Roxlou Games

UPDATE: It’s on right now!

UPDATE: Looks like Reddit changed the time when they added us to the schedule. It’s now at 12 pm, eastern time.

By popular request, Joe will be doing an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit tomorrow (February 7th) at 12pm EST.

For those that are new to the project, Joe Houston is Roxlou Games‘ founder and is the programmer and designer for Unwritten. He’s best known as a former core member of the critically acclaimed game Dishonored, and for his published articles on Indie Gaming and Video Game Violence.

Joe has also worked for Bioware and Midway and has worked on games of all genres and platforms.

For those new to Reddit and the concept of an “AMA”, it is an opportunity to put a person in the “hot seat” and ask them any kind of question at all. Reddit works on a system of “upvotes” and “downvotes” to help people find the best stuff, so when you come be sure to click the up arrow to “upvote” us!

We hope to see everyone and their questions there. We will post again just before it gets underway.

“Gamer Cheese” has a follow up interview with Joe, talking about Dishonored, the downfall of Sensory Sweep, and a bit about the origins of Unwritten.

Check it out here.

We’ve been told to expect a few more interviews and podcasts from other sources coming later this week. If you like what you read (or hear) be sure to show your appreciation by sharing these links around!

Our previous post about Joe’s bathroom adjacent office might have been the height of style, but that was just one of the workspaces of Roxlou Games. We have a distributed work environment, meaning that each contributor has their own view when they come to work each morning.

Julian, a games musician working on our signature sound, sends this picture with the following description:

I use Logic Pro for my writing, with lots of Kontakt libraries and most of East/West’s stuff. My go to samples at the moment are Cinematic Strings 2, Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble, EW’s Silk, and Hollywood Brass. I have a few guitars for live playing which I run through an Axe-FX Ultra.

Lee, our much valued artist, sends his pictures with no comment at all, so we have added the appropriate descriptions for him.

This fashionable semi-glove is made from the pelts of baby seals and has been hand cured with the tears of hippies. Lee wears it when drawing on his massive tablet PC because it makes him feel fancy and keeps his delicate pinky finger from getting cold.

This is the view of Lee that his fiance is most accustomed to. This is partially due to Lee’s intense dedication to everything he commits to, and partially because he is hiding from the shame of wearing less than half a working glove.

Our first game is now well into preproduction, and we’re really excited about how things are turning out. We’d like nothing more than to put each and every prototype and piece of concept art up for all to see, but we know that would be doing a disservice to the cool ideas that aren’t yet fully formed.

That said, we just can’t help ourselves, so here are two “sneak peeks” at art pieces in progress. They’re in animated form showing the progress from rough sketch to polished finish, giving a little insight into the care that goes into this kind of work.

We can hardly wait to share the whole picture (so to speak). Stay tuned for more!

Be on alert! The professionalism of our bathroom adjacent office is now in jeopardy.

This scene stands as an allegory for the constant battle between somber dignity and pixelated robots. It also represents the thoughtful meddling of a certain troublesome, yet awesome, wife.

+1,000 points for Player 2, but expect a rematch

The Offices of Roxlou Games. There aren’t words to adequately describe these hallowed halls. But if you were to try, you might say…

Luxurious!

Literary!

And oh, the view!

Inside Roxlou Games founder Joe Houston’s home office we see a space where more than just games are created. That was in no way a reference to poop.

You might also be brewing beer in the tub

However, working out of a bathroom closet is a nicer fit than you might first think. There is still plenty of room for small comforts, like this signed memento from the Dishonored project.

Plus from the toilet you can see all the way into the future of indie games.

At least the future of our part of it