My favorite group of people. I can get angry and lose my cool, but in all reality, I couldn't see playing FFXIV or going through Eorzea with a different group of people. They're like an online family.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Viva Eorzea - April 2014
My favorite group of people. I can get angry and lose my cool, but in all reality, I couldn't see playing FFXIV or going through Eorzea with a different group of people. They're like an online family.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Sleep Deprivation
I was knocked out for five hours today. That's never happened before. I have been way overexerting myself to try to get things done and started burning both ends.
It's better to have a few productive hours than a lot of slow ones.
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It's better to have a few productive hours than a lot of slow ones.
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Monday, April 21, 2014
Something to think about...
Nothing against current parents or parents-to-be, or the way they decide to parent, but do consider this:
We're in the social media age, kids are going to grow up knowing their classmates and friends they grow up with have their baby pictures and videos publicized for all to see. And even ultrasounds...
Be careful with what you post online.
We're in the social media age, kids are going to grow up knowing their classmates and friends they grow up with have their baby pictures and videos publicized for all to see. And even ultrasounds...
Be careful with what you post online.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #25
Back with the 25th development log! Lots of stuff to show and share this time about our work at the studio - Here we go!
Preparation for E3:
I was pretty bummed out from E3 2012, when I formed the studio as a business at the end of 2012 I didn't sign up or make any real effort to attend E3 2013. I regret it, because it was a really good year for games, given the launch of consoles, a lot of game announcements, and not to mention the schooling Sony gave to Microsoft to finally get it on the right track.
That being said, I made it a goal to be able to go to E3 this year, I didn't push it off or procrastinate, we gathered the needed requirements in order to have our studio not only official for the sake of legal documents and tax information for when the games sell. Well, we already knocked that out last year when we had our Selatria Indiegogo, but we needed to also prove to the E3 panel that we are an official game studio.
Me and one of the co-founders of the company wanted to start off with the E3 validation. I provided my IGDA card, a copy of my business license, and my business credit card. It took them about three weeks to validate my credentials, and now I have spent the majority of my effort getting the integral members of the Selatria and ANTics teams in as well providing what documents we can to prove that they too are part of the industry from working with us on our games.
If you plan to either freelance or set up an independent business for game development, make sure to do it right. My friend Paul helped me out a lot last year with setting up the needed documents and legal papers in order to get us up and running and it went a long way in helping with the E3 validation process.
Here are some suggestions/tips if you are running an indie game company looking to get into E3:
---
Selatria:
Progress is coming along on Selatria. We're in the midst of preparing the Kickstarter campaign. We'll be delivering the Indiegogo rewards that are complete to this point in time a week before the Kickstarter is slated to launch. I have linked this post in the form of an Indiegogo update to our backers there so they can see the progress coming on that front. We haven't forgot about you! I will make more an effort to simulcast developer logs to Kickstarter and Indiegogo simultaneously with the blog, so fans and backers of our projects can constantly stay on top of where we're working.
Release Date timing: Up until this point I've been holding back or greatly underestimating when I think we would finish Selatria. After many delays, I'm aiming for a December 2014 release. If we don't make our Kickstarter goal in the upcoming pitch, we will likely release the game with what we can with our limited budget from the Indiegogo revenue. Quality, for sure. If we do reach the Kickstarter goal, we will be going through quite a few revamps into having unique looking graphics and terrain to make the game look beautiful and fulfill its vision. Either way, Kickstarter funding or no Kickstarter funding, we're aiming to finish this by the end of the year giving the game our best effort with the resources we have available. We hope you will like it!
Unfortunately, there's not a lot I can show for what we're working on. I would like to keep most of it a surprise for the Kickstarter. Here are some screenshots of Chapter 3, currently in development!
---
ANTics:
ANTics has been going through some delays lately. We originally planned to launch the game in early March, but we determined that the loading issues and user interface could use some tweaking before we considered it ready for commercial distribution.
