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Dashkin, Bob’s Burgers, Clear Vision 2 and Bitcoin

I did lots of things in 2012 and the 2013 schedule is crammed with new stuff. Here’s the last gasp before the apocalypse!

Ever get that thing where your finances don’t reflect how busy you are? Like somehow the money doesn’t seem to justify working your eyes to the bone? Yeah me too. Story of the independent professional in the 21st Century huh? It’s a good thing I love what I’m doing, for the most part. Here’s what ►►

Dashkin was in “development hell” for almost a year. My own excitement and confidence in the game were dissipating. Sean couldn’t even look at it without feeling sick because it had grown larger and messier, far beyond what it was originally designed for, with many new features tacked on. The .fla was unstable, slow and ►►

Just lately, in the few hours between going to bed and actually falling asleep, I’ve been reading a series of books by Charlie Higson, a well-known UK writer and comedian (The Fast Show and others). This particular series starts with the first instalment “The Enemy”, the premise for which is basically that everyone on earth ►►

Dashkin Progress Last month, Dashkin was put on hold in an effort to continue getting those Kickstarter rewards out. Earlier this week however, we made some more progress on the game itself. I know I’m being too hard on poor old Bitey, but for some time I’ve been concerned that it feels somewhat repetitive. So ►►

oh look, here’s 2012! First I wanna say thank you for the outpouring of support and encouragement since my heart surgery. The past couple of months of recovery has not been difficult. Sure there’s been the pain of a split sternum, but I actually feel like I’ve got off very lightly, as if escaping some kind ►►

My heart surgery’s over. It was just 19 days ago that I was on a table with my chest opened up to the eyes and fingers of surgeons but here I am, back at the computer with a mechanical part ticking away inside. I feel surprisingly normal, though it will take a while for my ►►

The BiteyCastle Academy 2D FX animation course is now open! The place is all warmed up with almost 140 members (update: 300), throwing back tankards of piping hot secret knowledge nectar and churning out their effects assignments. It’s $24/month for a course that animators would elsewhere pay through the nose. In fact, if you’re a passionate animator, you may ►►

Dashkin is coming along. When I return from my little adventure we’ll apply some finishing touches and get the beta out there for testing. In the meantime, here are our Kickstarter backer credits. If you’re one of these people, check to see that we’ve spelled you correctly. If there’s any problem, please drop us a ►►

The intro cinematic I made for EA2D’s Dragon Age: Legends, now owned by Bioware.

edit – thank you everyone for the wishes! I feel like I’m already in a room up to my neck in flowers and cards. Short version - I was told today that I need to have open-heart surgery as a matter of priority, which means in the next couple of weeks. Yeah I know, it sounds ►►

It took 3 weeks but BiteyCastle survived its enhancement surgery and is once again fully functional. The changes were entirely under the hood so there’ll be very little, if any noticeable difference for visitors. The main problem was outdated system components and redundant software so there was an increasing number of errors and only a ►►

This site is currently being overhauled so you may see missing bits, some slow loading times, etc. When it’s complete, you’ll see a few changes, but best of all I’ll teach you FX animation! In the works there’s an ongoing 2D FX Animation Course, but for Kickstarter backers, there’s a special deal. There’s only 2 ►►

BiteyCastle will be undergoing some maintenance over the next few days, throughout which the site may be down intermittently or loading slowly. When we’re done, it’ll be extra super fantastic and there’ll be a few new additions that will ripple your face with awespasms. Be assured that in true Bitey style, the Dashkin game has ►►

I was recently given an opportunity by Wizards of the Coast to come up with my own ideas for a DnD-themed webcomic. I’m not sure exactly what their plans are for this new section but it appears they’re simply getting a bunch of artists together and gauging which makes an impact. Here is the full ►►

The purpose of the following video was to inform my YouTube subscribers of the Dashkin Kickstarter project and answer some questions. That was 24 hours ago. The funding was sitting on 46%. Now, at the time of this writing, Dashkin is 78% funded on Kickstarter. update July 31: we have reached and exceeded our funding ►►

Since we embarked on this quest in November 2010, our BIGGEST step towards a release was taken today. Sean and I launched a Kickstarter campaign for Dashkin! If you don’t already know, Kickstarter is a site through which ordinary folks like you and I can pledge a few dollars to help fund an artistic project. It’s ►►

The Dashkin intro cinematic is finally here! Music by Lee Miller. Narration by Raymond Coyle.

My second music video, which I wrote and animated for Cilla Jane’s song “Into the Woods”.

There’s a good reason I haven’t updated in 2 months. Dashkin has now got a sponsor and I’ve been holding off on making the announcement until contracts are finalised. However, as these things go, we’ve been held up and I won’t be making the official announcement just yet. So rather than stay quiet until I can ►►

Work continues on the game and today I released the another sneak peek in the form of a single frame from one in-game cinematic. In this scene Bitey studies a collectable item he picked up in the level. I’m using ToonBoom Animate Pro for the cinematics, then we’ll be embedding them as video into the ►►

Time for a game update, huh? March 1 was always going to be a slim deadline so the new expected finish date is some time at the end of this month. Bear in mind that we’ve been full timing this game since November 2010, so we have done a LOT of work and the game ►►

I must put in a good word for Ajar Productions who have created a Flash plug-in called SmartMouth. Even though I use Flash less and less these days, I know what a time-consuming pain it can be to manually synchronise dialogue with animation. If you’re a Flash user, you’ll value anything that saves time, alleviates ►►