Genkido Games

Hey people! Here’s a short update on what’s happening around here:

• A local videogame company asked me for a licence to make their version of Despair- they are currently pitching the idea on the GDC, so the game is offline. I’ll put it back online once it’s over.
• I’m currently developing a simple Android game. It’s finished but there’s a minor bug hanging around. This game features music and sound by Ivan Herrera, an awesome musician I met at the GGJ. You’ll love it.
• Lastly, I’m changing the logo because of an unfortunate coincidence I wasn’t aware of before- I already have in mind what I want next, but it’s up to me to finish it.

I hope to have more updates soon!

OK, quick note: I finished “Fulbito” this week, the game made for the EVA party games contest. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up being the game I expected, and I realized it wasn’t going to be such an interesting idea half-way into development… but I wanted it finished. I had a couple of personal issues during these days and that took lots of otherwise useful time. Anyway, I’m not going to ask everyone I know to go and vote the game- I’m going to let the candidates test it. If it were to win, I’ll give it the finishing touches; I want to start developing for Android and I don’t have much time.

Well, this week will be most agitated. First off, there’s less than seven days to the EVA Party Games deadline. Less than SIX days for the make-up exam-assignment-final exam of the enterpreneur class. 30 hours at most for the BPM assignment (Bussiness Process Managment). And all the same while not skipping work, nor stopping working on the Final Assignement, which is due the on the 10th of December.

So, what’s the EVA game about? A simple tabletop football, like those played with hands. It’s made on ActionScript 3 (Flash) using Flixel and Box2D for physics. I could link both together with a tutorial, and I still have to create the game elements, and get their respective images. I think I can complete it in 15 hours. Sleepless nights are looming. Not that it would be anything unusual. 

These boxes use Box2D for physics. Seriously.

I’m actually clueless on how to open this post. Yesterday I published Despair on Kongregate, a game I had in development for some months constantly dropping it and picking it up. I’m impressed by the amount of positive comments I received: I didn’t think you guys would like it so much. It may be nothing new, and maybe every game that is posted receives the same treatment… And while I don’t know if this is the case or not, it meant a lot to me.

As I said before, I don’t know where to start. When I logged out yesterday, 6 hours after publishing the game, it had been played 500 times and had an average score of 3.54 / 5 along with the most encouraging comments I’ve ever read and a couple of private messages. Right now, the game has been played almost 8,300 times and the score has gone up to 3.56. Wow… when I was drafting this article I didn’t imagine such a number. The only other game I posted online for a competition was voted by a single bastard (and I think that bastard was me). I have a lot to thank this people for, unknown visitors who spent their time playing, rating and commenting this. It was a huge morale boost and I wish I had something more right now- But it’s a matter of time. Thanks a lot Enderx5, superjoe128, Crocstar6, gamebuilder15, xSuperBradx, RavingFrenzyV2 and eve739: you were the first of many to comment.

I must also thank the beta-testers: Nico and Agus, two great friends of mine (and I’m not just saying because they offered as guinea pigs). They put up with playing the game in its very first stages, when everything was a place-holder, there were no sounds (or they weren’t edited) and it was full of bugs. To them both, who know the game by heart, my everlasting thanks; I would have gone crazy were I to test it over and over as many times as they did.

I can’t forget about Marcia either, my bestest friend (and voice of reason). She came to my rescue when I had exhausted all my resources to make women screams. This was a key element in ambience, and were it not for her helping me in spite of her very busy schedule, I wouldn’t have been able to release the game this week. She saved me, once again.

And I must also mention Edu (no, I’m not speaking about myself in third person- he’s ANOTHER Edu). He played the manager and agent part, getting me in contact con people putting together a game portal and trying to get me an in. It ended up in nothing, but his intention was a noble one.

But before you get tired of reading, I must thank my friends humongously, hoping I can repay even a tiny bit of what they gave to me. Their affection, congratulations and comments gave the day the happiest closure there ever was. These words, laughter and their many onomatopoeia while playing will forever remain in my ever so fragile memory I know I already mentioned them, but Agus, Pablo and Row pushed my joy levels off scale (Insert mandatory OVER NINE THOUSAND joke here).

In retrospect, I may have been able to complete Despair in time for the CODEAR competition. Total development time was about 60-70 hours including code, art, sound, etc. A memory comes to my mind, when I mentioned Sebastian Uribe there was a month until the deadline and he answered: “Plenty of time”. He was right. But right after that, a lot of responsibilities came up such as university and my day job. Anyway, during that time in which I was not coding or designing I was still thinking how to solve issues, which things to include, which sounds to use… In the end, I think the actual development time was well above 70 hours, even if it was not all spent on development.

