Some new farming gameplay in development. Doug, the more awesome programmer (than me), is working on it. 
–Josh
August 11th, 2011
Arrival:Nakan New Video Posted
July 31st, 2011
Here is a new video which is an early look at the new fishing gameplay for Arrival:Nakan (currently in development). The scenery is a bit plain and will be nicer but I think the water looks pretty good. I am currently working on AI for the fish.
–Josh
Arrival:Nakan, Launch Date
July 3rd, 2011A quick status update on our first game, Arrival:Nakan. Some of you visiting this page know that Nakan has been in development for a LONG time, especially for a small mobile game. We had a status meeting yesterday and are targeting Sept 2011 for the game’s release (or at the very least submission to Apple). We were targeting summer of 2011 but I recently realized Arrival:Nakan is not ready yet.
A couple weeks ago I was watching a friend play it and saw there isn’t enough to do in the game. People are supposed to play, not wait around for something to happen! As much as we REALLY want this game done, I insist that we release a quality product. Fortunately the team members I have spoken with agree. We appreciate everyone’s patience and hope the final result will make the wait worth it.
–Josh
Updates
September 19th, 2010It’s been forever but the web site was updated today. Development on our current strategy game is going well and we expect to have a first look video of the game in the next 2-4 weeks. We also updated some inaccuracies and added information to the historical information page. And, last but not least, our current team page has been updated for accuracy. I want to say how grateful I have for all of those people. Each one of them has proven invaluable in their area of expertise and these games would not be the same without them. Thank you so much!
–Josh
Our Historian
October 8th, 2009Here’s a video from a few years ago of our historian, Roberto Borrero. It’s a bit long but interesting, I hope you enjoy it.
–Josh
Insurmountable Obstacles
August 6th, 2009Regarding Josh’s previous entry, I told him the world was ending and that was the whole of his response until we talked later that day. Always a sense of humor and I have to say it got me laughing and things didn’t look so bad!
There have been many challenges for the art team and it seems there is always much more for me to do than is humanly possible. But there are also many, many positives. Our team continues to grow with very talented people who are willing to help in anyway they can. We have a completed human model and the riggers and animators are able to get started. There are several other models that are close to completion and should be ready to go soon. The modelers are also working on many of the inanimate objects that are needed by the animators, along with objects that will really enrich our environment. It looks like we may have all required objects done well before our deadline and may be able to work on some of my “wish list” items!
Looking over the last week of our particular “theatre”, there could not be a better quote than the “Shakespeare In Love” quote! Things do have a way of working themselves out and many of the overwhelming problems from a few days ago have just fizzled out to make way for new insurmountable obstacles!
Susan
Video Game Projects
August 2nd, 2009The other day Susan and I were talking and she was expressing her concern about how impossible the tasks ahead of us seemed. This little snippet explains this type of project rather accurately so I thought I’d share it publicly.
From Shakespear in Love
Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
–Josh
Coming Together!
July 6th, 2009I have been spending my time managing the art team, learning the Torque 2D game engine, adding cultural information to the “help” section of the design doc, and working on character sketches, Taino word lists, and the cut scene stories we will need for our game. To say it is a full time job is putting it lightly!!
We have a great core of artists that are making great progress in making our 3D models of people and huts. I hope to have them complete soon so we can finish up on the other required game objects. We are also experimenting with the backgrounds and coming up with our plan to tackle that.
It is exciting to see this first iPhone game making such great progress. We have a great group of dedicated people working with us and I know this game is going to reflect that fact. Just let me play it already!!
Susan
Current News and Progress
June 13th, 2009I haven’t posted anything about development or progress in a while. It seems when I go in one direction there is always something to pull me in another one. So, what has been happening? We are presently exploring an iPhone game which would be a subset of Arrival, it could even be considered a prequal though the story for the first prequal may not be connected to the main Arrival game. If things go well there is a chance we will do a series of iPhone games. This could help us in many ways including practicing on a much smaller scale, earning funds to pay for bigger game development costs and building a reputation which could help us receive funding from a publisher. At the moment I am in negotiations with a publisher to get funding for our first iPhone game. It’s a long process but assuming everything goes well we should begin full development by July (sooner I hope!).
So building an iPhone team, reviewing and commenting on docs, starting a real company, negotiating the contract, etc etc has kept me away from programming and experimenting. I hope to get back to that soon but with all my project manager tasks I may not get to do any programming on this iPhone game. Ah well, the joy of being the team lead.
I hope to be posting another blog soon with good news on funding. Until then wish me luck!
–Josh
We Now Have a Company
June 13th, 2009I finally bit the bullet and took the time to create an actual company. At the moment my focus is on getting the word out about Arrival so any other entity, including a company name, has been secondary. Here it is: www.vivosinteractive.com. Not much there at the moment but we are now official.
–Josh