opportunity to update my portfolio.  Here’s a link to my thread:
http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?p=117793#post117793

TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea (Bluehole Studio, Hangame)
http://tera.hangame.com/ (view with IE if site doesn’t load correctly)

Upcoming MMORPG for the PC by Korean developer, Bluehole Studio, and to be published by Hangame, TERA (Project S1) recently debuted at the 2009 Hangame Invitational along with Continent of the Ninth (Studio Cloud 9), Kingdom Under Fire II (by Blueside and Phantagram), and Warhammer Online (Mythic).

So what’s the big deal?  It looks amazingly awesome, but then again so do a lot of upcoming Korean games.  TERA utilizes an exciting, action-oriented gameplay system, but so does Continent of the Ninth, Blade & Soul (NCSoft), Dragon Nest (EyeDentity), and others.  What’s interesting for me is that the developer, Bluehole Studio, is made up of a lot of former heavy-hitters from NCSoft.  I won’t divulge anymore than that, but suffice to say this is a very impressive group of developers and the results show it.   If western gamers paid any attention to the incredible development of Korean games lately, they would probably liken this to a bunch of ex-Blizzard guys out to make their own blockbuster game…  x10. (more…)

Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is the latest 2d Action RPG being developed by Vanillaware, makers of Princess Crown and Odin Sphere.  The beautiful painted visuals caught my eye ever since it was first announced, and the retro side-scrolling gameplay makes it one of the few Wii games that remind me I even own the system.

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Many aspects of game development are overlooked, but while artists create almost everything seen in today’s video games, we have little control over how games play or how our work is used. Ultimately, this means we tend to get left out of the discussion as game developers. (more…)

Valkyria Chronicles (WOW Overworks/SEGA).  PS3 (Sony Playstation 3).
http://valkyria.jp/
http://www.sega.com/valkyria/us/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie_of_the_Battlefield

What I like:

• Beautiful, watercolor style art. Everything is wonderfully done.  Also, there is a cool option to view all the game models (with plenty of background info to read about).  The designs for all the uniforms, weapons, and vehicles are fantastic.  The characters themselves are deceptively simple, and surprisingly expressive.
• Original Japanese dialogue. It’s a shame so many companies leave this out of localized titles…  there are many games I’ve wanted to play, but have not simply for this reason.  It’s always fun to hear voice actors/actresses from anime lending their voices to games.  The subtitles aren’t always very accurate, and are tailored for western audiences, but at least it’s an option.
• Story. It plays like watching an anime television series.  Plenty of nicely done cut scenes, and you can tell that a lot of work was done to flesh out the setting and the inhabitants of this fictional world. (more…)

Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo (tri-Crescendo/Namco Bandai Games)
http://fragile.namco-ch.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragile:_Sayonara_Tsuki_no_Haikyo

Upcoming RPG for the Nintendo Wii by tri-Crescendo, makers of Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata in the US). From the wiki page:

Fragile is set in a post-apocalyptic near future world that has lost its light and is covered in a dense fog. Almost all the world’s population has vanished, and the cities have been left abandoned. The game places the player in the shoes of Seto, a young boy. (more…)

GStar, the largest games trade show in Korea, took place last week. We weren’t there, but it’s always fun to see what’s new. Most of these games we’ve seen or heard about in some capacity before, but it’s a good time to recap:

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I generally don’t get excited about meeting anyone, but on Thursday, we got a chance to meet one of my favorite character designers, Hyung-Tae Kim. For those who don’t know who he is, I credit him for helping popularize a CG painted look on anime styled game characters, and introducing a unique design sense that’s often emulated these days.

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