Gamedev Brain

Hey Look Game Design!

Posted on August 21, 2015 by magicrat_larry

Going full design, what an interesting transition from prototyping game-play. We spent a while getting the visual and the game play experience ironed out for Violent Sol Worlds now we have a great understanding of how this game will look, feel, and play. We now have to turn our attention to the design of a game that will encompass all that we now understand about it.

There seems to be two areas of design so far. The technical, which Aaron is running straight in to now, and the world, which I think interests me more. The technical generates things like flow charts and systems behind the scenes that all communicate together for the game loop to function well, and effectively. It is important to get that correct, especially for Violent Sol Worlds, it is going to be something we have to live with for a long while. We plan on extending this game over time to be much larger than it is at Alpha build 1.

The world design is interesting to me because it is a lot to do with what you will be seeing, hearing, reading, and interacting with. I am working on animals now and it is a bit of an experience in itself. I started with the types of biomes the planet will have, now I am thinking of how to come up with the animals that live within them.

Nothing, when done right, with love and care, is easy. So getting the creatures correctly placed and balanced with different types that will make sense is a task in itself. I need a system to think about it and that is what I am coming up with now. It is an enjoyable phase of development and I can’t wait to continue the journey.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Problems Generated By Successful Actions

Posted on August 20, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I used to think that game development was this glamorous, fun, coding, experience that was intense but just a blast. I know better now. The truth behind game development is that it is a lot of work. It still is fun, but there is no glamour.

What do I mean? Well Let me tell you my story. I used to do this as a hobby. I loved to make cool things render to the screen. I would play around with it for a few hours a week. Then it turned into a few hours a day. From there I gathered people, they wanted to make games. So it turned into 20 hours a week. At that point I mostly coded, still seemed like my vision of what I though game development was was true.

I then started to think, if we get a game to the finish line, how do we sell it? Then entered marketing time. I started about 5-10 minutes every day. That turned into 30 minutes. Then it turned into and hour. Before I knew better, it was my entire 20 hours a week. Is that bad? No. I am driven by success, so as I got feedback and validation from people, like you, I spent more time doing it.

Now, I reach a problem. The fans, followers, and generally great people that I strove to entertain are pushing me further. I am out of time. Eventually I need to code the game, keep up marketing, and innovate in both areas. We have to get this to be a full-time equation soon or things have to be cut. Problem is you cannot cut either development or marketing because you’d be cutting your own projects head off.

I love this problem, can’t really have a better one. I just have to solve it and continue to grow. Love all you people out there that drive me, keep it coming and I do pass it on to our team that is working on the game. Problems generated by success mean you are participating in life and not just along for the ride.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Games Are a No Brainer

Posted on August 17, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I’ve heard it over and over again, business is hard. I think peoples definition of hard is really the problem here. Business is easy to succeed in. Trust me. It’s not hard, just be smart and start something that a place needs based on a places needs, not on your love for the thing you are starting. If you do that then you have a successful business.

If you just say I love knitting scarfs. Then take that love and just open up a shop for knitted scarfs near you. You are bound to fail. Why? because you had no business thoughts that lead you to open that shop, just love and passion for the knitting of scarfs. I know you love it, but it still won’t make a terrible idea work.

The cool thing about game development is that it is location less. It is entertainment and it can be priced well for global sales. Gamed development is also a nice production model as well. You can make a great game for very little money and produce copies of that game, for nearly free, forever. The math works out great. The only things you have to do is execute a game and get it to release. That is the part that is harder. Remember business isn’t hard, it’s just work, and it takes some thought.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Why Work Hard?

Posted on August 14, 2015 by magicrat_larry

What comes out of hard work? I wondered this years ago and never really answered it. Hard work in itself gives you nothing. It is not something that by itself makes anything happen. You have to be smart about what you are working hard on. With the correct focus hard work can make great things.

How you choose what to focus on is the key to success and the American Dream. Choose wisely and you will never be disappointed. Don’t listen to people. You don’t have to work hard on something you love either. What? Why would you do that? You can work hard on a smart idea that is not something you love and be successful at it. Hard work gets you that. The key to being happy though is to find something you like more that is still smart.

You cannot just work hard at the thing you love and expect great success. The fact is the thing you love is probably dumb to work hard at for business success. Find the next best thing that makes good sense and go for it. I’m lucky, the one thing I love to do is make games, and here I am making one and it makes sense for business success.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Wish I Had More Time

Posted on August 13, 2015 by magicrat_larry

So I have been busy as can be. We are speeding up toward Kickstarter and Greenlight and it is a lot of work. I hope it is all worth it. I just wish I had more time to do this blog better justice. It is fun writing to the world and seeing if people are listening the the ramblings.

I spend most my time now marketing and such for the push. the blog just kinda falls off because it takes time. It is sad that some of the most quality things you do take a lot of time and often do not get as much bang for the minute as other less quality interactions. People are interesting, I suppose they have little time too, so places like Twitter and Facebook are easier and quicker, but there is still something about having something larger than 140 characters to read and not just clicking a like button on a photo.

