A new name, and a new direction
I haven’t written here in months, and quite a few things have changed in that time. This post is to tell you about all of them in one place: the name I go by from now on, what’s happening with the studio and with Proyecto Neural, and what my first game is going to be.
A few months away
The reason I disappeared is that my mother fell ill, something serious, and since then I’ve been completely focused on her: from spending whole days at the hospital to taking care of every detail so her treatments were followed to the letter. She’s stable now and slowly recovering. I’m still keeping an eye on things, but I finally have some time and headspace for my projects again.
These months also pushed me to make decisions I’d been mulling over for a while. Here they are:
From Livaik to Rubén Fuertes
This was quite a big dilemma for me. For years, some of you have known me as Livaik. Under that name I had a gaming YouTube channel and streamed on Twitch, organised and took part in esports tournaments and events, and set up servers for the community, like Livaikraft, which I ran from 2020 to 2025, among many other things.
But alongside that there was my other identity, Rubén Fuertes, with a separate YouTube channel where I posted speedpaints, some development projects and all kinds of content.
The problem came when I decided to take game development seriously. I didn’t know how to present myself: Livaik had been my gaming persona for the last eight years, but what I do now is development, art and writing. So I chose to simplify and bring everything together instead of running two sets of social accounts: from now on, all my work goes under my own name, Rubén Fuertes. Livaik isn’t going away; it still has its place, in case you ever want to watch a clip or add me for a quick game of League or anything else.
From Livaik Studio to QuBlip
The studio changes along with the name: Livaik Studio is now called QuBlip. It’s a new stage, and I wanted it to have a brand of its own, clean, not tied to a nickname. Everything about the studio is at qublip.com.
Proyecto Neural, on hold
Proyecto Neural (which started out as Proyecto Pétalo, until I noticed it was confusing people, who thought I was making a game about flowers) is on hold. It’s too ambitious for the time and resources I have right now. It isn’t cancelled, but given the circumstances I don’t know when I’ll pick it up again, and I’d rather focus on something I can finish.
Polybarius, my first game
Polybarius: a 1981 arcade cabinet. Salvaged. Still works.
Each coin is a new life. Insert one and the machine deals you a chapter at random: a tiny arcade game with its own rules. It isn’t a project up in the air: it’s officially my first release as a game developer, with QuBlip, and it’s planned for 2027.
It already has a Steam page. If it catches your eye, adding it to your wishlist is the best way to support it: it tells Steam that people are interested and makes Steam show it to more players.
Streams and what’s next
Streams are taking a back seat. What little time I have goes into development and the studio. I’ll do one now and then, and they’ll probably come back later on, but right now they’re not the priority.
What I will do is share here how development is going. You’ll find me on social media as Rubén Fuertes and the studio as QuBlip; all the links are on this site, including the community’s Discord server.
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during this time. See you in the next one.