Anime Vegas 2012 - What a Weekend (Part 1)

It was a pretty fantastic weekend, there were two events that I was really looking forward to, and I was somehow able to make both. Anime Vegas 2012 convention from Saturday-Monday, and the end of the world cataclysmic event of Final Fantasy XIV that signified the closure of the current version and the transition to "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn" (That'll be Part 2.)

Anime Vegas: 

We left California around 11PM ish Friday night and got into Vegas at around 2AM Saturday morning. There's just something I love about driving into the brightest city in the world in the middle of the night where one can truly enjoy the splendor that Las Vegas has to offer. I really love the atmosphere of the town, I wouldn't mind moving there. I've already applied to several jobs in the area so maybe I could make it a permanent residence. I have talked to some friends who would like to move with me if that dream were to come true, so I wouldn't be living on my own.

I went with three of my friends: Jabari, Jon, and Shadoe. These three are usually the ones I go to conventions with, Shadoe and Jon are the ones that make my cosplays, and they're really talented at doing it. I have to thank them a million times over for doing my Moon and Sazh costume.

Okay, I think I got off on a tangent again. Time for pictures!

Pictures from Anime Vegas 2012!

Day 1: We were FFXIII characters. I was Sazh, Shadoe was Hope (the top pictures are the "formal version" of the cosplay for the dance), and Jon was Snow.

Day 2: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask characters. Shadoe was Link, Jon was Majora, and I was the Moon! (Three Days!)

Day 3: We went as cosplays people seemed to like most. Shadoe was Hope, Jon was Snow, and I was the Moon!


On Day 2, we went to a random casino in our costumes, and people seemed to really like it! Link/Majora got their pictures taken, unfortunately I didn't go as the Moon, can't eat a fine buffet in that costume >.<

Next year, Anime Vegas is going to be on Labor Day weekend instead of Veterans' Day weekend. Looking forward to going next year!

New Approach

Time for a new approach. Different Game Developers seem to want vastly different skill-sets in their job requirements for the same position.

I'm going to take a random sample of 10-15 job openings, tally up what they're looking for, and take the top 5-6 common skill-sets, and make sure I get proficient at it. Very, very, proficient at it.

Seems it's better to be extremely good at a few aspects of development than to be okay in a wide variety of development.

Source: Gamasutra

 Jobs Looked at : 15

Scripting Language (General): 8
JavaScript: 7
C++ : 7
Unity: 6
Flash/ActionScript: 5
Level Editor (General): 4
Java: 4

---

3DS Max: 3
Unreal: 2
Maya: 2
C#: 2
Android SDK/Android Programming Knowledge: 2
Lua: 1
DirectX: 1
Radiant: 1
Perforce: 1
Modding Knowledge:  1 
iOS Experience: 1


As you can see, I have my work ahead of me. Some jobs wanted general scripting knowledge, but others wanted specific knowledge of languages. So I have much to study. You'll see on the navbar on the top I put the top languages, I'll be doing blog posts on these in the future that have handy guides and tutorials that I find.

 

2012 Election

So, Obama won.

Yay!

I wish people would stop being complete jerks about it. Okay, your candidate didn't win. But it isn't classy to spew insults because they didn't vote for who you did.

We're all supposed to have different views/opinions. That's what makes us unique. Otherwise, we'd all be the same. And same is boring. And knowledge is power.

That's what I appreciate most about living in a free country, we can choose and vote for our leaders.

That's all.



.

Operation: Grandma -- Action/Stealth/Comedic Game Concept

Hammerhead in Twisted Metal III - blame this for part of the inspiration.

I felt like I wanted to post this here, in fact I could care less if people take the idea and decide to further develop it. (I don't think people will care enough to even bother taking my concepts, but just covering my bases.)

Those who know me well know that I have a very strange and absurd sense of humor, I want my next project to be less serious and  way more lighthearted. I also want to try something that's not an RPG! I was given a lot of different game concepts, but I want to try something a bit different.

How it started:

So, a few months ago I pitched a game concept to the IGDA Facebook board about a game centered around a grandmother as a protagonist. In the response, I was just looking to be creative, but in the time since then I've been thinking about the game concept and I'm looking to expand it further maybe late-next year after Selatria is completed.

Given the launch of the upcoming OUYA console, I would really like to start developing games for that console with my independent game label.  I'm thinking this would be the perfect game idea for that.

