ellugar Logs

2022 year review

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 22:31:27 +0000

Personal

I go more in to detail at the end

Work

Streaming guide
Built a component library
Built an app with Remix.run

Things I enjoyed this year

Books

Masters of Doom - David Kushner
Fevre Dream - George R.R. Martin
The Rise of Kyoshi - F.C. Yee , Michael Dante DiMartino
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green

Games

Elechead
Sly The Spire
Elden Ring
Mario Strikers

TV Shows

Better Call Saul S06
Our flag means death S01
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty S01
Andor S01
White Lotus S02
Marvelous Mrs Maisel S04
House of dragon S01
The Expanse S06
Formula 1 S01 - S04
Harley Quinn S01 - S02
The Bear S01
Atlanta S03
The Great S01
Severance S01
Hacks S02
Landscapers S01
Bad Sisters S01
The City Is Ours S01

Movies

The Banshees of Inisherin 2022
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 1992
There Will Be Blood 2007
Everything Everywhere All at Once 2022
Magnolia 1999
The Master 2012
Men 2022
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio 2022
Nightmare Alley 2021
Nope 2022
Hustle 2022

Podcasts

YouTube

- How We Made MuseScore 4 - Music App Design is Challenging!

TTRPG - TheAlexandrian - pointyhatstudios - GinnyDi

Games - Action button reviews boku no natsuyasumi - Pontypants - Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games - Transparencyboo - Acerola_t - PlanoDeJuego

Godot

Music

Personal In depth

Don Salmon

Don Salmon is a new game I'm creating with Jp at Amano. There are a lot of things I could say about this project, which I want to flesh out more on its own devlog, so here I'll just say the highlights are:

Using Godot 3.x for a 2D pixel art game
Learned/practiced my shader skills
Managed to make a Combat system that we like
Reinforced all we have learned with Pullfrog for a bigger game

Amano -> LDtk importer

We have used LDtk for a couple of projects now, the biggest one being Don Salmon and one of the things I want to do is to port the game to Godot4, the first step was to port the LDtk importer that we have been using for the past year to Godot4, I'm really happy with the result.

Federike

I have been using Mastodon for 4 years now and with the recent Twitter migrations my Timeline became quite noisy, so I made this tool to help me organize people/accounts on a list that make it easier to catch up with my Mastodon timeline. Some interesting things.

I made all the design/color schemes, and I really like it.
Used all the things that I have been learning and practicing at my web-dev day jobs and managed to make something I'm happy with, it's nice to be remained that all the time spent working on other people's projects also helps me on my own things.

Pixelatl Detrás del Pixel

I attended with Pepehxc and recorded hours of audio footage to make a new DDP episode, I'm excited to see the result when I have the time to go through all of it and try to make a cohesive thing.

Shaders

One of my favorite things to work with this year was shaders, it's something that I have wanted to get good at since I started making games, but I feel it wasn't until this year that I was actually able to do something I was proud of.

GDC Talk

I almost forgot this happened in 2022, it was hard! Talking in public in English is something I want to become better at, but I think it went well! I enjoyed GDC a lot more this year, in part because I had something to do and once it was done I could chill and not feel the pressure of having to work at GDC.

I also took the Pullfrog 2Bits demo to GDC and people seemed to like it a lot, so that was nice as well.

My relationship with San Francisco and GDC in general has changed a lot since the first time I went there. Now I have family and friends living there, so it feels like I can do a bunch of stuff and not only dedicate myself to be stressed about the Game Dev community around me.

Reboot 2022

Second or third time in Reboot, still one of my favourite GameDev conferences and ended up having a booth at the last minute, it was really nice to see people playing Don Salmon and having the general feedback that It feels good which has been the main focus for the past months. Also, Henry and the team Newfangled games won a ton of awards, and it was nice to be there and celebrate with them. Additionally, I caught up with Rene and we talked a lot, it was a lot of fun!

Pullfrog 2022

This is one of those things I hope I write a bigger devlog about, but some thoughts:

I'm really happy with how the game plays. It's fun, it feels good and it has the level of polish we like on the games we work on.
There are some issues, mainly performance issues, that took out the momentum from us to keep working on the game.
I would like to finish it, but probably will finish Don Salmon first.

Made it to 6 days of #lovebytetcc

Didn't do anything else with PICO-8 this year, I will try to change that for next year.

DDP migration to NextJS from Gatsby

One of my goals was to migrate my personal website to Next.js, that didn't happen, but I did it for Detrás del Pixel website, so migrating my site will be a really similar process.

Small tamagochi C game prototype

One thing I wanted to achieve this year was to do something with C, after this little prototype I don't know if I still want to do something with C or at least not until I have a better project for it, but it was nice to play around with C and realizing I could do a bigger project if I really wanted to.

D&D

I got obsessed with D&D, watched a bunch of videos, read a lot of articles and played on three campaigns, two as a DM and one as a player.

I really like it, since it has become a good activity to do with new and old friends.

Trip to England & Portugal

This year I traveled to Madrid -> London -> Norwich -> Cascais.

In Madrid, I only stayed for two nights, but I liked eating tapas in the middle of the night, catching up with a new friend and having a nap in the middle of the day.

In London, I liked the Full English in the Black Penny, having dinner at an Indian restaurant dressed like an improvised fancy Zorro, traveling through the Victoria Line each day, chasing a mouse on our Airbnb and drinking cider whenever I could.

In Norwich, I liked feeling the Flint all around the city, drinking coffee at Kofra, having Sunday roast with the Hoffman family, having breakfast at the Hashery and watching Bad Sisters with sly midnight pizza.

In Cascais I liked eating a 'pastel de nata' every day, drinking three espressos most of the days, going to Sintra and the inverted tower in the rain, eating PiriPiri chicken with family, eating at Domingo's and walking through the white streets of Portugal.

2021 year review

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:27:09 +0000

2021 Year review

Personal

Released the final version of The Lost Night
Amano Games website.
INDI·ES website
Wrote 5 Game dev articles on the Amano devlog.
Made a couple of live shows and learned how to use OBS at the Cafecito Show
Turned one year of doing a weekly newsletter for INDI·ES
Started doing 3D art every 15 days
Got in to the Godot game engine.
Tried to do a LUA aseprite binary file reader and failed
Released the first version of marifer.house
Ported the a PICO-8 mninifier to Node JS
Started learning about shaders and made a couple.
Stopped doing free lance web work
Pullfrog and The lost night got featured on the PICO-8 BBS
DM'd 5 DND sessions
Did 10 days of Adent of Code

Work

Finished two new research and development products
Launched a new product
Used WEBGL for a client project
Made a custom CMS for a client project
Stopped accepting new freelance client gigs.

Things I enjoyed this year

Books

DUNE
Ask Iwata
Berserk

Games

Keroblaster
Inscryption
Slipaways
Factorio
Loop Hero
The Binding of Isaac
Spelunky 1 & 2
Narita Boy
Wingspan
Stellaris

TV Shows

PEN15
How to with John Wilson
What we do in the shadows
Ranking of kings
Keep your hands of Eiozuken
Only murders in the building

Movies

The wolf of snow hollow

- Bo Burnham Inside

YouTube

Shorts

The Clockwork Elves

Music

Live at Vidro ’77 by Ryo Fukui
¿Qué se siente que me gustes tanto? by Daniel
Bichota by Friolento
Panacea by Disasterpeace

Ramblings

Read a lot on how to do games using C I'm feeling more prepeared than last year to try and do one.

2020 year review

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 17:25:42 +0000

Personal

Released 4 Games

Released 3 episodes of my game dev podcast

Released Detrás del Pixel's first video content

Game Summit MX

Redesigned my website and ported it to Gatsby

ellugar

Brought back to life my bookmarking ecosystem

ligo

Migrated my servers infrastructure to Docker+Ansible and automatic deployments

Discord Server for game dev in spanish that I started with some friends. We've achieved 400+ active users and it's getting better every day.

Finished paying all my debt, which seemed impossible two years ago and manage to have a healthy savings account.

Work

Started a new game studio that survived 3 months before the pandemic

Farda

Finished a full web app for a client in the UK

My Shifts

New job at a startup based in SF where I rewrote the complete front end in 3~ months

Scalero

Finished a project for a client with my brother

Tweak

I taught a semester at my old University and end up in the top rated teachers that semester

Universidad Panamericana

Things I enjoyed this year

My favorite thing this year was developing games using PICO-8

Mastodon is the main social media platform I use today merveilles.town

Books

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
I Am legend - Richard Matheson

Music

Nectar - Joji

Videogames

Hades
Risk Of Rain 2
Dark Souls
Disco Elysium
Animal Crossing

TV Shows

The midnight Gospel
Raised by wolves
Sopranos
The Wire
Queens Gambit

Farda: Post Mortem [en]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 21 May 2020 17:09:52 +0000

Si estás buscando la versión en español ve a detrasldelpixel.com

"I have terrible news. We're going to have to close the studio", was the message that I received from the main investor on Monday, April 6th, 2020.

It was referring to Farda, a new video game studio based in Mexico City where we had started working officially in January 2020. Our main project was Tactico, and we had to abandon it just four months after starting it.

The next log is an attempt to create a context, provide documentation and I'd also like to add some clarifications; hoping that this might help someone as an experience or, at the very least, as catharsis during COVID-19 times.

