Samer Khatib Games: Branding, logos and labels - Explained

UPDATE: 4/23/2021

Some of the information in this blog post is no longer valid or relevant. The "Samer Khatib's" brand has been canceled. Instead, all games published by Snowconesolid Productions going forward will be labeled and or branded as Samer Hills games. For more information on this decision and on the Samer Hills brand, please visit the Samer Hills post here:

//SAMER HILLS URL - COMING SOON

Original post below.

     As someone who has been a small-time independent video game developer since 2010 trying to build a brand name, operate a game studio and make a name for myself in the video games industry - there has always been a lack of consistency with my works, how they present themselves, and how I represent myself and my brand. Branding is an interesting topic and it's important for any company or creative individual. It's something that I personally feel like I have overlooked over time or rather, something that took a lot of figuring out over time. 

     Over the years and especially in recent weeks ever since returning to the indie game dev scene with "The Debug" - I have tossed many new names and labels around. I even announced a new type of branding/label earlier today on Twitter. The "Samer Khatib's" label. And, in typical Samer Khatib fashion, I have taken something that should be simple and turned it into something that is unnecessarily over convoluted. All these different names/labels paired with older names or brands/labels and icons that I came up with from earlier Samer Khatib game development years have made me a developer with more confusing naming and labeling than all of Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

     My name is literally everywhere. I always believed that there is no better way to own your own work than to simply just put your name on it. You see a lot of "Samer Khatib" plastered all over the place in all of my works. I know it's obnoxious and you're probably thinking "wow, this guy is really full of himself". It's annoying I know but I swear I'm not trying to be funny and I honestly do have an explanation and reasoning as to why I label everything and overuse my own name.

     So, in this blog post, I'm going to explain all the naming, branding, icons, and labels I use as a game developer/studio and explain what everything means.

Brands & Label names:

     * "Snowconesolid Productions" - This is the name of the studio. Additionally, sometimes you might see "Samer Khatib (Snowconesolid Productions) LLC". This is also the name of the studio. These names are interchangeable. 

Examples of where you would see these appear in my works: At the very start of any of my games, the very first splash screen that will pop up will be the first label. It will just say "Snowconesolid Productions". As for the second label, which is much longer, this is for other things such as copyright of the game or whatever product is. 

How it's typically represented in games. Half Snowconesolid Mascot in the center followed by the text Snowconesolid Productions below. You may also see different variations of this logo, but the same design and format.

Not dead!

     Hello everyone. I just wanted to post a real quick blog update just to show that I am still here and active and very much in the indie game making scene. I know I haven't posted in a long time. Actually, I haven't been active on here, or YouTube or even my Twitter. Admittedly, I don't even really do YouTube or use my channel but, I am typically a very active Twitter user. 

     Anyway, for those of you wondering where I have been, what I have been up to, why I haven't posted a blog update or tweeted anything stupid as I usually do. No, I didn't give up on making games or move onto other things outside of my favorite art form. As a matter of fact, I have been extremely busy with game development related things. More specifically, my new indie game project. I have been crunching on my new game project, working on it full time all day and all night. 

     I realized that I waste so many hours in a day watching YouTube and being on Twitter. I decided to go on a little diet from those for a while so that I can focus all my time and energy on my new game. And I gotta say, it has really been working out for me. I'm able to get so much more done now and make much more progress on my project. It was a hard transition to make at first. To just stop wasting so much time on sites you visit every minuet and just focus on your own work. But once I got into it, I have just been cruising smoothly. I feel less stressed out because of the good progress I can make in a day. whenever I didn't make a satisfying amount of progress on my project or no progress at all, for some reason I would just feel super bummed out and disappointed. I love creating games and I want to make games but at the same time, when I can't focus or stay focused it feels impossible to make games. It would make me not want to make games. I'm glad that I was able to finally just get myself in the zone and change my ways. It feels great to get things done and pursue your dreams.

     I have been pretty quiet about this new project that I have been working on. I never really shared anything like screenshots or talked about it here on the blog or Twitter like pretty much everything else that I worked on. The only thing that I have shown from the new game is that giraffe character from the image above. That's about it though. I realized that there really is no point in constantly posting new screenshots or talking about it all the time. That would just contribute to getting distracted away from the actual project. The thing that actually matters. So I decided that from now on, i'm just going to work on my games and release them. None of that "here's some prototype images" or "here is a trailer showing off early footage" bs. Just make the games. Put them out. When they are done, then they are done and out and that's when things like screenshots and such are important. The only thing that matters is the final product. Not the ideas, not the betas, not the early screens and so on. Plus, this leaves the game to be more of a surprise in the end. 

     All I will say for now is that my new project is unlike anything I have ever made before. It's not a quick short "made in 3 days" type of game, it's not a joke game like Potato Thriller was. This project is actually a serious attempt and effort from me trying to make a good game for once. I have been working on it for many months now. It's a really large project but I am full of motivation. As usual, this project is all 100% me. I'm making it completely alone. All the models, designs, levels, story, mechanics, ui, etc. I make all my own art assets and what not. I never asset flip. So of course I will spend more time than other developers who just have art available for them. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but for me, I prefer that all the art is always my own unique designs. So, I have been working hard and I am going full steam ahead with this one! 

