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R1665

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R1665's News

Posted by R1665 - March 19th, 2012


Back in 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast and I lost contact with "Carlito".

A couple of months later, he got back in touch with me over Skype and told me what had happened.  Evidently, Sandy had destroyed pretty much everything he owned.  He lost his home and almost all of his posessions, including his computer.  He was living in a group home for displaced Sandy victims and his main means of income - professional illustration - was crippled by the loss of his computer.  He was in a very bad situation with little hope for recovery.

...and I was eight hundred miles away.

It just so happened that I had just finished building a new PC and my old one was now sitting unused in a corner.  It was the ASUS that I had built VGE3 on while simultaneously Skyping with him for over a year.  It wasn't a high-end gaming computer, but it could certainly run Photoshop well enough to let him get back to commissions and pull himself out of the hellhole he was in.  With that in mind, I reformatted the hard drive, reinstalled Windows, packaged it up, and shipped it to New York along with a new monitor.

However, I had apparently forgotten to ship the power cable along with it.  (Remember that, it's gonna be important.)

Anyway, he receives the computer and tells me that there was no power cable.  He also tells me that he tried to plug it up with one of his other power cables and that it wouldn't turn on.  Reason unknown.  However, he did now have access to a laptop and my computer would not be needed after all.  I considered the matter closed and forgot about it.

Fast-forward three years.

Now, he's living in my home.  He has his new custom-built "God Machine" PC.  We had already professionally parted ways months ago and he was now living in my spare (and bigger) bedroom.  Tensions are present.  The relationship is strained.  I've stopped buying his food and supplies, but I'm still going broke trying to pay the bills for two people.  He contributes nothing.

One day, I find a note on my door saying that we need to discuss something and that it won't be pleasant.  I have no idea what's going on.  The next day, I ask him about the note and he suggests that we go for a walk.  We walk outside and get into his car.  He drives down the block and parks in an empty lot.  It's late at night.

Turns out, he drove me out there so he could yell at me without disturbing the neighbors in my apartment building.

- - - - -

Evidently, he had decided to plug up that old computer from three years ago.

According to him, he plugged it up with the power cord from his "God Machine" and walked away.  He came back to a loud noise and found that the old PC had somehow... somehow... shit out and fried the motherboard on his God Machine.  No further details were given.  Don't ask me how the fuck this happened or even could have happened.

Given his state of mind at the time and his stated impulse to shove his thumbs in my eyes and crack my skull open, I didn't ask for further technical details.  Instead, I was forced to listen as he spent the next two hours telling me what a shitty person I was and how I didn't appreciate him as a "brother" or understand what he was going through.

According to him, I was indirectly responsible for what happened to his computer.  I had sent him a faulty PC.  It was just another example of how my flea-market-and-thrift-store ways resulted in me giving shoddy gifts.  I had to acknowledge it.  I had to OWN it.

...and it was all me.  There was no mention of why he decided to plug up a computer from three years ago that he didn't need and already knew wasn't working from three years prior.  Not one word about his own direct responsibility and his own negligence in plugging up such an apparently dysfuntional device on the same circuit as his God Machine.  It was MY PARTIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO OWN.

...which is kind of like giving somebody a stack of money and then getting berated because they got a paper cut from counting it.

I don't know if his story was true as stated.  As stated, the BEST CASE SCENARIO is that this douche did something stupid and couldn't handle it.  He was the genius forty-steps-ahead chessmaster and he couldn't possibly have done something so retarded.  He, for damn sure, wasn't going to acknowledge any fault for his situation, much less own it.

So, here's this fucktard.  He's living in my home, on my dime, for free (despite the partnership having ended months ago), plugging up a three-year-old PC (for reasons not given) that I FUCKING GAVE HIM (also for free, in good faith, and functional when I sent it) into a wall outlet that I'M PAYING THE FUCKING ELECTRIC BILL FOR.  His shit explodes and I HAVE TO TAKE A VERBAL BEATING FOR IT.  ...ain't that some bullshit?