"I have terrible news. We're going to have to close the studio".

Farda was a project that did not start lightly, even though its short life may hint at it; it was something that was first planned in 2018.

After travelling the world and drowning in debt, I came back to Mexico City determined to stay put for a while and try to save up some money. That's how I ended up in a web development job in Aleph, a collaborative platform for risk analysis. It was a rhythm change that I really enjoyed, and it gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best people I have ever met.

During my time in Aleph, we shared office space with other companies, within which was "Draco Studio", a board game studio that has a track record of the best Kickstarter campaigns ever made in Mexico.

When he heard that I had previously worked in video game development, the main investor in Draco approached me to talk to me about his idea: a modern RPG game based on one of his own intellectual properties. The main intent was to make you feel like the king of the universe on top of a dragon. In 2018 and to this day, it sounds like something very difficult to achieve.

The main rule or main advice when you're making your first creative project is: keep a low scope. A game about dragons that fly around an open world does not have a low scope.

Two years later, after long chats about it, I was offered the direction of this new project, with a new objective: to focus on making a video game study that might not have been dragons flying around the world, but I considered it a challenge as big as that.

Dehrilya dragon, belongs to the universe of Dragonbond from Draco Studio.

I started working with my partner @conejoconc and we started searching for a team. To make a video game you do not need more than two people: a programmer and an artist, at least at the beginning; so we made a rule of not making hasty decisions when hiring people and working with the bare minimum.

To make a video game you do not need more than two people: a programmer and an artist, at least at the beginning; a wrong move whilst hiring can destroy a team.

At the beginning, our job was to create an environment where we could communicate amongst ourselves peacefully. It became a rule of ours, that we all had to share our space and our schedules, so the team members had to be willing to go to the office daily. We made some hires and created the smallest core.

The Farda team, from left to right:

@Consalv0 Programmer
@esselfer.art Artist
@eltipouy Game Designer
@afk_mario Director
@conejoconc Operations Manager

A creative project is built with the work of all of its members.

Defining the workflow and the way to input ideas into the project is only achieved with time and hard work; it is a never ending task. Our plan was to finish a game as fast as possible and after that; we'd understand and learn about teamwork, and we'd allow ourselves to plan a better one for the future. We always try to convey the idea that a creative project is built with the work of all of its members.

That's how we found our first objective, to finish a game before the first half of the year.

Tactico

Tactico is a strategy game in which people take turns, and it mixes characters and fantasy elements along with futuristic elements; where the synergy between characters is the most important thing for you to plan your strategy.

We started with a prototype on paper, this helped us establish the rules of the game so that the whole team could play and we could prove our ideas faster. At first we didn't have a clear idea on what characters we were going to use or what story we wanted to tell, so we focused on building a strong foundation over which we could build more units.

First Tactico concept art.

The most important thing when you are creating the first concept art, is to be able to communicate to your team the biggest amount of things in a simple manner using only one image. Everyone has to understand the game, and what everyone needs to do to achieve said concept.

"In to the breach", one of the inspirations of Tactico.

We mixed together different references and we tried to propose how the game would look. After various iterations, we tried with a 2.5D game, in which we could combine the 3D world with the 2D characters. This gave us the freedom to show different things in a small space, allowing the player to rotate the camera.

The visual identity of the game was probably the hardest part for us during the development; it was difficult to define the art style of a game that wasn't 100% ours; we had to consider Draco's intellectual property, and we had to keep in mind the needs of the game that we were trying to do. For example, how can you show characters with so many details and features on a screen as small as a cellphone's or a Nintendo Switch's, without relying on a toon or chibi style?

How can you show characters with so many details and features on a screen as small as a cellphone's or a Nintendo Switch's, without relying on a toon or chibi style?

After various iterations, we chose an art style inspired by cyberpunk art combined with high fantasy elements. This fitted into existing game types in Draco, and at the same time we were presenting something interesting that could look good within the game that we had already planned.

This is an image of the first concept that made us feel excited with the new art style.

At this moment, we got the opportunity, thanks to @TheMotherBase, to become part of a new proposal for "La Mole" (the biggest comic book convention in Latin America) where various Mexican studios would display their projects. We had approximately a month left to develop a demo that should be ready to be played by the attendants of "La Mole".

We accepted the challenge and got to work. During one month we had intense sessions where we would check everyone's progress every half hour. We ended up very proud of the demo we made for "La Mole", even though it was missing a bunch of things of the game that we wanted to include, it was a great first step and it helped us validate our work as a team.

!(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74FmJ5h4mVE)

After "La Mole" we decided that starting that same week, we would each start working from home. The pandemic was getting closer every minute and we didn't want to push our luck.

During the next weeks we adapted to working remotely, and little by little we started fixing all the details that we noticed during "La Mole" and we started to look for new hirings that could help fill the gaps we found.

"I have terrible news. We're going to have to close the studio", after one call, they explained to me that we had an investment that evaporated in light of the oil crisis, the virus, and the terrible economic decisions of the country. It really wasn't anyone's fault; they were circumstances that no one could have foreseen or prevented.

Fortunately our whole team still has jobs, some of us are in Draco Studio and some of us are in different projects.

Lessons learned

I believe that any project, whether it's a success or not, teaches you something in the end, so here are some of the things that I've learned in no specific order.

Managing a team is not easy. The most difficult part, in my experience, is to have a clear idea about what has to be done. It doesn't matter how obvious it is to you, it's no good if you cannot communicate this to your team.

You will need to know a little bit of everything; if you have no idea how artists work, you will not be able to explain what you need from them.
Be quick making your prototype, be quick making tests, be quick making mistakes.
It's OK to have people supporting you externally. If you have a one time need, it's best to find someone who would work on a contract rather than have a new member join the team.
Making games is hard.
Making a video game studio is as hard as making a game about dragons flying around the world.
You can't be prepared for everything and sometimes even if you prepare as much as humanly possible, things just don't go your way and it is not necessarily your fault.
In a creative project your team is the most important thing, and it is everyone's job to take care of that team.

Your team is everything and it is everyone's job to take care of the team.

Thank you, to the complete Farda team, for giving your very best to achieve what we did.

Thank you, to the whole team at Draco Studios, for their never ending support.

Thank you, to my family and friends who listened to me throughout the process and gave me advice in the nicest ways.

Special thanks to @ElJovenPaul for his advice and support, without him, we wouldn't have been able to make progress at the speed that we did. And we definitely would have made a lot more mistakes.

Thanks to @sockertwits for the incredible visual identity he created with as little time as we gave him.

What's next?

Honestly, I'm trying to figure it out myself. I think this post-mortem is a first step forward, and a little bit of a closure of a brief but interesting stage of my life. For now, "Detrás del Pixel" will continue to exist, we have some things planned out. I hope you like them.

And about Farda, its official situation is that it is paused until further notice. The opportunity for it to be reborn at some moment when things are more settled in is real; in the meantime, you can subscribe to its social network.

Draco Studios is still working in various projects including a new Kickstarter campaign that just broke a record in Mexico.

Server Setup - Introduction [en]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The objective of this series of blog posts is to explain the current setup that I ended up with, since the majority of tutorials and posts I found on the web focused on parts of this type of setup and not the full picture. Although this series will focus on Django applications, and a specific setup that works for me, I hope it can help someone else that's doing something similar with different technologies.

The following stack was used:

Digital Ocean for hosting and DNS management
Ansible for server configuration
Gitlab CI for continuous integration
Docker compose for starting and managing Docker containers
Traefik for automated SSL certificates and reverse proxy

Index

Part 1: setting up the remote server
Part 2: start traefik on the remote server
Part 3: Deploy using Gitlab CI

Part 1: Setting up the remote server

For this section, I wrote some config files that I keep on a Gitlab repo. You can check them out at https://gitlab.com/afk_mcz/srv although they are probably not going to stay in sync with this post, so you can check the following commit for version at the time of writing this.

Digital Ocean

The general idea with this setup is that is really simple to extend, improve and maintain low costs.

~~T~~he firs step is to create a new DO droplet, I prefer using the $5 USD droplet so if I need more, I can start a new one and only get charged for the amount of resources I actually use. The easier way to kickstart development is to choose the Docker One-Click App as a starting point. If you decide to go for another route, the main requirements for the remote server are being able to connect via SSH and have docker and docker-compose installed and configured.

Be sure to add your SSH key to the droplet when you are creating it as it will be necessary for ansible to connect to the server.

Ansible

If you are not familiar with Ansible, I recommend reading the Ansible documentation, once it is installed, the first thing is to configure the hosts file. First I like to place my hosts file at ~/.config/ansible/hosts and for that I need to configure Ansible to pick it up from there so we need to add this line in your config file.

# ~/.asnible.cfg

[defaults]

inventoru = ~/.config/ansible/hosts

After that, create the hosts file if it doesn't exist

# ~/.config/ansible/hosts

[webservers] # This is the group of hosts that we will configure.
1.1.1.1 # replace it with your droplet's IP adress.

Once ansible is configured you can check everything is working as expected pinging the remote server using the following command: ansible all -m ping -u root a and you should get something similar to this.

