I’m Terrible At What I Do!

Posted on by magicrat_larry

I’m throwing it out there, I am terrible at what I do and love.  It takes guts to say it.  I’m finally doing it.  I am abysmal at making games.  Yup, if I had to make a game I would simply fail miserably.  Wow, that feels good just to type out.  A giant weight is lifted from my shoulders and now I can go back to making games.

Odd, why would I go back to making what I just said I was terrible at?  I must be nuts right?  Well, yeah!  The truth is I am bad at it.  I am excellent at 3D math, game vision, hyping an idea to the point of everyone being on board, I’m good at a lot of things.  I just cannot put an entire game together alone.  If I did not have others I would be the sum of me, which is terrible at the complete process of game development.

I have others, I found others and fill my voids, that strengthen my weaknesses.  Without them I would fail every time, and have.  Now say it with me if you have never finished a game, I am terrible at making games!  now go find a buddy that makes you a real game developer.  🙂

Move it Just a Little To the Left, TOO FAR!!!

Posted on by magicrat_larry

Yesterday and today I have been constructing our space settlers house and the area around it.  I’m not sure how many people out there, besides hardcore game developers, know that it is a very tedious process to place everything “correctly”.

In my case I laid it all out perfect using a visual tool called Spriter.  Then I exported chunks of that scene to png files.  Now I am placing those files in world coordinates so they make up the bigger scene.  Not to mentions creation of physics images etc to go with it.  This placement is the “fun” part.  You need to get the hang of how many pixels is something off from the perfect location.

It’s a job I’d rather not do, but it is rewarding to finally be able to walk around the set I am building up.  Seeing the pieces slowing move into place, after try, after try, is kinda cool.  This is yet another thing that should make you ask yourself, do I really want this to be my job?  lol  You gotta love it.

Defeat Your Nemesis, Crush Him!

Posted on by magicrat_larry

My biggest enemy, my nemesis, is the Big Picture.  My brain sees a large goal ahead of itself.  It loves to play far into the future and dream big.  This hinders the daily work.  This is my problem.

The best way to defeat your nemesis is to first understand who it is.  Take time to figure out your biggest problem, your nemesis and define it.  If it is defined then you can take steps to crush him.  Yes, I mean crush him.  You don’t want to play around with a nemesis, you want him defeated and gone right?  Don’t put him in a room with an elaborate contraption that will kill him in 3 hours and leave.  Crush him now!

Sorry, I got carried away there, What I do to keep myself motivated on the short term while my brain intently works on the long term plan is create very small goals to get me there.  Small goals lead you, like bread crumbs, to your larger goal, say like a finished game.

If I were to do what my brain wanted to, I would be trying to create an entire game, that is demoralizing quickly.  Instead we plan out small tasks.  these give me the opportunity for Victory over my nemesis daily, if not every few hours or minutes.  This keeps me energized, and excited.  So now I am not just leaving my nemesis to die in an elaborate contraption over time, I’m crushing him one small task at a time.  In the end my large goal will be complete, a nice game for all of you to enjoy.

What’s the Evil Plan?

Posted on by magicrat_larry

So yesterday I took the time to really get information written down.  We had a really good conversation about a week ago that, I think, laid down the ground work for how our game will progress, and needed to be in writing.

It is a very positive thing to start doing.  Take the time to write down everything about your title when making a game.  You will not remember everything.  So having the, ever evolving, reference to look at, and code from, is a powerful thing.  It also gives you a chance to see if a new idea matches anything, and where it fits in the design.

Take it to heart, planning is a good thing.  Your project will not be done in 30 days, so plan for the long haul.  If you don’t you will be just like everyone else that never finishes anything.

Hello, Let me Grab This By the Face

Posted on by magicrat_larry

You know what I do?  I see something, I learn it quickly, then I grab it by the face and never let go.  Not sure if this is the right way to do things, but for game development it seems to be a good thing.  See, I love the visual effects, so what did I do?

