January 26, 2012

Practicing “jobbing” again

By locke

A few days ago I have been noticed that my temporary contract with Simbin it is likely that will not be renewed. While I was expecting this, due to fact that I had a temporary contract (…doh!), I was a little bit surprised. You know, sometimes, a part of you is hoping for more than you are capable of getting. I think I always hoped that I will impress with my skills, my principles and my desire to do anything to the best of my abilities in such a way that there will always be something for me to do here.

I am extremely happy for having this producer job at Simbin. I mean, what were the chances to come, as I did, unemployed in Sweden and get a job in 3 weeks?! Close to none. And yet, I had this incredible opportunity. To bad that in the end, It look like I blew it, somehow, not entirely sure how… 

As a result, I will join the continuously growing group of unemployed people, again. I, of course, have no financial help or benefits from my previous workplaces. Things don’t look that great, but, as someone rich said, being unemployed is a great opportunity to explore your creativity. Which I intend to do.

I am a little bit sad but not depressed. I was starting to have friends here. Hopefully, I will continue having friends here.  I admit that I am a little bit concerned because some things are happening as they should, but others not. I mean, the world is not guided by a mathematical formula, but some logic must be there right? Same logic that says that, giving my history and my experience, I will find a job under 4 months. But I cannot be sure of it. Well… Can I?

 

Thank you Simbin and please take care of Laura!

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January 8, 2012

Other work…

By locke

There is a reason for lack of posting here and that is this site – www.sebastianbularca.com. And of course, also the fact that we are working with Simbin for GTR 3 and other small projects.

Since I haven’t had much activity as game designer, except for a few personal drafts, I have nothing to write about for the moment. I could write something about being a producer, but since I am still in the initial part of the learning curve, I can’t say anything of value. I am sure in time I’ll be able to recount some of the new experiences I’ve had here.

I have also discovered in the meantime that I am not the best tester around. It seems that something about this particular job does not work with my current skill set. I am doing all I can to become better at it, since it is necessary, but I do not feel very confident that I will manage to evolve too much.

As for the rest, our Swedish experience is great and we just can’t get enough.

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October 20, 2011

We are in Sweden!

By locke

This was one incredible month. We’ve lived in a traditional Swedish house, we have been spoiled by the people we are working with, we have been seeing such beautiful landscapes. And we also found a very beautiful apartment to live in. We have Internet now, we have great places to work, we are just happy.

And, you know all the good things you are reading on the Internet about Sweden? They are all truth. It is just incredible…

And when the things get rough, or problems from the past are hunting us, we just look outside on the window and remind to ourselves – “We are in Sweden!”. And then we realize that all we did in our lives was leading us to this incredible experience. This is how life should be. We regret nothing and we love you all.

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August 9, 2011

Moving to Sweden, livin’ a dream

By locke

In a few weeks we will be moving to Sweden from Italy. It feels like running from a war we never knew it will come. Since our dream as developers always was to go in a Scandinavian country, from obvious reasons, you could say we are happy. Still, one eye laughs the other cries, because as much as we gain by moving, we are still loosing the battle with our… problem. The world is in trouble and we are on its long list of possible victims. The only hope lies in me being able to break into some industry in Sweden and get paid as soon as possible. Because else, things will get worse.

On a diffrent tone, we are going in the place where freedom speech, technology and awesome principles are creating one of the best games of this century. So hell yeah, this is exciting and we can hardly wait to get there. Because here was… somehow different than expected.

As for our project, it is momentary on hold. But hopefully not for long. To many changes are taking place in all our lives, way to many changes…

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July 2, 2011

A new beginning

By lara

We dropped our original game idea because it turned out it is too complicated. And because of a story I told, which resonated with the team and sparked ideas. But, as all projects go, when and idea is born and debated in a team of 4, it always, ALWAYS grows too much and becomes too entangled. This is what happened again, but clearly our previous experience was not a failure, because we acted more responsively, slept on it, argued a few times, slept on that as well, and found a way to bring this new game to life. We found a way that connects all elements naturally and provides sense, progression and meaning to the game.

