Saved Game Progress

Hello everyone! It's been almost a year since I started writing my thoughts here. And as the end of the year was getting closer, I started to think about what happened to me in the last 12 months.  So I revisited my portfolios and discovered the most updated one is not even a year old. Most of the works I published at Artstation are only 9 or 10 months old. Most of them are from projects that never came to be and limited to 2D Digital Art.  After that I decided to make a list of games I've been participating outside of work.  As a part of Burnt Tongue I made the art for Let Me Play, Hot Dog Heroes and Invaders in the earth . Then there are also the Jam games. There's been basically two: Who killed the Coffee Pot? for the 1st King Game Jam and Dandelion for the 34th Ludum Dare.  You can download all of them in my personal itch.io space. Besides that, there are several projects I can talk about in my work production. I've been part of the same company for mo

Hello everyone! This post is going to be really short. For the last year (or almost a year) I've been working in a project that we launched in greenlight at the beginning of this month. And we're arlready greenlit! You can take a look at the game trailer here -> It's basically a youtuber simulator with a little bit of life management in it to spice things up. So you create your own self, start a channel and create lots of videos for it. Eventually you'll get enough views to make a living out of it. Change your house, your routine, upgrade your equipment and get a chance to be the next vlogger star! For this project I've been doing environment art, UI design, 2D art and lately character assets as well as art documentation. So I've been doing all sorts for things. Since I've been working a lot of time on this project, long time readers may find in this the reason for some of my posts. And they might be right to think that. Anyway, launching a

Hello everyone! Sorry for being in such a long hiatus lately. There's been a lot to do and to process these few weeks. To start with main topic, I've been taking part in a few jams lately. The most important one being the first Barcelona King game Jam (7-8th of November). I have to say that this was my first 48h game jam. And it was a blast. The organisation was very clear with every step of the process and the venue was perfect. With IT in case we might need it and a ton of food and coffee for the coming hours of work. We were a lot of people too. 12 groups of 5 members if I remember correctly. But there weren't many opportunities to talk and connect with other people, since everyone was so invested working in their project.  The ambient was fine though. Every once in a while someone was laughing or joking with their team members. Everything went pretty smoothly until there was a general blackout in the street (the Jam building included). We had to abandon the

Hello everyone! Recently I've been reading a lot about game design. Specially interviews with iconic developers. And one thing that all of them covered in every interview was what they described as "the Core" of their game. Warren Spector, for example, defines it like the most basic experience of the game. For a long time this element has been "the Unbreakable" for me. It was what was left after I couldn't break anything else out from the game. It was a little bit like sculpting in this sense. After I took the master I began to use "Minimum Viable Product" in relation to that terminology. Mostly because it implied a major level of completion or polish. But for a few days I've been reusing this term because I felt that using it communicated the intention better with my coworkers. I mean, the idea that something is bulletproof even in a very primitive state is easy to understand through common metaphors. And when I realised this I knew I

Hello everyone! As the title suggests, I've been playing a lot of Mario Maker since it's release. And I have to say it's a masterful effort. It's the only example I can think of where they successfully paced a create-your-level-game. And I don't ONLY mean that 9-day thing where you end up unlocking more tools every 24 hours.  But just to get this of the way, let me start with it.  I think that way of scheduling your unlocks is fantastic for this type of game. Yeah, it's not the bread and butter of game unlock logic, but it still rewards the player for the time they invest in creating levels for the game.  It also does not overwhelm them, and most people throw that as the main reason why it's great. But I think that the best thing this causes is the need to return later . Retention in a console game where the community is always growing and the levels are an infinite catalogue of Mario level nightmares and good intentions.  But the

Hello everyone! Finally, my life's stable enough so that I don't need to come here to empty my bag of complaints. Today I want to write about something I've had in my head for a long time now. It's a card game focused on strategic positioning and object control. This all started because my boss asked me to make a Design Brief for a card game. I was really interested in this kind of games by the time, so I accepted. But since the time for this was so limited I ended up relying too much in genre conventions. Because of this, I felt the context couldn't contain the kind of combat I decided to use in the brief. There was a huge disconnect. And this has been coming and going from my mind since then. So I decided to put an end to this and start working on a design that could solve this. Hence the focus on positioning and object control. There's another ingredient in the mix but it's quite difficult to explain and has a lot to do with a system that I'm

