Caron's Carton

A friend's video game factory!

2012-04-03T19:41:00.002-07:00

Hey there!

As I've been producing really slowly lately I must keep you fed with some good indie video games! There's Iconic Games that, unlike me, has been producing many good video games.

I invite you to see what they produce as every time I see their new creation I feel they're getting better and better!

Support indie game dev!

A new project just started

2012-02-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

I've just started on some new animations for another pixel art game. For those who follow my blog, yeah I know, I've been gone for quite a long time as I've got a new job and moved to another city, anyway I'm back! :)

So I've tried to make it smoother and better than I did before in the game Monster Town. I've been using bigger size too as it gives me a little more space to do some details.

You can write about what you'd like me to change or add him a little more details, especially on his body, I feel it's empty (it has to be symmetrical as I'll use the same animation when he runs to the left).

I was thinking about two swords on his back as Leo has in TMNT but we've seen it too many time already!

So, help me out and comment on it!

My friend's new blog!

2011-11-17T14:26:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody!

I just came here to post about my friend's new blog which is very interesting and original. It talks about two things everybody loves so there's no chance you might find it boring!

Game and beer might be the perfect mix possible!

Enjoy! :)

Go play Monster Town!

2011-10-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

You can play go play my last mini-game finally!!! :)

So you just have to go click HERE as there's an ad that will give me a little money lol!

No but seriously, you can go HERE which will have no ads and the exclusivity of the unlocked survival mode!

Enjoy and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Monster Town: Update of the trailer!

2011-10-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

Hey we updated the video trailer of the game! As you could see, the last one was far from being of good quality! This one is better as well as being shorter so it makes the sponsors loss less time having to try the game.

We hope to have the game published on time for Halloween! :)

I'll let you know when you can finally go play it!

Monster Town - Game Trailer

2011-09-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here's the trailer of my last game Monster Town made with Luca Costanzi (coder). I did the art (animations, design, graphics)! Hope you enjoy, the game is being sold at the moment so you can play soon!

Beta testing of Monster Town!

2011-09-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

So Monster Town has progressed a lot lately and we are now beta testing it with the help of other developpers and I'd say we have quite good critics about it so far! So I'm HAPPY!

Of course the game is far from being over as we have to balance it a lot and I have to redo some drawings to make it nicer.

Title screen (Normally animated)

Level select screen

In game screenshot

Monsters are trying to take over! Using your devoted people with good timing and coordination, try to keep your town free from hordes of horrible monsters.

Monster Town is a strategic action game where the player needs a good building planning in order to create the best tactics against a large variety of monsters!

I invite you to give me your opinion about what there's so far ... many things have already changed since I took the screen shot! So it'll only get better and better!

Much more monsters!

2011-08-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

There's been a great post from that guy named "Mark" in my last post and he was so right that I couldn't stop thinking about that, yeah the zombie-game-fashion is really too strong in the last year. I'd even say that the theme which comes back the most is this one. With Halloween coming soon, it's going to explode and we'll see even more "zombie-themed" games around the free Flash game websites.

Having already begun the zombie game, we still wanted to change a little something to get out of this pattern and simply decided to include many Halloween legends in it. As it's going to be ready quite soon, we're hoping to have it sold before the end of October as it's gonna be out of the good time. Anyway, the game doesn't contain the word "Halloween" anywhere so it might still be playable even in Febuary.

Thanks to Mark!

Monster Town

So that's not the official logo up there but, we added many monsters other than zombies: Frankenstein, vampires, ghosts, Jason, werewolves, flying pumpkins, mummies, etc.!

That way, it's easier for us to give them some special moves and different ways to be killed!

Hope you'll like it!

Who loves zombies?

2011-08-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm still working on a zombie game with an awesome progger from Italy. It's going at a great pace for the moment and might even be done by the beginning of september ... though it might not be published before october.