Premise:

Tired of her boring life stuck in a retirement home after being placed by her evil son-in-law, 89-year old Betty plans to escape. She has to overcome obstacles sneaking out of the place, and has to maneuver around town avoiding officials and family members who want to send her back.

She'll have to learn technology, city streets, and the modern world in order to keep her freedom and avoid the prison that is her retirement community.

Possible Weapons:

-Purse (Hard hitting, but lose some money every-time it is swung)
-Cane/Walker (Several different weapons)
-Painkillers (Cause temporary invulnerability)
-Shopping Cart
-Glasses, if dropped or broken, vision can become blurry.
-Baseball Bat
-Smartphone - Contains GPS that tells her if family or the administrators from the retirement home are nearby and looking for her.

Given that the person is elderly, there will have to be a stealth element in the game. It will be less of beat-em-up and running, but more of strategic hiding and maneuvering while moving slowly around town.

Possible Game Features:

-Reputation bar. Goes up when doing favors for different people in town. Goes down when you beat up people with cane/weapon.
-3D Open world
-Ability to date different people. Ranging from fellow  seniors, to acting as a cougar and going for younger guys. Can affect reputation positively/negatively depending on actions done.
-Adult kids driving around looking for you at random to which you'll need to avoid.
-Recruit grandchildren to do some of the bidding/missions for you.


---

Anyway, I'm going to continue developing this idea, I don't have the development manpower (nor the time) to develop the game any further than a concept at the moment due to other commitments, but when time opens up and I get the OUYA next year, I'm going to begin developing this concept for it.

If you guys have any suggestions or may be interested in joining the project when it comes to fruition, let me know!


.

Selatria - Special Announcements + Main Theme Revealed!

I needed some inspiration on working on the game, so I wanted people to like the Selatria page promising that there would be a special announcement if there were 100 or more likes on the page.

That went through fairly quickly, so I revealed the special info late last night and early this morning.

Special Announcement (1/3)

Selatria is going to release on August 20, 2013 for a discounted price of $2.99 on the first week only!'

Special Announcement (2/3)

The first 100 people who liked this page will receive special thanks credits in the ending of the game. Thank you so much for the support and liking the page!

Special Announcement (3/3)

This is perhaps the most special one, and apologies that it came the morning afterwards, technical difficulties!

A sample of the main theme of the game composed by Christopher Nuño and Jabari Smith!

Thanks everyone for the support!!!

Here is what the main theme of the game will be. Any suggestions for the name of the song? I love it. It's beautiful.

New Project that I can finally talk about.

I've been working on it for a while, but I can finally talk about it.


Check out Hell's Kitty!


I'm doing the game design and uncredited as co-programmer, while my friend Matt is doing the programming of the project. It's going to be hitting this Winter for android phones.

Programmed in Java.

What RPG Maker means to me

This blog entry was done for the RPG Maker Free-For-All Weekend! contest.

RPG Maker will always be a program that I hold dear. I first learned about it when I was 10 years old going to EBGames for used PlayStation games and found a copy of the original RPG Maker on the PS1 console. After being initially confused by the mechanics of it, I played Gobli's Quest demo and learned how events worked and I was hooked after that.

In 2005, I picked up RPG Maker XP and began working on my first game I had designed on paper. I was going to work on that game for the PS1 iteration, but it turned out to be too limiting. I'm ashamed of it now (it's cheesy, trust me), but I worked on it for six years and I now feel like I mastered the art of XP eventing.

In 2008, I graduated high school, and because of making these games in my spare time, I wanted to go into the realm of game development as a career as well as a hobby. I took up Computer Science and Game Design and learned the ins and outs of standard programming which I used those fundamentals to understand the Ruby scripts in RPG Maker. I just graduated with my degree this past summer and I'm currently working on my own independent game development label!

I'm currently working on a game called "Selatria" with a mixed team between my friends, hobbyists, former classmates I've met in university, and professional and aspiring voice actors, musicians, and artists. I'm currently using a mix of scripts that were freely distributed (with permission of course) as well for the first time, Ruby scripts that I have made on my own.

If it weren't for RPG Maker, my whole career path would have likely been much different. I wouldn't have been interested in any game development, and would have gone down a totally different route in life (likely business or a more conventional field.) I'm very grateful that RPG Maker was a starting step in order to go into professional game development, and I'm hoping very soon my hobby will become more of a dream career.

Screenshots and videos are below: 

Also check us out on IndieDB, Facebook, and YouTube!

Check out RPG Maker Web: Make Your Own Game!