...and you know what the most irrational part was?  I waited another two or three months to throw his ungrateful, narcissistic, manipulative ass out of my home.  That should have been the last night I ever saw him.  Even after all the bullshit of the last few years, I was still soft-hearted enough not to want to throw someone out on the streets.  Even if that person was a toxic prick.

THAT mistake I'll own.

R1665


Posted by R1665 - February 5th, 2012


---------
There's going to be a big update for March, but it's not quite ready just yet. Keep an eye on this page as well as CE-Rap's over the next couple of weeks...
---------
-----
--

...I would like to clarify something that might not be evident to anybody not involved in VG Exiles production meetings:

I am no longer the sole "owner" of the VG Exiles. I was at first, but all of that changed when CE-Rap came aboard last year. His contributions since then have been exponentially greater than simply providing artwork to tell the story. Before his arrival, my story planning was little more than having a few fights planned out with no real long-term strategy. I didn't even have an ending in mind. My fly-by-wire methodology worked out great when there wasn't much to show, but the ever-growing complexity of the storyline made this impractical and it wasn't until Rap got involved that the whole VG Exiles timeline, from start to finish, was truly hammered out. It's not just me making it up as I go along anymore. Rap's involvement has produced a brain-explodingly intricate path for the series that also accounts for all previously established canon. We've added more fights to the lineup. We've completely changed planned character involvement and plot lines. We've changed EVERYTHING over the last year. The path that was set for the VG Exiles has changed to the extent that it can no longer be called "my" series.

It's OURS now.

Up until this point, I was very much a sole operator in everything I could get away with doing on my own. It made it easier to manage and control in all respects and success or failure hinged upon my own actions alone. The problem with that was that I could only be as effective as my own interest allowed, and that is very much subject to fluctuation. How many content creators can we all name that came and went, their careers built and lost purely on their own waxing and waning interest? How many burned out as the weight of sole responsibility and accountability grew ever heavier? How many disappeared through simple lack of motivation and direction?

The answer is "far too many".

Both Rap and I now have a vested intellectual controlling interest in making sure that this series continues to grow and develop. We won't LET each other burn out. We won't LET each other quit. We continuously challenge each other and won't settle for staleness or mediocrity. The long-term benefits of that working relationship cannot be understated.

Basically, it's the reason why you're going to be spending the next decade watching the VG Exiles series unfold. That's right - I said "decade". We've only just begun.

No longer is it a case of "R1 is running the show and getting some talented folks to help him." That view is outdated. This has become a true group effort. CE-Rap is now just as much an "owner" of the series as I am. To that end, future productions will reflect the unified group dynamic rather than the individual. If we were making money on this, one could almost mistake us for a bona fide production company. We will explain precisely what this means in one week, when we reveal our team logo.

That said, any of you reading this blog entry to follow my progress should be following CE-Rap's Page with just as much interest. If following the VG Exiles is your goal, then you'll need to keep an eye on us BOTH. The notion that Newgrounds is "mine" and deviantArt is "his" is also outdated. Now, since he's a full-time illustrator, CE-Rap's focus is indeed more towards the DA page. However, he's made it clear to me that he will now make more of an effort to utilize his NG page for the purposes of the series. This includes blog updates exclusive to Newgrounds. My updates will link to his and vice-versa.

If you care enough to comment on my ramblings, then his ramblings need to be your next stop.

That said, the changes that have gone on behind the scenes are about to show up on stage for all to see. It will start with a new center of operations for the VG Exiles. As much as I love Newgrounds, this project is blowing up such that this limited user page will no longer be able to contain it. Very soon, we will be establishing a group page on deviantArt and all future VG Exiles-related news will direct there.

For those who may not know, a deviantArt group page is a platform for a group of like-minded artists to share their work and interests, while also increasing their fan base and getting better known in the deviantArt community.

"Why deviantArt"-you may be thinking?

