A look back at what happened this year. A public storage of my memories and wishes for the future.

Games are political, and I am not in a position to pretend mine is not. 13 Rosas started with a couple of simple ideas: “What if Slenderman but Fascism?” “What if instead of 8 pages, it were 13 roses, in memory of the Spanish resistance?”… The ball kept rolling and so I set on it to finish my long-due studies.

Above anything, this prototype comes from a place of love: an extreme gratitude towards the antifascists of the past and present and the artists and poets dedicated to the cause; but it’s also a heartfelt appreciation for the fine arts, and in no little measure, an obsessive take on classic horror games.

The demo has foregone two iterations since the version that served me finish my M.A. at CGL last summer. Now I applied to some awards happening next year with the lastest update. Let’s see where it leads us!

And yes, we want to continue with development, but some fundamentals need be in place. A product (as in: the outcome of work) is but the hands that make it. My father did the sound design and music, a friend took over the programming after the first version, I made the graphics and game design*. It doesn’t matter how passionate we all are about this topic, I’m standing my ground when I say no more work will be done for free.

The garage-band darling doesn’t work if you don’t have a garage. If we are to dedicate more time to it, we need to find a way to fund our commitment first. It’s not laziness or lack of passion if what’s at stake is our physical and mental health. Because that’s what happens: you sacrifice quality of life making the games you want to create after having fulfilled your hours making the games others want to make and have the initial capital for. Our goal is to find a (sane) way to get this done.

Next: Pt. 2 :: The Foe, the Furry and the Maniac. Take care.