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  • Mood: Neutral
boy do i miss drawing!
  • Mood: Wow!
hello deviantart,

i dont use you much these days.
this is where im at:

twitter.com/phil_fish
polytroncorporation.com
  • Mood: Joy
  • Listening to: these new puritans
just a quick word to let you all know we've announced this year's GAMMA event, and this year it's all about stereoscopy!

www.kokoromi.org/gamma3d

check it out.
  • Mood: Crazy
  • Listening to: KILL
  • Reading: THE
  • Watching: BODY
  • Playing: AND
  • Eating: THE
  • Drinking: HEAD WILL DIE
i have an announcement to make: i am broke.

so i am offering my services.
if anybody needs a bit of graphic design done, or game design consultancy, or even maybe a bit of game art, im yo man.

visual identity design, logo design, business cards, tshirts... name it, i can design it.

drop me a line at philfish at gmail dot com if you're interested.
  • Mood: Crazy
  • Listening to: KILL
  • Reading: THE
  • Watching: BODY
  • Playing: AND
  • Eating: THE
  • Drinking: HEAD WILL DIE
too drunk to dream, by the magnetic fields.

sober
life is a prison
shit-faced
it is a blessing
sober
nobody wants you
shit-faced
they're all undressing
oh, sober
it's ever darker
shit-faced
the moon is nearer
sober
you're old and ugly
shit-faced
who needs a mirror
oh, sober
you're a cro-magnon
shitfaced
you're very clever
sober
you never should be
shit-faced
now and forever

i gotta get
too drunk to dream
because dreaming only makes me blue
i gotta get too drunk to dream
because i only dream of you

i gotta get too pissed to miss you
or i'll never get to sleep
i gotta drink wine not to pine for you
and god knows that ain't cheap

i know you think i'm insane
i know it's not appealing
but till i'm feeling no pain
guess what i'll be feeling

i gotta get
too drunk to dream
because dreaming only makes me blue
i gotta get
too drunk to dream
because i only dream of you

i gotta get
too fried to cry
or i'll be crying all night long
i gotta get too high to sigh
oh my god where did i go wrong

so why do i get plastered
and why am i so lonely
it's you, you heartless bastard
you're my one and only

i gotta get
too drunk to dream
because dreaming only makes me blue
i gotta get
too drunk to dream
because i only dream of you

i gotta get
too pissed to miss you
or ill never get to sleep
i gotta drink wine not to pine for you
and god knows that ain't cheap

and god knows that aint CHEEEAAAAPPPP!!!
im back baby.
back again.

so why did i completely drop off the face of the internet for half a year only to suddenly flood my gallery with new stuff? simple, really. for the last 6 months, all my creative juices have been used to work on Fez. And everything i do on Fez is supersecret. So im constantly making new art but i cant show you any of it. but surely i was also making other stuff, yes? yes! i was also busy designing a cover for my friend Steve Swink's book.
right here: [link]
But now that its public knowledge, i can share all the design that lead to this version. and i did!
right here:
[link]

ill be damned if i spent 2 months making mock-ups only to have them seen by no one ever.

and on the side ive been teaching myself how to digi-paint, which i now use in fez concept art and color studies just to break away from the pixel pushing, which im a bit tired of at the moment.

i must say it feels good to make art just for the sake of making art.
  • Mood: Crazy
  • Listening to: the grates!
  • Reading: new tank girl!
  • Watching: the venture brothers!
  • Playing: wipeout pulse!
  • Eating: cereals!
  • Drinking: V8!
it's been over 6 months since i last updated my journal.

im sorry.

things have been insane.

so, 6 months ago, i brought you the news that Fez had recieved 2 nominations at this year's Independent Games Festival. well, we won one of them! excellence in visual art. GDC 08 was by far the single greatest, most fun and amazing week ever. seriously.

