nachobeard

Stugan is the indie game incubator in Sweden that I was able to partake in.  It’s now over and I ‘m writing from my desk at home.  Let me tell you why Stugan is awesome and you should apply next year.

Society often teaches us that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, that some things are too good to be true.  Well hold your socks firmly in place because Stugan is even better than you imagined.

They don’t ask for any revenue or equity.  They don’t ask you to pay for anything.  They don’t ask you to do anything.  There’s literally no catch, you’re just expected to work on your game and be nice.  

Food is delicious and provided for (veg, vegan, lactose-free options available).  Accommodation is free and more comfortable than a hotel.  The scenery is breathtaking.

You have total freedom to schedule your work time as you please.  You’re free to roam as you like.  You can go swimming, fishing, running, biking, rowing, kayaking - whatever, it’s up to you.

Weekly mentors will help you improve your skills on game design, PR, business strategy, and more.  They’ll also help you become more connected to the industry.  They’ll support you even after Stugan is over.

You’ll have 20-something stuganeers to help you along the way.  First you’ll ask them a bunch of questions, then you’ll become friends, then they’ll start feeling like a family away from home.  I’ll remember my time at Stugan for the rest of my life, and will forever be grateful to Jana, Tommy and Oskar, together with mentors and sponsors.

My point is simple: please help spread the word about Stugan because it makes the world a better place, and if you have a game project please apply next year, you’ll have the time of your life.

More info here:

http://www.stugan.com/

https://twitter.com/Stugan_

https://www.facebook.com/stugancamp

Here’s a recording of a presentation I gave last year at Hóplay, an indie games festival in Bilbao, Spain.  The first third of the video is subtitled in english, after that I just kinda gave up.  It seems unlikely that I’ll ever get to subtitle the rest so I might as well post it as it is.  Sorry!

Here's my 48h game for Global Game Jam 2015, with music by @jordinuco

It's a one-button runner where you control two rolling pill bugs on their quest to get tasty cheesy snacks. When you press a key the pill bugs teleport to the opposite edge of the screen. It gets busy pretty fast, and gets you "in the zone" the second you start playing.

it's only a tiny thing but I'm strangely proud of this one...

Was interviewed by these guys, sorry spanish only!

http://cice.es/noticia/entrevista-desarrollo-indie-videojuegos-nachobeard/

got interviewed for gamedustria.com!

Hookball, the little game that keeps giving and giving was selected to appear at the Leftfield Collection as part of EGX London 2014 (formerly Eurogamer).

It was a blast to see the game being played by a bunch of strangers.  Some people got super into it! This being a totally nichy game, it didn't resonate with everyone, but that's ok.

I was also reassuring to see the game selected to appear at such a large scale event, for sure.

Of course, the best part was spending time with like-minded individuals! See you all soon, I hope! :)

I've been a lifelong Windows user.  I recently realized that was because my developing environment was tied to Windows, since I've always been a C/C++ kinda guy and never had the slightest interest in making my stuff multiplatform.

But, a year ago I switched to Unity.  A couple of months after that I was very distressed to find out that you still needed a Mac to publish to iOS, but my wife owns an iMac so I started borrowing that.  That worked reasonably well until she started getting annoyed whenever I had to update the OS or update iTunes and things disappeared from where she wanted them and appeared where she didn't want them.

So after a year of that I was ready to switch.  I waited for three months until the new MacBooks came out and decided that I wanted the 13-inch one with Retina screen, since it packed more resolution than my current 17" Windows machine with a much smaller form factor.

After the MacBooks came out I did a lot of online research and couldn't work out if the 13" would be a good fit or not, so I ended up going to a physical Apple Store and asked one of the guys there if he could install Unity (free version) on one of the new machines.

He said yes, Unity worked fine and screen res was a bit better than my current 17" Windows machine so I ordered on the spot.  Then I waited for a month and a half and it finally arrived.  Jut like that.  Bam! It's a thing of beauty.  Behold!

Well it's only a standard 13-inch Retina MacBook with extra RAM but it's the best computer I've ever owned.  I'm impressed with the attention to detail and the thoughtful approach to everything in this machine.  It doesn't come with crapware and works right out of the box.

I thought I wouldn't get used to the trackpad but it's oh so good.  The gestures are super useful and convenient.  Clicking the trackpad is a bit confusing at first and I'm still getting there.

Key combinations are a bit weird.  CTRL-ALT-CMD keys do different things than I'd expect and don't map directly to Windows Keys.  I plugged a windows USB keyboard and fiddled with the keyboard settings and managed to make it sort of work.

The biggest problem for me was the Start/End keys, which by default jump to the beginning/end of the document instead of the beginning/end of the line like I'm used to.  A little free utility called DoubleCommand fixed that.  After fiddling around with the keyboard config I'm still getting used to some weird keyboard combinations but it's good enough for me.

Then I used another little utility called Quickres which allows you to make the most out of your screen resolution, making all the writing and windows small enough so you can fit a ton of information on the screen.  Quickres allows me to make my resolution 2048x1280 (and up to the insane 3360x2100).  Plus, having different virtual desktops for Unity, Monodevelop, etc and running each app in fullscreen mode gives you and incredible amount of workspace on a tiny laptop you can take everywhere.

(full-res screenshot here)

Even after only a couple of days I'm already super productive and even managed to redo my collision detection and 2d physics code, one more time :p

Today is the day that the game gets released.  I think I turned out pretty well, you could say I'm a proud dad.

Let's celebrate with a trailer!

HOOKBALL is available now on the iPad appstore.  It’s going to be free for a little while, as a special launch promotion.  However the game doesn’t feature in-app purchases, push notifications, microtransactions or ads.

.:.

iTunes link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hookball/id640326801

presskit() http://www.nachobeard.com/

.:.

tumblr http://blog.nachobeard.com/

twitter https://twitter.com/nachobeard

email [email protected]

.:.

Credits

Game by Nachobeard http://www.twitter.com/nachobeard

Sound by Gavin Harrison: http://www.gavinharrisonsounds.com

Graphics by Leonard Robel http://www.budhigames.com

so, I've entered hookball into a couple of competitions (unity something 2013 and indiecade) so I made a gameplay video to showcase the lastest version of the game.

I won't be making any more videos of the game (except for a trailer possibly).

finally got round to updating the art, so I took some screenies!  all art is by Leonard Robel, really happy with the results.

nearly there now!

(click to enlarge)

  always looking for testers, hit me up on twitter! (@nachobeard)