Ep. 220 - Advergame Designathon, with Liz Ryerson

My closest public bathroom is my neighbors pool.

time to submit some questions to the ole form!!

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I'm in agreement with you there (about too much going on in a scene). But since animation is such a visual medium, I guess I'm just more of a stickler about characters & design much in the way you guys probably are about game design. But in any case, thanks for indulging me here. Maybe this digression could segue nicely into an Insert Credit question? Which games have more enjoyable cutscenes than actual gameplay? or Which game characters would you like to see have their own spin-off cartoon? And who knows, this might even overlap with some stop motion too!

gaijinking

(brandon:) I do think I may be an odd case in that I really don't care much about animation unless it's really wrong - people tell me mob psycho 100 has some of the best animation in anime right now, and it might! It just doesn't really register to me... when a whole bunch is going on on screen it feels like my cue to check out for a while until the story starts up again.

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I think I am indeed jaded. Lol! But always good to hear the perspective from someone on the outside of the animation industry. And also, I should reiterate how much I enjoyed the first story by the Belgian couple Marc & Emma! It really hooked me in. I'm in absolute awe of how amazingly well they get those pin eye'd woolly faces and tiny mouths to emote. However, I think the thing that bothers me about the other two shorts is something that (historically) plagues a lot of stop motion, which is a lack of concern for character design. Since the Fantastic Mr. Fox (inspired by the Ladislav Starevich1929 masterpiece Tale of the Fox) , the defacto stop motion puppet design seems to be taxidermied anthropomorphic animals. I am aware that the Swedish director of the second one is also known for this too, but I guess I just find her stuff bland. But by the 3rd short, it really did distract me. And despite the initialially strong anthology theme, the execution of those last two just pulled me right out of it. That said, I still can't stop thinking about the first portion of the film, and for that reason, I was excited to hear your recommendation for The House.

gaijinking

(brandon:) could be the jadedness or it just didn't work for you - I wasn't paying attention to the complexity of the animation or technique in that regard, I just liked the story. Three different takes on decaying capitalism through the lens of a house. Desire to own a nice one but realizing you've gone into indentured servitude, desire to turn one into cash but realizing it's a black hole, desire to remain in one despite the odds being against you (and ultimately being unable to leave it by full measures). Clearly it didn't work for you but this is the first "three short" anthology where I've actually liked the story and vibe in each one. It's no mad god technique-wise but that's not what I was there for anyway.

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While I thoughoughly enjoyed the first vignette of The House, which kept me on edge until the very end, I couldn't help but feel like the last two shorts were project filler. The last one inparticular, despite the interesting concept, felt like it was almost student level in execution. But maybe, I'm just jaded because I work in stop motion?

gaijinking

everybody's trying their best! thanks to y'all for your support, too!

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I really appreciate Jaffe and Brandon’s dedication to the podcast, going out of your way to come up with these little themed episodes in situations where either or both of the other two are unable to make it. Also thank you to Liz and Matthew and the other repeat guests.

Sam

We got a weird one this time

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