Merry Christmas 2015

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED? BESIDES A MIRACLE...

Dear followers, readers and friends!

I know I haven’t been active in a while. I am terribly sorry for that but I hope you trust me saying that I didn’t really have the time. I am glad this Christmas post gives me the chance to kind of explain myself a bit as well as to give you a short glimpse of what is about to come.

First of all since a few months I have a new job and been working as game developer for a great company. Honestly I don’t know what I can tell about them but given my contract I would rather not tell anything at this point. We are working on some pretty cool prototype that is supposed to be officially announced around the end of Q1/16 most likely already with a public alpha. So, as much as I would like to write about that project now, I guess we all have to be a bit more patient with it. What I can tell so far is that we are an awesome team and working with everybody on a project that size is really inspiring and a very positive experience for me.

The second thing - something I have been sort of hiding so far – is the fact that I am already working on the next “private” indie project too… actually I should say “we” are working on the next indie game, because this time also here I am working together with several other Austrian developers and artists in collaboration. The team – for the time being – also summarized and labeled as sIPXgames actually already got together during the summer but after intense brainstorming and planning, the work the first prototype finally began in November. The game we are making in our spare time is called Street Justice and it is going to be not only a hot action driving-shooter but a funny satire to Austria and the situation we are facing on the streets here every day. Wait, I don’t want to go too much into detail at this moment… the website for the game will be available shortly and together with it going online there naturally will be a big announcement post right here on this site! For now, I just hope you sort of understand now, why there haven’t been any updates on the blog for a while.

Doing this editorial stuff with reviews and essays is pretty nice and I like it a lot but I am sure you also understand that it doesn’t really generate me any money I need to pay things like rent or food. And besides, to me there is only one thing more rewarding and satisfying than playing, analyzing and talking about games,which is: making games! No matter the scale, given games the way they are these days and seeing where it all is going, I honestly prefer making them myself and having a ton of fun in the process.
But not to worry, my motivation hasn’t changed and I don’t intend to stop writing about them. I think that I am at the end of a more or less short transitioning phase. I just needed to see how and where things are going so that I could come up with at least sort of a schedule that not only puts my life on some stable tracks but also has place for this blog.

GUNS. LOTS OF GUNS!!!

It’s hard to ignore that the time I can spend reviewing games decreased significantly but I think it is possible to get something up at least every two weeks. – Depending on the time I have left sometimes I think I can even post something on a weekly basis. I will tell you more about the schedule in the following posts. A lot is coming and I hope you will do as I and use this holiday time to rest and prepare for it!

For now, I only want to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy holidays! Also many thanks to the people who downloaded Supreme Chicken Showdown, despite its flaws and sometimes misinterpreted intentions as not being a super serious project, and especially to those who didn’t think twice and even donated me a few bucks for it. I think the people who did, realized that what they gave wasn’t explicitly for the game alone, but for a much bigger picture and the general effort behind everything I do.

Sometimes it is not easy to follow your heart, sometimes I was about to give up during this (yet another) turbulent year,… but somehow it is over and to be honest, going into 2016 looks a lot better now. I know some of you really saved my ass. – Just wanted to make sure you know it too! Thanks!

Merry Christmas 2015!

Play more! Expect more!