Hey guys! It’s been a while. First of all, we are going to start writing in English from now on. Primarily because we are not trying to make a regional product, but something more global. And second, to celebrate that our programmer, Chris Smith (that started the game with us), is back! Yeah I know that it’s been a long time. We want to start posting again. I was feeling very uncertain about the future of the project, and that’s why I was not posting… – Giordano joined as a programmer for us, but he moved to work in another country and wouldn’t have time to dedicate to our game. – Marcelo joined the team in December, but we had different ideologies and he left the team in April. So we were stuck with no programmers. – The rest of the team (Ricardo and Kdu) hadn’t been actively working on the project in months… – Two weeks ago, in one single forum post, Eric, the creator and only programmer of the C4 Engine (the engine we use), posted on the official forums that the C4 Engine would be discontinued. ….. Yeah… things were looking bad….. Distortions was always a hobby, and everyone on the project really enjoyed working on it. We never put any pressure on ourselves, but I was feeling bad regardless. I thought about everyone that had worked on the project and passed through. Here is just a quick list: Giordano Bruno – Programmer Marcelo Varanda – Programmer Thais Weiller – Some ideas for game design Ivo Kai – 2 Original music tracks Amora B. – Illustrations used as concept art and disclosure material Rodrigo Caetano – Producer and pre-production artist Felipe Munhos – Scrapbook concept and design, letters, 1cdd site, 1cdd blog Humberto Cunha – Monster and girl design/illustrations used as concept art and in the scrapbook Eduardo Lamhut – 3D Character Production: Rigging/Skinning; Character Animations/ Technical Animation/Animation Advisor Matheus Pitillo – 3D Models and Props Felipe Moreno – Illustrations used as concept art and disclosure material Carlos David – Monster final rigging and skinning. Some animations for the girl. Chris Smith – Programmer 2 more guys, I can’t remember their names…. That’s…. a lot of people. So I asked myself, “Is it time to give up on this?”. Eric, the owner of the C4 Engine, recognized that was time to give up. Looking back through that list, a ridiculous number of people have come and gone on this project. The guys that are still on the project lost their interest months ago. Maybe I’m doing something wrong? I stopped to think about this for quite a while… The next day I came home from work, opened a beer and started working on Distortions – just like I have done everyday for the last few years. I’m making a really cool part related to traveling. Distortions is a road trip game (I don’t think this genre exists, haha). And I was making some awesome environments – clouds, mountains and trees that the player will cross at this one specific part. I love mountains, they need a lot of respect… Then I looked up at the clock, and it was almost 1 AM. So I thought to myself, WOW, I just completely lost track of time… Walk by the Foo Fighters started to play on the radio. As you know, Foo Fighters is one of those bands, like the Ramones, where it’s almost impolite to say that you don’t like it.
The song talks about to learning to walk again and it got me thinking, “What the hell am I grumbling about?”. I don’t have any money invested, I don’t owe anything to a publisher, I’m just making a game the way I think games should be made. Trying to bring something new to the media, related to the area that we hase some knowledge. We have always made this game with a lot of love. So I needed to stop being like the other developers (like in Indie Game, the movie, and a lot of Brazilian devs) that just complain all the time. Those people look they are carrying some sort of cross. They aren’t making a movie or some huge project. This is our hobby, and if we were in it for money then we would work in some sort of bank haha… So I continued to work on the game. The next day, Chris (our main and first programmer) sent me a message saying that he would have free time again, and he was interested to joining the project once again. The guys over at the (now closed) C4 forum started an unofficial C4 forum, and I began to see that the other guys there were in the same situation as me. Kdu sent me a message saying that he is back, and is finally ready to continue production. I called Ricardo, and as always he said, “let’s do this shi…” haahhaha. Suddenly everything was fine again, and I felt really dumb for feeling sad about the project. We’ve taken a lot of punches, but we continue to be stronger and stronger. We just need to open a beer and continue making good art and writing good code… Don´t metter what just need to make good art, and like the music keep walking… Here a scene that I’m making right now, related with traveling and the game…
Chris – more than welcome to have you back with us again!
