Media
Fan Spotlight – Tower of Greed Theme In Mario Paint
by Porter on Aug.19, 2011, under Audio, Media
Fan Spotlight – Tower of Greed Theme In Mario Paint
A couple weeks ago, a fan of Tower of Greed sent me one of, if not the best fan made pieces of work I’ve seen yet, the Tower of Greed theme done in Mario Paint. I’m pretty sure this puts the icing on the cake that proves Tower of Greed has a cult following, because I for one, am impressed. Over 2 years after the release of the original game, it’s still getting attention from fans in the form of one of the most ultimate complements ever, a Mario Paint rendition.
The theme to Tower of Greed was composed by Mike Taylor, a good friend of mine whom I met while living in the great land of Idaho. He’s got a ton of musical talent, and I think it’s pretty clear that his work in Tower of Greed proves this. He’s currently composing music for Daughters of Pytheus, and it’s definitely adding great value to the game, while showing off a very different musical style of his. Without being biased, I truly find the ToG theme to be one of the catchiest and most charming 8-bit melodies I’ve ever heard, and I promise you that I’ve heard a lot. Mike will definitely be on board for the music in Tower of Greed 2, and he’s definitely the best musician I’ve had the opportunity to work with thus far.
I want to give a huge thanks to Gustavo for creating such an awesome piece of fan appreciation, and for bringing it to my attention. Fans like this truly do inspire me to work harder and continue developing the kind of games I love. If you like anything you hear, be sure to check out more work from Mike Taylor, and pay Gustavo’s youtube channel a visit for more Mario Paint awesomeness. Without further ado, give it a listen and let me know what you think!
For those that don’t see the embed,
Link – Tower of Greed Theme in Mario Paint
The Great Battle of @Gemfruit
by Porter on Aug.16, 2011, under Media
The Great Battle of @Gemfruit
The great battle of @Gemfruit was a brutal battle that took place in late 2010, but the dust has settled and I emerged a champion with treasures at my sides. What treasures you may ask? The first, the honor of surviving my journey through tech support, various web forums, and seeking out the great @delbius. The second, acquiring the Twitter handle of @Gemfruit, even though it was already taken by somebody else.
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s scalpers. No no, I don’t mean the guys/gals that cut off the top of your head (they’re cool, I think), I mean the people who steal your domain names, Twitter names, etc, just to sell them for a pretty penny later on. Seeing as my issue wasn’t with a scalper directly, we’ll move on to a second thing I hate, people who grab names, and then don’t use, or try to sell them. When I found the name Gemfruit, I was pretty damn sure that nobody anywhere was using it. I mean, the domain name was available, nothing came up on Google, it had to be free everywhere, right? Apparently not, as @Gemfruit was taken on Twitter by what I believe to be a chick, named Gemma Lane. This person had zero tweets, was following zero people, and had two followers. I tried every possible method to get in contact with this person, to request they let me have their name on Twitter, but it just wasn’t happening. I went as far as to message people by the name of Gemma Lane on Facebook with a message explaining the situation, and still didn’t find the person (I did get responses, but nobody was the person I was looking for).
Months later, I checked the Twitter account again, and it was still completely inactive. After reading a ton of articles on how to go about getting a taken/inactive name into your possession, I finally found out that there was an official method through Twitter tech support to do so, if the account was inactive for a long period of time (8 months I believe). I was excited to see that I would very likely be able to get the name, since it was inactive, and took the necessary steps to do so. I filled out the form online, explained the situation, pointed out the account was inactive, and awaited a response. A few days later, I got an email explaining that Twitter was no longer handling inactive accounts and giving them to users, and that they would possible resume the service in a year or so. I wasn’t about to wait a year, so I hit the internet yet again, to see if I could find anything. Upon reading in a forum, I found a piece of information about a Twitter user by the name of @delbius. This person worked with the tech support for twitter, and was excellent about getting back to people. I explained my situation through tweets, and got a very quick response, awesome. Unfortunately, I was informed to do exactly everything I had already done. I explained this, and was told that I could file a copyright claim, which Twitter still dealt with in a timely fashion. I explained that I wasn’t an official company, and that I didn’t possess and legal copyright, but I was told to go ahead and try it anyways. I filled out the new form, explained my situation, mentioned that I was sent to do this via Twitter tech support, and waited again.
To my surprise, and excitement, I received an email response from Twitter asking me if I would like the name as a new account, or to replace an existing account (freeing up the name on the existing account). I had them set up a new account, and within the day, I was the proud owner of @Gemfruit. It felt pretty good to actually go through the system, and acquire a name that I thought was basically impossible to get. When a name is taken that you like in an online game, or a website name is taken, you usually don’t get it, so I was extremely happy to beat the odds here. While it won’t work for everyone, I highly suggest pursuing a taken name, just to see if it’s possible to get. I also suggest messaging @delbius if you have any issues with Twitter. Now that I have my new Droid X, thanks to Adobe, I’m actually becoming quite active on Twitter both while at home, and on the go. Be sure to follow @Gemfruit to keep in touch, and if you’re active in the game industry, or an amazing fan, I’ll likely follow you back.