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[Slash - Santiago Zapata]

More cool people here! specially that girl that likes to travel to mexico.

[styracosaurus]

I'm new! But I've been reading TIG Source for a little bit, I think the first thing I read was the interview with Pixel. And I have liked indie games for a while! Cortex Command is my favorite of the moment, my brother and I have been playing it a ton.

The best that I've got to prove my indie cred is a pretty lame still demo in Atari asm:
https://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yamada/atari/
I am a college student? Also I love reading about the community Balding game project, it is so sweet! I really registered to post about 4 dimensional tetris, so I'll post that in another thread.
Woo!

[AdamAtomic]

that's the best forum name i have ever seen anywhere!

[GP Lackey]

I agree.  Excellent choice.

[styracosaurus]

Is that Jan Svankmajer?

[BMcC]

pics plx

kthnx

Of me?! Whyever would you want to do that to your eyes?

Oh, it's not about what I want to do to my eyes... 

[...] specially that girl that likes to travel to mexico.

Hahaha, ba-ZING.  :D

[Slash - Santiago Zapata]

I could use my Retro Remakes avatar instead...

I hate your avatar, too, so I'm changing it for you.

Yeah, we can at least pretend the chick is carrying a red bulls-eye on his back... can't we?

[rz.]

y helo thar, i am spartacus

[Bunda the Great]

Hello, folks. I'm Alex, and I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. A couple years ago I tried to learn C++ and failed, miserably, due to an amazing workload at the time. I suppose I could try again...

I've been into indie games ever since I played Icy Tower and the game N. Quickly to follow were games from Rag Doll Software such as Ragdoll Masters and N-Ball, and then I discovered Toribash. But I think the most involving game I've found recently is Cortex Command, which I stumbled upon around July 2006 and was addicted to. I've since been following its releases and it only keeps getting better.

The first game I was really addicted to was Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. My cousin and I would race each other for hours on end. That was also the game that introduced me to 1) cheats and 2) modding. The "go001" etc. codes that could be typed in (which my best friend of the time told me about) were mind-blowing. You could cheat reality! And modding was sensational, too. Here, you could download entirely new cars and tracks that didn't even come with the game!

So that was cool. Since then I've moved on to other, more recent games, most of which are commercial, but I've always liked indie games. So that's why I'm here.

[GP Lackey]

Is that Jan Svankmajer?

Yes, well spotted!

[CosMind]

CosMind likes to wear flip flops...



...and create games like this...

[Matt Thorson]

Whoa hey CosMind!

Weird seeing you outside Game Maker circles

[CosMind]

Whoa hey CosMind!

Weird seeing you outside Game Maker circles

hoy there!
yes, i do weird things.

[guille]

Welcome, CosMind! What's that game you've created? link please, it looks like something I/we could get to enjoy.

[DrDerekDoctors]

I could use my Retro Remakes avatar instead...

I hate your avatar, too, so I'm changing it for you.

Yeah, we can at least pretend the chick is carrying a red bulls-eye on his back... can't we?

Well, you *could*, but you'll never get it up that way...

[Anthony Flack]

Is that Jan Svankmajer?

Yes, well spotted!

Oh yes! "The Flat", right? Svankmajer was one of the guys that first made me want to get into stop-motion animation.

As for Graham's avatar, the only way I could bear the old one was by willing myself to interpret it the way my daughter did, when she saw it: "Look at that! It's a hat! A red hat. It's too small!"

[Alex May]

"Virile Games" is brilliant, and I'll never forget his version of Alice in Wonderland.

[RichCI]

Hey folks!

I've been lurking around for a while, finally registered a little bit back, and now I'm graduating to actually posting.  A typical cycle of procrastination on my part, really...

Anyway - My name is Rich, and I'm the co-founder and lead designer for a NY-based independent developer called Celisphere Interactive.  We're not known for much, really.  If you were following the DS launch, you might recall a supposed soon-to-come title called Cerulean Dreams.  That was us.  We also participated in the developer roundtable section of the "State of the Handheld Industry" report in 2005.  Unfortunately, like most of our console endeavors to date, funding fell through, and that was the end of our console work (temporarily, we hope).  Since then, and after a few internal changes, we've refocused ourselves on self publishing indie titles that require less in the way of... monetary resources. 

I got into games when I was a kid, tapping away on my Atari 2600 and Commodore 64.  Growing up with games, I was always a Nintendo fan at heart, but used to try to be the voice of reason during the SNES-Genesis console debates of old.  I remember vehemently arguing that we should all just like games for what they are, regardless of the console or platform they're released on.  Anyway, that feeling got me interested in game design.  I would "draw" fake games on paper, and then play them by erasing and redrawing, eventually moving up to writing out battle systems, stats, special moves, hiding items "under" objects I drew, etc.  By the time I was in middle school, I had intricately detailed paper and pencil RPGs and the like filling notebooks, and was testing them with friends and family.  Oddly, I still didn't see game design as a career option for me, and told everyone I wanted to be a lawyer. As I got older, though, I realized SOMEone had to be making the games I played for a living - y'know, getting paid to do it and all.  Why couldn't that someone be me?  So, here I am now, years later and actually working towards game design as a career, and still waiting for that check. 

