RE: Gun Control Laws being kicked down in the Senate

I'm interested to know why the U.S. government doesn't pump more funding into hiring more on-site psychologists and people to help those who need it instead of going into gun control policies.

Anyone more knowledgeable on the issue willing to clear things up for me? I'm not defending those who went and committed all these hurtful acts, but... I mean there's all kinds of mentions of school shootings/theater shootings and avenging those who were victim to those attacks but no mention to helping those who need it and stopping them from committing the acts in the first place.

New Blog URL!

I've retired the ultimatespamgrover username for most of my websites.

With the upcoming game projects and this blog being more of an emphasis on in-house projects in the future and I expect a lot of people to be checking this site in the future for crowdfunding campaigns, I don't want gamers to think ultimatespamgrover is a link to a scam or anything non-legitimate, so I've changed the URL.


The new URL groverwhim is my first name and a pun between my last name and the name of the company that we've started: Whim Independent Studios.

RE: Boston Marathon Bombing

My thoughts go out to the people of Boston. It's heartbreaking to see what transpired today.

Kickstarter/Indiegogo Pitch for Selatria is soon!

This week is going to be a fun one! Indiegogo/Kickstarter pitch preparation. It's been many (too many) months in the making! New trailer, filming of game footage, cropping out game data for a new demo, and finalizing the team.

Then... it's all up to the interwebs.

New screenies! Some of the areas were developed by Matthew Estrada and/or Jonathan Dishaw. Face art done by +Jonathan Flynn.

There have been a lot of people involved with making this project as best as it can possibly be. I'm really hoping that Selatria becomes a great example of what can be done with RPG Maker and pushing it to its ultimate potential.

On the other hand, I've lost quite a few friendships over the game over various disagreements in the team or the views on the development of the game. I can't fault them for not willing to go through such a risk of taking on a project so ambitious or not having the time for it. I've spent lots of weekends and free time doing nit-picky things to the game and trying to get it near perfect. I know others have too. If you've seen the art, the music, and the dungeon design, I hope you guys will appreciate it too. :)

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Studio Painting!

Check out some new changes to the studio. Feeling blue. :)

Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #10

Back with the tenth development log! We're currently working between three game projects. Selatria which will begin its fundraising phase later this month, Codename: SWARM (project title) which is being developed in Flash/ActionScript for PC/Mac/mobile platforms to release this spring, and Angry Grandma (project title) which is in the conceptual stage and being developed for PC and Mac.

The art wall is progressing very nicely, don't you think? :)

 Mix of Selatria and Swarm concept art courtesy of Cristobal Guerrero and Paul Diggs

Codename: SWARM Project:

We can now post some details about our upcoming mobile game, codenamed "Codename: SWARM" for now. It will release this spring for PC/Mac and mobile phones.

This particular game came from the ashes from one of our canceled projects, and Jonathan Dishaw came up with the concept to bring the game back with original characters and a new plot on the existing framework we had. Gerren Willis took the role as lead programmer and ported the code to a new ActionScript/Flash engine, Paul Diggs is handling the art direction for the project, Christopher Nuño from the Selatria team is composing the score, Donald Brown from Selatria is doing the sound effects, and Matthew Estrada and I are assisting with the game design and programming.

Details of the game will be posted in development logs to come, but here is some in-progress concept art courtesy of Paul Diggs. Enjoy!

 

  

Angry Grandma:  

Our other game that's currently in its conceptual phase is a game tentatively called "Angry Grandma" about an elderly lady who is confined in a retirement home by her evil children and makes plans to escape. Unlike Swarm which is a casual pick-up game and Selatria which is an RPG, Angry Grandma is going to be a humorous action game. 

This game is currently being developed by Robert Reynolds as programmer, and Matt Douglas as lead artist. I came up with the original concept for the game, and the Swarm team will be merged with the team when that game is complete.  

Here is some in-progress concept art courtesy of Matt Douglas! :)

Selatria:

Last but not least is progress on Selatria! We're currently finalizing negotiations with the team for commissioning in order to proceed with the fundraising phase for Indiegogo and Kickstarter! I would be lying if I said I am nervous on how the campaign turns out. We're currently doing our hardest to try and have the best possible footage for the trailer compiled, the best gameplay shots available, and a near perfect revamped Chapter 1 demo for potential backers to download.

The hopeful goal is Monday, April 22nd to launch on Indiegogo, but my plans never seem to come to fruition.

River Kanoff (voice of General Gaius in Dust: An Elysian Tail, and the voice of Luis in Selatria) came to visit the studio on April Fool's Day. We spent the better portion of the day doing Luis's lines for Chapter 2 and 3 and the collaboration session was a lot of fun.

Recording Session at the Studio!

Luis Bloopers!

From a game-play standpoint, the character Luis was redesigned almost from scratch, even though some elements from his play-style from his original iteration in last year's demo will be similar. He'll remember more spells as he levels up, and he will learn new abilities that help his deficient memory. Also, there will be a variety of funny voices that pop up if a spell is forgotten. I hope you'll enjoy it! :)

Here are some Chapter 3 and 4 areas in development. The volcano area and the arena were designed by Matthew Estrada, one of our head designers for the Selatria project.

The white squares are event tiles, meaning "something special" happens on said tile. What do you think it could be?

Alas, a seemingly-peaceful cavern with a canoe nearby. There can't possibly be anything lurking under there that warrants a save gate nearby, does it? 

Ah damn, it's almost 2AM. I'm heading out of town in the morning and going to use the ride to and from to write the rough draft for the Indiegogo and Kickstarter pitch. I have something in mind for a template but I'm going to make it very special for Selatria.

Until next development log!



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RE: IGN's Article on "Is it worth doing a degree in video games?"

One of the reasons I went for a general BS in Computer Science instead of a BA was that I didn't want to be stuck in one expertise in-case the dream career path never worked out.

Even though this article talks about universities in the UK, universities out here still have a lot of tweaking to do in a game design curriculum. There needs to be more emphasis on good scriptwriting/dialogue, a basic copyright law/business course to effectively "market" your game idea to your consumer(s) or team members, and more emphasis on working in teams/software engineering.

You can see IGN's article here.