New screens of Hokuto Musou(that Dynasty Warriors game about Fist of the North Star) came out and Juza of the Clouds is in it! For those of you who don’t know, Juza is a fucking badass, a pimp, and a troll all at the same time. He was one of the five Nanto Chariot Stars(responsible for protecting the last Nanto general) and hung out in his own palace with naked chicks all day LIKE A BOSS.
Juza of the Cloud is most famous for stealing Raoh’s horse(!) and doing other things to piss him off. For instance, Raoh wanted to know who the last Nanto General was so he struck a pressure point of Juza’s, forcing him to tell the truth. Not being able to lie when asked again, Juza states that “Raoh is a fucking dickhead.” and spits blood in his face(I think it was in that order it happened).
Raoh was not amused and preceded to smash Juza with his fists until Juza eventually died on his feet. What a badass.
Last week, I was pretty excited about Global Game Jam. And then I got sick. I decided that since I no longer work in an environment where people are regularly sick and spread disease, that I should stay at home and get some rest. So I dropped out. I was pretty sad but it gave me time to work on Skies of Orlandia, the new live-action convention game that will be at the next Anime Festival Orlando. So technically I did a stay at home game jam. That’s not too bad.
There were also last-minute convention meetings that I attended that were very productive and I actually did get to visit Full Sail University to see the presentations of the Orlando branch games of GGJ. They looked pretty awesome for 48 hours of work and the quality jumped up from last year.
You know what? February is a somewhat critical month in American history because we celebrate… my birth. We also celebrate Valentine’s Day. Well. Some of us. Not me. At least not this year. That’s okay though!
Because everything will be alright because I have the burning, romantic spirit of a true man.
In the greatest period of world history, the 1980s, women got kidnapped a lot. Gangs and other shady figures were usually behind these crimes happening; it was usually a good way to get out of going to class. So what did boyfriends do when this shit happened? Call the cops? HA! No dudes. They got their bro – who may have been their actual brother or a ninja and sneakers – and wrecked a whole town full of douchebags until they beat down some evil prick either named Slick, or Willy, or that guy in a wheelchair who wasn’t really crippled. And after that, the two loves were reunited once again.
Now that is true romance.
You know what’s not romantic? Writing a poem. Yeah, like that is fucking going to save your girlfriend when a gang wanting to learn Sousetsuken takes your woman away.
So when February 14th comes ladies, you judge your man by how far he is willing to go to save your life if it was in danger and not the fancy bullshit words he sings or writes. The man who will bleed and fight for you is the man you should be with.
The second annual Global Game Jam begins tomorrow! Once again, I will be participating in the Orlando session. I’m pretty pumped because I’ll get to work with a lot of the Full Sail homies (how come nobody from the other game schools go to this?) and make something awesome! Last year, I got to work on Retro Plague with David Brown and Jay Baird. It was a fun experience and I like how the game turned out in 48 hours. The experience also rekindled a creative fire in my belly that kept going on for most of the year.
I am hoping to get that creative flame burning once again because I could use it right now. I look forward to collaborating with whoever I am teamed with this weekend and making something cool. Next week, I’ll post up whatever game I end up being a part of!
Brotha Kyo’s Banzai Pecan finally has a recording session underway! It looks like 3-5 characters in the game shall be recorded today, which is excellent news as it has taken many months for this session to come to fruition. One of my Propeller Anime Club members, Emilio Lopez-Centellas, is handling the session as the audio engineer. Right now, Angela Patane is recording Lemon-Lime. She sounds awesome in there!
I’d say that things are going to end up well for the game! The game engine itself is shaping up very well too! I haven’t seen the build ina while, but the core gameplay looks like it’s nearly complete. I really think the game will be awesome AND will come out this year! Cross your fingers!
It was another successful Down Right Fierce New Year’s party and a lot of awesome stuff happened. Nobody got Falcon Punched this time, which is pretty good. To any of my readers who came, thanks for coming! It was a blast! Har har, get it?
Here lies my awesome fireworks haul for the party! Yes, those robots on the right are indeed from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. We doubt that they art was used with Bandai’s permission but it was still an awesome purchase! That particular one lit up the sky!
I must say 2009, you were a year that started off with a lot of promise and I used that to bring myself to the point I am at now. I really feel like I won this year. As the last decade was ending, I was just some punk kid with a bunch of dreams, now I find myself ten years later and I feel like I am finally an adult who has control of most of his destiny. This has been the most successful year of my life and I have enjoyed this year far more than any other in my life.
