Pixel Art;
I AM BACK! Roareye is back in the pixel art saddle and he's brought a brand new lighting technique with him. Currently in my dA gallery is the Gimmick Mountain BG I'm working on. Well keep your eyes peeled for a completed version of that. Current updates are a yellow light, a red light (Actually in the bg of the original level), purple rocks dissolving into the background blueness. Not only do these things exist, but they all work together to create the new lighting effect. The central pillar has been given dashes of yellow and red, the floor of the cylinder and the side wall have the light effect and I'm simply working on the surrounding rocks. There are already 15 rocks, but I'll have to roughly double that >.< However the new lighting effect has made a really sexiful wet rock texture.
I will be adding: Another light source to the top left, the dual-pillars on the front right with some more lighting and the bottom left will have either the tube-platforms (ewww >.< or I'll find something.

Syndicate Prime;
I've got the story for the fifth and final installment of the series (At least in it's current form, but I'm going to make 5 and then look into my other projects), and it's the most epic of all the stories. Which is good for a penultimate ending book
I've named all the novels already and also been adding more depth storylines to each book (Such as a courtroom drama side to Book 2, a deeper and darker relationship between SideWinder and McCalibre in Books 2 and 3 to name only two). Here's the naming list (The names mean something related to the story btw);
Book 1: Syphecode Alpha
Book 2: Symbiotic Psychosis
Book 3: Saint's Fall
Book 4: Beaten Philosophy
Book 5: Burnout Wreckshido

On the subject of other books that I'll write after Syndicate Prime, I have these;
Cosmic Latitude - previously called Power Cosmic, but renamed cos it sounded better. This is a Sci-Fi with a cool atmosphere which enables you to step back and judge humanity from a unique perspective.
Konsortium - A co-writing job with a real life friend of mine. Konsortium is a near-future sci-fi action book that's more cerebral than most. The main characters are basically chess pieces in a game between a long dead man and a computer.
Love Remembers - A romance novel with some subtle dark edges. After seeing The Notebook and several events occuring with me and my girlfriend, I felt in the mood to create a more romantic plotline. Another key to this is that Syndicate Prime originally included several relationships which are no longer shown (Some are referred to) or no longer occur as they were fluff and removed the extremely cold biting edge the novels. And yes, I missed writing romantic scenes >//_//<
Brothers In Arms (tentative title) - WWII novel, set around a small group of soldiers fighting for their lives in France near the tail end of the war. Another angle in this book is that it will also focus on the emotional and hard-working (to the detriment of their health usually) women of London who often got horrible diseases or died in the servitude of their husbands in the battlefield.

Summer of Sonic;
This event was awesome! We had a freaking fantastic time. Want to say that Helenbaby, Vger, H Hog, Hannah Echidna, Siriku, AAUK, Dread, Urtheart and the likely hoardes of others I've missed all ROCK. We had such a fantastic blast, and theevent itself, the nightclubbing with you guys, the next day in the pub... pure heaven. THAT, ladies and gentleman, is what Summer of Sonic is all about. Friends meeting, and spending time together having fun. If you came just for the guests, the games or the superficial stuff then you missed the point entirely and it's your loss. Summer of Sonic is an event for you guys to meet and greet, and hopefully you all enjoyed it ^_^

Roareye Black.

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Syndicate Prime is banging along nicely I'm onto Chapter 12 now, with each later Chapter being considerably longer than Chapters 1 and 2 have been. That may seem a bit oddly paced, but the purpose of the first several chapters must be to suck in a reader's attention. Once they are setlled in nicely, you can then bang on with more detail and longer Chapters because once an audience is engaged they will gladly lend more of their time to your book. Not heard alot of feedback on the novel, I'll be honest, and Chapter 1 pettered out at 24 page views and one comment. Still, that's to be expected. DeviantArt isn't exactly a literary culture (Short-sharp one-look stuff is more it's flavour, I'm as guilty of that as anyone else too!). I shall plod on regardless.


