Friday, November 30, 2012

Survival Horror Story I : Me talking alone.


Hola chavales, so let's make a Survival Horror game! Great, I made some characters in Fireworks, I can do some little animations, a lot of ugly creatures and maybe I can trick a programmer to work for me... (there are a lot of them on internet) Let's make this game!

Rodrigo Chico: Eh, nice sketches but what about the game?

Well, you know, a survival horror, shoot few bullets in the creatures faces. But in this case in a original and fabulous 8bit style! Look at this sketches. Aren't they amazing?



Rodrigo Chico: Maybe, but I want to know about the story... what happens in the game?

Oh, that's the question dear Rodrigo. Sometimes I hear developers, gamers or even my mum saying things like "La historia no importa en un videojuego" (Story does not matter in a video game). I have long discussions with these people because the story matters, always. And they say "In a action game? are you bananas? You only want to kill, who cares about the story?" Some people thinks the story is a never ending scroll text telling you about ancient characters called Ainulindale Noldor in a far world of... whatever... I think a story can be found in two sentences, or a scar in a character face, or a logo in a uniform. Sometimes people think the game will be the same without a story, you have to reach your target, your objective, kill the f*cking boss, that's it. But if you think about, it's not the same feeling to kill the boss because its a bad person, or to kill him because he kidnapped your girlfriend, or the king of Spain, or your blind son, or a radioactive ficus. Because you want to be a part of the game, even in a casual game, you have to care about this issue.

Rodrigo Chico: Well, but what do you tell me about Tetris? eh?

Yes, Tetris has no story, but it has a music, and graphics and this things are connected in a Russian style, that's a story for me too. I have some good example with Triple Town, this is a Tetris-like but with a different story (and gameplay), the same mechanics will work without the trees and the bears, but... you know, its not the same game. So the story its important to define a game, any game.

Rodrigo Chico: Ok, you're right, so tell me now what about Catequesis?

I think this is a great subject for the next post. ;)

By the way, for the next week my French fella Max will make a post about cooking baguettes in Java environment.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A demon called me while I was playing Pico Hero.

Hi, my name is Fran and this is my first time doing a dev diary... I'm the game designer of Catequesis, in charge of the content...In Spanish we can say that I'm in charge of the "chicha" of the game. Yes, also I'm an atypical Spaniard so I will try to teach the people some words in my language, why not.

S.H.S. Catequesis is the synthesis of a mix of some interesting games, like "Resident Evil I"... I played the original "Alone in the dark" but never "Resident Evil I", I had the opportunity in the Wii, with the restored edition, I really love the tension & the deep mystery of the story. I played an indie game adventure called "5 Days A Stranger", the first of a game series by Ben Croshaw, some kind of freak of the adventures and retro games... and who is not. I loved his way to mix the mystery and horror in an adventure game, I was scary walking the house corridors, scary in an retro-pixel-look adventure game, that's was new for me. 


This two games where mixed with a game for Android, some kind of "Zelda I" tribute called "The legend of Pico Hero", a small 8bit RPG style game. I surprised myself playing a lot of time and showing to my friends how easy was control and have fun with a simple mechanics. 
Why not a 8bit survival horror for android? So I downloaded a pixel-draw-something on my tablet and started to make some character sketches...



Then a French programmer down from the sky in a brightest light ever, like the "Espiritu Santo" of El Greco, blessing my thoughts and with two baguettes behind his arms doing the cross symbol. That's was coooooool.