Hi all,
my name is Juan Raigada (duh). I go by that or by juanraigada everywhere online these days. I am 36, a father of a two month old son, married to an awesome wife which somehow respects my (many, wide-reaching ) hobbies and member of the forum since 2012.
I had a weird education (Computer Science and Fine Arts simultaneous degrees) and for a while I worked on the film industry. I got to be assistant director and second unit director on a Cannes award winning film (critic’s prize, but a really small film nonetheless) but eventually I figured I did not have the social/networking skills or the willingness to get them to advance further and I became an indie game developer (mostly because I lacked the resume to get into the industry proper,but it turned out to be the best decision, I think). So far I haven’t gone broke, which is an achievement in the current market! yay. It’s also because I teach part-time (college and vocational training levels) which helps pays the bills and to maintain a level income in-between project windfalls.
Game wise I like pretty much everything and depending on the month I might be into some AAA extravaganza or a super niche Japanese strategy game I translate as I play with my phone (I’m so happy Super Robot Wars games are being translated now…). the only thing that normally puts me off is really long games (and exceptional examples I try to play) just because I prefer to switch games often. My long term playing is mostly Blood Bowl (I help manage a league that will be looking for new members soon) and solo boardgames (the kid has made these harder to put up, but I have a plan…).
I’ve somewhat recently started to explore wargames, less because an interest in history (although that’s there) and more because I became tired with current boardgame design trends, more concerned about mechanical iteration/combination that about experiential and narrative design.
I also do sci-fi modelling as a hobby I’m really into (mechas and Maschinen Krieger stuff). You can see some of my work on the hobby desk thread here. Sadly, the kid will also make these come about way less often for a while (and I have no plan for this, unless I buy a new house, which isn’t happening).