Hi everyone,

I feel like it has been a week or so since I got around to doing an entry, so here I am writing something new! To be honest, it is a good sign! I have been happy working again and because of that I have been writing fewer entries to keep me motivated. Maybe that’s backwards thinking and I should work extra hard to keep the momentum up, but I have pretty much just been going with the flow lately.

As for work specifics, I still can’t say much. I promise that this is just as hard on me as it is on any of you. I absolutely love being transparent with my work and these few weeks of secrecy have been brutal. I recommend that people watch GDC talks or perhaps stray outside of their typical workflow or interests a bit. I watched a few talks from hacker meet ups while building some levels over the weekend and I got this huge rush to start challenging myself and programming outside of my comfort zone again. I get super jazzed up and excited when I listen to truly intelligent people speak.

In game development, it’s easy to kind of find your safe place and stick there (I still do it a lot). I know that I could pump out level-based, precision platformers for the rest of my life, but at some point I should do something different. Something bigger. Something more challenging. To an extent, that’s what Fara was. It was a game that I wanted to play rather than a game that I knew how to make. It’s a lot of things that I am not and it has challenged me in several respects.

Aside from level design, I have been screwing with some unique music and sound design ideas. Vince is a blessing and his music is absolutely amazing. In a few tracks that I am working with he has written a second track that lies on top of the first. I have both tracks playing simultaneously, but fade the secondary track in or out based on certain things that may or may not be happening in the game. It feels really cool and sometimes it’s not even noticeable what is happening. I hope that people enjoy it and I hope that you can all see/hear it soon.

Lastly, we’re just screwing with some marketing material for PAX West. Myriame and I will be there, but the rest of the team won’t be present since we aren’t showing off any particular build or hosting a booth. However, if you find me, I’m sure I’ll have *something* to give away.

Love you all,

Z