Category Archives: Personal Life

Classic Films and Random Thoughts

It’s been ages since I’ve done a personal blog. Winter’s just been kind of dull for me, but I’ll try to write a few things.

I’ve been watching a lot of classic movies lately. Spelunky and La-Mulana reminded me that I still hadn’t seen Indiana Jones, so I decided it would be a good idea to see where culture comes from. So far I’ve seen:
• Indiana Jones 1,2 and 3
• Terminator 1 and 2
• All of the Rocky Films
• Rambo 1 and 2

My favorite of the bunch has to be the earlier Rocky films, but I also loved Terminator 2. I expected Indiana Jones to be more about exploring temples and ancient cultures, and less about cheesy action scenes with Nazis. So I was a bit disappointed there.

I’m interested to hear from you guys about what other old films I should watch. I’ve really not seen very many.

I’m still playing a lot of games on Steam. I’ll do another batch of reviews soon.

I watched Indie Game: The Movie again. It made me feel like I’ve sold out a bit, in the sense that I’ve started making games based on what the players want, rather than what I want. If it was up to me, I’d make the EBF games more like the RPGs I played when I was a kid. With no bestiary, cheap enemies, really hard to find secrets, no easy mode, and stuff like that. But instead I’ve tried to make EBF4 as accessible as possible, and as a result, I think it feels a lot less personal.

Interestingly, most of the game developers that were featured in Indie Game had made very hard games, and that didn’t seem to hurt their popularity at all. Super Meat Boy, Braid, and Fez were all very difficult, either in their action or in their cryptic puzzles.

Edmund McMillen made an interesting point in one interview about Binding of Isaac. He said he didn’t like displaying numbers in his games, or explaining the mechanics in detail, leaving the player to learn and memorize everything by themselves. I would kind of like to do a bit more of that in EBF (for example, by not explicitly mentioning the special effects of equips or skills), but I wonder how well that would go down with players.

Anyway, I don’t plan on changing the way I make games, since this approach has worked well for me so far. And I’ve not totally sold out; I still do a lot of things that many casual players don’t like. (like making unobtainable ultimate weapons, the cut-out art style, some super hard puzzles, and troll bosses like the glitch)

Oh well.

Now that the Kongregate release of EBF4 is out of the way, I’m going to be getting ready for the Steam release. It shouldn’t take too long, as I’ve already solved most of the hardest problems. All I have to do is get rid of Kongregate’s branding, change the loading screen, add support for multiple resolutions, stick in Steam’s API, make some more Steam store graphics, and package the game nicely. Hopefully that won’t take too long, but tricky problems have a way of popping up.

The developer of Intrusion 2 was awesome enough to help me out with a few things, so you should go buy his game!

And one last thing; I’ve got a girlfriend now!
She’s fun to hang out with, and we’ve got a lot in common, so that’s nice.
And I don’t have to play Outlast by myself anymore! Hurray!

New Year’s Resolutions

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My resolutions from last year:

I managed most of my resolutions from 2013. The ones that I failed were either out of my control, or turned out to just not be very important to me.

✔ Get a driver’s license!
(done: got a car too!)

• Get a good haircut!
(failed: because I changed my mind. the Thor movies have made my hair cool again)

✔ Get a social life!
(done: I go out whenever I get the chance now)

✔ Get fit!
(done: started cycling, running, climbing, and just generally getting regular exercise)

✔ Run 10km! (Or 5km, more realistically)
(done-ish: managed 5km, but I’ll probably try to do 10km someday)

• Climb Ben Nevis!
(failed: never got round to it, don’t really have anyone to go with)

✔ Go to and survive northern Sweden in Winter.
(done: it was awesome)

✔ Go on at least 2 more challenging holidays!
(done: went to Sweden again in Summer, and went to London to do a presentation at a game-dev meetup)

• Go skydiving and survive!
(failed: never got round to it, kind of scared)

• Grow the world’s hottest Chilli Peppers and eat them!
(failed-ish: almost done, I’ve got the plants, but they haven’t produced any fruit yet)

✔ Get my tax issues sorted!
(done: woop! not really a huge achievement, but the IRS was really bothering me)

✔ Finish setting up my bedroom/office!
(done: more or less finished, probably looks as good as it’s going to get until I move out)

• Start and finish Bullet Heaven 2 or Adventure Story 2.
(failed: web game market died, not a priority anymore, made Cat Cafe instead though)

✔ Finish Epic Battle Fantasy 4 and get rich!
(done: didn’t get rich, but earned enough)

✔ Get EBF4 on Steam!
(done-ish: got Greenlit and am working on it, so it’s almost done)

