Posted in: Electric Shocktopus | December 19, 2013 | No Comments

As the Electric Shocktopus whirrs ever further along — I thought I’d take a moment to point out what I think is one of the coolest parts of the game.  The sound.

Now, previously, I’d posted about the music for the game, done by Brian Allen Holmes.  He did an amazing job making a beach-y, exciting, upbeat soundtrack.  You can read about that here.

What I haven’t posted about yet is the fact that I’ve also got someone helping me with the sound effects.  In the past, I’ve just gone and downloaded royalty-free soundtracks… getting a handful of them, and then calling it a day.  But for the Electric Shocktopus, I was approached by Kevin Notar, a rad sound designer here in the Boston area.  He put together a really neat collection of sounds that make the game really come alive.

Now, it’s hard to describe sounds… so instead let me point you to a little trailer I made for the game.  (Never mind its spartan nature… this isn’t actually so much a trailer as just a feature of some gameplay.)  *BUT* pay particular attention to the music and the sound effects.

Pretty neat stuff.

Also, don’t forget: Shocktopus Shirts are in stock!  Here’s me looking awesome and grainy in my shirt:

That’s right, you too could be so cool.

-Andy

Posted in: Electric Shocktopus | December 5, 2013 | No Comments

Just in time for the holidays: The shirts are in!  I’ve been working with Campus Customs to get the shirts printed, and they launched the web store for the shirts today.  Take a peek.  Or buy a bunch.  Whatever.

Looks a bit like this!  But on your body instead of on a computer screen.  Cause that’s how shirts work

Here’s some feedback from some totally real customers:

“I love this band!” – Jim Zudkee

“This is the best shirt that I own!  And the second best pair of pants.” -Frank McFrankerson

“I walk into a room and people fall silent.  I think it’s the shirt” -Man with Over-Sized Hat

“I will CRUSH the Electric Shocktopus” -Magnetic Yeti

It’s like he’s staring into your SOUL

Wow!  Those are some ringing endorsements!  And now, while supplies last, you can get your tentacles on a shirt for just $18.

Get one for yourself.  Get ’em for friends.  Guaranteed to make you the coolest squid on the block.

-Andy

Posted in: Electric Shocktopus | December 3, 2013 | No Comments

These past couple weeks, I’ve been learning how to do some (simple) animations.  Up to this point, I’d always just had discrete pictures – like you’re looking at panels of comics, say.  Or I’ve just hand-drawn (erm, computer-drawn) the frames of a run animation.  But for Shocktopus, I’ve wanted to do a bit more.

I found a great program called Spine, which is a fairly universal way to animate characters.  You draw some bones, add some images onto those bones, set the key frames of the animation, and then you can export the animation to a bunch of different platforms.  For me, of course, I mainly care that it plays well with Flash, which it does.

I used Spine to make the animations of the RoboYeti, who I showed off last time.  But I’ve also used it for things like the intro video.  So now it goes something like this:

Yup, the Magnetic Yeti is still a jerk.

It’s been fun pulling together some animations — and they are surprisingly easy to do (once you get over the learning curve of using new software).  Just plug in the eight frames of a looping walk cycle, and the program does the rest for you.

And with that, the game suddenly feels a whole lot more polished.  Like (gasp) a real game.  Crazy!

-Andy