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Emrox
The Pete Best of internet animation

Age 27, Male

hey!

Joined on 8/23/08

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NATA / productivity / video game parodies / need a programmer

Posted by Emrox - July 12th, 2012


I made it to the next round of NATA yadda yadda yadda you get it now.

(If you haven't seen 'partners in crime' yet, click above)

Normally I'd discuss who I just faced, how I came up with my idea, stylistic decisions, etc, but I really don't feel like doing that this time. In fact, I usually make these posts the day the resulta were posted, but I dunno, I guess that's gotten old by now. Or it has for me at least, tell me if you guys like that sorta thing.

Anyway, this post is going to be a bit more casual and blog-like instead of the usual 'reflections on my last flash' sort of thing. You can skip the next paragraph or so if you don't like reading those.

First off, as of late I've been developing this weird new sleep pattern where with each night I slowly grow closer to being completely nocturnal. Right now I'm going to bed at about 3am and waking up at 11. I don't know why, but I think that this has something to do with my constant need to be productive for every waking hour; if I spend an hour in bed where I'm only sorta tired before I fall asleep, that's an hour I could have spend working on a movie. For that reason, I'm always pushing myself to work until I'm so tired I fall unconscious within five seconds of me getting into bed. Worse yet, I have no motivation NOT to continue doing this, for I really don't have any sort of job or education to wrap my schedule around. I mean, maybe this is even better for me. Who knows?

Speaking of productivity, once school was no longer a part of my daily routine, I've been falling into this weird habit where I can't do one thing at a time anymore, or it feels like a waste of time*. Whenever I animate, I either have to put netflix on (so I feel like I'm making progress on whatever series I'm trying to finish), or livestream it so my work is serving a second purpose. I've actually reached a point where I hardly listen to podcasts anymore, because unlike shows, they'll always be there no matter how much I listen to. Even though they provide equal entertainment (and distraction), for whatever reason I just need to be constantly making 'progress' in one way or another. Do any of you guys ever have this problem?

*that's the weirdest mix of tenses ever

On an unrelated note, I'm getting really sick of video game parodies, particularly minecraft videos. 90% of videogame parodies have the same garbagey jokes where it just pokes fun at elements of a game that don't match up with real life, either through exaggeration or an overwhelming amount of deadpan humor. For Christ's sake, the reason videogames aren't realistic is so they can be FUN. If all games had realistic physics and gameplay, they wouldn't have the same appeal. I mean, mario can jump a billion relative-feet in the air because that's the only way we can go AROUND obstacles in a 2d environment. You shouldn't think of your jokes as witty observations if they were only designed that way for the sake of the game having good design. Last Saturday night I sat down and made this as a means of showing how easy it is to write the trash plaguing the front page of youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22WkzDiF2Y

And for the record, the only time I've ever played minecraft was at a friends house for about 5 minutes. I don't have the time for that game. Too slow and boring. Point is, you don't need to play the game to make the jokes. Now go post that on everyone's wall and make it get an undeserving amount of views.

---BORING BLOGGERY OVER---

I NEED A PROGRAMMER!

Recently I've been looking around for programmers for an idea for a game I've had for a really long time, but I'm really worried about PMing people, and I hate having to make these open news posts asking for programmers because I can never respond to everyone, plus I never know how good/reliable anyone is. That's what makes it so hard to find a programmer that's willing to just sit down and make the game you want them to. No one wants to just take commands from an artist and transform someone else's ideas into code, so a lot of the time the programmer that you've called upon will just lose motivation. In most cases, whoever didn't come up with the game idea is the first one to flake, and with programming, that becomes much more likely due to the probability of a bug coming up that takes an extreme amount of dedication to fix. If you are a programmer and upon reading this you want to help me out with a game, please keep in mind that I need someone who will NOT have to change any elements of gameplay simply due to the difficulty of programming them. You're also going to have to show me stuff you've worked on in the past, and proof you won't drop out halfway through the project.