Lastly, I’m already working in a game for EVA (a local games show). I have 10 days left, and I honestly hope that if any of you attends and plays it, you will tell me. I will be handing out free hugs. =)

By the way, I didn’t know this at the time I made the draft for this article, but the people back at the TIGSource and ADVA forum also gave me feedback on the game! Thanks a lot guys!!

I’ve just finished Despair, a game originally for ADVA and which I couldn’t finish on time because of the overwhelming amount of responsibilities in my daily life. Being incapable of reaching the deadline, I went ahead and included a couple of features I hadn’t planned at first. So finally I decided to publish it on Kongregate and expose this lame game. You can find it here: Despair on Kongregate

Now I’ll turn focus to CODEAR Party Games. I have a couple of weeks left to develop something simple and try and make it on time for once.

By the way, there’s now a Twitter account with mildly “serious” purposes. You can follow it on @GenkidoGames- there’s a chance you’ll find out about news there, not in this mostly abandoned blog (probably not).

Row usually says that today’s class is the most productive of them all… Of course, he says so because he won’t work on what it’s assigned to us. So, in order to take advantage of the first part of said class, we established a simple goal and tried to complete it: a reduced Streets of Rage. We didn’t accomplish much in the 20 minutes we had until the break, but I’m pretty happy with the results- we are to continue working on it next class. The other game is on wheels; the drawings I got are great, I couldn’t be happier. The artist’s work is incredible

The closed beta is coming soon, and after that, it won’t be long for Gold. See ya!

There are some days in which one can’t get anything through; it’s completely normal. One just doesn’t feel motivated enough to work, or the amount of work is overwhelming, so there’s always something more urgent to tend to. Whichever the reason, there is no progress achieved. But this is totally unpredictable: you can’t know in advance when this is going to happen.

The same thing applies to meetings. One can be expecting to accomplish something, and the ideas won’t just add up, or they won’t flow. Either that, or the team is just too distracted. That too is unpredictable. But what about a meeting without goals? There’s no doubt that meeting will end in failure. This is not about having no ideas, or reaching no consensus… But every idea that comes up has to be shot down or left on hold, because you can’t tell if it’s acceptable or not. You end up empty handed; and worst thing is, one usually attends expecting to get something out of it.

I had one of those in the last few days. I didn’t have a bad time: I have a really good relationship with this person. But we had no clear idea on what we were looking for. No matter, lessons are to be learned; next time we’ll know better.

And regarding the other subject, I have to admit I had a couple of days like those I described.

I’ve been thinking about reopening Genkido’s Corner lately. It wasn’t at all different to what I’m doing right now; this blog fulfills the same purpose the other did, but what I had in mind is somewhere to share a couple of thoughts unrelated to videogames or computing. Funny stuff, I’m not going to dig into my day to day schedule so that everyone can see.

On the other hand, updating has been complicated lately. Not because I’m short of time (some days I’m unable to write) but because there’s nothing to write about, or, if news come by, they tend to be similar to those of the day before. But since I haven’t updated in a while, here’s the roundup: I have the quote for the art work, y the administration area of the game almost done. And I’m meeting with the web designer today to see what can be done.

There’s little left, and I can’t help but thinking that the less work there is to be done, the harder it get’s to finish it. On other news, I’m not sure what’s the situation on my project with Martín… My guess is that he is waiting for the new team to be assembled- which, in turn, has spawned it’s own issues. Definitely chaotic. I’m hoping this gets sorted out soon, but I’ve been talking to too many people, and I haven’t got in touch with him.

It’s hard to keep focused on a single subject… It’s not the first time I say this, and it’s no news. This week was way abnormal, with a plethora of meetings, another handful of them scheduled, a great deal of emails, and plenty of written code. A mixture of managment and development: most rewarding.

So as not to drag this for too long, I’m on the lookout for artists (of the digital subspecies). I hope I can find someone soon; Having a finished game with no artwork means having no game. Be prepared, it’s getting close

So I had this meeting about the office space… And it didn’t go as planned. People is just too afraid to risk anything; this isn’t surprising. We also talked about assembling a new team, but I feel this idea will vanish along with the former. So, as to make it possible to rent some offices, I’m now developing a Facebook application- Nothing too complex and with chances to amass some audience.

I’m halting the other programs I had in development, but I’ll get to them later. I feel that right now this deserves my undivided attention to release it as soon as possible.