The world is getting so fast that even our interactions are fast and less meaningful. Sometimes I wish we had to slow down and do things a bit differently. Well, I am off now. Gotta interact with people in 30 seconds or less. 🙂

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Once You start You Just Can’t Stop

Posted on August 10, 2015 by magicrat_larry

You know you are having fun when you cannot stop. I’ve been going at game development for over 2 years now every day. I’ve worked probably 50-60 hours a week for that time, combining my day job and my game development “hobby”. That is a long time to have that work load.

I’m starting to feel it now, but I just can’t stop. It’s the, “just one more thing”, problem with an addictive thing you love to do. The Civilization of life. I love developing games, and I am seeing that I love developing a game studio just as much. Seeing something come out of nothing is a great experience and you all are making it that much easier.

There are awesome things coming from us in the near future so stay tuned and enjoy it as much as I am.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook 🙂

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

Do You Love Me?

Posted on August 8, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I’m throwing it out there…

Do you love me? lol, This is crazy, we just met. Making this game is fun. It’s like you are falling in love every day, but just with a product, a dream, a vision, and the people who enjoy it. What a journey this has been.

OST Indie Games started off by making a game-play demo for a space agency tycoon game. It should be a cool game whenever we get to it. We then made a twist to a game called “Goobers”. It was a light game with a shallow story about an alien guy. We worked on a game engine for a long time and finished that up relatively recently. We had a few more twists and turns and ended up shelving that project and started looking at a project we called “Worlds End”.

That project was ambitious, so we narrowed it down to a top-down survival sci-fi game. It was not too exciting until the time when I was writing the proof of concept for the shooting mechanic and was throwing together art, but could not get a head to look right for the character. So I just threw on a cowboy hat. From then on I was in love. We switched his gun to be a laser pistol and even more love was there.

To me the cowboy hat, made me love the game you are seeing today, Violent Sol Worlds, It turned it from a crash landing survival game on a planet, to you are an early settler on a distant planet helping spread the human race across the galaxy. We all started to run with it. It was amazing how quickly things came together from that point on when love was involved.

Love makes everything easier, marketing flows, work just gets done, and magic seems to happen. I hope you love Violent Sol Worlds even a portion as much as we do. It is a great game to work on and we cannot wait to get it in your hands to play. It will be an even longer journey to get there but our team is ready for it. When you love what you do, you can’t help but do it.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

So Little Time, So Much To Do

Posted on August 6, 2015 by magicrat_larry

You know those people that say I am so busy? We all do. Most of the time you look at them and smile and say, I know you watch reruns of “That Seventy Show” every day. Well I am here to day to tell you I am so busy. I truly am. I am exhausted, and pushing even harder today than before.

I am really making things happen. Right now, I am not sure how well, or if they are good, or great things, but things none the less. I really have no time to write this out because I feel like I should be working. So here I go off into the sunset with all those other busy people that don’t really exist.

If you have not seen the game I am a part of here are a few links…

Facebook – Like us on facebook 🙂

ViolentSol.com – Homepage

IndieDB – Indie Games Community with news, screenshots, and video

What Are You Serving?

Posted on August 4, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I had a terrible experience yesterday with a person. I had to work at 9pm – 11pm after an 8 hour day yesterday. I was deploying new software I had written for a while now. When I get to production, it doesn’t work. It turns out somebody I requested to do work over a month ago didn’t do it. So we got them online and they took the 5 minutes to finally do it, but they didn’t just apologize and do their job. They had the guts to act like it was a burden to them to get their job done.

Don’t be that guy. If you find yourself in situation after situation where you seem to always be called to finish your job, you are terrible at your job. Fix it. You should be appreciative that you have a job that allows you to be needed. Don’t just take this view about your job though. Take that view about life. Be appreciative of being needed.

Make sure you are serving, not taking from others. Don’t be the guy that complains when they have to do their job at 10:30pm because you failed to do it over the past 30+ days. Take the time to evaluate you motivations. Be the best at serving the people who need you, and do great work.

I want to make games, not just because I want to play them. I want to make games to actually make people happy. If there is money in it, great. If I get enjoyment out of the game too, great. Truly though, if I make people feel something that makes them smile, cry, laugh, or angry, I would have served well. Let me know how I can better serve you today.

You, Yes You, Never Stop Amazing Me

Posted on August 3, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I used to get up as an indie game developer and start coding my game. Now I get up and start marketing my game. When did that happen? When did marketing win as the leading task of the day? Seems like it was a smooth transition because I did not notice it until now. I think the community might have fueled the move though.

Let me explain. I get some awesome responses from people about our game that is in development – Violent Sol Worlds. I think that feeds the want for my brain to get more, so I have slowly turned into a marketer first and a programmer second. Never in a million years would I have seen that coming. It is wonderful though.

Before now, my interactions with people over the internet has been basically them yelling at me about my mother. You know, the XBOX live crowd. But now that we are building a community around a title we all love and want to see built the interactions are much more loving. I truly hope we keep this up and you all keep motivation high for me to keep engaging on this level.

All your praises, follows, and general encouragement have been amazing. You all blow me away, and make me feel like I can do anything, even knock out a shark.

If you have not seen our game – Violent Sol Worlds check it out.