Hello everyone! My name is David Sanhueza, the founder and creative director at GAME-O-GAMI. I have worked professionally in the computer game industry since 1998 as a 3D artist and animator. I have worked on games published by Activision, Microsoft, Midway, and Trion Worlds, including Asheron's Call, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, and End of Nations, among others. I love creating art for games, but I also love designing them. For years (and years) I have designed board games, card games, and video games as a hobby.
I started up GAME-O-GAMI earlier this year to pursue a dream of developing and publishing both analog and digital games. The fact that several of the games I have been designing are now fun and polished enough to publish through GAME-O-GAMI is something I owe to my friends. I am very lucky to have such great friends, fellow gamers (and some fellow game developers), who have motivated, encouraged, and supported me, and who subjected themselves to playtest after playtest after playtest... If any of you are reading this right now, thank you so much!
Because developing my own games has been such a social experience up to this point, I want to keep that going. At the heart of GAME-O-GAMI is the idea that game development SHOULD be a social experience where players and designers interact with one another. We're building a community where gamers will have a real impact on the games we create and publish, from the ground up. I'm joining the BGDF in order to include any of you who wish to be a part of that. I am really looking forward to interacting with fellow game designers on this forum, and vetting new game ideas and mechanics with the help of your collective experiences and intuitions! Hopefully, I can be of help to more than a few of you as well.
Our first game, Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule! will be launching on Kickstarter within the next few months. A few images and some teaser info has been released so far, with much more to come. If you're curious, you can check out the website:
http://www.game-o-gami.com/
Personally, I like a wide variety of game genres, play styles, and art styles. I especially like head-to-head competitive play where brains and guts are essential to beating your opponent. I am attracted to games where a variety of strategies and play styles are valid, although I often find myself favoring aggressive tactics. I prefer cards over dice, because even though they are also random, it gives the player much more choice. Theme is important to me as well - Does your game have Ninjas? Dragons? World Conquest? I'm sold! :)
What do you guys look for in fun games and good game designs? Do you tend to design the same kinds of games that you enjoy playing? What kinds of games do you wish people were making more of?
Looking forward to making friends here,
- Sanhueza