DO_IP_ADRES | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Now we need to tell ansible what do we want on our new server. This can be done using the ansible-playbook command which accepts a YAML config file defining a series of tasks that will be run on the remote server via SSH. So create a file named init-web-server.yml and write the following:

# init-web-server.yml
---
- hosts: webservers
  gather_facts: false
  remote_user: root
  tasks:
    - name: Bootstrap a host without python installed
      raw: apt install -y python

The first thing we need to do is install python on the remote server, as the DO docker app doesn't have it by default and ansible needs it to function, so we specify don't need to check the status of the server and run a raw command to install python; we only need to run this playbook once with the following command ansible-playbook init-web-server.yml

If you don't get any errors then you can continue writing the next playbook, web-server.yml.

- hosts: webservers
  remote_user: root
  tasks:
    - name: Install a list of packages
      apt:
        name: "{{ packages }}"
        update_cache: true
      vars:
        packages:
          - python
          - python-pip
          - vim
          - zsh
          - tree
    - name: install python deps
      pip:
        name: docker-compose
    - name: Create a deploy user
      user:
        name: deploy
        generate_ssh_key: true
        # export DEPLOY_PASSWORD=$(mkpasswd --method=sha-512)
        password: "{{ lookup('env','DEPLOY_PASSWORD') }}"
        groups:
          - docker
          - sudo
        state: present
        shell: /bin/zsh
    - name: Add ssh key
      authorized_key:
        user: deploy
        state: present
        manage_dir: true
        key: "{{ lookup('file', '~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    - name: Add deploy key
      authorized_key:
        user: deploy
        state: present
        manage_dir: true
        key: "{{ lookup('file', '~/.ssh/deploy.pub') }}"

Install a list of packages

The first task on web-server.yml playbook is to install a list of packages that will make development easier. The majority of them are optional so you can skip them.

The only important ones are python-pip and docker-compose so make sure you have them.

Deploy user

Next we need a new user that will be in charge of all deployment tasks. It needs to be on the docker and sudo groups and to set the password, ansible will look the environment variable DEPLOY_PASSWORD , to generate a hashed password. You can run the following command export DEPLOY_PASSWORD=$(mkpasswd --method=sha-512) if you are on linux, if this doesn't work for you, you can check out other ways to do it on the Ansible FAQ, just make sure the env variable is set up correctly, you can confirm this running echo $DEPLOY_PASSWORD from the terminal.

SSH keys

On the ansible playbook we tell ansible to look for two files on our local computer, id_rsa.pub and [deploy.pub](http://deploy.pub) you could only pass one, but for being able to deploy using Gitlab CI, you need a SSH key without a passphrase, and I normally do have one on my default SSH key, so just make sure you add the user on at least one SSH key without passphrase.

Now run the following command ansible-playbook web-server.yml and make sure everything worked by connecting to the remote server using SSH ssh deploy@DO_IP_ADDRESS.

My new shower head [en]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s the day of my new shower head. I don't know what to do. Maybe it's time to try new things, like using the shampoo at the beginning for example. I have showered with enough people now to know that it is not normal to use shampoo at the end of the shower. I understand why you should put it first, it makes all the sense in the world, but that's not how I was taught.

When you do something since you are a kid, you don't question it, specially not this. I'm in my shower, this is how I shower, who is going to challenge that? I kind of want to stay that way, I like to think it's a nice quirk.

I have been in the shower for at least 5 minutes now, head resting on the wall, water pouring on my back. This feels so good. I needed this, I needed a new shower. I kind of miss the old one though. It was all sad, looking down, unable to keep its head up, thin streams of water coming out and the small holes getting blocked all the time. It made me feel better about myself, hey, at least I'm better than that old shower head.

When the shower clogged, I would punch it, punch it right in middle, then I would find small salt rocks hiding in my body, like a shitty present as an apology. I felt good for being able to find them, being angry with something.

I'm not a violent person, the only thing I have punched is my old shower head. I wish I was one of those people who think violence can solve anything, just punch it right in the middle and would get it fixes. Of course my shower broke, and now I'm with this new one, it has been 10 minutes and I haven't moved, it hasn't clogged.

Put that shampoo bottle down you dummy, you already used it remember, right at the beginning of all this, you already did it right. I feel bad, why? Is it because I used the shampoo first, do I miss my old shower that bad? It was old, it was bad, but maybe I deserved it. I don't feel like I deserve this new shower head, with its system to unclog itself. I can't punch it, why would I? It works perfectly.

Los hombres duros no bailan [en]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

That’s what my father used to say, it never came across as something he said to make anyone else feel bad, it was just a defense mechanism when he was at weddings, as an easy way out.

I was walking to the beach with Henry, five minutes away from my aunt’s house. There is nothing between the house and the beach other than a skinny cow and a big house called “Villa Polinesia”. My aunt has the theory that they shoot a reality porn show in that house, “one of those where they eliminate someone every week” she said. I can't confirm this, but the house was full of tall, fit and beautiful people who look like porn stars.

We had the beach to ourselves, it was completely empty; we took our shirts off and started walking to the sea — I like how the waves here are not to small but not too big to be scared, I told Henry. We can get deep into the sea, and we will be able to stand.

After half an hour of swimming, two big waves took us by surprise, Henry got swiped out of his feet and ended up in the shore, I tried to go through the waves and ended up in a place where I couldn't stand anymore and the current kept dragging me. I tried to swim in all the ways I got trained as a kid: backwards, butterfly, I tried it all and I just didn't get any closer. Henry saw me from the shore, confused, and didn't know what to do; when he realized I wasn't able to get back, he ran for help.

He got to the closest place: the porn house. He interrupted the recording and asked for help; meanwhile I was trying to keep calm and swim to the shore. I started swimming backwards, so I wouldn't get desperate when I saw that the shore wasn't getting any closer. I heard voices and tried to stand, I could feel the sand below my feet and a sudden feel of relief. A tall blond ripped man grabbed me and helped me walk to the shore, where my legs collapsed and I ended up laying in the beach while people started gathering around me and asking if I was okay. My legs kept trembling and all I could think of is: “tough men don't dance”.

Second week @ Stugan [es]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Sos Sosowski tenía un mapa sobre la mesa de nuestro comedor. Tratando de hacer sentido entre las instrucciones que nos dieron en la administración y lo que tenía enfrente, me volteó a ver con una sonrisa mientras agarraba su bicicleta de montaña y me gritó mientras se alejaba. - ¡Nos vemos en la recepción!

El sol estaba iluminando todo lo que alcanzaba a ver, una brisa fría corría entre mis dedos, no importa el día o la hora, el verano de Suecia parece vivir en el mismo día eternamente.

Tomamos el camino largo hacia el pequeño pueblo en donde está la tienda más cercana, lleno de subidas pesadas y bajadas peligrosas. Mientras llegábamos, nos encontramos al resto que habían decido ir por el camino corto, regresando ya de la tienda. Compré todas las cosas que inminentemente había olvidado traer de México y un paquete de cartas.

Regresamos a las cabañas justo a tiempo para comer y encontrar nuevas personas en el comedor. Jonatan Crafoord estaba sentado en el centro de la mesa haciendo movimientos rítmicos con sus cubiertos, mientras platicaba con los demás.

Poco después, Jonatan se ofreció a probar los juegos de los que estuvieran dispuestos a enseñar algo y aproveché la oportunidad para enseñar el pequeño concepto que había logrado desarrollar durante la semana; rápidamente Jonatan entendió el concepto del juego, me dio una muy buena idea, ¿qué tal si al terminar de empacar un tipo específico de ropa, el sonido se quedara en el fondo?, así podrías ir formando una canción con cada una de las cosas que vas guardando.

Logré hacer que el juego funcione a su nivel más básico e intenté poner herramientas que me dejen probarlo y afinarlo rápidamente.

Unos días después llegó Jens Andersson a Stugan, me costó un poco de trabajo no atacarlo con preguntas sobre The Darkness, uno de mis juegos favoritos del Xbox original. Le enseñé mi juego y le expliqué a grandes rasgos lo que quería lograr, es la primera persona que entiende por qué quiero contar una historia a través del juego, no sólo eso, se mostró emocionado por ese elemento extra que no tenía en mente.

A pesar de saber que me encontraría en una cabaña en medio de la nada durante dos meses, cada día hay algo nuevo que hacer en Stugan, ya sea dar un paseo en bicicleta, nadar en la alberca o pasar una hora en el sauna, existe un balance perfecto entre trabajo y otras actividades que hacen que te acostumbres rápidamente al estilo de vida.

Anders Nord es un suizo haciendo un juego de plataforma con elementos 3D The Lost Light of Sisu, tiene un devlog en el que escribe a diario y en el que te puedes dar cuenta de su inmenso progreso. De las cosas que más me sorprendieron, son sus ingeniosas animaciones del personaje principal y su atención al detalle a la hora de diseñar niveles.

First week @ Stugan [en]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I arrived at Stockholm, Sweden, on july 22 during the “Mid Summer” celebration, a celebration as important as Christmas, the city was a ghost town and meatball restaurants were closed.

The hostels were full of alone travelers ready to find lonely travelers ready to share their culture and meet new people. That's a little round up of what I did my first three days on Sweden while I waited for Stugan to begin.

SOS

We were arranged on different cabins, teams with two or more people were together and individuals like me on random pairs. I got the good luck to be paired with Sos, a crazy scientist from Poland, a pretty cool dude; we had our first adventure grabbing some bikes and going to a place where we could swim on the lake to the island.

