Official Website For Clay N. Ferno, Clay S. Fernald, Boston MA, USA
Website for writer Clay N. Ferno / Clay S, Fernald
We all need something to make the time go a little quicker. When you’re stuck waiting in the dentist’s office, waiting for a late train or just need something to entertain you before dinner is ready, mobile games are the comprehensive go-to-. Thankfully we have an abundance of choices and a mixture of oldies and new hits that we can all enjoy.
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This year at New York Comic Con we stopped by the Kabam booth to try our hands at the latest from Contest of Champions. The mobile game features Marvel characters in head to head fighting action and has the distinction of adding new heroes and villains into the Marvel Universe. Have you been following the adventures of Venompool, Civil Warrior and Guillotine?
No, you, haven’t because these are brand new properties introduced exclusively for Contest of Champions.
We spoke with Contest of Champions design director Tim Molyneux on the New York Comic Con floor and he talked us through his job and what we can expect from the future, including the introduction of mystic character Morningstar and other new characters soon to be unlocked on a tablet or phone near you.
In a world without Mr. J, Harley Quinn has teamed up with Batman and Nightwing in the latest animated DC movie. Confirmed by writer and producer Bruce Timm as part of the DC Animated Universe aka Timmverse,Batman and Harley Quinn is the first PG-13 installment in the universe.
Cussin’, fartin’, raunchy boudoir humor and a bizarre Batusi musical segment complete with a 70s rarity “Don’t Pull Your Love” followed by Harley Quinn blasting out Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone” puts a little spike in the punch of your typical Batman: The Animated Series adventure. Batman & Harley face off against Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue a.k.a. The Floronic Man. Batman Kevin Conroy and Nightwing Loren Lester reprise their roles from the original series with Melissa Rauch voicing Harley. Even Mr. Timm gets in an off-camera cameo as Booster Gold!
Those familiar with recent New 52 lore will recognize the force of The Green as the supernatural swamp energy running the world. Poison Ivy and Plant Master are going all in to combat the destruction of the Earth and The Green by putting a plan in to place that will turn all living creatures into plants. An Inconvenient Truthindeed! In order to sway Pam from making this green-thumbed gaffe, Nightwing and Batman track down Harley who has gone off the grid for a bit. Not only that, but also in line with current DC continuity, she has gone straight. I mean, Joker’s dead, right?
Microsoft’s E3 is this week and last night’s preview trailers have us throwing money at our laptop screens waiting for the next iterations of console games.
Here are 5 things we are looking forward to the most, and that’s only Day 1!
Insomniac’s new Spider-Man game for PS4 looks like the best web-slingin’ action that we haven’t seen since Web of Shadows.
What’s going on with Peter’s white spider though? Hopefully his costume will be skinnable in DLC. Better or worse than what the CEO of Parker Industries is wearing on his chest currently, a glowing monstrosity!
Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets a re-render for modern consoles with Skyrim Special Edition on PS4/PC/XBOX ONE.
Nothing will bring you more joy than watching Geordi (Levar Burton) and Bones (Karl Urban) command a starship from the bridge in virtual reality. That is until you get to do it yourself!
British comic creator Ben McCool has a string of indie Image Comics books you’d be familiar with from the racks (Pigs, Choker, Memoir) as well as more mainstream titles such as Justice League Unlimited. He also has the honor of being the only comic creator who lives in New York that I’ve done any barhopping with, including a stop at Fenway Park’s Bleacher Bar.
In November, Ben and Valiant Comics released a new type of digital comic combining the best parts of digital native storytelling with 8-bit video games of our youth. I quite literally bought an iPad days later. Here at the Mighty Q &A, Ben tells us about Valiant 8-Bit Adventure: Unity.
Thanks for joining us, Ben! Writing Valiant 8-Bit Adventure, a prelude to Unity, must have been different for you. Did you work with the artist Donovan Santiago on the pacing and animations?
My pleasure, good sir! And for sure, the Valiant 8-bit Adventure was a break from the norm for me. In the best possible sense, though! It’s also the first project I’ve written for Valiant, and it appeared to go down very well with fans.
Donovan Santiago was brilliant to work with — the guy’s skills are off the charts, especially as he’s producing such unique and imaginative art. My script was put together in a format I’d never really used before, mainly due to the “motion” effects that incorporate two, three, sometimes even four different images within a single (oversized) panel. And Donovan was certainly a big help in me figuring that out, along with our top-notch editor, Josh Johns. But once I’d got the hang of it the transition was pretty straightforward, not least because the story was so much fun!
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Just in time for gifting purposes, O’Reilly Media delivers this new edition of the popular iPad:The Missing Manual. The timing’s ideal for non-holiday reasons too, as it’s only been a matter of months since the last major iOS 7 upgrade and release of new iPad models. As usual, this guide is an entirely useful companion, in paperback or even better via Kindle or iBooks. For those looking for a short version, the answer is yes–it’s worth buying for a loved one. Or yourself.
Turn your mom into a tablet ninja.
