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Every really good creative person…whom I have ever know has always had two noticeable characteristics. First, there was no subject under the sun in which he could not easily get interested-from, say, Egyptian burial customs to modern art. Every facet of life had fascination for him. Second, he was an extensive browser in all sorts of fields of information. For it is with the [creative] man as with the cow: no browsing, no milk.
– James Webb Young, writing in his 1939 guide to producing ideas, articulates a timeless truth about the relationship between curiosity and creativity. (via explore-blog)(via explore-blog)
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Totally new phone wallpaper
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[Review] Lumines: Electronic Symphony
So I got my Vita this week. It’s been along time coming and I’m impressed with the hardware, just as I was begrudgingly impressed with the PSP. Like the PSP, the Vita has a Lumines title at launch and like before, I am utterly hooked.
For the most part the core game hasn’t really changed, though the visuals have all been amped up and the skins each feel much more in tune with the music than the previous iterations. There are a couple of skins that annoy me personally, as the background will stutter about and make it seem like the columns are moving, but they’re not so bad once you know that its happening.
This isn’t to say this is just Lumines all over again, there are new new elements. Enter the “shuffle” block, though I’m sure it’s called something else. Where as in previous outings, the stack slowly built by the simple fact of there being blocks you just couldn’t seem to clear, the new version added a block that scrambles all the blocks in any mass of blocks it touches. Really it just turns a massive train wreck into a new train wreck to deal with, but it keeps the stack from getting stale and can even knock out whole sections if the blocks align right.
Then there are avatar powers. So far I’ve seen the ability to:
- make a chain block spawn on the next cube
- make a shuffle block spawn on the next cube
- make the next three cubes all single colors
- stop the time line
They each have their uses, though I prefer the triple solid cube one my self, it lets me get a pile of single color bonuses in the first few waves. The avatars each have a duel power as well, but I’ve not had a chance to play with them.
Really, if you liked the first Lumines, you’ll like this one. If you didn’t like the first one, then don’t expect to have a sudden change of heart. For those who are puzzle curious, Lumines is definitely worth checking out if you like fast paced color matching and electronic music.
Bottom line: Another iteration of a solid puzzler. New blocks help mid to late game stale-ness. soundtrack is awesome. A solid choice for a launch title if you’ve got no other interests. 4.25/5
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Did some revisions on Soyentific Method today and completely changed the character –that’s how it goes sometimes, but now the story as a whole is much healthier and works on more levels.
This here was Mai Xing (now Avani Patel) after her first exposure to the mutagen. Did a quick sketch mostly to center and refocus on the story now that I have a more solid protagonist and a reason for why the changes manifest the way they do. While sketching I tried to also sketch in a back story. What follows is her bio and appearance as of the opening of the second part.
- 5’6″
- 167lbs.
- Buxom — due to the effects of the mutagen, but otherwise Athletic
- Light brown skin with a hint of green
- Black hair with a green sheen
- Born to parents who immigrated to America, Avani grew up in San Fransisco. Intensely curious about the world she spent much of her school life up to her eyes in books. She decided very early on that she wanted to be a scientist to make people’s lives better. She went to UCLA for an undergrad in Chemistry and the California Institute of Technology for Bio-Chem. She ended up working in the R&D department of the Howzer Group, a bio-tech firm looking into helping people with food allergies. Assigned to a project to help people deal with Lactose Intolerance, she found herself wrapped up in a project whose end goal was to engineer cows to produce soy milk instead of lactose. When she joins the project however, they are still in the early phases of testing, so she is not aware of the eventual outcome of her work.
- Nearly a year has passed since when the story starts, and the research has made leaps and bounds. In an accident that I’ve left vauge Avani is exposed to tainted product and becomes subject to the mutagen she has been designing. This is where the Jekyll/Hyde switch comes in. More on that later though, I have to call it a night.
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SWE001 Starting Over…
New Format! New Time: Fridays!
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Did this at work today while sort of spaced out. I’m pretty happy with it.
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Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.
–Jonathan Coulton is wise.
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/
(via neil-gaiman)
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Working on eyes, so here’s a study!
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(via maesma)
