Where Angels Meet - A VR Experience

[Update] Where Angels Meet has moved beyond the concept stage and has become part of the Oculus Launchpad program. The project is currently in demo form and has been submitted to several film festivals!

So, outside of working on Messenger, AVCV has started production on its first VR project. This isn't just another studio jumping on the virtual (or literal) bandwagon, but this particular concept has been floating around Micah's brain for some time. More details to come. . .

It's Alive!

Working with the talented modeler Daniel Kole, the AH-Z1 is finally a reality! Ozzy has been beautifully crafted in 3D and is a functional actor in Messenger. Daniel said it was one of the most complex models he's ever crafted. The cool thing is the model is fully articulated and every limb moves as they should!

Setting the Mood

One of the key lessons I learned, during my time at Disney, was how important the concept phase is. I had the great blessing of working with Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation and I got to see how they tackle their projects in the early stages. What I learned was that every project begins with a story and a mood or feeling. This was exactly how I started Messenger. I wrote the story first and as I wrote, I was able to imagine the world that the story was taking place in. Working with my concept artist, Abe Lee, I was able to explain the mood of the world I wanted to see and he was able to render these amazing scenes.

AH-Z1(Ozzy)

The Autonomous Huminoid - Zone 1 or (Ozzy) as his engineers lovingly refer to him is the main character in Messenger which is headed to PC's in 2018. In the entry below, we shared some of the initial sketches and references for Ozzy. After working with our amazing concept artist Abe Lee, we finally evolved the sketches into this incredible robot.

Game 2 - Messenger

AVCV's second game project is currently in an early production phase. It will be quite a departure from Bugchinko and more details will be revealed via Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE: Please visit www.messenger-game.com for more details!

Game 1 - Bugchinko™

I've been working on Bugchinko for quite some time. It started with wanting to make a simple, fun arcade game, using the classic mechanics of pachinko. Most people don't know what a pachinko machine is these days, but many are familiar with pinball. Anyway, as I began to gnaw away at this idea, I started thinking about falling down the huge tree in my front yard -- which I have lovingly named Bradley. In this game, players will control Monty the armadillo bug as they try to guide his safe descent.

Bugchinko - Micah's Draft

My first draft for the Bugchinko logo.

Bugchinko - Bob's rendering

I gave my amazing artist an initial draft of this logo and this is what he came back with. I asked him to do something that was similar to the "Where the Wild Things Are" illustration style.

Monty

This was my first rendering of Bugchinko's star -- Monty. He's an armadillo bug with big dreams and aspirations.

Bradley the Tree

Bradley is the largest tree I've ever seen on any residential property. He's a great protector of our home.

Bugchinko Prototype

After months of tinkering around in Unity, I finally produced a playable version of my idea.

3...2...1... Welcome to the Unknown

Space Cobra

This image started out as one of those lucid, lunchtime daydream visions. Initially, I was thinking about a game concept similar to the Activision classic "Moonsweeper" where your ship moves from planet to planet picking up stranded astronauts or survivors. (Honestly, I was never really sure what they were.) Anyway, I began to think about what those dudes would've been doing on the planet as they awaited rescue.

As my mind wondered, I put this little scenario together of a crew discovering a giant space cobra, which happened to breath fire and have a gun for a tail. I then imagined them running from this monster desperately praying for someone to rescue them. The funny thing was imagining myself in the scene, not running in terror but stopping to take an iPhone self-pic of the whole affair. (Which is what someone would probably do in real-life these days!) This made me chuckle and that image was eventually burned into my head for several weeks.

Eventually, I had to get this image out of my head and into some rendered form. I made a terrible sketch and then sought the talents of a real artist to do it. Much props goes to Bob on making this crazy idea a reality!