work | Gamedev Brain

It’s Important, There Will Be Plenty of Time at the End

Posted on October 30, 2015 by magicrat_larry

Ask yourself one question, do you wait to do things until they have to be done?

If you answered yes, I wish I could smack you. I can’t, so let me tell you how you make the rest of us feel when you simply take your sweet time and only pull miracles out of your rear end at the end of a task, milestone, or project. Have you ever been so mad at a person stopped at a light on the road that just sits there for a long time after the light turned green that you honk and shout terrible things at them? Yup, that person is you. You sit there when an entire line of people is waiting to follow you and just stay still until somebody finally honks their horn. You are that moron.

If you hate the complete idiot at the light that just won’t go, do not be them by being the person who refuses to start their job until the last minute. People might not honk at you at work or on a project, but they are killing you in their heads. They are lowering their expectations of you. They are getting frustrated that you do not pull through until the end. I know what a lot of you are thinking, what does it matter I finish everything anyway?

Let me be the fist to tell you, it does not matter if you get it done it matters how you do. See that moron at the light still makes it through the intersection, but he still is a moron. So if you only pull through at the end, but you stress everyone out and cause people to have anger management issues you are no longer of use to good people. The key to not being a complete waste of human existence is to not only finish what you say you will finish, but to finish it with honor and pride. You cannot do that by cramming it in at the end like it is not worth your time.

For all of those people who are like me and get stuff done now and actually pay attention at intersections, I love you! Keep being worthwhile and people of importance in the world. You are appreciated. If you see that guy or girl that slacks until the end, smack them, smack them hard. I feel better now.

If you have not checked out my current project…

Violent Sol Worlds home

IndieDB

Facebook – join the conversation

@magicrat_larry – Join me on Twitter

Am I a Failure, or No?

Posted on August 28, 2015 by magicrat_larry

Fear of all this work not paying off is looming. As we push to Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight it does cross my mind that people may not support us or even know about us. I’ve been working hard for a long time now to try and make that not happen. I suppose the fact that you are reading this is a sign that my fears are at least not 100% solid.

It will be a slightly crushing blow if our efforts do go unseen or even worse un-liked. Well our best is all we can give. I do appreciate everyone for supporting, following, and just being there through our hard work. Game development is not hard, the workload is the hard part.

Holding down the full-time job and performing on game development at the same time will kill a lesser person. I have the largest amount of respect to those who have made it before me and hope like heck that hard work pays off and I follow them in stride. All of your support is appreciated and there is a much longer road ahead. I’ll keep digging in as long as I keep getting up in the morning. I love this stuff.

As always here are some links to learn about our game Violent Sol Worlds

Violent Sol Worlds home

IndieDB

Facebook – join the conversation

Game Development, It’s what’s for Lunch

Posted on August 2, 2015 by magicrat_larry

I tend to work through lunch. Yes, even on the weekends. The one thing that weekdays have going for them is that I actually eat a lunch. The weekend I tend to just grab the computer and start plugging away as my daughter eats her food. There is just so much to get done.

See, Violent Sol Worlds is getting close to launching a Steam Greenlight, and Kickstarter campaign both in relative closeness to each other. The thought is we will launch Greenlight first and refine anything we need to in a couple of weeks. Then launch Kickstarter and hopefully have more than my mom go to both of them. I love my mom and all, but I kinda want to have somebody other than our families support this awesome title we are making.

So I am putting together the final coding of the game-play demo, which is just a little bit more. I am also tasked with the Greenlight page which I would like done by end of day Tuesday so we can hit “GO” whenever we like on it.

Well wish us luck, and if you have not seen the game yet please go check it out, we have a webpage now – Violent Sol Worlds

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.

Hello, Let me Grab This By the Face

Posted on July 7, 2015 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.

Game Developer SMASH!!!!

Posted on July 4, 2015 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 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.

Some Days Just Hurt

Posted on July 1, 2015 by magicrat_larry

Today seems like one of those days. One of those days where things just don’t get done. I tried, but got nowhere, kind of day. I suppose I tend to have the other kind of day more than this, so that makes these days a bit harder to swallow.

I’m trying to get our physics for driving to balance. It is not easy to understand. The problem is I used other peoples math to get this all to “work” properly. Turns out their math tended to be a rigged in mess. So now I am attempting to clean that up. As you can tell, I got nowhere.

The best part is, that these days always build up to a moment where you physically throw your hands in the air and smile with glee when you fix the problems. That is the light at the end of the tunnel, and what we all do game development for. I look forward to that moment where this days setup becomes the foundation for a massive victory moment.

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.