February 2012
2 posts
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January 2012
5 posts
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“It’s shit. You’re better than that.”
– Theo Dimson, noted Canadian designer, poster-creator, and hardcore badass, told me this after I excitedly showed him a project I was working on, back in college. He helped teach me to think, be critical, strive and never ever give up on anything.
He died on the 18th. I will miss him, but not...
December 2011
3 posts
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Play HOME in Pushmo for 3DS!
Pushmo is a brilliant downloadable game for the Nintendo 3DS that has your little sumo dude pushing and pulling blocks to rescue adorable little characters.
Via the built-in Pushmo Studio, I’ve created a Home level that you can download and play. Just go to Pushmo Studio, choose a blank spot, and press the “QR” button in the top right to scan and play!
msaether asked: Ben I just want you to know you are all over the tumblrs.
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November 2011
2 posts
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Home at Gamercamp
This Sunday, I showed the first public demo of Home to a captive audience the always-fantastic weekend event, Gamercamp. It was attached to my talk, “Tell Me Another One,” which was a dissection of narrative and storytelling within videogames.
(Game Prototype Challenge founder Jason P. Kaplan took this awkward photo of me getting pysched for the talk here:...
Home - a Unique Horror Adventure →
There’s an official Home page on Google+! I’m going to be updating it with dev diary stuff, screenshots, media and more.
October 2011
3 posts
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September 2011
3 posts
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Star Wars: Definitive Theatrical Collection
Don’t get your knickers in a pickle just yet, Star Wars fans! This “Definitive Theatrical Collection” isn’t an official Lucasfilm release (unfortunately); no, this six-disc monster is a hand-made collection I created to consolidate two amazing sets of fan edits.
The first three discs are high-definition “theatrical reconstructions”—they take HD broadcast...
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August 2011
7 posts
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Thoughts on Another Code: R
Join me in this longform commentary on one of the most affecting games I’ve ever played: Another Code: R for the Nintendo Wii.
The best thing about renting games as a kid was looking at the screenshots and descriptions on the back of the boxes and trying to figure out what the games you were holding were about.
Perhaps the game would have you “use your space suit to absorb...
Bucket Robot Golden Man, Zelda Prints & Books Now...
My BigCartel shop is now officially open, so you can get all those new prints I’ve been showing off, plus graphic novels, and any future goodies right from one lovely place. Go now, or hit that big pink button on the right!
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Food Quest
The “the secret government game” I’ve been coyly referring to for the past few months, this action-maze game (currently considered a beta) was commissioned by the Public Health Agency of Canada as an educational resource to discuss the links between food security, poverty and chronic disease.
I worked with a local team of very talented folks to take this issue—one that’s...
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Home Milestone: Level Layouts
What I thought would be the most fun part of making Home turned out to be the most mind-numbing. Today I finally finished laying out all the levels of game, putting in all the sprites and tiles and objects, and making all the rooms.
There is still lots of work to, but this process was educational; as I plugged everything in, I could see where rooms were bare, or there weren’t enough...
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Bucket Robot Golden Man (バケツロボ金男)
True story: I have a friend who is a Star Wars nerd like me. We were talking to my other friend (his girlfriend), who’s Japanese, about the films; she admitted that she’d never seen the movies growing up, which of course sent us into fits. “Isn’t that the movie with the bucket robot and the golden man?” she asked, quite serious.
And thus I created this poster.
...
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New illustrations: The Legend of Zelda
Here are some prints I’m looking to make for this month’s Fan Expo. What do you think?
UPDATE: I’ve made prints of all these images available on my shop!
July 2011
3 posts
An amazing treatise on simplicity and modern... →
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Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time...
On the C&G Monthly podcast, I mentioned my continuing frustration with some of the anachronistic tendencies of Nintendo’s latest big release for its struggling 3DS format. I also mentioned that I found the little 3D world the game presents be a pretty magical achievement that shouldn’t be dismissed. I stand by both of those statements, and here I’ll explore just why Ocarina...
June 2011
6 posts
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Thoughts on Living Minimally
This year, as many know, I engaged in the latest round of what most sane people call “spring cleaning,” and what I refer to as “The MegaPurge.” Since the summer of 2010, when I had to help clean out my dad’s house so we could move him after a serious bout of illness, I made a bit of a promise to myself: When I die, I said, I don’t want to have an entire...
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May 2011
5 posts
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Game of Thrones Art
I’ve never read the books, but I’m hooked on the HBO series. Can’t get enough of that Sean Bean!
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April 2011
9 posts
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It's official: Snow has arrived from the printer,...
Please Like us on the Facebooks and help keep the hype train rollin’ as we prepare for the May 7th launch of the book at this year’s TCAF.
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Only Three of You, There Are
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March 2011
2 posts
Recent Retro Game Pickups
I love buying old games more than life itself. Here are my most recent acquisitions:
Final Fantasy IV – Super Famicom
FFIV is my favourite in this long-running series, and though my Japanese skills have waned with misuse, I still love these games as pure collector’s items. Super Famicom games in general are pretty magical; their perfect boxes, like VHS tapes, with minimal branding and...
New Computer!
My new 15” MacBook Pro is finally here! It’s a beautiful machine, and the extra horsepower is going to make work (and, yes, games) so much more pleasant.
Here, Obi-wan Kenobi and his old buddy Anakin Skywalker marvel at the beauty of Half-Life 2.
And here, the dynamic duo confirm that no, a laptop isn’t a laptop unless it has a Rant Radio sticker on it.