Tim Evans: Game Designer / Artist

Tim Evans is the strange chap with the charming photo on our “About” page. I think his mummy and daddy dropped him on his head when he was a baby. They say you have to be a bit loopy to be a good game designer – I don’t know if that’s true (or even if anyone actually said it) but it takes up paragraph space.

Tom Mulgrew: Coder / Game Designer

Tom is our evil genius coding guy – he takes the random ideas everyone comes up with and turns them into maths that the computer (or, in this case, Xbox) can understand. I think he was dropped on his head too… just check out his Bebo page if you don’t believe me… (specifically that little video down the left-hand side…)

Damien Caine: Writer / Musician

The other member of the team is me – I’m the guy behind the camera who watches everyone else do the hard work, pokes a camera in their face at the most annoying times, then turns up at the after party, claims all the glory, and collapses drunk in the garden out the back for the night. I also do a bit of writing and game design when I’m allowed to.

Together, we make up the Danger Balls Development team for Pixelati. And here’s the first video blog in a regular series on the making of Danger Balls (note: there’s a lot of temp programmer art in there at the moment :).

It’s that time again – Kraftbomb is on at the Grey Lynn Community Center in Auckland this Sunday for anyone who wants to head along and support our local creative community!

For those that don’t know yet, Kraftbomb is Auckland’s hottest and hippest craft show with hand made goodies from across the spectrum – toys, cupcakes, record bowls, necklaces, accessories, and lots more.

Kraftbomb’s creators, Karla and City, are classic creatives – talented in many fields – and their aim with Kraftbomb is to have an outlet for their various works and to provide the same for the craft community in Auckland. They’re doing pretty damn well so far – big ups guys! : ).

At the end of last year we caught DJCXL on his Tuesday night radio show on BaseFM. He laid down a 2 hour mix with live freestyling from MC Bling in the last half hour – too good to miss.

The great thing about BaseFM is their mix show format that values the creative: DJs play for two hours from their own record collections – Base don’t dictate prescribed playlists, so what you get is fresh music from people who care. No more high rotate sledgehammer numbness!

Thanks to Jazz Ziedan, Base Station Manager!

NZ animation gurus Mukpuddy have been drawin’ pitchas for a fair wee while now – you can keep up with their awesome work via their blog. They’re perhaps best known for the series “Sparkle Friends” on TVNZ’s What Now and their regional winning 48 Hour film short “Camp Fear” but there are lots of exciting things going on in the MukCamp so keep an eye on their blog for new developments throughout ’09!

For instance, in late Feb they’re hosting Flipbook to help draw the Auckland animation community closer together. Flipbook is an informal get together to screen cartoons submitted by the community, talk shop, have a few drinks and play some Guitar Hero xD so if you’re an animator in Auckland or the surrounds, make sure you head along! For those who aren’t in this exclusive club, keep an eye out for pics and/or video at the Facebook event page afterward.

The shindig’s going down at the Fordes Bar on Anzac Ave in the city – full details can be found here or on the Flipbook Facebook page!

Flipbook - NZ Animation Showcase

This Pixelati-produced clip from November 08 was captured at Zen bar in Auckland for the final Shake dance party of the year. It’s a showcase of the skill of various members of the Prestige Dance Crew alongside shots of the general public boogeying on down to DJCXL on the turntable.

New Zealand’s dance scene in general has advanced a great deal in the last few years – in fact, we ran into an old friend at Starbucks in Aotea Square last night while filming the Danger Balls video blog: he used to be a 3D modeller and is now a swing dancer extraordinaire. He’s a member of NZ’s School of Swing Dance – Jitterbugs (Big ups Aiden!). Creative people never cease to amaze me with their diverse interests : ).

The mix on this soundtrack was put together by DJCXL.

We’re working on a small game at the moment called “Danger Balls”. It’s a concept from the mind of our primary game designer Tim Evans and it’s destined for Xbox LIVE.

In a nutshell, you have to help the fingerling avoid the balls (which one can assume are ‘dangerous’) for as long as possible. Our lead programmer Tom (aka Mot) is working in the XNA platform using C# and is greatly enjoying having premium art content from a professional animator/artist to work with xD.

We’ll have video content about the making of this game as it develops, but for now here’s a screenshot of Danger Balls in early development (note the programmer art for the cannons : ).

Early Development Screenshot

Besides being a talented tattoo artist, Karla Hansen does a mean line in crafts – not only sewing the plushies that she and her husband (animation legend Alex Leighton) create together as part of Geek Freeks, but also – with her friend, City Down – handling the coordination, setup and management of Kraftbomb, a craft fair with a flair for the original! (like these record bowls – dope, check em out xD)

We dropped in to pick up some christmas presents at the end of 08 and captured a tiny bit of footage that we thought we’d share so you can get a taste of what’s coming up at next Sunday’s Kraftbomb! My sister loved the poos and wees we got for her xD and I have to get at least one Star Wars canvas this time…

If you’re in Auckland on the 25th and want to come check out a great craft market with wares you won’t easily find anywhere else, head along to the Grey Lynn Community Centre to see Kraftbomb in full swing. Go to http://kraftbomb.blogspot.com for more details!

We’ve been on break for the last while – although “break” implies that we stopped working… xD What we did stop were updates to the blog but we’re back on track now and looking forward to filling you in on all the things Pixelati has coming this year!

For starters, we’re going to be redesigning our logo to coincide with the relaunch of our homepage. The black hole concept is something closely tied in to our brand but it’s time we overhauled the animated graphic we’ve been using for the last while. We want to keep the clean simplicity of our current logo and bring a new sparkle to it – if anyone has any great ideas we’d love to hear them : ).

Here’s a great clip of Ridley Scott from the Fox Searchlight channel on Youtube. He speaks about the importance of music in editing with various anecdotes about Alien and the inclusion of Baaba Maal in the Blackhawk Down soundtrack.

The right music at the right time can set the perfect tone, and surprising genre choice can add a truly unique perspective to the visuals. As long as the music complements the images and editing rather than overpowering them you can create an emotionally engaging rhythm and tone that couldn’t be achieved otherwise.

Note: jump to 6:13 in the video for the section on music – or click here to go straight to that spot on Youtube.