Hello everyone! Tomorrow I go back to work. And a few days ago I lost my pet. My cat was almost 15 years old. This was a really bad summer for him and he just couldn't keep it up anymore. I've spent half of my life with him. I raised him and care about him with all my heart. I knew it was coming. Even before summer started. So it's been a long wait. And I though I was going to cope with it well. But I think I was wrong. The last day we spent together he came by my side again and sit on my lap like always. Just this time he only looked at me once. He died that night. He knew too. And I miss him. So much. That day I knew it would take me sometime to acknowledge he was gone. I was right. This weekend I've been at my parent's house and it wasn't the same. Everything about him was lacking. And it hit me. So many things have happened this summer. And I've been thinking about so much stuff: my parents, my cat, love, my work, the place I'm staying..

Hello everyone! Phew, that last post was kind of in the down side of things. I'm much better now. I've been on holidays for a few days. I've finished a side project and I'm going to miss the 33th Ludum Dare. :( In the end, I just needed time to refill. In fact I've been really close to name this post that. Refill. But whatever, naming things for what's going to happen, or is happening at the moment, is the new trend (in the relativity of time). So, I've been using my spare time this summer to learn some of the newest texturing techniques that softwares like the Quixel Suite or the Allegorithmic products enable. These mainly introduce artists to procedural texturing, that means we can produce more in less time. And PBR ready. Also, it means that I could be able to work with several maps, masks and all kind of info for several material characteristics at once. Or using procedurally calculated masks to crate dust or time effects on, otherwise perfec

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since my last post. Almost two months. Too many things happened during this period of time. And one of the things that I remember the most is how I tell my game developer friends to avoid burning out. I really care for them. All the people I tell that are great developers that are already making their first steps into this industry. Just like me. And every time I told them that, they smile back at me and say something comforting. I believe...No. I hope they are being honest. Because I've been burnt out of other jobs and assignments. And lately I've been feeling the same way about a pair of projects. And what bums me the most is that, one is a project that I designed. It's like the sloth and unfocused work flow of a few group members intoxicated the rest of us. In my case it merged with anxiety and anger. Because it was like watching crumble the tower you and your coworkers made. Slowly. So slowly that you can perceive ev

Hi everyone. E3 has come and gone. Not without leaving an unhealthy amount of news on its way to next year. Today  wanted to talk about something that I noticed reading twitter the other day: The perceived value of digital content, DLC and expansion packs.  All of this comes from a discussion about the pricing of all the Smash DLC. While most of the people I've talked seem to think it's overpriced. I have my doubts. Mostly because the arguments they are using is that of the price of the base game and the number of playable characters it included. If we view it this way, the game shipped with around forty characters and its price was around 60 dollars. This left the perceived value of a character at around 1,5 dollars. But I think this is a twisted and superficial way to think about this topic. And fucking naive if you ask me.  Thinking of it this way, in my opinion, means that you don't have any clue of what means to create a new character for a fighting game. It

We won. You remember I wrote about a contest called Three Headed Monkey Awards? Well it was last weekend. And we won in the category of best UPC game. And it felt good. But I also had some friends that deserved recognition and left the building without an award. It was also refreshing to meet with some people again and chatting and drinking and making a party from nothing. But the thing that, since then, is always in my head is something I said. Yes, not something the professors or my flatmates said. Something I said when I got to speak, briefly, after getting the prize. So, what I said is something like: "This does not come without effort. A lot of it. But we continue to doing it because its our passion and we love it. So <P'alante>!" And P'alante is an expression that means moving forward with intention and without hesitation. After this all I could think about is that, essentially, winning is just a reminder of the time and effort you put in wha

Hello everyone! It's been two weeks since the last time I wrote anything here. And a lot of things happened. Like always. That's what life is about. Things happening without stop. I don't even know where I was going with that so... Anyway, the project I've been working with some friends from the master I took is almost done. It's not pretty, it does not have good music or brilliant particle effects. But we have to leave it. It was a one month project, and that time has passed. So, we have to ship it.  As much as it hurts knowing there was so many improvements we could do. We have to walk away from it. It was an exercise and hopefully a trend for us. We needed more experience and we got it. It also brought to light many things about our personalities, commitment and ability to stay focused and accompany that focus with work. We have many issues to think about but it's been fun. Hopefully we'll continue doing this kinds of things.  For me persona

