Found an interesting YouTube series called Game Chasers. It is a reality TV style show of a couple of dudes that hunt down awesome Retro Styled games and systems.

Let me know what you think of it, I find these kinds of video game shows really interesting.

If you had a problem with The Humble Bundle costing money now there is a solution in The Free Bundle. Right now The Free Bundle is collecting a few interesting Indie games such as Nitronic Rush, Ascension, Celestial Mechanica, Imscared & Abobo Big's Adventure.

http://www.thefreebundle.com/

This week in GoG, a weekly YouTube short showcases what was released and other GoG awesomery. This episode features Cultures 1+2 release, Kings Bounty Crosswords GoTY & more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXfP9VJl0BQ

To showcase what is possible with the new HTML5 Cavas technology some enterprising souls wired up Doom 3 and Gangnam Style. The Demons dancing does seem quite natural as if they were meant to do this all along...

http://apps.playcanvas.com/will/doom3/gangnamstyle

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition is now on Steam. Good a time as any to check out this classic and moreso as it includes some new content!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/228280/

For quite some time I have enjoyed the Starcrafts series of animation shorts. I was able to reach out to CarbotAnimations, the creators of Starcrafts and they agreed to do an interview. Right now CarbotAnimations consists of Jon Burton with contributions from his brother. Its pretty amazing to consider how awesome it is to go from zero to a few million views in such a short amount of time. I imagine the fact that the videos are awesome has much to do with it.

This was a really fun interview to do and I want to thank Jon Burton for taking the time to talk to me.

jdodson: The characters of Starcrafts have very distinct personalities. The Zerglings, Zealots & Colossus specifically come to mind. I wonder what process you went through to give each character a specific personality?

Jon Burton: I try my best to portray thought and personality into each character as well as make them not the same but different from each other. Most character personalities are mostly my mockup interpretation of the starcraft units. For example the Zealot, is very much a zealous warrior in starcrafts. The comical part about his personality is that it contrasts the cartoon world, he is serious and over zealous where as the rest of the world is taken lightly and is playful and relaxed. For something like the colossus a bit more creative freedom is required.

jdodson: I heard about Starcrafts from the official Blizzard Starcraft blog. Do you have a relationship with Blizzard or are in contact with them in some fashion? Will there be some kind of Starcrafts episode in conjunction with Blizzard for Heart of the Swarm? If nothing with Blizzard specifically are you planning something special for the release of Heart of the Swarm?

Jon Burton: I actually had no connections with blizzard prior to making StarCrafts, but Blizzard has warmed up to me very much since the day I released episode 2. When I first got the email stating they wanted to feature my cartoons I couldn't even reply until hours later because I didn't know how to say "yes!" it was a pretty crazy day, I couldnt believe it. As for HOTS, there will definately be Vipers, Swarmhosts, Oracles, Widowmines and all the other units that come with it in StarCrafts. How exactly Im not entirely sure at the moment, but itll happen.

jdodson: Have any other companies reached out to you in response to Starcrafts?

Jon Burton: Nothing too crazy, but smaller networks and work opportunity doors have opened.

jdodson: How would it impact Carbot Animations if, while you were in your bathroom hanging a picture you slipped and hit your head on the toilet seat. When you came to you had a revelation, a picture, a vision in your head... You had in your mind a vision of how to build a flux capacitor.

Jon Burton: I would probably start animating at 88 miles per hour

jdodson: Right now the total views on your YouTube Channel sits at 9.3 million. Its a really impressive number considering you released your first video only 3 months ago. When did you realize that Starcrafts found an audience and you had created something that people could relate to?

Jon Burton: My orignal goal for my first month was to have 1000 subscribers. I never dreamed I would actually get 25,000 subscribers. My end year goal of 2012 (4 months into YT) was 5000 subscribers originally but in reality it came to i think above 80,000 subscribers. I say this not to brag, but humbly. I had no idea it would have taken off so well and I have every single fan to thank for their support. I realized StarCrafts potential the first month, but try to not think about it and just do the work. Even now I cant believe it, it is still a dream to me.

jdodson: What are you looking forward to most with the release of Heart of the Swarm?

Jon Burton: Im a protoss player, and I like to play creatively and unorthodox The new protoss units give so much more flexibility to the race it is exciting. Im also looking forward to the campaign units and Blizzard All Star whenever that will come out.

jdodson: What tools do you use to create the episodes of Starcrafts from story board to finished video?

Jon Burton: I use Adobe Flash 5.5 then export it as a png sequence to Adobe premier. I dont storyboard every episode, I should but I dont. Ive been trying to do that more regularly. But when I do storyboard its on paper.

jdodson: Do you have plans to bring in any of the specific Starcraft characters like Kerrigan, Raynor or Zeratul?

