Entry 4 (2/1/14): In Which I Question My Identity On The Internet

Entry 4: In Which I Question My Identity On The Internet

This is really more of a piece that concerns my take on random events rather than any actual developments in my work. Just pointing that out, in case anyone thinks I'm just rambling for no reason...

One thing that remains constant with the internet, is that online anyone can be whoever or whatever they want in terms of appearance and identity. How people use that power depends from person to person. Many people serve to ignore it, and show their actual face and name for the world to see freely. Others tend to use it for good, using avatars and mascot characters to speak through. Still others use it for evil, by using their anonymity as a shield while they harass others with abandon.

Me? I remain on the side that uses avatars and screen-names for the sake of good. To be completely honest, apart from the random Facebook pictures my family shows online, I've never really let people see my actual face. My name, sure, but never my face.

It's just for the longest time, I've had this aversion to others seeing my real face online, and vice-versa. It's one thing to meet a person in real life and talk with them, but over the internet, there's always this air of intrigue mystery around a person that I feel shatters when I see what they actually look like.

Like I said, many people don't have a problem with this, but it's something I think about often. And it got me thinking about whether I should keep that mentality going forward.

Sure, eventually in the far future, I'm going to have to drop the anonymity and use my real identity and face for everything, but what I wonder is whether I should keep my online identity for now, or just drop it and be myself.

On one hand, I've spent two years building my characters with their own identities and using them to address others online, but on the other hand, actually letting people know who I really am might actually provide a deeper connection with those who follow me...

In the end, it's my hope that I can kick this aversion of mine, and let people see me for who I really am, while being able to identify me by my avatars as well.

Maybe now that I've gotten into social media, that might be a good place to start...

~Jalen Xero-J Johnson
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Entry 3 (1/25/14): In Which I Bring Up An Age-Old Question, And A Possible Answer

Entry 3: In Which I Bring Up An Age-Old Question, And A Possible Answer 

Can video games be considered an art form?

For as long as the medium existed, the question's had people clamoring on both sides of the argument. On the one hand, video games are often seen solely as a form of entertainment, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think there were still people out there who thought games were still in the "bleep-bloop 8-bit" era they started from.

On the other, with the kind of technology we have, and with enough time, money, and effort, people end up making stuff like this:




There's no reason for anyone to go this far for the sake of making an already impressive looking game look even more impressive other than
"We want this world and the people in it to look real, feel real, and act real, darn it!"

(unless of course, you count money, which is always a good incentive...)

Having said that, it's pretty easy to show anyone a game like what was shown above these days, and cite that as good evidence in the "Games are art" argument. But what I want to try to establish, and indeed the point of this yarn I'm spinning, is just how far back in the video game era one can go to prove that games are considered art.


Now, everyone can agree that to make a good game that people want to play, it takes time, effort, and money, all of which some developers have a lot more of than others. Those developers that have that kind of investment usually have a vision in mind for their game; a point they want to make, or a sight they want others to see. Even back when game development was an internal, time-consuming affair that didn't always yield the right results, people still had visions for their creations.

To prove this, I'm going to take you guys back a ways, and pick apart a little game by the name of EarthBound, which was released in the US for the Super Nintendo in 1995.

For those who don't know, EarthBound was a role-playing game: You and three other characters travel around the world, fighting monsters, solving quests, going through caves and dungeons, etc. Despite it being made in Japan, the game was created with a very Americanized feel to it (indeed, the game is set in a country called Eagleland...), and much of it's charm lay in it's writing and story (as the main characters are children, they go around defeating monsters with things such as baseball bats, yo-yos, slingshots, and psychokinetic powers. Yes, you read that last part correctly.)

As much good as it's story and script did for EarthBound, it wasn't exactly the most graphic-intensive game, even for the system it was on, and its gameplay and progression didn't do much to set it apart from other games in the same genre.

As a result of this, and poor PR marketing on the Americas' part, the game fell into obscurity until years later, where it resurfaced as a cult hit among gamers.

The reason I bring up EarthBound as an example of whether a game can be considered art, is because the work that went into it was, in fact, part of someone's vision; namely, that of it's developer, Shigesato Itoi.

The kind of details he and the rest of his creative team could match that of the Tomb Raider example above, if the changes were made internally, in the programming of the game itself.

For instance, the battle system, which, contrary to other role-playing games before or after it, featured a life-point counter that could be interacted with in real time, often to recover from serious enemy damage.

The very aesthetic of the game is another example, featuring streets with cars that move as if real cars would on roads, enemies that chase or flee from you depending on how strong your character is, characters with dialogue that changes as you move on in the game, and an item delivery service that works on its own randomized timer system and programming. Even the final boss of the game was inspired directly by a personal (unpleasant, mind you) experience from Itoi's childhood.

Though the game may not look it, and the numbers don't initially account for it, Earthbound was a game that had quite an amount of time poured into it, primarily because Itoi and his team had their own vision for it. It was a game about quirkiness and fantasy, but it had elements to it that made it feel grounded, natural, as if in some twisted way, this might have happened in our own world.

So my overall answer to the question of "Can video games be considered art?" is...

Yes, if you look at it this way:

Art is something that requires time, effort and detail if you want to be good at it. When you show someone art, they need to be able to understand the kind of work that was put into making it.