For the first time ever, I’m gently tapping through this review on the sleek glass surface of a new 64gb iPad Air with a rocket-fast A7 chip. An exclusive iPhone user for years, The Missing Manual has been essential reading in my getting intimate with this new tablet or, as I like to call it, my “comic book delivery device.”
As it were, 2013 also saw the release of the long-awaited Retina iPad Mini, which one can assume is inspiring innumerable consumers to choose an Apple tablet for the first time. In those cases, problems they might encounter include: Having little experience with iOS; Trying to replace their computer with an iPad (don’t do it!); not being tech savvy at all. The latter is a phrase I loathe, but what else better describes the “Facebook won’t let me do this or that” worrywarts who are always asking for us, the resident nerds, to help them post in their knitting groups?
Enter The Missing Manual.
Since 2000, the O’Reilly imprint has conquered the difficult task of communicating computing basics and essentials, and they’ve done it better than the For Dummies series (much respect to the helpers there, but it’s nice to not be insulted right in the title).
[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]
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This past Saturday, The Legend of Zelda came alive on the stage at the Citi Wang Theatrein Boston with The Rhode Island Philharmonic and full choir, led by Zelda Symphony leader Jeron Moore. Fans of the long-running video game franchise, some in costume, brought their Nintendo 3DS’s out to play and enjoy the celebration of
Link, The Tri-Force, Zelda, and The Goddesses.
This was truly a unique experience for all involved. The tour came through for its second season,The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, Second Quest. Fans of the game, parents, and those like myself that have fallen out of practice with video games in recent years gathered at The Wang Theatre for pre-recorded gameplay accompanied by a full orchestra and choir in two movements, and four acts.
After the Overture, Producer & Lead Creative Director Jeron Moore introduced himself to the crowd. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening which takes place not on Hyrule but on Koholint Island. This music lead us all into the theme of another handheld Zelda game, Spirit Tracks, a bizarre and underrated game where Link drives a train!
Jeron has re-presented these musical themes, with all new arrangements with the blessing of franchise producer Eiji Aonuma and Nintendo composer and sound director Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda).
If you’re head is literally not in the game, it certainly doesn’t matter. Hearing an orchestra play, while watching someone else play through difficult levels of Zelda you may or may not have heard of is at once impressive as it is meditative. And did we mention dynamic? The roar of excitement you feel from the music see Link defeat Ganon might make it seem like a smaller victory at home on your system.
At points, all I could think of, especially while watching a difficult section of Link’s Awakening was, “That looks hard.”
[READ MORE AT DIGBOSTON.COM]
Stan Sakai created the rabbit ronin Usagi Yojimbo nearly 30 years ago. Usagi may seem familiar to hardcore fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for his guest appearances there. This weekend, as part of a special event and samurai exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Sensei Sakai and game developer Mike Levine of HappyGiant are slated to talk about the first Usagi video game in over 25 years, Usagi Yogimbo: Way of The Ronin (iOS / Android). We spoke with Mike about what to expect about from the game, the exclusive MFA Samurai Saturdays level, and about working with a master of the comic book form by way of bringing this fun side-scrolling sword and slashing game to market.
DIGBOSTON: Hi Mike – Thanks for coming! Can you tell me please about HappyGiant and what your role is there?
MIKE LEVINE: HappyGiant is my company, most of the company and myself have been in the games industry for 10-20 years. I worked for LucasArts in the ’90s for most of it and worked for some startups out in San Francisco. I came back here and started my own companies includingPileated Pictures, which was well known in Massachusetts for working with Hasbro and other properties. We were lucky to make some money and we’re now focused on mobile and the new company, HappyGiant.
Have you been a developer for a long time, or writing games for that long?
At LucasArts, I worked in the art department, constantly developing new techniques to create art. I would sit between really amazing artists and the programmers and we were in the middle making it all work in the games.
I’ve been a writer, designer and art director. We’re a small company so we all wear many hats.
Is this your first mobile game?
No, we’ve been doing it for a few years. We slowly crawled into it. We’ve done Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters and last summer we did the app for The Dictator film. We are also known for our high end pet sims Dolphin Paradise: Wild Friends. There’s another one that just came out, Orca Paradise: Wild Friends. We did Orca at the same time as Usagi. We used the Unity game engine to make both the games.
Very cool. Can I ask…are you a comic book fan?
Yes I am.
Usagi Yojimbo No. 1 - Stan Sakai
Have you been a Usagi Yojimbo fan for as long as I have?
Probably not. I grew up reading comics, now my kids are reading my comics. I was a heavy Marvel guy, Walt Simonson’s Thor, Frank Miller’s Ronin and Dark Knight Returns. I read all the Lone Wolf & Cub books. I knew of Usagi, but don’t remember reading it. The story goes that a couple of years ago, my friend brought me 5-6 Usagi books and urged me to read them.
As soon as I started reading them, I couldn’t put them down, I read one after the other. When I got to Book 10 or 12, I decided, “This needs to be a game”!
It came together very smoothly with Dark Horse and Stan and getting in touch with them. I like to think when things are meant to be, things go smoothly, and this was one of those cases.
[READ MORE AT DIGBOSTON.COM]