I thought I had posted this already....Here goes!

And our Panda HERO! I had fun drawing that "MINE!" pose. Never eff with a panda and his game, Mr. Ferret! Oh and the ferret sheet I did earlier got a bad review so...might redo alot of him. Hammering out the final designs, got a comic layed out. All I gotta do is pencil, ink and color it >.<

I got alot more action poses on this sheet, makes me want to do another "action' sheet for the girl.

But I'm a GIIIIRRLLL!!!

Quintessential girl gamer.

Character wise, I kinda got an idea. She's kinda ditzy but not in a "GIRLZ R STUPED DUUR" way but more in that particular vampish girl way that is cute. When she games I wonder if she don't simply SNAP into a sterner almost drill instructor manner and show some prowess.

Next week is character bible week. Until then let me know how she comes off to you.

To: Gaming Industry

I've whined before about this brand new 59.99 price point for PC games that I've never paid and probably never will, but since a game I actually want first day has screwed the pooch on this issue I figure it's time I write about it.

Lets get some fact straight.

1) I'm not a tightwad. It's principle because PC games are at least 50% less expensive to make than console games. 

While 50% is an educated guess (anyone want to do my homework for me to support this let me know.) lets break down the additional expenses encountered when making a console game that deserve the additional $10 dollars.

• Dev Kits. A dev kit is basically the engine, tools, and manual for making a game for a console. PS3's alone runs about 2k. Now, this is as of last year. It was at one point 10k. C++ is free to code with. Now, some other tools are available (ex Visual Studio) but costs significantly less per pop than dev kits, like the top of the line latest and greatest runs +$700.
• Licenses Fees. Every game you sell on the PS3, you give Sony a cut. PC this is not an issue. You make a game for PC you don't have this expense. 
• Programmers on PC are cheaper. PS3 and Xbox 360 all have there hang ups, and require a special set of skills from there programmers. And alot of patience. Programming for PC is probably equally difficult however PC progammers are easier to find, train and hire. 

With all this said, how the hell are we expected to pay this much extra? Do you think we're morons who don't understand this? Do you think we wouldn't notice?

 2) DRM/ Bugs


The major PC exclusive releases this year could be counted on one hand. In fact, truly, there was only 2. I say this because alot of PC games are simply ports that was ported out to some third rate studio and comes to us full of bugs. Or full of obtrusive horrible DRM (Ubisoft, the worst offender so far, just recently scaled back. Thank you) that prevents use of the game we paid 59.99 for. If you are going to charge $59.99 for a game, it better have not ONE SLIVER of DRM!

I understand that pirating is a big problem however, how come we are getting the hammer? Hey, guess what? I've stolen more Wii games than PC. It's a pain in the ass to steal for PC. So I don't. Because games are cheaper anyway, easier to simply grab it off Steam when it goes on sale.

That said, I would like to see some measures taken to prevent stealing of games on PS3 and Xbox. Not Wii.

Secondly, bugs. Deadspace, releases in 2009 is still full of bugs today. Bulletstorm is dropping for $59.99, by Epic studios who did Gears of War on PC, dropped us like a hat when Cliffy B couldn't buy another car with the profits thanks to releasing the game a year after its Xbox debut (Oh hey, I wonder why it didn't sell?) and was riddled with bugs (still is) and resulting in one of the most painful installations I've ever endured. Before you can play your game, you have to first Google all the problems, then install 2 different items in a certain order before firing up (which, if you fired it up BEFORE installing, you have to UNISTALL then REINSTALL) and pray. Alot.

 We are neglected and largely abandoned when it comes to PC ports, why should we pay the same as the consoles for worse treatment? Do they worry about fixing the bugs? Do they quickly sort things out? No. So, there are STILL bugs in Deadspace, and you expect me to pay $59.99 for Deadspace 2 and enjoy the same treatment?You must be kidding.

3) Delayed Releases


It drives me crazy when I want a game and the release for the PC version is weeks, YEARS behind the console release. I simply won't buy games that do that. I want that game NOW and how dare you give us PC gamers such treatment! The pirates aren't the ones suffering, it's your paying customers!


Gaming Industy. Don't mindlessly follow Bobby Kotick's example. You're not hurting for money I assure you. And I think that adding +10 to your PC games is not only hurting the PC gaming industry as a whole, I think it is going to backfire. In fact, I am tempted to pirate Deadspace 2 out of simple spite.

Treat your customers better and don't give us reason to steal your game. Also, consider PC games can't easily be traded. If you ween your PC gaming community off to the consoles, it's going to hurt you with more stuff on the second hand market being PC gamers are thrifty bastards. So your only hurting yourself and gaming industry as a whole and treating us like idiots while your at it. Which, we are NOT idiots.

Lastly, you already have plenty of problems with the second hand market on consoles. Destroying PC gaming as a whole isn't going to help that problem, only make it worse. Also, when the PC market finally crashes, all the guys hacking DRM are going to set there sights on your consoles. If you think they are safe, you are mistaken.

You aren't solving a damn problem. Simply moving some and making more.

So in short, screw you.

Love, FP.

We have name and logo. Now time to finish up the largely rough designs and get to writing some comics!

My favorite design thus far. "The Douchebag" as he is called. Something of an antagonist, hands with the Panda clan when his 'bro's" arent around (which is always, the existance of said bros is dubious). Obvious who he is based off of but I'm wondering if anyone can guess.

 Redesigned Panda with bigger preportions. Still very rought probably could've used a few more drawings.

Rage! Raging ferrets! I babysitted a ferret for the longest time and enjoyed the hell out of it. When trying to come up with a 'rager' the ferret just fit being ferret are stubborn creatures. Also, I find small characters with smaller overall composition work better for action poses, as the pose in the top left can attest.

Lets home by next week we'll have finalized designs and then we can start some comics!

Bobby Kotick VS Horrible people.

I had to redo the text thanks to Adobe Bloat ware. Seriously Adobe Fireworks. Fundamentally you haven't changed in like 7-8 years. However, in size and resource usage probably more than tripled. And for what?

Keep in mind my PC is by no means a slouch. It can play Crysis on High, It can multitask effiectively without any one item losing speed. So, Adobe, your products have no excuse being they SHOULD be designed to run on a much slower machine than my own.  I would venture to guess that maybe...10-20% of the general PC populace have rigs faster than my own. Only a handful of CPU's and GPU's outrun my own.

That said.

Bobby Kotick is horrible from the perspective of a person who doesn't like to pay $80-90 bucks for a fully functional complete game and as a person who doesn't buy into yearly franchises and perfers 1 or 2 quality games every other year as opposes to 3-4 meh games every year.

Outside this, I must say, kudos to the man as a business person. Where I running a business for the sole purpose of making money, I would surely adopt some of his highly successful viewpoints. However, as the consumer, his tatics often put me and my tastes in the cold and compromises the quality of the industry as a whole.

Figure I'd add this before people come in "OMG JEALOUS" because well,halfway your right. I wish I had a fraction of his money but I can still knock him and the quality of the games his company produces.

Enjoy!

Holiday Strip? Eh.

My partner in crime Stephen J. had a great idea for a Christmas cartoons. However..my laziness and Team Fortress 2 score demanded that I instead goof off and enjoy my Christmas time off . This comic in particular  was inked already and holiday related enough to work.. Hopefully the Frag guys will keep me on schedule these upcoming weeks.

I've got alot drawn actually. Just a matter of putting it into my comic inkin' machine because I totally have a comic inking machine.