Fez ended up being one of the most popular and talked-about game of the show. a piece of gameplay footage we gave to 1up ended up being viewed over HALF A MILLION TIMES, which is just insane for a little indie game like ours.

oh yeah, in order to attend GDC, i had to quit my level design job. my employer wouldnt let me go to san francisco, and left me no choice to but to resign. so i took the big jump. i was working my last friday, and saturday morning i was on a plane to SF. so since then ive been working full time on the game. survining on the prize money, some private contribution and a few graphic designs here and there. oh and tax returns. ive been really lucky. i havent actually had to take up a job and ive managed to pay rent, feed myself AND my drug habit!
speaking of graphic design. ive been making a lot more of it recently and i feel ive grown a lot as a graphic designer.
my influences are obvious, but i dunno, i kinda really dig all the logos, book covers, game assets and visual identities ive been doign lately. theyre not all posted here, but im working on a little something to show some work i did for a book cover.

oh another thing, Jason, Fez's composer/business guy and i ended up starting a company, Polytron, to handle all the business surounding Fez's unavoidable publication. Fez started life as a KOKOROMI project, but since im the only kokoromi member working on it, it is now a POLYTRON project. but you know, whatever. shit is gonna overlap all the time anyway. Jason is moving back to canada after 8 years spent in japan. he's moving to montreal in august, and then, we're getting ourselves some OFFICES and its gonna be AWESOME. like i told jason the other night, "dude, do you realize? we're gonna have a COMPANY BONG"

Im also working on a couple of other projects on the side, too.
super preliminary work on Fez's follow-up has started, as well as work on this year's GAMMA. which we might rename to GAMA.

Work on fez is going well. Polytron decided to keep everything under wraps until the game is almost done to avoid any kind of over-hyping and fatigue, which i think in the long run will be best, but right now, FUCK, i have all this amazing new art for the game and i wish i could show it off. the game has become about much more than just blue skies and green grass. the world it takes place in has taken shape, and is becoming rich. we're all super excited about it. its gonna be awesome. i hope.


in a couple of weeks we'll know whether or not were getting financial help from the government. because as jon mak so nicely puts it: in canada, if you ask nicely enough, they'll give you free money". so we asked really nicely, and they listened. we got through 2 rounds of "judging", and we're now waiting for a final decision. we didn't ask for a lot of money compared to the maximum they can offer, and i think they know Fez is a solid project. so hopefully we'll get that soon. it's funny because my little brother just received HIS grant, to go study in iceland for 9 months starting next month. infact, FREE MONEY ALL AROUND!

and finally, we're soon to launch our new POLYTRON website at [link] (under construction ATM).
its gonna be structured somewhat like the kokoromi website, because i seem to only be capable of designing one kind of website.

so yeah, all sorts of cool things in the work. Fez is gonna come out one day in 2009, there's definitely a GAMMA 3 being planned for this year, and im also working on a bunch of collaboration with esteemed colleagues of the independent field.

oh and kokoromi is definitely making a game for this year's GAMMA.
  • Mood: Crazy
  • Listening to: stricken city, TAK O TAK
  • Reading: the internet
  • Watching: string theory
  • Playing: N+
  • Eating: so many fruit smooties
  • Drinking: GURU

finalist, finally

Mon Dec 3, 2007, 10:30 AM
The game ive been working on, Fez, just received not one, but TWO nominations at next year's IGF (independent game festival). innovation in design and excellence in visual arts!
awesome.

the rets of the nominees are also all completely badass and it'll be a riot to hang out with them for the lenght of the festival. cant wait!
damn, i am so high on win right now.

[link]



  • Mood: Love

i gots me interviwed

Sun Nov 25, 2007, 8:58 PM
the arthouse games blog has just put up an interview with yours trully.
check out my artsy-fartsy answers right there:
[link]



  • Mood: Love

tee vee, again

Tue Nov 20, 2007, 7:29 AM
this one's for the fellow quebecers:
if you want to have a good laugh at my expense, tune in on musiqueplus tonight (cable 30) at 7pm.
i will be a guess on M.Net, to talk about GAMMA and all that.
not sure at what point during the half-hour show i will be on, but hey.

sorry for the total lack of everything in the last month or so.
working hard. amazing things are about happen.
like 5 of them.



