Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Shawn Smith, former video game journalist for EGM Magazine, and creator of the character design studio Shawnimals.

In the world of Shawnimals lies Ninjatown, featuring a wide selection of ninjas with their own unique story and design. Ninjatown has been everything from toys to videogames. You can even read about Ninjatown on your various Apple devices thanks to the Ninjatown: Adventures of Wee Ninja comic book App available in the iOS store.

I had the chance to talk to Shawn about his background, how Ninjatown came to be, and some of his favorite games from the past year.

For those not familiar with the world of Shawnimals or Ninjatown, could you tell me a little about its creation, as well as a little background information about yourself?

Shawn: Sure thing, Shawnimals is a character design studio that believes in the power of unbridled, astonishing, ridiculous joy. Each Shawnimal comes with its own story that starts in the Shawnimaland universe, but is then given over to you to continue each unique creature’s adventure in your own universe.

Our huggable friends appear as designer toys, lifestyle accessories, apparel, comic books, video games, and as anything that fosters companionship. We believe that the best artistic experiences are participatory and affordable, and that – with an open heart – friendship can happen between you and just about anything. Even facial hair.

We have a staff of four: Myself, my wife and biz partner Jen, Monte and Eric. And two rotating intern positions.

As for me: I’m the creative force behind Shawnimals, and started the company before I even knew it by watching cartoons, drawing pictures and playing video games as a kid.

Fast forward to my job at EGM magazine as a game reviewer (1996 – 2000), I made the difficult decision to leave and focus on my first love: Art and design. I had the opportunity to explore my various characters and the countless sketchbooks on my shelf filled with hundreds of unused characters. In a way, Shawnimals were born shortly after. Without a doubt I have pop culturally-inspired aesthetic: Simple, compelling character designs, strong narratives, and a healthy dose of humor. All of the stuff that makes great pop culture great.

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Infinity Field is a twin stick shooter for the iPad by Chillingo. If you aren’t familiar with a twin-stick shooter, it’s a genre of games where one stick controls the movement and the other controls which way you shoot. The most obvious twin-stick shooter to compare this game to is the popular Geometry Wars, thanks to the similar controls and graphics.

I love the attitude the developers had when making this game. There’s no dancing around the fact that it is a Geometry Wars clone. I like to think Chillingo just thought, “We really like this game. Let’s make it ourselves, but better,” because that’s exactly what they did. By all rights and purposes, this could be Geometry Wars 3.

The gameplay is hectic, to say the least. I was used to having a tactile response with a game controller, so the touch screen twin sticks took me a while to get used to. Once I did, though, I had a blast. Your ship moves with your left stick and you fire your lasers (pew pew) with the right stick.

As you complete levels and gain points, you can upgrade your ship type and weaponry to give you a bit more of an edge against the onslaught of malevolent shapes trying to kill you. Through trial and error, you will develop a few strategies and moves to help you survive the ever-increasing time limit. I’ve named mine:

• The Pinwheel
• The Perimeter Panic
• The Flying V
• Death Kite
• Bomb (This is just a bomb. I couldn’t be very clever with it)
• The Australian Flush

There are six game modes including snake, zombie, unarmed, and cruces mode (which I’m dubbing awesome mode, because it is) that you can play individually, or as part of a campaign with increasing difficulty and bosses. The campaign got so difficult at times I wanted to cry and throw my iPad at another iPad playing the same level in Infinity Field. Like any good arcade game, I would put the game down for a little while, only to revisit it and beat it on my first retry.

Infinity Field looks great, sounds great and plays great once you get used to the controls. I didn’t care that it wasn’t the most original game in the world because it turned out better than the game it was emulating. Don’t hold the fact that this looks like Geometry Wars against it. For $1.99, you can’t go wrong with this game.

Infinity Field is super fun, and we’re giving away a copy in the comments. All you have to do is tell me which shape you think is the most deadly.

Guest Post by Erica Maxwell

The groundhog says winter will shuffle off shortly, but I can still feel a draft in my living room and crunch the gray snow on my porch. Luckily, an Energy and Housing Fair in Kensington is offering some friendly green warmth for our cold, cold souls.

This free event on Saturday, February 19th is a joint venture between the Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Counsel and the New Kensington Development Corporation is a celebration of bringing affordable, renewable power to the people.

They’re offering weatherization workshops, free CFL light bulbs, recycling bins (especially helpful as these blue bins always seem to be sprouting legs and running away from home), and raffling tickets for programmable thermostats and tickets to the awesome Philadelphia Flower Show.

The energy company vendors will be on hand to explain Pennsylvania’s confusing deregulation of the industry and explain the available choices. This is a great opportunity to green up your home–or get out of the house without getting bitten by a groundhog.

Energy and Housing Fair
Saturday, February 19th, 11am – 3pm
Kensington Creative and Performing Arts School (Front and Montgomery)
Free!