• Get EBF4 on The Pirate Bay!
(failed: need to publish on Steam first)

• Get 10 million plays on Kongregate!
(failed: not going to happen, not really my fault though)

◦ Get Newgrounds game of the year!
(undetermined: these don’t get announced until later)

• Get a Wikipedia article about myself!
(failed: will probably happen once EBF4 is on Steam though…maybe)

My resolutions for this year:

A lot of these are just continuations of stuff that I’ve already started. Hmmm. Maybe I should be more creative. Anyway, here’s my resolutions for 2014…

✔ Get a girlfriend. (It’s about time)

✔ Get better at driving, and explore the UK. (also don’t crash)

✔ Eat healthier and lose weight. (already made a lot of progress with this, but still need to do a wee bit more)

• Cycle 100km. (best is currently 50km)

• Move out of my parents’ house. (low priority, do everything else first)

• Learn how to invest savings. (stock market?)

• The run 10km (✔), chilli pepper(✔), Ben Nevis, and skydiving ones from last year.

✔ Publish EBF4 on Steam.

✔ Get really good at faking confidence around strangers. (eye-contact, posture!)

✔ Do projects which are fun rather than those which are profitable. Or better yet, figure out how to do both.

• Buy an iPad and publish Cat Cafe on iOS, and on the web.

✔ Start working on another awesome game. (What that is will depend on EBF4’s sales, but probably EBF:TD)

✔ Design future games to be compatible with mobile devices. Maybe try a quick mobile port of EBF4 too.

✔ Read a bit more. Maybe some stuff about marketing, business or psychology.

• Go to more networking events and make contacts. (kind of already doing this, so I should keep it up at least)

• Visit America next time I’m invited to something cool. (probably Steam developers conference in Chicago or Flash games summit in San Francisco, or maybe even both)

• Visit Canada for fun. (It’s been a while)

• Visit my brother a lot wherever he decides to study next year. (I think he mentioned Germany?)

Blog of 2013

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At the end of every year, I look through my blogs and pick out some of the most memorable events. So here’s all the stuff that happened to me in 2013, in roughly chronological order:

• Went to visit my brother in Sweden, during the coldest month. Saw Stockholm briefly. Most time was spent in Luleå, but also visited Abisko. Much snow. Northern lights. Dog sledding. Parties with the exchange students every day. Tried skiing (never again). Tried sledding down the ski slope instead (awesome!). Saunas and hot tubs. Played ball games in the snow for laughs. Made tons of friends. So much feels.

• Finished Epic Battle Fantasy 4, my biggest game ever. It was the best rated game on Kongregate and Newgrounds for a few months, but didn’t get as many players as I wanted because…

• The web game market started shrinking, as more and more people were playing games on their mobile phones instead. I started looking at other platforms to make games for (phones and Steam).

• This year’s summer was glorious. Sat around in the garden almost every day. Bought a bicycle and actually started using it quite a lot. Managed to cycle 50km and run 5km.

• Had my parent’s house to myself for 3 weeks. Having so much space is awesome. Was forced to learn how to cook. Had a fun BBQ with buddies.

• Started watching Adventure Time, which is now one of my favorite TV shows.

• Collected too many chili pepper plants. I’ve got more than I care to look after now, and most of them are too spicy to eat in any way. Also grew some tomatoes in the garden.

• Did a talk about game development for a highschool class. Then I did it again.

• Went to visit my brother in Sweden again, in the middle of summer. Didn’t see night for 10 days, which felt amazing and surreal. Ate moose and reindeer. Went to some festival in Luleå, which included a heavy metal gig. Tried slacklining and dumpster diving. Visited some small farm village and browsed through some interesting souvenir shops.

• Went to Mochi London to meet up with Flash game developers and to give a presentation about EBF4. Conquered my fear of public speaking. Got better at backpacking. Met childhood heroes and awesome people from the internet. Saw a bit of London, including the Natural History Museum.

• Got my driver’s license! Failed my theory test once, but things went well otherwise.

• Got my first car! Yay! I almost feel like an adult now! Still learning how to use it properly though.

• Started using Twitter regularly. It’s actually really good for meeting people who work in similar areas to you.

• Made my first mobile game; Cat Cafe. Learned about designing for mobile phones, hardware acceleration, native extensions, scripted tweens, time-based animation, and lots of other stuff that makes Flash more powerful.

• Went to Poland to visit family, and just to relax for a while. Went to some speedway competition, which was my first time at a sports event. Went mushroom picking for the first time. Got a personal tour of Kwidzyn Cathedral.