The cabins are impressive, they have a lot of space and natural light everywhere, a big shower and a sauna on each cabin.

Presentation

Our first task was getting ready for a press conference with local media. It helped me to get on the mindset of my new game and put faces on all of Stugan's 17 projects.

I quickly realized how much I will learn to work side by side with these guys.

Screens

I started working on the general structure of my game, I like to have a full cycle, which lets me iterate fast on the main mechanic.

Even though I want to achieve a game with a simple, interesting and fun mechanic, there are a lot of important elements I plan to have, so that everything feels tighter.

Dandara

I also had the opportunity to play Dandara for like two hours, an awesome game with really tight controls and interesting world, you should check it out.

Remember you can always subscribe to the mailing list.

First week @ Stugan [es]

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Llegue a Estocolmo ,Suecia, el 22 de junio durante la celebración del "Mid Summer", una celebración tan importante como Navidad en mi país, por lo que la ciudad estaba totalmente sola, y los lugares de albóndigas cerrados.

Sin embargo, los hostales estaban llenos de viajeros solos, dispuestos a buscar compañía y compartir sus culturas. En eso consistieron mis primeros 3 días en Suecia antes de llegar a Stugan.

SOS

Nos dividieron en cabañas. A los que cuentan con un equipo, los pusieron en una cabaña juntos, y a los demás, parejas aleatorias en una cabaña. Yo tuve la buena suerte de terminar con Sos, un científico loco polaco bastante agradable, con el cual ya tuve mi primera aventura mientras íbamos en bici a buscar un lugar donde pudiéramos cruzar el lago nadando hasta llegar a una isla cercana.

Las cabañas son espectaculares, muchísimo espacio y luz natural entrando por todos lados, una gran regadera y un sauna por cabaña.

Presentación

Nuestra primera actividad fue prepararnos para una presentación de la prensa local sobre nuestros proyectos. Me ayudo para recuperar el ritmo e idea principal de mi juego y reconocer las caras y proyectos con los que pasaré los próximos dos meses.

Rápidamente me di cuenta de que podré aprender muchísimo de las demás personas que se quedarán aquí.

Pantallas

Empecé haciendo la estructura general del juego, me gusta tener un ciclo completo del juego, que me permita iterar rápidamente en la mecánica principal.

A pesar de que quiero lograr un juego con una mecánica interesante, divertida y bien lograda, hay muchos elementos importantes que planeo tener a su alrededor.

Dandara

También tuve la oportunidad de jugar Dandara como por 2 horas, un juego con controles súper buenos y un mundo inmersivo e interesante.

Recuerda que siempre puedes suscribirte subscribe al mailing list para recibir actualizaciones en tu correo.

Comezón en el destino

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Mon, 29 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

¿No tienes a veces la sensación de que alguien te contó el final de tu historia?
¿De qué hablas?
Tengo comezón en mi destino, como una pequeña molestia que quisiera rascarme hasta que deje de sentirla.
¡Qué asco!
No seas ridícula y ponme atención un rato, alguien me dijo el final y al principio no lo creía posible, pero mientras pasa y pasa el tiempo me acerco más y cada día se ve más posible.
¿Hablas del destino?
No, no me estoy explicando.
Claramente.
Un día estaba sentado en una banca leyendo, se llamaba el diario de un suicida o algo así, lo curioso es que al principio no dejaba de pensar, "que diferente soy a esta persona".
Me alegra que digas eso.
Entonces la historia estaba contada desde la perspectiva de que estabas leyendo su diario, como si fuera Ana Frank emo, pero en lugar de la segunda guerra mundial, iba a la escuela, en lugar de estar encerrado de un sótano durante meses, iba diario de su casa a la escuela y de regreso.
Suena un poco pretencioso.
¿Verdad? pero mientras avanza la historia, descubrí que fue el objetivo todo el tiempo. El titulo te da una premisa, alzas tu guardia y todo el tiempo estás buscando la manera de injustificar el suicidio de este vato.
Es como si el escritor hubiera empezado con un hándicap.
¡Exacto! y continué leyendo, cada vez odiando un poco más al escritor y al personaje principal, perdiendo cualquier tipo de empatía que había ganado por el beneficio de la duda. Y en el último capitulo, hay un twist.
Humm
Y empieza todo a tener un poco de sentido, fue un uppercut directo a mi quijada. ¿Quería que se muriera sabes? todo en el libro logro llevarme a eso, en todo momento hasta antes del último capítulo.
Pero ya era demasiado tarde.
Entendí por qué quería morirse.
Y ahora te quieres matar.
No, poco a poco he creado una premisa a mi vida, el título.

Bugs and lights

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Sun, 21 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

— ¡Oh!, exclamó una mujer mientras Juan Carlos Manzanero entraba bruscamente al baño de la comisaría.

— Quita esa cara confundida, no le queda bien a un hombre grande como tú, Juan Carlos Manzanero nunca ha sido descrito como una persona pequeña o débil.

— ¿Qué hago aquí? muy fácil, el baño de mujeres es un desastre, aunque el baño de hombres también deja mucho que desear, dijo la mujer mientras miraba lentamente a su alrededor.

Juan Carlos Manzanero, intentando recuperarse de la sorpresa empezó a ser consciente de su alrededor, ciertamente no era el mejor baño al que había entrado. El baño se encontraba en el segundo piso, obligándolo a subir un par de escaleras antes de poder abrir la puerta, ya no gozaba de la misma condición física que solía presumir hace unos años, así que cuando abrió la puerta se metió una bocanada de aire que lo dejó aturdido.

Las paredes color verde pistache claramente necesitaban una limpiada y otra mano de pintura, los focos alargados del techo parpadeaban y aparentaban poca vida dentro, el color original de las puertas erá un misterio para el, parecían tener seguros oxidados y manchas viejas que no dejaban clara su procedencia.

— ¿Es una situación curiosa no lo crees?, yo aquí dentro, rompiendo las reglas, aunque si lo piensas un poco, ¿qué representa ese letrero? ¿pantalones contra faldas? yo traigo un pantalón, así que tengo derecho de estar aquí.

Juan Carlos Manzanero no se sentía muy bien, sus manos temblaban y su vista estaba nublada, días calientes como aquel lo aturdían, pero alcanzó a notar la pistola que tenía amarrada la mujer que tenía enfrente, su uniforme azul y desgastado no favorecía su figura, pero ella lo portaba con la comodidad de alguien que se resigno a utilizar algo incómodo por mucho tiempo.

— ¡Escúchame! justificándome como un criminal cualquiera, dijo la mujer mientras se le dibujaba una pequeña sonrisa en la cara.

— Espera un momento, ¿tu eres el padre del chavo de allá dentro? ... ¡Charly! bueno que te puedo decir, todos cometen errores, pero ciertamente tu hijo cometió uno muy grande. Pero no te sientas culpable hombre, los padres no pueden tener culpa de todo, si de varias cosas, pero ciertamente no de todas.

— En fin, mi trabajo aquí ha terminado, dijo con una risilla mientras se terminaba de secarse las manos con el aparato de aire caliente.

— Surte a tu hijo allá fuera, Juan Carlos Manzanero nunca ha sido reconocido por demostrar sus emociones ante la gente, en ese momento, mientras la señora le daba una palmada en el hombro, cualquiera pudo haber notado su enojo y descontento, el intercambio le había hecho olvidar la razón por la que estaba en el baño, aunque en cuanto se cerro la puerta detrás de el, su pesada tos se lo recordó.

Agachado sobre el lavabo empezó a toser violentamente, su garganta estaba seca, abrió la manija y el agua empezó a salir en intervalos irregulares. Intentó calmarse frotándose sus manos mojadas alrededor del cuello y peinando su cabello hacia atrás, el calor era insoportable. Se miro calmadamente en el espejo sucio que deformaba su cara, ¿o esa era su cara? ya no estaba seguro.

Un espasmo sacudió su cuerpo y tosió hacia el espejo, en medio de su cara a la altura de los ojos quedó una mancha de saliva y sangre, acerco su cara para analizar lo que acababa de pasar, y se echó hacia atrás instintivamente, pequeños puntos blancos se movían en el espejo, pequeñas larvas que nadaban las gotas de su sangre. Se frotó los ojos un poco mas fuerte de lo que debería, puntos blancos invadieron su visión.

Abrió la puerta del cubículo detrás de el, dejo caer sus pesados pantalones de mezclilla a sus tobillos y se sentó en la tasa caliente. Sostuvo su cabeza entre sus manos, confundiendo el sudor con el agua que se había puesto hace un momento, se alcanzaba a escuchar el sonido de una mosca volando cerca, aunque no podía identificar bien dónde estaba. Dio un manotazo al papel de baño que estaba a su derecha, corto una tira y se la puso en la cara para limpiarse la nariz, la extendió enfrente para ver sus resultados cuando dos pequeños bichos alados volaron hacia su ojo izquierdo. Agitó la cabeza mientras tiraba la tira de papel y se manoteaba la cabeza desesperadamente.

Empezó a respirar pausadamente, con fuerza, un truco que había aprendido en algún momento de su vida, de esas cosas que has escuchado miles de veces y no les haces caso hasta que lo intentas, te funciona, e intentas convencer a alguien mas de intentarlo. Recordó ese día, mientras salía de excursión con su esposa y su hijo, a una pequeña explanada dónde las familias iban a pasar tiempo de calidad.

