Urban Sketching : South Korea

Some of the sketches about are now available as prints on society6, as well as other sketches I've made over the course of our travels.

Aissa and I went to South Korea last May, but it's only now that I'm playing foreman for our condo renovations that I've finally had the chance to sit down and blog about some of the sketches.  The sketch above is of the entrance to our guesthouse in Gyeongju.  Gyeongju was Korea's ancient capital, not unlike Kyoto to Japan.  It's a small city by Korean standards but it has that lovely juxtaposition of old and new that I love.  This sketch was done right outside our door, and took me maybe 5 hours over the course of 2 days to finish.  I kept hoping that the proprietors of the guesthouse would offer us free accommodation in exchange for the sketch, but they never even commented on my sketching.  I generally prefer being anonymous when I sketch, but this time I think I felt a little bad that they didn't notice.

There was a street market just a few minutes away from our accomodations in Hostel the New Day (stay here when you are in Busan btw, immaculately clean and lovely staff).  After walking back and forth for a little bit Aissa and I settled on a stall that was selling hot noodles and steamed dumplings.  There's something intensely enticing about food being steamed i front of you, especially during the cold Busan nights.  I sketched a group in front of us while waiting for our noodles.  Turns out the man sitting at the table next to us noticed me sketching, because he complimented me in halting English.  I thanked him, but then didn't offer to show him the rest of my sketches (which always seems the right thing to do) which I felt bad about afterwards. We had coffee afterwards at an "Angels in us" cafe, which is where I sketched the metrosexual man.

This sketch was drawn at the Haedong Yonggung Temple in Busan.  It's unique in that few Buddhist Temples are built by the seaside, offering fantastic views.  This is a sketch of one of many small buddhas scattered around the "Divine God of the East Sea".  They seem to be buddhas where one prays for children or for good grades.  There are little tokens like children's toys (see the tiny monk statue at the foot of the buddha?) nestled next to them, which I presume are offerings.  I tried using my colored brush pens here, with mixed results.

This last little sketch is one of my favorites.  I did it while warming up for my sketch of the entrance.  The family who's guesthouse we were staying in have a cute dog that reminds of Otousan in the Japanese Softbank commercials. He was moving around a lot, but I think I was able to capture his esssence just right in the one full sketch I have of him.

South Korea was a wonderful place to visit, and because I'd managed to teach myself some very basic phrases like "how much?", "thank you!" and "where is the bathroom?" it made our trip much more pleasant. We're definitely looking to go back sometime next year and maybe stay longer in the Seoul area.

Simulating Parallax Scrolling in 8 Frames

Experimenting with the graphics in our game Elevator Joe.  I was thinking of writing a longer post about how I did this in case anyone was interested, but who has the time?  Maybe I'll do it after after the game launches. Till then, I thought I'd post this since it suits the weather.

Good Bye Ryan Davis, and Thanks for the Memories

It's weird to shed a tear for someone you never really knew.  Ryan Davis was for all intents and purposes and imaginary friend blasting out of my speakers every week, chumming it up with the rest of the merry Giantbomb crew.  I have a term for these people, they are my "podcast friends".  They are the people that keep me company everyday and fill the frightening silence of a home office with laughter and chitchat that I could alternatively listen to and ignore.  They make my workday go by faster than it ever would under normal circumstances.

My journey with Giantbomb began with an ending.  They were guests during 1up yours' marathon last few shows before they would be broken up because of the sale of 1up to UGO.  Their infectious humor grabbed me from the start, and I needed a new podcast to ease the pain of losing the 1up podcast network.  It's been  almost 5 years since then.  5 years of weekly laughter and stories about an EVE Online peace treaty called "The Honda Accord" and figuring out just who would win, a T-Rex or 20 bears (bears win, but with terrible losses) and the dangers of accumulating arcade machines.  On his last podcast Ryan made a joke about possibly being crushed to death underneath an arcade machine, with him laughing merrily along with the rest of the crew about the sheer ridiculousness of the idea.  He missed the next podcast because he had just gotten married and was enjoying his honeymoon with his former fiancee (rhymes with Beyonce).  And then this.  He's gone.

Thanks for all the virtual laughs Ryan, you will be missed by me and all of the friend, both virtual and real, that you have made via your podcast.

