Hello everyone! Hope you're doing well 😄

In this first post, I want to talk about the (short) process on coming up with the Game, developing it and working on it's release.

Hello World

First of all, let me introduce myself.
I'm Bruno "Tabs" Tabosa, half of Pixel Hound. I've been working professionally working with games since 2019, and studying game development before that. Started as unity programmer, but switched to a Producer position. Now i'm almost two years working as contractor as Generalist Game Developer and Producer. You can follow me on Linkedin, where i'll try to update more with my professional news. My current portfolio is being updated as I write this.

Because of some professional changes that might happen in the upcoming months, I was feeling more motivated to work on side projects. And actually releasing them this time. 

I know, I had the same feeling other dozens time before. But this time was different.

My recent position put me in a place of working on several demos, from scratch to finishing it. Presenting to clients and/or publishers. In those projects, I wasn't "only" a producer or a programmer in a large work for hire project. I had the opportunity to really own the products and work on all things needed for making the game the best it could be. This showed me that I can work on all things needed, and drive me to learn even more. 

For this drive to not go away, I had to plan accordingly to my objectives.

• Go through the process of publishing games
• Get my focus on developing games back
• Don't take too long to go through this process 

So, I would need to start small. Really small. 

Game Idea and Pixel Hound

I came up with similar game mechanic on a game jam before, so I decided to develop it again. This time with better coding, allowing expanding the content and features as needed. 

In the latest half of November/23, I put together a small prototype and started sharing with some friends. That's when Luiz "Poring" approached me, with the idea of work on a indie studio and publish games too. So we joined our strengths.

Pixel Hound was born. A studio that initially is focused on short games, where we'll expand it upon them with time. Shortening the Develop > Publish > Update cycle as we can. Gaining experience and forming a community along the way.

Itch.io fits like a glove for us. We know that we're working on small games at first, so Steam would not be a good place for us. We don't expect to make money or have a big breakout all of sudden, with a game that was created in less than one month. But it's allowing us to keep focused, motivated and aiming for more ambitious projects. I'm really stoked with our growth in such short time.

Road To Release

With a gameplay loop implemented, we started polishing the game to look like an actual game, and increasing it's production value. 

Adding juicy feedback, sound effects and some simple and effective menu animations, the game was looking way better already. After a round of bug fixes, we were ready to launch.

Of course that as you improve one aspect of the game or it's art, you feel the need to improve some other part, that was lacking. Then this cycle can never end. Luckily we have some experience with that, and an aversion of working on a game for years without publishing it.
So we managed our way though that on the Polish phase, and actually got a version that we would be happy to share it.

As long as we make it clear in our studio communication the goals and limitations that this prototype have.

After learning how to and editing some funny trailers and gameplay shots, we launched our game. 

The reception it's been amazing. seeing people competing with one another to get better scores, sharing their feedback with us and having fun with it, it's really driving us to keep working. And making better and better games.

Thanks for you support.

Sincerely, 

Bruno "Tabs"
Pixel Hound