Gabe here! First time Steemer, Game Developer, and Pixel Artist. Nice place you guys have here!
I'm 26 (nearly 27), studied film/design, graduated, and still homebound as I wait to see what life has in store next for me and my family. I'm part Estonian, part Texan, and the 3rd of 6 kids, most of which are still living here in Florida.
I wish I had heard about this place earlier, I love being present and involved at the beginning of new things, and I can already sense the great potential of this community. I come from Reddit, which I can't help but feel is becoming less reliable and stagnating as a community, so to find a place like steemit with genuinely new ideas is very refreshing!
Despite my education in Film, the past couple years of my life have been spent working as a Game Developer on my first ever project with my cousin Andrew (pictured below, in a very dramatic shot). He's a programming whiz and handles all the technical stuff while my speciality is more in visual and audio design.
As a family-run operation we also have my sister Emily who contributes concept art in her own special style
We've never expected to be going at it for so long, honestly believing we could finish our vision within the first few months (how naive we were). Fast forward almost 2 years and we're still expanding our game on to other platforms while trying to support ourselves in the hopes that we can maybe make game development our full-time jobs. We're fortunate to have a supportive family where we are now, but feel like we're right on the cusp of bigger things and greater frontiers.
I write music (lately all in the style of classic SNES tunes), produce animation, and as of late, a budding pixel artist thanks to the needs of our retro puzzle game. I look forward to sharing current and future projects with the community here, and to start here's just a sample of some pixel landscapes:
Though we haven't been able to update it as regularly lately, we have been vlogging the progress of our work on the game in a youtube series (the trailer is here:
It hasn't been easy the past couple years, we've faced roadblocks, uncertainty, back-to-back family tragedies, but I wouldn't trade the time for anything else, regardless what comes of it all. And I look forward to sharing future experiences with everyone here as well, and thanks for taking the time to read through all this!
If there are any fellow game developers on here I'm always down to chat, check out other peoples work, or answer questions. Thanks again,
- Gabe
Welcome to Steemit! Upvoted and Followed you for more posts.
Welcome aboard, sorry to hear about the tough times with your family and glad you are taking this time to take good care of yourself and the family. The communities here are pretty awesome and wish you a very successful time among our platform. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Welcome to steemit @gmedley =) Best wishes !
Hey Gabe,
Welcome to Steemit! Wishing you success here and at home.
Thank you very much! And to you as well
Welcome to Steemit!
Love it, a better supermeat boy story might be in the making, I personally liked the RingRunner and Love the Banner Saga, it's kickstarting its 3th installment :)
Since I want to take you through my post here is the link :) check the kickstarter for just 40$ i think you can get all 3 games
https://steemit.com/bannersaga/@j3dy/and-so-the-banner-has-been-raised-kickstarting-contests-and-freelancing
11 days still on the go
So yeah following and awaiting your updates :) spread some links if you have
A fav producer of mine that switched to game music, here is the soundcloud. I also like Fez but haven't played it :) Journey is epic too, I would love to have more games of that caliber and the Bastion and following :D.
https://soundcloud.com/finishing-move-inc/sets/massive-chalice-original-soundtrack
Anyways WELCOME ! ! :) Cheers to the family and the great art you're making :)
Thanks so much! And for the links as well, I'll definitely be taking a look. It's funny how working full time on a game ends up taking away the free time I used to use to play games regularly, but im very much looking forward to dipping back into all the great indie titles old and new once we've fully launched and can finally take a nice break!
hahah yeah it's a known story in that circle I will link you to a indie documentary it's from a few years ago you might enjoy it. circa 2012-14 or before that but around there for sure :D Actually yes, focus on doing what you are. Still you should take care of yourselves, but you seem fine on the pictures :) I know how it feels I'm trying freelancing, but ended up spamming steemit for the last two months pulling all-nighters even :D have to say I'm a bit disappointed :D but it did help get me to quickly iterate on some ideas.
Are you halfway there? At least finished with the story/concepts/I would guess around 80% done with the art 40-50 depending on your coding skills
and still fleshing out the game probably? Or am I overstating it?
Oh is it that documentary called Indie Game? Or something like that, follows the Fez guy and a few others i think. Yeah I've watched it! Very intriguing, I saw it even before any of this project became a reality. But I've freelanced with animation/graphics/design in the past and yeah it can be really tough. Gotta just keep pressing forward and keep learning! Success is inevitable with that mindset I think.
Technically the game is "out there" in that it's live on the App Store (if you have an iOS device just look up Super Plexis), but we're still fleshing out the single player content which will be something that gets released in bi-weekly updates. Starting very soon! So yeah the game itself is probably 80% finished as far as features are concerned, then its a matter of getting it to Android (something that is in high demand but will take time, we're only two guys after all! I handle all the design/art/sound, while my cousin leads everything in the realm of programming)
Hi @gmedley and welcome to Steemit! This is definitely a wonderful place and the community is awesome. Your pixel backgrounds are really good and I wish you and your family all the best in the game development. I completely know that feeling of family tragedy. Sometimes it feels like wave after wave of hits but we move forward. You are very lucky to have family support like you do. It's a treasure to be certain!
I'm on the gulf side of Florida. We moved here nearly 2 years ago from New York. I love it. All best to you. :)
Thank you for the kind words! The older I get the more I start to appreciate my lot in life, regardless of the ups and downs. I've lived in Florida the majority of my life and can say it does continue to grow on you! I always wanted to live further north but man, after many travels, that cold will take some getting used to considering how temperature spoiled we are down here haha
I have to admit I was pretty disappointed my first winter when I had to close my windows and put on socks. LOL My husband still teases me about no pants day. I don't think my "old bones"can deal with the cold anymore.
You seem to have a really good grasp of formatting your posts, which is miles ahead of a lot of newcomers but I highly recommend checking out The Welcome Page for best practices and helpful tips. I also recommend the 3 C's:
These 3 things will help you find your people faster than anything else.
True we've had it colder than usual the past few years haha. And thank you I'll definitely give that a read!
Love your pixel art.
Dang, you already produce music yourself... would've enjoyed to create some for a pixel-game of yours.
Keep it up.
-following-
Welcome on Steemit, Gabe!