As for my reveal, my mind is currently formulating a more fleshed out story for my two-year long concieved Sci-Fi project. Tentatively titled "The Power Cosmic" (Though I'm still not set on the name), it is set in the mid-late 2000s (Sort of 2065 region) after constant economical crisis has shattered the boundaries of peace. After long term conflicts and mostly cold-wars between different cultures, a final peace keeping solution is created - the first Universal Space Program. The Moore is built in space at the International Space Station (Currently being built in orbit IRL) to allow for heavyweight parts to be installed (Whereas these parts would make for problematic take-offs and landings). This means the ship can only orbit planets, not land, where small landing craft must be deployed. The Moore was built and sent on it's way, the mission to begin assessing the colonisation of other worlds began... and then the Moore disappeared. Cultural and political friction is blamed among a panic-stricken Earth and quickly a new craft is funded.
Ten years later the ship, 5-Crew replacement craft "Hawkins" is complete. As political and cultural issues reach boiling point on Earth, the craft is launched to continue the mission the Moore failed to accomplish.

The concept behind the series is to show an alien light on humanity. How humanity as a group is primitive, savage, and yet when seperated becomes brave and honourable. Friction in a group is one interesting angle (However I am exploring this in Syndicate Prime already), the unique spin for "Power Cosmic" over my other works is it's other-worldly factor. The writing will show Earth, very much like today, as shocking and unreal, simply by asking "If you could live in solitude or on Earth, what would you choose?". Without spoiling key aspects to the book, the real question spanning it is looking at how wonderful humanity is with it's technical prowess and inventive skill, and then how horrific and unstable we are by viewing our petty struggles and ignorant hatred together in one clash. Would you be honoured, or disheartened to call yourself human?

Do you guys like the idea of Power Cosmic? If so, can you think of a more catchy name (Power Cosmic sounds a bit too girly, I want something edgy that stands out). Any comments about Syndicate Prime are also welcome... yes I really am pining for feedback XD

Roareye Black.

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Chapter 1 recieved only one response, however it had a very important criticism - lack of character detail. The streets, the atmosphere and the story were laid down, and by feedback these were well recieved.
This was not the result of ill writing as such, it is a simple error left in by the story originally being script. The details do exist, and are certainly thorough enough. I am going to update the posted Chapter 1 with these details to give it that missing bit of polish.

But I'm not just stopping there with character design. The character designs were sent (In some depth) to the artist I've selected to do the artwork for Syndicate Prime. This story, in my mind, requires a unique feel. At least that's what I'm trying to write. I modern day crime novel with the feel of a sci-fi novel without ever straying from reality and the plausible. A strange mix for sure. So the artwork has to reflect this unique look, and I've found an artist I believe to be perfect for the job.


Eye of Vogler is an artist who has a very varied and very vivid collection of artwork. Alot of graffiti style art really fits in wit the downtown lower east side of New York, however the artwork for Syndicate Prime is going to be slightly different (And personally I can't wait to see the results).
[link]
This was the piece of artwork in his collection that caught my eye, but instead of fixing mostly on the graffiti-art aspect of the drawings, I requested a darker sci-fi feel with added focus on depth and colour scheme. So far he has had 5 character descriptions sent his way. Some I can say, one I'd rather not spoil.

I'll give a VERY short breakdown of the character descriptions, but EyeOfVogler has more complete ones (And they'll be written into the novel)
Lowestowe - Clean and calculated, black shirt, white suit jacket and dark jeans. Medium long brown hair
Phelps - Green t-shirt with unbuttoned blue shirt worn messily, brown suede jacket and scruffy jeans, black spiked hair
Loftbauger - Red shirt and tie, tucked into black suit trousers, dark blue eisenhower-ike jacket (Police jacket) with no insignia, blonde middle-parted hair
Rampart - WW2 British army jacket with American 82nd Airborne Division patch on left arm, white camoflage trousers, brown military cut long flat-top/spikes

That covers the characters mentioned in Chapter 1 to tide you over for the update and Chapter 2 (coming very very soon too).

