What’s a Good Game?

I’ve been asking myself the question, what’s a good game.  It’s a hard question to answer.  Most of the time it comes with a reference, like XCom, or Civilization.  The problem is what makes a good game.  To some it must be graphically amazing.  Some people a story must grab them personally.  It is so personal, that no two people are alike.

So for me, I love a tactical game.  It can be real-time, it can be turn based, but I love strategy and besting an opponent.  I hate multiplayer though.  I want to crush an AI that does not tell me how bad my mom is.  The thing is, I think that good games are probably more generic than this.

Can we take every game and say if it is good or not?  The problem is every game is liked by somebody.  So we can at least say there are never any truly bad games to 100% of people.  So what makes a game good?  Have you ever told anyone about a game that you thought was awesome that you only played for 2 minutes and never will play again?

So, at least one characteristic of a good game is that people play it for a long time.  But, then you look at Steam and see that tons of people are playing games for a long time and reviewing them poorly, so why is that?  So if you play something for a long time but hate it was the game bad?  I don’t think it really was.

You put your life into a game, if you play it for hours, it was good.  Even if it strikes you in the end as not being that great, it grabbed you for hours of your short life.  You were giving it a shot, it had enough greatness in it to have you give priceless time.  So I contend that your final thoughts on a game don’t really matter if you played it long enough.  That could be crazy to state, because you could wish you never bought it, but if it made you feel something, isn’t that what a good game does?

What do you think?  What makes a great/good game to you?  Try to not use a reference to describe it.  It’s a challenge to nail down.  That is why I love making games.

Violent Sol Worlds Now On Kickstarter

Violent Sol Worlds has officially launched its Kickstarter project – here

Violent Sol Worlds is a story driven, single player, action hero combat game with a massively procedural generated planet covered in caves and complexes with an AI director that injects events and stories into the world. The entire game is highly mod-able including gear improvements, vehicles, drops, and much, much more.

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I need your very important vote

I need your vote, yes yours.  You have a few seconds to make a difference, simply click the image below and help an indie developer out by voting for Violent Sol Worlds for Indie of the Year.  I’ve been personally working on this game for over a year and it would mean a ton.  Your vote really matters and we need every one of them.

Indie of the Year Awards

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Game Tactics and Parenting

 

Ok there has been a lot of talk about good and bad parenting since the great Gorilla, Harambe, thing at the Cincinnati zoo.  I’m not going to say anything about the lady who was watching the kid, I’m simply going to try and help parents understand tactically where you should try to be at all times when watching your children using tactical thinking and good old fashion game play.

First of all lets look at a scenario, you have four things you want to keep safe.  They all at any moment could run crazy directions and do dumb things to attempt to murder themselves.  There is only one of you, so where is the smartest place for you to be?  Let’s look at some pictures.

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See the green dots are the things you want to protect.  The blue dot is you.  If we take a look at the current scenario what do you notice?  See how it would be impossible for you to pay attention to all the green dots at once?  Why is that?  Positioning!  This is simple to explain, if you are the blue dot you have placed yourself in a tactically inferior position to fulfill your goal of keeping the four green dots safe.   If you were looking at the three on the left the one on the right could easily crawling into someplace they shouldn’t.

Equally as bad if you watch the one on the right like a hawk the ones on the left could be creating a master plan to take over the world, or escape somewhere to a dangerous location.  So where should you be?  Or better yet, where shouldn’t you be?

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See that picture?  The red circle is where you should not be.  To be 100% certain that you can keep track of all green dots at any given time you should be outside the red circle and facing the center of it.  Yes, it sounds dumb, and almost sounds like you cannot have any fun at all, but to meet your goal of understanding what is going on and having all the green dots be safe and understood at all times this is the position you should take.

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See how you are outside the circle that contains the things you want to keep safe?  This allows you to see everything that happens as it happens.  No surprises.  Now you say, what if they are not all equal?  What if one is prone to be crazy, or bad?  Then you position yourself in a way to be closer to that one.  Like this…

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See how you are still outside that circle, but you are closer to the one that is prone to do wacky and crazy things?  I colored the one in yellow that you wanted to be more ready to help when the time was needed.  Oh but things go wrong, I know.  What if one of the good ones starts fighting with another of the good ones?

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How do you handle this?  the trouble maker one you are nearest is being good, but only because you are by them and watching them intently.  If you ran to stop the fight, that the two that are shaded in red are having, then you would be violating the rule of going in the circle and lose sight of the yellow one and something terrible might happen.  Turns out to be tactically sound you have a couple options here that I see.  Lets start by showing what you should not do.