Jon Burton: No plans to bring them in the StarCrafts episode series, however there was an idea of doing a separate series on specifically the campaign, but that has kind of been thrown on the back burner for now.

jdodson: What is your immediate and visceral response to this very important thing I just found on the Internet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3fO4zEO10A

Jon Burton: I have to say I love this interview, lol. Thats goat to be the best video i have seen in a while ;)

Okok, thats not the most clever joke, I hope you let it slide.

jdodson: How long does it take to complete an episode of Starcrafts?

Jon Burton: Very much depends on how many characters are in each scene at once and how long it is. Generally though its about 15-20 hours, everything included.

jdodson: If you could change one aspect of game culture what would it be?

Jon Burton: Starcraft can be a frustrating game, sometimes we forget about the good courtesy. But I think for the most part the Starcraft community is pretty good compared to other game communities.

jdodson: How did you come up with the concept for Starcrafts and when during this process did you figure out the races distinct feel?

Jon Burton: I cant remember if it was me or my brother or my wife who thought of the name, but the design took me a couple months to decide on. I would work on it casually now and again, but I wanted to get the right feel. frame by frame parody animation can become very strong if done right. After looking at some great examples and redrawing of character concepts I had finally settled. But even now some characters have changed, for example the Zealot from episode 2, look at him again in episode 10. The designs have evolved a bit. Its subtle but its there.

jdodson: On your website there is a section that says "Coming Soon" in the style of the original Nintendo Enterainment System logo. I wonder if there are some hints you can drop for us about this new project? I promise to only share it with the entire interwebs.

Jon Burton: That was in reference to some work my brother is doing on the side. They are featured on my channel now actually. Depending on how things go, this may turn into a series.

jdodson: Does Carbot Animations have plans to expand out to be more than a one person studio?

Jon Burton: As i mentioned in the previous question, my brother is an animator as well. But he doesnt have as much time as I do (hes married with kids) At the moment we arent sure whether to combine our channels or keep them separate. Either way we work together and give feedback on eachothers work. He actually animated episode 15.

jdodson: Blizzard fans can be very vocal about things they like and moreso about dislikes. I wonder how you have viewed the Starcraft Communities response to your animations?

Jon Burton: The community has been very good to me. I dont even know how to thank them. I guess I will thank them with more starcrafts episodes :)

jdodson: What games have you been playing recently?

Jon Burton: I commute to school and am married, so games are pretty low on the priority list. When I do get time, I play StarCraft. Sometimes I have my needs for CounterStrike or other games.

jdodson: !!THIS QUESTION CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FILM THE DARK KNIGHT RISES!! In the film The Dark Knight Rises at the end Batman nabs the bomb with the Batwing and sails out over the ocean away from Gotham. The bomb explodes and the implication is Batman dies YET it is later shown as a trick as in the final few shots he is seen as alive and well. Are we to believe that somehow he bailed out of the Batwing, swam to shore with a gnarly stab wound during a nuclear blast? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Jon Burton: Hey batman can do what he wants when he wants.

jdodson: Thanks you very much for taking the time to answer my questions! Before we wrap up, is there anything else you want to let us know about?

Jon Burton: Sure thing. One thing that I am very mindful of is dulling a series by becoming repetitious. I love animating StarCrafts so keeping it fresh is something I strive to do. We also are waiting on plushie prototypes! Itll be a little bit though before they are available, but just wanted to give an update. And again I would like to thank everyone for their constant support to Carbot Animations.

http://www.carbotanimations.com/

Since we have a few Podcasters on Cheerful Ghost I decided to spend a bit working on support embedding Podcasts into posts. Basically for any browser that supports HTML5 you can put the URL to your podcast mp3 and it will embed right in the post now. Most browsers support it and for the ones that don't we have the "Download podcast" fallback link.

Should work on Safari, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, Android & IE9. Let me know if you run into any quirks.

The linked podcast is Watch out For Fireballs Episode 25: EarthBound (Part 1).

http://duckfeed.tv/woff/25

Recently I watched a neat documentary called "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang." Essentially its a documentary that follows the rise of Minecraft and chronicles the journey. Notch, the owner/original developer of Minecraft is featured heavily as are other employees as they join Mojang. The documentary features other notable gaming luminaries musings about Minecraft such as Peter Molyneux and Tim Schafer.

The documentary is tonally similar to Indie Game: The Movie in how its shot. I was completely engrossed in the film start to finish and to me the movie didn't suffer from any pacing problems.

