Gemfruit

Who?

Welcome to my humble abode, make yourself a drink or two, and prepare to be informed on just who I am. If you’re here, chances are that you already know me and just don’t know it yet. Perhaps you’re being redirected from my old blog, or perhaps I sent you here from the EpicShadow website. Regardless of how you got here, you’re here now, and that makes me feel all warm inside.

My name is Porter, and I’m the founder of Gemfruit, this wonderful site we’re currently co-existing on. Before I founded Gemfruit, I was co-owner of Epic Shadow Entertainment (best known for Tower of Greed and Pixel Purge), and semi-active flash game industry blogger over at my old blog, Porter’s World. I go pretty far back in the industry, as far back as mid 2007 when I released my first decently popular game with David Millz, Stabika Episode 1: Escape. If you still don’t know who I am at this point, don’t worry about it, I’ve only just prepared to make the dent in the games industry I have planned, so all that old stuff hardly counts.

Why The New Branding?

Ah yes, the reasoning behind the change of branding, and this particular name, a good question to ask indeed. Well, as you may have noticed, Epic Shadow hasn’t released anything in awhile, since Pixel Purge roughly six months ago. This is mostly due to the fact that Epic Shadow doesn’t really exist anymore. That’s right, for those of you who don’t hang around Flash Game License often, Andrew and I are no longer team members. There’s a lot of reasons we’ve split up, regardless, I think it’s better that we each have our own thing going on. I’ve formed the new branding of Gemfruit, and he’s currently going with the name The Village Blacksmith. We’re both talented game developers, and I’m positive you’ll see plenty more from both of us under our new names.

What’s With The New Name?

There’s a few reasons for this, all of which make great sense to me, and hopefully with you once you know the explanation. First off, I absolutely needed a new brand name. I didn’t create Epic Shadow, nor did I take any part in naming it. When Andrew and I stopped working together, I needed a fresh slate, and a new brand name was the best way to go about doing just that. I wanted to create my own name, something I was proud of, and something that I would be excited to release my work under. While I was happy to release my old games when that time came, I never really felt any special connection to the name Epic Shadow.

When it came time to pick a new name, I knew right off that I wanted “Gem” in the name. There are two reasons for this, one more meaningful than the other. The first, I wanted a name that I was proud of. The first game I ever created, that was truly special to me, was Tower of Greed. I poured my heart into every minute of development, and it’s still one of my favorite games of all time. How does this relate to “Gem” you might ask? Well, it isn’t because you collect gems in Tower of Greed, but rather that you are a GEM (named Gem) in Tower of Greed. GEM, stands for Green Eyed Monster, and that’s the species you play as the main character in Tower of Greed. Although that little buddy didn’t have too much personality in the first game (if any), he’s sure to in future installments of the series. The second reason I like having “Gem” in the name, is because I’m a perfectionist. The biggest reason I don’t get too many games done, is because I just need them to be perfect, and they end up being much bigger than I have time for. It’s both a strength, and a weakness. When I do get a game out, it’s usually pretty damn good, well received by the public, and has fantastic ratings and reviews. Gems are often used to describe the best of a selection, and that’s exactly the kind of game I strive to make, a gem among all other games. When it comes to adding fruit to the name, that’s pretty simple. I was searching for a word to tack onto “Gem”, and wasn’t having too much luck. I asked my girlfriend Verena to help me out, and after many, many attempts, she finally suggested “fruit”. I checked to see if the domain was available (it was), and instantly fell in love with it. I purchased the domain in a rushed panic, as if someone was magically going to steal it from me that very minute if I was to delay at all. In addition, everyone who is anyone loves some form or another of fruit. Fruit is also a very short and easy word to remember, as is gem, making Gemfruit a simple and memorable URL. If I wanted to dig really deep, I could say that my personality is rather eccentric, and some would/have called me a fruit from time to time, but that could be pushing it. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the name, and am proud to call it my new branding/home on the internet.

What Is A Gemfruit?

So I had finally picked two words that were short, awesome, and flowed together. Now came the challenge of deciding what exactly a “Gemfruit” is. Keep in mind the branding is Gemfruit, a single word, not Gem Fruit. While the final branding doesn’t exist just yet, the concept of a Gemfruit has been floating around in my head for some time now. The current imagery of a Gemfruit, is a large fruit that grows on a very special tree, think Secrets of Mana. The outer “shell” is a strong wrapping of thick green leaves, while the core is a vibrant blue fruit, much like a glowing gem. I’ve played a ton of games in my day, ranging from the classic NES games, to the latest and greatest of the PC. I think the design of the Gemfruit is heavily influenced from the various RPG’s I’ve played, and the classic concept of collecting coins/gems/fruits being awesome. Regardless of it’s influence, I really like the mental image I have, and can’t wait to see it come to life.

On that note, I’m currently looking into having the logo professionally done, if you’re interested, or know someone that can do a great logo, drop a comment and I’ll check it out.

What Now?

If you made it this far, my love goes out to you. I’m extremely happy to have finally picked a branding I care about, and there’s a lot of great projects on the way. My current project is coming along nicely, and you’ll get to find out what that is very soon. I’ve got an enormous amount of energy to harness into many already planned future projects, and that’s exactly how I plan on using it. There’s a lot of thoughts pertaining to the game industry floating around in my head, and you can rest assured that all of them, and then some more, will make their way to this blog sooner than later.