Running Heavy Unit

Anyway, it's gonna be a pixelart Flash game where you have to protect your city from an army of zombies arriving! It's been done I know, but we're adding a little something where you'll have to not only decide where you put your units, but also where you place your buildings in order to create the units faster and send them to war faster.

More info soon! Hope you'll love it!

Why not three at a time?

2011-07-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, as the previous one is a personnal work, I'll be on it only at the time I'm not doing other stuff! Recently I just started a new one to experiment on pixelart which is awesomly fun to do and makes my brain work hard to make it as good as it can be.

So here are some of the pixeled characters I've been doing PLUS I'm very happy to finally work on a zombie project which is like today's every kid's dream!

I'm really sorry for the Rambo-like guy I just made, that's a work in progress and I will make sure he doesn't look like a guy holding two weird we-don't-know-what and change his stance to make it the best it can be!

That's gonna be a bit gore as we love it and we are still writting the whole story so I cannot really give info about it right now! Anyway leave a comment and soon I'll post some gifs too as it's all gonna be AnImAtEd (woooo)!!!

Plus! I give 5 points to the person who can find the best name for my little guy (the one with teal hair) in the previous posts. (Sorry to Mike who suggested Peter ... I don't like the name ... but I like you so don't internet-bully me!)

See ya!

WIP - 2nd try

2011-07-23T06:31:00.001-07:00

Some minor changes have been done!

And I'm still searching a name for that boy two posts earlier! ;)

WIP - Background

2011-07-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

Here's what I'll try to make the backgrounds look like. So far it's just a work in progress but, the color choice is probably the one I'll keep as the colors all fit together (even the arcade?).

The little dark guy you see isn't a ghost but only the size reference.

I have not much to say, I think the picture speaks for itself. Leave a message about how I could change it to make it look better and thanks for watching (I'm about to have 100 followers).

New little project I'm working on!

2011-07-08T19:13:00.001-07:00

Here's a long term (because I won't work on it full time) project that I just began. So far there's not much done as I'm just writting the story and designing the characters and locations. Here's the main character who stills doesn't have a name (if you have any suggestions, leave it in a comment).

The game will be devided into two styles: a point and click adventure and a platform game playing the pixelised character. So far, I've just been inspired a lot by megaman for the desing but everything might change as nothing is officially started.

So tell me what you think of the boy and write a message about anything you want! Thanks!

Super Boxer Manager

2011-06-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Long time no see!

Here's the game I'm working on at the moment. You're all lucky I publish a picture of the main menu as the game is not even put to sell yet. It's not 100% completed as we need to tweak a few things before and I'm adjusting some of the drawings to fit more also.

It's gonna be a boxer management game. There seem to be not so many of this kind in the flash game industry so far, so we thought it would be good to go develop this idea further. In Super Boxer Manager, you take care of a young guy's career and follow him until his retirement. From that, as you manage his training and fights schedules you have almost the total control of his boxing life. There will be a lot of strategies in finding which way is the best to train him and how often you want him to fight opponents or train.

It's gonna be quite simple and relaxing to play as once your fighter is in the ring, you cannot control him anymore, he goes with what he's learned from you. The fights are animated and the only action left to you in that time is to throw the towel in case your boxer is about to get knocked out (which would shorten his career time).

This game makes me learn a lot from the indie business as we try to make it under 5Mo and having animations, different fighters plus the sounds and music can suddenly become quite heavy. My co-worker teaches me a lot about it as he's already got a lot of experience in making big games in the fewer bytes used.

There's not more I want to say for the moment as I'll write all of it again to make you play it once it's over haha! I'll let you know once it's finally published and tell me what you think about this kind of game. Thanks for reading!

Nintendo 3DS Browser Update: First Impressions

2011-06-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!

And as I said yesterday, it arrived really late at 1:30 a.m. in the morning of June 7. I'm geeky enough to wait 6 hours for it and try it a few hours before going to bed ... and I consider myself having a life (lol).

There are a few things added from this update, the two most important are of course the internet browser and the eShop.