  • Mood: Love
  • Listening to: DAFT PUNK ALIVE 2007

fez preview at arthouse game

Mon Oct 15, 2007, 11:46 AM
jason rohrer just posted an exclusive preview of the Fez IGF build over at his arthouse games blog.
with screeshots!

check it out.

[link]



  • Mood: Love

cake

Mon Oct 15, 2007, 7:09 AM
this was a triumph
im making a note here
HUGE SUCCESS



  • Mood: Love

feztastic

Thu Oct 11, 2007, 3:55 PM
BOY O BOY.

i am having a fucking FANTASTIC day.
the kind of day that makes months of unbearable crap seem worth it.

actually im having a fantastic 2 days.
last night i finally finished the first fez trailer, after 2 days of fucking around with encoding and watermarks and all sorts of crap like that.

so i finish that just in time, put that on youtube, blog about it on the kokoromi site, and then get on my bike to get to a big party at SAT (the venue where gamma takes place).

it was the opening party of the montreal festival of new cinema.
they had all sorts of artsy media instalations, the place was packed, the DJs were awesome, and i was being very very awkward in this crowd of actors, critics and very very fashionable socialties.

also i was broke, so i wasnt drunk at all. that would have helped.

but my dear old friend sophie was there, and i rarely get to see her.
so that was great.

then i got home, anxious to see some reactions to my big reveal.
and they were exactly as expected.
minds were blown.

then today, it was supposed to be the big work outing/field trip thing, which i decided to skip to go hunt around for a copy of the orange box for xbox. i also FINALLY bough me some new glasses. ive been trying to buy new specs for almost a year now, and there was always a good reason not to.
so i finally did.

then i went home and i was all over the internet.
or atleast my trailer was.

friends were sending me emails to let me know i was on joystqie and gametrailers!
and still more emails of people freaking out about Fez.

it feels sooooo good.


and now, i get totally drunk and play me some orange box.

AWESOME DAY.

  • Mood: Love

FEZ TEASER

Wed Oct 10, 2007, 6:49 PM
[link]

!!!



  • Mood: Love

GAME OVER

Mon Oct 1, 2007, 5:06 PM
we are DONE.

with a mere 7 hours to go before the deadline, renaud just told me we are done with the game. he's putting together the installer, im giving that a go and then we are officially submitting.

FINALLY.

it has beena grueling 101 days.

but the end product is SEXY.



WE'RE DONE.



  • Mood: Love
  • Listening to: where is my mind? (best song ever)

making games

Mon Sep 17, 2007, 10:46 PM
its hard!



  • Mood: Love

GAMMA 256

Tue Aug 21, 2007, 11:02 PM
it begins!
[link]



  • Mood: Love
man, lots of stuff going on these days...

here's a little something we've all been working on for a while now.
just in time for gamma256 comes... a new kokoromi website!
this one actually presentable!

[link]

so its still under construction. missing some sections and all that.
but the basic is there. a blog, mainly.
we'll add some sections for different projects and all that.

for now we'll be posting about gamma256, and ill post some updates on Fez.

so yay, pretty website!
  • Mood: Love

intergalactic

Fri Jul 27, 2007, 8:08 PM
[link]


!!!

im hip!



  • Mood: Love
  • Listening to: the soothing sounds of mario kart 64
little progress report.

me and renaud are having a little bit of a hard time getting the latest build running on my boot-camped windows, so we had a little meeting and he showed me the new stuff.

and it is so awesome.
so awesome.

i just cannot wait to show you the game in motion.
its AMAZING.

we spent some time tweaking the controls.
running speed, air control, etc etc.
nice and tight.

with 66 days remaining, the deadline is starting to look like something we can actually get to with a  shinny product.

we're still using placeholder art.
just boxes with flat colors. no sprites or art anywhere.
but we're about to put the art in. and like he said, once we do, its gonna get real pretty real fast.
almost all the art assets are already rendered, we just need to put them in there.

cant wait.

ill start posting some non-mock-up screens once thats done.
  • Mood: Love

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