Anchel Labena - Videogames Producer
So it begins! The final two weeks before Mr. Optimistic is ready for showcasing!
And it’d better be ready, because by December 15th, at 3:00 PM we can have no excuses. The game MUST be finished by that time!
We’ve gone through lots of changes everywhere, we’ve had playtesters giving us their input (thanks to all of you for that!), added a lot of new graphics, new game mechanics, better level design…
We hope to be able to show you something very functional pretty soon!
It’s all ready! The first level of our videogame Mr. Optimistic is good to go and you can now playtest it!
Don’t forget this is still a work in progress, so bugs might happen. We want you to try it out and give us feedback to improve the level (again, just the first level – the second one will play, but doesn’t fully work yet).
So give it a try and fill the survey afterwards! Thanks!
Well, here’s my first attempt at making a video developer diary for Mr. Optimistic, the short videogame we are building among a group of four people for a university project and that has been explained previously. The video shows some very, very basic game mechanics (and a lot of physics problems that are shown on purpose in the video and are currently fixed).
Excuse me for my terrible English accent in the video (my accent gets worse when it’s late). Hope you enjoy it! Don’t forget the game will be available freely to download around December 15th!
Little by little our videogame Mr. Optimistic gets better! We now finally have the first level laid out in our game engine (we’re doing this with the free Unity Game Engine for those of you who want to know), and even though there’s lots of things to polish (both on the artistic side and on the physics and enemy behavior side) we’re happy with what we have so far.
But let me introduce the team first.
Mr. Optimistic is being made by four people working as a team. We liked to be called Games’Я’Us!
We will keep you updated with news on our little videogame!
When our teacher Miguel Sicart asked all of our Game Design class to code each one of us our own videogame you could hear a general feeling of fright creeping into many of us.
Sure, we’re a game design class. We are meant to know at the very least the most simple basics of game programming. But then again a lot of us come from academic areas in which all we know about programming is that you have to type. A lot.
Now, taking all this into context and knowing that I had a month to A) Learn some very basics about programming, B) Learn how to use Adobe Flash CS5 (the language to use was optional) and C) Actually make the game, you will understand that my game is something incredibly small and, in my case, with little interactivity.
Instead I opted to make a game with a different kind of experience: you actually have to move around the IT University of Copenhagen physically in order to complete it.
For those of you who saw it back in May, you can think of Virtual ITU as the successor of my previous web-based game Código Pamplonix, with a much smaller scope but more interactivity.
In any case if you happen to be at the ITU right now you can give this game a try and provide some feedback.
I finally had the chance to watch the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and well, what can I say, a movie that begins with an 8-bit version of the Universal Studios logo (8-bit music included) immediately wins my heart.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is what real life would be like if it was a videogame, no doubt. Every element is here: enemies, bosses, experience points, score, life-ups… and of course the ever-present girl to reach at the end of the game.
The story itself when written on paper sounds ridiculous and overly simplistic. But mix it all with a perfect mash-up of comic book styled shots, bleeps and blops in the background that come straight out from old Nintendo games and a thousand little references to everything videogame from Zelda to Half-Life and you’ve got a winner.
I should mention that this is also the first time I see actor Michael Cera do something else than just whine on the screen. Don’t take me wrong, I like him as an actor, but all his roles until now have been the same emotional portrayal. In Scott Pilgrim he still whines a lot (some things never change I guess) but this time he literally kicks ass as well. 
Seeing him punch the first evil ex-boyfriend of pink-haired girl Ramona causes quite an impact because of the huge contrast between whine-Scott and fighting-Scott.
You see, in this movie Scott Pilgrim wants to date Ramona, but in order to do so he is going to have to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. As crazy as it sounds, this is the main plot that weaves it all together. During the entire movie you really wait expectantly to see who is going to be the next evil ex-boyfriend and what will make him special (surprise: they all have superpowers).
It’s exactly the same feeling as old-school videogames in which you advance through the level wondering what the next boss is going to be like.
All of this is greatly enhanced by the amazing visual style of the movie. If a telephone rings you will see the word “RING!” emerging from the phone. Characters move insanely fast to create some of the most comical situations (someone says Scott’s hair is shaggy and less than a second later Scott is seen wearing a hat he’s quickly pulled out to cover it). And comic book panels in the screen become the norm here.
You really never grow bored of Scott Pilgrim’s own little world. It’s a strange one, sure, and those who haven’t played videogames will probably not get half of the jokes and references, but once you dive into it there’s no coming out. You want Scott to win the girl as much as he does. But you don’t want the game to be over. Sadly, the movie does end.
Certainly a movie I can recommend to anyone who wants to see something different. THIS is different. Not in a revolutionary way but it will make you constantly glee. If you haven’t watched it yet (or if it’s still not out in your country, like Spain or Mexico) go book a ticket right now. You won’t regret it.
Here’s a trailer to set you in the mood: