Welcome to the all-new WoodenBlog, powered by WordPress and beautifully set up by my new friends at Amplifier. I’ve been adding images to customise the theme a bit and it’s turning out awesome. Before you go any further, subscribe now using the huge shiny ‘Subscribe’ button at the top right.

.. aw yeah and the Search doesn’t work yet, but we’re working on that.

So apart from the release of Waterlollies (which is well and truly live on Bitey Castle, Newgrounds AND YouTube) what has been keeping me busy?

BrackenShirts

As of right now, t-Shirts are available to buy directly from the Brackenwood Store. The design shown above, Bracken is now in its second run, being by far the most popular Bitey shirt design. Many more designs and styles are coming soon. They are Gildan shirts available in Heather (an earthy, dark grey with a hint of green) and Black. Choose from Mens and Ladies cuts.

Coming in the next few days, official Brackenwood mini-poster prints. Comment on this post with any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer.

Please note: As we’ve just opened for business, orders for new shirts will ship within 3 weeks. We’re taking pre-orders now for Christmas, so check out the gear. There is a tracking facility available for certain orders.

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I was holding off on making a new blog post in the hope that my next one would be the release announcement. However, we’re delayed again so I think an update is necessary.

I know some readers understand that this ain’t no drag-and-drop audio hack project, but 10 minutes of original orchestral score + full custom environmental soundscapes. Those people will wait patiently for another 2 months if necessary and still enjoy the movie when it’s released. To those people, thanks! Here’s a new screenshot:

If on the other hand, you are one of those who are increasingly irritated at the ongoing delays and demand an explanation, here it is:

The reason for this particular delay is the simple fact that part C is more than half of the movie. It’s greater than A and B put together. Because part C > (A+B), I don’t think any of us truly appreciate the sheer volume of work needed to fill Part C with audio. This is the reason my timeframe estimates consistently fall short.

Having said all this, the new estimate is as follows: Part C music will be finished by October 15 and the sound effects will be completed in the week that follows. Each time Nathan delivers audio to me, I make notes for changes, which are promptly seen to by him. This process usually takes an additional few days.

Therefore, we’re looking at Oct 15 + a week + a few days = Oct 25 (ish). Here’s how it will be released and who sees it first:

• Day 1 - send out Waterlollies to my preview list by email (industry people, journalists, bloggers, friends, family)
• Day 2 - Selected groups on the Brackenwood forum (Mods, Admin, MotM)
• Day 3 - Brackenwood forum, General members
• Day 4 - BiteyCastle.com front page announcement and WoodenBlog article
• Day 5 - released on Newgrounds.com

click image for full size

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TRAILER COMP SECURES SPONSOR
More info on this in a later update but for now, the makers of the fantastic Digital Pro software, ToonBoom Animation have kindly agreed to sponsor the upcoming Brackenwood trailer competition to celebrate the launch of the Brackenwood Store. This means that the grand prize-winner* will score a full commercial license of ToonBoom Studio v4.0. worth US $399.oo

Check out the personal learning edition and don’t forget to download the excellent tutorials.

*I say “grand prize” because there will be Brackenwood Store prizes for two runners up.

Files to be made available
To make it easier for you to create your Brackenwood trailer, I’ll be uploading chunks of my movies in .mov format and posting links for you to download and use those files.

Once the competition is under way, your entry should be uploaded to YouTube and the winner will be decided by community vote on the Brackenwood forum.

Some of you may be able to work without my .mov files and get a slight headstart (note - a headstart doesn’t gain you any real advantage, other than the time you have to work on your entry). Check out the first entry here.

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As always happens when you go live with a major project, the next few days are spent tweaking, fixing and changing stuff.

Since uploading BrackenSack I’ve been doing just that, which also happens to involve lots of playing. I’ve managed to get some good scores so I decided to capture the screen and post the video. The video below shows about a minute of my BrackenSack playing technique.. it’s shrunk way down but you can see the score.

Also there’s no sound in this unfortunately.. I couldn’t figure out how to make Camtasia capture my sound card audio.

Win a Prize: I’ll make a custom Bitey image for you.

I’d love to see other people’s videos of BrackenSack. I’ll make a forum sig or avatar for my favourite at the end of the month. Feel free to add your own sound, voices, subtitles, music or any kind of story. Host it on YouTube or googleVideo, send me the URL and I’ll blog the winner here.

Just a small competition to get the BrackenSack word out there ;)

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If you enjoyed Bitey of Brackenwood, I hope you like BrackenSack: the very first Brackenwood game, featuring Bitey and Fatsack.

Click the image to see the game: Coded from the ground up by the Brackenwood forum’s resident Actionscript (and everything else) Guru, Daniel “Vector” Kerr, I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

The object of BrackenSack is kinda like what it sounds (think hacky-sack). You play as Bitey, trying to keep Fatsack in the air by bouncing him off your head.. just like in the movie. You don’t get to slam him off into the distance with a stick though - maybe in a future version of the game :D

BrackenSack also has World Rankings for the categories of Rank (quality of play) and Height Records (how high you hit Fatsack). Soon I’ll announce prizes for the best scores too.. I’m giving away two Heraldic-style Brackenwood t-shirts. One for the highest ranked player, and one for the Height record.

Watch the instructions movie first (built into the game) and go to it - -And more importantly, please make frequent use of the ‘Send to a Friend’ link on the BrackenSack page!

Oh yeah, and check out this awesome video review from The Daily Crumb:

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