Hi everyone! Today I want to write about how I find myself trying to juggle all my project without losing my mind in the process. Everything started when I wrote a design document for a game. It got shelved and since I wanted to make one more game besides the ones I was already making, I started another project. So there was one time I was making 2 projects inside the company and two more outside. And I think that was good enough. Not comfortable, but manageable.  Until. That project that got shelved, rose from the dead and was handled to me as maybe the most important project I could participate this year. That was the moment I started worrying about my ability to handle the art and design of multiple little and enormous projects at the same time. And the truth is I'm not.  I'm blending things from one project to another. And I feared that was a terrible mistake, but I think maybe it isn't. It's proving to be an interesting experience and a source for creat

Hey everybody. It's been quite some time. And I have a feeling that every time this happens I come here and I write something like "sorry for this, I won't happen again :(( ". And what I've realised is that I need to stop apologising and say the things up front. So here it goes: I don't know how many times per week/month/year I can update my journal anymore.  The amount of work I have is that big. I also moved out of my parent's house recently and I'm still adapting to the new daily routine. Anyway, today I wanted to talk about how something clicked for me and my new flatmates. So, we were playing Smash Bros for the WiiU before unpacking anything else for the flat. And we kept playing for the rest of the afternoon. We played normal smash, omega, smash for 8 and party mode. But for a few matches we decided to switch the rules from "time" to "stocks". Until we played with and against amiibos. And the inevitable happened: the

Hello again everyone! Lots of stuff happened this week. And hell of a lot more are going to happen the next one. I've been acting more as a project lead on one of the project. And we have our first member that decided to leave. Also, we had kind of major problems with one of the team members that had some issues with the way I suggested to work. Although he had no other suggestions for change. This really bothers me. Anyway, I've been finishing some personal stuff for next year (let's hope it becomes a reality!) and I've been working on other projects in which I was falling behind the schedule. And this was because last week I went to a wedding that took all my weekend... :S Although it was kinda cool to stay away from any kind of screen for 48 hours. Also, I've been catching up with the Double Fine documentary recently. And I have to say I totally get where they are coming from. Even with my little experience. It's a great documentary, even if you&#

com•mit•ment .  n.   a firm promise or pledge: a strong or firm belief shown by one's actions; loyalty a responsibility that takes up or occupies one's time For most of my life I've been driven by commitment. Towards my friends, my family or my company. I haven't been able to fulfil it a lot of times. But as stubborn as I am, I will never stop trying to.  Since I got the job I have now, I've been doing whatever I could to give something in return for the opportunity it was given to me. Sometimes I think about what could have happened if I could not get a job. How frustrated and angry I could be.  But I got a job. And I wanted to show my commitment. First with my work time and production in a crunch environment. And after that I thought that wasn't enough. I needed something not for me. I needed for the team. Something physical. So I decided I would not shave my bear until I finish one project. I did it with the first project. I did it with the se

So, I was checking my twitter feed the other day. Just like everyday when I walk past the grocery store and before the bus stop, just after getting something for lunch. And I saw a fellow dev started tweeting about how damage is represented in games. I continued walking towards the office and when I arrived I checked again. There was some really interesting answers, game suggestions and interesting debate overall . so I tweeted my way into the conversation. Although I've been thinking about this particular topic for about 6 years now, I always put it aside because I wasn't able to come up with core mechanic, an environment and a theme to complement it and make it feel  complete. But because of that conversation I felt like I should investigate into it again and try to document or prototype something. So, because of the time constrains and the volume of work I have, I've decided to have some free days and write down something about this: So, a few years ago I was a b

Hello everyone! It's been 3 long weeks since I last wrote something here. And now I realise that the last post was about how a friend got fired. Such a coincidence, because a few days ago another friend decided to leave the studio for another job (although it was a great opportunity). The reason I haven't been able to write more posts in a steady stream is that I had A TON of work to do lately. It's no secret I'm helping in other projects, but they all decided it was time the artist had to do a lot of things at once. Well, that's not true. Most of the times they let me organise the way I please. So if there is someone to blame, that is me and my disastrous ability to schedule my week. To recap, I'm involved in a project with some of my classmates from the master. I'm also involved in a work side project, and inside the studio I've been working in two project I can't talk about. But now I'm already designing another project, as well as cl

