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OmarShehata
I absolutely love telling stories and it's more or less why I do everything I do, from making games, to teaching & writing.

Omar Shehata @OmarShehata

Age 29, Male

Graphics Programmer

Ithaca, NY

Joined on 8/1/08

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OmarShehata's News

Posted by OmarShehata - January 13th, 2022


We're working on a game for Pixel Day Jan 23rd (see: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1491529) and we're looking for a musician!


I'm doing the programming, and Kumar (https://www.kumardaryanani.com/pixelart) is doing the art.


The game is basically "Titan Souls in the sky". You control a little airplane, you are the first human to go above the clouds and you encounter giant mythical beasts you must defeat.


Here's a work in progress gif:


iu_523365_2532394.gif


I think this will be a really fun project to make music for because the gameplay will alternate between this very quiet, calm, serene of coasting above the clouds, and the epic intensity of the boss fight against these giant creatures.



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Posted by OmarShehata - January 2nd, 2022


Pixel Day is happening January 23rd, with cash prizes (which I'm happy to split)! See: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1490792. I'd love to make something small & polished, perhaps with a unique mechanic.


I am a programmer who has shipped over a dozen flash games and one desktop game, see games on my profile and here: https://omarshehata.me/games


I have a lot of breadth in my skillset so can execute a lot of different concepts/mechanics to make something unique. I have a few ideas to pitch but happy to brainstorm something that we're both excited about! I think I'm leaning towards something arcade-y and fun (Downwell inspired perhaps). Or something narrative/atmosphere-heavy, inspired by something like this: https://jontiburzi.itch.io/snowday.


If you're interested message me! Happy to consider anyone regardless of experience level.


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Posted by OmarShehata - August 1st, 2021


I just put together an interactive article about how we created the horror/DOOM aesthetic for our game Death's Clutch, if anyone is interested in a behind-the-scenes look!


Read it here: https://omarshehata.me/html/playcanvas-horror-aesthetic/


You can like scroll through and see how the game evolved over time, but you can also move the camera to see how the effects impact different parts of the scene. So it's like an interactive timelapse.


iu_374609_2532394.gif


The game:



Tags:

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Posted by OmarShehata - July 1st, 2021


It's been a very long time since I did a game jam (over 5 years I think???) but I just participated in the recent GMTK jam, here's my game:



The theme was Joined Together. You play as a pair of divine dragons and you can control the weather by pushing the clouds and doing a rain dance to either bring rain, peace and prosperity (or flood the village and starve everyone).


iu_345773_2532394.gif


It was really fun exploring this movement mechanic and the symmetry between the dragons and trying to make something beautiful.


Reflections on game jams


It's a bit weird revisiting game jams after so long. I've done about ~13 game jams in my life when I was 14 to 18 years old. I'm a little astounded at the amount of energy I used to have. I usually worked straight through 48 hours, or napped for an hour or two every night for 72 hour jams.


I'm 26 now. I feel like I just couldn't do that now. In this last jam by productivity tanked around midnight.


I wonder if I really was productive for all those hours or if I was just going really slowly and I hadn't noticed. A lot of those games I made had a lot of content, so it was often a lot of grunt work that didn't require too much focus.


I definitely feel like I could make games a lot faster at 15 than I can now, despite knowing so much more. Part of it is (1) Flash was a really good tool and (2) It was the only tool I used and I got really really good at it. I haven't stuck to one game framework/workflow since, partially because I keep searching for the perfect Flash replacement, but I'm getting a lot faster at making stuff with Phaser. And it is really cool being able to hook into the vast ecosystem of JavaScript, which is something that was never accessible with Flash.


Anyway, making games is fun, and I'm excited for the upcoming Newgrounds game jam, and I'll be looking for artists to collaborate with! Feel free to reach out if you'd like to partner up.


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Posted by OmarShehata - June 20th, 2015


This is the story of my second Newgrounds game jam, back in 2010.

I wrote it on Medium just because I think everything looks pretty there, but I'd love to hear your feedback or any comments!

https://medium.com/@omar4ur/how-ice-boy-taught-me-to-value-work-ethic-over-skill-34f8b773b6fa

2532394_143481948113_baMcBcL.png

I thought it would be fitting to share it here, looking back over all those years, and deeply grateful for my experience with ShadowGamer2, KoolGuyKai and VhsTapeclock


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Posted by OmarShehata - June 2nd, 2013


New writing contest is a go!

The theme: You Are Blind

Many of our mundane and daily tasks are often scary or frightening challenges for the blind, and there are many aspects which none of us ever really stop to think about. For example, have you ever thought about , when a blind person pours a cup of tea, how they know when the cup is full?(excerpt from contest thread)

If you have a passion for writing then come on down and give it a shot! We also have some interesting prizes.

Even if you're not a writer, I'm predicting there will be lots of interesting (maybe even mindblowing as in previous contests!) stories, so keep an eye out on the submission thread and maybe even join the discussion!

Also, please follow the Lit101 account to get notified of future writing contests, as well as new tutorials and tips by the veteran writers of Newgrounds!

http://lit101.newgrounds.com/follow


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Posted by OmarShehata - April 20th, 2013


Dear Newgrounds,

I love you, very very much. To say that you've been a part of my life would be a gross understatement. You've influenced me in ways I could not imagine. I've practically grown up here. I don't remember a time before Newgrounds.

I've recently gotten accepted to the University of Rochester, a very selective school in the united states. And I was accepted only because of Newgrounds. Here is an excerpt from the admission letter:

Each of our 1,200 new Rochester students will have to make a critical, personal contribution to life on Rochester's River Campus. Learning about your experiences creating Concerned Joe has convinced me that you belong here. Your personal perspective will add value for every other student.

I do not give credit to myself. It's not my experience nor perspective that would make a valuable contribution. It's the spirit and experience of Newgrounds that I have been very lucky to perceive.

I remember one summer, years ago, when I would read a little bit of Tom Fulp's biography and Newgrounds' history every night while drinking Arabic Coffee. I'll never forgot how inspired I felt, and it shook me how one thirteen year old boy's dream could eventually grow so large so as to change the lives of so many people.

Four years ago, Xelu made a thread on Newgrounds called "Looking for a programmer". I checked it out and PMed him. We just wanted to make a game for fun.

And who would have thought 4 years later, thousands of miles away, we'd be meeting for the first time ever in San Francisco, headed for the Game Developers Conference to showcase the game that has become the focal point, and purpose of our lives for the past 2-3 years, Concerned Joe.

So I would like to say, thank you Newgrounds, for being alive and beautiful.

~Omar

An Open Letter to Newgrounds


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Posted by OmarShehata - February 4th, 2013


Oh no, not me. I'm holed up in my closet all day. I meant Joe!


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Posted by OmarShehata - December 8th, 2012


With an appetite for knowledge!

Also I just wanted to post this pic...which actually belongs to Xelu.

Breakfast


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Posted by OmarShehata - November 24th, 2012


..::NG's Code Challenges::..

I'm also still working on Joe. So check out my devblog and twitter!

http://concerned-joe.com/devblog/

https://twitter.com/ConcernedJoe


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