Honestly, the capacity for creator/viewer interaction is limited here on Newgrounds. You make a comment, I respond. That's really as far as it goes and there's no real dialogue without the feeling that one may be cluttering up the space. In addition, Newgrounds is a flash portal, and other forms of media are never going to get equal standing or exposure here. There is an art portal, yes, but it will never be able to match the flash emphasis of Newgrounds. That's just the way it is. DeviantArt will allow us to expand our options while allowing us greater communication with fans, contributors, or anybody else who may want to stop by. It's really the only place we can go to get this type of communication AND multi-platform media capacity.

The other great thing about the deviantArt group is it will feature TONS of exclusive content. In addition to the blog updates, you'll also get to see original artwork, flash vids, tutorials, character bios, and MORE-all of which, again, will be uploaded EXCLUSIVELY to the group. For this reason, it's imperative that those reading this get a deviantArt account if they haven't already. VG Exiles-centric news will be shown there from now on rather than here on my page alone. My own monthly updates will remain, but they will focus on general stuff I do on my end or my thoughts on certain production issues (like that AS3 ragefest from last month). It's going to become more of a soapbox shout-out area than the spot for official VG Exiles news. You can expect to get more-or-less monthly updates from BOTH of us now on our NG pages and frequent production updates on the dA page.

Lastly, in addition to our deviantArt group, we will also feature an official YouTube channel. All future episodes of the series that premiere on Newgrounds will be uploaded to YouTube by us and to THIS new channel. We're consolidating the production and going in-house across the board, so we want to be sure the videos are viewed through our centralized channel. This channel will also feature some exclusive content such as creator commentary on previous episodes, fan Q & A sessions, special trailers, and MORE. Another important note is that we plan to feature upgraded versions of previous episodes. These upgrades will add some polish to all the episodes to date, giving them a unified look and quality feel. It won't matter if you've seen these episodes thousands of times before. When it's all said and done, it'll feel like you're watching them for the first time. The specifics on these upgrades will be given later on as we get closer to the release date.

These upgraded episodes WILL NOT be uploaded to Newgrounds. NG will retain the original versions of the earlier vids. We're not big on revisionist history, but we feel that a facelift is acceptable for a new release on a new venue. They will only be available on our deviantArt group and our YouTube channel. Again, new episodes will still be presented on Newgrounds, but will ALSO be featured on our group page and our YouTube channel.

--------------------

This has been our focus since the beginning of winter, and is what our production will be centered on for the month of February. News regarding the 3.5, the changes to it, and its release date will be expressed when our group has its official release, which, as of right now, is slated for early March.

I will be updating this entry throughout the month as the pieces fall into place. Get excited, folks. This production is about to gain a few levels and learn a few new skills.

R1665

(Good lord, this was one long freakin' update... If you managed to get through the whole thing, give yourself a cookie. You deserve it.)


Posted by R1665 - December 22nd, 2011


...is a bitch. Seriously.

I decided a week or two ago that my next great priority should be to finally learn AS3. I must say that my learning experience so far has been less than spectacular. As with Flash itself, my learning technique involved getting a guide book and taking it from start to finish. For Flash, that technique worked like a charm. However, this same method seems considerably less effective for me with this AS3 training.

Now, I am only on the fourth chapter out of twelve (done very part-time), but I'm seeing some serious red flags here. First of all, the way AS3 is formatted pisses me off. A lot. The way my guide book is introducing me to the format pisses me off. A LOT. I can thumb through the book and see a lot of cool stuff ahead, but I know that this book will likely be inadequate for giving me the proper instruction for doing it. That REALLY pisses me off.

The problem seems to be in the innate nature of coding. It has to be done perfectly or it just doesn't work. Flash itself isn't like that. With flash, you can always find a workaround to a problem or do anything multiple ways if one particular thing isn't working for you. It's flexible like that. Script, however, is NOT flexible. Not at all. If it's not exactly right, it's exactly wrong. No wriggle room. Keep that in mind.

