Score: 4

"Horrible sounds...but promising graphics"

submission: just another fight

date: January 22, 2004

The graphics in this didn't seem too bad for just getting a tablet (I've had the same problem switching from mouse to tablet as well) and were pretty nice in the style you chose. You do need to figure out how to draw blood more accurately. Also, never, ever misspell if you decide to use text in an animation. That just ruins your credibility almost instantly. Quite simply though, the sound was horrible. While I'm not going to judge anyone's taste in music, I'll just say that out of all of Blink 182's music you definitely could have picked a better song and made it shorter to reduce the size. The voice acting might have been good, but the quality of it was complete crap i.e. bad bit-rate and you didn't place the microphone correctly to pick up your voice without crackling it all to hell. Lastly, don't submit something to the portal if you think it's going to get a bad rating. Just take some time to expand on it and show it to some of your friends to get an opinion on its quality.

Score: 1

"Way to use a flash decompiler!"

submission: Strong Bad Switch Ad

date: January 22, 2004

Of course the graphics on this are great, especially since it's obvious you ripped them straight from the Chapman Brother's work. Basically, do your own work, don't resort to SnagIt or any type of Flash decompiler. Your Strong Bad "voice" was horrible. Seriously. That in no way sounds like him in any of the cartoons the Chapmans have voiced. While I think you were trying to ramble on about something to do with switching from the old computer to the Compy 386, you really could have added some more graphics to make the point. Such as both of the computers in their full glory since you seem to not have a problem with ripping people's graphics. This really wasn't that funny and the Apple Switch commercials were bad enough when they were made by Apple. Please, just stop the pain. Also, try and be original (as in your OWN graphics and ideas). Other than that, please don't submit animations ripping off homestarrunner.com.

Score: 10

"Wow, really addictive; Woo for mass carnage!"

submission: cantankerousTANK

date: January 15, 2004

The gritty graphics in this are awesome for the setup of this game, you know, the mass death and carnage you repeatedly create in minutes. The war-ish song was a good complement to the massive destruction you were creating and all of the other sounds fit just right. The humor of this is not really in the traditional haha, I just made a joke. It's more a "Holy crap, why is it so fun to laugh maniacally while I'm destroying everything in sight?" kind of humor. The violence in this is not graphic in a sense, it's just more a type of mass destruction that just wakes up the inner "I like causing Armegeddon" kind of feeling. The only thing I can say that is wrong with this is the control scheme is kind of...blah. While it is possible to get a hold of it, options to change the control scheme would be very much welcomed (also I couldn't seem to get the 2nd Player's fire button to work - 0/insert correct?). While the kill the reds and don't kill the blues was a sort of balancing act for the game (I would assume at least), you probably would have been much better off with just total annihilation of..well, everything as well as a few more units or buildings. This game is incredibly addictive and just shows an incredible prowess at making great, yet simple games.

Score: 6

"Talent here, but not really that fun"

submission: Croc Hunter

date: January 15, 2004

Just like all the productions by the Zipperfish team, the graphics on this are solid and the voices sound mockingly good (*shakes fist at Steve Irwin*). While the baby eating is funny as far as the way you animated it, there isn't any more humor than that. The game is not really that fun or deep in of itself, so this really is just a play once and forget about it thing. As far as I'm concerned, that should never be acceptable to anyone who makes any animation or game. Overall, this is a nice display of your graphics capability (not the best ever, but definitely Zipperfish style, which is good), but it isn't anything that is really...out of the ordinary for game originality. Just please put good talent to good use.

Score: 9

"An absolute show of finesse and style; insightful"

submission: Sin

date: January 14, 2004

I like how you made all the tones of this piece work for you into a dark portrait of symbolism. Even if you did not intend for it to be so, this animation is loaded with a veritable assload of symbolism. With me being a "deeper meaning than what the surface shows" freak about movies and other assorted entertainment, this is a great example of it. While you did have a couple of minor mispellings, which kind of ruins the simplistic, dark meaning behind the animation, it still remains a very stylistic piece. I couldn't see any problems really with what you did here except for those few spelling mistakes and in one spot where the text was a bit crowded together. Extremely stylistic and I am definitely looking forward to your future projects.