Right now, the team is in full production mode and we’re all busy bees. We even gained a new team member, an artist of EXPOSÉ fame who I am sure will bring our little project to new heights. We’re forging designs, conceptualizing mechanics, planning stories, dreaming – all of it while we’re trying to build a prototype and the first bits of art.

As a team, we started to discuss making an indie game together at the beginning of May. Now, a little less than two months after, I’ve learned this:

- there’s nothing harder than to put the basis of forging a really good team

- the only thing harder than truly starting a team is to maintain the confidence, the trust, the vision. This is perhaps the most challenging job we all share completely

- a good team acts like this: when one falls, the others pick him/ her up. One will always wall to some degree at any given time of the project, most of the times not due to project-related issues. But this is good, as long as the others are there to help.

- ideas really are a dime  a dozen, but 99% of them don’t fit in something which actually needs to be done in a decent timeframe

- everybody’s different and one word can mean a thing to me and a different thing to you; so it’s crucial to ensure that everybody is on the same page

- what is not written, does not exist

- what is written and not understood by the others, does not exist

- there is a very thin line between ownership and ego. Game creators must always own their stuff and defend it fiercely, but never be selfish and opaque, ever

- there are plenty of tools to express an idea, so you can always surprise yourself and others by truly trying to get the good stuff out of your head and lay it on the table

- ideas can look great in your head and yet suck when are placed on paper. This is a wonderful idea survivability test

- no coder will ever fully understand normal people’s talk :) This usually triggers many great things

Back to work now. If this goes well, in September we should have at least as good a morale as we have now.

L

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June 28, 2011

A smart fail

By locke

After careful evaluation, we realized that we are striving to high. We fell in the same trap all the possibile indies are falling – the game is too complicated, with an AI too complicated, with design issues too complicated etc.  And we don’t have the time, the will and, I think, neither the capabilities of creating such a game.

Still it was and still is a good idea. Maybe, if everyone agrees, I will publish my design notes. I would like to do that, just for the sake of sharing.

 

As a side note, some of us are trying to develop something much more simple. Unfortunately we are progressively falling in the same trap. Since I have ruled myself out partially from this new project, due to other calls, I can only assume that is not… me.

It hurts, because the Lara’s idea is quite cool, but it’s looses consistency since it becomes more and more complicated.

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June 7, 2011

Running Hot!

By locke

Just to give an update, our project is running HOT. We met every day, we discuss and we work. As much as we have the time to do it. We even have a code-name, which is HOME. Yeah, just like the sponsored youtube.com HD movie about the planet Earth. Of course, the game has a slightly different subject.

Anyway, we use Google Docs for sharing documentation and specifications and Manymoon.com for project management, since it is very well integrated with Google. Basically everything is set up and running great. We don’t have a final design but something tells me that we will never actually have one. We write documentation on the go and we are working based on the “last news”. Not the best practice, but at least everything gets written, all ideas, no matter how off-topic. Of course, when something is final, is going into the the “Final design” directory.

My only concern for now is that the project is getting a little to big. I would say that we have a little too many features, a little too much AI behaviors to be programmed, event a little too graphical assets to be drawn. Not mentioning that balancing them all is going to be a pain… The kind of pain that I enjoy, to be honest. I am not too happy with my day job right now…

Did I mention how much I love Google Docs?! I mean, you don’t really need much more than the tools offered by Google (giving also its integration with many free solutions like the project management one mentioned above). Oh, and I have started to dig again in the calculation tool that is Wolfram Alpha. Great tool for designers.


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May 11, 2011

From 3D to 2D

By Sebastian

Every day is a new day. After having the usual “authorithy” and “who’s right” fight with “I know who”, we’ve managed to get together to decide on some kind of platform. Until now we kinda excluded a 2D platform, since, doh, we live in the 3D era. But, after seeing this engine, I kinda changed my view immediately, since, obviously, there are some advantages.  I always loved 2D games, mainly because they have this indie/old/passionate aura, and because they tend to concentrate on other aspects than “looking good”. Looking good is expensive, takes a lot of time and a lot of work which we either don’t have, either we are not able to provide.

