The last post of the year!

So this is the last day of 2009 and I thought, why not write something for the blog about what happened this year? So basically that's what I'm doing right now.

First I want to say that I thank GOD for all that HE's done this year. HE has helped me lots this year with the games, giving me a lot of good opportunities and also I've learend a bunch from them. This was probably the most productive year since the first sponsored game. Also I want to thank my girlfriend and my sister who never deny their help in testing the games even when it's not something very exciting some times :P Also I thank my family for all their support; the sponsors for their interest in the games and for the trust in them; and of course, to the ones that make all the games possible: the players!

The year started with Paralyze Attack, the game that gave the idea for making this blog. The game ran through an extensive development process because I wanted to polish it the more I could so every tiny feedback was heard and implemented (or most of it). Still these last days before the final touches, I've been receiving feedback for the game to be the best it can. I hope that when it's finally released it makes the players have a good experience. It's ironic that the game with which I started the year is the last one being released; however, not this year because we're in the last day and it hasn't seen the light of the internet.

Then we have Perfect Shot, one of my favorite games [of Giddel Creations] of all time due to one thing: its simplicity. That's something of what I've learnt through games, and mostly from this one (and from Dual because of being all the opposite). If you want someone to play your game you don't have to make it annoying for the user, or at least you have to make them see that they are capable of going further. So in Perfect Shot I went to the most basic of the control types: you only have to press spacebar. And impressively it had a lot of acceptance. It was sponsored by Minijuegos.com (primary), Andkon.com, Tastyplay.com, Gameshed.com and ArmorGames.com (all sitelocked), though this last one hasn't yet been released.

Then comes my favorite of all, Head Action Soccer. My favorite because it is a game of my favorite sport and one of the things I like the most in the world: soccer. Also because the game turned out as the idea was conceived, which was of being able to play with a whole team in a easy linear soccer game. Also it was important to be able to master your abilities as you face harder teams, and the AI turned out pretty good in my opinion, though if you become too good there will be no opponent that can beat you, which is good for the hardcore players i think. I'm glad that this game could be released in 2 great portals: Minijuegos.com (primary) and SiKids.com (site-locked). It had a lot of exposure in Minijuegos, which is a Spanish site, and in Spain soccer is very popular as we might know, and I'm a fan myself of the Spanish League. Also, this game was my second to be released in more than one language, this time in Spanish (which is my native language by the way) and English. The game is also being played, as I've said, in SiKids.com which is the kids site of Sports Illustrated. I thank God a lot for both opportunities :)

The last game to be released this year is Calculate Genius, which I commented some posts back. This is another very basic concept which was revolving around my mind for some time. And so, it was finished with some type of minigames in which you only have to calculate how much of this or that there is. It was sponsored by Tastyplay.com (primary) and MathNook.com (site-locked).

The last game I've been working on this year (but hasn't been released yet) and is still in the factory is the last one I commented, which is at this point, probably at a 54.38% finished :P

So this was the last post of the year (unless I come up with something in the next 50 minutes :P). That's all for this year, hope to have an even better year in 2010 and that you all have too. Hope the blessings from God for all of you, your families and the ones you love; and I wish that you play even more in the next year! :D Cya!

Going on right now.

I just wanted to make a small post on what's going on in the factory at the moment. First I have to say that I am greatly thankful to GOD, because HE's been helping me a lot with all the projects. Head Action Soccer did great thanks to Him & I'm very glad for the final product and it's acceptance at the great site of Minijuegos.com. I'm thinking on making a sequel for next year's World Cup, but I'm still thinking about the new features it will have. I have in mind some new stuff but it could drastically change the gameplay, or at least make it be based in a different concept, making the "Head" part not that of a main role in the game.

Talking about the new stuff being written at this time, it's a platformer. I hope it'll be a fresh idea. I haven't tried such a thing before because it has such a bunch of gameplay changes along the story, still keeping the thing simple: jump & run. That's all you do, but there will be a set of challenges that [I hope] will make every level a new dare different to the previous ones, where you'll have to use your ability, sometimes intelligence, and more frequently your patience :)

At first I was doubtful about what the main character will be. I started thinking it to be a yellow dude I used in previous games (Jumpagon, and one skateboarding game that still isn't released). Then I threw in a sort of a ninja dude that I was going to use for an action game, but it is still very primitively drawn because it was just done for testing. I wasn't going to use it and hadn't even considered it, until my sister told me she thought that I was going to use it and that it was good. But I think that consideration came to collision with the new idea I had in mind at that time which is using a bunny. Yup, simple as that... the dude ended up being a bunny.

It's a bit funny how I came up with this (hope not to bore you). One day (well, several actually) I was looking for my sticker albums of the past World Cups whicj, by the way, I still haven't found! So I was messing everything up looking for them, and searching in some papers I have in my closet in which I looked like 3 or 4 times to find them. And in those papers there are old notebooks from school and plenty other kinda things. So I was looking at the drawings I made at the last pages of the notebooks and found this crazy-looking bunny and I thought "that could make a nice character!" (but not in English cus I think in Spanish.. cus I speak Spanish :P). So the idea was sitting there until I decided to take that as the main character.

What was pulling me off a bit was the animation, because that's what I am least used to. What I do the most (and probably enjoy the most) is programming, however drawing has always been something I love and I've revived it a bit lately. So I drew it and thank God I think it ended up pretty well. The animation is done at this point so no more worrying about that :)

There are like 9 levels right now. And I'm trying to bring in the best ideas of the brainstorm I did beforehand. I have to say that my lovely girlfriend and my sister have been much help (and always are) and that helps me to have some better ideas and to make the levels suitable for other people that is not me. I've been delaying the making of this game some days because thank God, as I said, there are some projects running on aswell and am making some touches and adding some logos for some nice sponsors.

So that's about it. I thought it was going to be brief but guess it wasn't :P However if you compare it to a book it's actually brief. And maybe I feel it long because I'm writing it right now, but for you who read it it's just a piece text, as it happens sometimes when you text a message in your cellphone an then realize it was shorter than a tweet and your fingers are aching. Which, by the way, doesn't happen in Twitter because those 140 characters seem just too little for our creative brains sometimes. But well... that's a bit off-topic :) Thanks for reading and God bless y'all!