The last post of the year (2013)

Or should I say "the only post of the year", or better yet, "the post of the year"? Once again another year comes to an end and once more I feel like I was writing the last post of last year just last week.

This year has been good and probably one of the more active game-development-wise. Around March and April, thank God, I had the opportunity to work with Cartoon Network to make a re-skin of Imbossible with a Teen Titans Go! theme. It was one of the most intense and gratifying experiences I've had. The whole process was awesome and I remember when I got the e-mail from one of FGL's staff telling me about the deal quite well.

You can find the game here, and I'm also showing a screenshot in the image below. I have to say that I loved the simple, yet balanced and cartoonishly amazing art from the show.

Then more important things happened: I partnered with MathNook.com to run a Spanish version of the site, which is centered around Math games and which also contains fun stuff. It's been great working on it so far, though we still haven't released the site officially.

Also I worked on some games for Mathnook, which are MathBulbs and Coin Count, as well as other versions of a previous game I made in the past with Math twists.

I also finished Autodestructor, which was sponsored by EduPup.com (a site from MathNook's network). This, I should say, was my first AS3 game. I know, a bit late to get on the bus, but I worked all my past games in AS2 until this year.



And finally, I'm working on a game (pontentially) called Shadowscape, which will be a challenging platformer with a twist in the middle of the game and its own life-gaining mechanic. It's basically finished, which was a goal I set to achieve before the year ended.



So I can only thank God once more and hope for MathNookEspanol.com to take off soon and for a bigger and better 2014, which I also hope you all have! Happy New Year and God bless!!

Last post of the year 2012

So the world didn't end, which is awesome, but the year did, so here's the last post of this 2012. I'm thankful to God for one more awesome year. It's been a long/short one, if you know what I mean. I say so because it's been a log game-developing year with Imbossible 2, but it just happened so fast.

So this year has been almost exclusively related to Imbossible 2 and I'm very happy to say that it's almost done. It's been an exhausting yet exciting process, and thought it's been long and a lot of effort has been put to it, I've just enjoyed every single step. Right now it's going through the final polishing process and I'm changing some levels to make them more entertaining and rewarding. I thought I was going to be able to release the game in late November or the first days of December, but, as great developers as Blizzard or Rockstar do, I delayed the game to be able to polish it the most I can, and I think it was the best decision nonetheless.

I'm even getting some help from people who have tested the game and from a friend who is being kind of the Quality Assurance department (oh yeah, that sounds sweet!) and is helping me out testing, finding bugs and giving me overall ideas on the levels. This is being a huge help, because it's never the same to play your own stuff than having someone else play it. It's a totally different point of view. As the popular phrase says "if you want to really see your work, look at it from other people's eyes". Well, that's not a popular phrase, I made it up, but it basically describes the point here.

So I hope to get Imbossible 2 out some of these days if everything goes right on track. I'm excited for it and really hope and beg God that this turns out the best way.

Also I made another game for a Mochi contest, which is a 60 second game. I didn't win anything (between the 60 or so participants) but I got it sponsored for a good amount (taking in count it was done in like 5 days) so I was very pleased with that. The game is called Twisting Chamber With a Rabbit.

Jelly Hop, which is now the name for Blockhopper, isn't out yet due to some problems with the sponsor so I'm finding a new one. Hope to release it soon.

That's basically it for the year 2012. I wish you an awesome 2013, may God bless you all and all your gaming raise to another level! And if you want to Beta-test Imbossible 2, drop me a tweet at @Disciple777!

Bossibly releasing soon!

I don't want to post only once this year so here comes the first one a bit early into 2012! This year's been a hard-at-work one on Imbossible 2. And despite all the time spent in the game it's about a year and a half since I began working on it... and counting. It's been an exciting process and I've like the journey quite a lot. And now I'm on the final touches but there's still road to walk. I'm working on the menus at this moment, which is good because that means that the levels, story and almost everything is done, but yet to be reviewed and refined. I'll put some more attention on beta testing this time around aswell.

The last thing I did before getting on with the menu layouts was the story. It was like two weeks of drawing and arranging the scenes for telling the plot behind the game, and thank God it went well and I feel very satisfied with the outcome. I'm leaving you one of the scenes in this post.

There's about 19 levels total in the game (can't really say because the first one is like tutorial but also counted towards the global amount of levels). I'm thinking of making 2 locked levels per world. There's also stuff hidden all around the levels, which mostly are items that you can make your character wear. There are some power-ups too, like double jump, more speed, extra lives, you know, cool stuff!

So I think that's some info for this post, really hope and beg God to get the game done soon! Don't want to get over November without releasing it. See you in the next post!

The last post of the year, 2011's edition.

This has been a tradition now for over.. 2 years. So I'm doing it again this time around. Maybe this post will be brief, but it's always good to share what the year has been about gamewise.

First, finally Blockhopper was finished. I made some final touches before a kind of definite wrap up, which were basically changing the main character for a more appealing one and adding better music. I think the final product is a nice game. Thank God, everything went well and we're releasing the game not only for Flash but also for iPhone (thanks to Tastyplay).

Another thing is that Imbossible 2 is about to cross it's finish line, or is very close. I'm only missing the final 3 levels or so. I really hope to get it done very soon as I'm excited for this new game. Thank God everything's working fine and I hope to get a good reception for this one. Also, Imbossible (the first one) will be released for iPhone thanks to Tastyplay. Getting into the iOS market is a huge step and oportunity for Giddel Creations and I'm very thankful for the proposition given by Tastyplay.

