I haven't felt inspired to blog lately, but that's not due to a lack of blog-worthy events, it's more like so much has happened I've been afraid to dedicate the time necessary to do it all justice...finally I've resolved to just skim over everything shortly so I can get on with a guilt-free life:
UPDATES:
1. Woogi World Contest Results: The Woogi World contest on NG went off really well, we were able to gather over 45 game submissions in a matter of 2 months...a feat we never would have been able to accomplish with our limited staff.
An un-expected perk was that the flood of "viral" web-games submitted to NG branded with WW logos and linking back to the site skyrocketed the traffic to Woogi World and we're currently averaging approximately 300 new accounts every week. This is surprising to me because the traffic for BoMToons, which has also risen drastically of late (over 300,000 visitors during September), took over 3 years to reach the levels that Woogi World has achieved in 6 months. This bodes well since we have yet to make a real marketing push for Woogi World.
Check out a pic of one of the rooms in the new WW arcade below:
2. New Game: I released a "new" game called "Boss Bash." It was originally intended to be part of a giant game collaboration where each person involved re-made a classic video-game boss battle. The colloboration fell apart, and I was left with 2 mini-games and no place to show off the hard work that went into them. So I decided to make a 3rd part and release the games as my own compilation. I credit it for the recent spike in bomtoons traffic because it appeals to a wider audience than my usual "Book of Mormon" oriented fare. But don't worry, I'm not "selling out" I'm an OG.
Play BOSS BASH here.
3. New BoMToons T-shirt: Jon's aunt donated some money to BoMToons a while ago for us to make a new T-shirt and I finally got around to making it happen. Part of my motivation was to have something BoMToons-related to give away during my Comic-con trip. So, behold, the Captain Moroni T-shirt.
4. Comic-con: As alluded above, Circle and I took a trip to San-Diego in July to attend Comic-con. We left Bella with Circle's family in No. Cal and made the trek to So. Cal. The main reason I wanted to go was to meet some of the heavy-hitters behind NG including the creator Tom Fulp, but it also served as a great get-away for Circle and I. Comic-con itself was a giant nerd-fest. I just felt a little out of place wading through the herds of anime fans carrying ridiculously giant swords. I can't say I have a huge desire to go back, but I definitely reccomend it to everyone to try at least once.
Ghostbuster look alikes exhibiting the classic Ghostbuster walk from Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters cartoon show.
LEGO BATMAN!
Circle enjoys refreshments at the Con.
NERDS overtake San Diego!
MULTI-SIDED DICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For some reason there were a lot of people rubber-necking at this booth.
In my opinion, these were the most accurate-looking costumes at the Con.
Yes, we made it to the beach too.
5. After 5 long years of service, I finally passed down my work-horse laptop to Circle and bought myself a new one. It's a 2GHZ dual core Dell Latitude, with 2GB of RAM. Did I mention it's awesome? It also came with a super-tiny resolution...yeah, I think it's the smallest they make 1920x1200 pixels squashed into a 17 inch wide-screen display...I hover a little closer to the screen now in order to read the teeny text...but it really makes the monitor feel roomy. FUN FACT: Over the last 5 years I've accumulated over 26 GB of files on my comp...and I don't store movies or music so that's really impressive.
6. I also released another game, the 3rd game Jon and I have actually completed together for BoMToons. This one is a "rhythm game" where you're rewarded for playing to the beat of the music. I can't take credit for the awesome concept (cuz Jon thought of it), which is that you play strings of notes (keys) on your keyboard to choose a fighting move for your character. The game was a bit rushed to hit a competition deadline, but what's in it came out superbly. The fighters in the game are modeled after Book of Mormon characters (Captain Moroni and Gadianton). I went to extremes with the graphics, hand-animating around 14 different fighting scenarios for each character frame-by-frame. In order to hit the deadline, Jon's wife, Megan, had to step in and color the final character for me. You should really check out the result, it feels a bit like a game demo because of the lack of a full character roster, but it's a demo that lots of people have really liked and has garnered Jon and I an offer to develop it further for a large chunk of cash if we so desire.
PLAY BOM BEAT BATTLE
7. Bella's 3rd Birthday: Grammie Chali came into town and helped Circle throw the best kids' birthday party I've ever been to. Circle, who enjoys throwing parties a little too much, was no slouch for this one. She decided on a "Blues Clues" theme since Bella has been into that lately, and actually MADE a blue costume for Bella from scratch. She also made little notebooks for all the kids, and set up "clues" for the kids to find to discover "What song Bella wants us to sing for her" (happy birthday). So we held a real Blues Clues mystery, ate good food and, of course, busted the traditional pinata. All in all, a truly great time...oh, and it rained buckets just like last year, so it was all conducted under the safety of the park pavilllion.
Bella and my Mom have a special bond.
NOTE: Bella chose a basketball cake from among 3 choices including a pink rose cake, and a yellow rose cake.
Continuing the tradition from last year, the Chan family demolished the party pinata.
Bella enjoys one of her favorite presents...in style.
A picture Grammie Chali took of the Pasto Fam at Bridal Veil Falls.
8. Last but not least, I decided to do a super-marathon read of the Book of Mormon. I dedicated 30 minutes every day to an intense reading session and discovered that I could read the entire thing (cover to cover) in 27 days. I found this surprising because, on my mission, I did dedicated 30 minute reading sessions consistently and averaged more like 2 months to complete the whole thing. So, either I'm reading twice as fast now as I did then, or I took more time to ponder and cross-reference when on "the mish."
And there you go, the last 3 months of life in a nutshell.
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