The Internet Browser

It was the thing about the update I was the most eager to try. I thought I could already go see some 3D movies on some 3DS website but, it turns out that the browser doesn't even support flash. So yeah, it means no YouTube and most of the fun things on the net. We can at least go on FaceBook and Twitter ...

Oh no wait! Facebook is most of the time too charged to be all shown on it. So the browser will publish only the first 10 new message until it says that it's too heavy to keep loading things. Beside that, I felt it was VERY slow, took about 30-40 seconds to charge a normal website or even make a research on Google. That ... THAT ... really sucks!

I don't know how it would have been if they had kept the deal with Opera instead of switching to NetFront.

For that, I give a note of 2/10, I hope there will be some updates to make it better soon.

The eShop

Don't worry from now on, the things are much more positive!! The eShop is MUCH faster than the browser and allows us to watch some 3D trailers and navigate well through their collection of games to buy or get for free.

There's not so much to say against the eShop as things as not too "cute" as Nintendo tends to often do and the animations while you download something makes it pass faster YAY!

So, for this on, I'll go with a good 9/10! Especially because of the free stuff that comes with it!

Excitebike 3D

Yeah, here's the gift they give as an apology to make us wait for so long and I guess it's worth it as it gave me some great memories even though I played it only a few times at friends' houses in my childhood.

The 3D doesn't change that much the game play, but anyway that game is a classic and the map editor is fun.

I cannot give less than an 8/10 for that!

Pokédex 3D

I've never been a big fan of Pokémons for the only reason that I've never played the games so far ... yeah apparently I'm missing something EPIC! You can collect pokémons, I'm not sure how many there are in total, but it seems like they might be all there (I think ...).

As I'm a noob with pokémons, I won't give any marks on it as people will mostly judge me for being ignorant.

So, there it is for my first impression and let me know what you thought about it if you've tried it so far. Also, feel free to call me names and tell jokes about my familly members or my sexual preferences if your opinion is different from mine! :)

Nintedo 3DS browser!

2011-06-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

blogger as some problems, I cannot post a picture (Image a 3DS here)

Tonight is the night where Nintendo will release the browser on the 3DS! There will be some websites where we can watch things in 3D and there are some movies who will let us have a look at their trailers in 3D too.

I don't really know what we can expect of the first day with the browser. Of course there will be the free game of Excite Bike 3D and some updates about games but, other than that Nintendo kept quite quiet about it.

They said we could download it from today's evening ... but at 21:00 we still cannot. I consider 22:00 not really being "evening" so they still have one hour to get it ready or it'll be like they fail at respecting their dead line! (To me)

Anyway, at first it was supposed to be ready at the end of May, maybe they just have some problems with it.

So tell me guys, what do you expect of DAY1?

Life signs #2

2011-06-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

So, even though I'm not really working on side projects by the evenings, I still decided to come by and say a little "Hi!". There's my brother who's working on his PhD who just recently started his own blog. Even though he's a PhD student, he writes in a way that we can understand and explains in details.

As some of you are fans of video games, movies or even 3D computer graphics in general, you might like that.

I invite you to visit his blog by clicking HERE!

Hope you like it, it's worth reading!

I'm still alive!

2011-06-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I've not been able to work on my "on the side" drawings lately as I'm EXTREMELY busy with filling all the immigration papers for my wonderful wife. Beside that, I'm also working on a boxing game that my coworker and I are about to finish (I hope) ... That game has been a good thing for me as I've learned so much from too many mistakes but, that will make me a better worker.

Planning well is underrated, I was doing things when I thought they would be ok to do ... but after many hours of work, we noticed that we worked on things we would never even use. So, it turns out we're gonna do a smaller version of what we were supposed to do and it'll even be MORE fun!

I don't consider having lost time though as it's like if I had been schooled! I'll let you know when the game is online. There will be another one first that we are currently selling to a sponsor.

As an apology to not showing any turtle lately, here's the Michelangelo work in progress. I think he's gonna be not so bad and once animated even less bad! :)

Leave a comment and thanks for watching, having that much followers is a great motivation for me!

