Hey everyone, here is my first model I made in Maya. He's gonna be used in a 20 second animation involving drop claws, giant steel doors, and a block or two.

Check it

Bigapuayoself!

-Grant

P.S. Level 6 is done in BOA IV, level 7 will be done tomorrow, and Level 8 (final boss battle) will be done shortly there after. AHHHHHH!!!! It's almost done!!!

Sup, fools.

A while ago, I was thinking about action flash games and what makes some funner than others. Obviously, the graphics have an impact on how you perceive an action game. A load of awesome, detailed graphics and amazing effects compensate for mediocre game play, while innovative, addicting game play can compensate for poor visuals. Personally, I believe that game play has more weight than visuals, although I will say that a game's graphics really set the mood for everything.

Anyway, I was just wondering why you think some action flash games stand out from others. I've managed to create some criteria for what I think is a fun action flash game:

Over the top action: This basically means excess violence, explosions, and overall manliness. Ridiculously huge weapons, mega explosions, and giant enemies are an example of this. Plus, it adds an element of humor...kind of.

Fast Pace Action: Face it, most of us have short attention spans, and don't like to be bothered with slow, developing game play. Just freaking give us a weapon, and let us blow crap up.

Story Driven Game Play: If an action game is driven by a thought out story, it can have the potential to unfold like a movie, and provide unexpected twists and turns.

Easy Interface: Come on - an action game should only have (at the max) seven main buttons that you are required to pound. Anything else makes for confusion and frustration.

No Repetition: If you follow the "story driven game play" formula, then you shouldn't have too much repetition. I've witnessed too many action flash games that have you fight the same enemy over and over, without introducing anything new.

Innovative Concepts: If you're just gonna follow the same old warn out game formula that everyone else has been using, it'll decrease the chances of anyone paying attention to your game. Throw in some elements that you rarely see done, and possible think up some new ones, such as diverse game play elements and a variety of game modes. If you see a cool idea that many action games use, try to improve on them.

If you have any input on the matter, just crap out a comment. What do you think makes an 2D action game fun??

********************EDIT : Here are some pictures of a couple of my buddies and I carving our pumpkins!!! This is at my house (At my college) Pumpkins!

We have pumpkins, but my friend said someone had to bring knives. My question is, who said anything about knives?

Hey, people!

If you haven't checked out newgrounds.com lately, there's an awesome tutorial flash submission on front page. Check it out. It's great for beginners and intermediates, I think. My favorite was the "platformer" tutorial - really useful if you need help making an action flash game.

Anyway, I think it would be pretty awesome if someone made a tutorial section for Ratuba World! Maybe it could become a possibility in the future *wink* :)

~bRiAn t

Hey everyone. I just wanted to show you some stuff I've been doing in my computer animation class at school. These are two interesting experiments I made, while tweaking around with Maya. It is my first semester learning a 3D program (actually my first class learning any program, I have basically taught myself everything else I know). I hope you like it. Maybe in a couple months or so I'll start to have some cool 3D fight scenes and stuff, you never know!

experiment 3 (http://ratubaworld.com/images/movies/ball_3.html)

experiment 4 (http://ratubaworld.com/images/movies/ball_4.html)

Hey y'all. Brian here. Just thought I'd share a cool find..

Anyway, I found an interesting little beta project called Wallop. The premise is very similar to MySpace.com -- users share photos, music, and possibly videos. However, Wallop features some very interesting abilities that MySpace doesn't.

Apparently, Wallop allows flash designers to create and submit "Mods," which are basically SWFs that can be applied to Wallop user profiles. Mods range from highly interactive user-friendly flash applications to entertaining profile decorations.

But here comes the good part --- You can upload and SELL your Mods on the Wallop market for users to buy! Check it out.

Anyway, just thought this could be of interest to the flash designer community. :)

ZOMBIE SMASH:

Also, just wanted to plug a game I'm making for Ratuba World. It's called Zombie Smash, and I expect to have it done in a couple of months. Here's some things it'll feature:

-Fully interactive environment -- use anything as a weapon.

-Random game play elements so it plays a bit differently each time.

-And a fun zombie killing experience that allows you to kill zombies in many different ways.

Stay tuned...

~Brian

Hey everyone! Phoenix has made another animated gif for the site!

These are great! Previous gifs from Phoenix were

his website can be viewed at http://www.phoenix-pro.net

Anyways, thanks to everyone who has made animated banners! Keep them coming if you feel like adding to the list! Also- I have been assigning several different users the ability to post on this front page blog. If you are interested, reply to this message with your user name and why you want to do it...or just PM on the forum

Whats up everyone! the blog is finally up and working. I hope you all enjoy the new additions to the site. You can now make user profiles, vote on games, write comments and even submit your own content! I highly urge everyone to submit something, no matter how long it took you to make, or how good/bad it looks. I want this site to be a place for computer artists and programmers to showcase their flash work and have fun doing it! So far we havn't had many submissions, but I hope that will change once the site gets more hits in the future.

We're almost done with BOAIV...we just have to finish level 6 and the final boss fight, add in the beginning/ending cutscenes and wrap it all up in the master file. So roughly 1-2 weeks left (How many times have I said that? ack) anyways, visit often and please submit your flash!!

BTW, we are looking for people to become 'blog administrators'..if you own/have ever wanted to own a website, this is the perfect opportunity! ratubaworld gets tons of hits/day, and it is a perfect way to reach out to the flash community, and plug your own artwork, while helping ratubaworld grow. If you are interested, please comment on the blog, or talk in the forum!