Plan for Nicolas Quijano

Well, it's finally happening : I've started work as Programmer/"the guy in charge of technology" on an independently and privately funded game. I'll let the designer and team leader make the announcement when everything is in place to do so, so meanwhile, I can't even mention the working title, or anything of the sort. Ah, the vagaries of NDAs !! ;)
Suffice it to say for now that we're using Torque, it's a single player game that fits more or less in the adventure genre.
The concept is great, and by a funny twist of fate, shares quite a few points with my own adventure game, which is on the back-burner for now : epic sagas that involve the fate of whole worlds, a focus on storytelling, rather than combat action. All of which made it that much easier a plunge to take, and also explains why I shelved my TGE project for the time being, as I mentioned in my first .plan file : of course, I knew this one was coming along :)
Btw, outside the similarities I perceive and the use of TGE, there is no relationship whatsoever between the two projects : there is no recuperation, etc.
Corey has been working at least since the beginning of the year on securing some funding (we're talking peanuts compared to the Big Guys): right now, we have the means to complete a 4 months development cycle to bring tangible results to woo our investors into financing the whole thing.
This means I'll be getting paid regularly, so I can dedicate myself to game development wholeheartedly. In fact, I'll be working full time on the project, and will refuse most work during that period, and hopefully, beyond, once we've secured our whole development budget.
This is not only good for this project, but for my game making endeavors in general, as when you work IT for a living, it's not always obvious to use your spare time on yet more coding, etc.
The eternal conundrum of the struggling Indie, I guess.
And btw, we're not going to be commercial TGE licensees for the foreseeable future, if ever : we're talking Can dollars, and not a whole lot :)
As a matter of fact, if I wasn't living in Montreal, getting a good deal on my rent and having no family to support, I would have to get some additional income to make ends meet.
Then again, the point is not getting rich, but rather to be able to fulfill a long standing dream of mine, that is, making a living with games. This is a huge step in the right direction, and I'm glad to take a pay cut to do so as well as being in the position to do so : I have the utmost respect for the family men among us (which include my boss) who work on their dreams on top of fulfilling their responsibilities. Bravo
Mentioning all this so that the community doesn't get the wrong idea : I wish I could hire those I've approached at going game industry rates, or even IT rates, but that's not in the realm of the possible, alas. We'll have to see how we deal with this when we come to it.

Our core team numbers 3 for now : Corey Tamas, the game's designer and team leader, who will also be involved in the level making, both as designer/builder and modeler. We're also very proud to have James Ferris onboard, a full time and dedicated artist who will tackle most of the modeling and animation, including most if not all game "actors", as well as sharing the level making with Corey. He's an industry veteran, having worked on some major and well known titles : he was part of the dev team for Jagged Alliance 2 and Wizardry 8, as well as getting some of his skins shipped with the Living Large expansion for the Sims.
And myself, taking care of coding, scripting and technical direction.
We'll most likely recruit help for some specific tasks as the production evolves, as well as contribute back to the community. More on this in due time.

I would like to tell more, but I'll ere on the side of caution until Corey makes the official announcement, etc. (and i've already spent too much time writing this, hehe 8p)
Interesting times ahead :)
Thanks for reading so far, and best wishes to all on their respective projects !!
Keep on Torquin' in the free world !!