Sometimes, I wonder why people have negative year end reflections every year that I have known them. It really makes me wonder what they are really trying to do with their lives. I’ve come to believe that you have to make the most of every moment in your life or else you are not living.
This has been a weird decade for the world overall. I can’t even describe it without writing an essay where I will most likely contradict myself often. However, I really hope the world changes in the next decade- and for the better. But it is going to be our responsibility to make that happen. I really think in this decade, too many people gave up on personal responsibility and depended far too much on people with authority to do things for them that they should have done themselves. And really, because of the lack of personal responsibility, we let our whole country fall apart.
Our economy would not be the way it is now if Americans didn’t become so lazy and health care wouldn’t be such a critical issue if everyone took better care of themselves. That is the basic truth that no politician will ever have the balls to tell the people. We are the only people who can make our lives good; nobody else can do that for us.
Enough of the negative; this has been a year for me that I will never forget. I’m going to now list every significant thing that happened that defined Kent Ward in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
A cornerstone of my life in Orlando is back in a new location after a very long hiatus! Rocky’s Replay, which was pretty much Orlando’s only legitmate arcade is back and bigger than ever! There is a lot more space in the location and additional spots to actually lounge and hang out. Anyone who went to Rocky’s Replay knew it was more than just dropping tokens into arcade machines; it’s where many of us went to hang out. I’ve made some good friends from my Rocky’s excurrsions and I even had a more than few first(and often only) dates at Rocky’s.
I doubt if Rocky’s will have the same impact on me now as it did back then, but I am sure the next generation of social awkward youngsters will love it very much. Rocky’s was great because you could have beer while playing games, but they currently don’t have a liquor license at the new place. As a matter of fact, I really feel like that this was a guerilla re-opening. Rocky’s sent out an e-mail to their mailing list on Friday that it was going to open yesterday. So there was really little notification on what was actually happening. It also didn’t help that half of their demographic was out of town for the holidays. But I’m sure things will pick back up after Neew Year’s. It’s still pretty awesome that it’s back.
There are currently no new games since the place closed in Casselberry other than Guitar Hero Arcade but it felt good to play some After Burner and The King of Fighters XI again. Especially the latter, I haven’t played that since before the sequel came out and that was a mistake. Hopefully, some more games will be coming to Rocky’s in the future. I really don’t care if they are new; in fact, I would love for Rocky’s to have Hydro Thunder or Capcom vs SNK 2. That would be win.
Rocky’s Replay is now located at 5445 Lake Howell Rd, Winter Park, FL 32792 and they now have a website at http://www.rockysreplayarcade.com/ . My buddies and I will mostly likely hit arcade up about a couple times a month and maybe you’ll be there too!
The internet got something awesome for Christmas in the form of the long awaited release of The Adventures of Duane and BrandO’s LP of Devastation. The download is available through their website after a PayPal donation of $10. It’s totally worth it. Every old song has been remixed and sounds better. Not only that, a lot of their new stuff is great too!
The album features nerdcore renditions from games like Legend of Zelda, Megaman 2, Metroid, Castlevania, Punch-Out!, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy, Battletoads, and more! I left my awesome new laptop running with the LP of Devastation playing and it was the best sleep I had in a very long time. I totally look forward to playing the LP of Devastation on my music playlist this Friday!
Since July of 2003, I have always been affilated with Full Sail University, either as a student or employee. Now, I will simply be just an alumni. Friday was my last day at the school, and I will be moving on to the next stage of my career as a professional game developer simulation scientist.
Wait, what!?
Yeah, I know it’s crazy. It’s completely different from what I was going for. As a matter of fact, I never even thought about the position of “scientist” as a viable life option, yet here I am getting ready to start my new job tomorrow! I will do games professionally at some point in my life, but for now, I will have more time than ever for my own projects. Hell, I just finished the first of many prototyping sessions with another alumni for the next AFO game.
I will still live around Orlando. I said a while back that I wanted to leave, and I will eventually. In the last month, I did a lot of fun things in the event that I would, in order to get the most out of this dying city. While doing so, I found out that there actually is more for myself to discover and more fun to have with my real friends. You know, the people who have been loyal and have supported me throughout the years.
With a future that is brighter and a paycheck that is bigger, the possility exists to do more with my life. I’ve always wanted to formally learn martial arts, and I want to travel the country more in the next year. I also owe my parents a lot for eveything they ever done for me. Maybe I will finally be able to send them on that trip to Italy…
So to my loyal friends, my family, and the awesome staff at Full Sail University and anyone whom I have had the pleasure of working with, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would not have gotten this far in life without your support. I plan to make you all proud!
