Cave Story (2)
So Cave Story is finally out for the Nintendo Wii - some of you are probably playing through it right now! I guess some of you might be wondering what happened to the Cave Story t-shirts I was supposed to be doing with Attract Mode. Ha! Well, the truth is Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya who created Cave Story didn't like any of them, and turned them all down, so we're not allowed to put them out. Sucks, huh!
I think Pixel hated my Balrog shirt the least, and so he requested a bunch of revisions to make it as close to Balrog as he appears in the game as possible- when it was done, he said 'not enough charm' and that was that. That's fair enough- it's his property and his right to want to control how it gets represented. Truth be told, though, Nicalis weren't very helpful or communicative during the whole process. Speaking purely for myself, the year I spent submitting their requested revisions to them and getting no response via either email or telephone was a frustrating one. I actually had to email Pixel directly to get the final word from him, in Japanese.
Nicalis had agreed to license Adam to make Cave Story shirts- so it's not like we were just some kids contacting them unsolicited. It was an odd working relationship, and I came out of it feeling very dicked-about.
When they popped up out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked me for an interview for their blog I said something like 'sure, but where was this level of communication and openness throughout the past year?' They didn't respond, and then put the interview out the next day.
Attract Mode paid me for the job, so I can't complain- it's just a shame Nicalis had to treat us so discourteously, and that Adam can't sell the shirts and recoup any of his expenditure.
Ths might be my favorite of the shirts we didn't make- it's about the Polar Star, the main character's gun, an item which I think has more significance than first appears. The text is taken from the game's programming- the hard-to-find part in the game where the Hermit Gunsmith gives a monologue which sounds like the words could be Pixel's own. Click on the image to make it larger.
Originally, Nicalis told me and the other people who responded to the call for artists on the Cave Story blog that they'd planned to put all our pieces in a gallery show, but I guess that idea fell by the wayside. Anyway, above's a mockup I made to show how I imagined my piece would be mounted.
Here's a coloured version of the Balrog image that's been doing the rounds, which I don't think anyone's seen. Preliminary colouring by Qwil Man. There were more shirt designs, which I may put up later!
So... yeah! Please don't let this colour the way you play the game- I think Nicalis and Pixel have done a great job of transporting Cave Story to the Wii and have no idea why they chose to treat me and Adam the way they have. Buy the game and let Nintendo know you support independent artists!
I think Pixel hated my Balrog shirt the least, and so he requested a bunch of revisions to make it as close to Balrog as he appears in the game as possible- when it was done, he said 'not enough charm' and that was that. That's fair enough- it's his property and his right to want to control how it gets represented. Truth be told, though, Nicalis weren't very helpful or communicative during the whole process. Speaking purely for myself, the year I spent submitting their requested revisions to them and getting no response via either email or telephone was a frustrating one. I actually had to email Pixel directly to get the final word from him, in Japanese.
Nicalis had agreed to license Adam to make Cave Story shirts- so it's not like we were just some kids contacting them unsolicited. It was an odd working relationship, and I came out of it feeling very dicked-about.
When they popped up out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked me for an interview for their blog I said something like 'sure, but where was this level of communication and openness throughout the past year?' They didn't respond, and then put the interview out the next day.
Attract Mode paid me for the job, so I can't complain- it's just a shame Nicalis had to treat us so discourteously, and that Adam can't sell the shirts and recoup any of his expenditure.
Ths might be my favorite of the shirts we didn't make- it's about the Polar Star, the main character's gun, an item which I think has more significance than first appears. The text is taken from the game's programming- the hard-to-find part in the game where the Hermit Gunsmith gives a monologue which sounds like the words could be Pixel's own. Click on the image to make it larger.
Originally, Nicalis told me and the other people who responded to the call for artists on the Cave Story blog that they'd planned to put all our pieces in a gallery show, but I guess that idea fell by the wayside. Anyway, above's a mockup I made to show how I imagined my piece would be mounted.
Here's a coloured version of the Balrog image that's been doing the rounds, which I don't think anyone's seen. Preliminary colouring by Qwil Man. There were more shirt designs, which I may put up later!
So... yeah! Please don't let this colour the way you play the game- I think Nicalis and Pixel have done a great job of transporting Cave Story to the Wii and have no idea why they chose to treat me and Adam the way they have. Buy the game and let Nintendo know you support independent artists!