4th Annual Manila Game Jam

I'll always remember my term as IGDA Manila chapter coordinator as a turning point in my life.  It made me grow as an individual and made me realize that while leadership is exhausting, it can also be very rewarding.  I promised myself I'd stay away from IGDA and let it grow on its own two years ago, but circumstances have brought me back into the fold.  I won't be running for chapter coordinator anytime soon (or ever again) but I'll definitely be helping out a lot in this year's Manila Game Jam.  This year's Jam actually has two sites in Manila and one site in CLSU in the Science City of Munoz (I just love typing "the Science City"), so these are exciting times!  If you're an artist, writer, game designer, programmer or musician who's always wanted to make games feel free to join in the fun!

For more info on the game jam you can check out igdamanila or the manila game jam websit]e.  Special thanks to Robot With A Smile for the awesome poster.

Urban Sketching : Buskers and Kota Kinabalu

Aissa and I went to Kota Kinabalu on the first week for December to celebrate our anniversary.  To be frank, KK isn't the most stimulating place for sketching.  I found Penang much more appealing, especially the Georgetown area.  This sketch of the back of a shophouse is reminiscent of Georgetown, which I suppose is what drew me to it.

KK does have a beautiful marine park though, which is essentially a beach that houses marine life.  It's the closest I've ever been to coral reefs and ocean wildlife, and is worth the trip on its own.  I didn't manage to go out and sketch the fishes, but I did catch this Korean tourist buried in the sand and left by his friends.

Last but not least, A more recent sketch of a local busker, Joon Baltazar, singing his heart out in Bonifacio High Street.  I don't often go up to the people I sketch but when I get the sense that they might appreciate geting a copy of teh sketch I do offer them a copy via email.  Joon's a pretty cool dude, and he was singing to the rock soundtrack of my youth so I felt pretty comfortable chatting him up.

Merry Christmas, Why Am I Still Working?

Because I've booked so much work for January that I need to start chipping away at my workload before work on Prison Architect starts up again, that's why.  Sketches above for an outer space based board game I've been commissioned to work on.  These are cargo ships, transporting goods across the universe and helping to make the outer rim inhabitable!  Except for the top machine on the first page, which turned out to be some sort of retro-futuristic motorbike.

Kaboooom!

Decided to take that Duros Smuggler idea a little further here, with some fun results.  I'm uploading it as an animated gif cause everybody loves process GIFs.  This was good fun, and good preparation for some real work next week, where I do some spaceship concepts for a board game.

Duros Smuggler

It's been a while since I've drawn anything just for fun, so decided to do this Star Wars themed drawing today, of a Duros Smuggler.  Didn't want to think too much about costume design, so I copied the jumpsuit seen on Wookiepedia, but decided to give this dude some vintage flair by giving him a bomber jacket.