Una pequeña niña, aproximadamente de la misma edad de su hijo corría por todos lados intentando recolectar la mayor cantidad de ramitas para su castillo, mientras todos a su alrededor la veían con una sonrisa en su cara. Noto como su hijo inmediatamente dejó de poner atención a todo lo demás, su madre perdió cualquier esperanza de que la ayudara a poner la manta en el suelo donde planeaban sentarse, y con dulzura le preguntó, — ¿Por qué no la ayudas? — Su hijo salió corriendo a presentarse con ella.

— Hola! mi nombre es Carlos, mis papas me dicen Charly de cariño, encontré esta rama por allá, ¿te gustá?.

Juan Carlos Manzanero nunca fue conocido por ser un ser sociable, sin embargo a su hijo se le daba fácilmente, característica que probablemente había sacado de su madre. Recordaba el mismo zumbido que escuchaba en este momento, un zumbido que sonaba a violencia, como el día que atrapó un avispón dentro de un frasco de vidrio, lo agito, notaba el enojo del avispón, y guiado por el miedo siguió agitando, agitando el frasco mientras el zumbido se volvía más fuerte, zumbaba y zumbaba, haciendo vibrar el frasco. Por un momento Juan Carlos Manzanero pensó que el frasco se rompería, que el avispón saldría y lo picaría en los ojos, en la boca, gritando de miedo, gritando por el dolor que imaginaba Juan Carlos Manzanero seguía agitando el frasco, hasta que el frasco dejo de zumbar, lentamente levantó el frasco a la altura de sus ojos y se dio cuenta, el avispón yacía muerto en el fondo del frasco.

El grito de su hijo en medio de la explanada interrumpió sus recuerdos, corrió junto con los padres de la niña hacia donde venían los gritos, la sombra del un enorme árbol cubría a los pequeños, mientras su hijo gritaba.

— !Déjenla, déjenla!, mientras dejaba caer con fuerza un palo hacia el estomago de la niña. La madre de la niña grito de terror, su hija estaba bajo una nube de avispones, picándola a ella y a su hijo sin ningún tipo de piedad. Zumbando con fuerza, con libertad, picaban y volaban, escapando de los miedosos abanicos de su hijo. Cuando los alcanzaron ya era demasiado tarde, la niña tenia la cara cubierta de piquetes, y parecía no respirar.

Cinco días después Juan Carlos Manzanero acompañado por su hijo y su esposa fue a testificar, la niña había muerto casi inmediatamente, con el tiempo necesario para dibujar una mirada de terror en su cara. En ese momento, sentado en en un pequeño cubículo, en el baño más sucio que había visitado, Juan Carlos Manzanero empezó a llorar, jaló su pelo hacia atrás, con un intenso zumbido en la cabeza, puso lentamente sus palmas de las manos al frente, notando que sin querer, había desprendido varias cerdas de su cabello.

Sus manos empezaron a vibrar, y con horror se dio cuenta que tenia un enjambre de pequeños bichos enojados en las manos, zumbando furiosamente.

I have a plan

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Sat, 13 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

El domingo en la tarde, justo después de la hora del brunch, entramos a un café

— Te vas a ir.

— Me voy a ir, le respondí empujando la puerta y dejándola pasar por debajo de mi brazo en un movimiento incómodo.

— ¿Y cuál es el plan?, ese día llevaba un vestido arriba de las rodillas.

— No tengo plan, dije, mientras escondía una sonrisa.

— Siempre tienes un plan.

— Tienes razón, tengo un plan, pero no te va a gustar.

— ¿Cuándo me han gustado tus planes?

— Recuerdo uno.

— No me gustan tus planes porque todos llevan a arruinar el plan que me gusta.

El barista se nos quedó viendo, no me quedaba claro si quería escuchar mi plan o solo quería escuchar mi pedido. El sol entraba por las enormes ventanas de la cafetería "Dosis", alumbrando a los solitarios que buscaban un lugar donde poder trabajar, o a las reuniones incómodas de negocios nuevos.

Se extendían tres mesas alargadas al fondo, tal vez en alguna época el concepto de mesa comunal forzaba relaciones entre desconocidos, pero ese día solo existían a través de una pantalla, audífonos o una libreta.

Ya está listo su cold brew, nos dijo el barista, sin ningún tipo de emoción en su voz.

— Mira, ya tengo mi boleto, le expliqué mientras nos sentábamos en una de las pequeñas mesas afuera. Volaré primero a Cancún, haré escala en Manchester y terminaré en Estocolmo, de ahí son 3 horas en carretera para llegar a la cabaña, los primeros días tendré solo un amigo, probablemente el tipo con el que me senté en la primera comida. Al segundo día comí con otro grupo, y él empezó a guardar su rencor, durante el resto de mi estancia conversamos poco y noté siempre su disgusto.

En el nuevo grupo estaba ella, al principio ninguno puso mucha atención al otro, fue hasta la tercera semana que ya todos eramos muy unidos. Un día nos dejaron solos en la sala y nos sentimos lo suficientemente cómodos para empezar a platicar. Me contó de su familia, su madre fría y su padre amable, comparando nuestras culturas, concluimos que el clima afectó a las personas a nuestro alrededor y cómo compartíamos el sentimiento de no pertenecer ni a su mundo frío, ni al mío caliente.

Esa noche fue la primera vez que olvidé por qué estaba ahí, dejé de pensar en el trabajo y me puse a pensar en ella. Al día siguiente me levanté temprano para poder sentarme junto a ella en el desayuno, ella se dio cuenta y con una sonrisa se sentó a mi lado.

Nos ofrecieron trabajos diferentes, pero lo suficientemente cercanos para empezar a buscar un departamento juntos, justificándonos con gastos y los altos precios de los Países Bajos. Años después juzgué mi juventud y estupidez de no apreciar y aceptar lo que teníamos desde un principio. Rentamos un pequeño departamento justo en medio del trayecto al trabajo de cada uno, teníamos un café enfrente al que íbamos casi diario, ella siempre pidiendo una bebida diferente y yo bailando entre la decisión de un café o té negro.

Un domingo mientras descansábamos en el departamento, yo todavía en pijamas y sin bañarme, salió del baño con una cara confundida sosteniendo una prueba de embarazo, y no es hasta que me la puso enfrente de la cara que entendí lo que estaba pasando. Ganábamos los dos más dinero del que necesitábamos, así que tomamos con tranquilidad la noticia. Platicamos con optimismo los buenos padres que seríamos y sobre cómo le inculcaríamos cultura, deporte y ciencia a nuestra primera criatura. Todo empezó a decaer en cuanto nos enteramos que tendríamos gemelos.

Fueron los meses más difíciles de nuestra vida hasta ese momento, empecé a extrañar mi país, empecé a extrañarte a ti. Nos peleábamos diario en la casa, yo tenía la esperanza de que el culpable fuera el embarazo, que en cuanto diera a luz, todo volvería a la normalidad; regresaríamos a ser la pareja joven en nuestro pequeño departamento, frente a la cafetería, platicando sobre el último libro que estábamos leyendo.

Nacieron los gemelos, el parecido con su madre era impresionante, ojos azules y claros, el pelo amarillo casi transparente, y la piel blanca aunque un poco tostada gracias a mis genes. Durante seis meses no dormimos juntos, nos peleábamos casi diario, nuestros amigos dejaron de querer salir con nosotros, hasta que llegó un punto en el que acordamos separarnos.

Tomó tiempo poder tener una relación en la cual nos comportáramos en la presencia del otro, ella logró soportarme demostrando una increíble frialdad cada vez que me veía y yo reservándome mis pensamientos. Los gemelos crecieron con ella, acostumbrándose a la frialdad de su madre hacia mí y encontrando una justificación en mi actitud reservada y débil hacia ella.

En cuanto estuvieron en edad para viajar, decidí traerlos a México en el invierno. El primer año fue un desastre, los llevé a mis helados favoritos a que probaran el de leche quemada con esperanzas de transmitirles el amor a mi país; ese día nadie pudo dormir, nos la pasamos turnándonos el baño para vomitar. Al día siguiente fuimos a una comida familiar en la que sus primos los ridiculizaron por no saber bien español o patear un balón de fútbol. Fuimos al centro para visitar Bellas Artes y caminar por Madero, pero el sol y la cantidad de gente fue demasiado para ellos y regresamos en taxi al hotel.

Nunca me quisieron volver a acompañar a México y en cuanto su madre se enteró de los acontecimientos, me prohibió volver a llevarlos. Intenté durante 10 años tener una vida en Estocolmo, pero la mayoría de mis amigos la habían escogido a ella, y mi trabajo cada vez se volvía más monótono y sin sentido. En cuanto pude jubilarme compre una propiedad en las afueras y puse un taller de madera en el cual empecé a construir todos mis muebles. Mis hijos empezaron a espaciar cada vez más sus visitas hasta que un día llegaron los dos a mi puerta a darme la noticia de que su madre había muerto, y que el funeral sería la siguiente semana. Lloré todo un día sentado en mi cama recordando nuestros primeros dos meses juntos, los más felices de toda mi vida, y cómo ahora todo parecía tan lejano e imposible.

