The Siblings do: Flower!

Flower.
by Thatgamecompany.


 'It's not quite reality because petals wouldn't be able to do that but it shows people can.' Phoebe (10 years old)


What is the Siblings do?
The Siblings do is a little exploration. I will be presenting three of my younger siblings aged 8, 10 and 11 with a variety of games for them to play and discuss, what they say about these games I will record and type up here. I will be questioning them to stimulate conversation but apart from that this is all them without prompt, originally this was just a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon with my brothers and sisters and it very much still is.

I should explain how this came about. I am the eldest of eight brothers and sisters and the youngest three are avid game players and have been most of their lives, as an 'in-training' game designer they are my perfect little play testing team and the first place I go with my ideas. Like most children their age they have fascinating and often fantastical ideas not yet stifled by age.

I had started to notice that despite their open minded nature to games they often played very specific types of game. When I asked my eight year old brother what he thought games must have in order to be fun he worryingly replied guns.So with this in mind I'm now starting The Siblings do!

Me 25 years old
Max 11 years old
Phoebe 10 years old
Callum 8 years old


What do you think this game is about?

11 Max. It's about how, like, one little petal can change the world.
10, Phoebe. It's about making things better.
8 Callum. It's about saving more flowers to make more flowers and then that makes it more beautiful.

How does the game make you feel.

Max. Relaxed, Instead of being there with a controller I felt in the game.
Callum. Upset.

(Interestingly whereas max and phoebe talked about how beautiful the game looked and felt Callum focused on the controls and became frustrated quickly, he continually mentioned his own experience in contrast to the others as if it were a competition)

What's your favourite bit of the game?

Phoebe. I like the colors, they're bright, not like brown and I like the sound too, like the grass rustling.
Max. I like how the sound makes me feel different.

Did you enjoy the game?
Callum. I liked it. It gets dark. I like how it's nice and the music, it goes with the the game, it goes with the game. I like it when it's dark, it shows out the plants a lot more better.


I asked why they thought in between the levels a city is shown and how this made them feel?

Phoebe. It's very busy, it makes me feel busy.
Max. It shows that were so packed and busy in our own things...
Phoebe. Yeah, that we don't notice, like, all the beautiful things.
Callum. She stole my answer, I was going to say that.


What do you think your character is doing within the game?
Phoebe making the world a better place.
Callum. (Sighs loudly) I was going to say that. I like the way as you get the petals the wheat it's growing on goes away, because it brings grass out, so it brings more flowers out, to make more beautiful fields.
Max. It's showing people that if you did something you can make nature a better place and like, not ruined by machines.
Phoebe. I think it's showing how people must help the flowers. Because people who cut down trees are ruining the environment. The world will be all dark.
Callum. And we'll all die. (Pause) because there's no oxygen.


Can you give it a score out of five and tell me why?

Phoebe 5/5 well, I think it's a five because it brings out your emotions and if you care for the environment..
Callum. Care for the world.
Phoebe, it's not quite reality because petals wouldn't be able to do that but it shows people can.
Max 5/5 it really brings out the emotion in you. It shows machinery can really hurt nature.
Sam. Did you learn anything from playing it?
Max. Even if your a small thing you can make a big difference.
Callum 3/5 because 5/5 is making it beautiful, but it's not always beautiful, sometimes it looks bad. I like it more beautiful as it could possibly be in the world. They've turned stuff evil.

Have any of your friends play this game.

Max. (Silence) shakes his head
Callum no
Phoebe no

Would you like to show your friends Flower?
Phoebe yes
Max yeah, I guess I would
Callum I would, I'd like to show girls, at my table, girls like flowers so they'll like it.

Why do you think you have machinery in the game that hurts you?

Callum (umm...)
Max because like, you need something against you.

Some sort of adversity?
Max yeah.

New peoples and places.

What a long time since I last blogged! There has been a big transition period as I ended University at South Wales and began my MA at the NFTS school in Beaconsfield. but hopefully this blog will be back on track with more bits and pieces I cobble together, in the mean time here's whats been going on.

~

I was honored to receive a Prince William Scholarship.

and proud to be a part of Warner Brothers Creative Talent

(Here's the lovely bunch all together)

I joined the NFTS Games Design and Development course.

(Here's all three years of the course together)

and met my BAFTA mentor Imre Jele head of Bossa studios,

and I also Did a little adventuring.


Lots has Happened and lots is happening, I'll hopefully be blogging as usual again now so expect Games, Sketches and little stories, Business as usual.
~
S

Short Story Submission.

