Saved Game Progress

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. ...

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...