See YA!

The way I work - After Effect part

2011-05-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

You don't need to see how I did the drawing to understand what I'll be talking about on this new post. If you suddenly feel like you need to know the way I draw, just click on the link ... right ... THERE which is the drawing I used to make the animation that you can see on the pow ... POW!

First of all, as I draw on photoshop, I always keep my different objects on separate layers to help me use them well in AfterEffect afterward. In that way, I will a lot of time but if you haven't done it, you can cut the picture.

For Raphael, I had to cut his shoulders to make a second layer of broader shoulders which would be used in the effect of breathing. I also added two different drawings of eyes: One that is half-closed and the other one completely closed. That will be enough to make a good eye blinking. Finally, as Raphael is a bad-ass, I could make his mouth move a little to show his rage. This is also a layers I did in photoshop before importing everything because it saves me a lot of time in that way. If you are better at AE than PS, you might do it in another way.

Using only one composition, I do all my animation of the turtle. As I have a separate body part (his hand and weapon) I use another composition to make the movements. It's a 3 second loop I did for that one so the moves have to be quite gentle.

It all looks too green and once over the background, it looks even worse ... that's normal ... and weirdly, I did that on purpose because I had planned to make it all grey-ish.

Once every layer is ready, I put all of them in a new composition where I'll work on them to look good all together. Something I like to do to create 3D layers which is a great strength of After Effect. I will use a camera to slightly shake and give the impression of somebody holding a camera. This should give more life to the animation as something too static is a bit boring to me.

Once the 3D layers are done, I often just try new things with the color modes and some effects to give each animation a different style.

I'll repeat again so that nobody comes and tell me that I did what and what wrong: I'm only showing the way I do it, I'm not telling it's the perfect way to work or anything.

You can see the other turtles animated:
Leo
Don
Mike (coming soon)

Leave a comment if you have any questions and thanks for watching!

Tampa Bay VS Boston

2011-05-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

Just to tell you that I'm not working on the next TMNT tonight as there the game #7 of Tampa Bay VS Boston and I'll be watching TV to see Boston losing to the Lightings!

I like Tim Thomas from Boston ... and he's probably the only player from that team that I respect. I freaking hate Chara and Marchand! Tampa has much better players I think and if I were a hockey player I'd be like St-Louis! (I say that because I'm short lol)

So far after one period is 0-0 ... and I simply hope Boston doesn't leave with it :)

Go Tampa Go!

Donatello is also animated!

2011-05-25T23:12:00.001-07:00

That means there's really only Michelangelo left to the list of turtles! As I can see there are many fans of them, I might continue with Splinter, Shredder and some others like Beebop which looks amazing!

So! I invite you to come see the result!

Actually, click HERE to play

I guess that's all, leave a comment and be patient for the drawing and animation of Mike!

Oh! And leave in the comments which other character of the TMNT series you would want me to draw! Thanks!

TMNT's Donatello

2011-05-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

I told you I would finish him soon, well, he was done some days ago, but I didn't want to have too many posts in the same day. So, I waited a bit to publish it haha!

I invite you to come and click HERE to see him in much better quality and I hope you still enjoy my drawings. Maybe someday I'll make a living from it haha! Anyway, these are just dreams as there are thousands and thousands of people better at drawing than me.

I give myself three years to be good (around 8/10 lol) at drawing!

Now, I feel I'm at 4 or 5/10 as sometimes I cannot do exactly what I have in mind ... and it's very frustrating!

The way I work - Photoshop Part

2011-05-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've been impressed that some people asked for how I proceed to create these animations. So for my fellow bloggers and visitors, I'm going to show everything to you ... which will make you realise that what I do isn't finally that great at all! haha!

In the case that you want to draw ninja turtles, the first step is that, you have to be a kid and watch many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies or TV shows and, if possible, enjoy it!

Then, once it's done, don't draw them right away and wait at least 12 years until you are about to turn 25 and feel nostalgic about your childhood. This should motivate you enough to begin to draw them for yourself and for free ... and to become better at drawing of course!