Me presenté en el funeral bien vestido y arreglado, intentando dar una imagen de fortaleza que claramente me faltaba. Mis hijos llegaron cada uno con su respectiva pareja. Más tarde, mientras mis hijos iban al baño, me enteré de que llevaban más de un año juntos y que pensaban que el padre de sus novios llevaba muerto muchos años. En un movimiento torpe de una de las novias, noté un pequeño tatuaje de una swastika en su muñeca, ella, al notar mi mirada, me explicó con increíble naturalidad que los cuatro eran miembros del nuevo partido. Alarmado intenté hablar con uno de mis hijos para aclarar la situación, pero solo recibí una amenaza de su parte para no revelar mi ascendencia a ninguno de los presentes.

Ese día decidí regresar a México, pero ya nada de lo que recordaba estaba vivo o me recordaba a mí de regreso, afortunadamente tenía el suficiente dinero para pagar mi estancia en un asilo por el resto de mis días, en donde moriré solo.

— Odio este plan.

— ¿Qué te puedo decir?, es el mejor que tengo.

Chicozapote

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 11 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

En algún momento, al vivir en un país tropical como lo es México he tenido que responder: ¿Cuál es mi fruta favorita? y durante mucho tiempo contesté con facilidad, el chicozapote.

Y durante mucho tiempo me pregunte sobre el origen de su nombre, ya que el zapote que conozco, tiene este aspecto:

Otra de mis frutas favoritas, el mamey, siempre se me hizo un candidato más apto para ser la versión grande del chicozapote convirtiéndolo en un chicomamey.

Esa fue mi opinión hasta que un día, un amigo mío no conocía el mamey, así que con la facilidad de la vida moderna buscamos en Internet unas imágenes para ver si así lo reconocía. Naturalmente empecé a comentarle sobre mi molestia hacia el nombre del chicozapote y empezando a buscar fotos del zapote me di cuenta, el nombre completo del mamey es mamey zapote.

Desde que tengo memoria había existido esa discusión en mi casa, dado que el chicozapote es una fruta común en Chiapas, tierra natal de mi padre. Y es increíble lo sencillo y fácil que fue resolver la discusión.

Día de las madres

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Wed, 10 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

En tercero de prepa hice una buena amiga, en algún momento, por razones ahora totalmente desconocidas para mí, empezó a apodarme "Hijo", a lo que yo sin pensarlo mucho le respondía "Madre", durante todo el año seguimos con esa pequeña broma, cosa que a su novio no le hacía ninguna gracia.

Un par de años después, nos encontramos en la fila del baño, era la fiesta de cumpleaños de un amigo en común y empezamos a platicar fluidamente, parecía que el tiempo no había pasado. A diferencia de una cosa, los dos estábamos solteros y por lo menos por mi parte había despertado un nuevo gusto por ella.

En eso, perdidos en la platica, la costumbre y alegría, me gritó.

"¡Hijo!" - "¡Madre!" contesté arrepintiéndome inmediatamente.

Se abrió la puerta, nos vimos a los ojos, me dió la espalda, entró al baño y cerro la puerta, no vi otra alternativa mas que usar el patio como baño, no volvimos a hablar en toda la noche.

Hace unos días, aproximadamente un año después de nuestro último encuentro, empezamos a platicar por mensajes, y acordamos una fecha para ir por un café, esa fecha es hoy, hoy, día de las madres.

Probando límites

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Mon, 08 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Hay una edad, donde empiezas a probar tus límites, qué tan alto, qué tan bajo. En algún momento de mi vida, tuve esa edad y rompí mi límite.

Estaba platicando en el patio de la Cineteca, intentando encontrar a una mujer con ciertas especificaciones. Todo comenzó con una plática de gustos y un malentendido entre la definición de belleza y atracción, aunque dejando todo de lado, estábamos ahí para buscar a una mujer guapa y un helado.

Rápidamente nos distrajimos con el encargado de los helados, un mamón a punto de cerrar, con poca paciencia hacia un grupo distraído. En su defensa, Fernando no le estaba poniendo la atención necesaria para que hiciera su trabajo eficientemente y tuvo que tirar un envase pequeño porque Fernando cambió su opinión en el último momento y decidió que 3 pesos de diferencia justificaban un tamaño más grande. Ivonne corrió al baño asustando a una anciana segura de que había cerrado la puerta, luego por experiencia propia descubrí que los seguros en las puertas de los baños de la Cineteca son una mentira.

Con un helado, cada uno caminamos buscando un refugio para el par de fumadores, llegamos al final de la Cineteca y al lado de un bote de basura verde se alcanzaba a leer "zona de fumar", sin lugar a dudas la zona más deprimente de la Cineteca.

Después de terminar su cigarro encontramos una mesa disponible, Ivonne le advirtió a Fernando que se iba a sentar sobre mis piernas, que por favor no lo tomara como una falta de respeto sino como la causa de la ausencia de una chamarra.

¿Alguien sabe qué significa este símbolo? dije, mientras le mostraba a los dos mi celular con una foto que me acababan de mandar, haciéndome la misma pregunta. Es judío, una estrella de David, dijo Fernando sin voltear a ver dos veces. Yo, aún con la duda, ya que había más elementos que una estrella de David en la foto, no presté mucha atención a la plática, que rápidamente se enfocó en el Judaísmo.

Pero entonces te conviertes y ya, asunto arreglado, le dijo Ivonne a Fernando. No puedes convertirte al Judaísmo, no es así de fácil. ¡Según yo sí!

Si alguien me tiene que cortar el pene, jamás consideraría el Judaísmo, protesté yo. Si no estás circuncidado, tienes que hacerlo, contestó Fernando en lo que volteaba a ver su celular, momento que aprovechó Ivonne para voltearme a ver con una cara confundida, dándome a entender que ella tenía la impresión de que yo estaba circuncidado. La confusión se volvió mutua, ya que si alguien ha tenido mi pene de cerca y a quién le confiaría responder esa pregunta, es ella.

Nos falta democratizar el tamal

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

En vísperas del Día de la Candelaria, intenté recordar cuándo fue la última vez que comí un tamal. Llegué a la conclusión de que fue aproximadamente un año antes, en las mismas fechas, probablemente se deba a mi falta de antojo a pesar de recordar buenos tamales en algún momento.

Intentando llegar al fondo del problema, llegué a las siguientes conclusiones.

Tamales vs. Chilaquiles

El contendiente más claro a la contra del tamal en el desayuno mexicano son los chilaquiles, ambos pueden llegar a tener una variedad inmensa gracias a sus salsas y demás ingredientes y son relativamente sencillos de conseguir en la Ciudad de México. Entonces, ¿por qué es más común que desayune unos chilaquiles a un tamal? La conclusión errónea y sin embargo más común; los chilaquiles son superiores, y aquí surgió mi primera inquietud. Al ser alguien que ha probado tanto buenos chilaquiles como buenos tamales, puedo decir que los considero comparables en calidad de desayuno. La distorsionada perspectiva de que los chilaquiles son superiores, viene de que es mucho más sencillo conseguir unos chilaquiles promedio tirándole a buenos, que unos tamales.

Triada de distribución

La CDMX tienes varias opciones para conseguir chilaquiles, un puesto en la esquina, múltiples restaurantes y cafeterías que ofrecen desayunos y restaurantes especializados en chilaquiles. En cambio los tamales carecen del punto intermedio, en rara ocasión puedes entrar a un restaurante y encontrar un tamal en el menú. Sin embargo, las esquinas están repletas de tambos llenos de tamales en las mañanas, las calles retumban con el silbato y la grabación de los famosos tamales oaxaqueños y los godínes aquellos que marcan las tendencias culinarias de las calles, incluyen en su dieta básica la guajolota. Al mismo tiempo, lugares de alta cocina mexicana presumen sus tamales reducidos de tamaño y con sabores estrambóticos.

Es por esto que los tamales dan la ilusión de ser inferiores, es demasiado fácil ser decepcionado al comprar uno, ya que los puestos de la calle no siempre tienen la mejor calidad, ¡al igual que con los chilaquiles!, sin embargo los chilaquiles cuentan con varias opciones de establecimientos que defienden su calidad dando la impresión de que son mejores que los tamales.

Así es como los menús de restaurantes son dominados por chilaquiles rojos o verdes y la presencia de tamales de mole o verdes es casi nula.

La democratización

En fin, para lograr regresar el antojo de un buen tamal al mexicano promedio y darle el lugar que se merece en el menú de desayunos mexicanos, propongo la necesidad de facilitar el buen tamal en establecimientos, restaurantes y cafeterías, ya que parece absurdo que exista una fecha nacional para celebrar su consumo y resulte tan mediocre la experiencia a lo largo del año para conseguir un buen tamal.

ClawBert Feedback

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Estuve jugando un poco ClawBert, y algo de lo que me di cuenta es que tiene un problema que tuvimos parcialmente en KleptoCats, es un coleccionador con arte súper padre, en el cual no ves el arte en el juego principal.

En KC los ítems estaban acomodados dentro del cuarto, y al principio los gatos no, la gente empezó a pedirnos que hubiera más formas de interactuar con los gatos porque en cuanto desbloqueabas uno nuevo el único momento en el que lo veías era antes de mandarlo a robar cosas, así fue como agregamos los gatos al cuarto.

