About
Alexander Bruce could be described in many ways: a loving father, a dedicated soldier, a learned scholar… though none of these descriptions would be factually accurate at all. Alexander is actually an independent games developer.
Alexander has quite an unusual personality, and over the years, this has lead to much criticism. In his early education, teachers would berate him for spending his time pondering his existence rather than playing with other children. In high school he acquired the label of ‘nerd’ for being interested in his education, and during his university years, this escalated into being further criticized by his peers because opportunities always seemed to come so easily to him. While working in the games industry, Alexander was ‘reminded’ several times that despite having wild design ideas for games, he was actually a programmer, and upon creating a game independently to prove himself, he then received criticism for being pretentious. But, like the protagonist of any true action movie, such wounds only made him stronger, to the point where at the end of the movie he beats the hell out of everyone and then says something like yippi ki-ay mother fu… Wait, what?
Okay. Maybe writing this as a story isn’t going to get the right message across. I guess where I was trying to go with that is that over the years, I’ve faced a lot of criticism for whatever reason. However, my response to criticism is to just keep getting better at how you live your life, which has lead me to develop an extremely positive view of the world. I believe that you can achieve anything in life, with the only barrier being how willing you are to work towards something. Though people will always have their own reasons for criticism, at the end of the day, I’m just looking to get through life in the only way I know how. Thinking differently, helping others, working hard, and aiming to inspire.
You are absolutely amazing. Please finish this game so I can get that 4th blue cube that I couldn’t find in the demo. Loved the octagon room, that made me lol. +1
You can get the 4th cube. It’s under the floor at the final door. I’ll do a blog post mentioning that, as a number of people haven’t noticed the spring pad just before the final door. Or, if they have, they haven’t known what to do with it. Try jumping on it.
Thanks.
Ah okay. Thanks a lot. It’s a really great game, and before reading most of you blog I thought about Braid a lot, and found it interesting to see it mentioned. Hazard > Braid in my opinion however, Because in Braid the philosophy is just there. In hazard you actually need it to succeed. Continue doing what you do best!
Thanks. I didn’t actually think about the philosophy of Braid when I was making Hazard. The first time I played Braid I didn’t care for the story at all and just ran through the puzzles. Only played it again recently and actually read everything in it. Same goes for Portal. I was making this game long before Portal was ever announced, but people always say it’s like Portal. Can’t avoid it.
Glad you like it though.
Amazing Game, I also like that, much like the game, even your website has that “hidden room”-like part when you click on the Pink Suit. Very interesting design and I found the philosophical depth really inspiring.
We all get criticism, and here is mine :
Hazard The Journey of Life is a piece of inspiring art. My only complaint would be the seeming lack of chaos and randomness in its nature but then from what I can see it doesn’t really befits your outlook of life
Anyway keep thinking different and innovate.
I found a way to have my cake, and eat it too! Those last few signs speak the truth in so many ways. I’m definitely purchasing this game. Perhaps several times.
Hey thanks for being different, making fascinating games and sharing!
Thanks for your autonomy Alexander, I can feel it in the way you see hazards in life that you illustrate really well in the game. This unidentified game in developpement is probably the best experience I ever encounter. I gone nearly sick the first try I went in but perhaps is it just normal to fight madness in its journey? Hazard reinvents moves in 3D games, it’s a praise to WASD. I hope its clever concepts would serve the videogame industry to understand what a game should have to be a real one. The sad part is that the game is probably to much in advance on its time. I don’t think the public is ready for this experience but at least all hardcore gamer will adore the game.
Hey Alexander! You probably don’t remember me at all, but we met very briefly at E3 2010, as you were showing off Hazard. I’m a college student in Milwaukee, studying Software Engineering, and I hope to become a video game developer. In order to pay for a ticket to E3, I had to drop down to one meal a day for the last quarter of my freshman year. I’m very happy to say that your game was one of the greatest things I’ve taken away from this journey of mine thus far, and I just wanted to let you know that you were a part of the single step that began it all. Thank you, and keep up the good work!