Rare Bits

Last night, as I was punching my Masonite drawing board and ripping up numerous unsuccessful attempts to draw a particularly elusive expression on the face of my main character (an expression that the entire strip hinged upon), I thought to myself; “Jason, you suck, and are a punk. Your drawing abilitly surely leaves much to be desired. Perhaps you should consider a career in the foodservice industry.”

I have these sorts of conversations with myself fairly frequently.

So, after tearing up the fifth attempt at penciling this singularly frustrating (but stupidly simplistic) panel, I settled in for a night of deadened emotion and surfing the interwebs. Shortly thereafter, I stumbled upon a review of this game:

Videogames can go both ways for me when I’m at a high level of frustration. Some make it better, some make it worse. Some games I play for the frustration of continually failing. It makes the eventual success all the more satisfying when it finally happens. This game, however, somehow manages to work on both levels. It’s certainly not an easy game, but the continual building up of the song as you get further and further into the level (each of which is upwards of 15 minutes long) and the simple but hypnotic visuals induce a sort of trance, and you can’t help but be pulled along with the beats.

And then I sat down and laid out the panel that had been frustrating me for hours.

Not bad, Bit.Trip Beat. Thanks for the helping hand.

Later,

J