Just posted two new projects: Apollo Funk logo and a poster/flyer design for The Event.

Apollo Funk Logo

My drawing tablet finally started working properly for some reason so I've been playing around with it trying to get more comfortable using it. Just in time to put together a Legend of Zelda valentine!

Day 2 - Final Version

You can actually see a big difference in technique/style between Link, the background, and the heart piece. As I worked on it I started getting more comfortable with the tablet and different painting techniques so each object I added looked more advanced in technique than the last one.

Day 1 - First Draft

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my first drawing tablet project!

I'm an avid user of the 960 grid system. It's rare that I run into issues that originate from something with the grid styling but I recently found myself in a situation where some columns had no contents and seemed to disappear. When you have a grid column with no contents the column will collapse and most likely present an unwanted look for your layout, so I came up with a fix:

Simply add min-height: 1px to the second declaration in the grid stylesheet (where it starts listing .grid_1 through .grid_16).

.grid_1, .grid_2, .grid_3... etc. {
	min-height: 1px; /* add this */
	display: inline;
	float: float;
	position: relative;
	margin-left: 10px;
	margin-right: 10px;
}

I'm not going on record saying this needs to be part of the 960 grid system. It really only applies in certain development environments. For me, it's one more thing to serve as a fail-safe in my CSS development.

Here are some lovely Halloween postcards I threw together to send out to friends and family. Granted... it's well past Halloween, but that's what makes them post-cards. Get it?!

Bride of Frankenstein (personal favorite)
"Fear is that little dark room where negatives are developed."

Frankenstein
"Pity is for the living. Envy is for the dead."

Lady Gaga
"I don't believe in evil. I only believe in horror."

Marilyn Monroe (with added fangs)
"Death is feared as birth is forgotten."

Frankenstein
"There is no evil. Only an abundance of horror."

Blacula Victim
"Your suffering will be legendary."

Burt Reynolds
"Your birthday suit is not a costume."

I've been working on my own Prototype UI library for a while and even though it's not ready for a public release, I want to go ahead and share my layer mixin. This mixin comes in handy when creating things like viewport overlays, modal windows, dialog boxes, lightboxes, tool tips and whatever free-floating objects you would want stacked up on a web page.

It simply creates an absolutely positioned div that is stackable and can be moved around anywhere on the page. I still have plans to add functionality for dragging and resizing with makeDraggable() and makeResizable() functions, but that won't be available until the public release of the library.

var Layer = {
	createLayer: function() {
		if (this.layer) return this.layer;
		
		var klass = this.constructor;
		if (!klass._layers) klass._layers = [];
		
		//default z-index is 1, evaluate against 'undefined' instead of boolean to allow a zero value for __ZINDEX
		if (!klass.__ZINDEX == undefined) klass.__ZINDEX = 1;
		
		//create layer element
		this.layer = new Element('div').setStyle({
			position:	'absolute',
			zIndex:		klass.__ZINDEX + klass._layers.length + 1,
			top:		0,
			left:		0
		});
		klass._layers.push(this.layer);
		
		return this.layer;
	},
	
	destroyLayer: function() {
		if (!this.layer) return;
		klass._layers = klass._layers.without(this.layer);
		this.layer.remove();
		delete this.layer ;
	},
	
	bringToFront: function() {
		var klass = this.constructor;
		if (!this.layer || !klass._layers) return;
		
		klass._layers = klass._layers.without(this.layer);
		klass._layers.push(this.layer);
		klass._layers.each(function(element, i) {
			element.setStyle({zIndex: klass.__ZINDEX + i});
		});
		
		return this.layer;
	}
};

How to use the Layer mixin

You first need to call this.createLayer() within your object. This creates the layer element and attaches it to the this.layer property of your object. At this point, you can insert content and use setStyle() to reposition or resize the layer element. Check out my example class below:

var MyLayer = Class.create(Layer, {
	initialize: function(element) {
		this.element = $(element);
		
		this.createLayer().update(element).setStyle({
			width:	500,
			height: 400
		});
		
		//always keep the layer in the center of the viewport
		Event.observe(window, 'scroll', this.reposition.bind(this));
		Event.observe(window, 'resize', this.reposition.bind(this));
		
		//when the layer is clicked, bring it to the front of the stack
		this.layer.on('click', this.bringToFront.bind(this));
		
		$(document.body).insert(this.layer);
	},
	
	reposition: function() {
		var viewport = document.viewport.getDimensions();
		var offsets = document.viewport.getScrollOffsets();
		
		//calculate top and left positions
		var pos = {
			left: Math.round((viewport.width - this.layer.getWidth()) / 2) + offsets.left) + 'px',
			top: Math.round((viewport.height - this.layer.getHeight()) / 2) + offsets.top) + 'px'
		};
		
		this.layer.setStyle(pos);
	},
});
Object.extend(MyLayer, {
	__ZINDEX: 1000 //sets the base z-index for all of the layers in this class
});

A few things to consider

• The createLayer() and bringToFront() functions both allow chaining.
• Cache your main element to this.element. If you decide you want to delete the layer from your object and you only have your main element inserted into this.layer and not cached to this.element, you would lose your main element.
• Treat this.layer as a wrapper for your main element... because that's what it is. (see previous bullet point)

There you have it. Lightweight and simple, eh? Feel open to offer suggestions or corrections.

Steve Jobs has some explaining to do — the new iTunes logo is an atrocity! If you've seen it already, you've probably thrown up at least once. So what if CDs are outdated? That's no reason to set graphic design back ten years!