Hello everyone. It's been quite a few weeks that I haven't been around here. And a lot has happened. First things first. I'll be able to continue working where I am now at. And that is great. But there were times I was not so sure about it. In fact I was considering other offers. And some friends and partners offered me a role in their development group but I took too many time thinking about it and lost the opportunity. Meanwhile I also started the application for one of the most important scholarships here in Spain. And I also changed my approach to the leaving my actual house. I will, but in an different way. The thing that shocked me the most though is how one of the coworkers was fired this Friday. After all this months working there, there was the sensation that we started to make a solid group of friends. And this tears it apart. The decision has it's logic. The projects we're about to develop don't need that role in the team. But still, it'

Hello everyone! Today's post is in the short side! I just wanted to share with you that the project I participated in, Ratvolution, is in the voting phase of the Three Headed Monkey Awards. It's a video game contest organised by the UPC, The school where I took the master. Anyway, if you want to check out the 40-or-more games and maybe give us a vote, follow this link: http://upcvideogames.com/?page_id=26 And that's it for today! Lots of work recently between the contract work, the side projects and other things. See ya! J.

Hello everyone! Sorry to post on Monday. Sunday was kind of crazy. Still, just one day later than what I had in mind. This post is going to be exclusively on side projects. And I think I can't tell you a lot about them. So, instead I'm uploading more concept art than usual. Let0s start with the first one.  This one was super fun to start because it helped me make some silhouette and body studies. Since this one needs to have a varied and colourful crowd it was a cool to design people of several weights and sizes. The face and the expression they could communicate through their pose and animations was also super important. Because the player will need these kind of feedback in order to complete their suspension of reality within the game. The second side project I'm talking a little bit today is also about people. But more on the society and civilisation kind of theme. Also, for this one I wanted to go back to the human-like animals for once. But drawi

Hello everyone! It's the end of the week and this means this text is the end of the three-part text where I try to explain the three phases of an artist experience. In my opinion, as always. Last time I tried to explain what was the Crucible through what I think was mine. I also wrote about the Journey and it's importance. But today I want to talk about the key element: the Epiphany. Despite using this name I'm not talking about something religious. I'll add the definition again: " An  epiphany  (from the  ancient Greek  ἐπιφάνεια,  epiphaneia , "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of sudden and striking realisation. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realisation allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are studied by  psychologists  and other scholars, p

Another post? ALREADY? Hell yes. I need to make up for the last two weeks of silence.  So, I'm going to try to define what the second stage of self discovery is, and means for me. For those that don't remember what the three stages are, you can check the title again.  Today I'm going to write about the Crucible.  I think the best way to describe this phase is by comparing it with how the blacksmiths work. There are several things they do to prepare the blade. They hit it, they treat it with different types of oil and they heat it.  All these preparations they make, would be the journey. It's what gets you in contact with the world. It represents effort through an extended period of time and how you start to understand the complex nature of the world you're living in.  It is everything that you discover about the "outside" that stimulates changes in the inside.  The crucible would be...Well, the crucible is already one of the blacksmiths instrum

Okay. I didn't have the time to remember to write here these weeks. It's been a crazy mix of radical colds, work, new side projects and a barrage of apartment hunting after works. This is no excuse for almost 2 weeks without writing. But, the truth is that I have started this post a week ago, but I did not finish it. In this post I wanted to write about what, I think, defines the three main stages of the artists self discovery. But in the end I decided to make three posts instead of 1. This way I'm able to describe a little bit better each stage. I started thinking about this one a few years ago. I was still in Architecture School and a professor explained us, for the first time, the life of Le Corbusier.  For the ones that read this name for the first time, he is considered to be one of the fathers of Modern Architecture trend (roughly from 1910 to 1960, at least the great ones). This man lived his life as an apprentice until he decided it was time to tra

