Just a quick update for everyone: you can now download the soundtrack of Mnemons as a single track which encompasses all of the game’s ambiances (and variations). If you like Mnemons’ music, be sure to check it out.

And as you can see, we are changing our colors again. This means… something is coming soon.

Here it is. This is the final version of Semblante, dubbed Semblante 3.0 or Anniversary Edition, since we wanted to release it at the eve of Global Game Jam 2011. Unfortunately we missed the deadline by a matter of hours (really) and decided to release this version of Semblante only after our work with Mnemons was done (and the SXSW contest tight deadline was clear).

What has changed? Well, basically everything. We put a good 3 weeks of work on this particular version of Semblante (before it, both 1.0 and 2.0 were 48h efforts). This means that the game is bigger and more polished all around, with navigable menus, volume control and some other stuff we usually take for granted like checkpoints and a pause screen. Also, we put a distinct personality in each of the game’s shadows (and their own proper puzzle to retrieve them), revamped the game’s graphics (especially Jung’s animations) and redesigned the game’s sound effects and music (courtesy of our friend Hermann Rauth). We’re also able to finally put the game’s original script to good use, putting some contextual, albeit obscure, text integrated within the game’s backgrounds.

You can download Semblante 3.0 for free here or at the game’s page.

EDIT (18:30 BRT): The file available for download was corrupted. It should be fixed now.

So, what have the Adugans been doing these past 3 weeks? We’ve been working on the brand new version of Mnemons. After the Global Game Jam 2011 we striped down the prototype, identified it’s core mechanics, essential features, pros and cons, and redefined it as a Synchronous Platforming Adventure. Today we are submitting it to the South By Southwest Festival Screenburn Independent Propeller Awards by IndiePub (so I heard indies like big names).

The game is now in Alpha, which means it’s core is running healthily, the mechanics and most of the assets are there, but it has only 13 of the 28 planned levels, and you’ll be able to play with Moe and Jimmie, but not with Debbie and Andy. We’ll feed you with more news about the Festival ASAP, and hope you enjoy playing the Alpha with your friends!

You can download the game here or you can check the brand new game page instead.

Hello y’all!

We’ve reached the first night of Aduge’s 4th Strategic Planning and boy, I’m impressed! We’re productive, the mood is good and solutions come smoothly. After 3 and a half years living with my 5 goodfellas I still get impressed with the Adugan workteamenship and problem-solving capacities. Yet more impressed with how it worked today. Let me explain:

We’ve started with a retrospective since june 2007, our first Planning, reviewing the conferences we’ve attended, the trips, studies and researches we’ve done, the prizes we received, and specially, the projects we’ve started, delivered and archived. This was as much motivational due to our achievements as it was a rant on our past faults. This retrospective dictated the tone of our conversations and prepared ourselves for the next step: what Aduge is for each of us?

Almost two hours of dialogue and team dynamics explaining our expectations towards Aduge, and our personal and professional goals. As expected, specially after almost six months of forced recess, not all ideas converged at the beginning. The bright side is that in the last months we’ve reached the conclusion that well… they don’t need to. Aduge is the sum of 6 different people, and it is possible to build it according to the different wishes of those people. And at 6:00 PM one of the biggest wishes of the Adugans was coffee.

Coffeebrake done and we aim for the next step. Understanding our individual differences and planning from them we’ve done a brief revision of our organization chart. More specific decisions on this matter are to be done in one or two more days, based on the future strategies that we’re still to define, but some basic features are settled.

One more brake, this time with soda and pizza. Then we watched some inspirational episodes of Extra Credits, a weekly show by James Portnow, Daniel Floyd and Allison Theus for The Escapist. Considering their insightful words and what we’ve thinked during the whole day we moved to the most crucial point of the day: revision of our corporate values and mission statement.

It wasn’t a easy task, and to look again at the terms we’ve defined 3 years ago presented a true challenge for our mutual understanding. Surprisingly enough we’e passed the ordeal with ease. After all, a great deal of those last 3 years were invested in studies that aided us in better understanding what we’ve been looking forward and where we want to take Aduge from now on. A little change in our values and a complete rearrangement of the mission statement could seem a bit drastic, but fundamentally what we’ve done was to make it more clear and simple the same goal we always pursued: to push the boundaries of game expression.