When Homeworld came out – it blew my mind. Now, the last two developers at Relic from the original development team reminisce about the game, the team and what makes Relic so unique.
I had the pleasure of working at Relic and everything they say about passion, talent and inspiration is true.
Check it out for some great concept art and the history of one of the most influencial studios making RTS games today.
Camilla D’errico has pointed out that today is not only her birthday, but is also the release date for the Sky Pirates of Neo Terra comic from Image.
I have some DEEP Sky Pirates roots.
The creator, Sean Megaw is a very good friend of mine (his desk is 15 feet away from mine) and we were sharing a table selling old comics at a small convention in Vancouver when we both met Camilla. We both immediately fell in love with Camilla and her work.
Camilla and I went to work on some T-Shirt designs (out from NRD by the 2010 – I promise!) and Sean and Camilla went to work on building the world of Billy Boom Boom and the Sky Pirates of Neo Terra.
I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in Sky Pirates quite a bit for the past year. Reviewing scripts, telling Camilla her art is gorgeous, working the Image booth at San Diego Comic-Con to hand out stickers and sell preview copies of the book – and a whole lot more.
Sky Pirates is out today – if you’re in the mood for an all ages fantasy adventure with incredible art, swing down to your local comic shop and pick up a copy. If they are sold out (entirely possible), tell them to order more.
I know Sean and Camilla would be VERY psyched if they had to do a second print run.
For those among us who spent most of their early life worshiping at the alter of George, here’s a rare snippet from his earliest days.
Link courtesy of: Quiet Earth
I’ve had a few people ask me why I don’t go with motion comics, or with traditional jpg comics (to be reprinted later in a collection) or Scott McCloud’s infinite canvas. When I started working on the interface/controls/layout for Petra’s Call, the amount of control the reader had was sort of a big deal. I wanted the user to control the pace and tempo of the comic. I didn’t want them to have to wait for an animation to play, or a narrator to introduce a scene – and this goes against a lot of the thinking in the web-comics space right now, especially with serialized adventure comic.
My reasoning behind this is simple.
Comics are about pictures and words – seeing and reading. Reading is something everyone does at their own pace – this is especially the case when they are accompanied by pictures.
The pace at which you read a book is different from person to person – the pace at which a person reads a COMIC book varies even greater.
It doesn’t make sense to me that a comic would take that control from the reader. I believe we should let the reader go through at their own pace. Click on a button, go to the next moment – click back if you want to step back.
This becomes especially important on consecutive readings.
Take the establishing shot from panel 1 of Petra’s Call. On first read – you’ve got the Oleksyn Valley. What is this valley? Where is this valley. An eager viewer might mouseover the title and click through to the wiki for more info, but that’s not likely (it’s “hidden treasure”, I only expect the hardcore will find it)
If a reader is going through the comic a 2nd or 3rd time, it’s very unlikely they’ll stop and study this panel. They know the valley, they know what’s coming up, they want to get on with the action, they don’t want to wait for me to play an animation, or have text fade in, the readers want ‘next’.
So I let them click for ‘next’.