Lead Programmer Gerren Willis put up a free Alpha Version on Google Play for download. Download it if you have an Android device and we would like to know how it runs on your device. Please contact us at contact AT whimindie.com or bugs AT whimindie.com if you find anything wrong. Provide us with as many details as possible so we can provide the best game possible when we release commercially.
-
In next month's development log, I will be talking about the successor project of ANTics and unveiling the development team we have working on this new project. We are also looking for passionate developers to help get this new game rolling while we continue development on Selatria. Send me a message if you're interested.
That's about it for now. Until next time!
.
Preparation for E3:
I was pretty bummed out from E3 2012, when I formed the studio as a business at the end of 2012 I didn't sign up or make any real effort to attend E3 2013. I regret it, because it was a really good year for games, given the launch of consoles, a lot of game announcements, and not to mention the schooling Sony gave to Microsoft to finally get it on the right track.
That being said, I made it a goal to be able to go to E3 this year, I didn't push it off or procrastinate, we gathered the needed requirements in order to have our studio not only official for the sake of legal documents and tax information for when the games sell. Well, we already knocked that out last year when we had our Selatria Indiegogo, but we needed to also prove to the E3 panel that we are an official game studio.
Me and one of the co-founders of the company wanted to start off with the E3 validation. I provided my IGDA card, a copy of my business license, and my business credit card. It took them about three weeks to validate my credentials, and now I have spent the majority of my effort getting the integral members of the Selatria and ANTics teams in as well providing what documents we can to prove that they too are part of the industry from working with us on our games.
If you plan to either freelance or set up an independent business for game development, make sure to do it right. My friend Paul helped me out a lot last year with setting up the needed documents and legal papers in order to get us up and running and it went a long way in helping with the E3 validation process.
Here are some suggestions/tips if you are running an indie game company looking to get into E3:
- Pay for your business license/seller's license and make sure to renew it ahead of time (look at your license periodically and avoid unneccessary late fees). And see my below tip.
- Make sure your city with your license has you listed as the right business type. On the application, I originally wrote down we were into the business of selling games, and their system changed it to "Gaming". I promptly got called by the city police asking if I was running an illegal gambling establishment. Bad idea, don't do that. I then said that we "sell games. We make games and distribute them online". They changed our company to an "Internet Provider Service". Still wrong. We got that changed to "Miscellaneous Retail" with added notes of 'Video Game Developer', and it seemed to work.
- File a DBA - The DBA at least in San Bernardino required us to circulate our business in the newspaper. That's one hell of an archaic rule, but nonetheless...
- Get a business bank account. A business credit card with the name of your company does count as an E3 pass. They do require proof of business up and running though, so get the license and the DBA handled first.
- Help your team sign up for the International Game Developers' Association. (IGDA). The IGDA is a non-profit organization aimed to better the lives of video game developers: Big time, indie, and aspiring. Even students! I found out about this organization when it was on my professor's wall back when I was in university and I've been a member of them ever since. Not only does an IGDA membership count as one of two passes to E3, it also provides a wide range of benefits.
- Set up a company website, with a large amount of emails. GoDaddy or Yahoo Small Business works well for this. Signing up for E3 means that you and your team must have company email addresses to verify the legitimacy of the business.
---
Selatria:
Progress is coming along on Selatria. We're in the midst of preparing the Kickstarter campaign. We'll be delivering the Indiegogo rewards that are complete to this point in time a week before the Kickstarter is slated to launch. I have linked this post in the form of an Indiegogo update to our backers there so they can see the progress coming on that front. We haven't forgot about you! I will make more an effort to simulcast developer logs to Kickstarter and Indiegogo simultaneously with the blog, so fans and backers of our projects can constantly stay on top of where we're working.