There could be a lot to tell about Imbossible 2, the levels and everything, but I won't write too long for now; just say that I'm trying to get new interesting twists. Picking the best is not that easy, but the ideas and the execution are going well. There will be a lot of work when the game is done too, after some testing. I'm planning to do more testing than usual this time, because I want every single detail to be as polished and user-friendly as it can get.

Wish you the best for this new 2012, that God's bless you, that you achieve many goals and make this new year rock! Happy new gaming!!

New shot!

Okay so I know it's still early, but who cares! Here's another screenshot of the new Imbossible. This is basically how the first levels are going to look like, not that messy but it's to give you an idea. Thank God everything's working fine this far and hope it continues like that. So here it is!

Imbossible too?

So it's the first post of the year. Man, time travels as fast as light sometimes! The thing is this year hopefully will be the one of the release of one of my favorite games of my own, the random, colorful and sometimes driving-you-mad, Imbossible.

Not too deep into the development as of today, but everything begins with a little something, and the work is in progress. I'm so excited, and hope and beg God this game does even better than the first one. First things first, I have written the possible threats the boss is going to be so lovingly dedicating to you aswell as the possible scenarios and main story. It's being a bit difficult to get the story to make sense because of the simple fact that in the first one *spoiler alert* you got the Golden Carrot, so I have to figure out a way of getting our hero involved in a fight for something. But guess that in this type of games story makes it better, but in the end if it doesn't make sense not many people will care that much; so something will pop out.

Right now I'm working on the main mechanics. Mostly refining the ones from the first, like making a new system of a sort of checkpoints that will get you to a nice comfortable place if you unfortunately fall into the void. I don't know how I didn't come up with this since the first one, because it's working better than the previous system. I'm also designing some of the surrounding elements for the levels, so I have some graphics to spice up the development of the game. I hope to make some more attractive graphics for this one. As I said, it's still in the first steps but here I leave you a screenshot of what it looks like. Notice that it won't look like that in the end, those ugly green blocks will be removed and forgotten forever.
As for the threats in this second title (man I love sequels!) I'm planning to go for some new and crazier twists, something unexpected and unimaginable, something that mankind hasn't seen before and that will change lives forever!! Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit :P but I want to surprise the player and get 'em to draw a smile on their faces as they discover every new challenge.

As another note for this post, Blockhopper is almost done. I think just sound fx and some final touches are missing and it's a wrap. This is a puzzle-platformer that I hope is going to entertain you as you pass the different levels by figuring the new way out without getting your blocks to fall. Here's a screenshot aswell. I tried to give it an interesting and unique graphic style with a background world of fantasy that will add to the experience of controlling a kangaroo that jumps on numbered blocks (what can be better than that?).

So basically that's about it as for now. Hope to have recent news on these two games and more in the near future. C'ya soon, play a lot & God bless!

The last post of the year... this year

So, I just remembered this very day that last year I made a "last post of the year" post, so I decided to do that again, though this year has not been a very active one blogwise. And I must say I feel like I was writing that post like a month ago :s Anyway, let's talk about what this year in the games.

As I always do, I thank God for all the opportunities He gave me, and this time I'm glad I could bring out a new platformer game called Imbossible. This game was born with an idea I had about this issue bothering you like when you have a friend pausing and unpausing the game so you kill yourself. That was implemented in the game, but as the idea evolved it came to be a game where someone (the Boss) makes your way difficult by bringing new obstacles and mechanics and all type of things that could bother you or make your way a not so easy one. Apart from being a game of mine, I enjoy it a lot. I tried to make it something fresh and creative, and I think it met the purpose in a good part. The game was sponsored by Tastyplay.com. We inserted some ads into the game, and it was very well received as the statistics reveals. Thank God it gets a good amount of plays every day. Btw, I'm planning on making the second part, which will hopefully be released this year and I'm already writing down this time's challenges >:P





Another game that came out this year was the one I commented on my last post and it was Head Action World Cup, the second installment of the Head Action Soccer series. I made my best to make a game that stands up to the event of the World Cup. There was also a new version of the game made specially for the classic match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Both of them were sponsored and can be played at Minijuegos.com. As for this game I hope to make an online multiplayer version some time, but I don't have anything concrete yet. I also want to make a Spanish League version, which I hope can be done soon.

This is not something very game-wise (despite the fact that I bought some ps3 games :P) but something really good that happened this year was the trip to New York that my girlfriend, my sister & a friend made on October. It was so great to know that awesome city. I thank God (& my parents) for that oportunity and hope to go back someday :) It was something that my girlfriend and I were wanting since the beginning of the year so it was great to be able to finally see it come true.

So that was about it with this year's activity. Hope you had an awesome year and an even better one for 2011. Blessings!

It's back!

I'm happy to be writing this because it means 2 things. The first one is that thank God I finally finished the platformer game I was working on. Maybe I'll write some more about it later and about the mechanics of the game and else. The second thing and what excites me at this moment is that I have started working on the new Head Action Soccer. A new version of the game specially for this year's World Cup. I'm very glad about it and beg God it does well and is as well received as the previous one & better. This time, the uniforms are more detailed. I've just finished that part, all the uniforms are ready, just the emblems are missing.

The plans I have for it right now are to add more moves to the players; make the League Mode to be a classifying phase so you can take your own country (or a customized team) to the World Cup; improve the AI as much as I can; and if everything goes well add a multiplayer feature, but I've never worked on such a thing so I'm still clueless about it. Also I'll redesign the backgrounds, maybe add more stuff to the crowd in the back and add a more festive mood to the matches. So to let you have a look of what is there right now, here's a screenshot (& thanks to Tom for the advice on adding pics & stuff :P). Those are not the actual players, those are from the previous Head Action Soccer, just the uniforms are ok right now.

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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!