• Been going to every networking event that I’m invited to, even if it doesn’t sound like I’d fit in. There’s usually free food and lots of interesting people to talk to, and it’s good to hear about what people are working on.

• Finally made a website for myself; KupoGames.com. Played around with HTML and CSS for a few days. I think it looks pretty good now.

• Started indoor-climbing to keep fit in winter. It’s pretty fun!

• Started playing around with more Google products, including AdSense, AdMob and Analytics. Stats and advertising are cool.

• Breaking Bad finished, and the last few episodes are probably my favorite bit of TV ever. Dexter also finished, but the last season was terrible.

• Got EBF4 Greenlit for a release on Steam, and started working on an expansion pack for it. Kind of a big deal. Might start making paid desktop games instead of free web games, if things work out.

• Literally spent a whole week playing Pokemon Y non-stop.

• Started playing a lot of indie games on Steam, for “market research”. Some favorites include: Spelunky, Jamestown, VVVVVV, Intrusion 2, and AVGN Adventures.

• Started online dating, which has mostly been a waste of time. But I think I’ve finally found someone worth holding on to. We shall see how that goes.

Well I think that’s everything. It’s going to be challenging to make 2014 even more interesting!

Wow. So noble. Such grace.

Blog of London

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So as I mentioned a while ago, Mochi were hosting a Flash game developer meetup in London, and I was invited to speak at it. That happened last weekend, and here’s a blog about how it went.

My favorite photo from the trip, with ChrisJeff, Jimp, and Jay Armstrong

This was actually my first time traveling completely alone, so it was quite educational. I planned the trip, explored, and stayed at a hostel by myself. I had never met any of the people at the meetup, and had only talked to a few of them online. I had never been to London before, and didn’t know much about it either.

But everything went better than expected.
Staying at a hostel is easy if you follow a few simple tips, everyone I met was friendly, public transport was easy to use, and getting lost is impossible when you have GPS on your phone.

Day 1: Exploring Central London

St Paul’s Cathedral

I spent my first day in London just walking around the city center.

Walked past the Shard, and that curved building that melts things. I hear that London has some of the highest skyscrapers in Europe, but they’re still pretty small compared to those in America or Asia. Having been to Hong Kong, I was not very impressed by the height of the buildings here. 😛

St. Paul’s Cathedral looked pretty nice from the outside, but it was kinda boring on the inside. Security guards were quick to stop people from taking photos, and the most interesting areas were reserved for people actually attending the services. Also, the style and layout of the inside looked pretty similar to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, but smaller and less decorated. So I wasn’t particularly impressed.

I also saw the Tower Bridge from a distance. Didn’t seem like a big deal.

So yeah! London’s buildings weren’t very impressive to me. The parks were nice though, and there seems to be quite a lot of them for such a big city.

I was supposed to meet up with ChrisJeff today, but he was very ill and stayed in his hotel, so that never happened.

Day 2: Presentations at King’s College

The main Mochi event was a series of presentations at King’s College, with a bunch of food and networking breaks. There was a big variety of people there, including programmers, artists, game distributors, and students. Some were younger than me, but most were way older and more experienced than me. Around 40 people showed up in total.

This was the first time I met other developers that work in similar areas to me, so it was great being able to talk to people who actually understand what kind of work I do, and to also meet a lot of people who’s work inspired me as a kid.

My presentation was about the marketing and deployment strategy for Epic Battle Fantasy 4, and which parts worked and which parts didn’t. I might upload my slideshow later, but it won’t be very good without me talking, and I don’t think any of the presentations were recorded.

Anyway, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but it turned out fine. People actually found what I said to be quite useful, and noted that I sounded very “honest”.

And then we all went to the pub afterwards.

I got a lot of free stickers and business cards

Besides the 3 guys pictured above, some awesome people I met include Tom from the Super Flash Brothers, TheEXP, RobotJam, Colin from Mochi, the guys from Bad Viking, Toge Productions, and DampGnat.

Even though the event was sponsored by Kongregate, none of their official employees were there, which was a bit disappointing. It would have been cool to meet some of them, and some more American developers, but I guess it’s quite far to travel from San Francisco.

Day 3: Game Jam at the Loading Bar

The second Mochi event was a short Game Jam at the Loading Bar, which is an awesome video game themed bar, with arcade machines and consoles. I didn’t participate in the Game Jam directly, as I don’t even own a laptop, but I did help out a bit by Googling for sound effects, and borrowing machines when people went on breaks.

Most of the time I was just playing games though. I got the top score in Defender! I wonder if the score will still be there when I come back next year. Me and Colin even played all the way through DoDonPachi together.

