current activities

what's up, gg people? been hiding out in mexico finishing the big game since my tech support job in portland ended last nov. mexico is cheap and it's totally a viable idea to start a game studio there, and its an idea I want to continue to pursue, but no money to do so yet, so for now it ended up being more exploratory than root-setting. I've been "camping" continuously since leaving portland, sleeping in basements, friends couches, tents, on the beach, in the desert, and (mostly) in my car. all that saved rent money is going into the game's final push to get done, underway currently. and all the free time I've had as a result of not working in the traditional sense has gone into making the game great. it feels awesome to be able to spend a whole day working on the game, instead of just at night and weekends back when I had a job and would have to "sneak" it into my life. it also feels great to ignore the game for a whole day and just chill on the beach working out design problems in my head or on paper. big win there.

post-mexico I returned to portland but it was wetter than an otter on national celebrate your otter day, so I headed south again and landed in san diego, a boss town with enough game dev going on to get plugged in, and enough beach to beach out.

and now I'm literally on the side of the highway headed to GDC in san jose where I don't know what will happen, and have no plans or ambitions to make suchness happen. meet, talk, learn, drink, play. sure I'd like to find some portals or pubs for shelled, but the game ain't done, and I ain't demoing it till it is, so that's not really a goal for GDC. I'd love to have some numbers to call once it IS done though, so I do want to come back with a stack of cards. but ultimately I realize I'm a GDC newbie and just want to keep my eyes and ears open, much like my first IGC. I'm sure my second GDC (much like my second IGC) will be much more productive.

I considered bringing some resumes to try and get a job, a "real" job, but in the end that's not what I want, and what can I do anyway? I produce, but you don't go from 0 to producer in the real world, and I don't want to start out from 0 doing QA. and let's say I do, and let's say miracle of miracles I climb the ranks so in a few years I'm jr producer or producer, well great, now I still have to make the games that I'm told to so that still doesn't vibe with my goal, which is to make games that I want to make period. plus I'd have to go to work every day, and who wants to go to work when there's beaches unexplored!? (show of hands: nobody)

bottom line, while magic may not happen there, it's a awesome to be able to even go in the first place, a dream come true and a step forward in my seriousness towards the industry. can't wait to see y'all there and don't be shy if you spot me!

this is a pers blog, but gotta throw in a bit of business too - if you haven't already, be sure to sign up for the redthumbgames newsletter at the website because we'll be using that list to send out the first publically playable beta test for shelled VERY SOON. tres exciting.

there's also some new screenies on the site, couple of early peeks at canon's level design.

finally, I've also been working on a generic match-3 gem dropper that'll be promoware for RTG, opening a browser window to RTG's site when the game is quit. idea being to drive a small trickle of traffic to RTG, which can maybe expand as more small freebie games are released. sploidz will be released at the same time as shelled, and again you can test it in about a month or so by getting on the newsletter.

alright peace out everyone keep working on those killer projects and stay indie!!

josh