...to a Facebook game. ;)
Some of you may know that by day I design video games for a living. The last couple of weeks I've been working really hard (with my fantastic team) to launch a game that has been my baby for a little over a year now. I pitched the project originally and led the design on it (a bit like a movie director, making sure everything works together and supports the vision and the message), so it's one of the most personal things I've ever produced, next to my fanfic. It's also my first official commercial product launch, after nearly a decade in the industry, so I've been doing a little happy dance all day.
So the game is Holiday Village, and it's actually more of a "toy" than a "game" -- there are no crops to tend, no points to gain, just pretty little villages that you build cooperatively with your friends and family.
The whole idea is that you can create little villages, and invite whomever you want to come work on the village with you -- the one in the screenshot above I invited my husband to work on with me, but I have another with my sisters and another with some work friends. None of us live close to each other (except my husband, hehe), so the idea is that we can use Holiday Village to share the holidays in ways we might if we lived closer -- decorating together, going to see Christmas lights, exchanging gifts, and watching the snow fall. I made a little intro video (using my Samville village and our night-time music track (there's different music for day)):
I have to admit to being a bit of an oddity in the game industry -- not only am I one of the 10% of the industry that is female, I'm one of the very few women who really isn't into First-Person Shooters or proving that I can hang with the 90% of the industry that's male. I like some girly things as well as games, and I see no contradiction there. I write Twific because I love Twilight, and because I enjoy using writing to communicate emotion. My goal with Holiday Village is to use my game design skills to communicate a very different emotion than "HAHA PWND U!" Not that there's anything wrong with that emotion, but I think there's room for a lot more than the one emotion.
Anyway, it would mean so much to me if you guys could check out this thing that I've poured a lot of my heart and soul into, and if you like it to tell other people about it. We're on Facebook at apps.facebook.com/holidayvillage. I'm really really proud of how it came out.
Aaaand to make this post more interactive (hey, I do interactivity for a living! ;) )...
Tell me about some of your favorite holiday traditions. What are the things you love doing every year, or things you remember from your childhood that you want to recreate for your own children?
Many thanks to Capricorn75 for approving this post!