This book I am using does a decent job of teaching little aside tidbits and nuances of the coding environment, but fails on the real meat of the job. It offers a grossly inadequate level of comprehension. You can sit somebody down at a computer, tell them what to type, and watch the end result appear, but that does not mean that the person doing the typing actually COMPREHENDS what they are doing.

Without comprehension, you're just wasting your fucking time. It's all meaningless keystrokes.

...and that's all I've been doing for the last two chapters.

Book: "It's time to learn Technique X! Open exercise file 4. Notice how blah is blah blah blah. Got to line 4 and type blah blah blah. Copy line 4 and paste to line 5. Change blah in line 5 to blah. Export. Now that you have a solid understanding of Technique X, it is time to move on to Technique Y..."

Me: "What? Back the FUCK up, Hoss! I didn't learn a goddamn thing! I just followed instructions! Where's the comprehension?!"

With my flash lessons a few years ago, I could stop after any chapter or lesson and just play around with the program to see how things worked. I could take any part of it and do it a little differently just to see how that would change the presentation. Wanna know what that looks like in ActionScript? I looks like this - "Error 1855 - Your shit doesn't fucking work."

It certainly doesn't help that the language of AS3 seems unnecessarily convoluted. In AS2, you could go to a button and write code that basically said, "push button, go here". Nice and direct. Push button, shit happens.

What does that look like in AS3? It looks like this - "Make button push an event. Make event listener to wait for button push. Make event handler to wait for event listener to say it's done. Make event handler say 'go here'".

In other words, AS2 = Brain makes hand move.
AS3 = Mouth says hand should move. Ears hear mouth say the hand should move. Ears tell brain to move hand. Hand moves.

It's really fucking redundant. Who came up with this shit?

------------

I'm going to start back from the beginning tomorrow after I cool off. This crap is getting to me.

/rant

R1665

ActionScript 3.0


Posted by R1665 - December 5th, 2011


This is a weird update situation. CE-Rap and I have stuff planned that requires some coordination to these updates, but with his recent complications (you can read about it HERE), I guess the best course of action is to simply start giving people some actual information on the stuff I have going on specifically.

That being VGE4, of course.

I'm about 40-50% finished with the fight already depending on just how long I want to stretch it. It used to be that four minutes worth of fight was more than sufficient, but it now seems inadequate at times considering the total length of the planned production.

It's a balancing act. For its length, the fight is the meatiest part of the production from a file size perspective. I might be able to make a six-minute epic rumble, but would that leave enough space for the rest of the story to be told? Tom Fulp was gracious and awesome enough to grant me the maximum-allowable upload limit, but the fact is that future episodes will be regularly tapping upon that ceiling. VGE3 only just barely made my new 40 mb limit, and that was only after making several deep cuts to the quality. There's only so much fat one can cut before they're shearing off meat.

That's why I can't ever do two full-length fights per episode and why I have to carefully weigh the impact of extending the fights I already have. It would not have been such an issue a few years ago when the story presentation was much simpler, but now Rap's side of the production is a juggernaut and I have to take that into account when doing mine.

...and let me tell ya, the stuff that man has planned for both 3.5 and 4 will make 3 look bare-bones by comparison.

---------------------

Enough about that stuff. Let's get to the aforementioned VGE4 content.

The battles of the VG Exiles have been fought in a few interesting venues. My fighters have seen the wastelands of Outworld, the holographic projections of the Danger Room, the inside of a Street Fighter Shadowlaw complex, and even the streets of New York.

Up until now, they had simply been venues and landscapes. Just scenery. Those fights could have gone down almost exactly the same in other arenas and other worlds. Aside from the nice graphics and the occasional stage transition, the arenas played little part in how the battles progressed.

Well, as of VGE4, this all changes.

What if the arena was more than simple set decoration? What if it could grow and change while the action was taking place? What if the arena itself was active, alive even? Pretty cool, huh? Well, what if that very same living, dynamic arena WANTED YOU DEAD?! Where do you run when the WHOLE WORLD around you wants to kill you and CONSUME YOUR SOUL?!

