Archive for March 2013
Games We Wish We Made (1)
What games do Beautifunners play?
Here we are again, telling you about the games we make - but what about the ones we play?
After all, our love for games is what brought us to make them in the first place. So yep, you guessed right, we are quite heavy gamers.
(Actually, we could probably finish our games faster if we played other's guys games a little less... but hey, when we devs play games, it's not really playing. More like research. Benchmarking, you know. Analysis and all that. Yeah.)
That is why we are starting this new section on this blog, to let you know about the games we are "researching" at the moment. The ones we baaadly wish we made - especially indie ones.
So what have we been pla...eeeh, analysing recently?
"Begin Game Over Again Game Over Again..."
There's been a fever for SuperHexagon here at BeautiFun, spreading like wildfire through Programming. The coding guys seem to have a special thing for the pulsating, rotating, color-changing hectic hexagons.
Our CEO Aniol is pretty much addicted to the game, not to mention to the amazing soundtrack by Chipzel which he plays a lot at the office.
Pol, one of our programmers, says "everything about SuperHex is addictive. It's a very fast gaming experience, it motivates you to play and play and try to beat your own high score".
Not too difficult, right?
"Difficulty makes it EVEN more addictive. It's part of the fun, it's a challenge - it makes playthroughs so quick that you don't mind starting over a thousand times. And you keep trying hard every time. The music's also super crazy, it's another factor pushing you to play and play and keeps the frenzy up".
Kevin (Game Design) takes the question to heart. "It might seem like a simple game, but in fact it speaks the language of videogames in its purest form. It's sheer gameplay - utterly abstract, without a context or plot. That's something quite unique nowadays, since we designers are exposed to so many influences that we can barely conceive a game without a story attached. SuperHex instead goes the same ways as classic Pacman or Tetris - undiluted gameplay. That makes is as addictive as magnificient".
Faster Than Permadeath
Our Marketing guy has been talking about FTL: Faster Than Light for whole days (and playing it for whole nights, instead of working on this blog).
"What I love about FTL is the devilish gameplay" says Víctor. "Easy to learn, damn hard to master. I ignored the in-game advice about trying it on Easy first and I'm paying for my arrogance. Big time. This one time I had a really cool ship, able to lase anything out of the galaxy - and got killed because a small fire in the oxygen generator got out of control. So just after winning an epic battle, I spent five minutes on pause, carefully preparing my strategy to repair it. Which I managed to do, but not before air levels dropped and everybody died."
He stares into the void, pondering the fate of his immaculate ship, floating away unscathed but with a dead crew. "That's the greatness of FTL for me - you can ace a dogfight and then die because of some minor oversight. Space is a hard place, and FTL manages to communicate that. As an SF writer, I feel vindicated. It felt like Heinlein shouting "I told you so!" into my ears".
Programmer Suey takes off his earphones for a second to utter his terse verdict: "It f*cking rules". Then goes to work again.
Last words before heading back to the hangar?
Kevin thinks long and hard before answering. "What works for me is that it has very few mechanics but a lot of content - battles, asteroid fields, exploding novas, weapons... And you don't have to be navigating menus all the time. It all works well while keeping the interface really uncluttered."
Suey chimes in again at the last second: "FTL = hell in space!".
Here we are again, telling you about the games we make - but what about the ones we play?
After all, our love for games is what brought us to make them in the first place. So yep, you guessed right, we are quite heavy gamers.
Pol studying FTL intensely
That is why we are starting this new section on this blog, to let you know about the games we are "researching" at the moment. The ones we baaadly wish we made - especially indie ones.
So what have we been pla...eeeh, analysing recently?
"Begin Game Over Again Game Over Again..."
There's been a fever for SuperHexagon here at BeautiFun, spreading like wildfire through Programming. The coding guys seem to have a special thing for the pulsating, rotating, color-changing hectic hexagons.
Pol, one of our programmers, says "everything about SuperHex is addictive. It's a very fast gaming experience, it motivates you to play and play and try to beat your own high score".
Not too difficult, right?
"Difficulty makes it EVEN more addictive. It's part of the fun, it's a challenge - it makes playthroughs so quick that you don't mind starting over a thousand times. And you keep trying hard every time. The music's also super crazy, it's another factor pushing you to play and play and keeps the frenzy up".
Kevin (Game Design) takes the question to heart. "It might seem like a simple game, but in fact it speaks the language of videogames in its purest form. It's sheer gameplay - utterly abstract, without a context or plot. That's something quite unique nowadays, since we designers are exposed to so many influences that we can barely conceive a game without a story attached. SuperHex instead goes the same ways as classic Pacman or Tetris - undiluted gameplay. That makes is as addictive as magnificient".
Faster Than Permadeath
Our Marketing guy has been talking about FTL: Faster Than Light for whole days (and playing it for whole nights, instead of working on this blog).
He stares into the void, pondering the fate of his immaculate ship, floating away unscathed but with a dead crew. "That's the greatness of FTL for me - you can ace a dogfight and then die because of some minor oversight. Space is a hard place, and FTL manages to communicate that. As an SF writer, I feel vindicated. It felt like Heinlein shouting "I told you so!" into my ears".
Programmer Suey takes off his earphones for a second to utter his terse verdict: "It f*cking rules". Then goes to work again.
Last words before heading back to the hangar?
Kevin thinks long and hard before answering. "What works for me is that it has very few mechanics but a lot of content - battles, asteroid fields, exploding novas, weapons... And you don't have to be navigating menus all the time. It all works well while keeping the interface really uncluttered."
Suey chimes in again at the last second: "FTL = hell in space!".
On Nihilumbra, secret projects...and poker
Lately we've been meeting a lot of cool people. Which is no surprise considering we work in games, but just the other day we got the chance to speak with the guys at Eurogamer - who truly deserve a "triple-A-cool" rating!