Top 5 Prison Architect Maps

The players of Prison Architect continue to amaze me with the creativity they've shown in making their prisons.  Steam's workshop has given them a venue to show off their work to their fellow fans and I've picked some of the most ridiculous and wonderful to show off here.

The Panopticon

OK so it's not quite the Panopticon, but the ability to build Jeremy Bentham's dream prison was one of the first questions raised by Prison Architect fans when it first came out.  This proves it IS possible, even given the crude tools that we've provided for the creation of circular building (there aren't any).

The Tower of London

Recreating real world spaces has always been a pastime for fans of this genre, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the famed tower now has a replica in PA (inset is a satellite image of the real tower).

Dami Inn

We're treading into liberal hippie territory here, with a prison designed to function almost like a hotel (hence the "Inn") with prisoner rooms coming with their own personal shower.  Sure the rooms are still tiny, but anyone who's slept in a Japanese hotel room should feel right at home here.

Cathnicle Town

We're definitely in a drug induced hippie daydream now, with a prison that's essentially been built as a little town.  Regular prisoners stay in dormitories while good prisoners get a tiny house and lot for their own.  it looks like there are even conference areas, where presumably the prisoners hold town hall meetings to decide their next town improvement project.

The Turtle

Now this is a PRISON.  It looks vaguely like a prison layout you'd see in a sci-fi movie, and also resembles a turtle if you squint your eyes hard enough.  No?  Try it again.

The sheer creativity on display and the dedication it takes to map these prisons is beyond my comprehension.  I am humbled by the work these player put into the game and also ridiculously embarrassed  that they're doing it with my work.  If the good folks at Introversion give me time, I would love to update and add even more awesome stuff for these architects to play with.

A Last Name You Can Be Proud Of

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday, which also very conveniently marks the halfway point of this year and a good time to finally come out of hiding.  As a quick aside my own birthday is at the end of the year.  I'd never realized the neat symmetry of our birthdays before, but that's pretty cool, no?

Last year was about trying to transition myself from games into what I thought I really wanted to be:  A concept artist.  I learned a lot about being an artist and it was both torturous and rewarding.  But the ultimate lesson seemed to be that I don't really want to be a concept artist. Or rather, that I wouldn't be satisfied even if I reached that goal.  It turns out what I really want it to make an impact.

To understand this need to make an impact we have to go back in time to a conversation I had with my father when I was in elementary school in Bangkok.  We were talking about our last name, because kids had been making fun of it (Sumo, if the blog's title didn't alert you to this fact).

Dad: You don't like our last name, no?
Me: ...Yeah.
Dad: Because people make fun of you?
Me: ...Yeah.
Dad: You know what you have to do then?  You have to make it a become a last name that you can be proud of.

I always get emotional when I remember this conversation.  My father and I have a mostly awkward relationship, but I am immensely proud of his accomplishments.  He came from a small seaside town and walked to school with his bare feet but managed to build a career that crisscrossed the region and gave me the multicultural childhood that I so cherish.  It is one of my greatest desires to make our name a last name that he would be proud of.  Ideally before he kicks the bucket and has time to appreciate it, so I'm on a tight schedule here.

I'm walking a very fine line, announcing this kind of a thing.  It's borderline self-aggrandizing and there is nothing I hate more than people who puff themselves up and announce to the world that they're out there "to make a difference" and to be "changemakers" and (good Lord this portmanteau just slays me) "Filipinnovators".  While I respect a lot of these people and wish them the best, words like that just make me squirm in my chair uncomfortably and avert my gaze (there's a word for this, I can't remember it but it sounds like "wah-jah".  Update: supposedly it's Fremdschamen).  But I want to be honest as well.  I want to make an impact.  I know I can make an impact.  The question is simply how big of an impact can I make in this lifetime, and to what ends?  That's what I'm still trying to sort out.

In line with this came the decision to focus back on games.  I have a love\hate relationship with my career as a games artist.  I love that I can do this for a living but hate that it makes me feel so limited sometimes.  But as of now it is my biggest chance to make an impact on the world, so I'm pursuing it full throttle.  I've worked my way to a point where I now have the opportunity to make a most excellent game (a sneak peek above, with some of the art made by the most excellent husband and wife studio Robotwithasmile) with Erick Garayblas and am currently working on the awesome and always improving Prison Architect (Alpha 11 just out!).  For now, this is how I make my impact.  When that's run its course then let's see what happens next.