Jammin’ away

The Game Jam only lasted around 10 hours, so the games people managed to put together in that time weren’t terribly impressive. But there was one that was pretty fun; it was a local-multiplayer Unity game, with Xbox controller support, about gentlemen fighting on the Tower Bridge, and dodging raindrops.

I don’t think the games are available to play anywhere yet, but I’ll let you guys know if/when they are.

Day 4: Natural History and Science Museums

The Natural History Museum was really the only thing I wanted to see in London, because I had seen it in a lot of documentaries and it just genuinely looked like an awesome place to visit. And it was. The building itself looked beautiful, and the exhibits were also very interesting. There were tons of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, preserved animals, paintings, old trees, and minerals. If I had more free time, I would have liked to sit around and sketch some of the unusual objects they had. Instead I just took a lot of photos.

The main hall of the Natural History Museum looks amazing

I also visited the Science Museum, which was just next to the Natural History Museum, but I found it less interesting, mainly because I’ve seen similar stuff in other museums. They had a lot of vehicles, including cars, tractors, planes, and spacecraft. They also had a bunch of really old everyday objects, including some early computer hardware.

After that I headed home. The end.

Here’s a public Facebook album of all the photos I took in London (excluding those from the Mochi events).

Trip to Poland

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As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve been in Poland for a week, visiting family and trying out a bunch of new things that I don’t normally do. The real purpose of the trip was for my dad to go settle some business with his brother, and I just tagged along because I could. Turned out pretty well though, and I met a lot of family that I haven’t seen in 5 or more years. I’m just gonna go over some of the highlights of the trip.

Toruń

Apparently this Copernicus guy was a pretty big deal.

Most of the trip was spent in the town of Toruń, and this is where most of my friends and family live. Toruń is known for being the birthplace of Copernicus, and having a medieval town center full of pretty buildings, including churches and clock towers. Here’s some pictures I took a few years ago on a previous trip.

I went foraging for mushrooms in the woods, since that seems to be a popular activity in Poland. We were told that most of the mushrooms would have been picked by now, but nope, there were plenty. Largest one we found was 15cm wide and almost as tall. I actually quite like treasure-hunting activities like this, and wonder if there’s anything similar in Scotland.

Apator! Apator! Apator!

I also attended a Speedway tournament, because a lot of people we knew were also going. I’ve never been to watch live sports before, but it was pretty much as I expected; loud, crowded, and hard to see the action. It was still enjoyable though, especially once I figured out how the teams and scoring system works. It was Toruń’s team against some other Polish teams, and we won. Hurray! There was also a neat fireworks display at the end. Worst part was that it took us an hour to leave the stadium and get our car out of the car park due to the crowds. I don’t know if other stadium’s are better at handling traffic, or if this is normal. (This stadium held 17,000 people, and I know there’s much bigger ones out there.)

I had to live with these two assholes.

Finally, the person we lived with in Toruń owns two cats, so I made a bunch of videos. Here’s the best one. They did make me realize that I really don’t like cats at all. One of them slashed me for being friendly, and another one pissed on my bed because I left my bedroom door open. Yup, cats are dicks. Why anyone would ever want a cat as a pet is beyond me. The only good cat is one with no legs, because then it can’t cut you or jump on your furniture.

Kwidzyn

A very tall stack of red bricks.

We visited the town of Kwidzyn because that’s where my dad’s brother lives, and it’s also my dad’s home town, so he wanted see a few places too. We also own land in Kwidzyn now! It’s not worth much yet, but the hope is that it will once the town expands a bit.

The only noteworthy place we visited was the cathedral, which is pretty similar in appearance to most others in Poland, with red bricks and pointy towers. It was interesting though, because there was no other visitors, so one of the keepers gave us a personal tour. We got to explore areas not meant for visitors, including the attic and one of the small towers. These areas didn’t have any sort of lighting, and we had to use our phones to light the way through complete darkness. They were also full of traps, such as low ceilings, spider webs in your face, and slippery stairs, due to hundreds of years of pigeon poop piling up. There wasn’t much to see, but it was fun exploring an ancient place that very few people have seen in the last few hundred years.

Inowrocław

We also briefly visited the town of Inowrocław. Didn’t do much here, just visited a few people. My dad’s other brother lives here, and he’s got a lot of fruit trees in his garden, so we collected a bunch of apples and plums. I also hung out with his grandkids, and showed them my games. Turns out that they visit Kongregate and recognize my characters, even though they haven’t actually played my games. I feel like I should hang out with more young kids now, since I’ve probably got more of an audience there than I realize. (They’re hard to count since they usually don’t have Facebook, and won’t appear on my page stats.)

Anyway, I think that’s everything worth mentioning.