En CB podría solucionarse con que los huevitos fueran un poco transparentes, de la misma forma en la que funcionan los gashapones japoneses el problema es que seria un poco más de trabajo para el departamento de arte.

Un beneficio extra que le veo a eso, es motivarte a seguir jugando para conseguir el huevito que está enterrado abajo de otros huevitos, cosa que nos paso en la oficina intentando atrapar la pequeña gema enterrada en huevitos, el tener una meta especifica en el juego y con el poco control que tienes le agrega un nivel extra al juego a mi parecer. Al mismo tiempo puede alentar al jugador a seguir jugando y pagar para abrir un slot gracias al límite de tiempo.

Tokio & Love

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This, my friends, is a love story in Tokio like many others, and how the internet changed everything.

It started in a long day of Autumn, me and three friends were walking with the intensive weight of a full day of shopping and looking to get to our Airbnb, and then, just like that, there he was, just outside Ryogoku train station, looking at us, he was dancing with a special spin but he never lost eye contact with us.

Till this day I have the feeling he knew it all along, he knew what would happen, I'm sure I was not the first, that's why he had that smile, that's why he never stopped looking at me, because he knew, I was already falling.

I approached cowardly and talked to his owner, my friends were tired and full so they kept walking, I urged him Where can I find you? he promised me they were going to return the next day at the same time at the same place, my friends told me I could come back tomorrow and get his number, we started walking away till we got to our comfy house.

That night I told this story for the first time, Antonio listened to me with interest and passion, he wanted to be there the next day, confidence flooded my body as I knew I had a friend at my side who understood it all.

The next day came, and we were a couple of hungry guys looking for the fulfillment of a promise, we were so exited we talked about it multiple times on the way home, and we were saving our energy for that moment, but when we arrived a Ryogoku at 9:00pm just like we said we would, he wasn't there, not that day or the next one, or the last day of our trip.

I returned to Mexico and I was broken, I couldn't stop thinking of him, I knew I wouldn't find anything like him, but time came, and just like time does, I started to feel better, I never forgot him but I learned to live with the emptiness in me.

Today a cruel joke happened I was browsing Reddit, when suddenly I found a nice wallpaper, I liked the wallpaper a lot so I started to look trough the comments, to find out where he got it, someone linked the Flikr account of the photographer, with a lot of pictures of Tokio in the same style, I hit the next arrow when suddenly there he was, just like the first time looking at me, I could see the same dance I once saw that made me felt in love I couldn't believe it, a rushing feeling started to fill my body, he was below a bridge just at the next block where we met the first time, there he was, the Kebab I never tried, the kebab I will always love.

Alchademy Feedback

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

General thoughts

I Have been playing and showing Alchademy the last couple of days and I think this is the most polished game we have on launch, Also it has the core elements which made Kleptocats such a fun game with a little more game to it.

I do have some feedback and general problems I feel the game has:

Tutorial

With past games, pre-KC we had the constraint of text, we didn't want to use too much text because we didn't want to handle translations and it was more work, this made the games really obvious on the instructions, we re-made a lot of work for balloons for this reason, all the buttons looked like buttons and did flashy animations so people understood that they could click on them, on Muertitos we had a tutorial with the same amount of steps than Alchademy, but each step was only a small line of text with animations and icons to improve the message.

Text Tutorial

With KC, we did tutorials as texts, I never liked it but it woks because KleptoCats it's a really easy game to discover by yourself, you only have one thing you can really interact with on the screen, the main cat, and when you do you have buttons with text that tell you which actions you have, you can't do it wrong, I feel that is the important difference between KC and Alchademy in Alchademy and that is why the text tutorial doesn't feel like the best option.

Text isn't bad but it could be a reinforced mechanic to let the player understand what is happening, this is well applied on the first tutorial prompt where you have to perform an action with the ingredients to be able to advance, you could not read the text, click on an ingredient and understand what to do, and if you don't, you can read the text and have a better idea.

Dismiss Action

Currently the biggest problem I see with the tutorial is the dismiss action, currently the tutorials appear on a prompt, when you look at a tutorial prompt, at first glance you don't know how to dismiss it, we “fixed” this by letting you dismiss the prompt clicking anywhere on the prompt, this is problematic because a lot of times people dismiss the prompt without reading it.

If it is because they don't what to read it is their decision, but if it was a mistake, they lose that information forever because there is no way to relaunch that tutorial, this can be fixed by two ways, all the prompts could have a clear dismiss button, I think the bottom part of the background with the triangle was the intention but it doesn't look like a button, and the same happens with the Gem button at the New character tutorial, it looks like part of the background so I have seen some friends lost looking at the screen and don't know where to click.

The second way to fix this is adding a tutorial button on the menu so players can revisit the information we gave them, not in the same way as in the start of the game, because that would be too problematic and will interrupt the game flow, maybe as a slide show.

Mechanics

This game is really fun to play, when you understand the mechanics and system which makes you have a successful mixture, the tutorial is the most important part to let players get to that part, the main difference between KC and Alchademy is that you can be wrong, you can fail and this is not a bad thing, it makes the game more fun and engaging, it makes it more a game with the idle mechanic KC has, the problem is that if you don't get there, if you don't understand the red water and light dots on the cauldron you can get frustrated, we explain all of this on the tutorial, but if you miss only one prompt is enough for you too feel lost at the game, sure you can play it until you understand it but it takes you longer than in KC because you have more actions, and you have more possibilities to be wrong, a lot of causal players could abandon the game if they don't get why they are getting wrong mixtures.

The average intelligent person would pick up that it the water is red when you drop the second ingredient it means that you are going to do a repeated mixture and overall if you have more dots on your cauldron you have better possibilities to have a new ingredient, but a lot of people won't get that, I think we should be a little more aggressive showing you when you are going to fail. The game feels great for me because I already know this so I can play to get a new ingredient and when I fail it feels like a luck thing, or if I get a repeated I know it's clearly my fault, I think when we manage to make the players understand that it is when we are going to get them to stay and play a long time and the tutorial is the most important thing to let you get there.

New Items and Creations

I'm going to start saying that the new feedback for repeated items feels great, it is very clear when you have a repeated or failed mixture thanks to the visual and audio feedback. On the other side, when you get a new item I think we should encourage them to look at the book.

New Item

When you get a new ingredient you get a new clue of what recipe you already did, you can check this on the book, A lot of people don't enter the book menu and I think there are two reasons for this:

On the tutorial when you get a new item you get a prompt pointing at the book which is great, but you can't click on it to check it out, so you don't save that action as something you need to do when you get a new item.
You don't have any visual reminder that you have a new item/recipe to check.

This could be fixed by making the player enter the book catalog on the tutorial so that they can continue playing, and adding a little notification to the book that gets dismissed when you click on the new item inside the book catalog.

This is important because it is a way to remind you the recipes that you already did and letting the players make lees mistakes and probably getting less frustrated gaining more retention and as we all know retention is key.

Creations

I don't like the system we currently have for creations, placing them on the basket helps a lot, but the only clue you have a t what they are is the tutorial, and I already said why I don't like that, the UX for them is awkward and weird, it is the final thing you can do with you't ingredients, it is like a mini achievement and they are hidden on a sub menu with a button on a corner, maybe putting them on the same screen as the ingredients ant letting you scroll down as @Fayer once said, or making the button the same size as the Ingredients title so it is clear they have the same or more importance than the ingredients, I don't really know how to fix this but I don't think the UI for the creations feels good.

I do think that making you enter the menu on the tutorial as I said on the Items could help, and also a notification on the book. Creations button that get's dismissed when you enter and click on one could make things better.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really like the game, it feels good and it is challenging on a way and beautiful and full of color animations and great music, I think that it can really get good reviews and downloads but something is missing for retaining new players and let them know the game and appreciate it the same way we who understand it do.

Late day

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Martes

Esta puede ser una buena semana, no sé cuanto tiempo ha pasado desde la ultima vez que me atrasé tanto. Empecé a analizar cada uno de los factores que podrían ser los causantes de este peculiar y alegre acontecimiento, revisé rápidamente PTracker, @Joe, @Oficial y @Tran ya habían tenido la suya el día anterior, una pequeña sonrisa empezó a dibujarse en mi cara mientras me imaginaba la reacción de @Joe cuando le contara.

10:32, y @Joe no ha llegado, sin embargo me sorprendí sintiéndome un poco aliviado, al fin y al cabo tendría más impacto entre más tiempo pasara, el pánico empezó a recorrer mi cuerpo, mientras sentía las familiares punzadas en la nuca, mil pensamientos empezaron a recorrer mi cerebro. ¿Qué si pasa ahora?, justo antes de que llegue, todo mi tema de conversación estaba basado en esto, un minuto tarde podría arruinar mi mejor semana, el sonido de la campana atada a la puerta de Manduca interrumpió mis pensamientos mientras @Joe con movimientos torpes y emocionados se sentaba enfrente de mí.

@Afk Te veo un poco alterado, ¿es por qué no pudiste registrarla? Ya dime la verdad, fue antier verdad, tuviste una triste y pequeña #PP, y no quisiste que nadie lo supiera, y sabes que, no te juzgo, probablemente Yo en tu situación hubiera hecho lo mismo, la verdad es que no le hablas a mucha gente entonces las pocas personas que podrían saberlo... Bueno, estoy aquí y quiero escucharlo todo, es lo que intento decir.

