Since I'm in the habit of providing sneek peaks at new video games, I thought I'd give a couple more screenshots. As you can tell from the pictures, it's a dive-bombing game. This one will be out in early February.
A surprise snowstorm hit. I left home this morning with about half an inch on the ground, by the time the train got downtown there was 2 inches. Now it's up to 3, and radar shows several hours of snow to go. Buses and cars were sliding all over the place - it's that fine, powdery stuff that is fun to walk in, but very slippery when compressed.
Getting home's gonna be fun
Now that the game is finally released, I'm getting questions about the new song. I don't know the status, if it's finished or not (although it probably is) I don't have a release date for it I need to check to see if it's been promised as a premiere exclusive for a partner
If it's not scheduled somewhere else, I'll see what I can do about getting it released. But I can't say when it will come out.
Update: Just got some new information. The song is scheduled to be released on BIONICLE.com on
Actually, I started it yesterday, but only for a few hours. Really got into it today, but I'm still pooped. Long day. It's the usual start-a-new-job stuff... get the info on where to get info, get the computer set up, test the email address, get my desk arranged, the usual sort of first-day activities.
Nice place, nice people, great environment. I think I'll fit in. I hope.
Last Friday I attended Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany, with my assistant, Anne Mette. She took this picture of me with a special attendee at the show.
And that's the only Toy Fair picture I have for you.
A few bits of stuff here and there, in no particular order. Several local languages of BIONICLE.com have been updated (French, German, Czech, Russian, Hungarian, Polish), with more coming soon (including Spanish and Portuguese) I read the movie script and provided feedback. I'm pleased that my comments are being passed on... I may have some small affect on how the movie comes out! Getting ready for upcoming projects. As soon as I finish the local site updates, I get to move into creating specif
OK, now that many of you have seen the video and heard the song on www.bioniclebattle.com, I can talk a little more about it.
This is my favorite BIONICLE song. They're playing it here at LEGO in the local canteen as you come in. This is the first project I've worked on that became part of song lyrics. Pretty nifty feeling.
The video did turn out a bit dark on bioniclebattle.com, the master is lighter; when it's posted on BIONICLE.com in a couple of weeks, it'll be a bit lighter, I think.
Binky so happy with the server.
As you may recall, last month I found a way to optimize the BZPower database, and the site's been running much more smoothly since then. Our hits have been up, and the weekends have been stellar, with nearly 3 million hits a day during weekends in September. I've seen more than 500 people online at once, with the server behaving itself. After literally years of futzing around with the settings, it's truly gratifying that I've finally stumbled onto the right sol
This is always fun when you want to post something but don't have time or mental energy to come up with something wittily sparkling (as that sentence proves). So on a Friday afternoon, watching the clock hands crawl through molasses to 3:45 when I can bail out of work, here's what I like to call:
What's on YOUR iPod? (Or [insert generic mp3 player brand])
I'm a bit... how you say... eclectic in my music listening choices, as you may tell from my list.
T'Pau: Heart & Soul Sara McLachl
By now, it's no surprise to a lot of core BIONICLE fans think they know what's happening in the story at the end of 2008. I ain't saying one way or t'other. But there are some fun things coming your way in the next couple of months that'll probably surprise y'all.*
One thing just came across my desk that tickled me. I had the rare opportunity to write canon storyline for the web site (with Greg's input, of course), and some of what's coming up has a lot of relevance to the entire 2001-2008 st
I may not look like I post often, but I'm on the site often during the day, and I'm always working on something. The latest thing is pulling together this BZPower DVD-ROM, which is taking lots of time lately. I'm currently working on getting some "extra" stuff that is either hard to find or just not available anywhere else, to help entice my loyal readers to plunk down their cash. I'll definitely make it worth the money.
As it stands, right now we're looking at getting the master DVD-ROM comp
Everything tastes better with mustard. When in doubt, inflate your tires. BIONICLE 2008 is gonna be fun. Frodo lives. There are only three kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't. Keep your ears warm, even if the hat makes you look like a dork. KP continues to rock, even after cancellation. I now know how much fun Greg has in watching the S&T forum. It's so much more satisfying when you've skipped ahead a few chapters. Walking is highly underrated as exercise. I highly reco
OK, so it's not done, but it's getting there. The mechanism is all working, now it's just a matter of putting a "skin" on it so it looks like it should. But I wanted to post a work-in-progress movie. Click the graphic to download and watch a 12MB WMV movie.