(The rules stated to use the picture and caption to create a short story of 150 words with a margin of five if you ate over, which I did)

The caption was Sibling Rivalry
The picture:

and my story...

Apple.

~

They met upon the crest of the hill in the shade of a great apple tree overlooking the sea. Lilith moved up beside the old woman wearing a similar aged human form herself. A sign of respect or mockery, it mattered little now.

‘I never truly believed he had died all those years ago and to think the world will remember him aged only to 930’

Lilith tapped her old human nose with a finger ‘We know better’

‘I take it you come here for vengeance’ she spoke softly.

Lilith was silent a while looking down upon the grave.

‘My revenge died with him, we were never enemies you and I, rivals perhaps’ she smiled ‘I came to say it is done between us now sister’

She stayed beside his grave long after Lilith left faithful wife that she was and deep within the apple tree even a serpent bowed its head in respect.

Sam Coleman

154 words. 

@indigo_sam


My short story submission for the

54th #SatSunTails #Microfiction #Competition!

Linked here.

CR42 film.

Evidence I once acted in a short film. The crew who made this were fantastic! 

You can see the whole short film here.

Happy 123rd Birthday H.P Lovecraft.

First Comic- Swansong.

Hey!

Been pretty busy recently with a few new projects, one of them being to try my hand at creating and publishing a comic which has always been on my life tick-list of things to do.

So here it is! Its called Swansong.

Synopsis

In a future poisoned with beautiful incandescent radioactive storms one dying genetically enhanced superhuman reflects on the shaping of his life.

In an alternate future in which the Cold War escalated into a world war the world has been transformed into a storm covered wasteland with large shielded cities keeping the remaining population safe after a powerful new weapon ravaged the atmosphere.

The Cold War did not end with the destruction of large parts of the habitable world and now America works hard to develop genetically enhanced super humans to assassinate key Russian officials. The story is told through the reflective thoughts of one of these dying superhuman war machines. I'm writing it with my good friend Max Perkins working on the art. You can find Maxs blog here.

Smashing and Ironfist.

Smashing and Iron Fist.

Concept art for one of my own short stories.

Story synopsis.
A once thought extinct race of Mer people based on the ancient hidden isle of Mag Mell off the coast of Ireland have returned and declared war upon Queen Victoria and all of Britain. Smashing and Ironfist, two investigators working under queen Victoria are deployed to retrieve the crown that powers this exiled race but not everything is as simple as it appears.

Welsh Games development show in Cardiff

Leviathan at the gradshow!

A few screenshots of Leviathan in action.

Sam Coleman Showreel 2013

Leviathan Graduation show presentation.

What have I been up to?

My third year Graduation show is what I've been up to!

For anyone that does not know I've been working on building my own 2D adventure game based around one of my own stories called Leviathan, it has its own blog which you can find here at http://sunkenbells.blogspot.co.uk/

With the game getting its first public showing since I started work on Wednesday the 19th of  June at Newport University of Wales city campus I'm very busy and very excited!

I will post a video of the night up here after the event.

Jack Salutes the sky.

Old Sketchbook work.

Here's some of my old sketchbook art collected together, Most of it is concept art of my own short stories, I've managed to dig up a lot of my old sketchbooks, piles and piles of sketchbooks. These are some of my old favourites, I'm sure more will find its way up here eventually.

Isle of the dead.

I've managed to find quite a bit of my old work to show up here. This was a painting I did three years ago in the summer before I started university. It was a version of Arnold Bocklins isle of the dead paintings.

To see Bocklins isle of the dead paintings look Here

Burying a sailor.

Burying a sailor.

o bury me not in the cold earth boys, o bury me not in the ground

bury me not with the old roots friends, nor the kings that forgotten laid crowned

bury me not with the worms lads, in a neat hole three by six

bury me not in a yard pals, nor a lonely tomb of mortar and bricks

Its the sea that I'll be free in comrades , under soft waves sleeping quiet and sound

o bury me not in the cold earth boys, o bury me not in the ground

song from one of my longer stories.

Hogwash, Hooey and Gibberish

One of my poems from last year that was published in Pan magazine

Prologue for Avengers script.

As a little fun exercise I wrote this story as a re imaging of the marvel universe as if I was setting the scene for a new avengers film. The premise is Steven Rogers turning on america in a Korean conflict setting. Although easily seen as anti american this story was actually designed to give me a setting in which I can explore in depth the morales behind the american super hero icon.  In march 2002 America under shield jurisdiction creates a superhuman response force. The team is led by captain Steven Rogers the world war two veteran also known as captain America after he is found frozen in an old Nazi facility off the coast of south Africa.

