motivation | Gamedev Brain

How to be Better Than a Wild Monkey

Posted on July 26, 2015 by magicrat_larry

So, I am the king of saying things that make people cringe so here it goes, making a game is easy and takes just a small amount of talent. BOOM! Yup, just about anyone can throw down a game, game jams are a huge example of that. Don’t get me wrong, people who code games are some of the best programmers out there and anyone in business should hire them as coders. When it comes to problem solving a game programmer is tops, but it’s not that hard to make games.

So why isn’t there 5 billion different people throwing games out like wild monkeys? There are, the key is that you have never seen most of them. Yup, WILD MONKEYS! Truthfully, people throw down games like nobodies business, but hardly any of them take on the roles they need to from day one to get it out the door better than a wild monkey could.

Step 1: On your first day, define something and market it.

Step 2: On every other day, define more things and market them.

Step 3: When you hit problems market those too.

Step 4: When you take a break market that.

Step 5: When you mow your lawn market that.

Step 6: When you take a nap, market that.

Get the picture? Nobody buys games from an indie development studio. They buy the people behind it. Be alive, be engaged, be you, and tell everyone about it. Others are out there that believe in your dream so give them the information, from ground zero, on how it is you are perusing that dream. Market everything you do. Even if you don’t have a game idea yet, market the process to get one. Really, sooner or later you will be finished with something and find yourself in a sea of wild monkeys and wish you did.

Life is Hard, Let’s Make It Worse!

Posted on July 14, 2015 by magicrat_larry

My Twitter bio (@magicrat_larry) has a line in it – “If your life is easy, you are doing it wrong.”

I live that way. I don’t go out and find trouble or anything, but the fact is if you are getting no resistance from anything you are not doing anything at all. You can go through every day the exact same as, you did before, and have an easy life, but in the end, you will have done nothing at all.

I want to live everyday pushing it to the limits. I want to go to sleep knowing that I could not have done more. Life is not long, life is meant to be a quick ride. What ride are you riding? Are you riding the largest roller coaster in the world, or are you watch others ride it?

Jump on, Jump in, live life. If you have a dream, make it happen. If you want to do something, do it. Don’t sit on the couch, or lay in bed resting. Get it all done. Games aren’t going to make themselves.

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

Posted on July 10, 2015 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.

Just One More Thing

Posted on July 2, 2015 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.

Stop the Excuses

Posted on June 30, 2015 by magicrat_larry

Let me say this up front, you can make excuses for your entire life and do nothing, or you can change the way you live and accomplish things.

Yes, I’m saying it, the problem is you. If you ever stop and wish your life was different, it is because of you. You think you don’t have the time, or energy, but you do. See, something like developing a game takes a massive amount of commitment. That commitment has to be unwavering. If it wavers you are back to wishing your life was different again.

Stop the excuses, get out of bed, or off the couch, and just do something. Pick anything, and do it. There is not that much time to live here on Earth. Do you really want your final moments to be filled with excuses of why you could not do anything? If every one of you started to work 1 hour a day, we would be living on Mars, using warp drives, have peace on Earth, and have a better mouse trap.

Start working people, it’s easier than coming up with the reasons why you didn’t.

The Glamorous World of Game Development

Posted on June 29, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I think there is a misconception, game development is such a great job, all the fun, all the excitement, all the joy of Christmas every day. I’m sorry, that is not true. Let me explain what game development is like for me, and remember I love it.

You get up early, look at your task list, if you are lucky there is a task on there that sounds fun. You begin working on that task, it expands to a large programming mess. You stop programming and design a better system to fix or create whatever you were doing. If you are lucky once the task is complete the game still compiles and nothing different is displayed.

I know there are some days where you create that awesome effect that changes the look and feel of everything, but most days are debugging, tweaking, or designing. If you throw in marketing you got a real nice day. See, game development is one of the hardest programming jobs you can have. It is not like business software, you actually care about memory usage and display rate.

The next time you are sitting at home playing some game, and think how great it would be to be a game developer, stop and think of the massive effort, stubborn commitment, and tears it took to put that game together. Then smile and keep playing.

Be Something For Real

Posted on June 28, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I’m learning recently that there are many people in the world of game development, or even regular Tech careers who are pretending to be one of whatever they are doing. What I mean is they act like a programmer, web designer, or game developer, but they do not truly, either believe they are one, or love it at all.

If you are in game development, or your career, for anything other than the love of it, you are on the wrong path. Don’t take this road, it is an unhappy mess for you. Nothing will satisfy you if you do. Choose what you love, not what is the new awesome thing everyone else acted like they loved in college. Take the world by the face by understanding yourself and what you truly want and leave the careers to others that you do not love. You will enjoy life a ton more, be something, but be something for real, not for money, or popularity.