Flip gets flipped to October

Don't know if I've ever mentioned Frozen North. They're a local Toronto game developer that were slated to drop their first game, 'Flip's Twisted World' on the Wii. Drop date was Sept. 21, which has come and gone. So, whence Flip?

Well, got an email back from one of the dev. team. Turns out you'll have to slot this game as an early Halloween treat. Manufacturing woes have knocked Flip back a month to October 19th.

The guys at Frozen North have been workin' their collective asses off on this, their first game, and if Jim Sterling over at Destructoid is any judge (and he is) it's going to be well worth the money of any TAIS game fans and your families. Plus, the MSRP of $29.99 will be easy on the pocket book.

It's local, it's Canadian, it's they're first Wii game, and it's inexpensive. Go get you one on the 19th of Rocktober. Don't worry, I'll post a reminder. Meanwhile, check out the trailer above. More to come!

MegaPupsh!

Beginning of the week, better get yer cute on. Got a copy of Capcom's Mega Man artbook for a friend. Flippin' through the 8-bit era goodness, got inspired to sketch up the Nemu-Nemu pups as Mega Man and Proto Man, with bird buddy Pollo as Beat. Pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. More actual news to come!

Despicable Me: Minions vs. Rabbids FIGHT!

The new Universal feature "Despicable Me" opens soon, a story about the world's #2 supervillain vying for the top-dog position...there's a heartwarming life-affirming tale with 3 orphans mixed in there somewheres. My big thing right now is not the film's main character, but his homies.

Seems the second banana has cooked up some groovy lil' henchman. Now, you get your inspiration where you can find it, hell knows my GUNBunnies short cribs from Robotech and Macross and Gundam (oh, my!). But...well, you be the judge. Here's a promo film featuring a bit o' comic biz with the Minions.



Now here's a bit of goofy goodness featuring Michel Ancel's Rabbid characters, stars of the Ubisoft video game series.



Mebbe it's the non-verbal facial mugging, the deadpan-to-manic delivery or the proportions of the characters, but if the ol' production lounge over at Illumination Ent. doesn't have a Wii and a copy of 'Rabbids Go Home' in it, I'll eat my dog bowl. Whaddya think? Comments welcome, people. More to come!

Animation Prezzies!

Just thought I'd whip out a quick list of goodies that you might consider for those luvved ones on yer Xmas list this year. Or Hanukkah. Or Qwanza. Or Friday the 18th. Whatever, these are great gift ideas for you animation lovin' compadres out there.

RUN HAMSTER RUN (IPHONE GAME)

If you've got a friend with an Iphone who's an animation nut, this hand-drawn puzzler from animation Erin Humiston is just the thang. Produced by Erin and a small crew in Florida, it's available now at the Itunes App Store! Gift a copy, then get a copy for yesself...that's an order. Courtesy of Cartoon Brew.

A BOY AND HIS BLOB (NINTENDO WII GAME)


Released in October, this game for the Wii features hand-drawn side scrolling action in a more anime-inspired vein. Fun for adults and kid-friendly as well, you navigate around obstacle and enemies by feeding your pet blob jellybeans...different flavors, different effects. From WayForward Technologies, developers of the fabulously fun Shantae game (tons of hand animation, great stuff!)

Whoops! Running long with this post...more goodies to come!

Aardman does Flipnote

Here's a couple of sweet lil' treats from our homies at Destructoid...seems there's a great lil' animation tool for the Nintendo DSi called Flipnote Studio, and in order to show it off proper the powers that be at the big N summoned the forces of Aardman Animation to create spots actually animated on the DSi! Nice! Apparently they've commissioned a whole bunch o' these to promote the DSi itself and upcoming Zelda game Spirit Tracks. I'll keep you posted. More to come...

8 Bit Pwny Club

Some inspired 8-bit flavoured insanity from the fellows at Weebl's Stuff. Really love the shaky cam and the site of old video game characters chatting on a couch. Enjoy!

Splashworks promo vid

Fer all y'all wondering what this pooch does for a day job (yeah, you 3 guys), here's a promo vid featuring screens and sample gameplay from some of our games. A lil' background; Splashworks.com has been around since '96, and was formed by a trio of buddies fresh from the CD-Rom wars who wanted to make games where there was a lil' more attention paid to quality, and a lil' less paid to the bottom line (and abusing your Dilberted employees...go read 'Microserfs' or 'JPod', you'll get the picture). Worked on the animation and interfaces for quite a few of these, the most notable being the skateboarding and parkour games. And now, we'se branching into Iphone apps! Lotta fun, and it keeps me in pencils and pixels. Enjoy. Oh, and if you like what ya see, go play sumpin'...is all free, baby. Later!

Extra Life, Ishu Patel and other schtuffs...

O.k., so it's been a hairy week. Workin' on multiple games for multiple clients, extra hours to get thing ready for a new site we're launching at the day job...plus, I think I just pissed off my boss, and he doesn't piss off easily. Yeef.

So I'll leave you with a new toon and news. I created this for an event called Extra Life, happening tomorrow. It's a 24 hour gaming marathon with the proceeds going to a Texas children's hospital. Organized by Jeromy 'Doc' Adams, in honor of a girl named Tori (a good friend of Doc's) who died of a rare form of Leukemia early this year. Check out my toon, then check out the event.

Sending off this short and my 'First Time Out' short to KAFI, the Kalamazoo Animation Festival. They've recently opened their call for entries, so send 'em a DVD with yer stuffs!

Next, our homies over at MyToons are lookin' for spooky Halloween-a-mations, and yes, I'll be shooting them a link to both the Monsterjams. Get 'em your creepy toons soon, there's some good prizes to be had.

Finally, don't forget the special TAIS sponsored events happening this weekend featuring master animator (and all-round swell dude) Ishu Patel. Head over to the TAIS site for all them juicy details.

Right, that about wraps it up! I'll try to have some more Halloween inspired nooze and animation goodies for ya next week. Later, animators! (jebus, did I just write...)

Splashworks at Casual Connect '08

Just a quick note to let y'all know that Rob and Jen from Splashworks.com, my lovely lovely day job, will be in Seattle next week for the Casual Connect '08 games conference. Come on by and get some Splashy swag!

Paul Robertson: Kings of Power 4 Billion %

Paul Robertson, an Australian gent known for his japanese video game flavored animations and his love of massive titles (his most famous film? PIRATE BABY'S CABANA BATTLE STREET FIGHT 2006)has just finished his epic masterpiece. This trailer is just a taste of the 11 minutes of kinetic, frenetic, flashy, creepy awesomeness that can be downloaded in it's entirety here. Music by Paul's personal sonic saviour, Cornel Wilczek. More to come.