Sally's Studio is out!

Actually, the game was released a little earlier this week, but I decided to bunch up the scans into one post.  I promise I will not make a huge habit of this, I much prefer piece meal updates overall.  Anyhow, back on topic, the last game I helped work on at GamesCafe, Sally's Studio, is finally out.  This release brackets my first half year of going freelance and starting my own company, and is to me a formal swan song to my career and all the good times spent over at GamesCafe/Orbital Media.  Knowing that this was the last project I worked on for them really gives me a sense of completion, and this flows well with the changes that I've been swimming in for the past week.  A comfortable letting go of the past if you will.

Refining and absorbing advice.

Today was incredibly uplifting, not just that I got started on a few small contracts here and there, but I also got the chance to catch up with some old friends/colleagues over at Ph03nix New Media.  Nothing like hashing ideas over with folks and getting back feedback to further trim the project.  I find the more I document, the more material I actually end up removing or simplifying, in an attempt to keep things from growing out of proportion.

This is tougher than it sounds.  When you get a room full of people with differing ideas about one destination, the conversation becomes a distillation process of the ideas that are ejected forth.  The key is to try to lump as many ideas into cohesive bite size chunks, without having others feel like you are ignoring their points.  I cannot accommodate everyone's thoughts, but I can sure as hell try to get a little tidbit of everyone's brainchild into the mix.  The key is ending up with a cohesive love child of a game, as opposed to a Frankenstein abomination, barely holding together at the seams.

Tomorrow should be even more interesting.

In the meantime, some bus sketches along with some sprite work samples for an upcoming browser game :D !

 

Last but not least, the game's main protagonist undergoes a beating depending upon his HP. An homage to early fps's like Doom and Wolfenstein.

New Month and focus

May started off with a lurch, one of those kinds that launches you forward but then you hit some solid patches of friction along the way... and it's only been 4 days. Following the performance at the Calgary Expo, I've had a chance to really sit down and hash out what I would deem at least a feasable path for my small company, Bella Machina Studios. Having had a heart to heart with our current team, it seems like trying to build a facebook community for our project, Empires of the Mist, followed by an app, would be the path of least resistance.
At this point though the plans are still rather amorphous, although the end product is more clearly defined. I will be spending the next month talking to peers and mentors, picking at their brains to refine and streamline what has to be done on my end.

On a side note, I'm coming close to finishing a small sprite based flash game with an old colleague of mine over at Likwidgames. I did all the art for the background and character sprites [not the enemies/monsters though, I only tweaked a few of the latter animations]. For today, I will post some tasty tidbits of the backgrounds that are to be found. Next time I will show off the main character's sprite/weapons and armour :D