All entries written in May, 2007
May 30, 2007 at 9:03 am · Filed under Reviews, Thoughts
Well, apparently I just couldn’t get enough of Castlevania on the DS. Despite the fact that I’m only getting around to talking about it now, I started Portrait of Ruin pretty much
immediately after I finished Dawn of Sorrow. This was a good thing because it gave me a chance to really compare the two (and I don’t think they can escape comparison). Even though Portrait of Ruin re-uses a few of the same enemy sprites from its direct predecessor, and employs the same basic screen layout and money system, it really is a very different game…but something about it still feels familiar. That’s because its roots go back farther than Dawn of Sorrow, and even farther back than Symphony of the Night, the game that pioneered the action/RPG rebirth of Castlevania. I came away from Portrait of Ruin feeling like I’d just played the spiritual successor to the original Castlevania titles from the NES.
Part of it is the music–Portrait of Ruin has a fantastic soundtrack, and it doesn’t try to manhandle the DS speakers into sounding like they contain an orchestra. These are unashamed, catchy-yet-complex synthesizer tunes that recall those of the old NES without being outright remixes. There’s some continuity of sound between related levels…your progression through Dracula’s castle goes through five or six stage and boss themes that communicate feelings of varied action, fearful wonder, and eventually growing adrenaline and dread. The music is even reactive in some places…late in the game, you can unlock a gauntlet level called the Nest of Evil, which leads you farther and farther downward through new boss fights and rooms full of enemies, and the deeper you go, the faster the music gets. It’s so subtle you almost couldn’t notice it unless you warped from the bottom of the stage back to the top, skipping straight from fastest to slowest. But even when you don’t notice it, you feel it, and that’s the most important thing.
Keep reading….
May 28, 2007 at 9:01 am · Filed under Announcements
Regular updates resume on Wednesday.
May 24, 2007 at 7:59 pm · Filed under Announcements
May 25th, 2007 promises to be a very big day on School Kids SG. Something truly huge is about to happen in tomorrow’s update, and I promise it’ll start the holiday weekend off with a bang….
(There’s also a less exciting reason tomorrow is important, but that can keep until sometime next week.)
May 23, 2007 at 9:01 am · Filed under Extras, Production Art
I found some more production art while combing through my archives this week. Today’s attractions: the original pencils for the SG Crew’s group profile, and a picture of Mark as seen from the back. I guess the overall theme of these pictures is “leg problems.” I never colored or used the drawing of Mark because I made his legs too long, and if you compare the pencils of the SG Crew portrait to the finished version, you’ll see that I forgot to draw Jenn’s legs at all! I added them while I was coloring the image in Photoshop. Sssh…don’t tell anyone.
Enjoy!
May 21, 2007 at 9:06 am · Filed under Reviews, Thoughts
I still stretch my voice a little every time I make reference to the eighteenth season of The Simpsons, which just finished its first run last night with a two-in-one season finale. I mean, it’s pretty absurd how long this show has been on. And it’s been painful to watch for the last couple of years…speaking from my own experience, I never quite got over that episode where the family was on the lam after accidentally running over an alligator in Florida. Last season’s opener, in which Marge decides she still loves Homer because he vomits like a manatee, wasn’t exactly the show’s finest hour, either. Up until this most recent season, I was only really watching out of loyalty, and for the one or two good laughs sometimes present in a given episode (which I guess would be enough to satisfy the executives at the Fox network). But during season 18, I actually felt myself coming around. There’s life in The Simpsons yet.
Take the 24 parody/crossover that began last night’s double-header. For one thing, ever since Homer became the undisputed center of The Simpsons, it’s been hard to find a good Bart episode, and this was a good Bart episode (even if it’s almost impossible to consider it canon). He had an admittedly weird role that still fit his character–prank calling Jack Bauer was an excellent way to work the guest stars into the show without having them take over, and having Jack adapt Bart’s famous, “I’m Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?” line for his own use was priceless. It was nice to see Bart working with Lisa like he did in some of the old Sideshow Bob episodes, and I was glad that Superintendent Chalmers could enter and exit a scene without screaming “Skiiiin-nnnerrr!” as some kind of self-cynical meta reference. Best of all, the gimmick of turning an episode of The Simpons into an episode of 24 allowed the writers to stay on track…and after a Father’s Day episode ending with Homer running in a mayoral recall election while wearing a Salamander suit, I think it’s pretty inarguable that the track needed a new fence.
Keep reading….
May 18, 2007 at 9:06 am · Filed under Extras, Production Art
In addition to writing School Kids SG, I also draw all the art on the site. I have a lot of fun with it, even though I don’t draw half as often as I write, nor do I need to. In fact, I only had to draw one new picture when I opened this site to start serializing SKSG–the rest of what you see all came from pictures I had drawn over the last year or two. In case you’re curious, the one new picture is the one you see when you go here.
Anyway, I’ve been promising myself for a while now that I’d start posting sketch art and stuff on here, instead of letting it just lie around on my hard drive where no one can see it. I thought I’d start by posting some pencil art of the picture for Mark’s character profile, plus the full versions of the pictures seen in Preston and Jenn’s profiles. I also dug up something that’s sort of like a model sheet for Lyle. You’ll find most of these after the cut—click on them to view them full-size.
Keep reading….
May 16, 2007 at 9:01 am · Filed under Cast, Guys
May 9, 2007 at 9:06 am · Filed under Cast, Guys
May 6, 2007 at 3:03 pm · Filed under Announcements
You’ve already heard both Mark and Lyle speak darkly of him, and as of last Friday, Donovan DeLussa has officially made the scene. Because of the way the next few updates fall, I’ve decided to declare May 7-11 “Donovan Week” on the site. We’ll have chapter 13 of The Gauntlet on Monday, which will reveal a lot more about what Donovan’s up to, and then on Wednesday, we’ll have his profile (which won’t say much at all, honestly, but it does have a picture of him). Then, things will conclude on Friday with The Gauntlet, chapter 14, as Donovan’s plan for Mark and the SG Crew comes to fruition. An editor at iUniverse.com who reviewed The Gauntlet a few years back said that this was one of the most interesting parts of the story, and that Donovan was one of the most interesting characters, so I’m eager to see if all this will stimulate any discussion.
If you do get interested in Donovan, don’t worry–he’s still going to be in the story even after his week is over. I’ve got a lot to say about him in the second half of The Gauntlet, and he and Mark obviously have some issues they need to work out. Plus, as it may already be apparent, Donovan is going to figure prominently into Lyle’s latest and greatest plan….
May 2, 2007 at 9:05 am · Filed under On SKSG, Thoughts
Last Friday, we found out that Mark Daley used to be a vigilante, specifically a member of the Go-Cart Gang. This not only makes it apparent why the prologue of The Gauntlet was and will continue to be relevant, it’s also the point of connection between the unusual history I’ve concocted for Woodvale and the events actually taking place in the stories. Although the weirdness of Woodvale can (and will) find the SG Crew regardless of whether or not they actually have a vigilante in their midst, Mark’s past is going to be the source of all kinds of drama and adventure as the series progresses.
Starting with chapter 12 of The Gauntlet, which will go up at the end of the week, the secret’s out and story is about to enter its second act. But today, I want to use one of my Thoughts posts to give you an idea of what School Kids SG feels like on my end, and what working on this series means to me. This was something I couldn’t really discuss until I no longer had to worry about spoiling The Gauntlet’s first big surprise.
Basically, School Kids SG is a direct sequel to something no one will ever see.
Keep reading….
