Monthly Archives: August 2009

It’s the end of an era! Now that we’ve turned one and are officially the biggest, baddest, and most hardcore game studio in the Western Hemisphere it’s time to move up in the world, and by “up” I mean “Northwest” apparently. While we’ve loved being in Kendall in our sweet basement digs we’ve decided to make the move to nearby Inman Square, where we will be able to enjoy Christina’s ice cream whenever we want. Also the office is way bigger and nicer than our old office, and has amenities such as windows, running water, cell phone reception, air conditioning, and a distinct lack of overhead acid waste pipes.

We’re planning on having a small housewarming in our new space in early September, so if you’re a friend and want to come drop us a line. For those of you who aren’t around here are some pictures of the good times we had at our current space. Stay tuned for some awesome pictures of our next spot.

Follow the jump for more pics. Continue reading →

Our game is really coming along, and it looks like we might want some extra help getting our game looking amazing. So we’re putting out a call for an artist to help us out! The description is below, or you can check out the jobs page. If you happen to know refer an artist looking to us and we hire him/her we’ll hit you up with a finders fee (read: lotsa thank you beer + food).

Ideal candidates should be based in Boston or willing to move here, and should be super psyched at the prospect of working at an awesome new indie start up. Hopefully we’ll hear from some of our readers!

Job Opening – Artist: We are looking for a freelance or contract artist with preferably 3+ years of experience making video games. Generalist skills required, must have strong 2D and 3D background and the ability to create both compelling environments and characters. Proficiency in 3DS Max, Photoshop, and Illustrator required. Extensive video game knowledge a big plus, as is any previouis game design experience. We’re looking for a good collaborator who can work in an established style and also expand upon it, and is able to take feedback and give it. If there is a good fit the work could turn into a permanent position.

Eitan’s article on Usability Interface design was just published on Gamasutra today! The article talks about four key elements of UI – learnability, simplicity, efficiency, and aesthetic. Specifically, why these are important and how to critically balance these elements for your own game design. Eitan’s pretty passionate about UI, having written his master’s thesis on the topic.

It’s also filled with awesome pictures from some of our favorite games, if you’re not into reading lots of words.

Check it out, and we welcome your comments here or on the Gamasutra website!

We recently finished our first D&D adventure here at Fire Hose, and Jeff Ward has been nice enough to write up a pretty detailed play by play for how shit went down. Enjoy!

After the rest of the party was separated from Nebin and Alia, we immediate set to questioning the remaining kobold about where our friends had gone. Of course, by we I mean mostly Taleh. After much cajoling, we convinced the kobold to show us how to rejoin our friends on the other side of the portal, taking him along for good measure.

Follow the jump to find out what happened next Continue reading →

This past Saturday was the second (annual?) Boston GameLoop. It was a day long unconference organized by Darius Kazemi and Scott MacMillan. This year it was pretty big, and had some 70+ developers who participated in a bunch of random talks and roundtables. It was quite fun with lots of interesting discussions. So what did I learn?

• There are a lot of indie devlopers in Boston, but almost no one else is doing XBLA, PSN, or WiiWare games. I guess the lure of PC and iPhone games is pretty strong.
• Some people will do anything for Xbox achievements, including putting together a B.S. session just to get their gamer score about 10K.
• It’s super hard to find really talented artists who also understand art direction. Speaking of which, if you happen to be an artist we’d love to hear from you.
• Programming languages like Chef, AAAAAAAAAAA!!!, Brainfuck, and INTERCAL are always good for a few laughs.

Overall the conference was a lot of fun. If you want to see detailed info on any of the sessions you can follow the event recap page as descriptions go up.