Hi everyone! It’s been an intense week for us – we’re at GDC with IDEA and some other projects (say hello if you see us!), and we haven’t stopped working on the actual game on top of that. But we didn’t want to miss our bi-weekly meeting with you here, and for this dev blog we want to introduce you to the heart and soul of The Longest Road Games: its Founder and Lead Designer, Arturo Monedero.
We already told you how he came up with the idea for, well, IDEA; but this is not exactly Arturo’s first rodeo. Arturo had a decade-long run as Founder and Director of Delirium Studios. With this Bilbao-based indie dev studio, he shipped games like The Rivers of Alice and The Delusions of Von Sottendorf and his Square Mind (what a mouthful of a name, right?). But he had to close its doors, and he then stepped out of game development for a while, until he decided to create The Longest Road Games… but let’s hear his story from his own lips!
How did you start working in games development?
I was working as a 3D artist when I founded my first studio; I took design responsibilities even before knowing that role was a thing. After some time, and with every new game we shipped, we met new fellow developers from whom we could learn new things.
Did you study something related to game development?
Not at all, I’m a school drop out! I was self-taught from a very young age, and when I was 16 years old I started working in an animation company. I was colouring cartoon frames while I studied Computer Engineering, which was the closest thing to doing video games there was back then. The basic knowledge I got has helped me understand coding and the foundations of building a game, and when it comes to designing games it helps me not ask the impossible and communicate well with the programmers in my team.
Arturo and Brainwash Gang accepting an award in the Fun&Serious Game Festival for 'The Longest Road on Earth'
What’s your creative philosophy? What do the games you design have in common?
I always strive to make different games. That doesn’t mean they’re better (or worse) than other people’s games – only that I try to be different. That makes you stand out from the crowd, and in an industry with so many games and visibility problems, that’s the key to getting noticed. I’m also very detail-oriented – I care about the small things, and I feel that making the players feel that you care about your games and create games with love is the key to connecting with them.
You spent a few years far from active development. What pushed you back to it?
I felt… empty. I’ve been making games all the time since 2007, at least one game per year. Spending 2 years without shipping a game made me sad. I’m a creator, I make games, that’s what I do! So I decided to get back to it doing something small, along with Brainwash Gang – they’re good friends and fantastic people. Flying by myself now, with TLR Games at full steam, I have a big smile on my face again and I am happy to feel the adrenaline of deadlines and getting players’ feedback.
How’s your day-to-day work in The Longest Road Games?
I have the responsibilities of both the Producer as well as the Director. I manage the teams and establish the main design lines in the GDD [Game Design Document]. Now from a senior position, I try to pass everything I’ve learnt over the years to the younger members of the TLR Games team.
As the development of IDEA progresses, have you needed to give up something from your original designs and concepts?
Desiging IDEA
We’ve been lucky enough to overcome every single technical challenge we faced with the prototype, and we’re doing exactly the game we wanted to do. So we’re really enjoying this development! Now, having said that… no designer will tell you a game is 100% like they imagined – we always want more and more!
On the other hand, is there something you didn’t have in mind at first but you really like now?
We’ve added achievements and goals, something that we didn’t see clearly in the original concept; and they give an extra dimension to the experience of the game. Other ideas, well, we had hundreds of them, but they ended up in a drawer. Maybe some could be added in an update, if the game succeeds.. who knows?
Well, that’s all for this week; next Friday we’ll be back to share with you our experience at the Games Developer Conference (with pictures!). Thanks for your time, Arturo! And have a nice weekend, you all!