Imagine a venue where the stakes are higher than ever before, where your opponent wants you dead, the world wants both of your souls, and death means eons of suffering and anguish followed only by complete annihilation in the eternal void. What could that possibly be like?

In VG Exiles Episode 4, that question will be answered.

R1665

------------------


Posted by R1665 - November 2nd, 2011


Well, now... HERE'S a problem I've never had before... CE-RAP and I have so much in the pipeline that I don't know which part I should focus on for these updates. Seriously.

Now, I know that a few people have probably tuned out. They may be thinking, "well, R1 finally got VGE3 out, so I guess I won't need to check back in for another year..."

They're gonna be missing out.

VG Exiles 3.5 will be the next release, and it will solidify the direction this series is taking from an artistic and storytelling standpoint. It will be more than a simple transition between VGE3 and VGE4. I know it may not be too terribly evident YET, but the events you have witnessed in the series so far are just the tip of the iceberg. This thing goes so deep that we will not be able to cover it in the main episodes. Not even close. Hell, we probably won't be able to cover it all in the "point fives" either.

...but we WILL cover it. I can't say how just yet, but Rap and I are going to expand into mediums further than our humble Newgrounds pages. We will create a centralized source for all things related to the series, specifically those things we cannot do here on NG. More info on that later...

Anyway, while Rap has been diligently storyboarding, planning, and organizing the monster that will become VGE3.5, I have been slowly but surely building the fight scene of VGE4. I'd say that I am about a third of the way through this showdown and you guys WILL NOT BELIEVE what vicious fun I have in store for you!

I'll be the first to admit that my sprite fighting skills made no massive leap between the choreography of VGE2 and VGE3. The major evolutionary leap of VGE3 came from the art, not the fight. It would seem now that the challenge is upon me to up the ante and take my fights to a whole new level to match the quality of the art and story. VGE4 will do just that. It will be the first visible step of MY OWN skill advancement.

What will that advancement look like? You'll just have to wait and see...

R1665
-------------


Posted by R1665 - October 2nd, 2011


------
CE-Rap lays it out in his own UPDATE.
------

I'd like to start this news post by addressing a common misconception that is going around with VGE3. There have been a number of people who seem to believe that VGE3 took two years to make. Some have taken that false observation and speculated that VGE4 will take just as long, if not longer.

I'd like to say that view is incorrect.

It did not take two years to produce VGE3. The two-year figure combines production time with the downtime and delays caused by not having the required artwork early in production. Here's the timeline:
-----------------------------
September 2009: First sprites imported, library building, and fight animation begins.

April - June 2010: Fight pretty much finished (after some substantial gaming delays on my part), most voice actors recruited and lines submitted.

> Almost a full year waiting on artwork with no other measurable production <

April - May 2011: CE-RAP joins the team. He doesn't get heavily into production until May due to prior obligations.

September 2011: VGE3 finished and submitted.
----------------------------

The actual hands-on production time was closer to one year than two. The fight was eight months in the making, and much of that was done at a very leisurely pace with me taking ample time for lots of productivity-killing gaming. The art was five months of frantic work. The rest was delay.

CE-Rap and I spent so many hours on Skype coordinating this that I could not give you an accurate accounting of the time. During those months of working together, we developed new techniques that will continue to serve us in the episodes to come. To give you a better idea of the production times we were looking at, the jungle scenes took up the majority of that five-month production time. By the time we got to producing the Panoptichron and Shower scenes, we had reached a point of strong proficiency and those last two scenes were hammered out and animated at about 1-2 weeks apiece. Those five months also saw numerous problems that delayed production. Hurricane Irene struck and knocked Rap out for a week. My computer died. RAM issues. Sickness. Family and life obligations. All that and we STILL managed to get it all done in five months.