68%

	Challenge, Fun Level, Replay Value
	Cinematics, Acting
	Control, Combat
	Graphics, Visual Style
	Music, Sound Effects
	Story

Like many Metroid fans, I have been foaming at the mouth to get my hands on Other M and when it arrived at my door I was squealing like a little girl. With the next 14 hours spent on the couch with Other M burning holes in my TV, I completely finished the game by the very next day (with 100% item collection). But that's not to say that the game was too short... I pretty much locked myself in my house for a full, straight day and I just gunned it (← word play) all the way to the end, not giving myself a chance to savor it.

The Good

It's a very fun game that is filled with action all the way to the end. After beating it the first time, I started playing right back through on hard mode without feeling bored with the game at all. In fact, hard mode is more exciting because they completely take out all missile, energy, charge, and recovery upgrades from the game. That's right — you get 99 health and 10 missiles through the entire game, which provides for a big challenge and lots of hitting things and yelling at the TV.

Don't act like you don't get butterflies in your stomach over this sweet action!

By far, the combat system and control over your character was the best thing about the game. Rapid button mashing and finely executed deathblows really keep the pace of the action at a level that would satisfy any gamer wanting to get their hands a little dirty. I was originally worried about holding the Wii remote horizontally to play the game because I think the control stick on the nunchuck controller is way more comfortable than mashing my thumb into a hard control pad. Much to my surprise, the controller scheme was actually perfect for this game. Sure, my thumb started to hurt at one point but that's the last thing on my mind when I have a butt load of "space madness" chasing after me.

Some of the rooms you go into just look beautiful. The only downside is that some of the best looking rooms are actually holographic projections of organic environments and in order to progress past these rooms, you have to turn off the holographic projections to reveal the exit (bummer). At one point you enter a cave in Sector 3 that looks like something you would see in a modern version of Metroid II: Return of Samus, which was pretty cool to me. I was actually surprised at how many rooms with organic looking environments there were in the game considering that it takes place on a man-made, space station.

While the story was far from perfect, it did have some parts that were very interesting and I hope they continue with some of those plot lines in sequels to Other M. Without spoiling anything, I'll say I thought the plot with Ridley was creative and very well delivered, I even felt sympathy for Ridley at one point. I also loved the final boss... but I especially loved the second final boss (← excitement!) and that is all I'll say to avoid spoiling anything.

The Bad

First things first... the worst thing about this game is when it would force first-person mode and would not let you continue until you located and scanned what it wanted you to see, which was sometimes not easy to figure out. I spent 15 minutes doing this once... how — how!? — is that supposed to be fun? It adds absolutely nothing to the gaming experience, but it certainly takes a lot from it.

"Think about what it is like to read a book v.s. watching a movie based on the book..."Now, I like a good story, even if it isn't told quite so literally. I'm a big fan of the traditional Metroid format where you are placed into this world that is essentially a giant maze and you have to find your way to the end. You would experience the story by what you see and read into along the way, not by some lame supporting character that's giving you every answer and leaving nothing to your imagination. Think about what it is like to read a book v.s. watching a movie based on the book... see my point? Plus, I think it creates a much more intimate connection between the player and the main character when it's just you and the character you control. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime were the ones that really nailed it in these areas.

Even though I'm a big fan of the experiential story and the silent protagonist, I'm open to a cinematic story and a vocal protagonist, but the reason I wasn't really feeling it in Other M is because the story was pretty weak (it does get better near the end though) and the cinematics and acting were just embarrassing. There's so much bad acting, awful one-liners, and cut scenes focused on slow motion "bad-assery" that it just makes you want to get up and leave the room. Also, names like "The Deleter" and "MB" are just completely lazy and made me roll my eyes each time I heard it.

Samus has to wait for permission to use the features of her suit... you don't search for the upgrades. Lame? Yes — lame.

Very unlike all other Metroid games, searching and collecting upgrades to Samus's suit is almost non-existent in this game. Sure, you pick up missile and energy upgrades along the way, but most of them were basically sitting right in front of you on your normal, guided route. On the other hand, some were impossible to find unless you had a marker on the map telling you something was there... so it was a good thing that they had markers on the map telling me where they were (← insert sarcastic smirk emoticon here).

My only other disappointment was with the soundtrack, since there hardly was one. Most of what you hear in the game is just ambient, environmental noises as opposed to an engaging, haunting score like the franchise is usually known for. The most music you hear in the game is not during gameplay, it's during cut scenes, the title screen, and the ending credits. And by the way, the ending credits theme sounded like something from Final Fantasy... give me a break. In fact, the best track that came from this game was the one that wasn't even in the game — I'm talking about the track from the live action TV ad. Why wasn't that part of the soundtrack? Why wasn't the person who directed this commercial directing the game as well?!

Really Good... But Should Have Been Better

I had a blast with this game (← more word play). Even after going on about the things I wasn't happy with about the game, I still think it is an incredibly fun, fast-paced game that provides a good challenge to a gamer of any experience level. Even a casual gamer or newcomer to the series could enjoy this game without the burden of a steep learning curve.

Team Ninja could not have provided a more perfect combat and control system for Other M which I believe made the game so addicting. I definitely wish they would have chosen to not make it so much like Metroid Fusion with the simulated environments on a ruined space station and what was essentially linear gameplay. In the mean time, I'll be waiting around for that next Metroid game that taps into what made Super Metroid and Metroid Prime so great.