Charlie Velazquez Spotlight: Dragons and Gods

By Katey Bluel kateybluel.weebly.com

Dragons and Gods

Game developer Charlie Velazquez has just released an app on the ITunes app store called “Dragons and Gods”. He worked on developing his app for a little over a year. Charlie explained that “Dragons and Gods” is a side scroller game, with the goal of unlocking new dragons and leveling them up to see them evolve.

As the sole developer, he used multiple programs to develop the project’s content. The programs used were Corona (game engine), Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Texture Packer, Physics Editor, FL Studio, myscriptfont.com, and Audacity. When Charlie was asked what inspired him, he said, “Since I can remember I’ve loved dragons! But what really inspired me to create “Dragons and Gods” is a game called “War Dragons”. “War Dragons” is a 3D game that is all about collecting over 100 unique dragons and leveling them up in
order for the player to become a feared dragon lord. It has astounding graphics, it really brings dragons to life, and I wanted to give that a try in my own way.” His favorite part during development was programming as it really opened his eyes as to how games are developed as well as using programming to bring his artwork to life. Although programming was his favorite part, he admits it was also the hardest part. “When I started this project I did not know the Lua language, I did not take any classes to learn it either. Luckily, ACU offers times every week during the fall semester where there is a tutor available to help with Lua programming. So, I went to tutoring as often as I could. I got the help of awesome tutors and I probably couldn’t have done it without them.”

His advice to anyone who wants to develop an app is, “Have fun with it, and be creative! Put in a little time and effort in everyday cause it all adds up.” Support Charlie with his accomplishment by downloading “Dragons and Gods” today!

You can see more about “Dragons and Gods” by going to Charlie’s website.