I guess the point of all this rambling is that VGE4 will not take two years to complete. Not even close. All of you guys who may be worrying about a 2013-2014 release for VGE4 can relax. It's going to be out a LOT sooner than you might think.

--------------------

As for the VGE3 release, I am very pleased with the results, especially considering the many factors we had working against us. As I have said before, the fight was outdated. The only thing in it I would consider choreographically "new" is the fatality. The fight itself long predated FAILtality and is not a true indicator of my current choreographic skill level. I've got a whole new bag of tricks now.

VGE3 was mostly old work from well over a year ago. Couldn't be helped. It was necessarily released as an old car with a sweet new paint job. Pretty and functional, yes, but still far from new. As CE-Rap stated, though, it is the GENESIS of a new era in Flash. I stand by that statement. The transition may have been a little hard for some people to digest, but this was only the beginning. As much as I love it, it was our practice run. It was VGE0 all over again.

VGE4 will be ALL-NEW. New fight, new voices, new art techniques, everything modern from the ground up. No year-long delays.

...and I already have ninety seconds of the fight animated.

(Oh, and as an answer to Mini-Dude on my last news post: If I waited until the peak of my skills to animate my "dream match", then that match would never happen. I am CONSTANTLY learning new tricks and techniques and there will always be something better around the corner.)

--------

R1665


Posted by R1665 - September 2nd, 2011


-----------

FINAL CHECKS ARE CLEARED. FLASH LAUNCH IS A "GO".

Be here at noon...

--------------

CE-Rap pretty much lays it all out here.

Just when we thought we had it in the bag, a freakin' hurricane shows up and sets us back another week. I suppose losing a week to Irene is the most understandable delay we've had yet. I mean, it's the weather. What can ya do?

Anyway, September 20th is the new release date for VG Exiles Episode 3.

That is, of course, pending Tom Fulp's approval. I have optimized this flash as much as I can, but the simple fact is there is SO MUCH STUFF in here that it will end up as the largest movie ever submitted to Newgrounds. The final scenes are not yet fully complete, but I estimate that this video will run well over twenty minutes and be around 35 mb.

35 mb (approximately) is a LOT for a flash but, honestly, it's chump change considering everything that's going into this production. We have, of course, a full-length four-minute fight. Add to that several plot scenes involving complete musical scoring and unbelievable visuals that go way past the highest quality standard for flash. Add to that the vocal contributions of over half a dozen voice actors. There has been more work put into this than some network television shows. That said, I think that 35-40 mb is one hell of a deal.

I'll start messaging Tom once I get closer to an exact size figure. Of course, there is also every possibility that one of the admins will see this front-page post and give him a quick heads-up...

So, in accordance with my front-page post policy, I now give you a screenshot. See ya on September 20th!

R1665

The Irene Effect


Posted by R1665 - August 2nd, 2011


---HEY EVERYONE---

There is every chance in the world that Hurricane Irene will cause another delay in the VGE3 release date. My communications with CE-Rap have been cut off. He lives in NY and now has much bigger things to worry about than this flash.

This and next weekend were going to be critical meetings between us to hammer out the final needed scenes. We were well on our way to finishing on time before this hurricane struck. Now the release date might be up in the air again. I say "might" because I simply do not know his situation. Given what we've all seen on the news for the east coast, I'd say that situation is less than ideal.

Communication and infrastructure is going down all up the coast. If you live in the path of Irene and can read this, get the hell off this page and find some shelter. Seriously.

R1665

------------------
------------------
------------------

Okay, guys. Time to break this down.

The fact is that CE-Rap and I are cramming more awesome into this than we could have realistically planned for. We are meeting almost nightly and progress is being made. I wish I could properly convey the level of work going into this. It is far more than either of us had initially envisioned and I can PROMISE you that every second is gonna be worth it.

What you are going to see has never been done in a sprite movie before. Hell, it has never been done in ANY kind of flash movie before! It's a whole new level and it requires a whole new level of production.

