Bow . . .

The next character to be brought to life will be;

Name: Bow
Origin: Beaches Of California
Background: Bow is a surfer type character, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The whole Cali surfer look. He is a specially skilled fighter that uses strictly his elbows and knees for attacks. He possess a medium build with a kinda million dollar Hollywood smile. Bow was inspired by Patrick Swayze's character in "Point Break". He will probably be outfitted in a full body swim suit like the divers use or in a cool pair of beach trunks.

Off to Roc you go.

GPS . . .

Somehow I'm going to tap into the iPhone's GPS function to help players view local leaderboard champions and allow players to fighter friends within in their surrounding areas. I think will we have to limit the depth of the GPS scan though. A broad location view is preferred instead of an actual street location. Don't want to encourage any stalkers.

Annihilators . . .

Remember the ultra combos from "Killer Instinct"? Our finishing moves will based around the same theory with a twist of Dragon Ball Z super fast moves sprinkled in. When a player has been defeated, the winner must enter a set of 11 to 13 commands to perform the annihilator. Each character will have up to three unique versions. To learn the annihilators players will have to experiment with each command. The notebook will contain question marks in the annihilator section to help players figure out the next move. After unlocking the next command the question mark will disappear.

Fight Central . . .

The central hub for the game will be a gymnasium. The gym will be broken into three sections; the training grounds, leaderboards & the locker room. The training grounds are used to learn new moves and fight computer simulated battles. The leaderboards will be used to view local and global leaders. And the locker room will be used to view downloadable content and check the player's notebook. More on the notebook later.

Player scroll between each section by moving their fingers from either left-to-right or right-to-left. One item will always be present in ever section; the iPhone replica. The iPhone replica will be used to issue fights, accept/decline challenges, postpone battles, add/remove friends and issue fight invites. More on each function of the gym hub and a deeper explanation of the iPhone replica coming soon.

Vimeo . . .

Vimeo has become my favorite video sharing site. Mainly because of the site's HD support but the uncluttered interface doesn't hurt either. I will be creating an account and uploading the progress reports there. Click the pic to visit the site and stay tuned for our video URL.

The iFund . . .

The iFund is $100M dollar investment initiative that is suppose to fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the iPhone/iTouch platform. The fund has the intention of backing innovators pursuing transformative, high impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies on top of the platform. This fund is our final goal. If we can acquire the $100,000 to $15M the fund promises to invest, the game will get made. If not, I have no idea what plan B is. Click the image for more info.

Logictech . . .

I chose the Logictech QuickCam Pro 9000 as my webcam choice. The cam was one of the highest rated devices on the web and I can upload in HD. Perfect format for Vimeo. Fuego.

iPhone . . .

How can I work on an iPhone application without owning an iPhone? That price drop was right on time. Off to the Apple store I go. Or maybe Ebay. Or maybe Overstock. Or maybe the corner of 52nd Street.

Turnaround . . .

After the Scribblez's concept was completed, I realized I needed a full view of each character. I emailed Roc to get an understanding of what I wanted. The type of design I'm looking for is called a Turnaround Sheet (as seen above). A Turnaround sheet display the character at a front angle, a left-side angle, a back angle and a right-side angle. Cost the same as a normal design but the images are slighly smaller. Now we wait on Scribblez's T-sheet.

Meet Scribblez . . .

Damn . . . I'm good. I mean we're good Roc. My bad, I didn't see you standing over there.

Point Break . . .

Everyone always gives Keanu slack for being a kinda one dimensional actor. But I thought him and Patrick Swayze were a dynamic duo in Point Break. I especially admired Patrick's heroic motives behind his evil reasoning. I think I'll pay tribute to one of my favorite guy flicks.

Eagles Become Vultures . . .

I found Scribblez' image. The owner's name is Alex Cherry. I discovered the image on DeviantArt months ago. But I failed to save/bookmark the page. The image is striking, powerful and extremely cool. Alex titled this piece "Eagles Become Vultures". Kinda symbolic right? I wonder if he'll let me use the image? More info on Alex here, and here.

Icon Mock-Up . . .

The FF icon looks right at home, don't you agree?

Scribblez???

Here is Roc's first color fill for Scribblez. My thoughts:

-Not sure I'm diggin the neon pink hair. Reminds me of Perez Hilton and kinda makes him look soft.
-The hoodie is semi-cool.
-The color scheme is eye-catching but the hoodie's images & polka dots are a little suspect.
-The kicks are fresh.
-I'm definitely feelin the jeans.

