Kangaroo plus Elephant equals a what?

Just a random drawing made for an old colleague. I've always loved drawing animals and imaginary creatures and one of my favorite games was to take two animals and mix them together to form a new hybrid beast. And by was I don't mean when I was little, but I mean is as I still do this in my own free time or on request. This is a kangaroo mixed with an elephant as the title suggests.

At the summer camp I worked at we had a lot of homesick little kids so to try to distract them I would ask them what their favorite animals were and start drawing these crazy mash ups of the two. Most kids were completely mesmerized by this and promptly forgot what they were upset about. I'm drawn a fair share of cat crossbreeds over the times I've done this. Some I am proud of, some aren't much to write home about.

Moral of the story, a cat-dolphin is much more interesting than a cat-dog mix.

Make a request via my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/EJStover

Iron Man Armor Name Generator

So a few weeks have pasted since Iron Man 3 came out. Was a fun ride with quite possibly too much action in it. Definitely more than enough explosions and, what's that you say? Not enough suits of power armor? I'm not sure I believe you! To be fair, as Tony pointed out, you can never have too many Iron Mans (Iron Men?) running (errr, flying?) around.

In honor of the third installation of the Iron Man movie series, here is an Iron Man Armor Name Generator I put together. Feel free to try it out and pass it around the internet! Share it with your Marvel friends and compare names!

When I made this I was using the template set up from my Super Apartment Bros, "What would your game's title be?" chart. [link] Changed the set up of the letters a bit to see how it worked, now it reads from top to bottom more. Left space at the bottom for all those pesty Facebook "options" that pop up when sharing images online. Didn't want to let anything overlaying the image mess with how it worked, watermarks included. Iron was included but not Man because there should only ever be one real Iron Man suit, and ___-Man is a little boring after a while and not gender neutral enough. Also, as many names/words as possible were taken from actual Iron Man suit titles. Hulk Buster, Thor Buster, Iron Patriot, Hammer Drone, etc. (in hindsight, should have included Shield as a first name option)

Again, please feel free to try, share and pass around the internet!

Guerrilla Advertising Super Apartment Bros

On Facebook and Twitter we work to promote the Super Apartment Bros series to friends and fans, getting them excited and talking in hopes that they share it with their friends. When we're not actually releasing the episodic video content that makes up the series, it can be a bit trickier to keep their attention. We don't want to overstimulate them, posting so much they become annoyed and Unlike, yet we still want to keep on their radar with funny and engaging content.

To do that the past year plus, we've tried a few different tactics. We've had contests for the series, created free to download and use cover images and songs, parodied movie posters, memes, and shared fan art. Other content we're shared has been non-Super Apartment Bros pictures, links and videos that are humorous to gaming and geek cultures. It can be hard to find the right mix between entertaining while still representing our series' brand.

The most successful posts made in the last few months have mainly been images, with a little more than half of them being original SAB content while the other half reposts of other gaming related reposted. While the more original and creative an image is can help bring in more comments and likes, content that calls for a reply gets better interaction. Questions, jests, jokes, polls and semi-game like subjects prompt viewers to take part in the discussion and express their own opinions.

The image below was recently created for and shared via the Super Apartment Bros Facebook page to generate impressions, getting in front of new audiences while entertaining our current fan base. It's a simple mechanic, seen plenty of times on Facebook. Users are prompted to figure out their "game's name" by using the first letter of their first and last names. It's a simple thing that interests our viewers and gives them something to contribute via comment, sharing their game's name.

At this time the image has been posted for about 4 hours and has reached 382 unique people, engaged 46 people and generated 26 new stories in their Facebook feeds. Additionally a new person has Liked the Facebook page, though this may or may not be because of the image being posted. Compare that to images posted a few days ago averaging at reaching about 75 unique people, engaging 9 people and generating 4 stories.
 

It's obvious that content more like this, that engages the audience more than just a promotion image does, generates more interest and causes more sharing. It gets the viewers to become involved with the spread of the image without directly asking them to. The hard part companies usually find generally is continuing to create content that is both relevant to their brand as well as enticing. More on that next post.

