Firstly, a sprite that’s not actually going in the game. I just did it for practice and sake of cuteness…

Guardian Jet Mode (the underside is completed too, but this is just the banking animation)

Guardian, 4 sides

Guardian, walking (fixed)

The Guardian Legend Shrine seems to be out of comission. (Link included in case of spontaneous ressurection,) after a long, long hiatus, presumably due to a lack of anything to really say about an ancient video game. I have such fond memories of the site, between nice transforming Guardian anigif and when I got ahold of the guy’s AIM name and presumably annoyed him into perma-blocking me with extreme fanboyishness. The fan page was pretty cool too, if you count “Man dresses a Barbie Doll in pink felt body armor and takes digital photos of it”
as cool.

I’ll set up an official TGR page soon as sort of a teaser doomed to sporadic updating. In such news, not a whole lot. I’m still picking my way through the main character’s animation sheet to see how much patience I have for doing pixel art over extended periods. I really need to get out of the habit of making my biggest progress on the computer at work though; the only way to get files off the thing to my home is by burning a CD thanks to the thing’s busted USB ports. I’ve ‘fixed’ the walk animation I posted before somewhat, it’s still just a 3-4 frame thing, but if I focus on that I won’t get anywhere in the actual game work, ever.

I’ve also made top, bottom, and side views of the main character’s jet mode. I’m pretty proud of it. It’s “I want a model of that” cool. Technically I could start messing with a demo moving the jet around with just that and some basic enemy sprites with that.

Anyways. How you doin’?

I try not to dredge up my day job too much here too often, as engrossing as the world of retail is to readers young and old; but I have a whole new kinda gripe this week. Thanks to the local news station running some kind of Tornado Preparedness Month spot, which mentions our stores are carrying all-weather emergency radios *at a steep discount!*, what was once a low-demand impulse item is now flying off the shelfs so fast we have a two-page waiting list for the next shipment.

Emergency radios aren’t exactly cutting edge technology. Nor are tornadoes and thunderstorms only a recent phenomena (caused by George W.!) The normally-ignored safety patrol has always suggested keeping a small battery-powered radio handy in case of power outages or bad weather. Hell, we had the radios last year and nobody got this rabid about them. We had a mother of five respond to the limit of two items by wondering (aloud of course) “Well… I guess I’ll have to decide which of my kids will get one.”

Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe it turns into a sassy talking robot toy that dispenses crack cocaine and teaches children how to spell, love, and believe in themselves. I can’t imagine these things costing much more than the $29.99 we charge, but damned if their homepage doesn’t list an MSRP of fifty bucks.
Now, if said special radio could actually CHANGE the weather, heck. Sold.

I sense a disturbance in the Force. Or possibly a manic spell.

I haven’t gotten to do much else with the Game Project other than some sprites for the main character. Who.. might be changed entirely for the actual finished product! Here’s the scoop on “TGR.”

As you might’ve guessed, TGR stands for The Guardian Revival,  and it’s sorta been my working title. The prior scribble postings had prelim designs for “Miriya” as well as two other Guardians who may or may not be playable in the end. (Probably not, I wanna emphasize customizing one character rather than swapping off.)

The biggest sticking point I’m having at the concept level is how close to the original I wanna be. I already have an outline of a plot ready that basically serves as a remake, but I’d rather not risk getting shut down like that dude who wanted to do a 3-D Chrono remake (I said as if Compile were in any shape…) and try for something a bit more original but keeping in the original flavor. And for some reason the idea of a weapon-selling convenience mart a la Gun*Nac really sounds sweet.

Anyway, It feels good to take a break from the self-imposed deadlines of RK, though I’m still doing plenty of drawing for the sake of self improvement/not getting rusty. Track 1 re-take has a couple penciled pages already. I think I’m going to go back to two weekly pages when I resume, and try to get Gatling going for reals. If only because said character is really, really fun to draw.

I don’t know what next year’s con mag’ll be yet. I may shoot for something short and self contained, or do a couple short chapters for the established comics. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a more ‘reality-grounded’ short story, i.e.; no giant robots or teenagers who catch themselves on fire and turn into dragons. It’d definitely be a change of pace.

Man, I do have to say, it feels kinda good to have so many projects in line, even if I don’t have time to do them all right away. I’ll probably make some official cries for help when the game is starting to congeal. Look forward to more sketches and junk too. And, yes, articles.

Delicious articles.

I’m done yammering, now.

Too much Japan in one day.