Roareye Black.

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Hey dawgs, how are ya hanging? With me? Life is goooood I'm still with the fine lady, it's been nearly 9 months and we're stronger than ever. The Rozza B is all loved up.
But away with cute love-dovey cutesy wutesy bullshat, this journal is me posting happy happy thoughts... in a way. lol Positive news basically.

I'm back, after months of my PC being dead it hath returned from repair. And now I've got all my backed up shizzle on here I can finish releasing the new SSN (Down for so long due to said computer death) as well as looking at starting new pixel art (The Netbook I made the last one on really wasn't as comfy to use as I thought after long periods of time) but most importantly I'm heading deep into novel writing.

Evolved from my old CUTN series (Which in itself evolved from a Sci-Fi story from when I was 14), Syndicate Prime is a deep emotional rollercoaster wrapped in a rich and dark underworld of a crime thriller. You can expect the crimes of drug dealing, money laundering and even assassination, but the deep focus of this story is more on the characters themselves and how the events they create shape their lives. The overall ideology is a group of people who use stolen money earned from murder, try to create the Syndicate as a positive force for equality within America. However the brutal reality of the criminal underworld soon spirals events out of the group's control, and in the end they become the biggest victims of the negative force they created. The age old story of no negative is positive, and how you victimise yourself through your life choices.

The novels will be a series, I'm looking at up to 5. I don't want to stretch the series out of ideas, however I know that I have 3 set books for definate. I'm going to see if I can condense what I have into the three books or if it will require more, however the choice to extend past 3 books will not be made lightly. Each book is tightly packed with inter-woven plotlines which all build up to the climax of each novel. Each book can be read on their own, even though they use established characters, however for best effect it is best to start with Book 1.

I'm looking for artists to create artwork of each character, and also a book cover style artwork. Suggestions welcome I'm happy to pay for art, I'm not expecting freebies.
The first novel is over a quarter complete, which stands at roughly 80 book pages so far (Which should average the book out at 340 pages). Each book will have a sub-name of course to distinguish them. And I'll be posting up a taster of it here soon

Prepare for the new novel by Rory Joscelyne;
Syndicate Prime: Syphecode Alpha

Roareye Black.

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What a difficult subject. In an effort to reboot the franchise, Paramount turned to acclaimed director J.J. Abrams to create a back-to-its-roots Star Trek movie. A movie designed to remove the off-putting complexities of the more recent series and films, breathe new life into the series and make the Star Trek world incredibly enticing for people otherwise not interested in the franchise.

This makes it hard, y'see the company has broken the golden rule of marketing. NEVER go for the audience you'll never ever win over, you're wasting time and money for a revenue you'll never make back. However, using this goal as a guide, the film is highly successful. IT removes the techno-babble, it removes the thick lore and history of Star Trek, trimming it back to the memorable characters and throwing in much more epic action sequences to really make the package much more enticing. To someone with a potent dislike of Star Trek, this film is incredibly open and very very fun to watch. This means it achieves its goal. However will it make fans out of those new audience members? Most likely not, but that remains to be seen. If that audience doesn't come, or come back, this film will already be a failure.

However onto what a fan wants (Being a big big fan myself). One of Abrams' goals was to not just open Star Trek up, but to create a memorable tale for long term Trek fans to love and adore. What's not to like afterall, it's the ORIGINAL CREW all back in action to kick some major ass!? Well... actually there is a huge amount not to like.