My Job Application Venn Diagram

Just something I wanted to put together because I'm sure I'm not the only one who has those emails come in.

"No Experience Needed!"
"100% Promote Within!!"
"string-of-technical-buzz-words-mixed-with-corporate-jargon"

Oh I see through you random company that contacts me out of the blue and doesn't quite define what it is you do or you are interested in hiring me for.

Lost Faith Video Game Site

My last year at SCAD I worked with a team on an underwater puzzle adventure game called, "Lost Faith" which was about retriving the holy grail from a sunken Vense. You can learn more about the game on the game's site we set up.
Lost Faith

Lost Faith
Lost Faith is a 3D side-scrolling physics puzzle game done by a student team from the Savannah College of Art and Design, created for the Unreal Engine with use of the Unreal Development Kit. It was put together by a group of students at the Savannah College of Art and Design. It was made for our senior project, and took 20 weeks to complete. It went into Entelechy, SCAD’s student show for game design, and won Best Level Design, Best Digital Game, and Best in Show.

The Game

Lost Faith takes place in scenic but unstable Venice which has sunken into the Mediterranean Sea. Among the many buildings lost, St. Marks Basilica was claimed by the Mediterranean and with it went the Holy Grail. The Vatican brings you, a submarine captain, in to retrieve it. You must puzzle through the demolished cityscape, armed with a density modifying ray gun as your only tool.  Use the laws of physics to your advantage and rescue the holy relic from the depths of the sea.

Read more about the on the game site here: http://lostfaithgame.weebly.com/

New Comic Wallets

As much as digital artwork is where it is at on the internet, I can't shake the oh-so-cool feeling I get from working with my hands on real world material. Enter my latest comic wallets, fresh from the pages of Marvel and DC! I've got some new listings that might not be here by the time you read this but I wanted to share them anyways.

First up I have a new favorite, my "Pencils, Red Hulk & Spiderman" from the pages of a preview for the Avenging Spiderman comic. This wallet is white with pencil artwork all around the outside with Spiderman talking with the new Red Hulk, though in black and white who can tell?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/129202082/avenging-spiderman-pencils-red-hulk?

Next up is "Spiderman vs A.I.M." also from the pages of a preview for the Avenging Spiderman comic, though this time just focusing namely on Spiderman as he kicks butt.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/129176522/avenging-spiderman-spiderman-vs-aim?

After that I just wanted to share the Wolverine themed one, "You And Me Have Business" with everyone's favorite mutant fighting it out with a lizard man in the sewers.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/121079522/wolverine-you-and-me-have-business-comic?

I make these wallets using actual comic book pages, lamination paper and some packing tape. They hold up very well and are thinner than leather wallets. all my models have two pockets for bills as well as two smaller pockets for cards. You can find these and more over at my etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/toadking

$1 Kickstarter Pledge Levels Are Useless

So you're setting up your own Kickstarter campaign and it's time to organize pledge levels. You've done your homework and looked a number of projects, both successful and not so successful ones, and you've probably seen a lot of $1 pledge levels. They don't actually give much but every little bit counts right and it couldn't hurt to let people to give just one dollar to your project for free right? Oh how wrong you could be! 

If people are going to take the time to back your project, that means they want to support you at least in some way. These people may only want to give the bare minimum and that's perfectly fine, but setting up a pledge level for $1 is passing up an opportunity to ask for more. Besides the fact that people can already just donate $1, (or any amount), for no pledge reward, most people who want to just give the minimum will go for the lowest option you give them. If that is $1, so be it. If that is $5, so be it. What's the difference? 

The difference of someone giving you $1 or $5 doesn't really show until you add it up so let's look at the numbers. Say one hundred people give you $1, you just raised $100 for your project. Now let's say those same people gave $5 instead...


To read more check out my full article on Yahoo Voices here: http://voices.yahoo.com/1-kickstarter-pledge-levels-useless-12017118.html