Release Date timing: Up until this point I've been holding back or greatly underestimating when I think we would finish Selatria. After many delays, I'm aiming for a December 2014 release. If we don't make our Kickstarter goal in the upcoming pitch, we will likely release the game with what we can with our limited budget from the Indiegogo revenue. Quality, for sure. If we do reach the Kickstarter goal, we will be going through quite a few revamps into having unique looking graphics and terrain to make the game look beautiful and fulfill its vision. Either way, Kickstarter funding or no Kickstarter funding, we're aiming to finish this by the end of the year giving the game our best effort with the resources we have available. We hope you will like it!
Unfortunately, there's not a lot I can show for what we're working on. I would like to keep most of it a surprise for the Kickstarter. Here are some screenshots of Chapter 3, currently in development!
---
ANTics:
ANTics has been going through some delays lately. We originally planned to launch the game in early March, but we determined that the loading issues and user interface could use some tweaking before we considered it ready for commercial distribution.
Lead Programmer Gerren Willis put up a free Alpha Version on Google Play for download. Download it if you have an Android device and we would like to know how it runs on your device. Please contact us at contact AT whimindie.com or bugs AT whimindie.com if you find anything wrong. Provide us with as many details as possible so we can provide the best game possible when we release commercially.
-
In next month's development log, I will be talking about the successor project of ANTics and unveiling the development team we have working on this new project. We are also looking for passionate developers to help get this new game rolling while we continue development on Selatria. Send me a message if you're interested.
That's about it for now. Until next time!
.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
April FFXIV Eorzea Adventures
Grover Eyeveen from Hyperion here! April has been a good month so far for me in Eorzea! Here's a quick rundown of my adventures!
I ran Titan Extreme with the free company, and we were shocked to see one of the new 2.2 variant mounts drop. I was lucky enough to win the roll and got a new mount! Its legs have rocks that float around them in orbit! It's really cool looking!
I was able to complete Leviathan and Moogle Extreme Modes! Leviathan is pretty scary, and my friend Naztear brought me along and helped me through it. Early on, I was getting hit by a lot of the dashes and got knocked off the boat a couple of times. I haven't really desired to go back since, but I did get lucky and won the wave shield from the 1-2 runs we won that night. Moogle EX I find to be easier and more fun, I am knowledgeable enough to get that on farm status and I went with a few pickup groups to do that, haven't seen any tanking ribbon drops from that, and I think I have a new method in order to teach Viva Eorzea how to do Moogle Extreme. Sorry, no pictures from that!
We got a free company estate! We settled for a Medium size in Ul'dah. Due to us getting it really late compared to other free companies on our server, we had to go for what was left medium size. Personally, I wanted a large house and the votes went to Gridania as a location. With the choices we had, not only we opted for one of the relatively empty wards, we went for functionality while we were at it. We were able to get a really nice cliffside view and right outside is the summoning bell and market boards. Score! Due to the emptiness of the zone, we don't have many FC neighbors and the lack of lag in the area is very nice.
Fat Chocobos and Moogle Minions were sent to Collector's Edition holders this last weekend. I think the Fat Chocobo is really cute looking and it even has its iconic theme from Final Fantasy IV! The wind-up minions are really cool too, they dance if they get near another person's Moogle Minion.
Last but not least, I completed Turn 5 in the Binding Coil of Bahamut!
I decided not to go with free company members or members from my static party, I opted to do this leading my own party finder group with my own set of separate expectations. I made a Party Finder in a much different tone than most, opting for making a party where a clear is not expected. I asked for people who are nice/understanding and willing to get on voice chat and talk strategy in extensive detail before even queuing to enter. I was up front with everyone, understanding when they messed up and why, and we were highly communicative and talkative during the run. It was really easy going and after 5-6 failed attempts of getting closer/minor messups, we were finally able to get it down. The Allagan Battleaxe and Aiming Pants dropped and I'm hoping to get two friends from my static the win on Monday so we can all move on to the Second Coil of Bahamut as a team.
That's about it for my Eorzean adventures for now!
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