Score: 9

"Characters that a look of actual weight; beautiful"

submission: Llama Magic Pt.1

date: January 14, 2004

An absolutely stunning use of animation to convey that a character is alive. The hair moving, the clothing shaking, and absolutely everything meticulously animated. Everything was very clean and bright and had a definite cheerfulness to it. The music was just right for the quirky, nonsensical story line, as it gave it a light, fantasy feeling. Just as I said before, the story made little sense other than giving you the idea that the girl had an obsession with her llama. Not that there is anything wrong with that (see Winamp and Maxis for any further inquiries). A very amazing display of intensive attention to character movements and design (even though the red eyes freaked me out). It's rather unfortunate that you've decided to discontinue this particular project, but I hope you do at least some other animations to prove to the community just how skilled you are.

Score: 8

"Really cool art style especially for a first go"

submission: The Big Swindle

date: January 14, 2004

The way you had your art set up was just great as it fit perfect with your music and...well everything. Having it randomized and not realistic (but still maintaining VERY good looks) added to the slightly satirical subject matter. Your music was a good pick, not for being a stellar piece or anything, but just because it fit well with your character design and their actions. I think you have a really distinctive style but if you can think up a more exciting concept or a funnier one (this was just a bit of a laugh at the satirical fashion of it, kind of like how you laugh at a political cartoon). As far as animation goes you have it down, but as you said, you probably should go through a couple flash tutorials to get a better grasp of what Flash can do (especially for your file sizes). Can't wait for a more involved animation with a plot or some such random coolness.

Score: 6

"A novel concept, just rushed."

submission: Finger Puppet Matrix

date: January 14, 2004

While I think this was a pretty cool idea and you started doing it fairly well, it became apparent within the second minute that you were rushing. I could, of course, complain that you rushed some certain segments by not putting enough content in and that it did not encompass the whole scope in its legnth, but then I would be an idiot for not realizing the 5 meg limit that you even surpassed by a bit. If there had not been size constraints then this most defintely could have stood some higher quality, but for the size constraints I think you fit a nice package into your limit. The humor was great with the way you did random things with the eyes of the puppets and the beginnnig scene with Trinity just standing there and all of the guys dying was simply hilarious. Overall, this was a good job at covering all the key points while putting a slightly lighthearted feel to it. My only suggestion would be to try and do this in actual vector graphics next time instead of an .avi or whatever movie file you did as you could definitely improve your graphics rating and the length of your animation.

Score: 8

"Superb artwork with an evil punchline; too short"

submission: fun stuff 251

date: January 13, 2004

I really think you have (correction: had) some potential with your artwork as it was a really nice greyscale tone. All of it was really smooth for how the tones and fills flowed together. I can't say the same for your animation though. It seemed as though you could have added a bit more fluidity to it or at least been more consistent so that it was more acceptable to have the almost stop animation style. The music was the right choice for the "artist" mood and it seemed to be in sync perfectly with the animation. If you have ever had the...*ahem*...privilige of seeing the evilness that is goatse.cx then you will probably get a kick out of the punchline. If not, well, you'll just be confused as hell. While I'm not sure how you could have lengthened this without it being boring, it definitely seems like it could have stood to be longer. Basically this is a stylistic joke that has some fine artwork to back it up.

Score: 8

"Good platforming fare, just not too original"

submission: Zwill(Game) UPDATED!!

date: January 13, 2004

Just as you said, you worked hard on the design of this game and it shows. The control scheme works just fine and the hints (almost too many) help with anything that a person might have questions about. Your graphics felt very clean (even though they could stand to be more detailed), but they fit the bill for a simple platforming game. Your comments of adding more enemies, levels, etc. would be a great idea as diversity is almost always the key to success. Your music fit right as it was not anything annoying and strangely did not seem repetitive after hearing it for a long time and just sort of...fit. I don't think there were in any major problems in your Actionscripting either as there is only one persistent bug in which the character sort of "stutters" vertically when standing still. Everything seems to flow together, but it just seems as though you could have picked a more original concept. Now keep in mind I'm not bashing your work as everything you did was fine and the engine you designed is quite excellent (excepting the "stutter" bug), it just seemed that you could come up with a more original idea. A really nice job and I think you nailed the basic design down for 2D platforming in Flash. Just keep on working on character design, level design and some kind of innovative "hook" for your gameplay and you should have some real success in the future.