Project Info

A hacking mission deep into corporate networks by the infamous Captain Chiba and her ROMdogs goes horribly wrong. "Icebreaker" is one part comic, one part short story, one part video game, and even some audio book at the end. Oh, and a lulz bomb.

As many cool things do, this all started out when I was rereading William Gibson's "Neuromancer" for the umpteenth time. (Have you read it lately? Published in 1984. Remind yourself of that as you read it. It'll make you oooh and ahhh even more). I had an idea for a series of inter-related projects.

The experience that you just sat through was originally two iphone app projects: a comic wrapper and a retro-style videogame. There was a third part of this all -- a short story. How to put them all together? The short story takes place separately from the Captain Chiba story. In fact, in the short story, Captain Chiba is the name of the protagonist's favorite Japanese character from videogames and comics. Meta? Don't mind if I do. The idea after a bit of stewing was to release THIS as the trailer to... wait for it... a young adult novel.

Jumping ahead to the end, I ran out of time. I am currently unemployed but riding the silky smooth severance wave provided by my last employer. The tide is going out, and I now have to find myself a new ship (since staying on the island to talk to my coconut friend Misha has been poo-poo'd by the Missus). So, cutting some corners and improvising, I was left with this version of ICEBREAKER. Tada.

Project Tech

This was originally to have been iPhone apps written with Javascript and Phonegap. I have one app written that way in app store at the moment. It works pretty well...

• impactjs -- I could not have made the game without this fabulous library and community.
• jquery -- of course!
• vim -- what I think of when you all mention IDE
• Korg iElectribe -- all sound effects and background music was made on this iPad app.
• Audacity -- edits to the sound loops created on iElectribe were done with this.
• Gimp -- all graphics done on the GIMP!
• Reddit -- some ideas, some part in why I didn't get it all done

What this could've been/could still be

After I started down the current road of hybridthingie (confident that'll catch on as the name), I thought that such a bastard would be a great way for someone to ship an app with their tablet that shows all of the things that the tablet can do WHILE AT THE SAME TIME entertaining the user. Yes, you TRICK the user into enjoying themselves while they see that a book/comic can have an interactive game piece, embedded audio track, arguably multiple languages in one piece.

One big area that I didn't get near was the (buzzwordbingo) area of social media. That would be an entire area that would be opened to your "text". Why not let people play coop or versus games in your text (it was on my list... way down...)? An easy win would be to embed the links to your hybridthingie forum right in the app. Let's talk about the app? Let's talk about the text? Bad art? Discuss? Missed opportunities? Sure. Evolution section -- i.e. share ideas on how the app could grow or be replaced with a (monetizable) second version. Live chat? The thought of that fills me with dread, but maybe someone else would dig it...

I still want to get this sucker viewable playable on iOS devices. I need to do a bit of tweaking with the game code and the UI navigation to do it. Impactjs (game lib used) supports it though. I just didn't get to it.

Or maybe on a Kindle Fire. Amazon -- call me. :)

TCOTAV

I started reading comics in elementary school. I started playing around on an Apple II back then too. I've been drawing comics (awkwardly), writing code (total pro), and writing fiction (having potential) since then. I was posting webcomics to Warren Ellis's "The Engine" back when that was around.

Now I'm old like dirt -- an exuberant, sharp lad trapped in an aging (though svelte) body.

• email
• Follow @tcotav

Hire Me

Do you have a truckload of cash pulling out of your moonbase but you don't have my address? I can get you that address. I am looking for a job. I'm kind of creative. Not a straight shooter though I do have "upper management" written all over me. I'm not SUPER creative because saying that might be construed as arrogant. I'm also technical. I have a resume available by request. I'm tweaking it still (but ran out of crayons -- why do they make them so DELICIOUS???). Important to note for hiring me is that I use my powers for good mostly and that my alignment is Chaotic Good.

For the past fifteen years, I've worked in the software industry in Seattle. I've spent a lot of time managing linux systems, writing database interaction code, doing database design work, business intelligencing and reporting, project managing, and hiding under desks for weeks at a pop. I also just plopped an iphone app in the iTunes store.

Most of that would have little relation to what you saw in ICEBREAKER. The nerd can be creative, you say? Is that allowed? Don't ask me...