Hey there. Been a while since we hung out, so here’s a quick update on what’s happening at Genkii.

Genkii is going through some significant changes, and we figured you might want to know about some of them.

• Genkii’s team is distributed around the world now, and we’ve all got additional gigs happening, so we’re not actively pursuing as many internal projects as a team. Consider it a hiatus, or a hibernation, or something like that. In other words: we will all likely work together on a variety of projects, but not all of them will be Genkii-specific. We’ll keep you updated here and/or Twitter and Facebook.
• Sparkle IM is now free in the App Store! Anyone who doesn’t have it, go get it. Still send us your feedback and stay tuned for further news.
• One Coin Comics is moving slowly, but isn’t dead. We’ve all just been consumed by other projects and that pesky “need to make money to eat” thing. Foxfire #1 is still free in the App Store. Further issues (and other titles) are still in the works, and we’ll keep you informed about them here and/or at One Coin Comics, Twitter, and Facebook.
• Other apps we were working on are also in various stages, and we’ll update you as they happen.
• We’ll try to update you on what Genkii people are doing, but we’re all crazy busy. Sorry we’re so slow.

That may have raised more questions than it answered, but there it is.

So, keep in touch and we’ll try to do the same.

-Ken

Hey Everyone!

It’s been awhile since the last update of Sparkle IM.  We apologize for the silence.  We have a lot of updates in progress, and we will start rolling them out as we finish them.  Expect many more updates in the near future, and please keep giving us great feedback!

Here’s what’s new in Sparkle IM 1.3.4:

• Avatar Appearance – No more clouds! However, if you like being a cloud, you can disable this in the settings.
• Profile Pictures added to the profile view.
• Born on date added to the profile view.
• Add IM sound and vibrate alerts (You can disable this in settings if you like to be stealth)
• Added Settings Screen (in app).  As we add more features, you will be able to customize things through this screen.
• Handle secondlife:// URLs.  If you click on a slurl, it will now open up Sparkle IM and set your login location to that of the slurls.
• Added Opensim Grids to the services list.  Even though you can add your own custom connection, we are making it easier for users of popular Opensim grids to get set up.
• Bug Fixes – We’ve improved the stability of our CMV library used to connect to Second Life, and Opensim.  We will continue to improve the quality so you can always expect speed and reliability from Sparkle IM.

You can find the updated version of Sparkle IM here.

You can expect another update shortly with some more features on the way!  Thank you all for your continued support, helping us make a great virtual worlds client on the iPhone!

I’m writing this post from San Francisco, just after TechCrunch 50, in a region that’s constantly abuzz with talk about new ventures and ideas in technology.

Though Genkii is based in Tokyo, our team is also comprised of people in the US and Switzerland. We are focused on being an international company, all of us travel quite a bit, and we are quite happy to be thought of as citizens of the world.

Now we’ve taken another step and set up a US company based in Portland, Oregon.

There are many reasons why Portland is a cool place to live and work – or at least visit. I’ll add to that Entrepreneur Magazine naming Portland the 2nd best city in the US to be an entrepreneur, a staggering number of beers, wines, and coffees, fabulously active music, art, film, and tech scenes, and Oregon’s long-standing connection to Asia – particularly Japan. Portland is competitively priced, a great place to live, and close to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver BC, and a direct flight to Tokyo.

Moving our headquarters to the US west coast is important for several reasons. Ideas don’t come from just one place, and we have always been active in multiple communities around the world. Now, Genkii is out looking for seed funding for the upcoming launch of Sparkle 3D and the development of additional products and services – so, expect more news coming on those things soon! Though Japan has quite an active tech scene, let’s face it – most of the early funding for companies like ours comes from Silicon Valley. We need to be active in the US, we need to be willing to relocate as needed, and we need to be open to change and advice from those who want to help us create great things.

Are we planning on keeping up active participation in the Japanese tech scene? Absolutely. We believe our presence in Tokyo – and our involvement in conferences and projects throughout Asia – is an important part of who we are and what we want Genkii to continue to be. We love being part of activities like Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo CGM, Tokyo Beer and Blog, e27’s Singapore unConference, and many, many others. We love the people we’ve met, worked with, and celebrated with in Japan, China, Korea, and Singapore. We will continue to have people working in Japan, and work on projects that showcase Japanese culture, people, and companies.

In the coming months I’ll post more about Portland, about its tech community and innovators, and what Genkii is doing there. We’ve already been to the original Beer and Blog and the Portland Creative Conference, and intend to get actively involved in things such as Mobile Monday Portland, TEDxPortland, InVerge, and many other events and projects! Also look for an upcoming post on my involvement with a project called [re]think Hawaii.

Yeah, we have lofty goals: cool products, fun projects, and an international team that helps connect the world a little bit more. But we’re good for it. Promise.

More info to come soon!

-Ken

This monster is less a monster and more of a cultivated friend who can help you jump high!

This monster is less complex than the previous one, but I hope you still enjoy it.  He’s a scary monster!

Here’s another monster to add to the carrot!

Click to enlarge:

Some game assets for an upcoming Genkii game:

Click to see the big one:

David and I have been working on blocking out a level, here’s a couple concept sketches:

Adam here, and just wanted to let everyone know that we’ll be giving a presentation tomorrow (Friday the 24th) in Tokyo at Mobile Monday.  This is a special MoMo (Mobile Monday) that will be held at the Wireless Japan Expo.  Entrance to Wireless Japan is free with early registration, and the MoMo event costs only 1000 yen (drinks included) with early registration as well.

We will be giving some updates on our developments, some eye candy, a demo, and maybe some free goodies!  Come check us out and say hey!

Hello, Elissa here!  I’m one of Genkii’s artists and I want to share some of what I’ve been doing. Today, among other things, was about giving the future Sparkle 3d male avatar the beginnings of a face.

This isn’t a tutorial but I will say I do my 3d work in Blender.  My first step was to use multires to get a more detailed avatar to work with, we’re going to trim this guy down a lot to make him game ready. Then it’s lots of sculpting and smoothing to get the musculature and skelatal structure looking natural.

He’s definately not the finished product, but he’s come a long way from a blank face!