FORT90

Or, to be more specific: Attract Mode X Hand Eye Society X Magic Pony X TCAF X Tiff Nexus.

First off, greetings from Canada. The wonderful city of Toronto to be exact! I’m typing this from my new home away from home, The Pinball Cafe. They have it all: coffee, hot dogs, milkshakes, and pinball of course! As well as WiFi, obviously.

Been here for about 48 hours, and it’s been a wild ride thus far. Today was, believe it or not, the very first day of COMICS VS GAMES! You would say it was a “soft launch”; the reception is being saved till the very end, since that’s when everyone will be in town for TCAF.

And, all things considered, the response thus far has been amazing. Plenty of folks have put the games through their paces (and for good reason: they are awesome) and admired all the incredible work on the walls already.

Much of the Attract Mode work has been making the rounds as of late, especially on Tumblr, but they absolutely NEED to be seen on paper, to be truly appreciated.

I’ll file a full report once all is said and done, including how ultra rad everyone has been (like the game designers and artists involved in the game jam that I’ve met thus far, plus all the fine folk at the Magic Pony and TIFF Nexus), along with why I seriously want to relocate here. Till then, a bunch of pics from the show today…

Here we have prints that are based upon all the game jam games?

The show hadn’t been open for 15 minutes, and practically every game was occupied!

It’s hard to say which of the five collaborations between cartoonists and game designers is my fave, but I’m fond of The Mysterious Aphroditus, by Kyla Vanderklugt and Christine Love, mostly cuz it’s a fighting game that doesn’t play at all like Street Fighter (thank God)?

In addition to the five game jam games, you have Meanwhile by Jason Shiga and Andrew Plotkin, and Storyteller by Daniel Benmergui?

Cumulo Nimblers, by Farbs and John Martz, got lots of play today?

Behold, the Attract Mode portion of Comics vs Games!

Quote of the day “Oh my God, is that THE COMIX ZONE?!?!”

Again, people playing Cumulo Nimblers?

The Yawhg, by Damian Sommer and Emily Carroll is essentially a multiplayer version of Choose Your Own Adventures, that totally gets intense the more people are playing. If Cumulo Nimblers was the most played (at least thus far), The The Yawhg was the most watched (again, thus far)?

Here we have Suzan Sabir from TIFF Nexu and Steve Cober all enjoying yet another round of Cumulo Nimblers (they seriously couldn’t stop playing it during last night’s set-up), along with a kid and his mom. One of the best parts of the day was watching so many kids enjoying indie games!

BTW, for a better look at the Attract Mode art, but sure to hit my Tumblr, where I’ve re-blogged most of the work from the artists themselves (you can also find a few pics from my aforementioned temporary office).

And for those who haven’t seen it, here’s the official Comics vs Games trailer!

Oh, almost forgot: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! Previously it was mentioned that the Attract Mode work would be on exhibit at the Magic Pony until the May 3, and then be moved to TCAF, May 5 and 6. Now it will be at both locations that weekend!

If you’re only in Toronto next weekend, for the big indie comics shindig, and like what you see (everything will be on display, near the Hand Eye Society table, which is where I’ll be, selling Attract Mode goods), simply head on over to Magic Pony to make a purchase!

Otherwise, they are available via Magic Pony online.

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A quick update!

Yesterday (which was, as of this writing, a little less than an hour ago) was my birthday! I am officially level 35. Holy crap.

Thanks to EVERYONE for all the super kind birthday texts, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts! I truly appreciate every single one! Have been going through a somewhat rough patch (for reasons that are neither here no there), so they really did brighten up my day : )

Along with all the well wishes, some super rad pics, vids, and animated gifs were part of the package. Though my favorite my have to be this image, courtesy of Mike Nowak?

Well, did I do anything special for my birthday? Not really. Other than dinner with some close pals (which included corn dogs, always a favorite), was business as usual: fulfilled my freelance obligations for the day (okay, maybe a little less than usual), took care of some COMICS VS GAMES business, and played some games.

Finally gave Gundam Extreme Versus a spin (it came highly recommended by Ollie, and has not disappointed thus far), along with the PC version of Sword & Sworcery (which I didn’t get the chance to address during my big PAX East rundown for MSNBC, but was eventually able to bring up), and collected a few more cubes in Fez. In case you haven’t heard, it’s well worth the wait!

Oh, and I came super close to, since it was my birthday and all, buying a plane ticket to Japan. No joke. Why? Because I want to see the Katsuhiro Otomo exhibition in the worst way possible?

More pics can be seen here. BTW, if anyone reading this is in Japan and able to get me some of the take homes from the show, please email me.

Anyhow, back to PAX: I also finally got the chance to snap pics of my haul, including my two new game related tees at the moment, both by Fangamer of course! First we have the Gaming Loop?

And second, Polyplay?

I love how both were basically the result of Jon, FG’s design chief, just screwing around. Insane! And here’s one from a few days ago, but which I forgot to pass along until now; it’s Tiny of Tiny Cartridge fame!

? Which is part of the Tiny Cart Sticker Pack! Sure pretties up a Acekard 2i, that’s for damn sure! And here’s all at once, is the rest of my loot from Boston?

Thanks again to Kari Fry for the awesome caricature! And lastly, remember my “pathos” filled Katamari cosplay pic from last time? Well, it’s a big hit!

After being featured on both GamOvr and Kotaku, plus being featured on Tumblr, it has since made the rounds at 4chan and Reddit, who all gave it their stamp of approval?

Also had Kurt Bieg (who makes awesome iOS games, and you should buy them all, this very second) ask for a high res copy, to be used as a computer desktop. Which is where the quote above comes from. Wise words!

Oh, one more thing, and mostly because I keep forgetting to pass it along (till now), which I’m confident some out there will dig it: remember how awesome video game commercials were in the 90s? I sure as hell do.

FYI, the list is meant to be read backwards, since it’s chronological, but my editor over at Heavy had different ideas. Still works though! Mostly.

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