For those of you who don't play the Halo video game, it's a Scorpion battle tank. It has four treads and a revolving turret. Obviously the turret is just tacked on to give you an idea of how it will look when finished. But I'm pretty h
Today I started getting a lot of emails about an old MOC of mine, LEGO Stargate. Turns out it's on the front of MocPages.com as the Featured Moc of the Day.
In other news, I'm back from my trip to the UK... it was a very busy couple of days. The first day, I took the train down to Bournemouth and visited a video game developer - the same one who created the Mahri and Phantoka games. We discussed the upcoming game for later this year, and I think we're all pretty happy with what we came u
Well, BIONICLE.com is 90% complete for the update on July 1. The home page still has a couple of things I'm waiting on, and the game is still in the works, but overall I'm pleased with the status. Hope you guys like it.
I also just got done with nearly a full week's worth of all-day meetings with various groups. Some highlights: Heard the new song. It's almost 5 minutes long, and features the same singer from "Creeping In My Soul". If you're nice I'll get her autograph and post it here. Was
I did a database backup and optimization today, in the hopes it would alleviate some of the server lag and site busy messages. I did it a little different this time... I think the script that I ran last time didn't run all the way through on the POSTS table, so it didn't go through and really clean things out well enough. I'm hoping that by running the cleanup by hand this time (on that one table) will really make a difference.
If not, then back to square one. Again, for the zillionth time.
The kind that has lots of sorting to do, that's what sort.
I'm finally trying to get my LEGO collection organized. I've taken apart a bunch of old, stored sets that have been jostled into oblivion, and gotten all my bricks together from my various travels. Now it's time to sort them so I can create something for BrickFest.
The only problem is, I have about 250 pounds of brick to sort through and put in the right spot. It's gonna take a while.
(Excuse the grainy cell phone camera pictu
I've seen threads and gotten PMs about the order of the videos on the front of BIONICLE.com. Several people seem to think there's been a mistake in which video is shown when.
No mistake, this is the way it's been planned.
Once all the videos have been released, you will see the narrative that flows from one to the other. The videos tell a story. The CGI is coming from different sources, including commercials and custom-made videos like the Ignika starting the Energy Storm. One of the comme
Even though I'm officially still on vacation, I spent most of the morning catching up - now that I finally have access again.
Here are some answers to a few questions I've gotten... A few text changes have been made to Bios to correct some inaccuracies. The Flash header on BIONICLE.com doesn't seem to work for Flash 9 - I'm looking into that. BIONICLEstory.com was supposed to be updated by today, but for some reason won't go live until Monday. Some movies seem to take a long time to download
For everyone waiting breathlesslessly for the new song to be released... sorry, I'm afraid your face will just have to get a little more blue. The song release has been postponed until later this year, to the second half of the year. Something about getting maximum impact for its release, which is understandable.
I haven't heard it yet, but I understand it's yet another good Cryoshell tune.
They say adversity builds character. Guess that means BZP is very... uh... characterful.
About once a year, it seems BZP gets hit by some server-level badness. This one was pretty annoying, granted, but not quite as bad as the one in 2007. I lost quite a few topics I was fond of, as did everyone, but basically, BZP came through mostly intact, and will grow once more.
I think Black Six and Dimensioneer deserve a huge "Thank You" from everyone for all their work on getting the server back. M
There are times when my new job bumps up against years of being an AFOL. Today was one of those times, for a couple of reasons.
I'm currently working on what'll go onto BIONICLE.com and BIONICLEstory.com for 2008, and I just finished a design comp for BIONICLEstory. At the bottom is the legal disclaimer, of course, which I had to type in in Photoshop. So I started typing in the "standard" disclaimer, which I know by heart, having typed it into so many fan sites over the last half-dozen years.
One of my many projects is moving closer to fruition. A project that I think will interest many BZP'ers... and this is so neat I can't keep it to myself, so I'll let just one of the kittens out of the bag (there are more surprises later). Let's just say you'll have a chance to obtain one of these at some point soon...
Here's another look
OK, an actual work-related blog entry. (I haven't met anyone interesting recently. At least, ones who'll hold still long enough for me to get a picture with them.) Glatorian Arena 2 download: I don't know if it'll ever be put on the server. There are resource issues, and it's not a high priority right now, unfortunately. Glatorian Arena 3: Still waiting for that to be put online. You guys'll probably find it before me. Hint: it won't be on LEGO.com. Comics: Same deal as the Glatorian Arena 2 dow
