Dashkin Progress

Things have certainly changed and evolved over the course of this project, but the biggest change by far occurred just a few days ago. Our original sponsor no longer exists as the group of people with whom we set out to do business. We were kindly given two alternatives: put Dashkin on the shelf for several months to see how things pan out, or take our game to another sponsor. Considering the Dashkin-loving community is still waiting eagerly for news of a release date, we chose to cut and run. So for now, we’re completely independent again.

(edit: don’t get me wrong. If it weren’t for that original sponsor, we would have released an inferior game 2 months ago. The people there are fantastic and I’d work with them again in a second if I could. We have them to thank for the game we have now)

The first and most obvious option is to find a new sponsor. The alternative is to self-publish. The downside of the latter is that we don’t get paid upfront for our efforts thus far. It has now been 7 months since we started on Dashkin and the two of us have reluctantly begun to take on other work to pay some bills. This loses us a lot of momentum and also pushes back the release date. The upside of self-publishing is that we get full ownership and a game marked only with our own brands.

We’ll see where it goes from here now, but rest assured we’re both still working hard on getting this game finished and released.

2010 W3 Awards – Silver Award Winner

Category: Web Video > Animation

Where did he come from – this fleck of spite in an abandoned paradise? Who is this peace-shattering scourge of the forest? He is the last of the Dashkin, but in the rough language of wild creatures, he is known only as Bitey.

click above image to get high res.

The Last of the Dashkin fills in some of Bitey’s back story and poses a few questions about the world in which he lives.

This movie is my answer to those who said Brackenwood was nothing but a series of pointless scenes strung together. Up to this point, I’m inclined to agree so each new installment in the series from here on will be loaded with questions and answers on the history of Brackenwood and the future of her inhabitants.

While Waterlollies stands quite well on its own, it’s technically the conclusion of the trilogy. This is another milestone in the success of Brackenwood, winning awards and breaking records. The movie took the first Newgrounds Tank Award for Movie of the Year in 2007, and Cold, Hard Flash rated Waterlollies as Number 4 in the “Flash Animation 10 Best Animated“.

After finishing LittleFoot I was about to start on Waterlollies, when it occurred to me that it might be nice to have a Brackenwood theme tune. Since my strongest influences in music were traditional Irish folk, I thought I’d see if I could get a professional Irish folk musician interested in the job.

Suddenly as I was thinking this, “The Wake of the Medusa” by The Pogues came up in my iTunes rotation. I thought ‘what the hell’ and decided to try to contact someone from The Pogues. I found Spider Stacy’s website (he’s best known as the Pogues whistle-player) and I sent him a message. A few days later, he replied!

In short, Spider wanted to give it a shot and he gathered some friends and got to work.

I wanted about 10-20 seconds of music to use as a theme tune at the front of every Brackenwood movie. What he sent me was a full 3o½ minute SONG! I was blown away, incredibly excited and suddenly unsure of what to do. Here was this amazing piece of music but there’s no way I could edit it down to 20 seconds. No way!

So I decided to make a complete Brackenwood “episode” in the style of a music video, using the complete song. The resulting piece is ‘The Yuyu’ – an interlude between LittleFoot and Waterlollies. Enjoy!

LittleFoot is the story a lost baby morrug. Alone in the Brackenwood grasslands away from the protection of his mother, he encounters Bitey, the cruel wild dashkin.

This movie is part of a kind of trilogy:

1. LittleFoot
2. The Yuyu
3. Waterlollies

This was the turning point for Brackenwood. I had never personally experienced “popular demand” until the release of ‘Bitey of Brackenwood’. I was getting daily email requests for more Bitey movies so I delved into my ideas notebook and pulled out this silly gag about peeing into a river.

The result was ‘Prowlies at the River’. This movie did incredible things for my reputation and put Brackenwood on the map for good. Cold Hard Flash rated Prowlies Number 4 in “The Flash Animation 10 Most Influential” Flash films of all time. I’m still very proud of it, despite the jerky animation and ultra weird opening dream sequence!

Introducing Bitey of Brackenwood.

My first music clip. Make sure you read the introduction on the preloader. I’m hoping I won’t get my arse sued off by EMI but I’m not making money from it so… uh… anyway, here’s the obligatory copyright notice:

Music: “Life is for living”
from Coldplay’s album ‘Parachutes’
© 2000 EMI RecordsLtd.

This was the very first Brackenwood movie. Originally Bingbong was to be the star of the show. I began to build the world of Brackenwood around him, including a nemesis named Mortis.

The way things turned out though, Mortis was renamed to Bitey and it wasn’t long before this cruel little devil stole the limelight away from Bingbong completely.