So, this is it. We also decided on the prototype main focus, which is and editor for… for something that it is supposed to be one of the main features of the game. And the subject, or the subjects to be more precise, they need to look in a certain way, which should be at least marginally similar with… You’ll see!

 

So, the game is going to be 2D, it has a road and it will focus on…

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May 10, 2011

We have a ROAD

By Sebastian

“We are all waiting for you!”

 

Well, this is the point where we are. They are all waiting for me to write some design specifications. Which it shouldn’t be very hard, considering that I should know and understand what is the focus of our game. But I don’t so I will have to grab all the ideas everyone had, put them together in a big hazy and meaningless concept and give it a form, a scope, a focus. Which is awfully hard, since it is… HAZY.

Anyway, without revealing to much, we have decided to go backwards, which means first the story and the meaning and later the gameplay. I personally think it is a bad idea, since we have some limitations, actually some really big limitations, like for example the fact that we are only 4, and 3 of us can’t really do programing. I can do some scripting, it is true, or edit some textures and other technicalities, but I will not be able to scratch the volume of work needed to be done by ONE single man, our programmer. Starting with a story and iterating gameplay means that we may finish the game in 10 – 15 years. I guess it is up to me to come with the perfect gameplay idea. How nice…

Since everybody is waiting for me, well… I better start working. We have ROAD. A road that goes to unknown, pretty much like life. And on our way there, we have all sort of barriers to open or break. Of course, the only thing I have to figure out is why should people go down on the ROAD. Out of curiosity, out of boringness, out of stupidity, inertia… so here I am, trying to create gameplay around the meaning of life itself which I will have to find, it seems. An easy task… Oh, and it shouldn’t evolve around direct confrontation, combat, war, but around other things like the human compassion, need to discover, to explore, to develop, to learn and evolve etc. And it has to have some dragons in the end. And of course, it has to be somehow sandbox. It has to have a non-linear campaign, and multiplayer and you have to leave something behind. And we cannot do complicated animations. And the engine is limited to small spaces. And it was supposed to be side-scroller, but now… whatever. Help!

 

I am telling you, it is gonna be a ride. I will have to feed my imagination and I am afraid that a strong dose of opium will not be enough… Not that I am really curious to find out… Maybe an overdose… That will solve many of my problems…

Kidding. The worse case scenario is for me to just say “How about doing it yourselves, lassies?!”.

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April 8, 2011

We have a team!

By Sebastian

As you know, except for the case in which you are Notch, in order to create a successful game you need a team. And working in a team is the biggest challenge of them all, because, especially in the small teams, everybody needs and has to say something about anything. Te keep the team together, everybody has to work for fun.

So, lately we got involved with our newest universal friends here in Italy (in this industry, there is no nationality) in creating a game, any game. We have started pitching ideas, we have a wiki where we try to write all the ideas we have etc. In other words, we have a 4 people team, Programer, Artist, Designer and Producer, and we are ready to make a game…

But…

What Kind of Game?!

 

Well, this is a problem. Our idea is to make game we would like to play, because it is so very important that you believe in your project. The problem is that we all like to play different types of games, and that we are 50% men and 50% women in the team. While us, the man, need some more aggressive challenges, the women would like some more creative challenges. Some ideas are possible some not, due to the fact that we are only four people and we need to finish the game fast. Technical limitations are also an issue at this point. We cannot afford to take to much time to do a project. It is always better to deliver something fast, in order to get some confidence, to be able to show something later. This will help us not only get a better job or become independent, but also have something to show to those that are willing to invest in you passion, to give you the opportunity of creating better games and become really independent.

The main thing we need to remember is that we have to do a fun game, not a scientific game, not a educational or ideological game, but a fun game. Later, if we will find a way to add layers of science, a deep and meaningful story or other things like ideological teachings and world changing solutions, by all means, if it will remain as fun as it should be.

 

We are not in it for money, which is a very important statement. We just need to put all that creative energy we have accumulated while working for corporates, in something that matters, not something that sells. Even more, we are still searching for better jobs, preferably in the more northern parts Europe, where people talk less and do more.

 

So, we have set up our first milestone, and that in a few days. We need to find a simple and really, really fun idea for a game, in order to start working it. I shall keep those interested posted.

Laterz!

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