And in the end, they came from Outer Space!!!
As I mentioned previously, I met Ivan Venturi some years ago. We began to work together on projects for disabilities (a visual-impaired simulator in XNA), then on children’s educational games on road safety. Then he proposed that I become the managing director of the Nicolas Eymerich, Inquisitor project.
So we began working together with other colleagues daily, and I began this routine:
while(1){ //BEGIN LOOP
- Arrive at office by bus: A 40 minute trip, from my house to the Ivan’s company.
- Start work: Programming, Data managing, Modelling and many other things: In Italy, most of the companies are little companies. So we (Italian devs) have the habit of doing a lot of things; not only coding, modelling, testing, animating, designing, texturing or [all-the-infinite-remaining-things]; but all of them. And we like it!
- Have lunch: Mainly “panino alla mortadella”. “panino” is not exactly a sandwich. It is a little bread divided in two parts, and inside it you can put salame, prosciutto, bresaola, coppa, cotto, squaccherone, stracchino, and a lot of other things. And, obviously, “mortadella”. It is the ‘salami’ thing produced mainly in our city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortadella).
- Drink Coffee: (You know Italian coffee: it is like a speed boost, very useful after lunch when your eyes begin to droop as you drift off for a little snooze) in Via del Pratello (near our office: a street full of Trattorie -Diners- and Osterie -Taverns).
- Return to Work: (Sometimes it is important to work) on programming and other wonderful things
- Go Home: Another 40 minute trip.
} //END LOOP
Interesting, don’t you agree? NO. Not exactly, I know. But the thing is that, out of my routine, after dinner, by night mainly, I worked on LONGY 2, spending (the most part of) my free time creating (programming/designing/modelling/animating/FX/texturing/etc) my game, the sequel of StealthZzTHzZth and Longy 1!!!
So; the day was for the Inquisitor, the night for Longy!
Sometimes for sleep...
I spent a lot of time, about 2 hours a day, waiting and commuting by bus. Wasted time? NO! In our life sometime (often) we need to get slower. It’s a slowdown bonus!
So waiting for the bus was my slowdown bonus.
I designed my game waiting and commuting by bus! Just thinking and dreaming, watching out of the window as the parallax of the world (so many layers!) scrolls and the shader of rain deforms the window glass. I love this stuff!
Please Z4G0, be brief. Ok, ok, I will.
In March 2013, Ivan was preparing to go to Game Connection in San Francisco (Estados Unidos) for business. Ok, I’m a shy guy, don’t talk too much. So I didn’t talk with him about Longy 2. But a colleague of mine, Max Di Fraia (who gives me help with music of the game) said to Ivan, “Hey, don’t you know that Z4G0 is developing a game?”
So I showed Longy 2 to Ivan. And Ivan said something like “WOW” if I remember correctly; the Italian version of WTF, and in dialect version as well, and in the slang version, then again, in Italian version. I had the impression that he liked the game. Ivan is a Sci-Fi fan and he liked the retro, heavy colours and so on, of the game. He told me that the game looked like an old 60s Sci-Fi movie to him, something like “It came from Outer Space”, or “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. Something from Outer Space, definitely!
Outer space. Alea jacta est. The game was done!
Ivan went to San Francisco and showed the playable demo of the game, still named Longy to a lot of publishers, and obtaining good interest. But he discovered a point of weakness of the game. It was quite completely anonymous. Longy, you know, is a wonderful, incredible, beautiful name, an amazing sound to the ears! Anyway, still not the best title.
As a friend (Eclipse!) said “What about players telling you that is not a very “long” game?” and joking on the word ‘long’?
I lost my remaining few sleeping hours thinking on this! The title is extremely important, the first (or second) thing that the player knows of your game. Very important.
So, it was very important to find another name.
I worked deeply on shaders in Unity, a lot on lighting: bloom, glow, reflections, and similar things. If you see my game, you can see this. There’s a lot of work in this direction, a particular style. Very colourful, rather than ultra-realistic. The style I like. Or better, the way my personal graphics card (part of my brain) sees the world. Saturated colours everywhere!!! The ALBEDO!
ALBEDO is good in Italian, and in English as well. I like it a lot. Ivan says he likes it a lot, too. Ivan showed it to other colleagues, and they liked it a lot, too. They showed it to friends, they liked it. Friends told me, and I like it a lot too!
I put my alien creatures everywhere, and now in this game (they are CENTRAL to the game) Ivan asked me to put a subtitle after ALBEDO, for a 60s Sci-Fi style. Maybe “EYES FROM OUTER SPACE”, I thought.
And so ALBEDO - EYES FROM OUTER SPACE was born!