Hey everyone,
Some of you may have noticed that I released the Steam community items! You can now earn trading cards, badges, backgrounds, emoticon and animated stickers from the world of Exophobia!
I think they turned out pretty cool. I'm not familiar with the Steam meta for items, but hope you have a good time with them. I got some cards retroactively, so I think it happened to all of you too!
On a sad note, I took some time to post this announcement after hitting the release button on the anniversary, because I've been feeling a bit down lately due to recent news.
A friend of mine, Filipe Duarte Pina has passed away due to cancer, at the very young age of 46. This came to me as a shock as he kept his condition secret.
He was a legend in the portuguese game dev and comic book scene. He started out as a personal hero when I was just starting in game dev, as he was a pioneer having launched the first portuguese Playstation game as one of his highest achievements, and much more. I eventually got the opportunity to work for him at Nerd Monkeys, on the sequel for his dear Case and Bot point and click game that he produced. We became more than co-workers, but friends, as his charming personality and permanent good mood made everyone feel connected to him one way or another. My last interaction with him was a christmas dinner where I gave him a phyiscal copy of Exophobia. In a way, he was my game development mentor, and I hope he was proud of what I achieved after learning so much from him. He will be missed.
A pixel depiction of Filipe and me made by him for the Express Killer
His legacy will live on, on his work and the people dear to him.
If you're curious about some of his work, here is a post-mortem of the Case and Bot games in english:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq4t7bG9Gsk
Best,
Zarc
