Coffin Comics

Posts Tagged ‘Minecraft’

10 results.

Home Is Where The Hearth Issss

by Coffinshaker on September 10, 2012 at 12:00 am

Bit of a play on the Minecraft meme of sorts where the Creeper says to Steve, “that’s a nice everything you got there… be a ssshame if something happened…” or something like that. So yeah, seems that the developers of Skyrim are big Minecraft fans so it was a bit of the inspiration for the expansion. Pretty neat, considering their lawyer folks got into some hot water with ol Notch not too long ago. I’ve been watching a few videos of the gameplay and I’m really excited about this DLC! Looks to be a great addition to the frozen tundra! Seems to be a fun little diversion, plus it gives me some space to lay out all the junk I steal from all the homes. >) I wonder what more we can expect from the devs!

Not only that, but you PC folks get the extra benefit of getting stuff off the Steam Workshop, which makes downloading and installing mods quick and easy… which is great for people like me who are more liable to set their computer on fire than get a mod to work properly… I haven’t seen too much chatter in the way of a proper content expansion in the workshop, but it looks as if there’s one maybe in the works… See, some volunteers took the challenge to recreate the entirety of the Tolkien Lord Of The Rings series in the Elder Scrolls universe!! Quests and all! This was started back in Oblivion and it’s getting ported over. However, the evil suits at the WB factory decided this infringes on their copyrights (which by any stretch of the imagination, should be public domain by now… just saying… something fishy with this!) so they sent off the usual orders of C&D. The volunteer devs of this free expansion pack (read: Fair Use) have gleefully rejected this cease and desist order, so we’ll see how this will develop in the coming months. With any luck, the people at the legal studios will back down seeing this as a great way to get people into their series or strike up some sort of licensing agreement since (and if the screens are any indication) it will be epic when finished! Personally, I don’t understand why these legal teams get so up in arms about indie developments like this. They should see this as an opportunity! Just look at what Microsoft did with the Red vs Blue guys! And look at all the free publicity and increased sales that have resulted from the arrangement! Yeah, so it can work out to be mutually beneficial!

So, no poll today, but I’d like to know who in the Skyrim world you decided to make your honey bunny! Who did you marry? Who would you liked to have married but are not selectable? (such as my favorite Narri… life’s just not fair sometimes…)

ALSO!
I have a super special GIVEAWAY of the game Magicka for the Steam platform! All you need to do is have a Steam account, sign up at SteamGifts.com and enter for a chance to win! SG is kind of strict with their entrance though, you’ll need at least $100 (not free to play) in games on your Steam account to join… which isn’t an issue if you buy a few bucks worth of indie bundles! >) Ends next Monday so get to it!

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, Skyrim

16 Comments

Greenlighting

by Coffinshaker on September 3, 2012 at 12:00 am

Release the clones!

For those of you who do not know, Steam has just released it’s new community initiative called “Greenlight“, which users are allowed to vote for new indie type games to be included in the Steam library. This has come about because of some unfortunate practices on the Steam side where great games fall through the cracks during the approval process (and some have been picked up by their competitors). So to help facilitate a better approval process, they went to the people to see what will is popular and, of course, let those games in. Not a bad idea at all!

Right out of the gates we had many great gems pop up! Such as DLC Quest, Stardew Valley, Zombeer (hey, don’t judge me!), A walk in the dark, Secrets of Grindia, Melody’s Escape, Mutant Mudds (which Steam dropped the ball on before…), and so many more! And I’ve only scratched the surface with 64 rated of the 630+ sitting in the queue.

But then there came the problems… It’s become increasingly hard to distinguish between a developer posting and some idiot’s wishlist. You get a lot of people posting stupid stuff like “huh duuur, me want mass effect 3″ in the game list. That’s not what this is for. It’s developers ONLY! Sure, I’d like to play some Mario Allstars on my pc, but that’s not going to happen.

Then there’s the trouble with clones. I have counted DOZENS of Minecraft spinoffs appearing in the last few days. (Now now, before I get angry emails, yes, I know Minecraft was based off of another game, Infiniminer, but MC did it better and packaged it nicer. It’s like saying CoD:MW2 is a ripoff of Doom…) Anyways, I keep seeing games that are nearly identical copies, but with various tweeks; like say rounded objects or jaggedy ones, or placable wedges, or just MC with tower defense, or everything else in between. This also goes for the swarms of Slender clones! Now, I’m no expert in the realm of slender games, but there is one that is VERY popular right now that’s free to try… well, now we have Slenders of every shape and size coming at us in Greenlight! I get that these are popular games with hazy lines of copyrights, but especially for things that you’re looking to sell on a major distribution platform, I can’t see them going over well.

