Is “ironies” even a word?

Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I decided the best way to deal with the stress of driving an hour to and from work was to complain on the internet. I commenced a blog thence forth with the intent of writing opinions and rants about daily life. Then this happened.

And I still haven’t complained about traffic.

I realized that the reason for this was fairly simple, I’m constitutionally incapable of dwelling on negative emotions. I just forget. So every day, I commute home, grumbling that I’m going to name all these people by name on my blog, but when I step out of the car in the lot, I’m like “YAAAY! HOME!!!”

Then I go inside and laze. And forget to complain about traffic.

Traffic Tirade: If you don’t like traffic, don’t move to Dallas.

~fin

You know, I’ve been away from Blogger for a long time. I’ve checked out several other options over the years, but I think I may be back here for the time being.

 

 

 

Here’s a couple of teaser images from my DFS project. I’ve just started, but I can tell you that it’s concept art for a game that doesn’t yet exist. Its based on Japanese mythology to some extent, but also includes a good amount of made up stuff, as you can see from the caligraphy.

I’ve got about one piece to do per week, 6 or 7 pieces. I’m really going to try to push myself to do astounding work on them, so keep an eye on DA and CGhub.

Well, the break here at the Guildhall is comming to a close, which interestingly puts me into crunch mode. I have a couple of days to churn out three pieces, and to make them all look fantastic. Here’s a WIP of one of them, an original character who I’m doing a modelsheet for. I’m redoing the linework at the moment, as you can tell. I may take a break to get the other pieces done soon, so I can spend the rest of my two days working on this.

We’re going to see District 9 tonight, hopefully with a bunch of the newbies to GH, so that should be fun. There’s a welcome party afterwards, but seeing as we have no real way to mass contact the other cohorts, I don’t know how many new guys we’ll actually be seeing. It’llbe fun either way.

Will try to blog more.

Oh, and expect me to get my own gallery working here at SOME point. Lord. if only I had the time…

Peace.

I have, at this point, been accepted into the Masters of Interactive Technology at the Guildhall at Southern Methodist University. I’ve had a crazy past few days. I’ll explain that later. I will say this, Arcandio.com will live on, and from now on it will provide me with a base of operations for sharing my experience at the Guildhall. If I can post demos, vids, or art, I’ll do it here, though I’ll probably post my art mostly on DA.

In the past few days, I got declined a job at Sentry that I really thought I could get, I scared about not getting into Guildhall, Got in to Guildhall, Went to a celebratory dinner, screwed my car up, saw a shooting star, got it fixed, found out it was not fixed, drove it back, tried to contemplate moving to texas, got sick, got better.

Been a ride. But I’ll be posting again, and probably as much as I can.

CastleOubliette.com is up and running, but still in process. Currently, the forums and wiki are both functioning, and we are looking for more people to help out. If you’re interested, please contact the webmaster.

Here is an excerpt from the site:

What Is Oubliette?

Oubliette is a dark, dangerous role-playing game from Arcandio.com. It features a gritty, dramatic world home to everything that was ever discarded for being abnormal. It is the epicenter of magic, the realm of gods, and a haven for those cast aside by their cultures. Part of the theme for the feel of the game was “heavy metal, the RPG.”

The world is almost entirely comprised of a gargantuan city-castle twenty thousand years old. Full of disparate districts, the Grand Castle is populated by dragon creatures, vampires, magicians, and other fell beasts that once inhabited earth. These beings are trapped here, unable to return, and fight constantly for resources, rivalries, ideals, and power.

From this backdrop arise a special breed, those that would do what they can to help each other. Those that fight for more than wealth and survival. Those with purpose. Us.

Join us, if you think that you are up to the task.

For the record, the Spore Creature Builder is amazing. Some of my critters can be found on Youtube and Sporepedia. I’ve spent some hours on it already, and I think it was a very effective marketing ploy for EA to release this part of the game to build a fanbase. As of today, there are 566,934 users on Spore, and the game is still 65 days from launch! I’ve done some very simple and probably unreliable calculations, and my prediction is that there will be somewhere between 16 and 26 MILLION User-generated creatures the day the game comes out!

Aside from Spore, Volkarius and Elucia have been working on editing for Oubliette, and that’s almost done. Then it’d be art, layout, playtesting, and the final edit, before we go to press. Exciting.

Elucia and I are also going to be blogging a campaign called Cohort Alpha, and that can be found in it’s own blog. Should be rather interesting

In about 11 weeks (since April 15th) I finished the rough of the Manuscript for a new Role-playing game called Oubliette. It’s a gothic/horror/fantasy style game that I’ve affectionately termed “Nightwish the RPG.” Designed around a single, gargantuan castle, the game world is a dumping ground for everything and anything forgotten.

There was once a magnificent castle in medieval Francia. It was miles wide and contained treasures so valuable they were legendary amongst people as far away as the Mongols. Rumor had it that the castle was the home of an ancient pagan god who sat on a throne of electrum and diamonds. The castle’s name was only ever spoken in reverence. But so deep was the mystery surrounding the great castle, that people dismissed it as pure myth, and nothing more. Eventually, it disappeared.

In reality, the castle had been just as interesting. Many powerful men from all over the world came to visit it. It was a nexus for the esoteric arts, where anyone could learn anything for the right price. Its lord was a shrouded figure no one ever actually saw, but who ruled with a cunning but strict hand. Eventually, at the height of the castle’s power, it simply vanished.

An oubliette is a forgetting. It is the place things go when they are lost or discarded. This forgotten castle is Oubliette. It is the home of lost men, forgotten powers, and forbidden magic.

This world is a dangerous one, filled with pain, sorrow and loss. It is not for the faint-hearted. But among the disenfranchised masses, there are those who have not lost hope. They are motivated, passionate, strong, and powerful individuals willing to fight for their beliefs and their survival. These are the heroes and heroines of this world.

Welcome to Oubliette.

---

-introduction copyright Joe Bush 2008

Obviously the next step is to have the manuscript edited thoroughly. While that’s happening, I’ll be working up the art assets that will go into the final comp. Then I’ll edit everything again, just to be sure. Then, its dealing with the printer and getting it proofed. At that point (some time real soon, hopefully) You’ll be able to buy the book online. Where I get the money for publishing is anyone’s guess at this point.