Friday, June 29, 2007

Game Developers conference in Beth Berl (In Hebrew)

Sorry for writing this in Hebrew. I started writing down my feelings this weekend, and ended up summarizing them allot better on a Hebrew games forum (vgames.co.il). I'll translate it if anyone is interested.
הייתי רק ביום השני של הכנס. קודם כל אני מסכים שהפרוייקטי סיום לא נראים לי הוגנים בשביל אנשים שלמדו שנתיים פיתוח משחקים. חוץ מזה שרובם היו בפלאש, רובם לא היו גמורים. בשביל תוצאות כאלה לא צריך שנתיים לימודים.
דווקא המשחק שנועד לפלאפון נראה לי היה אחד היותר מוצלחים מבחינת יכולת התמחור שלו.
אבל אני מניח שכל מחזור ראשון של מסלול יסבול מחבלי הלידה של המסלול.

הייתי ב2 הרצאות - הראשונה היא של בני נוער שמדברים על התעשייה. בני הנוער דיברו מאוד יפה והיו מעניינים, אבל לדעתי הם לא מייצגים את בן הנוער הממוצע, שאפשר לומר שהוא קהל היעד של תעשיית הקז'ואל בארץ(שנראה לי ברור שרוב האולם התעניין רק בזה), אלא מייצגים את הגיימר הכבד, שהתעשייה בארץ לא צפופה מספיק כדי להציע לו שירותים. בכל זאת היה נחמד לשמוע שהם גם נהנים ממשחק פלאש פה ושם.
בנוסף, למרות שהיה נסיון יפה לעשות סדר בשאלות עם מקרופון נע, היה בחור אחד שהתפרץ כל הזמן והמנחה הרשתה זאת, כך יצא שהרבה אנשים לא הספיקו לשאול את השאלות שלהם.

ההרצאה השניה, שהשאלה שהועלתה בו היא האם משחקי מחשב זה אומנות, היתה פטתית לגמרי. מלבד המרצה הראשון, שהציע כמה רעיונות מעניינים (למרות שהם לא היו קשורים לדעתי לנושא בעצם), שאר המרצים דיברו לא לעניין, הראו חוסר בקיאות עמוקה בתחום המשחקים (ואף לא התביישו להודות בכך), והשיא היה בעיני בחורה אחת שהטריחה אותנו בוידאו ארט בן 5 דקות מיותר שבעיני הוא בכלל פרסומת עצמית עבורה, ובחור אחד שטען שמשחקי מחשב הם לא אומנות כי אין קלאסיקות. הקהל כולו התרעם, ובצדק. בכל מקרה, השאלה אם משחקי מחשב זה אומנות היא בת הרבה שנים כבר, היא טחינת מים, ובנקודה זו בזמן היא בעיקר עניין של דעה אישית.
נקודת אור היתה ההרצאה של המוזיקאי מ DNA - חבל שלא קיבל קצת יותר זמן במה, הרגשתי שהוא לא הגיע לנקודה שהוא ניסה להעביר.
שיא העליבות היה בסוף, כשאחת המרצות (שגם הציגה סרטון לא מוצלח) נכנסה להתנצחות עקרה עם מרצה אחר והקהל. אני אפילו לא זוכר על מה היתה ההתנצחות, אבל תרבות דיון לא היתה שם..

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Where did the comics go??

You may have noticed that I didn't upload a comic yesterday and will not upload one today either. First of all, I never said they'd be dailies! Second, I'm not out of ideas, I'm out of spare time to implement them. Work has become a little busy lately and I hope to catch up with some of the comic ideas this weekend.

Stay tuned!

Monday, June 25, 2007

(comic) Mistakes happen




Sunday, June 24, 2007

Pastafarian religion

this is just too funny! An open letter to the Kansas school board, claiming that if the Christian idea of intelligent design is to be taught at schools, another version of intelligent design, claiming a FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER created all that is.
Cleverly written, with sketches and a graph that proves that the amount of pirates is inversely related to Global temperatures, this is something you definitely want to see.

The link

(comic) Crossing




Thursday, June 21, 2007

(Comic) The modern black knight!



Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Footbag - Hitting a Mirage

Now that I feel I have a good grasp with the basics (stalls, atw etc) I'm trying to kick it up a notch and nail a Mirage. I've been trying to do this trick not-so-seriously for quite a while now and gotten nowhere. So today I read some forum advice on footbag.org, seen some several videos, and really concentrated on what the body should be doing, and literally 5 minutes of hacking at the hall and I nearly got it! I'm planning, this weekend, to hit my first Mirage.