But that brings us around to today’s topic; are near reproductions to games like Minecraft or Slender copies/clones, or did we accidentally stumble onto a completely new genre of gaming? I have trouble wrapping my head around the answer to this, really. On the one hand, you can look at a Minecraft spinoff game and instantly think “minecraft” every time. But is that because MC was the first successful one to do it, or is it that it’s just the style? The open random blocky worlds certainly scream MC, but is that something exclusive to Minecraft, or is it just the genre, like what Mario games are to platformers? Same with Slendermen, you wander around the forest looking for pieces of paper with a flashlight (torch for my english friends) all the while avoiding the Slenderguy. Every one of those games is exactly this. But are they necessarily copies? Or is a new type of horror genre? Where you feel totally helpless and paranoid for the entirety of the game. Maybe if there were more variations on badguys or more genres that Skinnyman is in, it might be a bit less confusing. But to the lay person, looking at 10 of these next to eachother in a listing tends to raise an eyebrow or two.

Also, extra credit assignment: discuss some games from greenlight that caught your eye! (note, if you post more than like 1 link, it won’t show up right away because it needs to be moderated… and I’m slow… so there you have it! >)

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, Steam, terraria

6 Comments

It’s That Season Again

by Coffinshaker on April 13, 2012 at 12:00 am

Stupid allergies… Always gotta be messing up everyone’s day! Bleh!

So allergy season is upon us again. Terrible time ya know. And of course the only plant everyone seems to ever use to landscape anywhere I go is Confederate Jasmine, which is like the most pungent thing in the universe and turns my brain into a punching bag. XP

Anyways, lots of really cool changes happening over at the Minecraft site. Mod APIs, super duper updates, creepers are afraid of cats now… good stuff! Oh, and Terraria seems to have some good updates too! Mods is one of them so that’s fun!

Ps… SWTOR 1.2! Wewt!

Sorry, today is kind of random stuff… Kind of excited, got some super special stuff coming your way and I’m about 4/7 the way through with it. >D hehe, cryptic! In other news, I was considering adding a whole “game/movie/tech review” section to the site. I kind of touched on this with accompanying comics, but I was thinking about doing some straight up reviews (in my usual laid back writing style). Wondering what your thoughts are on this. I think it’ll fit in with the whole “gaming and geeking” aspect of the site, even though it started off as a wowcraft weekly comic, I think it’s taken on a life of its own so maybe it would fit. Anyways, always love to hear feedback from you good folks, so let me know! And let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see the site do!

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, terraria

15 Comments

The Apprentice

by Coffinshaker on January 6, 2012 at 12:00 am

Ah yes, the apprentice becomes the master…

Not sure what it is about us peoples, but we sure do like to destroy things good! Maybe that’s why Angry Birds is so addicting. And not like your everyday addicting, like, you can start playing it and realize it’s 2am… 3 days from when you started! It’s great! Or maybe it’s just simple clean designs that make games so enthralling; kinda like how melodies work with music, simple and strong makes a lasting song. (sweet, that rhymed)

Guess this uses a bit of the Creeper meme, you should look up some of that creeper art, good stuff!

└ Tags: Angry Birds, Coffin Comic, Minecraft

12 Comments

A Change Of View

by Coffinshaker on November 18, 2011 at 12:00 am

Hmm… always wondered what it would look like if you were one of the 2d side scrolling characters. Do they see just a 2d plain like in the comic, or is it more of an awareness of the other 3rd dimension? Come to think of it, wasn’t there some weird Mario game where you went into the front view of the side scroller?

Ok gang, so here’s the deal for the next coming weeks. I’m going to be out of town for about 3 weeks so I kind of had to speed up production a bit. So in the following weeks, you’ll be getting a Wednesday and Friday update of a comic written by my friend (and drawn by your’s truly). It’s done in outline b/w format only, cause, ya know, had to make a bunch on the fly. So I hope you enjoy his insanity as much as you have mine! “Should” be back in full swing come Dec.12th (that monday). If you guys like his comic, we might be able to convince him to do a few more for the site. >) What’s Shakin’ will have maybe 1-2 pages/weeks of downtime… depending on if I get over this cold quickly and get back to drawing ahead. Regardless, I got some nifty wallpapers for your amusement in the meantime.

