I have always wanted to hear about the trials and tribulations of indie game developers and maybe offer a helping hand in anything possible.
So let's get the ball rolling:
- What is the concept of your game?
- How far are you in development?
- Are you looking for help? Where and how?
I'm just getting started with game dev. And to get a grip of the simple stuff, I'm developing a pong game using Polycode (http://polycode.org). I'm very much interested in knowing what tools other indie devs use.
JonLim, since you mentioned you are looking to help, you can pitch in and help with Polycode itself - https://github.com/ivansafrin/Polycode. It's a nice tool with C++ APIs and also Lua APIs which makes it easier to develop stuff. I'm hangout on FreenodeIRC #polycode as HashNuke.
I'm not working on the Polycode directly, but after this pong game (hopefully, if I can squash some bugs) I'll have a little framework to develop games using Polycode that I can opensource.
I sent a message to the repo owner yesterday asking him if he can add build instructions to the site so that others can use it to contribute. Still waiting for reply.
I've been waiting to get my hands dirty and contribute to the Lua APIs. The forks of the repo which have build instructions say building the project from source on Mac OSX has problems, the repo owner Ivan somehow built it (i'm on a mac), so I guess we'll have to wait until he adds the instructions himself.
I thought pong was simple to start with. But Pong in itself is not that simple when it has to be 'complete'. Realized that gamedev isn't that simple as web dev :)
I remember my days in high school Java class, trying to learn to create pong. That was a fun experience.. :P
I'm actually doing these just to get a good feel of gamedev before plunging into anything even a bit complex.
The first one is called uchoos (http://uchoos.com). It's a choose your own adventure game for your phone. It's live right now with a demo story. I put it together for GameHackDay. It has a CMS for for creating and uploading content. I'm not sure how much time I'm going to spend on it.
I'm also working on another game called zown that is a real-world capture the flag variation. I've built some custom hardware for it and I'm currently in the process of completing the web server that will support gameplay. Details for the custom hardware are here: http://bit.ly/pvWZHv
I'm not currently looking for help but I'm always interested in feedback.
For uChoos, are you supposed to text the number on the site or... what? :)
I'm toying with the idea of creating a web view for the stories as well. As of now, the 'story builder' is not open to the public but my next release may allow for that.
- What is the concept of your game? It's an asteroids clone with a bit of a twist. The asteroids can be one of a number of colors and the player has to switch bullet colors to match their target asteroid. Hit an asteroid with the wrong color bullet and it spawns more.
- How far are you in development? Complete - you can check out some pics and download (it's free) from the official site... http://www.mattmccomb.com/Coloroids/index.html
As for the trials and tribulations...
+ Use frameworks - I handcrafted my engine from scratch. My maths/geometry isn't bad but implementing the physics and rendering took me much longer than any other aspect of the development. And for what gain? I learnt a bit about maths/physics but it's not useful to me. I would have been better off using a library (cocs2d, unity, etc.) and pouring my time into gameplay.
+ Finishing is the hardest part - Adding features and tweaking control systems, that's fun! Coding menus, creating icons and writing app descriptions, not so much. I left all the dull stuff to end. I spent my last week of development writing emails to app review sites and creating promo images/videos. I suggest that you plan ahead and do some of the dog work as you go. It'll make completing much easier.
+ Feedback is Critical - find a diverse range of testers, old, young, gamers, non-gamers and let them play your game from day 1. They are the most vital source of feedback you will find. NEVER rely on your own judgement - you're your own worst critic.
+ Enjoy the process - build a game you enjoy playing and believe in.
A few questions:
- Were you not aware of Cocos2d / Unity when you started? Or did you think you could do it better?
- What sort of feedback did you get and how did you go about getting it?
- Are you not planning to develop any more games? (Based on your first sentence.)
I was aware of it, although not to the extent that I am now. Awareness wasn't the reason for the decision however. The decision was a mix of naivety and a desire to learn as much as possible about game design/development. Writing my own engine was therefore a bit of a self-learning process. It certainly was beneficial but not a process I would repeat or recommend for a commercial/releasable game - especially for indie devs.
- What sort of feedback did you get and how did you go about getting it? Prior to release I pestered friends, family and strangers. I would make a concerted effort to mention what the game in conversations (if the other person reciprocated with interest). This often led to a description of the concept, mechanics and a short demo/play test. I did this from day one - when there was literally a ship on screen with a control pad. Immediately I was told that the controls were too sensitive - but as I alluded to you become blind to these things when you spend your days play testing your own game.
- Are you not planning to develop any more games? (Based on your first sentence.) For me the process was about two things - 1. the challenge and 2. the experience. Games are difficult and they involve some fairly complex design/coding problems, that was the attraction for me. I don't have a particular affinity/interest in games development - so I'm not sure I would jump into another game immediately.
I would however love to remake the game using a framework and with some more polished graphics. I actually really enjoy playing it and think the concept works well. Unfortunately my own decision to custom design the engine has potentially hindered the enjoyability and limited the functionality.
Let me know.
It's very much in development.. core gameplay is in place but missing all the collectible and PvP elements and still only has a tiny bit of single player content.
I would forever adore anyone who helped with single player content (AI campaign mode, puzzles, AI decks), game design (new units, effects, playtesting for balance) and art (units, boards).
The whole frontend is just images and javascript animations, with the backend in django nonrel running on appengine, so there are probably also accessible coding tasks that I could easily make use of as well.