Mystery, macabre, exhibition, and lore. Do all of these things sound appetizing to you? Well, then you’re probably going to fall head over heels for this year’s Wicked Faire!

So, what exactly is Wicked Faire? Some people call it a festival, some people call it a convention, but mostly it’s a playground for anyone who enjoys the finer things in life. Like corsets, steampunk, and Voltaire.

This year’s theme is Fairy Tales Gone Awry. Come dressed any (street-legal) way you want! Come ready to enjoy new things! Meet new people! Have insane amounts of fun!

Wicked Faire runs this February 18th – 20th at the Doubletree Hotel of Somerset, NJ. Advanced ticket sales are now closed, but you can still get your tickets at the door. Weekend tickets are $50 at the door; $30 for Friday, $40 for Saturday, and $15 for Sunday.

Wicked Faire
February 18th – 20th, 2010
www.wickedfaire.com

This weekend, our favorite museum (who many of you visited for Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus two weeks ago), is hosting a fabulous two day event in honor of dinosaurs. This annual fossil-filled festival, Paleopalooza, introduces kids of all ages to various rare fossils that are going to be on display for the first time ever.

Guests can look forward to talking with Academy paleontologists, “watch fossil preparators work on the bones of a massive titanosaur from Argentina, and enjoy live Dinosaur Train shows on the Academy’s stage.” Kids can get psyched for craft-making, interactive games, and… hot rod trilobite racing? Hm.

For full details on the events and happenings, visit the Academy’s official website.

Paleopalooza @ the Academy of Natural Sciences
February 19th & 20th, 2010
www.ansp.org/paleopalooza

Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 299-1009
www.ansp.org

For this week’s Comic Roundup, we look at the new direction for Adventure Comics, the beginning of The Death of Spider-Man in Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates and the passing of the creative torch in Batman and Robin.

Adventure Comics #523
By Paul Levitz and Phil Jimenez

Adventure Comics has had a tough time of it since its return in 2009. Originally intended as a home for Superboy, the title soon became part of the Superman New Krypton event and most recently showcased the early adventures of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Now, Levitz is joined by penciller extraordinaire Jimenez to introduce us to the new recruits at Legion Academy.

I’ll admit, when I first heard about the new direction it came across as another retread of the Avengers Academy/Teen Titans concept. And in a lot of ways, it is. We are introduced to the new class, all meeting some teenage stereotype typical of a comic like this. We have the spoiled rich kid, the tough one, the fish out of water and so forth. But once I actually read the issue, it seemed fresher and more interesting than I thought it would be. I can attribute this to two things. First, the 30th century makes a great setting for a book of this type. It has lots of fascinating things to see and do. And second, the artwork of Phil Jimenez. The man can draw! This is far and away the best looking comic I have seen in a long time.

Adventure Comics #523 is a good start for a new direction. If you are a fan of the Legion, you will pick this book up regardless. For the rest of you, there are definitely worse ways to spend $3 this week.

Final Grade: B

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Psyched for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds? You should be. Fans of the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 have only been waiting ten years for the incredibly hyped up sequel.

If you’re free tomorrow night, the guys down at Atomic City Comics are hosting a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 release party. Lady Gamers Online has the full scoop regarding the tournament. You can bring your own gaming stick, and if you want to participate in the tournament, entry is only $5. The competition kicks off at 6pm.

Good luck!

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tourmanent @ ACC
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
6pm – ?, $5 Admission

Atomic City Comics
638 South Street (19147)
www.bestphillycomics.com

The Romantic. From the first screening back in November 2009, to its appearance at the First Glance film Festival in October; I have been patiently waiting for the day everyone would be able to check out this great animated feature by the extremely talented Michael P. Heneghan.

Well, looks like I will finally get my wish. The film will be streamed and freely available on Vimeo today in honor of Valentine’s Day, and you can check it out here at theromanticmovie.com.  

The Romantic is a gorgeous feature length animated feature five years in the making and almost completely done by Philly native Michael P. Heneghan. It is a very complicated film so I will let the official synopsis speak for me:

Deep within a mythological world of autumn landscapes and wondrous creatures, a heartbroken young Romantic swears an oath to free his race from the omnipotent control of the otherworldly Gods. But as he ventures forth on his long and lascivious path, other forces conspire with their own agendas. For when all the gods are dead, who will sit upon their empty thrones? A fantastical satire on religion, responsibility, and romance, The Romantic bends genres into a haunting tale filled with humor and horror.

So check out this film online today and support a local filmmaker!

The Romantic
theromanticmovie.com

God of Love is a unique rom-com set in the modern day, with a touch of old 1940′s jazz cinema. Using inspiration from old black and white jazz photography, director Luke Matheny creates a classic feel while providing a modern day love story that everyone can enjoy.

