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Last year was a great year for me business wise. Things got dicey in the middle which left me parting ways with a company I helped start. I finally settled with a company that I am extremely happy with both challenge wise and work/life balance wise. I had to really put my nose to the grindstone in order to get ramped up as things started moving fast and I was off traveling and representing the company about a month in. All in all I think I have found the company that I can see myself working for a long time into the future. That was a major life goal: Finding the perfect job. I have completed that. Now on to 2012….

These aren’t resolutions, mind you. These are objectives for this year. First is my personal health. I am currently working towards getting to a goal weight of 299 lbs. I know you maybe asking yourself, “What does this have to do with business?” Being a healthy weight helps your appearance, and sometimes, as fickle as it is, first impressions can be all about looks. Also being healthy enough to network a room and not get winded or tired is also beneficial to business. I have had more than one person that I look up to in the industry advise me on this. So here is my advice to you: Lose weight and get fit for business.

The next goal for this year is to help my company develop a new product that we are bringing online a little later this month. Can’t really talk about it much here, but you can check the company blog in the near future. The good thing for you is that this product is still focused on marketing and business development, so I will be able to share learning experiences with you here. There is always the goal of growing the business and creating more revenue so that goes with out saying.

The other goal is to write more. I took a long break from this blog in order to get things on the job setup and squared away. I find that writing more helps with several things. Most importantly it helps me learn the lessons I just experienced. Secondly it helps me connect with many different people around the world, which is good for business! Also I need a place to express my views

The last goal is to challenge mentally. I have always wanted to get involved in the Maker Community of hacking and building creations. I have always had little projects I worked on at home as a side hobby to gaming and business. And now this year I am going to explore that fully by building at least two projects from start to finish. I doubt I will post it here since they wont deal with business. However, if I learn something business-wise from the experience, I will share it with you.

Well, I will end this post here. Ideally you will read a lot more from me and see a little less of me

I want to apologize to everyone for no updating the blog so much lately in the past few weeks. I have been working very hard on a new project. This new project is still not fully announced yet. Yes it does involve video games and business development. And you can be sure it will be fun and educational for everyone! I will keep you posted as it develops further!

Bryan Todd Thanks for Bryan for participating on the blog I will contact you and send your Battlefield Play4Free Beta Code!

As you guys know I am located in (near) Austin,Tx which is a hotspot for game development. That fact has given me the opportunity to be able to sit down with some very cool people in the industry. I was able to get some time with Twisted Pixel‘s Alex Jones and ask him some questions about game development. I also included some questions for the readers of this blog. Thanks again to all those who contributed!

Now on with the show!

Please describe your game company and its history?

Twisted Pixel

Twisted Pixel was formed in 2006 by Frank Wilson, Michael Wilford and Josh Bear. Our first game was The Mawwhich was followed by Splosion Man and Comic Jumper. We have also done contract work for other game companies but have been focusing on our own work more recently.

What is your role in the company?

I am designer on one of our projects. Most of my time is spent on level design but I also do research, design documentation and testing.

Is humor always going to play a part in your games?

I believe so. I find it hard to imagine us making a game without humor in it.

What was your development process like for Comic Jumper and did it differ much from the last two titles?

Comic Jumper had a slightly bigger budget and longer development cycle than Splosion Man. There was more of a focus on art and presentation and we contracted many more people such as writers and voice actors.

What software/tools did you use to create the game?

We have our own engine and world builder called Beard and Razor that we improve upon while working on each new title. Our artists use Granny and 3ds Max.

What were 3 technical hurtles you had to over come during the development of Comic Jumper?

There’s a ton of animation blending going on for Captain smiley to make sure he still looks good and animated even while aiming, and he and star are also able to talk while doing all of their actions. The sheer amount of content was way more than anything we’d dealt with before because of the different art styles. Our lead engineer also developed a streaming system for our levels.

Questions from the Audience

Can you tell us more about the Pitch Movie Process?

Every developer pitches games differently.  Some make playable demos, some just have documentation, but we like to make a fairly well polished video that shows what the game will look like, not just to pitch with, but to help get the whole team on the same page about what we’re making.

Why no PC titles after The Maw?

Due to our partnerships, there are certain exclusive rights we need to abide by, and we’ve generally been keeping busy with new projects instead of older ones.

Is contract work more hectic or frustrating than in-house projects?

From what I have seen, the contracts involved working with external game teams who stuck to 9:00 to 5:00 pretty routinely.  But our in-house projects tend to have longer hours.

Thanks again to Alex for taking the time answer the questions. Also wanted to send a big thank you to those who contributed questions for me to ask! And thank you for reading! Let me know if you want more of these!!