First of all, this is a refresh. And yet in comes Leonard Nimoy AS the original Spock. First major issue. This film rewrites the entire of Trek Lore (Or more accurately, shits on it and throws it away). As a key example, the planet Vulcan is destroyed forever and completely gone, and Spock's mum is dead. Bit of a major change that, and a good example of how much they threw away. And for your information, yes that IS a permanent change. Now if you were to consider this a total refresh, doing away with the old and in with something fresh and new, that would be fine. Except it's now NOT something totally fresh and new, cos the original Spock is in it. That means to create this alternate reality you have to purposely destroy the entire of Star Trek. You're not just building a new reality, you're physically ripping apart the original one. That is a big big mistake. And massive major error number 1.

Massive major error number 2, who the fuck are these enemies? Romulans? Don't think so somehow, don't look like it. Why is every Romulan tattooed if they're supposed to be the ones from the original continuity? That dun make sense. They're also on a mining vessel, which is heavily armed (apparently with no upgrades for these armaments which makes no sense) which includes no Remens. Again this ship is supposed to be from the original continuity, where original Spock comes from, yet it is totally wrong. The ship doesn't even look Romulan, but it does look Remen. Someone took a 5 minute look at Nemesis and based everything off of that, seemingly confusing Romulans and Remens and ending up making neither in the process. Fail.

Massive Error number 3, Uhura and Spock romance. Now this in itself would have been okay, I could accept it and find it a cool addition, except it was done pathetically. Snogging in front of all staff before going on an away mission? Spock wouldn't do that! Nor would Uhura actually. As an almost unspoken but tense undercurrent romance it would have been perfect, but as a blatant snog-off as it was it was ridiculous and totally ruined Uhura's character. In fact its a testiment to how badly the entire film was written.

Massive Error number 4, the directing of action scenes. Now most of the scenes were well directed, but especially by the end of the film the action scenes got lame. Not because they weren't well planned, I loved the ideas they had. But the direction was terrible. Too much camera movement, horrific employment of the evil wobblycam meant that alot happened and I witnessed... fuck all =\ You may as well have not shot the bloody action scenes if I can't see them, while it's not as shoddily done as Quantum of Solace the principle is that I can't see any action so why actually bother? You're wasting my time and the studio's money to achieve nothing.

Massive Error number 5, casting was hit and miss. Kirk, Spock, Uhura and McCoy were all spot on. Couldn't fault them as performers, they were entirely believeable. In fact Chekov wasn't bad either, and Sulu was passable. Then there's Pike and Scotty, who were uber epic fail. Pike was far too old for the part, didn't look like Pike and didn't even have Pike's build or maneurisms, he was a total waste of time and although a good actor, was not a good Pike. Scotty was a choice I thought was superb at first, one of the key reasons to see the film, and ended up being rubbish. While alot of this can be attributed to script (which I'll get to in a minute) the fact is that his portrayal of Scotty is all wrong. Scotty was a guy who studied and knew his engines thoroughly inside and out, taking all oppertunity to learn. His comedy was dry and incidental (Such as Trouble with Tribbles where punishing him by confining him to quarters was a benefit to him for his brushing up on tech journals) not bland bravado as shown here. And don't even get me started on that fucking little cunt thing that followed him about. A blatant attempt to appeal to the Gollum/shitheadfromHarryPotter fans from Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, this character was a total insult to being in Star Trek. He made no sense and should have been ejected by any writer/director with any intelligence.

