Daniel Benmergui is an independent game designer from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

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known for the creation of art games such as '' Today I Die'', '' I Wish I Were the Moon'', and the upcoming '' Storyteller''.

Life and career

Benmergui grew up at his childhood home in a rural area inland in

. Benmergui spent much of his childhood exploring outdoors, and hanging out with much older children from his neighborhood. Before becoming an independent game developer, Benmergui was a development director at the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

mobile game studio

Gameloft Gameloft SE is a French video game publisher based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games with a special focus on the mobile games ma ...

, managing more than 120 game developers. When asked by ''Timothy Courtney'' about his time spent at ''Gameloft'', Benmergui stated "My job was to define and enforce policies on how things are supposed to be done, as well as help with complicated technical problems. I became wiser on how to deal with people, something I am quickly unlearning now!"; Benmergui eventually left his job at a AAA game studio to focus on independent games. Benmergui went on to focus his full-time efforts on ''I Wish I Were the Moon'', calling this time "an emotional revolution". Between 2008–2009, Benmergui created six

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (suc ...

, which most notably included ''I Wish I Were the Moon'', ''Today I Die'', and ''Storyteller''. This was a turning point in Benmergui's career. When asked if he had cycles of creative passion, Benmergui replied "Exactly that: cycles. Sometimes I am productive designing, others programming, others just thinking, and yet others in which I'm not very productive at anything. It is frustrating how at the mercy of our emotional states we are sometimes." Benmergui is one of the co-heads of the game presentation session

Experimental Gameplay Workshop The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tu ...

, held yearly at the GDC.

Awards

''Today I Die'' was chosen as a finalist for the Nuovo Award at the 2010

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

. His multiple-game package ''Moon Stories'' was awarded the Jury Award at Indiecade 2009 and was featured at the

Sense of Wonder Night , commonly known as TGS, is a video game expo / convention held annually in September in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. Th ...

2008 in Tokyo. The as-of-yet unreleased ''Storyteller'' won the IGF Nuovo award in 2012.

Games

* ''Storyteller'' (2008) * '' I Wish I Were the Moon'' (2008) * ''Night Raveler and the Heartbroken Uruguayans'' (2008) * ''Secret of Software 64'' (2008) * ''The Trials'' (2008) * '' Today I Die'' (2009) * ''Ernesto - A Quick RPG'' (2013) * ''Fidel Dungeon Rescue'' (2017) * ''Fidel'' (2017) * '' Storyteller'' (TBD)

References

External links

Benmergui's Blog

Gamasutra Interview
Video game designers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{videogame-bio-stub