Does this comic look as sloppy as I think it does? Well if so, I blame CS4. I installed the monster last night and then proceeded to wrestle with it through out the eve. Random zoom-in-zoom-outs while trying to brush and even strokes that are read as 100% pressure every fifth or so swipe of the stylus. A frustrating experience to say the least...
As for some one that actually can make photoshop do what they want, I give the floor to Mary. Do you like looking at cool things? Well then, I recommend her works. I'm quite envious of her environment work as she seems to actually understand how to build a scene, unlike myself. (Horizons? What are those?) Of course, if your the sort that likes to hire bad ass artists to draw you bad ass things, then I think you should also check out her work and perhaps see what she brings to the party.
UNRELATED! My frustrations with computers have also been in the hardware front. Recently I upgraded my wife's GPU. My intent was to find her a modern card that could support all of her 3 glorious monitors, as compared to slaving another card in the PCI slot like I've always done. After seeing Matt's card in action and how it advertises 3 monitor support, I all too eagerly bought a Radeon 5770.
The first card was DOA... After three weeks of waiting for a replacement, I hooked up the new arrival. I had a HDMI converter ready as the there's only two DVI ports.
Frustration 1: The HDMI port does not work if you use the parallel DVI port. Fine. Whatever. I'll use the built in Displayport slot instead.
Frustration 2: The Displayport does not work with 'passive' adapters. Meaning I need a $100 adapter that supplies it's own juice. Seriously?
Was it too much to want my one card to support the three monitors it claimed to? Defeated I type this with the left most monitor sitting, dark and dormant. *grumble*
Update: It never ceases to surprise me how polite and helpful our readers are. Thank you.
And for those curious about the CS4 issues, it's just a case of old drivers for the tablet... Such a simple answer, yet I failed to even consider it.
Matt
@machall productions .com
There's a new version of Dwarf Fortress out
April 6, 2010, 19:56 EST
It's got tons of new stuff, but it's not really playable yet. Tarn Adams said it would be buggy, and it is indeed buggy. Not cute bugs, like "creatures aren't being burned properly in magma and are drowning while their fat runs out of them like a rotisserie chicken."* More bugs like "it crashes and you lose an hour of play" or "macedwarves can barely kill things anymore". It's disappointing.
Is there a way to say you're disappointed by a buggy alpha release of a free game and NOT sound like an asshole? I don't think there is.
I just don't know another way to describe almost getting something you've been looking forward to for a long time, only to find out it doesn't work yet. Dwarf Fortress is always charmingly unpolished, but I've never hit any bugs that stopped me from having fun before this release. I'm impatiently waiting for another release.
Thank you Jes and Matt for handling the comic this week. As you can probably imagine, I'm continued to be a little more than occupied with my job tightening the graphics on level 3. So, Matt sat Jes down in front of dorforte's latest update and documented the results for your enjoyment. (I like the new site, Mr Adams. Easy on the eyes, no. But it's more true to the source than any other game site I've seen.)
Also, Deadly Premonition has become the office lunch hour at my job. I guess I should explain... We have a activity at Three Rings called 'Club Awesome'. It's where we get together, eat our lunches, and then consume terrible (RE: Awesome) media. Usually, it's bad movies. But lately, it's been bad games. Last month, we played a good chunk of Two Worlds. We may have laughed our asses off at the expense of this terrible terrible game, but I would not recommend purchasing it. Unlike Deadly Premonition, however. Purchase this game. Purchase it as soon as you can find a copy. The things wrong with this title are just... delicious.
1) Inform the public of matters of public import.
2) Entertain the audience, when it does not interfere with the first law.
2) Sneak in puns when it does not interfere with the first two laws, unless it's a really good one.
I have a lot of things I want to rant about but a concern of how much it really should be posted here. So for today, I'm just going to stick to Dragon Age.
First, I wanted to link my character profile on the Bioware Social site, but it seems that since I wasn't logged in when I made the character, she is forever cursed with uploading corrupt data. Shame. She's really cute.
You'll note Matt's character isn't up there. This isn't completely due to the three panel format. Matt just couldn't get into the game. I blame the lack of Dwarven magic users.
