Is there more than one of you? That is a question that I have been getting somewhat often lately. The answer is yes and no. I would like to talk about what that means and  a bit more about everything that I’ve been up to lately! I enjoy being transparent and sharing my life with all of you. Talking openly about all of this helps me remain motivated and actively involved, as well. With that being said, let’s see where I have been devoting my time!

Spaceboy Games

Let’s start with Spaceboy Games. This company is where it all began, and is what I am most known for. Currently, Spaceboy Games is a Seattle-based LLC comprised of both local and remote employees and contractors. Myself (CEO-roles, programmer, and designer) and Alejandro (producer-roles, and programmer) reside in Washington, USA. Sandy (pixel artist and animator) is currently living in Japan, and Fellipe (creative genius and concept artist) is currently living in Brazil. We also contract sound effect work and music composition from Vince Rubinetti and Joonas Turner. So yes, in a way there is more than one of me. I could not do even half of this without my amazing team!

Gameplay – High Noon Revolver

Together, the six of us are working on developing several games, while simultaneously beginning to publish games via our new branch, Spaceboy Partners. Partners has two games in the works for Q1 2017. High Noon Revolver will launch during January of 2017 and we will be announcing the second title very soon. On the development side of things, we have HackyZack coming very soon following the release of High Noon Revolver. We are working with a secondary (unannounced) publisher on that project, as well. And of course, we are continually working on the Fara series and iterating on the gameplay design that makes her world so fun and special.

HackyZack actually came about because Fara & The Eye of Darkness was growing stagnant for me. I was having a hard time remaining excited for work and I felt like her world was very derivative at the time. A few design iterations later and I am back up to full speed and much, much happier. You will start to see a lot more of Fara and her sister, Dorothy, popping up very soon.

Loadworld

On weekends, I blog the development process of a game called, Loadworld. I am creating this game with my buddy, Miguelito, in our spare time. I have always had an interest in capturing the entirety of my job and presenting it in tutorial format. This is going to be that, to the best of my abilities. Loadworld is a twist on the classic Zelda-like genre with a very quirky, and often crude plot and setting.

I am not exactly sure how long something like this is going to take. We just know that we have set a very high bar for quality and we have quite a bit of content in mind. Don’t expect to see Loadworld on Steam any time soon, but it is something that we are very passionate about.

Mentoring

I recently called for an open invitation for any of you to add me on Skype. In short, my knowledge is your knowledge. I take questions at almost every hour of the day (I am always logged into Skype on my phone), I accept projects and code for review, and will take calls to discuss everything from design to business plans.

I remember what it was like to feel new to the game development space. It is easy to feel like you are drowning when there are so many programming languages to learn, game engines to consider, design articles to read, skills and smart practices to adopt, and so on. I want to be a short-cut for anyone who has the drive and curiosity necessary to succeed.

As of now, there are about 50 of you. I have closed my invitation for more, at this point. People tend to fizzle out, and when they do, I will consider removing them and replacing them with you, your friend, or whoever has more of a need. I will do my best to give back to this community as much as I can, but do understand that I am incredibly busy (thus this article).

Schooling

A lot of you who follow me closely know that I spend much of my free time (haha) playing and teaching drums. Several afternoons per week are devoted to teaching jazz band and drum line at my local schools. Over the years I have gotten to know a lot of students, helped out with a lot of homework, and learned a lot about the district that I grew up in. I have recently become more involved with my school board (I am a contributing member, with both my time and my money).

I am currently in charge of hiring full-time teachers for what will become my high school’s very first programming and game design courses. It is so exciting for me to be designing a curriculum for classes that I didn’t have the opportunity to take when I was in high school not too many years ago.

I have opted to not teach any of the classes myself. I feel that I can be of more help and make a greater impact by contributing other things. Adding a publishing company to my plate could bring more funding for laptops and tech programs, for example. I feel that my time is my most valuable resource, and that is why I wanted to talk through everything that I have been doing lately!

That about covers it, really! It is almost midnight, and I am about to head to the gym for some power-lifting. Thank you all for the continuous support! I am hoping to get back to streaming Fara development very, very soon. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for me, do not hesitate!

Love,
Z