MEET LD ZAMBRANO OF TERAVISION GAMES, HOME OF CAPTAIN TOONHEAD!

Let the people know who you are! What’s your role?

Hi, I’m Luis, but everybody calls me LD. I have been a gamer since I was 5 when my dad got us an Intellivision II with BurgerTime. Now I’m a Co-founder and the Creative Director here at Teravision Games. After all these years in gaming, I have to confess that I’ve never been able to finish a Mega Man game (and not for a lack of trying) and I also publicly hate pineapple on pizza, even when I secretly kind of enjoy it. I’m not sure what that says about me.

How did you get into the gaming industry?

Back in 2005, I did my internship at a Venezuelan tech company and my first project was coding for an online 3D horse race simulator. There, I met my amazing friend Enrique (Teravision Games' CEO), and while working together on that project, we fell in love with the magic of turning our working hours into characters that move at your command on a screen. He then had the life-changing idea of founding a studio focused exclusively on game development and I had the life-changing idea to follow him on that quest. So glad I did! Because 16 years later, after moving our Studio to Colombia and working on around 80 games for entertainment companies like Disney, Nickelodeon, Namco, and Atari, today I'm proudly talking to the Squanchiest blog on the Internet about Captain ToonHead Vs the Punks from Outer Space: a VR game that we self-founded, self-published and carefully crafted using everything the Teravision Games' team collectively knows and loves. Imagine what a bunch of geeky game devs from LatAm who intensely love games, TV, and dinosaurs could create when left unsupervised…well, our answer to that is Captain ToonHead!

For someone who may not be familiar with the game, tell us about Captain ToonHead.

Technically speaking, CTH is a first-person-tower-defense-adventure designed specifically for VR. But what you will really experience from the game is the journey of a cabin-fevered TV-obsessed space-janitor called Elliott Salazar that, in the year 2083, was suddenly left alone to save Earth after a burrito-related explosion obliterated the top-shelf military heroes that were assigned to stop an interplanetary menace composed by idiotic kleptomaniac punks, flying copter-cats, underground sharks, purple T-Rexes and, of course, Cyber-C.H.I.C.K.E.N.s… moving stuff totally based on true life events! 

Why do you think someone who played Trover Saves the Universe should play Captain ToonHead?

Well, if you like fully voice-acted adventures that feature inadequate heroes, galactic commuting, toxic work-related video calls, unnecessarily messy spaceships, conflict resolution based on cartoony violence, and a bobble-head dog, you should try out Captain ToonHead. Similar to Trover, our game proposes a clever VR take on a classic genre. What the Squanch team brilliantly did for 3D platformers, we like to think we did for Tower Defense games.

What’s the best part about VR gaming?

Not being able to scroll through my phone during loading screens!

The level of immersion achieved by being isolated from the real world while fully embodying a character when you play a well-crafted VR game, helps me experience gaming similar to how I did in my childhood. By that I mean being able to blatantly ignore homework while trying to beat a Koopaling boss by physically jumping along with Mario with each button press. It’s irresponsibly magical!

Do you have a favorite video game of all time?

OH! Ocarina of Time! Except for the stupid Gold Skulltulas, I couldn’t find all those suckers. I hate you, Skulltulas! 

So much of Captain ToonHead is rooted in humor and hilarious references. Why is it important to create games that make people laugh?

I feel that when you really laugh about something you are somatically expressing an oftentimes unconscious relatedness with that thing that you found funny. It’s an authentic out-loud expression of your identity, and that is always satisfying and relaxing. Life is already complicated and identity is hard for some of us, so I’m proud that we strive to trigger these sudden breaks of self-expression in the form of laughter and, through them, enable positive feelings in players that find our games funny. We want to make people feel good, there is already too much stuff in the world working on the opposite.

If a TV was on your head right now, what show would be playing?

It would probably be a courtroom show à la Judge Judy where all participants and hosts are George Constanza. It’s called Court Constanza. I’m fine.

There’s a huge variety of unique enemies in Captain ToonHead! Who do you think would win in a fight: Terra-sharks or a T-Rex?

None! a Cyber-C.H.I.C.K.E.N. is my champion…those tiny mofos have no weaknesses.

Rank these weapons/defenses in order from least to most powerful: Lethal hot sauce beams, a piñata blitz, electrified pizza, and chancla throws.

- (Least) Lethal hot sauce beams: Only because I have met people with inhuman hot sauce tolerance, I really suffered through that realization when I visited Mexico.
- Electrified Pizza: You need to be really dumb to have a bite of an evidently short-circuiting buzzing slice…even if it has pineapple...what?
- Piñata Blitz: You’ll never see it coming from above despite the oinks, because there is deep-rooted prejudice in our society about pigs being unable to fly. Sad.
- (Most) Chancla Throws: It’s clear from our Latino upbringings that there isn’t a more powerful weapon in the entire universe than a thrown flip-flop. It NEVER misses. Especially effective for turning off my overheated NES at bedtime. 

A burrito-related incident is an integral element of the Captain Toonhead story, so we have to know: what are you putting on your favorite burrito?

I don’t eat burritos anymore. After meeting Janine-5, ToonHead’s talking burrito companion, I developed a new perspective on burritos as sentient beings. They have a complex sense of identity, they can be great mentors and friends, their professionalism as operating systems is unmatched. I can’t in good conscience eat something with feelings, no matter the fillings. On the other hand… F*CK TACOS! I’ll always eat those tasty bastards ON SIGHT!

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3...2...1...GIVEAWAY TIME!

If you liked collecting green powerbabies from the deep dark depths of the universe, then you're really gonna love rescuing sentient yellow cubes in an array of absolutely insane intergalatic missions. Lucky for you, we're giving away 5 DUO PACKS of Trover Saves the Universe and Captain ToonHead! CAN I GET A HELL YEAH?! 👂 ONE MORE TIME. 👂 That's what I thought.

Now through April 9th, hit the link below for your shot at winning the game codes.

1. Like this post.
2. Follow @squanchgames and @teravisiongames on Instagram.
3. Tag a friend you'd share your Oddball Space Comedy duo with! (1 Comment = 1 Entry)

Can't wait? We get that. As your gracious hosts, you can now head to the Meta Quest Store to purchase the pack at a discounted rate for a LIMITED TIME ONLY!

This giveaway will end on April 9, 2022, at 11:59 PM EST. Open to US residents only. No purchase necessary.

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