Thank you!!

André here!

MOJO was fire! It was one of the best days of my life! It was pure, raw emotion.

It was meeting people. Talking to them. Seeing them genuinely interested in something we made. It was hugging your companions whenever someone gave us feedback.

It was all of the reactions: "I would buy this game!", "You should improve this part", "I want a tattoo of 42!", "This puzzle is being mean to me...", "No no no, is this the end...? Sheesh...", "I won't give up!", "That ending...", "I love 42, I want to take her home!"

It was seeing what everyone else made, and sharing in that pride with them.

It was being sleep-deprived and probably looking like it and seeing that confirmed in photos afterwards! It was thinking that none of that matters, because the end result was worth every sacrifice.

It was being interviewed for the first time in my life (thank you Prof. Rui Prada. The recommendation did not go unnoticed 😉). It was waking up early to listen to that interview, and realizing that just like that, my silly old dream of being on the radio had just been realized.

Dreams! That's a word. A good word. For me, MOJO was all about dreams coming true. Not just the radio part. I had always dreamed of making a game. I had always dreamed of seeing if other people could like something I made, or if I was just living inside a narcissistic or over-optimistic happy bubble. I had always dreamed of being part of a team where thoughts are thoroughly shared before we've even finished our sentences. True team spirit. It IS possible, and it feels so good to be a part of it. You guys are amazing.

All of those dreams, realized in such a short time.

My next dream? Having a game we made published on a mainstream distribution platform! Will it be hard to accomplish? I don't know, but I definitely know that it is possible, and as far as I am concerned, I won't give up until more of the world is able to know the story of the man who woke up in the middle of nowhere, and the woman who was there to unknowingly guide him.

I have so many people to thank:

My Game Design/Game Development Methodology Professors: Rui Prada, Carlos Martinho, Pedro Santos.

I won't forget that the image of 42 outside a fortress in the middle of a forest first popped up in my mind right after my "The Game of my Life" presentation. Without that rush of inspiration, 42 might have never existed, and I wouldn't have put that idea into words.

I won't forget the many lessons on iterative design and user-centered development.

I won't forget the lab sessions where we got so much constructive feedback and nudges towards the right direction. The first ever conceptual presentation for "The Fortress"; that was the first time we put ourselves out there and hoped people would like the idea. I won't forget the reactions and feedback we got from everyone that day.

Thank you!

I have to thank my colleagues, my partners in this adventure. And I have to do so individually, because I feel unable to do anything else:

Miguel. Thank you for your incredible puzzle design skills. I wouldn't expect anything else from someone with a patented board game. Building each floor of The Fortress was much easier with your tile-by-tile documents.

Thank you for keeping the spirits high, even when my nagging attention to detail could start to become a little unbearable!

Also, thank you for noticing Luís sitting all by himself in the first lecture and suggesting we go talk to him. Life is defined by simple decisions such as this one.

Luís. You were a pleasant surprise, and I have no idea how I didn't know you before this year. We have so much in common, we need so few words to understand what the other is thinking. Sometimes we even finish each other's...

Hey, don't leave me hanging now!

But thank you. You went from having no RPG Maker knowledge to being able to code some of the best cutscenes and logic of the game. All in two months. That's ridiculous, you're ridiculous!

Andreia. Oh, Andreia. The first time you showed me 42... your version of my 42... That day, that became my 42, through and through. As someone with very limited drawing skills, I didn't take anything you did for us for granted. And still, you went far and beyond our expectations. The character art, the ending art, the poster, the credits screens... You're amazing, and I'm so glad you chose us. Your drawings have feeling, personality... and our game wouldn't have worked otherwise.

And I was so, so happy whenever someone praised your art at MOJO. Because there is nothing more satisfying than seeing someone get the praise they deserve.

Thank you.

We'll probably take a break now, but as far as I am concerned, this is not goodbye. To quote the narrator in the third level of "The Fortress", "sharing an experience like this is bound to increase your bond with someone else."

You, my partners, are now my friends. "And I realized, throughout my journey in The Fortress," that friends are "worth fighting for."

Until next time,

André