Hello everyone! After a few days of rest, I've managed to make some time to draw again. This time I wanted to do something I had in my mind for a few months already. Right after I started working I also began playing D&D. Well, it's actually lord of the Rings, but I the point is that I started to be interested in tabletop gaming. Almost at the same time, a group of people from Gametrailers started their adventure in D&D. And I've been following their story. And I have to say, it has been fantastic. They're a joy to watch and it's always funny. So I decided I wanted to draw them. And until now I couldn't do it. Now, there are four members in their party: Hogger a brute half orc that wants revenge. Laila Melamne, a beatiful wood elf druid. Pervince Tosscobble, the hero-wannabe halfling bard that will steal your heart. And Andry High the least known halfling thief. During their journey lots of things happened, and I tried to include as many refer

Hello everyone! Last week, lots of things happened in my work and personal life. This made me look back at how I was doing a year ago. 2014 started with me leaving my job.  Well, I left it in December and it wasn't an official job since there was no contract involved. That was the last time I worked as an architect, not the last time I think or see things as one. I fear that may be impossible to avoid, but it has proved to be very valuable. I worked as that for one month more or less, starting mid November. And I regretted every bit of it. For, many times it felt like they did not care about me. I got burned about it really fast, and my behaviour wasn't the best. I did not manage the situation well. In the end I had a talk with my boss and expressed how I felt. I also told him that I wanted to quit architecture to pursue a career in game development. He did not take that seriously but wished me luck as he said goodbye to me. A year later, I've finished the maste

Hello everyone. I've been really busy these days. There was a lot to catch up to and whole lot more to start from scratch. I hope I can share more info on the upcoming projects sooner than later. Meanwhile, I've been drawing again. Continuing the sketch daily challenges and also a few other drawing I just felt like doing. This is just the line work but I really want to take some time to complete these two. Here's the first, Ryu the whishmaker. And Chloe, the pirate. Hope you like it, and I promise I'll take the time to write more this weekend :) Take care everyone! J.

If there's one thing that bothers me more than any other when people ask me what do i do in my job, that is "the look" and what comes after that. This phenomenon happens every time I speak with people that are not that interested in videogames, even less in its creation (sometimes I think that any kind of creative process).  So why do I write about this now? Well, yesterday I got to go to a meeting in my town.  I live in a small village where everybody knows their neighbours. I don't hang around there anymore, so every time I do, they politely ask what I've been up to.  This is what happens: I tell them I finished my architecture degree and my master in 3D. Then I mention I'm working in a videogame studio in Barcelona and "the look" appears in their faces.  It's a blend of condescension, confusion, desperate search for some news that he got to read related to that and general lack of interest in the topic . Following this look

While working on any kind of creative project, there's one thing that affects the outcome in significant ways. Motivation. Feeling passion for what you're doing is key to deliver a good product. That's why working on something without being thrilled about it is the perfect indicator that there's something wrong with you, the project or both. I've felt this many times, both in architecture and in videogame development. And getting rid of it is a big challenge. I tried working on it without caring. And the results were not good. I also tried to force myself into being motivated. Same results. The thing is, you can't help yourself with this one. You need help from others. Someone has to convince you about the project, the team or your own ability and work in the project. And the other need to do this real quick. Because if there's just one member of the team feeling down, this can spread like wildfire among the rest of the developers. Doubt grows exp

This 2015 I'm trying to draw a sketch everyday. Since sometimes it's hard to come up with a theme, the folks at Sketch Daily start daily themed sketching discussions on twitter. I've drawn my first entry with the theme being Kumiho, a mysterious 1000 years old fox that could transform into beautiful lady and human livers and hearts. For this type of sketches I will try to keep it quick. In this case it was big brushes with transparency to find a pose and basic proportions. Basic clean up with line and the flat colour layer with the background. What do you think about it?

Happy 2015 everyone! For the first post of the new year I wanted to write about all the places I checked for inspiration, learning techniques and other videogame related stuff. I'll try to keep it just about videos with one BIG and must-have-bookmarked exception, so let's get going. The very first thing I want to talk about is the Autodesk Youtube learning channels . These are super helpful and they update them frequently enough so that you can check out the newest tips and tricks or the new features of their software. This is very useful for anyone that wants to be 3D modeller, texturer, rigger or animator.   I would specially recommend the 3D Studio Max Learning channel and the Maya Learning Channel . Since these are, probably, the ones you're going to use in the industry. And also, if you're a student you can get a 3 year student license for them (and all the other Autodesk Software) for free. There is other software, like Blender (this one is free!) or