The Power of Threading

I know a lot of people are afraid of threads when programming.  I kinda was for a long time.  They are confusing at times and can get out of hand as well.  The problem is to make a complicated game of any kind you have to learn them.  You don’t have to love them, but you have to get used to them so you can do things that games need, like streaming content, animated loading screens, and much more.

In short threading is powerful, but without planning it will knock you on your butt. 

In the early days of developing Violent Sol Worlds we did not use any threading.  We quickly realized that to do a giant streaming world you would need them.  The issue with plugging threading in is that it has to be planned.  If you do not plan it out, things will get out of hand quick.  The critical issue is design.  When you start your game, make sure you think of it in terms of what has to be running on the main thread and what can happen, out of time, with the main thread.

content loading is fairly easy to have happen in the background

What do I mean about main thread?  That is the main game loop, often times you care about rendering in that loop and player input etc.  The other stuff, like loading content, physics, AI, other strange interesting game-like things, can all be done outside of the main game loop.  I learned having something like content loading is fairly easy to have happen in the background.

How you ask?  You need to plan that out well.  If the game has a list of render entities that get drawn to the screen, you need to code that in a way that things can be added and removed from that list at a random time and not have things blow up.  In this way you can have the main thread put requests out to the loader thread to load in and create entities to draw.  The loader will work on them on its own timeline and eventually just pop them onto the list to be drawn to the screen.

In short threading is powerful, but without planning it will knock you on your butt.  Keep in mind that if planned out from the beginning you will have a powerful tool at your games side.  Often times some of the neatest things are done with threading and allow for a better user experience in your game.  Happy threading everyone!

Busy as Wow

Man has this been a hectic time of year.  I’m not even sure when the last time I wrote was.  Here is what has been going on though…

Our team for Violent Sol Worlds has been working hard to bring a ton of major functionality to the core code.  We have a Screen System, physics, map transitions, rendering, and analytics all baked in the the real game now.

It has been a lot of crazy work, but we have done well.  With that we had Christmas, and all that goes with it.  I am currently working on getting world interaction in the game now.  Why don’t you come check out our pages and see what we’ve been up to?

Greenlight – come give us a yes vote

ViolentSol.com – Tons to read here including creature bios


 

Come be a part of our Kickstarter – Violent Sol Worlds

Vote now for our Greenlight here

Check out more information on Violent Sol here

Follow me on Twitter @magicrat_larry

 

 

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.

BugAttack

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!

CarsPlanes

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

RhinoTurtle

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.

SettlersHome

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.

CrafterPistol

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.

CowboyFight

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.

gun

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

Team

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.

Cowboys_small

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.

lASERsAW

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.

Hood

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

ezgif.com-gif-maker (3)

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.

 

KickStarter and Greenlight and Bears Oh My

So it has been a bit since we launched both Greenlight and KickStarter .  It has been interesting so far.  I am encouraged by Greenlight and blown away by the severe lack of KickStarter wanting to make money.

Let’s start with Greenlight.  We launched that thing and we blew up with traffic.  We got votes by the bucket load.  We unfortunately had some improvements to make and had a lower than what we had hoped yes percentage of 37%.  It was still fantastic and that percentage is nothign to be sad about.  Since then we fixed the wording on our page to better explain the game.  So for the past 8 days our yes percentage is 62% on average which is more like where we thought we should be.

So Greenlight is rocking forward and people are really liking Violent Sol Worlds and would like to see it on Steam in the future.  We have a lot more votes to go though, your vote would help greatly in promoting our title.  Please head over to our Greenlight page and login to vote it up.

Now for KickStarter.  We expected more from KickStarter than what they offered.  I know you should not rely on somebody else to drive traffic to you, but the difference between Steam on launch day and KickStarter was like the difference between a Saturn V rocket and a rubber band.  Both fly, but one gets somewhere substantial and quickly.

Steam_Kick

I’m just saying that They can make a ton more money if they actively improved their own traffic and pointed more people in an active way to new projects at least for a day or two to see if they catch or not.  The truth that we did not know is that your first day will be the exact same as your sixth day.  They did not seem to do what Steam did and drive people to you for a few days.  They simply provide you a website and that is it.

