Thursday, September 11, 2014

Naughty Dog Memories

Naughty Dog had a huge influance on me as a gamer and an artist.

First let me introduce my self, am Zaid M Jawad Al-Shaheed born in 1987, Baghdad city, Iraq

the first game I came across was Crash Bandicoot, everyone loved this game but for me it didn't interest me that much, played it but wasn't a big fan like other friends of mine, but always liked the introduction when it screams NAUGHTY DOG! CREACTION!, that was awesome and of course the AKU AKU mask was so freaking cool!

but now I will take about the game that has a huge impact on me and introduced me to what am doing now ( trying to be a game designer and game artist )

It was march 20th 2003, I was in senior high ( 8th grade ) I came back home from school and my elder brother came from the market saying he brought a new game that just came in the market, and it was Jak&Dexter, he told me take it easy with the game and don't finish it quickly.

so I started the game around 3PM in the afternoon and I was thinking if I should do my home work or start playing, so of course the game was about the run and I decided to have a look see since I was excited to see what this new game is with the cool two characters on the cover.



the moment that game started I forgot about homework! and it just pulled me in, after 3 hours of game play my mother asked me if I did my home work and I told her I didn't, so she yelled at me and told me to start studying!

I was about to turn off the game after a couple of shouts from my mother but than! here comes the siren! the air strike siren! mean war has start and that means no school tomorrow! OUH GOD YES! I did not care about war is going to happen, what will happen to us! all I cared about was Jak and Dexter, I kept on playing and playing and I didn't sleep that day, since my whole family was awake worried.

 I was playing and just didn't care of what is happening around me, until next morning I finished it! in one go, non stop! I loved every minute of it and enjoy its exploration and challenges, a game that will stick with me forever, a game that distracted me from possible death! XD

you wonder why it changed my life? I will tell you why!

I can't remember exactly the date, but it was around 12 years ago? or 11? not sure, but San Anderas GTA was already out, why do I remember, cause it was a gameinformer with GTA SA cover, that Magazine techniqually had a huge impact on where I am and what am doing now.

flipping through it's pages and I came across this piece of art by Bob Rafei, the character designer of Jak and Dextor, it just captured me, and it was the time am like I wanna draw this!




I checked through his advice regarding character design and it was simple yet super important points to design a visually expressive character design.

and when I started to draw, most of my male characters had that pose and still draw that pose LOL! I still have that magazine but it is not with me now, I would have scanned that article. 


If I didn't know Jak Dexter I wouldn't have known Bob Rafei, and I wouldn't have been an artist :)

Thank you Naught Dog for Shaping my life! 


Peace! 

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