I had an image in mind for the front of the hoodie but I have yet to find it on Deviantart.com. The hair color definitely needs to change, I'm thinking a black foundation with reddish highlights. We'll change the color scheme to match the image I have in mind. If I can find it.

Streets Of Rage 2 . . .

Remember Skate from Streets of Rage 2? He's one of my all-time favorite characters. I think he deserves a resurrection.

The FF Icon . . .

Shown above is the final draft of the FF iPhone/iTouch icon. I decided the middle image was the best design. The icon is a perfect display of the battles players will constantly wage. Mock-ups of the icon on both devices coming soon.

Email Continued . . .

The email account for submitting any comments, questions or hate mail is fightthruthepain@friendfighter.net. Send me anything you want. I don't turn down anything but my collar. Go easy on the spam and porn though. Unless its good porn. Fuego.

Scribblez Outline . . .

Did he or did he not nail that one? I'm shocked at how dead on this design is. I envisioned Scribblez having an edgy street punk look and Roc ran with it. Johnny's idea to have the spray cans supplied by Scribblez' book bag was a genius addition. I'll probably remove the tubes connecting the mask to the bag though. Doesn't make sense to breathe the same stuff that supports the canisters. Or maybe Scribblez has exposed himself to so much spray paint, he now depends on the stuff to survive? Fuego.

Killa Cam . . .

I need to find a durable web cam to record this journey. Anybody got suggestions? I guess I gotta do some research. I have no idea what specs are important. First stop, Consumer Reports, then Pricegrabber.com or Froogle.

Fuego?

What does Fuego mean? By definition the word means 'a volcano in south central Guatemale' but in the Spanish community the word means fire (or flame). I use it to mean hot. Think differently gamers. Think differently.

Scribblez . . .

The first character brought to life will be;

Name: Scribblez
Origin: Graffiti Walls of the United Kingdom
Specs: Scribblez is a graffiti artist that will use his graffiti cans as weapons. The character sports a hoodie, designer jeans and a book bag full of supplies. The jeans will have artwork similar to the designs found on Evisu or Red Monkey garments. The hoodie needs to have a really cool design on it. He will wear a spikey type hair style and a colorful pair of sneakers. The sneakers are kinda like Kanye's new kicks inspired by McFly from Back To The Future.

I'll send this off to Roc and see what he comes up with. Fuego.

iCon Draft . . .

Here is the draft idea Jickster submitted for the iPhone/iTouch icon. I think the middle image, the middle left image and the bottom right image are the best options. I'm going to need a mock-up on the actual phone to decide. Emailing Jickster as we speak.

Copyrights . . .

A friend had some copyright concerns with me displaying my progress online. "What if someone steals your ideas?" was the question. I already anticipated that playboy. Part of the reason I put everything online was to protect the work. As you can see with every entry, the posting are dated and time stamped. Basic copyright laws state, as soon as product is created the owner has default copyright protection. I can use anything with a time or date to prove my ownership of the product. If that isn't enough of a deterrent for thieves . . . I carry a .50 caliber DesertEagle too. Fuego.

First Down . . .

Roc accepted my request and is ready to began working on the project. The cost isn't as high as I thought. $50 bucks per character. Payment will be made through PayPal. I'll keep a printed record in the file cabinet and a digital version online. I sent him the brief bios, origins and names of each of the characters to use as a basis. I believe in his artistic ability so I'll let him create whatever comes to mind and we'll tweak it from there. I'll post the bios shortly.

Email . . .

I didn't know whether or not to create an email address for the game. I guess the account would allow for fans or designers to send in suggestions, comments or hate. Can't hurt to have one right? Off to GoDaddy I go.

Logo . . .

The FF logo will be the base design for the iPhone/iTouch icon. The logo is located in the upper-right hand corner of the this blog. The design has been sent to Jickster. Let's see what he can come up with.

Roc Upchurch . . .

I found the kid I had in mind for designing our characters. His name is John "Roc" Upchurch. I think I was on one of my MySpace friend adding sprees when I ran across his profile. Thank God I saved his page to our favorite's section. His art direction reminded me of the old Image Youngblood comics. I loved reading those joints when I was teenager. I'm going to shoot him an email and see what happens. More info on the him here, here and here.

Notes . . .