Really we have learned a ton about game development in the past few months and have really gotten a ton more fired up about our Title Violent Sol Worlds.  Mathematically all our current adventures are proving very good for us.  All signs still point to people loving the idea of Violent Sol Worlds and the development is going forward full steam.  With all that being said let’s go vote on the Greenlight and promote the KickStarter, let’s get this thing rolling.

Thank you all for your support.  

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.

7 Ways to Effectively Promote Your Indie Game

Promoting an indie game is an interesting thing to accomplish.  I am in the midst of learning it myself.  Here is the rundown of what I have so far that is of major help to begin to build a community and get interaction with potential fans.

1 – Website

Most people do not try to get through life without a home, and neither should your game.  You need a location to drive people to and a website is where you want them to land.  This is a place where you are in control, it is your world, your happy place.  It is filled with why they should love your product.  It should be the goal to get everyone in the world to here.

What should you setup?  It should look like your product.  Right now we actually setup a WordPress site with a theme that we could customize and make look like Violent Sol Worlds.  It does not take much and you have a good location for your potential fans to begin to hover around learning about your game.

To make it look like your product you will need a logo, screenshots, and important content that makes people feel a part of the game.  This is where the real work lies.  It takes time and effort to generate good stuff for the website.  It pays off to do it though, and the earlier you put this together, the longer is sits on the web gaining momentum for your eventual launch.  Create your webpage early and update it often with new and exciting things about your game.

2 – Personal Blog

This one is not as intuitive and making a website for your game, but is incredibly effective in driving people to it.  Start blogging as yourself, not as your game.  This is completely separate from your game, this is you talking about your life, your loves, your hobbies, your work.  What this does is it allows you to put out things that people can relate to.  It widens your net beyond your game.

Why do you need a wider net?  Well it is simple, if you want to be successful, YOU have to be successful, NOT your game.  If you are truly serious about your game, you will have many opportunities to plug your content in your personal blog and suddenly you are linking people to your website to see your game by talking about coding a physics engine, or AI.

This also allows for you to change pace, and blow off steam.  Often times in-game development you will get frustrated.  It is amazing how just writing about something will make you feel better.  Plus, many others that are trying to do the same thing will relate and turn to potential consumers of your content, which, in part, is your game.

3 – Twitter

This is like the Doom shotgun, it is the finest utility you have for marketing to actual people on a steady basis.  Sure the content lasts like 8 minutes, but it is quick, clean, and targeted.  You should create Twitter accounts for yourself, and your game.  Each one should be tweeting things that attract people.  You need a personal one that is different from your games because you should be promoting your blog as well as your game content with that one.  Your games account should be tweeting only about the game.

The key to twitter is consistency.  Don’t just tweet like once a week.  Spend the 15-30 minutes every day to queue up like 6 tweets that will go out throughout your normal work day.  You can use Buffer for that, it is nice, simple, and easy to use.  Get in to a good habit with Twitter and you will be amazed what you accomplish.

If you are interested in more things I learned about Twitter during my first year of game marketing go check out – 5 Things I learned About Twitter in a Year

4 – Facebook

Facebook might seem dumb at first for a game, it did to me.  But it is like a happy medium between a website and Twitter.  It does get a slightly different crowd and it is easy for people to share your content just by clicking a button.  Our Facebook page for Violent Sol Worlds was created late in the marketing game so we missed this boat a little, but it is a location people will engage in and promote your game socially.  Do not ignore the power of Facebook to drive shorter, quicker content for longer periods of time than Twitter.

5 – Reddit

Here is a simple, quick, and easy driver of people to anywhere and everywhere.  Take a second to go to Reddit and see what it is, a simple link to a site and an up/down vote.  Yes, you choose a sub-Reddit and simply post links with a nice title and it does the work.  People will come to your link and it has the shot of going viral on Reddit.

This is a somewhat of a hidden gem for me.  I ignored it for many years then just recently tried it for game traffic and was amazed how it worked for us.  It is again, not the golden arrow of marketing but it does allow for you to at will get some form of traffic to new content about your product when you want and need it.

6 – IndieDB

IndieDB is a large community of indie game developers with their studios and games posting there to promote their products.  The interactions there seem light, but the traffic that shows up to news, or new images cannot be ignored.  You should create a landing page there and join that community.  It is just another way to cast a larger net and does not take an amazing amount of effort to maintain.

