I know that this is my art blog, but I just had to share Qix with the world. This is perhaps the most addictive game ever. As my buddy Chris puts it,"Qix is about as tense as Resident Evil 4". And he's right. As elegant as Chuck Jone's "Dot and the Line", this game brings with it the adrenaline of a hunter trying to cage a bengal tiger. You play as this tiny diamond that draws lines to box in this unpredictable creature called Qix which moves with the grace of an eel. All the while these "Spark" creatures are patroling the surface area of the boxes you've made. Avoiding the Sparks and preventing the Qix from killing you mid-box-drawing, you have the additional choice of either moving quickly for survival or slowly for additional points.
From an artistic standpoint, it is the subdivision of space personified. As you would break down a composition for analysis, so are you breaking down this arena against Qix. The end result is a screen of right angled squares resembling an etch a sketch board. Like chess, you must outsmart your foe, one who is larger and faster than you.
Strategies to do this include drawing very thin finger-like boxes to subdivide the arena until the Qix falls into one of infinite compositions you can draw. If solely interested in gaining 75% of the surface area( the minimum amount to pass the level), one could divide the arena into quarters using a cross shape. I prefer to draw a series of small boxes in hopes that the Qix will accidentally fall in thus allowing me to gain my high score of 99% of the area ( the maximum one can achieve). I've also seen compositions such as the spiral and the pitchfork used effectively against the Qix. You can actually play Qix on the following site http://drunkmenworkhere.org/201.php?action=play
However, to truly enjoy the game, one must play this with a joystick.
Sketching for fun. Want him to look big, but didn't want a busy composition. I could add birds I guess.
I know that this is my art blog, but I just had to share Qix with the world. This is perhaps the most addictive game ever. As my buddy Chris puts it,"Qix is about as tense as Resident Evil 4". And he's right. As elegant as Chuck Jone's "Dot and the Line", this game brings with it the adrenaline of a hunter trying to cage a bengal tiger. You play as this tiny diamond that draws lines to box in this unpredictable creature called Qix which moves with the grace of an eel. All the while these "Spark" creatures are patroling the surface area of the boxes you've made. Avoiding the Sparks and preventing the Qix from killing you mid-box-drawing, you have the additional choice of either moving quickly for survival or slowly for additional points.
d comicbooks ( Mark Wheatley's Frankenstein Mobster and Steve Skroce's Doc Frankenstein amongst the popular ones.) So suddenly this somewhat original idea of a Secret Agent Frankenstein's Monster became old hat as if I was hanging off the coat-tails of these other Frankenstein comics. (As opposed to the coat-tails of Mary Shelley, James Whales, Boris Karloff, and Ian Fleming). Just a cautionary tale of woe of dreams unrealized. Here is the cover to the Sketchbook ashcan I made and the proposed cover to the first issue of the comic. I'll be the first to admit that the finished pages of the first issue weren't all that great to begin with, so hopefully, this will be all anyone ever sees of this project.
