We’re in Seattle today trying to prepare for Bumbershoot.  Arlo and Oksana were on our flight last night so I had a chance to see some of his underwater video footage and talk about his idea of a True Fan Boost.

Brad Weber hosted us last night and helped bring me up to speed on my pop culture and video game current events.

I finally got a chance to play Braid which was really clever and gets me excited about the future of indy gaming. It gives me hope that consoles will open themselves up more to home brew games and that review aggregation sites like Metacritic will help those developers succeed.

I’d love to develop a game again some day but I think that’s probably several years down the road. The last game Aaron and I worked on was an Oregon Trail style game based around the 1925 serum run to Nome. It was an educational game intended for middle school students in Alaska and we sent out copies to a bunch of different school districts but I’m not sure if it ever got any play. I think the game was a little stiff and kids usually shy away from anything that looks educational.

The development was haphazard since it was a college project but we actually finished and released it which felt like quite an accomplishment at the time. I think we still have a working version around somewhere, I’ll post it online when we get home in case anyone wants to check it out.

I’ll warn you now, it’s no Mega Man 3.

Now that the new site is up and running I’m going to aim for a more regular production schedule. Look for the Alaska Robotics comic every Monday and we’ll try to step up the short film productions as well. I think monthly will be the goal on that front.

The fishing comic is inspired by an illustrated poster we have out at the cabin of fish from the Pacific Northwest. This sort of ocean cross section is what I always imagine beneath me when I’m out on the water.

I would write about the cabin adventures this summer but my words feel clogged up today so here are some pictures instead:

• Hoot N’ Holler - July 2008
• Hoot N’ Holler - August 2008

We’ll be in Seattle over Labor Day weekend peddling our wares at Bumbershoot. Our booth will be next to the giant fountain in the same spot as last year and we’ll be carrying our designs and prints along with a collection of enamel pins from Wm Spear Design.

Hopefully we’ll be able to adventure over to the Penny Arcade Expo on Friday.

Between the two events it should be a pretty great weekend in Seattle. Maybe a little sun too? Would that be too much to hope for?

I forgot to mention I’m going to Comic Con. Actually, I just landed and I’m sitting in the San Diego airport.

Kazu Kibuishi invited me to come down and I couldn”t pass it up, so here I am brimming with joy and shaking with sleep deprivation.

It’s already been a good adventure, I met an illustrator from Rudy McBacon on my flight. In fact, I”d just said goodbye to Derek when the airline paged us both to tell us they’d lost our checked luggage.

Bag Guy: “Please describe your luggage sir.”

Me: “Uhmmmmm It’s a Raineer Beer box with sort of a lot of tape around it.”

Bag Guy: “What color is this box sir?”

Me: “Uhmmmmm It’s white and it has a big red R on it.”

Bag Guy: “Thank you sir.”

Me: “Also, there’s some fish in the box.”

Bag Guy: “Next.”

Also, I lost my hat but a really great guy with a giant mustache tracked me down and returned it.

We just got back from a terrific and exhausting time at Bumbershoot down in Seattle.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our little booth, we had a good opportunity to meet some neat people down there, and that is what really made the weekend worthwhile. If you ever find yourself in Juneau, stop by and say hi.

If you stopped by here looking for Bill’’s wonderful enamel pins that we had on display, you should shuffle on over to his site, WmSpear.com. Also, Sarah’s classy cards are more visible at the moment on her site SmackofJellyfish.com. Though they should be up for sale here shortly as well.