I found that images are powerful, videos are not so powerful.  So simple screenshots and a news article can drive you up in the rankings and get more people to care your game exists.  We started our IndieDB site early thinking it could be the home for Violent Sol Worlds, but it is not a good spot for that.  It is a great addition to your marketing campaign though and should not be left out.

7 – Kickstarter/Steam Greenlight

These two are the elephants in the room.  They are awesome marketing machines.  They both have a community that is massive.  They also are customer oriented events.  The thing about these two is that they are events.  What do I mean by events?  They will take up a massive amount of time to get up and launch.  Ours is in the planning stage now and nearly ready to launch for both Kickstarter and Greenlight and we have worked on them for about 2 months now.

They are worth it.  Once you get something you want to market on a scale larger than your own website and blog you should put these together, but remember schedule out about 2 months of work here.

Conclusion

There are many more things you can do to market your game, no doubt.  The one thing to remember is that you should cast a large net.  Don’t just market your game, market yourself.  This allows for you to say much more than my game is awesome.  Your game is simply your product, and often times people need more than that.  If you can show that you are an awesome person, that is enjoyable to listen to and read about, people will be more likely to buy your game.  People like to connect and support others who seem like real, quirky, people.  Be yourself and good things will happen.

Oh My God, It’s the Indiepocalypse!

OK, let’s panic a bit first then think logically.  What if indie development is ending?  How will my dream ever come true?  I think we are all doomed.

It seems like creating a unique, interesting game experience is not what customers want anymore!

ApocalypseAhead_300x225

Is that enough panic or do we need more?

Why am I working so hard on a game when it is just a forgone conclusion that it will never sell?  I cannot believe that luck plays such a high role in game sales!  Am I wearing pants?  Will my mom buy my game?  Are my shoes on the right foot?  Are they still selling George Foreman Grills?

Enough panic, logic ahead…

spock_logic2

Let’s say that there are 10 people who buy games per year for simplicity sake.  Those 10 people buy 10 games a year, so we are talking 100 games a year sold to the market.  The chances of those 10 people stopping that trend are nearly zero percent.  Once people begin a pattern it is hard to break it.  The truth is the gaming industry in forms of sales has been rising continually for years and AAA studios cannot keep up with the amount of money that the consumer has.

So those 10 people are buying both AAA and indie game titles.  Their money is flowing into the industry, and will statistically keep flowing, and probably only increase.  So for an indie game development bubble bursting nightmare to happen, that consumer would have to pull their money out of the industry and buy less games and only buy AAA studio games.

First of all games are entertainment, people like to be entertained, and entertained cheaply.  Games make a compelling case for this market.  You can purchase a game anywhere from $1 -$70 and get far more out of each than what you spend.  The truth is the consumer wants to spend less and get more.  AAA titles are the expensive games.  Indie titles are the cheaper games.

Consumers also want unique entertaining experiences, indie titles scratch this itch greatly.  So with both of those needs for cheap and unique entertainment being met by indie games, why would the consumer stop spending money in that market?  The answer is they will not.

Now what are people observing that is making them freak out like Disco is back in town?  It is simple, the market has accepted indie games as a true and viable product, no longer experimental and new.  Now the market is solidifying and becoming a standard.  You can no longer easily buck the trends and stand out like a sore thumb in the gaming world.

What does that mean to indie game developers?  Marketing is critical.  You must connect to the consumers in a unique way, a social way.  If you fail at this then you are just simply on the shelf with all the other indie developed games.  You also have to get your pricing right, and your expectations.  It is no longer a marketing plus to simply be a guy in his basement coding games.  You have to price the thing right for the market and tell people about your title.

Lastly, it has to be a good title.  You will no longer sell your game simply because it is not AAA.  Make a quality experience and talk about it with people.  Make it come alive and you will be fine.  This is not the Indiepocalypse, it is us winning over the consumer and becoming a valued part of the economy of game development and it frightens AAA studios like crazy.  Keep up the good work and just be smart out there.


If you have not checked out my current project…

Violent Sol Worlds home

IndieDB

Facebook – join the conversation

@magicrat_larry – Join me on Twitter

Once You start You Just Can’t Stop

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

So Little Time, So Much To Do

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.

Drinking


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

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.

ThumbsUp


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

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