     Anyway, that's pretty much it. I just wanted to show a sign of life real quick. I am still here. I am still making games. I have a new one in the works. I have a ton of other ones also in the works. I am super excited about them, especially about this giraffe project and I can't wait to share more when the time is right. 

What is Hamar Hills?????

     Okay, I have been doing a really bad job posting updates here on the blog lately. I always say I want to post more often but then never get to it. I have a ton of stuff I want to share though and I will actually have a lot more daily blog post in the following days because I can't cover everything in just one post. So, let's just get straight into it.

     Today I want to talk about my next upcoming game project. Actually, most of the following blog post will all be about this. "Hamar Hills" is my newest game in the works. I started talking and sharing some stuff about this project a couple months ago here on the blog, but then would just disappear for a while after that. So I was never consistent with the updates on progress. Also, barely anything was even shown for the game. I showed off development screens in the past, a couple days ago I released a very short confusing teaser trailer (which actually really has nothing to do with the game) so what the heck is "Hamar Hills" even suppose to be!?!

     If you have followed any of my previous work or played any of my previous games (Potato Thriller for example) you should know by now that when I start working on something, over time I end up changing my mind about a lot of stuff and end up going a completely different route with it. Things usually start to get real weird and random real fast in my game projects. I would say something about the game one day, then the next day do something completely different. I have said this many times in the past before actually, but I am terrible at planning games from beginning to end and usually I end up randomly making it up as I go. This isn't fully true for "Hamar Hills" because I do have a really good idea of what I want this game to be. But a lot of change in direction has already  been done since I posted the teaser trailer a few days ago.

     "Hamar Hills" will be a third person horror game about a man who wonders into the abandoned town of (guess the name of town) "Hamar Hills". I have made a lot of progress on this game so far in terms of development and I think it will be a very unique game experience. I have no exact finish date just yet. A lot more work needs to be done on the project. But like I said, more  updates will be following in the days coming so keep checking back here.

For now, here is a ton of new screenshots to look at I took from development. I always like to talk a ton about my new project, not really say anything about it (even after saying that I was going to explain it more, and then show off a ton of screenshots that aren't even from the final product. But you could kind of see some cool behind the scenes work going on here I guess and I like sharing this kind of stuff. Please enjoy!

DEV SCREENS!!!!

Hamar Hills Teaser Trailer

   
    Short teaser trailer for my new game "Hamar Hills" - Coming Soon. More updates to follow later on. Enjoy! Vvrroooooooom!!!!!

Potato Thriller Final Trailer

Hey everyone.  First of all, I wanna say thanks to all those who voted for "Potato Thriller" on steam so far. Thank you all for your support.

The trailer I had up on the potato thriller STEAM  page is pretty outdated. I made that trailer when the game was still early in development. Now that so much as changed and so many new things have been added to the game I thought it would be a good idea to create an updated game trailer to give a little preview of what can be expected in the final game.

Here is the newest and final trailer for "Potato Thriller" Enjoy!

If you are interested in silly horror games and want to see this game become available on STEAM then please go hit that YES button and help it get the GREENLIGHT over here:

VOTE FOR POTATO THRILLER

Thanks once again for the support everyone. More updates coming soon.

Release: Slippery Ice Ball (Android)

     Im getting bored trying to make big complicated games with story lines and purpose. Yesterday, I decided to take break from that. Instead, I decided to create a really dumb pointless game. I wanted to create something short, simple and in only a couple hours. So I created "Slippery Ice Ball"

A game where you play as a slippery ice ball in an ice cave maze. Collect pears to survive. Don't hit the walls or else you will loose. Not sure why I created this. It kinda sucks actually. If you like a stressful challenge then this is the game for you.

Download for free from the Google Play Store today!

Enjoy. As always, more soon!

DOWNLOAD HERE <<<LINK

I don't know what I'm creating

     Hello everyone. Blog update time. Last time I posted here I mentioned that I was working on a new game. And I have created a bunch of prototypes and a lot of new game assets and all that other good stuff. But the truth is, I honestly have no idea what it is I am actually creating. I have had ideas come and go but can't seem to decide exactly what it is I want to create. My mind constantly changes and sometimes I even loose interest in making the game. I've been busy with other things besides making games. Like real life and my real job lately. So I don't really get the chance to work on my game projects or update the blog as often anymore.

But still, I want to continue to create. I will always create stuff as long as I enjoy doing so.
Anyway, in my free time I have been working on this very strange game that I have been mentioning recently. But at this point, I am pretty much making it up as I go. As you can see by the screenshots, the game is going to be very weird, very random and very wtf. Nothing new though right? Somehow all my games end up just being weird and random and I have even said that I usually just make them up as I go in older posts. :)

Anyway, The new game I am making is P.T! Or at least, it is going to be a game inspired off of the very popular Silent Hills PT demo (an awesome game that ended up getting canceled)

And with all that said. Here is some screenshots. Goodnight. More updates soon.