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You quickly run into the circle from your previous position.  You arrive at the fight and stop it, but where are you?  In the circle!  Can you see all the green dots at one time from within the circle?  No! No you cannot.  You are not doing the correct thing and the yellow filled dot suddenly crawls into something and stuff goes bad.  What can you do?  Think tactics.  What if you changed the circle?  A few seconds is not going to hurt the two fighting.  Let’s try to get to this situation now…

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See you grab the Yellow filled green dot by the face and move them to the white filled green dot.  This changes things up the circle gets smaller and you remain in a tactical position to see and remain informed about all the green dots situations.  Now you grab both the Yellow filled and the white filled green dots by the face and advance at the fighting pair.  This puts you in a position to keep all the green dots from being dumb and ending up somewhere they should not.

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This makes your circle of no entry very small.  You can start smacking green dots until they realize the errors of their ways like nobody’s business from this distance.  And nobody lost a foot or anything in the process.

Oh, but what if there was no time to gather the other two before the others were going to start stabbing each other?  Always remain calm and NEVER go into the red circle.  If you believe that one of the green dots will die soon in that fight.  You can always advance around the outside of the red circle to get close to the fighters and begin smacking away with extreme authority.

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Move like that and you can keep your eyes on all of the green dots like a champ.  You have successfully escorted your 4 green dots to safety without letting any of them get themselves into situations that cause anything to be killed.  Tactical thinking gets a lot done in more than just video games and warfare.  Keep these things in mind in your life and sometimes things work out better.  There is always that time when you just let one go to save the three and complete the mission though.

Hope this makes sense and remember tactics win.  Please do understand the humor and the factual awesomeness here.  I understand situations can be more dynamic than these, but keep a tactical mind as a parent and everything turns out better.

 

 

50 Reasons You Need to Support Violent Sol Worlds

I asked myself this question, if I cannot come up with 50 reasons to support Violent Sol Worlds then why would you?  So here is my list…

The Art – It’s a top-down stylized survival experience that looks like a graphic novel in action.

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The AI Overlord – Nothing will remain the same for long.  If you get good at surviving in your current situation then the AI overlord will generate a special experience to mix things up for you.

The Cars – What good is a near infinite world you get to walk around?  In this game you can walk or drive, gotta love that!

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The Creatures – There are an absolute ton of creatures going in to the game.  All I have to say is Rhino Turtle.

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Crafting Cars – There have been plenty of games with crafting in them, how about crafting a car?  Can anyone say tank?

Crafting Guns – you don’t just buy guns, you can make them.  Put the coolest laser rifle together to match your game play.  Heck just make a laser chainsaw.

The Corporations – The universe is being colonized with massive help from companies.  Here are a few – Mal-Atomic, Avrio, The RTA

Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

The Biomes – the planet will be diverse and varied.  There will be a ton of biomes for all he creatures to live in, from forests, to deserts and every other thing you can think of.

Building – You don’t just survive on a distant planet, you survive by building and adapting.  Construction of buildings is a huge part of the game.

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The Universe – Trust me the universe has a level of backstory that a sandbox survival game has not touched.  Each corporation, each faction, came from somewhere.  Nothing just exists, it all has purpose and evolution.

Farming – A man has to eat.  You will be able to plant crops and grow your own food for survival or profit.

The Maker – A key part of your survival in Violent Sol Worlds is the Maker.  It is the technology that allows for you to store molecular configurations of object and essentially print them from raw matter for use in your daily activities.  Need a gun, make it.  Need a car, make it.

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The Technology – There is a huge mix of technology to be used.  Anything from an automatic miner to some old-time cars.  You will be shooting laser rifles, and conventional weapons.  You might even see some sort of hover bike, or laser chainsaws.

The History – How did a recycling company go from Earth to helping people light years away reconfigure molecules to form a lase pistol?  Well the history of Renew tells you that.  Nothing in Violent Sol Worlds is just thrown in, it all makes sense in the history of the universe.

Laser Weapons – Who does not love the idea of some top-down action with lasers?  I’m in.

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Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

Aircraft – So you can drive cars, why not fly?  So there are aircraft, and you can craft them.

Car Physics – Each car is simulated in a physics engine.  This allows for different terrain to change how a car handles as well as tires blown from gun shots.

Lighting – It’s not enough to have a cool comic book feel.  How about true lighting and shadows to help with the feeling of explosions and lasers flying around?

Conventional Weapons – Not everything is high tech.  Sometimes a nice shotgun does that job well and cheaply.

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Top-down – Survival is awesome.  How about survival from a tactical top down view with action combat?

The Mal-Atomic Device – You get to use a scifi device called the Mal-Atomic to help with your crafting.  It’s like an iPhone but more scifi and can help rearrange molecules.

Pets – You can have a pet cat, dog, or whatever.  Yes this is a thing.

