Hello one and all. I hail from that small country at the edge of Europe called Portugal. I'm a Computer Engineering student, and I have hopes of one day being a professional game designer/artist. For now, game design is mainly a hobby that has the benefit of filling my portfolio.
Outside of games, I have a passion for animals of all kinds, even the ones that are not much popular. I also enjoy building stuff, all the way from Lego to the Gundam model kit I built not too long ago.
I belong to the Pok�mon generation, and never really stopped enjoying the games. There's a fantastic strategic element in those games for those who take the time to look for it. Sonic's also one of those classics that influeced me, with part of my childhood being spent looking at Sonic 2 on display at the local toy shop. I never actually owned a Sonic game before Sonic Advance, but Sonic games would frequently be my first picks for games to play at friends' places.
One really big, though more recent influence in my game design philosophy is Mega Man. I got to that late, but I loved it as soon as I started playing it, especially the faster-paced X style gameplay. One very important thing I got out of it was how to develop a character horizontally instead of vertically. The so-called "RPG elements" feel empty when all they do is increase numeric values and then the enemies scale with them, so you really don't feel any stronger. Should be called "NCG (Number Crunching Game) elements" instead. Megaman is a good example of doing this right. While there are the occasional vertical upgrades like health bar expansions, most of the upgrades are horizontal. You get to do more stuff instead of just doing the same stuff but better. It's easier to get a feel of powering up when the options you have increase.
Also, fighting games. I love them, especially the more over-the-top ones like Guilty Gear. One of my dreams is to one day work on the fighter and design the cast.
I did the tutorial, and started work on a breakout style game as my first project. I'm thinking of having boss battles on this one. What a twist!
And it's getting late here, so I'll stop here. If anyone wants to ask anything, go ahead!