The creators of the film are employing a pretty interesting distribution model. You can head over the to site and pay $8 to download or watch the film DRM free. They also setup a Pirate Bay tracker you can use to download the film. I opted for the Pirate Bay link and noticed a scroller at the bottom reminding me to purchase the film. I think this is a really great option and it didn't get in the way of the movie and I noticed it each time it scrolled on by.

Its awesome to see break out success stories in games such as Minecraft even if they are rare. Its doubly awesome because the people involved are pretty cool people. If you dig documentaries you should check this out!

http://redux.com/minecraft-movie
https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7946763/Minecraft__The_Story_of_Mojang

DLC drops today and it looks like more awesome Borderlands 2. You planning on picking this up or do you have this as part of the Season Pass?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/213250

I love Minecraft. So when I saw Minecraft on phones and tablets I snapped it up in a second with dreams of endless farming every second of the day. I will give Mojang a hand for making Minecraft on the phone, it works just about as you would expect. That said, something about playing it on my phone I don't love. The game feels cramped and its not easy to do things the desktop game makes easy. That said, its a fine port but I don't play it much. No mobile farming for this guy.

Occasionally I troll through the top apps on the iTunes store and I recently noticed a new game called The Blockheads. It is a side scroller similar in style to Terraria but built for mobile. The game is also unique in that it uses a home portal to warp in certain items like your crafting bench.

The game is a typical freemium game in that things take time and you can pay a bit to speed things up. I don't find waiting a few seconds for your character to craft or mine something so the freemium aspect isn't evil.

If you are looking for a fun building game for your iPhone I really recommend you download The Blockheads. Plus with a price tag of free, its a no brainer.

I finally beat The Scorchers. Its not the longest bit of DLC ever but its fun as hell. Its also pretty as anything I have seen in a game so far. I took a ton of screen shots of the jaw dropping visuals and will link to the really impressive ones in this post.

I would say that each level in The Scorchers is different in visual and stylistic tone. You go from a cave level, to a new epic Mutant Bash TV level to a killer Warehouse level to the last series of sewers to the final Scorcher end base that is a kind of Pyramid/Mayan themed area. The Scorchers ends with an epic boss battle and it wasn't entirely obvious to me how to win at first so I will help you out a bit, if it glows blue, rocket that shit.

After The Scorchers was over I wanted more Rage. Its so pretty and The Scorchers does what iD does best, gives you some bad-ass shooter mayhem. After you have completed the final Scorcher boss you get a trophy room in Wellspring. Its pretty cool as certain events and secrets unlock certain trophies you can look at and it gives Rage a bit more depth to it.

I like the addition of the new Casino even though I am not the luckiest Rage casino patron. The Scorchers also gives you the option to buy a few new Rage Frenzy cards but I haven't tried them out in a game yet.

Overall, The Scorchers was extremely satisfying and left me wanting more. I hope iD pulls out a few more packs just like this.

A few screenshots:

• An example of how awesome the lighting effects are underground: http://imgur.com/5IESk


• A long sewer corridor to the outside: http://imgur.com/FZwpZ


• Right before the final Scorcher area, a merchant awaits: http://imgur.com/Lb0s0


• Dusk in the Scorcher Base: http://imgur.com/utJmb


• Two Scorcher Cars: http://imgur.com/Sh7O8


• The first glimpse of the Scorcher Boss: http://imgur.com/RzIxP


• More of the boss: http://imgur.com/Vikpk


• Dat epic sundown: http://imgur.com/RHg5e


• An Indiana Jones style pedestal: http://imgur.com/rw5g2


• One of my trophies in the room: http://imgur.com/sEYCT


• I back tracked and found the secret iD developer room: http://imgur.com/NEK90


• More dev room: http://imgur.com/WBABc


• More dev room: http://imgur.com/6jM0w

Update:
We are having a Rage: The Scorchers giveaway contest, more on that here:
http://cheerfulghost.com/panickedthumb/posts/907

Just found an awesome how-to video by NESComplex on creating universal cases for your NES Collection. He goes over design, to print to how to construct the cases for your NES library.

"In this update video I demonstrate the storage system I use for many of my NES games: Universal Game Cases UGC and printed box art covers from www.thecoverproject.net. I show how to print them from PowerPoint, and modify the game cases for NES games using a multi tool. I also address using DS Cases for GBA games and the problem with doing this if you live outside the states. If you know of any websites abroad, let me know and I'll add them to the description! I hope it helps!"

http://www.youtube.com/user/NESComplex
http://www.thecoverproject.net/

CarbotAnimations, the folks that brought us the Starcrafts animations have started to branch out into Nintendo territory. This Zelda video is pretty interesting from the perspective of those dead things in Ocarina. Those things always creeped me out in the original game.