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Borut
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Los Angeles, CA
I’m a freelance game developer who lives in Venice, CA. I previously worked at EALA, as a lead AI programmer on game collaboration between Doug Church and Steven Spielberg. I’ve also worked at Radical, Sony Online Entertainment, and my own start-up (White Knuckle Games). I’ve taught in the Vancouver Film School’s Game Design program, and I’ve written articles for the Game Programming Gems series, Gamasutra, and more. I blog at http://www.plushapocalypse.com/borut/
Projects by Borut (1)
Borut is Backing (3)
Recent Posts by Borut
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Borut
commented on a projectThat's just the way Kickstarter works, unfortunately - I may put up a non-Kickstarter donation site after the deadline runs out though. Regardless of whether or not I get the funding though, work on the game will continue.
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Borut
commented on a projectWell, as far the consistency of characters goes, I definitely gave it thought before including that. However Tehran is a pretty large city (16th largest in the world), which tends to bring a hefty amount of diversity no matter what. There are also international students, tourists, etc. Not the most common vacation spot for an American, but it's more common for Europeans to travel there (in fact street signs often have English on them as well because it's still the most likely common langauge among said tourists). As for the price, it's pretty straightforward - the character will most likely have to have unique sprite animations for all it's actions, so I just tried to estimate the work involved and what it would cost to have an artist do it. I realize it's expensive, but since I'm an indie developer I can't take the risk of losing significant money to incorporate a backer into the game even though I'd love to have more backers feel that personally involved. I would have liked to do something less obtrusive, some games allow for a backer to incorporate their voice into the dialog, but that's not applicable here.
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Borut
commented on a projectJouan - sorry man, XNA is just too sweet to code with so I don't think there'll be a linux version.. :( ddd3d - you can email me at borut_p@yahoo.com, I'd love to hear more from you.
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Borut
Posted project update #6Thanks for all your support!
Thanks everyone for helping to back the project - Despite not meeting the funding goals, I'm making good progress on the game, and hope to have a finished prototype by the end of the year. I will update more soon on the state of the game's design - I've just been swamped with other work and making time to work on The Unconcerned. But rest assured it will be made - currently I'm aiming to be done in the fall of next year.
If you're interested in being on the playtest list send me an email at borut_p@yahoo.com (backers whose email addresses I have don't need to do that). The first playtests are still many months away, but I want to make sure I get all the addresses for anyone interested.
Borut
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Borut
commented on a projectThat's just the way Kickstarter works, unfortunately - I may put up a non-Kickstarter donation site after the deadline runs out though. Regardless of whether or not I get the funding though, work on the game will continue.
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Borut
Posted project update #5AIGameDev interview link
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Borut
Posted project update #4Update & Interview on AiGameDev this Sunday
Just wanted to let folks know that I'll be doing an interview with Alex Champandard this weekend on his excellent game AI website, http://aigamedev.com - we'll be talking about designing and prototyping independent games. Unfortunately I believe it's only for subscribers to the site, but since some of you might have become aware of this project through my participation in the game AI community, you may be member & want to check it out. It's a live interview that takes place 2pm PST on Sunday (Oct. 25th). The video will be available a little while afterwards in case you miss it. For more info go here: http://aigamedev.com/premium/event/session-indie-prototyping/
Work on the project is moving at a steady pace. After my first set of prototype levels, I now have a more concrete set of mechanics that I'm happy with, which I'm about to start building. I've gotten my first few responses back from interviewees (people that have been in Iran recently, some right around the time of the election), which has been very helpful. I've also made some progress on the storyline and potential endings - it's not complete but it's definitely helped me flesh out the mechanics.
I'll be posting some more detailed results of my prototyping to those who have pledged for behind-the-scenes access. Thanks again to everyone for pledging!
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Borut
Posted project update #3A portion of the proceeds...
You know, I'll be honest, I've always been a little wary of official charitable organizations, for fear that your donations are going to fund some office bureaucrat's afternoon naps. Thankfully in the age of the internet, financial records and more are available to those who are interested.
So with that, I'm happy to declare that 5% of royalties from sales of the game will be donated to two charities:
Children of Persia, an organization that provides health care, education, and social services to Iranian children in need: http://www.childrenofpersia.org/index.html
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which aims to record and educate about human rights abuses in Iran, to encourage a culture of human rights within Iranian society: http://www.iranhrdc.org/httpdocs/index.htm
At least 5% of royalties will be charitably donated to those two organizations, possibly more depending on what I can afford based on the cost of development and relative success of the game.
I don't necessarily think any creative work, whether it's a game, music, movie, or book, can directly bring about change for the social good. They can educate, inform, and inspire - those are powerful things that, when successful, can motivate people to act, but only in that indirect fashion. Yet at least in some way, through this donation, I hope this game can do a little bit of both.
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Borut
Posted project update #2Early Prototyping
Well, it's very early on in the project, as I split my time between working on this and contract work. But, I figured might be interesting to talk a little bit my creative process at this stage of the project.
Please keep in mind the snippets of the game you see are totally placeholder, they are merely for me to test functionality as I refine the design of the game.
This update is available for everybody to learn more about the project, but as I go forward working on the project, they'll be restricted to backers and some will only be for those who pledged for the behind the scenes reward.
Thanks again to everybody for their interest!
Borut
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Borut
commented on a projectWell, as far the consistency of characters goes, I definitely gave it thought before including that. However Tehran is a pretty large city (16th largest in the world), which tends to bring a hefty amount of diversity no matter what. There are also international students, tourists, etc. Not the most common vacation spot for an American, but it's more common for Europeans to travel there (in fact street signs often have English on them as well because it's still the most likely common langauge among said tourists). As for the price, it's pretty straightforward - the character will most likely have to have unique sprite animations for all it's actions, so I just tried to estimate the work involved and what it would cost to have an artist do it. I realize it's expensive, but since I'm an indie developer I can't take the risk of losing significant money to incorporate a backer into the game even though I'd love to have more backers feel that personally involved. I would have liked to do something less obtrusive, some games allow for a backer to incorporate their voice into the dialog, but that's not applicable here.
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Borut
commented on a projectJouan - sorry man, XNA is just too sweet to code with so I don't think there'll be a linux version.. :( ddd3d - you can email me at borut_p@yahoo.com, I'd love to hear more from you.
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Borut
Posted project update #1Title
Coming up with titles for any work is difficult, for me at least. Right now the working title of the game is "The Unconcerned" from this quote by the 13th century Persian poet Saadi (as translated by Dr. Iraj Bashiri):
Of One Essence is the Human Race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base.
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.
The Unconcerned with Others' Plight,
Are but Brutes with Human Face. -
