panel discussion

here is the pencil stage of a panel for the upcoming hope strip...

i'm quite happy how it turned out - hope and the doctor work well together, i think:


he's getting all worked up, and she remains skeptical,
not convinced by all his (pseudo)-scientific explanations...

the work on the comic strip turns out to be very helpful in further defining the main characters of the hope universe:
hope, the girl thrown out of time, without the support of her real family or any memory of her past (our future) is the true innocent, a child in a world of run by adults. She is full of joy, wonder, and - well, hope... - much in the tradition of many classic childlike fairytale-heroes whose charm, unspoiled minds and childlike purity can be virtually disarming - certainly something that would easily drive any evil, highly motivated, narrow-minded corporate lackey up the walls...

;)

m

quick and corny...

just a quick update:

one more study of a corn stalk in preparation for the backgrounds for the upcoming strip...

please stay tuned...

;)

m

le prochain post

salut - it's me again, mathias
sorry it took me so long with my follow-up post, but we're always soo busy -
and then life gets in the way, and another week has passed
- i promise to post more often, really...

here is the the character i talked about in the previous post - the 'evil doctor' character, but not in the 'dr. evil vein' - this one is not out to rule the world or extort 'one hundred billion dollars', but he is more one of the cogs in the big wheel of a multinational corporation, meddling with the genetic makeup of the world that surrounds and sustains us, doing what they tell him is right, - a sad, pathetic little guy, really....

... but i wanted to make him funny, on top of him being a bad guy you could feel sorry for!
so, for inspiration, i keep going back to the stuff i read while growing up back in germany, the franco-belgian comic-albums of franquin, peyo, will, roba, morris, and of course uderzo. we're talking about the fathers of asterix, lucky luke, the smurfs, the marsupilami and gaston, and dozens of other great characters. All of these artists are masters of the funny book, working with a comic-dynamic line, themselves inspired by US-american cartoons and the comic-book work of milton caniff, carl barks and walt kelly. In their work, they were always after dynamic poses in an effort to evoke motion on the static page, and facial expressions supporting the storytelling as much as possible - as a result, any one of the pages of these types of BD's - bandes dessinees, large format european comic albums - are a joy to look at and are extremely funny as drawings, even if you don't speak a single word of french - and believe me, i should know....

a bientot

;)

m

(oh, and the corn will provide the background for this upcoming strip, so i need to make sure it also fits graphically within that world...)

hello internet!

mathias here...

i've kept quiet for the most part, and let my colleagues toot the horn for the dreamhive (and they've done a darn good job at that, too) but being the creative director here comes with some responsibilities, and so from now on i'd like to keep you updated with a lot more WIP posts concerning not only our ongoing work at the hive (as far as i CAN actually show you stuff - some of it may be hush-hush, so bear with me there) but also my own little corner of the net, mathias' matte, where i'll be attempting to regularly put up a comic strip set in the "hope" universe, but commenting more on current events (two previous installments are already up on this blog)

and that is also what i'm starting with, a little teaser for the upcoming strip - even though these strips are set in the "hope" universe, i find myself having to introduce new supporting characters as needed - so in this case, here is a first look at a scientist in the employ of omnicorp, and yes, there will also be corn - genetically engineered corn, to be precise

(btw, any possible similarity to persons living or dead is not necessarily purely coincidental)





don't go anywhere, we'll be right back....

m

SNOOD Redood!

man...see? this is what i get for being too busy to blog. i WAS planning on blogging about how The Dreamhive is teaming up with our ex-Naughty Dog cohorts, Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin to turn the casual gaming world on it's ear. i WAS going to tell you guys all about them founding Monkey Gods and how we're moving into 2009 with our sole focus being flinging some awesome fun around with them. i WAS going to tease everyone with what Facebook and iPhone fun we were planning with these guys and all that jazz.

THEN i was going to hit everyone with the news that our first gaming project together since i worked on the Jak series at Naughty Dog was going to be one of the most popular games on the web.

that will teach me to let work get in the way of my blogging because today Monkey Gods flung the whole shabang out there and announced Snood for iPhone:

Monkey Gods Blog

so, there you have it Snood is ReDood and Monkey Gods is born. ironically enough...on my birthday. how sweet is that?

i'll start with the mini-version of us teaming up with Monkey Gods in 2009:

while our current contract with a great returning client is super fun...it will be our swan song for the service based side of things. upon completion of that project, which we will be talking about at some point because it's so cool, we're hanging up that hat and putting on our game development hat with a group of guys who know how to make the fun happen. we can definitely tell you that Snood is just the tip of the iceberg of what will be flung by the Monkey Gods and developed within The Dreamhive.

now on to Snood:

there's still some surprises we want to keep under our hats, but i can tell you that what we are affectionately calling "Snood Redood" is just that...a new vision of the beloved characters that have been the addiction of many casual gamers across the globe.

mathias came up with an awesome new look for the Snoods and even came up with a brand new "magic" snood that we're sure everyone is gonna think is da bomb. jason rubin designed close to 100 fun puzzles for Puzzle Mode. i wrote and animated a fun story that reveals the REAL Snoods and "why" the game was created while you play through puzzles that tom angus designed for Story Mode.

man it was a blast and we can't wait for folks to play it!

one other feature in Snood ReDood is the ability to play with the classic Snoods that we know millions out there adore. while stoked to re-make these guys and give them our unique brand of fun...we truely are Snood fanboys and we knew that people would miss the original crew...so we brought them along for the trip!

anyway, i could go on and on because i've been DYING to talk about this stuff. however, we are still a busy bunch of bees here at the hive and i've got to get back to work.

if you read this and you're a Snood fan, comment and let us know what you think. if you're on Twitter, mention Snood and this blog and it will pop up on http://www.monkeygods.com. post this on your Facebook profile and spread the word...

SNOOD IS COMING SOON ON IPHONE!!