Turrets – The game might just be cruel to you, so build some turrets for defense.  Laser turrets to help ward off attackers, expensive but effective.

Wild West Scifi – We landed on a wild west settler vibe for the game.  So it is scifi, but there are some wonderful wild west feels to the world as you attempt to settle the wilds of the Rim.

Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

Living World – You are a settler on a planet that will not stop trying to kill you.  Much like the old west on Earth it will keep throwing events at you that change up how you need to play to survive.

The Team – I like to call our team a dream team of game development.  Not one with super stars on it but one that is truly a team built for an unforeseen victory. Meet the Team

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Weather – There will be sun and there will be rain.  Each weather event can help or hurt you.

Open Development – Join our development by giving suggestions and feedback starting now.  You can also just watch us on Twitter and our website and see the progress of nearly everything we do.

@magicrat_larry

@TheRealF1tZy

@doublemintben

Modding – The game is being built from the ground up for you to mod.  This game will be able to live longer than most because of the new content you can produce for it at its core.

The Music – The music is composed purely for this game.  You will not hear the music anywhere else.

Don’t Walk Drive Mentality – This is a huge world you are settling on.  Don’t just walk for miles, drive.  We want you to be able to see a lot of places so cars are vital to this survival game and will be in from the early stages.

The Dream – The idea of the Violent Sol Universe is huge.  There are plans for many things beyond Violent Sol Worlds.  Supporting us early keeps this dream alive. See the dream here

Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

Play With Friends – Surviving with friends is often times harder than alone, but oh so much more fun.

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Play Alone – See if you can make it alone in a world that is harsh and unforgiving.

Run your own server – Take control of a server for your own gaming community.  Don’t like most people, just your friends?  start up a server and only let those who you want in.

Continuous Development – Our team is a special one.  We move fast and get things done.  We will not stop this game and plan on a very long haul here.  We often times talk about the potential for ten years of development for content.  We will develop new and fresh things for this game as long as people keep supporting it.

Create a Colony – Why are you surviving on a planet 4 light years away from Earth if not to create something larger.  Work toward building a complete settlement to support more and more NPCs and players.

News Ticker – The universe is not dead while you are settling the planet.  Keep track of the news as things happen.  If Pirates start pestering Rim settlements yours might be next.

Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

Expand-ability – Violent Sol Worlds concentrates on planetary explorations.  We are making sure we can expand into space when we want to.

Laser Chainsaw – Yes, a laser chainsaw.  You gotta get wood somehow and swinging it at creatures sounds like a blast too.

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Calling Home For Population – Need a mechanic?  Call home and request one.  They probably will need a facility, and place to live though so be prepared to have some requirements met.

The World hates you – Yes, being one of the first people to land on a planet is going to be difficult.  The environment will not enjoy you and the AI overlord will make sure you have a challenge.

Equipment – It’s about the equipment.  Pick up resources.  Craft an awesome laser pistol.  Build a car with a turret.  Construct better armor.

Everything is a Resource – Kill a creature, use its horns for a new hood ornament.

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Is that enough yet?  Come see our Greenlight and give us a quick vote. 

Action Combat – This is a top-down game so the action is going to be both tactical and fast paced.

 

Car Combat – Sometimes while driving things happen.  Sometimes those things require a high powered laser turret.  Sometimes they require missiles.  All I know is be prepared to drive and shoot.

 

The Crystals – We are in love with the crystals.  They have many properties and are the dynamic element in the universe that allows for many awesome crafting opportunities. Read a story about them here.

Crystals

Your Colony Ship – You we placed on the planet by an elaborate process.  Like the rest of the universe we figured it all out.  About your colony ship

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Simulation – We not only have action we also have simulation elements to the game as well.  Many systems work under the hood of this game to make the world feel alive

Your Crate – You get dropped off on the planet on day one in your crate.  Much like a train car, but this one is your home.  Don’t worry in no time you will modify it and make it a lot less terrible and a little more like home.

Support Violent Sol Worlds Today by checking out our KickStarter, our Greenlight and our website.  With your help and support we can make all of this a reality.

 

New on Kickstarter – Violent Sol Worlds

We are proudly announcing Violent Sol Worlds has been launched on Kickstarter.  Now everyone can see the top-down scifi survival shooter where you can craft cars, weapons, and buildings.   You can help us increase the awareness of Violent Sol Worlds and help create the momentum it needs to become an amazing reality.  If you find the game to be of interest please help us promote it by telling the world about it.  Take a look and discover what we are so passionate about.