MagicMatch 2 online is online!


After like a bazillion years since I finished developing it, MagicMatch2 online is finally up. I ran into it completely at random at shockwave.com and initially thought they stole my version because I didn't know it's up yet!

Go check it out: I recommend playing it at ICQ since Shockwave.com has a really long commercial before it starts:
Magic Match 2: The Genie's Journey
(In the game info page, click "Try it online");

(comic) Superman's Secret



Tuesday, June 19, 2007

(comic) Jon's last straw


Naturally all drawings are stolen from original Garfield comics, except for the table lines, I drew those myself.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Blurred fame is mine!

How cool is that: Another major Israeli newspaper wrote an article mentioning the Seminar with Suganuma Sensei, and the main picture has me in it! Somewhat on the side, and somewhat blurred, but still awesome!
The picture:
The link: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/871906.html

The breakup



Sunday, June 17, 2007

Footbagging by myself at the park

This week, the small footbag group that we got organized couldn't meet. However, I went and played at the park anyways. I heard someone telling his wife to look at how I play. I must be improving :)

I hate wearing shorts though, and since my game is so much better when I'm wearing them, I should probably go shop for some good looking ones, just in case someone wants to take my picture!

(comic) Daddy's Favorite


Based on many true stories!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

My alter egos

I think it's befitting that my blog keeps watch on people around the world who share my name.
Today I'm bringing the interesting story of two Roy Kleins who are not me:

In the 2nd Lebanese war, an Israeli soldier named "Roy Klein" died, apparently a hero's death. you can read his story here: http://www.jewishtimes.com.au/content/view/700/190/.
On a personal note, I was totally creeped out when the newspaper headlines had my name and R.I.P afterwards.

The other Roy Klein would've been a real nice guy, if it wasn't for the fact that he registered the domain http://www.royklein.com/, leaving my fans high and dry in case of opening a fanclub website. He's got some pseudo-witty writings there that actually kind of remind me of my own writing. I guess Roy Kleins don't know how to write, but can't help themselves

(comic) Sweet talking girls at the GDC




I realize this comic might raise a question among the gamers and a different question among the non-gamers.
I'll start by answering the non-gamers: GDC stands for the Game Developers Convention
And to answer the gamers: No, there weren't any girls there.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Unintentionally funny comics

This is a good one!
Classic comic panels that probably made sense 30-40 years ago, but nowadays sound totally ridiculous. Don't read anywhere you can't laugh out loud!



(comic) A raver gets his wings


Just to be clear, I have nothing against Redbull or vodka.
Au contraire, I think they're killer drinks

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Great showoff video for a T.V talent show

Check out Jorden Moir's video submission for an American talent show.
What I like about this video is the smooth style and the progression from simple to hard that camouflages Jorden's incredible skill and talent with an air of laid backness. That's how you can tell this guy is a hard working pro.

Click to see the video


If you think that's bad ass, may I direct your attention to the following video of Jorden, where he shows off some insane moves:

Insane Jorden video

(comic) Every religion is wrong!





Monday, June 11, 2007

2007 Aikido Seminar with Suganuma Sensei



I was going to wait until I get some pictures and gather my thoughts before I write about the seminar, but since the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv did a full page article about it, I feel like I was beaten to it.

The article (Hebrew only, sorry)

(comic) The invisibles




Sunday, June 10, 2007

(comic)Menachem backed off


(click the comic to enlarge it a bit)


Sunday, June 3, 2007

Portfolio

You asked for it (or not) -

Here's the list of all published games I worked on. Most of these games were made mostly by yours truly, with the exception of two or three where I took over the work from someone else. Links, where available, lead to the game's description page on the ICQ channel.

In Oberon Media (2005 till present)

Magic Match 2: The Genie's Journey (Single Player)

Pool (multiplayer)

MagicMatch: enchanted arena (multiplayer)

Pool: 9-ball (multiplayer)

Aces of space (multiplayer)

Darts: Cricket (multiplayer)

Sudoku Titans (multiplayer)

Belote (multiplayer)

Tarot (multiplayer)

MagicMatch: Online (single player)

Mahjong Match: Online (single player)


In Itoons (2003)

SpongeBob's Obstacle Odyssey (Downloadable)

SpongeBob Nick Clickable (Desktop Toy)

Nickelodeon Kids Awards (Desktop Toy)




The list is updated for June 20th, 2007