(This is NOT a casting call. You can leave a comment if you're interested in working with me at some point, but I don't want a whole load of PMs and portfolios. The details of the actual game will be released at a later date.)

tl;dr you're no fan of mine if you can't take five minutes out of your day to read this

Quick hand loop:

NATA / productivity / video game parodies / need a programmer


Comments

i feel the same way about sleep.
Go to bed at around 12am-3am then wake up 5:30am-8am
sleep does consume but helps me recycling my mind into random bits instead of keeping a constant idea in my head for too long.

i once stayed up nearly 3 days straight to finish a project for college.
shit was rough on my thought process, i started schizin out and acting all jumpy.
good luck in the competition rox, rootin for ya.

I've never stayed up 24 hours just working before, believe it or not. 3am is just such an odd hour to be awake. It always feels like no one else on Earth is up at that hour, be it late night or early morning, which is why I always call it quits at 3:00 no matter what.

Nice hand animation, and though I don't have a problem with VG parodies; I can't help but agree that they have been mostly stagnant ever since Nin10Doh came out.

Something I failed to mention is how ridiculously popular video game parodies get simply for being video game parodies. That's probably part of where my hatred comes from.

You're looking for a voice actor you say?
.... Oh wait.

Looks like you're outta luck this time around.

If only I had the problem of feeling the need to constantly make progress.

Anyway, I like that hand loop. And I would be super interested in the programming if I was better at it.

It probably is a blessing of sorts. SUPERPROGRESS.

I've been having the same sleep pattern problems except for some reason I'm having trouble finding any motivation whereas you can't seem to get rid of it. Weird.

Also on the video game parody subject, I've always tried to stay away from doing one of those. I've had ideas for a couple in the past but it would've been the same monotonous shit you see everyday so I always scrap it in the end. Making something original or trying to do something that's never been done are things that I've always admired, and I want to start doing more of that.

Anyways good look finding a programmer.

What are you doing awake at this hour?

One thing someone told me once about teaming up with a programmer (paraphrasing):
They are making your game, and they are dedicated to it. They are making an engine, usually from scratch, to match the exact specifications of this game. If the artist flakes, they are left high and dry with a very specific engine, that they might never be able to reuse. If the programmer flakes, the artist is left with a library of assets that they can use again at any time for any number of projects.

It was of course a programmer who told me this. But I thought it was an interesting outlook. It's obviously not a 100% loss for the programmer, but they do almost have more motivation to see a project through (although it often doesn't seem that way). I dunno. Maybe just something to take with a grain of salt.
Good luck to ya bud! Both in NATA and in finding a partner :)

Indeed. I'm not saying that one is more likely to lose a work ethic than the other, 'cause I know plenty of programmers who say artists are unreliable, and plenty of artists who say it's vice-versa, but that is definitely the biggest factor in deciding on who you want to team up with.

Luckily for you programmers, though, I'd look like the biggest douche in existence if I didn't see this project through to the end, so you have nothing to worry about on that front.

I DONT FUCKING KNOW

Read a book.

What the hell is this sleep everyone's always talking about?

It's a show on fox.

TL;DR
Also, I still plan to create and release my "i never played minecraft video" and also is this a casting call?

I'm going to have to murder you.

y'kno if i actually knew anything about code, or flash for that matter, I would be down to help you out, as I really like the work you do.

I too have fallen slave to irregular sleep patters, however its mostly due to my job which is a night job.

I think I'd like having a night job, though. Then I'd have some sort of excuse.

I agree with you, I like you. As for the productivity thing, I am completely nocturnal. For some reason, I just get more and better work done in the night hours.

I wish I had a better explanation for why that happens, but yeah, for some reason workin' is just so much more FUN at night.

I definitely have that multitasking problem, and getting a second monitor has not helped. I've also never played minecraft (or pretty much any game other than the Portal series) so I also am not a huge fan of video game parodies, unless they are unique enough that they are entertaining to watch even without having any knowledge of the game.

Also, I guess if you need a programmer, I could help, maybe. Although, I've never stuck with a project I came up with before because I usually end up realizing halfway through that my idea wasn't actually very good or something like that, which is why I've never uploaded anything I've programmed to Newgrounds so far. But assuming you have good ideas, which it seems you normally do, maaaaaybe I'd be available.

woo