Last week Brad and Ryan brought the painting to Detroit and showed it at Detroit Fanfare (a big comic book convention held downtown) and TEDxDetroit. It is awesome!

The painting is currently in my living room and available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, bachelor parties, and any showing occasion. Seriously, it should get around. If you know of a venue in the city that would like to temporarily display it (or a possible perfect permanent home), it's quite a thing, and completely open for intra-city travel. Coffee shops, galleries, parties, lobbies, you name it.

Here are (L - R) Brad and Ryan with the painting at TEDx:

And here's RoboCop actor Peter Weller checking it out at Detroit Fanfare (he's an art head, and when he heard about it he hopped right into a golf cart and cruised over from his area at the other end of the hall -- very cute and awesome :-))

Stay tuned for updates on the game version which Brad is working on...

Jerry

Ryan recently finished his painting of "The Spirit of Detroit Vs The Blight", and Brad is working on the game. Have a look!!! http://bit.ly/pTku4O

Thank you so much again, everybody!

Last week I (Jerry here) was in San Francisco with Larry for a few days (Mary was holding it down in Detroit) where we got to spend time in person catching up with Brad, the game designer, who was visiting a mutual friend (waddup, Christian). Much brainstorming went down which was passed back and forth with Ryan, the painter, and some very good things have emerged. 

Here's the latest scoop. Note that all scoops are subject to change at the artists' whims, but this is the latest working direction, funneled through my own interpretation. 

The overall concept that Ryan and Brad are attracted to is "The Spirit of Detroit Vs The Blight" (suggested by project backer, Michelle), with a twist. The Spirit of Detroit (based on the real life statue) and The Blight (an amalgamation of rotten architecture, cancerous vacancy, and sinister decay) are larger than life titans, battling Godzilla-style over the City of Detroit. 

Crowded around them are a roster of characters from historical and present day Detroit, incorporating your suggestions. Ryan's painting is going to clock in at a whopping 48" x 70" -- 4 feet tall by almost 7 feet wide(!) -- so there's going to be some room to work with.

As for the game, try this on for size. While the game could be played as a regular Mortal Kombat-style 2 player game where players choose a side and fighting rounds last a minute or so, we've been brainstorming something wilder and more epic.

Imagine that instead of a minute, the game clock lasts a whole month. And imagine rather than a regular sized health bar, The Spirt and The Blight both have, say, 1 million hit points (or something HUGE). When you arrive on detroitvspainting.com you'll automatically assume control of The Spirit or one of the characters on the ground, and when you click The Blight, you'll take off hit points. Meanwhile, for every unit of time that passes (say, 10 seconds) The Blight attacks The Spirit automatically, inflicting damage. 

Suddenly it's not about 1 person fighting The Blight at a time, it becomes something that many people have to participate in to accomplish. And, The Spirit can die if people don't help.

What's more, imagine that you were able to buy special attacks. Like, for $1 The Spirit performs a move that does more damage, and for $10, $100 and up it unleashes crazier, stronger, more visually impressive attacks against The Blight. Brad has been developing his own game engine from scratch, giving him full customization controls, so it's possible that when you put money into an attack, your name shows up on the screen saying something like "Sarah attacks The Blight for X damage!" and you get an animated movie of your attack to keep and proudly share. The funds generated would then be put towards some positive goal or organization in Detroit.

So, a killer oil painting turned into a collective action fundraising game experience that accomplishes something real in Detroit. Does that make sense? Of course it does. :-)

Ryan is getting ready to dig into the painting now, so if you have any more character suggestions please post them now! And look out for more updates in the days ahead. 

Thank you again for becoming a backer of Detroit Vs Painting! The price of your ticket will surely be worth the ride we're all on.

Team LOVELAND & Friends

Happy weekend, Detroit Vs Painting backers!

Here's the scoopsauce:

This Kickstarter ends in 8 hours, and when it does I'll enter everyone's name into a spreadsheet and share it between us and the artists.

The spreadsheet is where we can all easily see and submit ideas for characters, landscapes, moves, easter eggs, and all things creative direction.

If you have friends and peeps that you want included in this process, please share the project link with them right now and let them know today is the last day: http://kck.st/mCNaaj .

While we're technically at our fundraising goal, we'll be putting additional funds into Ryan and Brad's work, and more backers equal more ideas. Even a dollar qualifies someone to join the creative army.

OK! Many thanks and have an awesome Saturday,

Jerry & Your Friends At LOVELAND

Joe from Zelda and the Unibrows has backed this project and is stepping up to do the soundtrack and sound effects for the Detroit Vs Painting video game. 

This is great news!

If you haven't heard Zelda and the Unibrows, they're awesomely anomalous in the Detroit music scene. Mixing elements of 8-bit chip-tunes (think: Nintendo Entertainment System bleepy bloops), beautiful Philip Glass-like fractaly compositions, and a seasoning of Weird Al-esque comedy, the soundscape is sure to be a work of art all its own.

Here's their latest track, "How I Lost My Body": http://youtu.be/rMnnUfGlguA

Here's their filmic opus, "Unreason": http://youtu.be/pBPq0CStFx4

And their Detroit suburbs meets Detroit city classic, "City Kids": http://youtu.be/o_lci3KcKKc

Thank you, Joe, and thank you again, backers. In tomorrow's update I'll include a compilation of all character and landscape suggestions so far.

Psyched!

The short link for sharing the Detroit Vs Painting project with your friends is http://kck.st/mCNaaj .

Spread the love and have fun out there,

Jerry & Your Friends At Team LOVELAND