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Archmage Rises Gameplay Reveal and AMA Mon Aug 3 6pm EST (2015)
A year ago I publicly announced Archmage Rises as a new kind of RPG. I’m happy to report Archmage Rises is now playable. Sort of. 🙂 I was invited to be in demo showcase in Portland, OR last week. In the two and a half weeks leading up to the conference I scrambled/crunched to take…
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First Look at Combat
Just a slice of the work in progress on combat. I’ll talk more in depth about it later.
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Return from GDC
It’s been a while since I’ve done an update and I just returned from GDC, so this is a good time. First, in my silence I’m programming a lot, sometimes 12hrs a day, and the game is really coming together. As an artist I spend so much time trying to make the work of my…
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12 Tricks to Selling Your Ideas, Your Game, and Yourself
I was on the 35th floor in the north conference room. Through the window, I could see the gray, rainy Toronto skyline. I was here to learn about government funding programs for Digital Media. At my table was a television/documentary producer, a toy manufacturer, and two suits who looked so dull and cliché that I…
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Composing the Archmage Rises Title Track
While I download and install Unity 4.6.21 beta, I think this is a good time to share all the work that is going into the music side of Archmage Rises. Music sets mood, tone, and feel. Perhaps I should rephrase that: Music reinforces mood, tone, and feel. Music bypasses the (rational) mind and speaks to the imagination. A quick…
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Inside the Indie Art Process of Archmage Rises
I’m relatively new to art appreciation. A big turning point for me was a few years back when I read John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Since then, my appreciation for art and the artists behind the work has continued to grow. I even have some Peter Max limited edition prints hanging on my walls. I’m a huge…
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Looting Game Design Gold from Sid Meier’s Pirates!
“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso Sid Meier’s Pirates! is arguably the most important game ever made . . . and it also ruined my week. You see, I’m working on Archmage Rises—and part of my elevator pitch is, “It’s like Pirates! but with mages and permadeath.” “Live the Life” is exactly what this Pirate simulator…
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Archmage Rises Dev Blog #7: User Interface Magic
This past week, I focused my development efforts on the user interface (UI) of Archmage Rises. Proper software development methodology mandates that we should take on the highest priority, highest risk items first. We should do this to save enough time and energy to deal with the truly dangerous issues: the unknowns. Archmage Rises is a UI-heavy game, and…
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How I Killed the Joy of Video Games
Someone once told me, “When your hobby becomes your work, it’s time to find a new hobby.” This couldn’t be more right. And I couldn’t have been more wrong to ignore it. I encounter many people who want to develop games but have not yet made the plunge for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they…
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Archmage Rises: The Team
If you’ve been following these dev blogs, you’ll know that I have been living at my cottage for the last three and a half months. No, I wasn’t kicked out due to some indiscretion or ill-advised car purchase. I was living in the cottage so I could manage the little store I mentioned a couple…