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, terraria

8 Comments

Gearing Up

by Coffinshaker on November 2, 2011 at 12:00 am

That’s right folks! Another episode of the Amazing Adventures of Steve & Terry! (working title) Actually, been getting some good responses about these two, so I guess I should make it a bit of an ongoing thing huh?

For those not in the know, the 3d guy is Steve from Minecraft and the 2d one is *Terry from Terraria (btw, terraria doesn’t have a mascot, so I just kinda made him up to fit). Since both games are somewhat similar, I figured they should be friends. >)

So yeah, about this comic… The thing I love about Terraria and hate about Minecraft is that in MC, you have such a limited selection of armor and weapons that the whole combat end just feels a bit lacking. I mean, a crafting game SHOULD have tons of things to, you know, craft; so having a just 4 reskins of the same blocky armor doesn’t yield much in the way of immersion. I know, Terraria had a larger team to work with and MC started as more of a building game than a combat one, but still, the direction it’s going now, it NEEDS to have a major overhaul of the system. What I’d like to see is some weapon slots on the inventory and make items persistent and hard to obtain… meaning, equipped armor/weapons do not disappear on death and there should be multiple tiers of crafting to make complex gear with specific abilities and improvements.

But ya know, I guess it goes back to the argument of “well, if ya don’t like it, use a mod”. And that’s a very fine point! Because MC is like mod city! I’ve just gotten into playing with a few (ok… I’ve got like two dozen going) mods and they definitely improve the gameplay! The only thing I don’t like is the lack of actual support for the mods… like an “official” centralized system for creation and installation. As it stands now, if 2 mods don’t like eachother, then everything breaks and the barrier to entry for installation is pretty high… or maybe I’m just a little special, but it’s seriously a pain to get them running correctly! If they could fix MC to cycle through mods as easy as it is to go through maps in Little Big Planet, then I could see the sales of this game just explode! Eh, that’s my theory anyways. Actually, I’m interested in making them now, so maybe I’ll tinker with some ideas in my spare time. Hmm… maybe after MC comes out of beta, I’ll put together a modpack with my favorite picks!

ALSO!

Did a little guest work over at Kuo Comics, so head out there and check it out!

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, terraria

20 Comments

Jeepers

by Coffinshaker on October 19, 2011 at 12:00 am

Man, I really hope you all remember this guy from the old Scooby Doo series! Well, for anyone who wasn’t an avid viewer, that’s the original Creeper! Also… Handsome Face reference. >)

Well… that’s all I got for now. lol! XD

In other news, our buddies at Mojang had a good week. Turns out they’ll be able to go ahead with the “Scrolls” game after all. Won’t bore you all with the details, but Notch somehow convinced the powers that be that the term scrolls is common enough to not indicate a copyright/trademark violation. True, I could understand where Bethesda is coming from, but I just highly doubt anyone will get the two games mixed up. Anyways folks, it’s a good win for the little guy. Still, Bethesda can still come around and appeal the decision, but hopefully they’ll drop it.

└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, terraria

11 Comments

Highway To Hell

by Coffinshaker on September 14, 2011 at 12:00 am

Given the feedback from my first 2 strips, I’ve been forced to make more of these crossovers! >)

Just in case you don’t play both, Minecraft and Terraria both have “hell worlds”. Though, to get to them, each game goes about it a little differently… See, in MC, you craft a portal that will transport you to another dimension filled with flying cannon ball spewing squids… In Terraria, you dig straight down… For about 1.5 miles if you’re on a large map! Maybe some others do things differently, but that’s the easiest way I can figure it. It also helps to have some sort of safe stopping method at the ending… You tend to go splat if you don’t. >D

In other news, the powers that be over at Mojang officially released the 1.8 pre-release version for public download!! There was a bit of a leak with 1.8, so it was out there before it was ready… but I think sending out an official update was a good way of dealing with it. LOTS of great things to see! Especially the creative mode!

I would like to critique this update, but unfortunately it’s only part 1 of 2… so… we’ll let it slide till we get the full version. But lets just say, it looks darn pretty now with the way biomes are generated.

So go over to the official forums and CHECK IT OUT!

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└ Tags: Coffin Comic, Minecraft, terraria

6 Comments

A Gentlemen’s Duel

by Coffinshaker on August 22, 2011 at 12:00 am

Hmm… Didn’t really intend for this to be a Minecraft heavy week, but oh well. So what happened was Mojang, the parent company of Minecraft, stated earlier this year that they wanted to make another game called Scrolls; from what I gather, it’s kind of like magic cards. Anyways, Bethesda, the people behind Oblivion and Fallout, decided to send Mojang a Cease and Desist letter because of trademark issues with the name “Scrolls”. See, Bethesda’s game, is called “Elder Scrolls”… I know, news to me cause nobody calls any of their games that. Who the heck says Elder Scrolls: Skyrim? Nobody, that’s who!

