Tumblr Rulz: Shitstarter - The Graveyard For Failed Kickstarters

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak about games on Kickstarter for the Philadelphia IGDA monthly meeting. We discussed personal success (LangGuini - 245% funded) as well as local success (Auditorium Duet - 118% funded, Velociraptor Cannibalism - 916% funded and still going), and we also discussed personal failure (my project Famous Missions that died at 10% of it's goal).

I've learned so much from that failure, and started looking at what people do right, and what people do wrong with their project campaigns. But you may notice that Kickstarter does a great job of keeping the unsuccessful / poorly made projects hidden away. You won't find any of them by looking at the curated Kickstarter favorites pages, or at the front of any of the category pages. You'll need to search by name or dig deep into the archives of thousands of projects.

Luckily, now we have Shitstarter, a fairly new tumblr site that showcases failed Kickstarter projects. They do all of the hard (and torturous) work for you, by finding the best of the worst.

Here's a gem:

“WE DIDN’T HAVE THE MONEY FOR A MICROPHONE BECAUSE WE SPENT IT ALL ON THIS TERRIBLE THEME SONG”

GOAL: $5,000
BACKERS: 6
TOTAL PLEDGED: $335

“Think of it as This Old House meets Ghostbusters.”

Source: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1279009184/seekers-of-the-paranormal

More over at http://shit-starter.tumblr.com/

Tumblr Rulz: Pixel Art by Sixteen Bits

I found Sixteen Bits while gathering art for my previous article The Art of Wrestling. And what find it was. 

Sixteen Bits has been creating pixel art of.. well, basically every character ever created. His style reminds me of the face-forward background characters (NPC's) in an old school RPG. Somehow he was able to capture each characters unique facial expressions using just a few varying pixels.

Watchmen

Party Down

Doctor Who - The Eleven Doctors

Click through the jump for many more. There are characters from Beetlejuice, Pulp Fiction, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Tim Burton / Joel Schumaker Batman villains, Star Wars, a ton of wrestlers from the early 1980's, and my favorite... 108 Lost characters (which I couldn't remember more than half of, so I guess it's time to start from the beginning again.)

Sunday Morning Tumblr Timewater of the Day

Given that we're in Marchmania mode here, this image, posted on Thusday at one of my favorite Tumblrs, Special Bored, seemed appropriate to share. The Tumblr is by Sean Berthiume of Vinny's Pizza in Brooklyn, NY - a new board is posted daily with the specials of the day revolving around the subject of the artwork. So whether you want a Sausage Link to the Pasta or The Chipnotoad, you'll know you've come to the right place.

Tumblr Rulz: Magic Cards With Googly Eyes!

Forget all of the new(ish) abilities like Hexproof, Shroud, and Deathtouch... the only thing that Magic the Gathering needs to spice things up is a couple of GOOGLY EYES!

More of these after the jump. All of them can be seen at: http://magiccardswithgooglyeyes.tumblr.com

Tumblr Rulz And So Do iPhone Whales

There are so many good Tumblr accounts. I've been posting links as I've seen them, but I'm going to go ahead and make it a regular thing here at Fruitless Pursuits. I've mentioned it behind the scenes a few times (in our secret contributor underground lair), but the Tumblr account that I was just shown is forcing me to put my new column into effect immediately!!

It's called Tumblr Rulz and today we are featuring iPhone Whales. And, like I did, you may ask... "What exactly is an iPhone Whale?"

This is an iPhone Whale.

Many more after the jump, and all of them can be seen at http://iphone-whale.tumblr.com/.

Kim Jong-Il Dropping The Bass

Oh how funny a little Photoshop can be! Just throw a bundled up Kim Jong-Il into some DJ shots, and it's instant hilarity.

A bunch more at: http://kimjongildroppingthebass.tumblr.com/

And now for a completely un-Photoshopped image of Kim Jong-Il's funeral. This man does not mess around. Even in death.

Smears, Multiples and Other Animation Gimmicks

There are very few Tumblrs I look at regularly. In fact, so few it might actually be just this one. My wife very briefly had this one, which she should be encouraged to resurrect.

What was I saying? Oh right, so there's a technique in animation called 'smears' where the animated character/whatever is blurred to exaggerate movement, but of course you see the frame for a fraction of a second and all of the frames run together and you don't register some really crazy drawings made by animators.

Well this wonderful Tumblr, Smears, Multiples and Other Animation Gimmicks, posts these bizarre images. Here are a few of my favourites, but do head over there and check out the full collection.

 

This is the best thing.