OrtizGames

Imagine my surprise, logging on to my newsfeeds, reading over them in a semi-sick state with my throat in shambles, my nose congested, my attitude generally sour and so much work on my plate it is not at all funny, when I stumbled across this article on Gamasutra mentioning the debut of my hometown game developer, Xibalba Studios. As some of you might remember (most of you won’t) I worked with Xibalba Studios for a tiny bit as an intern level designer, and I got to see a bit of the development of their new title, Icebreakers. I’m very happy to see it revealed at EGS ’08 in Mexico City, and I’m looking forward to seeing the actual product released in 09.

If you haven’t already clicked on any of the links I’ve posted, do so, and look it up! Or Google “Icebreakers Xibalba” for a variety of different news sites, including this one (has a small screenshot), that all happily report the release.

Other than that, my SPORE review (and review of everything else for that matter) is on extended hiatus until I can get my ridiculous workload out of the way.

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I just spent like seven nine hours yesterday playing World of Warcraft. I’m in Mexico with nothing to do for two weeks. I might as well play games. But World of Warcraft the whole day? I really need to play something else. Or do something productive. I guess I’ll go fix Mom’s computer, or something.

Wait, or Monster Hunter. (*finds PSP*)

Someone who is not successful said something that is completely a lie and irrelevant. If exclusives didn’t exist, practically nothing would turn games to one title or the other. It’s getting to the point where everything has the same features and abilities. If exclusives didn’t exist, people would have no reason to buy one console over another, and they’d all end up buying the cheapest one.

They’d buy the Wii. Can you imagine the horror?

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Working with the future of the industry is just as equally rewarding as working with the figureheads of the industry, in its own way. I’ve been exposed to some of the most innovative thinking I’ve ever heard–project ideas so exciting and well thought out that I’m not even allowed to mention them, in case they’re someday developed. I’ve been recruited into several rising star projects for next year, and I have to say, I’m excited.

But that’s more talk for next year. This year, it’s time to focus on what I can done as I return to my home country of Mexico.

I’ve got an interview with Xibalba Studios which, according to GameDevMap, is the first registered Game Developer studio in Mexico. I know from talking to Mauricio Lozano, one of the impulsory forces behind Collective Minds/Digital Minds (an initiative to establish digital media and art as an industry in this country) that several graduate students are taking the knowledge they obtain from studying game design programs in places like Full Sail and Digipen University and bringing it back in order to try and establish a home base. I feel lucky to be witnessing the beginning of what I hope may be something huge for boosting Mexico’s economic and industrial presence on the creative side of the spectrum.

My portfolio lacks in-depth work with modeling and programming, but I have yet to see if it will land me a position (if only as an intern) for the winter break, and set me on good terms with the growing community of game developers and rich media designers here in my hometown of Monterrey. All indicators seem to point to the idea that this is the heart of the technological revolution that will bring Mexico’s culture into the digital domain–ironically enough, this town being one of the least culturally oriented in the entire Mexican republic.

There’s still plenty of time to grow as a designer, even if I don’t manage to work with Xibalba Studios, but, as it stands, some actual experience in the industry would be more than invaluable. What I do have going for me is that most of Xibalba’s team seems to be Digipen graduates and computer programmers; as someone with an art background, I wonder how my ideas and attitudes will differ from the rest of the development scene here in Monterrey.

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