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.
Yousef wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 2:31 am
Marian is a 3D project: confirmed?
I have been watching Katie’s works on deviantART since more than a year. She is one of my most favorite artists so far!
And, of course, I do not need to tell about how awesome your corks are, Alec!
Wish you good luck, guys!
Yousef wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 2:32 am
works*!
Alec Holowka wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 2:34 am
^ Haha, I wondered what you were talking about.
ChevyRay wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 3:31 am
Cool, you guys! Way to brighten up the otherwise least-favoured day of the week. I look forward to these.
I didn’t know Pulver was working on the project, very cool
Good luck keeping this up you guys, work hard.
xiagan wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 4:49 am
Instead of 7 days to Aquaria we get Many Mondays to Marian? Nicey!
Tyrone Henrie wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 8:51 am
So excited for Marian Mondays. Of all the indie projects going on right now, this is one of my most anticipated.
Ian wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 9:21 am
Okay well I know we all agree that no one needs to tell alec how awesome his corks are, this stuff’s looking pretty cool, pretty epic indie team imo
Aaron Marsh wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 9:25 am
You’ve got spikes… pegs… lucky!
(By which I mean superb staff.
)
Aaron Marsh wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 9:26 am
er, *shocks… pegs…
Chrissy wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 10:04 am
Hottest corks in town….
Greg wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Nice to see the team for Marian; also nice to have something to look forward to on Mondays! And no one will surpass Alec’s corks anytime soon.
I love that Pulver is basically the “Platform Game Adviser.”
Elmernite wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 5:17 pm
This is not related to this blog in any way…. but, can you release the MP3 of your OST Launch Jam?
It is really great! I love to listen to it in the background when I am at work. An mp3 would be easier than opening a browser and streaming the video from UStream like I do now. I love the part when you all start clapping! That was just great!
-Elmernite
Alec Holowka wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 5:51 pm
^ That’s a good idea, I’ll see what I can do!
Eileen wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 8:18 pm
This is all super exciting… Yay!
And with corks like yours, you can’t really go wrong.
JacaByte wrote a Comment on November 24, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Grah! I can post for the first time since February of last year! Free at last!
What happened to my account is another issue. This game is going to be heavily watched by me, with great interest. If I have a computer that runs it I will test it for you, I promise!
Hiro wrote a Comment on November 25, 2009 at 1:51 am
Lol..Elmernite you want a 3 hour mp3? XD
Why am I the only one that seems to notice that TheBear is on the team?! Thats totally RAD dudes!
Nice job TB (or should I call you Danny now? Or Mr O’Connell? o.o )
Maybe I was the only one who didn’t already know?
Nice team
I’d want to join in but I don’t really have anything to bring to the table (plus the whole New Zealand thing.. xD ).
Hiro wrote a Comment on November 25, 2009 at 2:05 am
Oh, and lol@ the dying robot… ><;;
alastair wrote a Comment on November 25, 2009 at 8:39 am
I’ve always wondered who that guy was, turns out it was Kyle! =O
Elmernite wrote a Comment on November 25, 2009 at 9:39 am
Why not when the music is that good! Here I go to open uStream again and listen to the music.
@ Alec: Format Factory can convert from just about anything into just about anything, IE, .flv to .mp3 (It would just pull the audio track obviously)
I’m sure you have your ways though.
-Elmernite
Phillipe Girouard wrote a Comment on November 26, 2009 at 1:10 am
Can’t wait to see more of the game! Super excited about where it all goes.
Kyuur wrote a Comment on December 2, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Extremely excited! I hadn’t visited here in a while and this post just brightened my day. I am looking forward to all the updates! You guys have a truly amazing team.
Infinite Ammo » Blog Archive » Marian Mondays: New Concept Art wrote a Pingback on December 3, 2009 at 5:03 am
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