The team was hugely successful in protecting America and her interests with successful deployments throughout the middle east and north Africa most notably for their influence during the defeat of Iraq in 2003.

On December 30th 2011 Kim Jong-un is made supreme commander of the Korean peoples army. Throughout 2012 Kim Jong-un stockpiles nuclear weaponry. In late 2013 north Korea uses nuclear based WMD’s against the city of Ho chi minh (previously known as Saigon) killing hundreds of thousands. By December 2014 Korea is unified under the command of Kim jong-un and America and her allies declare war against Korea. The superhuman response team publicly enters the war with former president Obama stating in a press conference-

‘’The American superhuman response team will be deployed at this time in Korea in the pursuit of vengeance and justice for those that died during the bombing of Ho chi minh fourteen weeks ago...’’

After this announcement the S.R.D (superhuman response division) was publicly known as the avengers during the war effort. While all original members of the S.R.D took part in the initial stages of the conflict s.h.i.e.l.d was unsuccessful at recruiting any of Americas other super humans with many opposing the war altogether. The fantastic four gave a press release stating they would remain neutral throughout the conflict until a peaceful solution could be obtained. Shield did not disclose whether the weapon x division of shield would deploy operatives within the Korean theatre with both Carol Danvers (spokesperson for shield) and the president stating that the conflict would remain mutant free, he went on to point out the rumours of Eric Lensherr being used within the conflict as nothing but ‘fabricated rumours’ developed to frighten the American public.

With Kim jong-un  in hiding and Korea's borders under American jurisdiction the avengers are used to defeat the ‘gorilla rebel fighters’ operating throughout north and south Korean territories. With growing pressure from the Russian presidency tension began to grow and the threat of another cold war. A media blackout throughout Korea was ordered and enforced under American authority in November 2015. The world no longer gets information from within Korea although strange weather patterns and radioactive measurements cause many to believe America has deployed her own nuclear weapons. The media blackout is lifted January 16th 2016 revealing large areas of Korea destroyed with hundreds of thousands dead. January 17th 2016 Captain America is officially revealed to have been killed in action during the media blackout. Several days after the announcement hank Pym also known as the giant man by the public and Janet van dyne aka the wasp are also reported dead. Funerals are held and captain Americas damaged shield is buried with him near the u.s marine corps war memorial near Arlington national cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

A matter of weeks later Tony Stark pilot of the Iron man suit resigned from the S.D.R and was given a place within shield intelligence. The iron man suit schematics previously a secret were released to the American military, specifically shields own tech division. The two remaining members of the avengers the Russian black widow and Hawkeye have not been publicly seen or mentioned within media since late 2015. During this time the fantastic four are killed in a terrorist bombing at the Roswell new Mexico army base. The streets of new york are filled with civilians paying tribute.

In march 2016 the president of the united states declares in a statement-

‘’During this turbulent turning point in America's history I have seen it fit to activate for a short time only the weapon x division of shield in the hope of preserving order within the Korean theatre of action and America herself’’

After significant political upheaval the president later apologised for his statement saying his speech made it sound like America was deploying mutant weapons on American soil, the president went on to assure the world this was not the case and that this was a temporary measure,he also assured the American public the war would be won by the end of the year these statements were later confirmed by by Carol Danvers and Tony stark during separate press talks.

March 19th a video is released on the Internet from within Korean territory for the first time since the war began. The video goes viral within the hour. The video shows a man who identifies himself as captain Steven Rogers.

Sam Coleman


© Sam Coleman 2013 If Republished please republish with link to Original work here.

Leviathan game.

Here is a screenshot from my first video game Leviathan. 

A Game of Sins

Concept art for a game idea I proposed in my second year of University. The idea is the player would have to solve a series of puzzles by interacting with a puppet version of the devil unearthed from a music box. Each puzzle would theme around a certain Sin from the seven Christian sins.

Instead of persuading the player sins are bad and immoral the puzzles would instead give the players an exploration into the sin and give them the opportunity to do bad and good and decide themselves on if the outcome was what they desired.

The narrative is taken from my own short stories and poems based around John Schorne.

P.A.S.S poster.

During my time at university I did several jobs for the university itself producing art for websites,posters and logos. This particular project was to design a poster template for the P.A.S.S ( peer assisted study sessions) scheme.