The film follows a lounge-singing dart throwing champion, Raymond (Luke Matheny), and his desire to win the affection of Kelly (Marian Brock), who is tragically in love with his best friend Fozzie (Christopher Hirsh). His prayers are answered – quite literally – when he receives a mysterious package of passion inducing darts. Ray begins to use the darts in a loony scheme to resolve his romantic triangle.

Made as a thesis film for Luke’s MFA a NYU, God of Love has already received a number of prestigious film awards over the past year, and has recently been nominated for a 2011 Oscar.

Geekadelphia was able to speak with a producer of the film, Ryan Silbert, and ask him about his experiences making the film—and his feelings about the Oscar Nomination. Note that God of Love can be seen at The Ritz Bourse at 4th and Market/Chestnut this week!

Why don’t you tell us a little about Luke and producing God of Love?

It was a collaboration of all of his [Luke's] close friends at NYU. He really reached for something that was achievable for him as an actor, as a director, as a writer –and it was something that he really hit a home run with for a lot of reasons. He surrounded himself with his incredibly talented friends, first and foremost. It created a really amazing environment… for everybody to do their best work.

From his thesis to an Oscar Nom—that must be really exciting!

Yeah, and you know a lot of people do film-making in different ways. Some people want to make these action films as their shorts, and they try to develop a large scale feature hoping that they’ll shoot that right after school. Luke did it by the numbers and he did an amazing job of it. He really did an amazing job. Some people hire professional crews, and we had all of the best talent. Everybody there was –for the most part– were MFA students.

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Around Valentine’s Day last year, Abe Greenwald and company launched their site, The Man’s Guide to Love. Since then, The Man’s Guide to Love has been growing daily with new videos of men giving advice on love, relationships, and women in general. Abe was able to sit down with us to talk about Geek Love and his home city of Philadelphia.

Abe, it’s great to sit down with you. Let’s start by talking about your goal when you started The Man’s Guide to Love?

We wanted people to give their real advice but have some funny moments in there as well. For me, I want to have as broad a range as responses to the question as there are opinions from men. That’s one of my favorite things about it: people think that guys never think of love; never talk about it. I’ve been surprised at how many people have been like ‘yeah sure, I’ll give you my opinion on that’

So, Geek love is very special thing. There’s more of a passion and more of a connection between interests when two geeks are in love, so with that in mind, what kind of advice do you have for geeks who are in love and are trying to keep that spark?

Well there’s one great video that we were really happy to get picked up by io9 that my friend Jesse shot in the Seattle airport. It was about this great geek couple that met at a Live Action Role Playing event and in the video the demonstrate their cthulhu kisses to each other. I just love that moment.

That to me just summed up this great geek love between these two people who shared this great passion together and one of the things that I love about geeks and geek culture is this sense of being completely unashamed and comfortable with who they are and what they love. I think that came out really well in that video.

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So it’s been ten years since the devastating P1V1 virus swept the globe and left you in a post-apocalyptic zombie filled world. Life couldn’t get any worse, right? Oh—you’ve been bitten?

Well, that sucks. But you’re in luck! David P. Murphy has constructed the perfect Play and Werk Buk just for you!

Do you remember those Highlights Magazines when you were a kid? Well, what if it catered to the undead? David Murphy, author of Zombies for Zombies: Advice and Etiquite for the Living Dead, has compiled a fun filled activity book for your zombified pleasure!

Zombies for Zombies: The Play & Werk Book comes complete with comic book adventures, “Werd Surch”es, Tips for Undead Living, and “Ded Libz!” It’s sure to prevent your rotting brain from seaping out your ears by keeping it occupied with hours of activities

Geekadelphia had a chance to sit down with Murphy and ask him some undead questions.

Where did you get the idea for this lovely “Werk Buk”?

First of all, I’ve always respected the “werk” of the magazine, Highlights, and still pick it up at the newsstand whenever I can find it. For me, the stories are compelling and the puzzles challenging. Then one day I thought, hey, what that mag has done for me, I’d like to do for post-lifers.

So the Buk was my (and illustrator Daniel Heard’s) way of paying homage to that perky prepubescent publication along with putting a little love out there for the recently bitten. And apparently, our target demographic is enjoying it immensely. Why, I can’t tell you the number of heart-warming letters I get. I only wish they were legible.

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Let’s face it, Lara Croft–you know, the Tomb Raider?–has been on nearly every gaming platform since her debut on the original PlayStation in 1996. Since then, only about three games from the series were any good and, guess what, they were all on the same console she started her career on. After several iterations of the same gameplay and two lackluster movies, it’s only recently that developers have taken a fresh approach to arguably the most beloved woman in gaming.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iOS, although a thematic port of the recent release of the same name for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, has been made to fit the iPhone like a glove by Ideaworks Game Studio and Square Enix. From its use of touch controls to its comicbook-meets-old time photo story exposition, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a refreshing take on what Lara Croft started 15 years ago: the spirit of exploration.

Find more of our impressions of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iOS behind the cut. (more…)