I'd say my influences are, as has been mentioned, based heavily on personal memories and situations while playing those games.  I also tend to remember games with deep and involving plots, as I'm a closet English major and love a good story.  I'd count any of the old Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games as major influences, certainly the SpaceQuest, Quest for Glory, and Monkey Island series.  Archon Adept was a phenomenal game that really helped shape my view on "hybrid" genres that mixed different elements, such as the strategy/action elements of Archon.  Of course, there are also classics like Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario 64, and the early Final Fantasy games (specifically 4 and 6).  Finally, even though it's a more recent discovery for me, Cave Story is just an extremely well made game that is a testament to indie development and inspiring to play.

It's weird coming here and seeing so many people I've seen speak at GDC or read interviews with.  Celisphere was founded in 2002, but Mike (my co-founder) and I have never really been active or outspoken in the independent development community.  Attending the IGS this year really inspired us, with all the great things that some of you have done, and I have to say I'm really looking forward to participating more in the indie community.

I don't have any pictures or anything at the moment, but I'll come back and add some, and maybe some concept art from some of our work in the near future.

It's good to be here!  See you folks around!

[moi]

My name is Graham.  I do pixel art a bunch and games sometimes.

I made this game ages ago.  It's the only thing I've done so far.  The Underdogs page may be better, but I find that first review to be awesomely strange.  I regret not thinking of the tagline "Little bird fighting against a bat sect game" myself.

Wow this game is really ace, thenaks!

[torncanvas]

Hey kids, my name is Josh Larson.

As you can see, I am a nub.  My glasses are crooked, I have messy hair, I'm unshaven, and I'm a youngin' at the wee age of 24.

I've been interested in games since I was just a lil' guy (9 or 10), when my folks got a brand new 386.  I'd play Grand Prix Circuit, Matterhorn Screamer, King's Quest I and II, and other things I can't remember.  Actually, I don't really remember much of my early childhood at all... 

I wish my company could be the mustache of some hot babe:




Anyway, I played a quite a few PC games early on, mostly adventure games.  Oh and Ski Free, which was TEH WIN.


I haven't played games a LOT, although at some point or another I've owned lots of various consoles.  And I think old school games are cool like many of you.

For the longest time, I actually wanted to be an archaeologist because of how awesome dinosaurs are.  However, when Windows 3.1 came out, I found this program on it called MS Paint.  Using the new bezier curves feature, I made the Jurassic Park and Spawn logos at a friend's house.  At that point, I wanted to become a graphic artist.

Convinced that I needed to learn programming in order to do so, I started learning BASIC, and soon after QBASIC, with a friend.  Then I found Photoshop and got into web design.  OMG INTERNETS.  Then 3d Studio Max 2.5 just came out so I started learning 3d software.  Somewhere around junior year of HS, I realized that knowing art is actually important to becoming a graphics artist, so I tried to take every art class my school had in a year and a half.

Next I went to Iowa State University to study art and design, met some cool kids there, and tried to start making a cartoon inspired by the (then brand new) cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  The premise was to follow three main characters and the trouble they get into:  a riding lawn mower, an upright-walking turtle with a rice hat, and an army figurine dressed as a bullfighter.  The first episode was about marshmallow peeps that mutated after getting microwaved and plot to start a local little league baseball franchise.  A surprising amount of the cartoon was inspired by the antics of my friends and I, including a quote that someone actually said, which was supposed to be the first line of the cartoon.  Delivered by the riding lawn mower as he comes out of the shower:  "You know when you come out of the shower, and your junk is just HUGE?"

Well that fell through as the animation teacher approached my 2 friends and I and wanted to start a game dev class.  We were all "OMG YES."  So we grouped up with some sweet programmers and our first project was Treefort Wars, which actually made it to the Student IGF in 2004.



Then my 3 friends and I from ISU tried to start our own indie company.  Hoping it would be our chance, we instead started a new company together with 4 other guys - 8monkey Labs.  So for the past 2 years I've been working on a AAA FPS with a team of 4, then 6, and now 9.  Weeee!  Some time in July you might be hearing about our game.  Anyway, to my surprise, it turns out 8monkey wasn't really the place for me after all, so I left a couple weeks ago and moved to Des Moines.  Now I'm looking to make some more friends, get connected in the community, and find some cool people to start up another game company (and not in Iowa).

I guess I consider myself a thorough person, which applies to game development, sweet lovin', and forum posting, among other things.  So I apologize for the length.