El momento no podría ser mejor, durante una fracción de segundo intente adivinar sus diferentes reacciones a lo que estaba a punto de decir, cada una mejor que la anterior. Separo lentamente mis manos enseñándole las palmas, intentando comunicarle que estoy diciéndole la verdad.

No ha caído, oficialmente rompí mi récord. Pero él sabe que no es solo eso, no solo rompí mi récord, rompí el suyo y el de la mitad de la escuela, poco a poco su cara empieza a contorsionarse, llena de confusión y miedo.

Saque lentamente mi celular para mostrarle, una animación divertida con un pequeño monstruo cargando un trofeo hacia mi foto de perfil.

No te creo nada, algo debiste de haber hecho, el otro día te vi comiendo uvas, ¿fue eso? ¿!UVAS¡?, no puedo controlar una carcajada, y en eso llega @MJ que discretamente se acerca a nosotros, empiezo a notar que la gente a nuestro alrededor ha notado nuestra parecencia.

@MJ no tiene muchas razones para juntarse con un par de perdedores como @Joe y yo, siendo sinceros nunca he entendido bien la dinámica de nuestra relación. La teoría aceptada por @Tran, le ayudamos a sobresalir, al juntarse con nosotros ella se ve mejor. No lo sé y realmente no me importa, disfruto su compañía.

En eso siento una bofetada @MJ con una mueca en la cara detuvo mi risa inmediatamente. Eso es por no contarme lo que estaba sucediendo, tuviste 4 horas para mandarme por lo menos un mensaje y en cambio estas aquí riéndote con @Joe, es bueno saber que para eso vale nuestra amistad.

Confundido y sobando mi reciente herida empiezo a balbucear, Seguramente no es nada, justo antes de verlos tuve un sentimiento de que estaba a pasar, últimamente he andado distraído eso es todo.

Claramente, si el secreto es ser más como tú ya estuvo que me quede sin romper mi récord nunca. Al parecer esa cachetada no solo me devolvió a mí a la realidad.

Empezamos a caminar hacia la escuela formulando todas las teorías posibles en estos casos, me hicieron listar absolutamente todas las cosas que comí desde la vez pasada que registre mi #PP, nada fuera de la normal, aunque bajo el exhaustivo escrutinio de este par todo sonaba súper importante.

Mi primera clase del día normalmente era la peor, apreciación artística, y en esta situación aún peor, la maestra no parecía poder concentrarse porque estaba esperando a que yo levantara mi mano para pedir permiso de salir, o al menos mi paranoia era lo que percibía. @Afk favor de presentarse en la dirección.

Secretariat

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I'm a lot like Bojack Horesman, but maybe that's a stretch.

Kleptocats is my Secretariant, a project that has exposure and everyone who knows me thinks I was an important part of it.

But in the reality I'm not, I only do the ads.

Today I'm sad, I don't know why, I just know I am. Maybe was because for the first time in a long time I had something to be happy about.

I have been going to the gym for 2 months now, that feels great.

A Passive Enduring Love

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My father was a writer, so it was a common tradition reading a book on a Sunday. Sometimes I had a good idea about what I wanted to read, and it was easy to choose my next book. Some other times it wasn't, and that's when I asked my father for help.

I don't know if it was a good idea when he recommended me Bukowski and some other authors of that type that he was reading at the time, but I greatly appreciated them and quickly, my fathers recommendations became my favorite books.

One of those authors was Ian McEwan and the first book I read of him was First Love, Last Rites, and that book stuck by me. It became a quick answers to the common question "what is your favorite book?"

One day I was looking for a new book to bury my thoughts of a recent breakup with a long time girlfriend, and I went looking for aid to my father. I told him I wanted something like First Love Last Rites, and he showed me the last book he had just bought, Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. Quickly, I started to read it but I couldn't get pass the first chapter. I was devastated. Although I fell in love with the story, I wasn't ready to read something that intense at that specific moment, so I decided to let it rest for a while.

Two weeks later, I went to dinner with a couple of friends. At the end of the night we went to my house and while we waited for the cab to come pick them up, I showed them my library. They were excited so we started talking about our last read books. When my turn came I told the story about Enduring Love and how it had affected me. One of my friends, trying to help me, took the book without me noticing and then told me later that night.

I understand the good intentions behind her actions, but she didn't know, how could she? That Enduring Love was the last book my father recommended me.

Around that time my father started getting really sick, and year later he passed away. My friend didn't give me the book any soon so I was never able to discuss it with him and tell him how much I liked it. She never knew this part of the story and how important that book is for me.... Not even I had realised it until I wrote this down.

The implication

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I know the feeling of needing more, you have something, it's not bad, but it's not enough, maybe I should start a story that way, that's how a lot of them start ain't them?.

How does it works?.

Today I saw the preppie connection and had spring rolls.

Vim and a new man

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Today I spend a lot of my time configuring my vimrc to improve my experience at writing prose with vim, you can check it out on my github, the main discovery was Goyo, I just love the clean look it gives to vim.

Lately I chat a lot with a friend, I told her some weeks ago that I was going to try to be a new man, writing a diary and sleeping 8 hrs without going to bed at 3 am, I failed the pas couple of days, but today is Monday, a new week a new day and I will try again to be a new man.

I like The weekend and Vinyl series.

Laughing and talking

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Breakfast and Dinner

Today I saw two good friends, girl friends, I tend to get along better with women not sure why, maybe is because the fact that everyone told me that wasn't posible, I mean that's why I sleep facing up.

With one of them I went to a restaurant yo have a pizza, 5 minutes after she left, I got an email from the restaurant manager telling me I forgot my credit card, results he googled arlefreak and found my website, so he grab the email and send it to me, what a nice thing to do.

I tend to see my other friend once a month, where I try to tell her what happened to me on the last month in a funny way, today she recommended me a shaman to heal my bad luck, I don't feel like I have terrible luck, I think I have the best bad luck if that has any sense at all. Maybe I'm writing to much "I's" but this is a diary so I think it's ok.

Hopeless

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Today I almost didn't wrote anything, it's the third day & I almost din't write, it's hard to maintain a habit, a dairy is one of those, people think you'r writing a little kid thing where you talk about your fears and kid problems. Maybe is time to tell my intentions with this, honestly I just one to practice my English, I wrote a lot of things some time ago but always on my native language Spanish, I have being reading a lot on English but I was missing writing experience, so this is what it is, a small attempt to improve, only that.

Powerless

Trumbo is a great movie, it made me feel something, like every good movie should, it made me feel powerless as the communist where on the cold war, it made me remember a concurrent thought I have, it pains me when someone is talking about something interesting, that thing that make them who they are, and they need to justify themselves, because someone somewhere treat them like if they where boring, meaningless or incorrect, it makes having a meaningful conversation harder that how it should be, and we don't have a lot of those.

I liked broods today.

The forgotten hype

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Today I saw the new trailer for Game of thrones, I had forgotten how much I wanted the new content to be out, that's it, also I slept a nap, and finished House of Cards, I liked it, also I like ZHU

Job hunting & bike riding

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Today I got back on mi bike after a month and a half of being immobilized after a small knee fracture, I forgot to use Strava but I think I rode 30 km aprox, it felt good, today I got back to some other things today.

People being douches

I'm on a job hunting adventure, where I fight my way out of my country, and by that I mean I'm sending my CV via email with a pre-made cover letter and signing in on everywhere I can with my Linkdn Account. That worked for a while but now I'm out of money, mechanical keyboards are a expensive hobby and I want to buy some new key caps and a new USB cable.

What I'm trying to justify is that I started to look for a job in my country that led me to one of the worst Job interviews I have ever had, I'm 23 and the guy interviewing me tried to make me feel less for that, he couldn't. He started bragging about the company big projects, and how they had the expertise that I needed to grow, and how they need a multi-task man who does a little of everything and could work under pressure, at the end he offered me 840 USD a month, I didn't take that job.

A glove ill fitted

For the past year I worked with HyperBeard guys on Apps-O-Rama a SF based company who does apps for clients, we where there to make original ideas for the company, and started as a good opportunity to continue doing games and get paid, we worked on The Balloons for almost 6 months and the game didn't went that great so I was let go, among others. The thing is I was the only member of Hyper Beard that was fired, I mean there where a lot of reasons for that, and was nobody fault, but it doesn't stop feeling like crap.

Now KleptoCats is out, the new game by the HyperBeard guys without me and published by Apps-O-Rama, they had the idea to make a promo website where you can design your own cat, a little paint app and I was hired to do it, so after two months of not going I went to work, it felt weird somehow, not bad, only different because I know I'm not a part of the team

People being nice

If you ask about me the some things may vary depending on when they knew me some will not, some will tell you I like to play basketball, some others I like 'video stuff', the thing is on High School I was that guy that downloaded software and share it with anyone who wanted it. Today I went for a coffee with an old friend friend, to install her Adobe Photoshop, she was nice, she tried her best to make the a pleasant conversation and I think she managed to make it.

Hi

afk@ellugar.co ([afk] Mario Carballo Zama) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I normally use 'Hi' as a test string, it's not a good practice but it's a habit I have, so this is what my first post is, a hi. A testing string.