Video games, by the same token, can be viewed the same way. For a game to be seen as art, one has to consider the kind of work that went into making it, whether it's visible for all to see immediately (as in recent games like Tomb Raider), or slowly revealed throughout the course of the game (such as Earthbound).


~Jalen Xero-J Johnson
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Entry 2 (1/22/14): In Which New Ideas Are (hopefully) Cultivated

Entry 2: In Which New Ideas Are (hopefully) Cultivated

One of the many things I've wanted to do with my art career is establish myself as a storyteller. I've wanted (and many times tried) to come up with original ideas, characters, and storylines, the like of which build entire worlds by themselves.

One of the most prominent examples of this happens to be VS. Universe, a crossover fan-comic I've been singlehandedly developing for the past two years now.

Now, let me set the record straight: I love drawing these characters, and I want to continue drawing them and comics for the foreseeable future.

But in the end, most of these characters aren't mine, and if I try to profit off of this, I'd have who-knows-how-many legal hurdles to jump through, which brings to my next point...

My original content, which I've simultaneously been working on since I first learned how to draw.

Some of it is old, some new, some simple, some complex. Many a concept has lived (and, sadly, perished or been lost) on my sketchbook.

Today is when I bring at least three of those ideas to light. Whether they become my life's work, or never make it past the pencil sketches, one, at least, can't fault them for their potential, I believe...

Paragon-R

I'll not mince words here: I'm an anime fan. I've got an entire two shelves in my house dedicated to graphic novels (one-and-a-half of real estate being comprised of the entire up-to-date One Piece series by itself). Those of you who've seen my deviantArt gallery know that 90% of the things I draw is about anime (or at least, video games in an anime-ish style).

Naturally, when coming up with original ideas, I first decided to follow in the footsteps of the tried and true shonen style shows (by "shonen" I mean action-y boy-oriented shows such as Dragon Ball and One Piece).

Paragon-R is intended to be a comic story in the same vein as your average Saturday-morning cartoon, following four heroes as they defend their world from villainous threats both on and off it.

Graphite

If you've ever seen a Disney movie in theaters in recent years, chances are you've also seen one of the little animated cartoon shorts that play directly before it. Graphite is, in a nutshell, my idea for one of those shorts.

Imagine, if you will, a young artist, after creating a masterpiece with naught but two colored pencils, turns in for the night. Now imagine if the pencils wanted to keep going of their own accord. And the pencils each wanted their color to have prevalence over the other...

 

Graphite is the simple story of how a simple competition can get out of hand, and how it ultimately takes a team to achieve something truly amazing in the world of artistry.


Clash of the Stickmen: Six Powers

I know what many of you are instantly thinking right now: "Stick-men? Really? That's what you're going with?"

Yes, it's true that anybody who's ever held a pencil has probably drawn a stick figure. Sure, it's good fun when you're bored, but no one could seriously make a narrative about stick-figures look interesting, right? Well...

Clash of the Stickmen: Six Powers is the idea of intense combat taken to its logical extreme (Or as least as extreme as I can get without showing gore or guts. I have standards, you know) Because these are simple character designs, they can made to do so many things...Which is good, because for this story I intend to have these six warriors all thrown into a battle for supremacy. One that may decide the ultimate path the world will take!

The one power every artist has is the ability to create worlds, universes, mythos, and backstories. My ultimate goal has always been to see them through to their conclusion. From the stuff you see up here, I use these, and with the time, effort, and especially the work ethic, I'm going to make that happen. No matter the cost.

~Jalen Xero-J Johnson
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You can follow me (and my random thoughts) on such things as...

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Or, if VS. Universe has caught your interest, you can learn more about it here!

Entry 1 (1/17/14): In Which I Explain Who I Am And Why I'm Here

Entry 1: In Which I Explain Who I Am And Why I'm Here


Those who read the title will know what this will be about, so I'll get right to the point.

My name is Jalen Johnson, and my trade is art. Particulary, Graphic Design in mediums of various nature.

Those of you who know me better as Xero-J probably recall that name from deviantArt, where I've spent the past two years building a loyal fanbase.

Digital work, Traditional, Crafts, Photography, and even Websites. All these and more, I've spent at least some time working on it, in an attempt to make myself known in the artistic community.

One goal I've set for this year was to expand my name and my brand (Xero-J Graphic Designs) out further into the world. To do this, I've turned to something I've once tried to avoid with a burning passion: Social Media!

I say avoid, because ever since I'd heard about Facebook and Tweeting every single thing you do every given minute, I didn't necessarily want to be a part of that, so I tried to keep any social business to dA.

The longer this continued, however, the longer it became obvious to me that, not only is social media not going anywhere, but it's getting increasingly more required for getting known in the world.



So here I stand, writing to you now. I came here to show people what I've done and can do, and that's what I'm gonna do. So, here's how I see this working.

My focus is on art, so I'm going to post art! Every so often, you'll see a new featured piece of my work (which I create a lot of) that I find particularly appealing.

Above all else, my first priority is to deviantArt, so when I do post something, you can usually find it (and all of my other stuff) there.

As for these blogs, my main plan for them is basically to use them to feature art I've done, art-related things I like, and how I'm progressing with my art.

That's pretty much the gist of it. This is where my path as a designer finally begins to branch out, and hopefully, many of you will follow me as I walk down that path...

....Art.

~Jalen Xero-J Johnson

View the original article here!

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You can follow me (and my random thoughts) on such things as...

deviantArt! (my main site)
Twitter!
Facebook!
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