Manila Train Guide

So this is partly why I've been away from the blog so long.  As well as working on Elevator Joe with Erick Garayblas and my now semi-regular gig doing artwork for Prison Architect I've been working on a train guide to Metro Manila with Julius and his girlfriend Jean.

The whole idea started about a year ago, but had been percolating in my head for years.  You see, my wife and I love to travel, and thanks to budget airline Cebu Pacific we've been to places like Beijing, Shanghai, Busan, Seoul, Taipei, Osaka, Kyoto, Hong Kong, KL, etc.  Places that have excellent public transit and terrific guides to help you get around the city.  Everytime we would come back home we'd be frustrated at the terrible state of public transport.

I know I can't solve Metro Manila's transit woes, but I wanted to do at least one thing to contribute to better public transit.  So I decided to make a train guide for Metro Manila.  Other countries always have train guides, and Metro Manila's 4 train lines have none.  I pitched the idea to some friends and luckily I found a few like-minded souls to help me make this happen.  Now Manila has a train guide, albeit one that's incomplete and still needs tons of work.  Help us make it better by visiting and leaving us some feedback, liking our Facebook page, and following our Twitter feed.  This train guide is a band-aid we've plastered on the cancer that is public transit in Manila, but let's make it the best damned band-aid we can!

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.