I saw games, said I wanna do that.  I learned how to do it quickly just by doing things.  I then grabbed it by the face and have never let go since.  What do I mean by grabbing it by the face?  Well, I mean that you don’t just do it, you live it.  To really excel at something, you need to make it part of your life.  Part of your life so much, that if you stopped doing it, you would be left with an empty hole.

So that is what I do, I constantly feel like I’m riding a raging bull an I love every second of it.  Try it for a while and see how fun it is.  Take something you like to do.  Grab it by the face and see what happens.  It’ll hurt, it’ll be exhilarating, but it’ll be worth every second of it.

Here Kitty Kitty, Let Me Grab You

Posted on by magicrat_larry

So we added a pet element to our game.  Who doesn’t want a little kitty in a survival, action, top-down, simulation?Stand_Cat_000  You can have a pet, and if it is small enough you can pick it up.  So I have been making animations of every combination for our demo to demonstrate this.  So I have a shooting, standing, and walking animation.  That is a lot of tweaking animations to get get it with a cat and without a cat.

So in the actual game design we need to figure out a better way to add equipment and such to a player so that we do not have to animate every combination of stuff on a player.  For a game-play demo that is 1 step above a Proof Of Concept it is fine though.  I cannot wait to get back to designed code though.

Bugs Everywhere!

Posted on by magicrat_larry

I’ve been the giant Raid can today.  Smashing bugs left and right.  I did manage to add in some new content into the game demo though.  Ironically, it is a new bug.  You can see it in the featured image of this article.

Mostly though, I have been killing bugs in code.  That is what a ton of your time is filled with for a game developer.  You find, and fix bugs like a madman.  It is both frustrating and rewarding.  If you find a good one and it take some genius to fix then it is rewarding.  If you find millions of dumb stupid problems that are brainless then it is a slog.

Thankfully today has bee rewarding for the most part.

Game Developer SMASH!!!!

Posted on by magicrat_larry

Let me explain this in three phases and I am sure all you game developers will understand.

Phase 1:  The Plan

Today, my wife and daughter were leaving for about 4 hours and leaving me home to work on the game.  Awesome!!!  So the plan is to crank through the remaining physics task to get the car to not be completely jacked up by a collision with a human sized bug.  So Seems easy, I can crank that out and maybe have some time to play a game or two afterwards.  I’m excited.

Phase 2: Let’s Do This

I sit down after they leave and crack down on this physics thing.  Turns out, this is not easy, go figure.  I bust my butt on it for hours getting nowhere.  No matter what I do I cannot get a good outcome.  I have my car driving and the wheels literally flying off for no reason.  I get frustrated, the doomed feeling sets in.  I did nothing, I think to myself.  Then I hear it, my wife and kid are home, 4 hours are gone, nothing to show for it besides the pure joy of pounding on code that was pointless.  At this point my brain is jumping into the computer and killing all the bad things in violent, terrible, imaginative glory.

Phase 3: Just One More Go

I sit down, right after my wife and daughter go to bed.  I open the laptop, look at the code and see a variable being set in some obscure location in our jacked up proof of concept code.  I start playing with that variable.  It turns out that is the most important thing in my life, I just didn’t know it.  So now I am happy.  What a strange way to be happy huh?

Just One More Thing

Posted on by magicrat_larry

I know your idea is awesome.  It is the greatest game of all time.  I get that.  Take the time though to add more.  Don’t just make another minecraft with better this or that.  Take the time to add more, to innovate.  Don’t stop at the greatest game of all time, make it one idea better than that.

Stop for a second and take your best part of the game and brainstorm on how to make it more unique, more exciting, more addictive.  Once you do that then you will find you feel even better about your game.  Don’t take it off the rails completely, but if you take it just one step further, you might actually have the greatest game of all time.

Often times we take an idea we had and know it is great, when it is simply just something we think is great.  Take the time to actually invest in greatness and add, just one more thing.