Bossman HTML5 game

Hi folks!

Sorry I haven't been posting a lot of artwork. I'm actually taking my work in a new direction, so I'm building a new portfolio, and I want to debut all the new work at once. This project came up, and I was excited to do it. I've been studying HTML5, specifically for gaming, for the past few months, and this was an opportunity to actually put something out there. It's currently at http://playbossman.com. Our team of 4 made this in 48 hours! Granted, it's buggy as hell and still needs a lot of work. I did the art/concept/sound/level building. Sadly, my concept for the game had to be curtailed significantly to work, and get done in time.

This was for Node Knockout 2011, a 48 hour hack-a-thon revolving around node.js technology. Everything had to be made over the 48 hour period, and there were nearly 300 teams all over the world competing. The other 3 members of my team are in Argentina.

Here's my sketch for the game. No digital files could be created before the competition started, so I just had a bunch of drawings for my ideas. (I think my wonderful scanner is in it's twilight days as you can see by the CMYK sprinkles. I've had it since my first semester in college, almost 10 years!)

The idea was that you would race 10's to hundreds of people through a multi-level maze of bisected office space. The level would be constantly scrolling, and if you fell behind or through the cracks you would be killed and receive a pink slip. You could fight other players in a race to become the boss. The rat race in 8 bit game form.

Sadly, there are still some serious technical drawbacks to HTML5 games that I don't think will be solved any time soon, so this dream could not become a reality, in spite of it's relative simplicity compared to console games. The developers in Argentina worked incredibly hard on this, and I am in awe of their abilities! To give you some perspective, I am also a web developer, but these guys are so good that I didn't even touch any code. None of us had ever built a game before, but they are so talented, that they figured out how to do it the week before, and executed it over the weekend. Amazing!

I stepped up myself. I had only made a screaming doughnut for pixel art before this, but I got it now! We used impact.js, which is a great tool. The level editor is very easy to use, and it's well worth the $99, although we got to use it for free because the creator sponsored the event.

Weekly comic book review

Logo work for weeklycomicbookreview.com. Fun project, good fit for me. I've been really into faux vintage lately, as you can see. I feel like vector art isn't finished until it gets some texture, it seems too slick to me.

I started with something happy. I thought it was fun—not what they were looking for.

I had many ideas, these were some of the more resolved ones:

SF wallpaper

I like making wallpaper patterns sometimes, this is definitely my most elaborate one. I have been wanting to mess around with isometric designs lately, so this is what I came up with.

You can see it repeated here: jeremyforson.com/sf_iso_art.html

Jakob and Jessica

Paintings! These are private commissions for the talented and kind Jakob Westman and his girlfriend, Jessica. I'm particularly proud of these. Jakob specifically wanted to commission me to do this style of painting, from what I call my "Night Life" series. This is what those paintings could have looked like, if I hadn't had to finish them in 1 to 2 days.

Sadly, I don't think there will be any new paintings from me in the near future. I'm shifting into a designer/developer career path, and I won't have time to paint until I'm gainfully employed.

Video game mock-ups

I've been sitting on these for a while. This was some pitch work I did over the summer. A team of local programmers was working on a Rock Band style game that used a real guitar to pitch at E3. Sadly, at E3 Rock band announced that they were going to start using real guitars. Beat to the punch I guess. Still, it was a fun project. This was the beginning of my interest in 3D. It's hard for me to believe now, but I was ecstatic to use Google sketch-up with PS, AE, and AI to make these. Mostly because I didn't have to worry about perspective, which I don't enjoy drawing. If I had known how easy other 3D programs were to use I wouldn't have used sketch-up.

Cthulhu

You know how if someone is missing for 7 days you can legally declare them dead? I believe that if you don't hear from the client for a month, you can declare the project dead. This was supposed to be a record cover. I was timid about working for a band again, as I have had bad experiences with them in the past. I took a chance and accepted a cover job for a small band, and a small fee. At this point, the band is nowhere to be found. ::Sigh:: I will never do that again.

The real shame is that I think this would have been the best CD cover I've ever done. The difference is that this is designed to be eye catching, iconic, and to read well at a small size. I used to try putting epic pieces on those little 5" squares (or whatever they are), but that's really not the way to go. Simplify the message.

This probably would be a good submission for Spectrum, but I don't see the point in entering anymore. I'm not looking for work as an illustrator, and I don't have money to waste on submission fees.

This is mixed media. It's a charcoal, pencil, and white gouache drawing, colored digitally. I think it's a great way to work. It has the speed and flexibility of digital, with the texture and "artist's hand" that makes traditional so nice.

Sorry if this post is a downer, I was burned by another band, rejected for yet another job, and I filed for unemployment today. I've been out of work for over 2 years, and it's getting to me.

Christmas