Yearly Archives: 2011

Power User Profile: Blue Blazer

This week's "Power User Profile" features frequent contest winner Blue Blazer, whose portrait in the "Head-Winners" set has already adorned a number of fantastic creations from other folks. Herein we learn that his success is actually due to his being the reincarnation of Pablo Picasso. Not the artist, but a bookie from Cleveland by the same name who died in 1934. Good guy.
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Also, Kleenex.

(From "The Thing" number 1, 1952.)

Open Critique Day #15

It's time once again for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

As if math weren’t painful enough already

(From "The Thing" number 1, 1952.)

HM3: What I’ve been up to

For the last week and a half or so I've been trying to figure out one key feature that presents as two different ones. To wit, I've been trying to load saved characters from the server instead of just from the ones you choose to save locally to your hard drive.

The key factor here is that these server-based character templates are in XML. Which is basically text.

Which in essence means this feature also would allow you to import and export characters as text, just like you could in HeroMachine 2.

I've made a lot of progress so far. I can successfully import saved XML files from the server and translate them into actual live characters in the program. I can also export any currently loaded character as an XML text list which you can copy to your clipboard, paste in a text file or email, and send to friends or whatnot.

The last piece of the puzzle programming-wise is to figure out how to let you paste the XML text into the program directly.

The other piece is figuring out where to put all these new choices. Right now I have introduced tabs to the File Load/Save screen, named "Your Characters", "Templates", and "Text". The Text one is what I haven't really coded yet. But basically it'll turn the traditional file list into a big empty text box which if you're in Save mode will be filled with the text representing whatever character you've got loaded up at the moment. And if you're in Load mode, it would be empty, waiting for you to paste some text into it.

Anyway, it's been slow going, with lots of false starts slowing things down, and even more niggling little details that have to be worked out along the way ("Where does this menu go", "What kinds of warnings do they get", "Why can't I convert a string to a &$%@#% date", etc.), but I am getting closer to having it ready for test.

I know it's been a while since the last update, so I just wanted to keep you all informed about what's been going on behind the scenes here.

A Cavernous Conclusion

After being chased by a giant prehistoric cave bear and being rescued by a ridiculously strong proto-human during our impromptu wall climbing expedition, we voted overwhelmingly to keep following our new friend Iaark into his cave to further our questy adventure:

You follow Iaark into the tunnel, hoping it will come out in the open. "Where does this lead?" you ask, though you know he can't understand your language.

Great, we're the kind of guy who, when the cab driver doesn't understand us, just says the same thing only louder. Because English is comprehensible to a non-speaker in direct proportion to its volume. I bet we're a lousy tipper, too.

"Orgorjon," he calls back.

You have no idea what that means, but the tone of it was friendly. Maybe he's just exploring the tunnel to see where it goes.

Iaark continues on. You follow close behind, thinking that you may come out on the other side of the mountain. Instead, the tunnel floor gives way. You're falling, and Iaark is falling with you, tumbling through the Cave of Time! Then you are waking, as if from a dream. Once again you're just inside the entrance of a cave. You walk out into the open air. Something -- maybe it's the smell of grass and flowers, or the temperature, or the sound of traffic from a nearby highway -- tells you that you're back in your own time!

"Ak lugga!" says a voice. It's Iaark, walking toward you from the interior of the cave.

"Iaark, you're here -- I can't believe it! You better come with me," you call. "You're going to need a place to stay."

The two of you reach a road and walk along into a nearby town. Iaark gasps at the sight of cars and trucks going by on the highway. Your time is stranger to him than his time was to you! When you reach the town and talk to a police officer standing on a street corner, you find out that you are indeed back in your own time.

The End.

One word:

Sorry, no, two words: Effing lame. Are you serious about this, Edward Packard?! When you choose to go into the past and start exploring, your goal is not to end up right back where you started after the thrill of climbing a wall. And nothing says "fun!" in a novel like introducing an intriguing character, only to completely end the story two pages later without learning a single GD thing about him. Well played, sir.

I am so done with this stupid adventure. My apologies for subjecting you all to this frustrating dive into irrelevancy. We'll try something different next week.

If you had a favorite Choose Your Own Adventure type of book you'd like to see us try next, by all means let me know. Just so long as it's not as idiotic as this one.

WAY better than a secret handshake

(From "Black Cat" number 1, 1946.)

Rocket Chafer

If your super power involves zipping along at extremely high rates of speed without the benefit of a canopy or windshield, leaving your nipples exposed is a Very Bad Idea::

And so the pernicious influence of Joel Schumacher on super-hero costume design claims another victim. Well, two victims, namely the severely wind-chapped nipples of Mr. Rocket Racer. That's probably why he looks so grumpy. Either that, or he really has to pee, and in his enthusiasm over cutting out nipple-holes he forgot to carve out a potty portal.

(Image and character ©Marvel Comics.)

I’m just happy to see you. Oh, you mean in THIS hand!

(From "Black Cat" number 1, 1946.)

Poll Position: When badness is so bad, it’s great

{democracy:177}

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