I'm going to scan my freehand notes, for back-up purposes and upload them so you can see how I developed each idea. I basically write in short thoughts. If something pops into my head, I make a little star and quickly jot down the idea. I elaborate more on certain sections later. I learned in English class to just write whatever you wanted to say. Then edit the work into something grammatical later. The theory is; if you liberate yourself from trying to write in perfect sentences, your thoughts will flow more freely. Works . . sometimes.

Post Up . . .

The iPhone/iTouch icon design job has been posted on Getafreelancer.com and think I've found my guy. In order to be considered for the job, I required everyone to send me a mock-up of any type of iPhone/iTouch icon they created in the past. A guy/gal by the name of Jickster sent me a PM (private message) with a genuie message that stirred my interest. He said he hadn't created any iPhone/iTouch icons before but quickly threw together the image shown above. I figured if he could put something of that quality together within a few minutes, imagine what he could do in a few days. Fuego.

Freelancer . . .

While the URL situation is getting settled, I have to find a designer to create an iPhone app icon and one to draw each character. Getafreelancer.com is my choice for getting the app icon. I have a guy in mind for the drawings. I think he's in my MySpace favorites.

URL . . .

Gotta secure the url before anything else. Hate for anyone to steal that. I use GoDaddy.com for all my domain related purchases. I heard 1&1 is solid. The originator Register.com is a safe bet too. I'll add their links to the BlogRoll. Anyway, the .com url was taken so I had to settle for .net version. I'll secure the other variations (.org, .biz, etc.) shortly. Would leak the name but I'll wait until I've made all the necessary purchases. Fuego.

Characters . . .

Just caught a brain fart working on all the character concepts and theories but I've made some progress. I tried to make each character unlike anything seen before yet with inspiration from things I've seen before. Make any sense? Probably not, anyway, I'm aiming to make fun of certain gaming/comic book stereotypes as well as create brand new stereotypes. I decided to give players 30 different characters to choose from. Hopefully, a few characters will be able to appeal to both the hardcore and the casual gamer. Here's the breakdown;

15 main characters - available from the jump.
4 bosses (tribute to SF) - unlocked after being defeated
11 hidden characters - unlocked after meeting certain criteria (tribute SuperSmashBros.)

I pretty much wrapped up each of the main characters. I got two concepts for the bosses and one hidden character in mind. I'll let the others come to me, no need to force it. Each character will have a brief and simple back-story. I want gamers to fill in the holes. Leaves a little mystery to each character and makes it easier for tie-ins. Fuego.

First Things First . . .

First, I need to get all my ideas down on paper. I prefer to write everything freehand until I've gotten everything out. MSWord is too limiting. Writing all over the page is much more fun. Then I will sort out each idea and expand on ever concept. Let's start with the characters. Time to find some inspirations.

Backstory . . .

You may know me, you may not. I go by many names. The one given by my mother is Stanley L. Miller Jr. The web crowned me Mr. Make It Happen. Simply because . . . I make shit happen. As most people already know, I specialize in the music industry but web/torrent pirates have nearly sucked the life out of her so I was forced to discover an alternate route. I haven't given up on my girl, DJMixtapez.com will continue to provide her with exclusive everything but I needed something else to feed my creative appetite.

I looked around the business industry for a product that could not be stolen as easily as music files. I stumbled upon the iFund. The iFund is supposedly a fund created to provide capital to anyone thinking about or already developing a iPhone/iTouch application. I took a look at the iFund application page, which was surprising only five questions long and I knew I found my niche.

I've been playing video games longer than most people have been on this earth. I consider myself the most well-rounded gamer on the planet. I have owned nearly every system ever created. Well, every system released state-side, I missed out on Famicon. Plus, I'm willing to play anything. The game could be role-playing, shooting, racing, strategy, fighting or whatever. Put the game in front of me and I'll play it until completion. I think that makes me the most ideal candidate to make a game. I have a running catalog of over 500 games in my head and I bet, if I can pull the best qualities from each game; I could craft a master piece.

So this will be my journey or rather our journey. You will watch as this kid from Philly attempts to create a iPhone/iTouch game with no prior experience other than a vast knowledge of great/terrible games as well as an inhuman ability to think differently. I will develop characters right in from of you and explain my concepts, theories and issues. Everything will be on display. I plan to buy a web cam shortly so I can better explain things. Also the cam will verify that its just me and not some type of corporate publicity stunt. I want to thank everyone for coming and let's start the show.