As we put the finishing touches to the next update, I am also recovering from what was one of the best evenings of my geeky life as I attended "Back In Time Brighton" and indulged in a trip back in time to my C64 days and the sound of those amazing SID tracks we almost learned by heart (for those of you that still remember coding 8-bit).
Back in Game Guru land, aside from the usual tweaks and fixes we have been working on getting more media into the core product and packs. Here are some additions to the Death Valley DLC which will grace Steam very soon:
We have also commissioned two more wizard characters for the core product, which you will get for free in the next update, allowing you to choose whether to play an evil wizard or a regal one:
We've also been expanding the number of bodies you can choose in the Character Creator module, which you will get for free during a forthcoming update too. Instead of creating one-off characters for you, we decided to cut them up and add them as 'parts' to the Character Creator allowing you to create any combination you want and come up with your own variant of the new characters that will be produced and added to the Game Guru universe:
In addition to bodies, we are also generating new heads for you as well. Thin ones, fat ones, and otherwise shapes which should give you a decent selection to chose form. We started with the male heads, but will provide some female heads as well so you can create the perfect custom character for your game:
As you can see below, our internal team have been having lots of fun creating a variety of new faces for our multiplayer avatars, which by the way is another cool feature for the next update and literally allows you to craft your own self and star in any multiplayer game you join, even appearing in other peoples multiplayer games as yourself!
The faces above and below are the insane creations of our part time project manager, part time loony, Ricky Baby who has a knack for creating extremely disturbing characters that fit appropriately with his predilection for violence when in the arena.
Today we had a final death-match and co-op test to check out the new face transfer system (no Steam workshop required, it does it on the fly), and someone captured a shot of my latest creation, which is not taken from a horror movie but is in fact my actual face. It reminded me to take more time in crafting my facial proportions in future!
I cannot really describe how rewarding it is to work on games and game creation technology, but it's one of those rare jobs that brings something new to experience almost every day. Imagine peeling potatoes for over 30 years, and wander how much surprise you can squeeze out of such a career after 3 decades. Well I've been doing this longer, and I am still thrilled to be involved in what I consider the best job in history. If you are just starting out in the game creation field, and enjoy the process of creating, tweaking and showing what you've made to fiends, family and the wider world, consider that this is just the very beginning of your adventure, and if you chose you can make it your life long pursuit. Having made the journey myself, and know many colleagues who've made similar voyages, I can assure you it is well worth it and if sometimes you feel it's getting a little tough, just take a break, play some more games and try again the following day. It's not a race, it's a hobby that one day, might just open a door that allows you to do your most favorite thing every day, and get paid for doing it! My hope is that Game Guru could help you start this journey, offering just enough depth with LUA scripting and fine grain controls to take you to the next level with confidence and a few cool games under your belt. Watch out for the new updates to the core product and DLCs early in July, and of course keep checking the Game Guru Store which hosts new items every day!