It's without a surprise that I begin with a sketch of what I'll paint, as I'm totally bad with line arts (so far) I tend to draw very simple things.

Then, I put a background, in this case, as the character is the most important part and that we don't really take a lot of time watching the rest. So, I will often use brushes that will give a good texture to let know at least where the character is. From that, I can also know which kind of lighting I will use.

That should be enough to guide me well in the color positioning as for the moment, I simply apply some flat colors as you can see on the weapon and the hand. I begin slowly to apply the main light (on the face and body). I will often use a layer with light colors and put an overlay effect to help me create a good palette of colors.

From there, it's mostly just a game of patience where I will add little colors changes here and there. If I can give you a good trick, NEVER give up your work ... even though you don't like it, finish it and polish it! It might end up not as bad as you think and at least, you will learn from it.

When I feel that my colors fit well, I begin to apply the effects and little details. I feel it's not really useful to spend too much time on the details at first as everything will be changing through your drawing process.

You can go see the final result on the post below where it's already animated or by clicking HERE and/or HERE.

To finish, that's just the way I work, I don't consider myself being pro at it as the total drawing took me 4 hours ... and a pro might do it in around 1 hour I guess. This was mostly to show you how I draw and some advice I've learned through my own experience!

TMNT AGAIN!!! Raphael is animated too ...

2011-05-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

... and has been for quite a long time!

It's because I thought it would have been lame to post again the same character but only animated. As I've been a bit busy with other projects, I didn't have a lot of time to work on the Donatello one (which would be ready soon anyway).

Anyway, I wanted to post Don and the animation at the same time later but, as I'm feeling a bit addicted to blogging, I give you the chance to watch it right now just by clicking the link right ... HERE!

Ah Donatello! I must say that he's probably been my favorite one during my childhood to impersonate. The sticks were easy to find in the little woods behind my house, my parents didn't want to buy me any sword, sai or nunchuks before I would turn 18. Also, I had a purple belt on my dressing gown and I would put it over my eyes. The idea was awesome until I got tired of not being able to see through the belt, it would also reduce my fighting abilities against the imaginary footclan rebels in my living room.

Fortunately, I was bright enough to cut holes in the belt, which was what anybody else would have done before wearing it. The only problem is that I over-estimated to distance between my two eyes and finally cut holes 10 inches apart which made me look like something hard to image: a pirate-ninja! The other hole was behind my head and it took me four tries to get the holes right, so I finally had five randoms holes that made the bandana become llok like swiss cheese and very weak which made it rib within one day.

It left me unhappy of not being able to be Donatello anymore and that my dressing gown now had to be tied with a wool wire I cut by myself which was long enough to just leave me 1 inch of loose to hardly tie it.

I also broke a pair of gloves because I didn't want these two extra fingers that we, stupid humans, have. TMNT only have three fingers and that's all we would need to fight. So I cut the two extra fingers from the glove which I also did wrong as I should have cut the two last ones (pink and ring fingers) but, with my kid's mind, I thought it would be better to cut the pinky and the forefinger. I've always been good with numbers but, as soon as there's a TMNT in my thoughts, my math skills become HORRIBLE!!!

You : "What? Did you just put four fingers on Raphael in your drawing?"

Me: "Yep ... BIG mistake!"

So finally the gloves broke after only 30 minutes of imaginary fight and I had to accept the fact that I would have to live as a human for the rest of my days.

On the bright side, luckily for me, I could never find some super glue, because I wanted to stick my fingers together to finally just have three ... which I could have probably just done wrong anyway and mix the fingers.

Sooo, Don is coming soon!

Bye bye

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's Raphael

2011-05-18T19:14:00.001-07:00

And here's the red one!

Again, if you want to see it in MUCH better quality, just click the link right here : [POWA!]

Only two more to go after I'm done animating this one!

Leave a comment :) And see you soon with Michelangelo or Donatello.