From Hell's Heart I Stab At Thee

[fromhellsheart]

Participated in the Ludum Dare game jam this weekend. Didn't participate in the competition. The idea of this game is that you are a Siren, and you are luring ancient greeks (who have invented the cannon very early) to their deaths. Singing enthralls the sailors, however, singing and hiding under the water uses up your breath meter (which eventually starts using up your health.) Eating sailors makes your Charybdis meter go up, letting you summon Charybdis and suck down all the ships at once.

The game is HTML5 so you should be able to play it in your browser here. 

[fromhellsheart]

Did a 48 hour game jam in Chicago last weekend. The theme of the game jam was the myth of Sisyphus. The focus of our game was the part of the myth before he's pushing the rock around. It was a pretty fun time. I did all the graphics. It was the first time I ever did a game jam.

We don't have an exe yet, but I am hoping to get one soon from the coders.

[fromhellsheart]

Here is a logo I made for the game a while back and never posted it on the blog. I'd like to add one more element. Not sure what yet. Something graphical. I'm thinking of a heart, or maybe part of a ship's helm.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about stuff and writing. Haven't had anything exciting to show lately. Not sure when I'll have anything to show. I have a lot of scrimshaw to do, and a wedding to be part of this month.

[fromhellsheart]

Went to the Museum Of Science And Industry in Chicago yesterday. Took a bunch of reference photos of a whaling ship model they had. They have a really great collection of ship models.

[fromhellsheart]

Couple more concept arts. A creature based on Ammit the Egyptian demon and another creature based on Cetus the Greek sea monster.

[fromhellsheart]

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been posting lately (been working on The Sleep Of Reason anthology, please back the Kickstarter so I can get a new computer! My computer is old and dying!)

I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I've been thinking that maybe From Hells Heart is too ambitious. I am thinking about a smaller prequel game, perhaps about a young Ahab before he encountered Moby Dick. I am imagining him as the optimistic captain of a small fishing boat, with dreams of becoming a great monster hunter.

Anyway, I've been doing some concept art of the fishing boat, and also I did some concept art of a monster. Expect to see more soon!

[fromhellsheart]

The Sleep Of Reason: An Anthology Of Horror

Fund The Sleep Of Reason: An Anthology Of Horror on Kickstarter!

The Sleep Of Reason is an awesome and huge horror anthology featuring an incredible collection of artists, writers, and excellent stories! I've had a chance to read most of the stories myself, and let me tell you, this shit is good!

We've met our first funding goal! But it's not over yet! The more money the Kickstarter recieves, the bigger my bonus is! So you'd be helping me out personally! Also,  there are a number of really cool stretch goals including a new color story by Dave Cooper!

[gerryswanson]

Here is an interior splash page for a comic I have been working on for C. Spike Trotman’s Sleep Of Reason horror anthology. She’ll be doing a Kickstarter for it soon, and I’ve seen a lot of the stories coming in and you’re not going to want to miss this!

[fromhellsheart]

Just so you guys know I have been taking a break from From Hell's Heart to work on this comic. As soon as I'm done I should be updating this blog a lot more!

[fromhellsheart]

New screenshot

Continuing to work on the game. Worked a lot on the water. Started experimenting with making an island.

By the way, in case you are wondering why the ocean is red, it is because as you play the game, the blood from all the monsters you kill makes the ocean turn red until you are sailing on an ocean of blood. 

[fromhellsheart]

First in-game shot

Got the model into the game. Here is the first in-game screenshot. 

The sails should look more like this, but I'm still working on getting specular mapping working in the game. The idea is that monster skin has been crudely sewn together to make the sail.

[fromhellsheart]

Further work on the Pequod

Continuing to work on the Pequod. I want to add some barnacles to the bottom of the ship. I got a lot of work done this week, but a lot of it was invisible. Redid a lot of UV's on the model that were messed up. Also I made a low polygon version and got it working in Unity, which is kind of cool.

[fromhellsheart]

Pequod in progress

So even though I haven't updated in a bit, I have been working. I have been working on a model of the Pequod (the ship). The idea behind the ship is that it has been made out of monster bones. This is still a work in progress (especially the rigging and sails and whatnot.)

[fromhellsheart]

Found something pretty cool for Unity. Someone has made a ship game starter kit that has a demo. http://www.tasharen.com/?page_id=62

This is very similar to what I want to do and it's cheap too (although I don't have the budget for it now... I have zero budget right now.) This is very exciting, because it's exactly what I need, and why reinvent the wheel? 

[fromhellsheart]

Sketch of Ahab

Not a big update today, just a sketch of Ahab I did in my little sketchbook. I met some dudes from Arena.net who draw on little sketchbooks and I have to say I like it.

[fromhellsheart]

Gameplay World Map

Here is a new map of the world, this time from more of a gameplay perspective:

While the other map I made was fun, and useful in a world building sense, this map is letting me focus more on the scope and structure of the game. While the map is based on real world places, I obviously took some liberties for the sake of making an interesting world to explore.

If this reminds you at all of a Zelda map, that's not a coincidence. The basic structure of the game will involve exploring 4 "overworld" areas, and finding 8 "dungeons." The first 7 "dungeons" based on the seven cities of gold will each contain a piece of Don Lope Aguirre (in real life King Philip II of Spain had him chopped him up into four pieces and sent him to different cities in Venezuela after he rebelled against the Spanish crown after searching for El Dorado.) After collecting all the pieces of Aguirre, Aguirre is ressurected as a zombie and summons Moby Dick (who is a Lovecraftian Kraken of course).

Whew, that all sounds really stupid when I type it out! In the context of a video game though, I think it will be fun. I hope!

[fromhellsheart]

The Quetzal

This is an element of this world that probably won't be explored much in the video game, but I'm going to mention it anyway, since I like the drawing. The Quetzal are a race of intelligent dinosaurs that live in the Hell's Heart world.

I've always liked the idea of connecting feathered dinosaurs with Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent god of the Aztecs. The adornment of Quetzal is based on real Aztec artifacts.

I also decided to go with a more standard dinosaur posture for them, as opposed to giving them a humanoid body type. The idea that all intelligent life has to follow a humanoid body plan is pretty anthropocentric. Most notably, many species of birds exhibit high levels of intelligence, despite lacking a human/monkey body type. This design reflects that.

As far as how the Quetzal would figure into gameplay, they would probably be relegated to being a race that you can trade with in the game.

[fromhellsheart]

Failed Comic

So at one time I tried to take this concept and turn it into a comic. I don't really like how it was turning out, but here's a page from it, just for funsies: