joe randel's art dump

What defines art?  Are games art?  Maybe, games defiantly have art in them.  What about the packaging?  Lots of people, including myself, hold on to game boxes for the art.  What about the art on the cartridges?  Can that be art?  If you think “no, your out of your tree” then you might want to take a look over here.

It’s a Famicom case exhibit where artists where asked to make and submit cart art for their fictitious game.  How much fun is that!  I mean seriously, this is the kind of thing that really appeals to me being an artist and a huge game freak.  The area on the front of the cart is pretty small so you really have to think about what you want to show to make your game interesting.  There are some fantastic submissions there too.  Looking at all these takes me back to the early days of games where things where more quaint in development.  I even look at these carts and seriously want to play them.  They look that great and believable.

I also like the look of the Famicom carts better then the NES carts that we got over here.  Big grey and ugly.  Boo!  The Famicom ones look some much cuter and fun.  And the colours!  Ahhhh…

This is the kind of thing that really makes me smile.  Truly.  I love art.  I love games.  I would totally put one of these in a shadow box and hang it on my wall.  Simply wonderful ^_^

If you could just stop your life, take off and start over again, where would you go? What would you do?

Ever since I was in public school I always dreamed of jumping on a slow moving freight train and just see where it takes me. Where would I end up? Who knows. What would I do when I got there? I have no idea. I usually think in old 30’s and 40’s style thoughts where I would get off in a port town and start to make a living moving cargo on and off ships or something. Mostly manual labour, which is funny because I am so not a manual labour kind of guy. Or maybe a short order cook. Some thing that is very low profile. In reality I’m sure I’d end of being that crazy guy living out of a box in the ally way.

On the larger scale, I would walk away from all my stuff and go be a monk in Tibet. Seriously. To have no personal possessions to hold me down would be great and to live in seclusion and nature would be fantastic. Of course I’d have to have some sort of internet detox. I’m sure cutting cold turkey would be hard to do, but the idea of it all seems very nice indeed.

But, I have a family. A truly wonderful family, and I wouldn’t walk away from them for anything in the world. And my life is truly great as well. I wouldn’t change anything.

But it is fun to imagine sometimes what might happen to you if you tried to start over. ^_^

How many arms does a octopus have? Eight you say? Really? Are you sure? Well… what about this!

When I saw this I was really freaked out. Like… I didn’t want to look but I wanted to at the same time. I thought maybe it was due to some pollution in the water or human intervention, but according to the article, scientist have no explanation. At best they think it’s due to the arms growing back awkwardly after an injury.

Here’s a little Joe fact: I love Giant Squids and Octopi. I think they’re the coolest animals out there. I do research on them from time to time. Like, did you know that their are some Octopi that actually walk around on the ocean floor on two arms?

Crazy!

I even dream about them sometimes. My most memorable one is of me lost and trying to tread water in the middle of the night in a storming black ocean when up come a giant mech squid. It was about 10 stories tall, but I wasn’t scared. I just floated there and stared at it and all it’s marvel.

It was awesome. Maybe one day I’ll try and incorporate it in to some game concept like a boss or some thing.

Anyone out there have a favorite animal species?

Sitting at the computer with some time to kill?  Try Sketch Swap! It’s a neat little web thing that I found one day that will sure to kill productivity with anyone.  It’s simple.  Draw a picture and then press Submit Drawing and poof!  You’re drawing gets sent to someone and you get a random drawing in return!  Neat eh?  Well, I think it’s pretty cool.  I haven’t got any master pieces yet, but then I haven’t drawn anything crazy awesome ether.  I drew a pirate once that was pretty cool.  I’m sure the person that got it would have been happy.

So give it a try and see what you get ^_^

Now why didn’t Nintendo show any of these titles during their E3 presser?

Dead Rising Wii!

Mad World… looks crazy violent but done in a Sin City style.

I’m sure they would have got a better response then one they got for showing Wii Music and Wii Sports Resort.  This is great news for me since I’ve wanted to try Dead Rising but I’m too cheap to shell out cash for a 360.  Even with the price drop.

If anyone missed the Nintendo E3 show then watch it here… see if you can last the whole thing.

What’s the worst job you ever had.

I once worked at a Pioneer gas station between my first and second year of animation.  Man was that a bad job.  The owner hired me put me on the midnight shift… and never took me off.  I quickly became a basket case since I would rarely see the sun.  He had all his employees work 40 hour work weeks, which most people want, but if you where short 40 hours one week he would make you make up those hours stating that “you owe him” that time.

God was he an asshole.  Worst part was that he would call me “Poncho”…  Poncho?  WTF?!

It was awful.  I needed the money and so I ended up there for a month before I could find another job.  Even after I left I would have flash backs around the 6pm mark as that would be the time I would usually wake up to and start to get ready.  I would have this shock type feeling and a think for a moment that I would have to go back to that place.

At least justice came at last.  After animation was all done I just happen to be at the little mall where the Pioneer was.  It was all shut down and was going to be bulldozed.  Awesome!  When I found that out I think I smiled all the way home and then some. ^_^  I’m sure my jerk of a boss during my stint as a gas monkey just got placed at another station and is currently making more lives miserable.  But deep down inside…  I picture him losing his station and becoming some grunt worker somewhere or sitting at home… jobless, while I’ve become a lead artist and work in the games industry.

Hey… a guy can dream…