I really like the game, but I must clarify. I hate the combat. It's floaty and unsatisfying. About halfway through the game, I just got annoyed with the vague cluster-fuck fights and switched the game to easy just so I could get to dialogue scenes faster. That's the meat of the game that I was after, the talking. The characters were really fun and I wanted to know more about each of them. And Shale, the DLC character has some of the best dialogue in the game.
Anyway, I'm going to wait for more come Awakening. Till then, I shall stand here with flecks of blood on my face as if I didn't just finish fighting some monsters.
Matt
@machall productions .com
The concept of the last comic is nearly identical to one from Discworld.
March 16, 2010, 01:08 EST
I would have seen this dozens of times, what with all the Terry Pratchett books on my shelf.
So when I say I never made the connection until about six hours after the comic went up and my cousin pointed it out, I'm not even sure I believe myself.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Why is this drawn like pixel art, Ian?
March 1, 2010, 04:15 EST
I don't know... I'm in a weird mood. If you must, Blame Minecraft.
4Chan on Jeopardy. The way the clue is phrased, it's kind of like saying Hitler is known as a guy with a square mustache. It's not wrong, but but it's not right either.
I'm just gonna put this link to Dan Lacey, painter of pancakes out there. You can click it if you want, or maybe just leave it alone. Here's a profile of him I found while poking around.
Hey Ian, why do you draw so many vidya-game related comics?
Well... a rather small amount of the comics we've done have been about games. But really, are you surprised that a guy who makes video games for a living, happens to like drawing strips about video games?
We also don't really do that whole continuous narrative thing. All we got here is whatever sparks our souls at the moment, three panels at a time.
So yeah, what's up? Took a month off to get life sorted out. Moved to a new house, cleaned out the old one, and then did that whole convention thing. Finally now just getting unpacked. Fun times, though I really would like to sleep in one of these Saturdays. I think I need to hang off doing Con's for a year or so, I just don't have the stamina for them these days. (Though, thank you to those that stopped by and chatted with us. Always nice to hear kind words of our creations.)
Well, we're done moving, Jes and I have been cleaning out the old house so we can turn in our keys, and there's still a shit ton of boxes in the new place that need unpacked.
So, sorry we haven't gotten to a comic yet. As a note, we'll be hitting up AoD this weekend in San Francisco. So feel free to express your frustration in person about it.
Ian
@machall productions .com
And the work continues...
January 19, 2010, 18:55 EST
Ian and Matt painting the new house.
Every day, a little closer to being done and moved.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Yeah, they make them in Adult Sizes
January 11, 2010, 03:11 EST
My wife gave me a pair of Heely Shoes for Christmas. They're pretty awesome for my 3 miles of foot travel every day. Took about three weeks to adjust to the lack of traction on the heel, which of course lead to me 'injuring myself in the most predictable manner possible' as Matt put it.
The results of my reminder, that sidewalks are very hard, was that my left arm was pretty much immobile from swelling for about two weeks. Plenty of time to learn to skate slower.
Side note; No, the woman didn't stop to help me. I rather doubt she realized my fall was because I firmly planted my wheeled shoe in a trench in the concrete, locking my leg in place, then pushing off with the other leg, expecting to glide smoothly forward. Instead, I'm pretty sure I looked like a crazy guy rolling on the ground, holding my arm, and laughing at myself for my humiliating fall from Heely grace.
Anyway, comics are pretty touch and go this month as you've probably noticed. Matt, Dom, Jes and I are all in the middle of a pretty epic move to a new house along with various work deadlines that I'm damned determined to meet, if that's excuse enough.
Because of this, we've disappointingly had to withdraw from our appearance this weekend at Setsucon. We've never canceled from a con before, so this decision did not come easy. Our apologies to the visitors and staff.
Completely unrelated, but why didn't anyone tell me how twisted and awesome Baroque is? Sure, the animation is quite rigid and lifeless, but dang was it a good story. I also loved the sound track. Also, there sure is a lot of voices recognizable from the old toonami block... Which, is a weird perk. Any time I hear Elizabeth Mcglynn's voice, things just tend to be more awesome.
