Here is some new concept art by Katie De Sousa. What could it be? 
P.S. There’s a new interview that covers bridging the gap between Aquaria and Marian on GameSetWatch.
I want to do a TIGJam in Winnipeg! “Great!” you say, “What’s a TIGJam?”
TIGJam is a game jam format that grew out of the TIGSource online indie game community. There have been two very successful iterations in Phoenix, one in the US midwest, one in the UK and one in Berlin! The formula is really simple, but leads to good times and valuable learning experiences.
* Show up for a day or two
* Bring your laptop, your positive/creative vibes and your experience
* Work on a new project, an old project – in a team or by yourself
* Meet new people that are working in the games scene in Winnipeg and make new friends!
* Share your experience with others with short presentations (e.g. a series of 5 minute rants)
* Not just for game programmers! Composers, artists, modellers, etc should definitely attend.
* We’d probably charge a small registration fee, like $5-10 to cover the cost of some food (and maybe some t-shirts for everyone?)
I’d like to run this out of the Fortune Cat game studio incubator, it’s on Albert street in the exchange.
If you’re interested, please leave a comment and let us know what you think a good time would be! (December -> Summer? [our poll plugin broke])
Every Monday, I’d like to share with you a new tidbit about our upcoming game Marian.
And for this – the first of what I hope eventually becomes many Mondays – I’d like to introduce you to the team that is working on the prototype!
Prototype? That’s what we’re calling the stage we’re in right now. The game is roughly mapped out in several documents, and I’ve built early prototypes that demonstrate, crudely, the potential of the game – but I want to put together well-polished snippets of the game to fully explore the gameplay, art direction and audio.
Here is the team that will be venturing forth on this prototyping expedition, presented to you with the most pretentious photographs imaginable:
Katie De Sousa
Age: 22 Location: Montreal
Katie is an experienced digital artist who was involved in the creation of the Marian character and concept from the early days. You’ve seen her work on this site many times before, from the character design in Paper Moon to concept art for Heroes + Villains. Her role on the project will be creating concept art, in-game 2D art and general art direction.
Ashley Dumonchelle
Age: 22 Location: Baltimore
Ashley, a talented 2D artist from the East coast, has extensive experience as a storybook illustrator. As she prefers working with physical mediums (different textures of paper for example) her style is completely different than Katie’s, but she is equally adept at capturing the mood of the game in visual art. Ashley shares concept art and general art direction duties with Katie.
Adam Mechtley
Age: 25 Location: Wisconsin
Adam, ex-Flashbang Studios, will be joining us in limited capacity granting us access to his vast working knowledge of Unity, his experience with character rigging and animation – plus entertaining us (intentionally or otherwise) with frequent, unprovoked sound effects.
Liem Nguyen
Age: 29 Location: Winnipeg
Liem is an ex-Frantic Films animator who has started up his own local business called Pixel Reborn. Liem created the animation for the Marian teaser released in September, and will be working on modelling, animation and other aspects of implementing the game art.
Kyle Pulver
Age: 23 Location: Phoenix
Kyle Pulver is a fairly well known game designer in the indie scene. He’s garnered attention for his games Bonesaw and Jottobots, and I’ve collaborated with him in the past on games like Verge and Everyone Loves Active 2. Kyle has a keen eye for classic platform gameplay – this gives us a knowledge base of what works best in platforming and also helps us understand the “rules” that we’re breaking. (and the ramifications of doing so)
Chrissy Chubala
Age: 23 Location: Winnipeg
Chrissy brings not only her scientific mind and her organizational skills to the plate as Project Manager, but also an interest in costume design and overall atmosphere. She also balances the books – and thank goodness we have someone around who is actually interested in figuring that out!
Alec Holowka
Age: 26 Location: Winnipeg
Turns out I’m working on this too – I’ll be the project lead, the programmer and the guy that writes the music.
Intern: Danny O’Connell
Age: 23 Location: Florida
He’s not actually an intern, but Danny has been pulled from the sparse-but-talented ranks of Aquaria modders to help out with story and gameplay ideas. Danny created what is probably the most epic Aquaria mod to date, an RPG-styled prequel to the original game called Sacrifice.
So there you have it!
Note: We’re also looking for a few more talented people to possibly join the team – depending on how busy we get in the next couple months. Living in Winnipeg is a plus! (for once)
If you’re interested, get in touch.
The Aquaria Soundtrack has been released digitally via Bandcamp. Bandcamp is a pretty neat web service that allows users to stream and share music in addition to purchasing it for download.
We’ve also set up a new shop with BigCartel.com. This service doesn’t require users to create a new account to order CDs and it also takes less of a cut from our profits. Let us know how you think it compares to Etsy in the comments! (I’m thinking about writing a comparison article on the pros and cons of each)
Lastly, a big thank you to all those who already bought the CD, many of who left really nice comments for us. While packing and shipping is a lot of work, it kinda feels like being Santa Claus due to all the positive feedback and warm vibes. Thank you!
We’re also looking into an automated way to give everyone who bought the physical CD a free digital download, so stay tuned for that.
So I just sat down and recorded an impromptu Unity3D introduction tutorial. Its a bit all over the place (I didn’t plan it out), but hopefully some of you will find it useful.
Unity3D is a game engine that you can try out for free, for both PC and Mac. Download it at unity3d.com.
It was used to create Paper Moon, Heroes + Villains and we’re also using it for Marian.
You can download the (crappy) project created in this tutorial right here: UnityTutorial01.zip.
Please let me know if found these helpful and/or what you think I can do to improve them. (I’d like to do more!) Thanks!
Aquaria: OST has finally launched!
You can get your very own copy from the Infinite Ammo Shop.
There are two options, one is everything you see above, the second is all that plus you get your poster signed by yours truly – and we’ll throw in a few other print extras. (business cards, promotional materials for other indie games, etc)
Etsy (our store interface) takes PayPal. To make shipping easier, please make sure your PayPal address is up to date.
We’ll be setting up the live pajama jam in about 12 hours from time of posting (1pm CST approximately) so come hang out, and see your order being packaged as tasty tunes are jammed o’er the tubes.
RECAP: The jam was a success, clocking in at about 2:45. A surprise appearance by Kenley Kristofferson rounded out the afternoon. It looks like we have our work cut out for us for shipping on Sunday. We’ll try to get as many orders as we can in the mail by Monday.
Note: If you have any feedback for or problems with the ordering system, please let us know in the comments below or via email and we’ll do our best to respond promptly. Thanks!
