JLVC
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Besides making a game I have another job, the one that pays the bills. It's been a couple of years that I've been having to move around from city to city. I just want to share a few views of the places where the magic is happening, the magic of creating something other people can interact with.
About a month ago I moved to Houston, TX. At this moment I'm working on gettting the demo ready for Ice Cold Blood, fine-tuning existing features, and also creating new mechanics for the gameplay; some will stay some will not, no matter how much I like them. I walk to work (I'll get a bike soon), as always, inspiration comes when I walk.
That in the distance is the city of Houston.
And this is my way to work:
I like to remember that this adventure started in Provo, Utah, where we started serious development of Ice Cold Blood.
Hi community. We're doing something challenging and stressful, but also very rewarding.
Programming games is an art, but it is also a science; when scripting you have to think
about performance, not just creativity. Reaching this equilibrium can be a heavy burdeon.
I think we all need to get away for the keyboard from time to time.
And when we do, don't we get the best ideas, or find that long sought solution to that
problem or bug that has been haunting us for days or maybe even weeks? I personally love
going away for walks or to ride my bike.
I've been making Ice Cold Blood in different cities and different countries. I want to share
some of the sights I see when I go for rides away from town.
So, how do you clear your mind?
We've got a bit of music from my friend and composer TobiAlii. We'll feature this music in the demo we have planned to show at devHr6 this month.
Soon we'll have more news and more material to show!
We're going forward full-speed with the development of the game ICE COLD BLOOD. Next month we will show a fully playable first demo for the game at a convention. Today I just wanna show some snapshots of what is the upcoming demo.
There are some minor issues with unfinished animations, materials that need some work on, lightning and such. We're working hard to polish what we can before the big day. This will be the first time we show the game at an event. I'd appreciate it if someone more experienced could give advise on what to, and what not to, do.
The snapshots are below.
A nice bridge at the edge of the town.
A nice view from the mountain, as our hero prepares to fight.
A big snowmonster is about to kick your ass!
I'd also like to invite you guys to comment on our steams concept page and visit our webpage.
We all played games when we were very young, how did we all of a sudden decide to start making our own games? We all have different stories, and here I want to tell mine.
There are 2 conditions that met so that I could decide to make games: 1.- I had to program at my job (but mostly FORTRAN) , 2.- I loved playing videogames (original silent hill is my favorite game). I started writing a C++ game. It was a copy of the snake game, using the allegro library. It was a very simple game, but that was the first step I took, and I was proud of it when I saw it was possible. I would post a snapshot here, but that was a few years ago and I don't have it anymore.
Then I learnt of pygame. I was already using python for some stuff, so I read a couple of books, and then set my mind to do a 2D short game with a simple mechanic. Here I show a video of that little game. I did everything, including the music and the drawings. I called it Throw me a Line, because you basically throw lines at the enemies.
You can download it at :
I was happy I was making my own games. And I was surprised at how these libraries made everything much easier.
Then I wanted to learn how to manage 3D space. So I went into learning OGRE. Again I read a couple of books, but then I didn't have anyone to help me with 3D models and I didn't want to do a programmers' art game. I wanted something that would look nice, so I gave it a rest.
As a present for my nephews, though, I made another game, featuring them, or at least my no-talent version of them. Again I made the drawings and some of the music, the rest I ripped off a local band where I played for a short while, so that music also belonged to me and I had a talented friend write some small pieces for me. Here is a video of that little game. This time it included levels, energy bars for the enemies and a bit more features than the previous one.
You can download it at:
That was it, that's what I did on my own before I found a partner who told me about Unity and asked for help with a game he was working on. He is an artist with a little programming knowledge. So I fixed the game scripts and got it running. I got excited and told him I could help him see the game through. He said yes. This person I'm talking about is my brother by the way. Then I brought my music guy on board. He's been my best friend for over 10 years.
Currently we are three in the team, the scripting guy (me), the artist and the musician. Being that the situation, we sometimes need to outsource the work. But we are going steadily forward and we are close to releasing the first demo. We've been working hard since February 2016.
So this is my story. I would like to hear yours.
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