But the most major issue of all was the script. What a waste. Previously mentioned original Spock aside there was alot to deteste in this script. For one my girlfriend has zero interest in Star Trek, and she was put off and confused by the time paradox Spock issue. This means the whole point of this new film (to attract non-fans) has failed. The time paradox was needless and confusing without cause, as it was the only way to restore balance to the shit writing and yet was never exploited for that cause.
There was Uhura's terribly written romance with Spock, there were missing people in Kirk's life (Decker, Gary, Finnigan etc), Kirk's brother Sam is missing quite blatantly, destroying Vulcan is a pathetic idea, Starfleet wouldn't allow Kirk to just "hop aboard" a transport ship without going through Academy. If your dad is a Commando, you don't just hop yourself on the next transport to Iraq and take command, how fucking badly written is that? The addition of characters was bad, how did a 17 year old Chekov manage to become bridge staff over 25 year old academy cadets? Or how did he suddenly become transporter wizzkid when he never showed any of this get-up-and-go in the Original Series? Why is Scotty not actually showing an interest in electronics, instead shagging some little buttmunch child-molesting goblin? Why original Spock at all? Why was the Romulan leader so bland and pointless (If he wanted to destroy Earth etc, take his ship to Romulas to build a fleet of ships from the technology, DUH), and why did none of his crew say "Sorry, I don't think it's clever to pilot our ship into a black hole", oh no they all went along with it very happily. Why was Pike in a wheelchair at the end when his legs were untouched, and when was the truth bug removed from his mouth? Why would you leave a 17 year old Ensign Chekov in charge of the bridge? Why choose the Romulans as enemies to begin with, when the Klingons are a much better enemy (And it's clearly not for continuity purposes as they shat all over that already!)?

But the writing's key problem is that despite the idea of "going-back to it's roots", Abrams new film has done just the opposite. It has in fact removed the very thing that makes Star Trek the entity it is today, and that is moral story. At no point through this film at all was there any hint of emotional or moral undercurrent. The brilliant turmoil of Next Gen's "The Measure of a Man", Voyager's "Real Life", Deep Space Nine's "For The Uniform", The Original Series' "The Doomsday Machine" or "Turnabout Intruder" or even the Movies "The Wrath of Khan" or "The Undiscovered Country"? All the best episodes (And those are but a small few) have a deep emotional or moral meaning behind them, in fact all the best sci-fi and indeed any stories include that undercurrent. That degree of high calibre writing, the tackling of moral or emotional ideals, has been at the heart of Star Trek since day one. Indeed many of the episodes written by Roddenbury himself are heavily centred on the conquering of our preconceptions, prejudices and moral insecurities to help humanity push itself forwards. Was that in this film? NO. The closest we got was Kirk basically fucking about at the end with "we could try and save him and make peace with Romulas", "I'll never give up to you", "Blast him" happy ending. SHIT. The romance and quality of writing is on par with American Ninja, and that's no joke.

Now this isn't because I'm averse to them rejigging Star Trek for new audiences. Indeed, this film got my tastebuds going alot. The idea of fresh blood in the body of Star Trek, the focus on adventure and action, the fresh set of moral tales that could grip me and entertain me all at once. Unfortunately this didn't happen. There was no adventure, no morality tale and much of the action was obscured by jigglycam. The majority of the actors were fantastic, the ship and CGI was beyond impressive and some of the sets were brilliant but the core of the film was missing. This isn't even as good as The Final Frontier, at least that had the feel of Star Trek behind it. This had it sorely missing. Compare this to Wrath of Khan and that 28 year old movie had better writing, better direction, better action and deeper meaning than this film even began to touch. That's because this is Baby Trek, Star Trek for people with little intelligence and a lack of respect for finely tuned and well sculpted storylines, the High School Musical Crowd. Sure Abrams threw us a bone now and then with a few throwbacks, but it was too little and some of it (Pike in the wheelchair) was downright embarassing.

The film earns a bad 4/10 from me, and most of that is because it has a brilliant graphical polish. Considering I paid £130 to get the original series and original films pre-ordered on Blu-Ray on release day (And so you know all but Motion Picture look fantastic on Blu-Ray, well worth your money), what are the chances of me buying this on Blu-Ray? Well... this means alot coming from me (I pay ungodly amounts of money for stuff, £100 headphones and £280 radio for example) but I'm going to get this on Blu-Ray when it gets knocked down to about £10 maybe. When it's cheap and in the bargain bin. It's not good enough to be a worthy purchase. Now excuse me while I go watch my Fifth Element Blu Ray

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