That said, after nearly two years of secrecy, I am finally revealing the match card for VGE3! Yeah, that's right... Welcome to my dream throw down: Kurtis Stryker vs M. Bison!

We're not done yet, though.

[EDIT]

9-13-11 - VGE3 is scheduled to hit around 12:00 noon EST, given Tom Fulp's seal of approval.

Keep your fingers crossed and mark your calendars!

----------------------

Check out the HI-RES poster!
[-HERE-]

R1665

VGE3 fight card revealed!


Posted by R1665 - July 1st, 2011


Okay folks, we're getting down to the wire on VGE3. This time last month, the plan was to have the episode finished and released by the second week of July. The untimely death of my computer kind of wrecked that plan and pushed our timetables forward by at least a week. I can say that we are going to try like hell to get this episode finished and on the portal by the end of this month. If not then, shortly thereafter.

Having already animated some of the art material, I can say with great confidence that you guys are gonna SHIT A BRICK when you see this. VGE3 will be the first of a brand new era in artwork storytelling for sprite movies. This era was briefly touched upon in VGE2, but will now reach an entirely new degree of complexity for VGE3. Like all things practiced, of course, it will get even better with time.

The biggest issue for me now is how the hell I'm going to fit ten gallons of awesome in a five gallon bucket. There is so much spectacular artwork and so much music to accentuate it that the current rate of data accumulation will go well beyond my current 20 MB upload limit. I am going to have to use every trick in my book to lower that file size to an acceptable level. If, however, I am still unable to get beneath that 20 MB line with acceptable quality, I just might have to go to Tom Fulp with hat in hand once again.

I'd like to think that he'd accommodate me considering my last movie spent three weeks on the Front Page... *finishes patting self on back*

-------------------------

Once CE-Rap has finished the artwork for the flash he will create a promotional poster as before for the current episode. For an example of what this kind of poster looks like, click HERE.

Once the VGE3 poster is done, I will edit this news entry accordingly and provide the link. In addition to the character reveals, I will also reveal the battle anthem and finally provide a definite release date.

It's been a very long and troublesome journey, but the end is finally upon us. Stay tuned.

R1665


Posted by R1665 - June 1st, 2011


June is here and the artwork for VGE3 is rolling in at a steady clip. It's not done yet, but we're working on it and getting further with each passing day. I have nothing else to report at this time.

It's getting done. Hang in there.

R1665

---------------

Oh, and this is for you guys. Always keep the words of Saint Katt Williams in mind when the fools of the world pay you a visit:

----------------------------

[Further edit] 6/09/11 --RAMBLE ALERT--

Approximately 24 hours ago, my desktop PC died. After seven years of wonderful service, the main HDD finally crashed and ceased being bootable. I am currently recovering all critical data from the now-defunct hard disk and transferring it to my new computer. Data loss was not a serious issue as I make regular backups, but this could have gone very, very badly if I did not have the foresight to make backups and the equipment to recover data from old hard drives.

I share this because I want to once again emphasize the importance of backing up your important data. I know of at least a few animators who have been dealt serious, and sometimes career-ending setbacks due to months of work lost in an instant. Fortunately, I am not among them. In my case, absolutely no data was lost and the only ill-effect that the VG Exiles will sustain is a temporary lull in art scene construction.

If anything, it's actually kind of refreshing. Although it sucks to shell out the cash for a new PC, as well as having to take the time to break it in, there are some silver linings. First of all, my former PC had about seven years of crap on it that I could do without. Any computer gets like that after a while and this event gives me an excuse to trim the fat. It also has the advantage of being a newer, faster, and generally more advanced computer.

I've now had to go from Windows XP to Windows 7 and I have to say that I am so far not very impressed with Win7. Perhaps I have not given myself enough time to familiarize myself with it, but navigation in general seems more difficult. Changing a setting is a pain in the ass. I'm not a fan of the format at this early stage.

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TL:DR version:

HDD died. Got new computer. No data lost. Slight delay in VGE3 production. Back your data up and eat your Wheaties.

R1665