We got the chance to visit them in their trendy office in uptown Barcelona, with amazing views over the neighboring Sagrada Familia. There we had a beer and a nice chat with Xavi Robles and Albert Garcia, the masterminds who run the show at Eurogamer.es. They had many interesting questions, and we were thrilled to answer.
In this very interesting video interview (in Spanish), we talk about the development of Nihilumbra, our "glory or death!" approach to making games... aaaand we give some subtle hints about our new and secret project. Which is so new and secret it doesn't even have a name yet (not one we dare to mention here, at least).
And as a bonus track, we also revealed just how much BeautiFun Games owes to... poker. Yup, that's right.
So go watch it and give'em a thumbs up, these guys really did a great job!
We got the chance to visit them in their trendy office in uptown Barcelona, with amazing views over the neighboring Sagrada Familia. There we had a beer and a nice chat with Xavi Robles and Albert Garcia, the masterminds who run the show at Eurogamer.es. They had many interesting questions, and we were thrilled to answer.
Kevin, Albert and Xavi geting kind of hyper about Nihilumbra
And as a bonus track, we also revealed just how much BeautiFun Games owes to... poker. Yup, that's right.
So go watch it and give'em a thumbs up, these guys really did a great job!
Feeling like a movie star
No, we are not egotripping (well, not yet).
It's just that we've been interviewed for the documentary film Insert Coin The Movie. And it's been tons of fun!
Insert Coin The Movie (in Spanish) is a daring attempt to portrait the "state of the art" on the Spanish videogame sector. Indie to the bone, they have done some successful crowdfunding to support the project. Now they are touring the country, interviewing everybody who's somebody in the industry, and then some.
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Suey & Aniol acting professional, Pol getting prettier...*
We talked extensively not only about our personal experiences in making games, but also about the industry and its future. Plus, we shared some funny anecdotes about the making of Nihilumbra - but we're not telling, so you'll have to watch the movie...
Insert Coin crew trying (hard) to make us look good on screen
The kids were super cool and the filming, though exhausting, was a very nice experience. We wish you the best of lucks with the documentary, guys. Can't wait to see the final cut!
* ...And Jordi the Ninja gets caught on camera on this very rare pic!
Tag :
Interviews,
We the Beautifunners,
Shark-riding in Hamburg
Getting Loot
Last month we sent part of our team on a side quest to the Casual Connect Indie, and we got some loot:
Kevin showing us the cool stuff while a guy gives exactly 0 damns about it
It was a great multiplayer experience, sharing quality time with other indies from all over the world. In Hamburg we got the chance to connect with fellow adventurers, play each other's games and get to know what's going on in the indie scene.
Playing Co-Op
The nice guys at Yellow Monkey got a prize as well for their game Hue Brix. Later on we got to know Yoeri Staal (give his game Flooded Village a try here) who was a truly awesome guy.
Kevin was also quite hyped about Hairy Tales (Arges Systems) and Forced (Beta Dwarf). He's also been nagging us about moving BeautiFun Games to Argentina since he met the fine people of Epic Llama (who at the very least deserve an award for Best Indie Company Name).
Hernán López (Epic Llama) had a bad case of indynitis
And then, using the free beer powerups to fill up his Mana Bar, Kevin used the "Ride a Shark" on full blast.
Riding Sharks
We were kindly invited to do a post-mortem of Nihilumbra. It's quite a departure from our usual kind of talk. Rather than introducing our game, we focus on the process of making it - how me made it happen, what went wrong (aka Where We Screwed Up) and what we learned during the development. Watch it to discover how YOU can be a shark rider (yes, you), if you really really really wanna do it.
Too busy playing Nihilumbra and couldn't go to Hamburg? Watch it here:
That's it.
Now go ride some sharks.
And tell us about it.
OUR cake is not a lie
Don't believe it? Here you go:
And why, you wonder?
That's right, we've been bringing you great games since March 2011*
We started off as a somewhat crazy project by four former masters students looking to do the indie thing and develop videogames. Looking back at those times and all the effort we've put into BeautiFun, it's hard to overstate our satisfaction! Sure there have been bumps on the road, but every time we think of all you people who've had a minute of fun because of Nihilumbra, we know it has been damn worth it!
And the best is yet to come! Behold our team celebrating our future Huge Success:
To all you guys and girls, thank you very much for playing our games! And if you still haven't, then GO FOR IT NOW (preferably, buy them first).
But look at us talking while there are games to be done!
Now back to work - so that we can release on time!
-The BeautiFun Games Team
* Well, admittedly it's been just one game, BUT it was amazing, wasn't it? And then we're indies, baby. Anyway, this cake is great.
It's because BeautiFun Games has just turned 2 years old!
That's right, we've been bringing you great games since March 2011*
We started off as a somewhat crazy project by four former masters students looking to do the indie thing and develop videogames. Looking back at those times and all the effort we've put into BeautiFun, it's hard to overstate our satisfaction! Sure there have been bumps on the road, but every time we think of all you people who've had a minute of fun because of Nihilumbra, we know it has been damn worth it!
And the best is yet to come! Behold our team celebrating our future Huge Success:
Lourdes dreams about the next game while Pol gets all red in the face
on screen, Aniol has experiments to run - and Jordi... he's still alive.
To all you guys and girls, thank you very much for playing our games! And if you still haven't, then GO FOR IT NOW (preferably, buy them first).
But look at us talking while there are games to be done!
Now back to work - so that we can release on time!
-The BeautiFun Games Team
* Well, admittedly it's been just one game, BUT it was amazing, wasn't it? And then we're indies, baby. Anyway, this cake is great.
Tag :
We the Beautifunners,