When you get down to it, I don’t think they have much in the way of the law helping them out. Trademarks are intended to keep entities separate and reduce confusion… I have a hard time believing anyone would have trouble distinguishing Elder Scrolls (again, a title nobody says) with the game Scrolls. Not only that, but look at all the titles out there, World of Tanks (omg, get Blizzard on the phone!), Monster Hunter and Monster Rancher, and Behtesda should totally sue EA because of THE Sims (since the full name is THE Elder Scrolls)!!! Get over it Bethesda! You lost your scuffle with Interplay for Fallout MMO rights, so stop trying to scrap money from the indies! Oh right, and by the way Bethesda, Mojang is a Swedish company… You know, that place that houses Pirate Bay? I’m no expert in international IP laws, but if all the Movies, Music, Gaming, and king’s men can’t bring down a kid with a torrent site, then what do you think a single game company is going to do? Sorry bros, you’re out of luck.

But back to the point, Notch (the man in charge at Mojang), fired back to the ridiculous charge with an equally ridiculous request… A FIGHT TO THE DEATH! Ok, so not in real life, but in the game Quake 3. Notch offered to have 3 of his best vs 3 of Bethesda’s, to go into battle, winner takes all!

I am totally behind Notch with this one! We have enough of these big companies thinking they can bully the little guy around. I’ve been in this situation first hand with a company I worked for, where a larger company threw their weight and forced the smaller one to comply. It’s a stupid thing, but unfortunately, there’s not much the smaller companies can do. But I like Notch’s solution. I like the idea of an old fashioned bareknuckled mustashioed video game championship brawl! Imagine how many disputes could be resolved this way!

Source: Mojang

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└ Tags: Minecraft, Tooned News

7 Comments

Crafty

by Coffinshaker on August 17, 2011 at 12:00 am

Part 1 of 2 (MineCraft… Review? idk)

Guess I did a little MineCraft comic before, but I kind of wanted to do a small series with MC and Terraria together. Heh, in my mind, Steve and um Terry (does Terraria even have a mascot?) are friends. I’ll get into Terraria next week, but for the sake of getting on to other things, we’ll say it’s a 2D MineCraft-esq game with similar mechanics. But kinda not really, so more to come.

My Office Castle!

Anywho, MC is one crazy fun game! You get to build stuff and uh, dig around… Ok, so it’s not all that deep, but it pulls out the little boy in me that yearns to dig around in the sand. What I really like is the absolute freedom you get to basically make whatever you want. From castles to underground bunkers, the only limit to what can be created is your own mind. For whatever reason, my brain tends to make large office buildings as my castles! Of course, complete with lobbies, stairwells, and overhead neon lights (err… lava anyways).

Oh, and I really love games that evolve, especially when those upgrades are free! Granted, it’s in “beta” until November, we get lots of updates a few months apart with fun new things like new blocks or mechanics. Where I might get bored after a while, they release another update a few months later and I’m sucked back in! So in that way, the replay value of the game is immense!

Now… I have to toss in a few things here… I’m not really impressed with the combat system in MC. It seems like a secondary addition and other than being outside at night or in a cave without a proper sword, there’s not a whole lot to be scared of. (other than those exploding !@#$) Like the comic points out, once inside your fortress, you’re totally safe. It kind of takes away the sense of danger. One thing Terraria has over MC is the combat system, with bosses and tons of enemies… some of which can walk into your home! I know there’s an update out on the horizon that is supposed to address this, which I’m absolutely ecstatic for, but that doesn’t help me right now. >) What I’d like to see is something like a few big ol boss type creatures that can demolish your creations! So unless you fortify your works, they’ll be torn to pieces! And armaments too. Either defensive blocks (comeon, let me craft an auto turret!) and/or a hefty ton more personal armors and weapons. Again, what Terraria did with this was absolutely perfect! Oh, and for a crafting game, it needs a LOT more things to craft. There should just be hundreds of things to make.

Otherwise… Crazy awesome fun to be had. If you’re not playing it at this very minute, then you’re not living life to the fullest! Ok, that’s an overstatement, but it’s still a great little game to pick up for not a whole lot of dough.