EVOLUTION

In 2006 I was in Montreal working a crappy job to make ends meet. I didn't really know how to manage my life in the city, doing all sorts of teenage crap even if I was already in my twenties - I got emo about my mistakes and my lack of focus, until 2007...

 

In 2007, I did a couple contracts for a man named Alex, making mock-up visuals of games that would help him start his company, Ludia. Upon the official creation of that company, I joined as its first employee. I was a 2D artist. Emo slowly got out of my system.

 

 

My first few years at Ludia were very instructive and I learned a lot about 2D art, interface design and all that - I also discovered a certain interest in game design - and a talent for it. I started taking the job very seriously and got up the ladder to lead artist and game designer.

 

In 2010, I started making games by myself to satisfy a need for creativity and to put my ideas out there. I got some kind of success with Geek Mind, the first true game I made all by myself. People showed interest in my work - I started doing lots of projects on the side. My job at Ludia, although still a great learning experience, became a bit of a chore as I only wanted to do creative stuff.

 

 

In 2 weeks, I'll leave Ludia and start working from home as a contractor for Mochi Games and for myself. I will probably not wear pants on most days.

 

Introduction : Dom2D

Hello!

My name's Dom2D. I've just written a long post about myself on a Forum and thought it'd be nice to double post it here, as it's very informative about me and might be of interest to visitors. Maybe. I dunno.

My name's from my real name Dominique to which I added what I love the most about life - 2 dimensions stuff. Comics, retro or new 2D games, illustration, everything flat simply rules my world.

In my professional life, I'm sort of a weird mix between wannabe Lead 2D Artist and hard-headed Game Designer. At home, I work on my own game ideas, doing game design, art and programming. I recently got fed up of programmers going AWOL, so I grabbed Beginning Programming for Dummies and a bunch of Actionscript books and I started coding myself. I finished a basic game for the Gamma IV competition, proving to myself I could really do code and art. I am now working really hard on finishing a full-on game in AS3, which I hope will amuse lots of people!


I am also a big fan of Game Design theory and practice. I don't believe a game can be built out of pure theory (interface X + action Y = fun?), but I'm sure it helps focus thought and design. I'm currently reading Brenda Brathwaite's Challenges for Game Designers and doing my homework thoroughly, creating non-digital games out of a variety of themes and challenges. I currently have a board game in testing that started with the "Make an Exploration Game" challenge, and I'm quite proud of how fun it is. I also write on my Idea Machine blog, where I take a random Wikipedia entry and come up with a short Game Treatment for a game inspired by it - sometimes obtaining weird results, sometimes really awful game ideas!

I'm a gaming fanatic - I try to play all games I can get my hands on. I rarely finish long games, as my interest fades in and out for new games and often comes back to classic favorites. I prefer smaller or shorter indie games, like all the entries coming out of online game making competitions - I played all the games in the recent Assemblee competition. I gather all awesome games like Dungeons of Fayte and Mr Kitty's Quest in my ever-expanding /Games/ folder like a collecting freak, next to the big games like Bioshock, Red Faction Guerilla and all Valve masterpieces.

These days, my favorites games are a bit cliché, listing lots of Metroidvanias and First Person Shooters. I'm also a total Spelunky addict, having played over 3000 games so far and even considering buying a 360 for the upcoming XBLA version.



On IndieSafe.com I'll soon be writing a "Download of the Week" feature for classic Indie Games, which should be called something catchy (working on it). I'll feature all the cool new indie gems, but I'll also focus on Indie Games of the past years and months, trying to update all the indie scene newcomers on the little masterpieces they have missed. Going forward, I'll be taking suggestions for what games to play and write about, as I probably have missed hundreds if not thousands of gems in the past years. I'm also interested in covering new games, trends, styles, but I'll start with this feature and see where IndieSafe goes.


On ZZZz, my friends and I blog about random stuff we like, for bored people by bored people. Most often, posts are about cool artists and good-looking artwork we just found, but we also blog about movies, games and design.

Then there's Wonderfuls: A french comic-blog where my girlfriend and I (but mostly her) post comics about our lives. I haven't posted much so far, but soon I shall get back to it.

You can also access this Questions page to ask me random questions about anything!