Violent Sol Worlds on Kickstarterwe need your support

Violent Sol Worlds on Steam Greenlightwe need your yes vote to get into the store

Violent Sol Homepage – keep informed about the Violent Sol Universe

I personally am so excited, freaked out, and a bit nervous all at the same time.   It is by far one of the most interesting feelings to work on something this hard and then finally launch it to the public.  For those who follow me on Twitter you already know that this process has taken a long time for our team.  We have put a ton of work in to get to this point.  We really look forward to the next phase of the project which is very exciting for me.

We have already began to design the final game so it can be expanded greatly over the next few years.  This is truly a dream project to work on and I hope you will join me in my journey to bring it to the world.  We are creating something magical here that I love and hope you will too.  If you are a scifi fan and love a good survival game I am sure you will be pleased with what we are putting together.

Thank all of you who follow my blog and everything else I do.  You are the best and I am truly grateful for each and every one of you.

May the Polls be With You

So I have started to use Twitter to post more polls.  This is not scientific by any means I was just curious as to what polls were like on Twitter and asked a few questions and will post the results here and blab about each for a little bit.

What’s your favorite Genre for games?

Scifi – 86%

Fantasy – 14%

This one was interesting to me.  I always though that it would be the other way around.  There are far more games made in the classic Fantasy worlds with goblins, orcs, and elves than a scifi universe.  This made me really happy actually that maybe that same old world that every fantasy game is in might not be the most popular thing out there any more.

Do you prefer to make PC or mobile Games?

PC Games – 80%

Mobile Games – 20%

I was a bit shocked by this as well.  Most people that answered prefer to make a PC game.  I find that interesting because it seems like the mobile market is flooded with a who’s who of human crap these days.  Maybe everyone should follow their heart and not where they think a market is.  It looks like creating mobile games is either undesirable, or it is a pain in the rear that nobody really loves.  Kinda gives you a good understanding why mobile games are all, for the most part, terrible.

What would you rather play? PC or Console Games

PC Games – 70%

Console Games – 30%

Very close to the poll above on what you would rather make.  A ten percent difference with most people who answered saying they would rather play a PC game. Seems like people would rather be on a PC than a console.  I do understand why now that console prices are so high and the games all cost $60 a piece.  I used to love consoles, now I never turn one on and play on my PC.  I really don’t care that much though, gaming is gaming and I am glad people can play on whatever they play on.

Is Game Development a Passion or a Business?

Passion – 100%

Business – 0%

I get this one was hard to actually click business.  If you click business you are not going to be able to feel like an indie game developer anymore.  That is not true really.  If you want to make it as a game developer you do have to learn that the business part is what makes it possible for anyone to see your product.  I think this shows us why it is so hard for indie developers to break into the market.  It seems that 100% of them are there for the love of it, not the distribution of a product.  Not a bad thing, but not the greatest thing to get your game to people to play it either.

Which are you looking forward to the most? or

Star Wars Battlefront – 25%

Fallout 4 – 75%

This one is still ongoing as of the writing of the article so I will only say this, I’M SO EXCITED!!!!


If you have not checked out my current project…

Violent Sol Worlds home

IndieDB

Facebook – join the conversation

@magicrat_larry – Join me on Twitter

Animal Design, Yes I Said It.

What do you write about when you do the same thing for days in a row?  It is hard to figure out what to say.  I’ve been just writing up descriptions of creatures that have the potential to make it in to Violent Sol Worlds.  It is a fun task, but I find myself not wanting to just write about specific animals in this blog because the games website will do that.

It is fun though, I tend to just type in something like “Swamp Creatures” in google and flip to images and see what shows up.  Usually something in there is inspiring for a creature to describe.  Plus it is not just a description, it has to do with do they travel in groups, what do they eat, and how is their temperament.

For instance we have a rat-like creature that travels in groups, but only attacks wounded animals or characters.  In the end I am hoping we have a good spread of unique animals that populate the world you are settling and makes it feel alive.  We want you to enjoy the world and make it feel full and living.


If you have not checked out my current project…

Violent Sol Worlds home

IndieDB

Facebook – join the conversation

You, Yes You, Never Stop Amazing Me

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.

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

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Let Me Tell You Where to Go – ViolentSol.com

Don’t get me wrong there are many places I would like to tell many people to go, but ViolentSol.com just launched.  What is it you ask?  It’s the web site for the game I am a part of.  We are proudly moving forward with a site dedicated to it.  You can see a nice little blurb about our team, and get a great description of our game.

We started off thinking our IndieDB site was good enough.  But, we rethought that and created our own cool little place on the internet.  I hope you enjoy it and please do comment about the game and the team.  We are a very interactive team once you give us a try.  Anything you want to know about the game or our team we will freely share.

Enjoy the site and I am going to go get back to working on the game.  It is nearly 6am.  🙂