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Showing posts from April, 2018

Kickstarter or Crowdfunding

As a part of game development, marketing is probably as crucial a stage as code writing. What would be the use of a game release if no one knew about the game? Maybe your time would not go to total waste and you'd have a feeling of achievement. In the end you have gone through a mammoth of a project and now its done!  In my case, I want to benefit to the gaming community. To deliver smash ET to people, to make them happy. I have decided to raise funds through Kickstarter, a main platform for crowdfunding. There are lot's of successful stories of games funded through kick starter. One of the highest funded project on Kickstarter was a board game called Kingdom Death which generated whopping $12mln in 30 days. I am not expecting to generate this much money, although I have to admit it would be nice.  As I am preparing to launch kick starter campaign in July 2018, I have decided to read some books on the topic. I currently go through 15 books /e-books a mo

Game Design - It's a never ending development

I have completed the game development document(GDD). Thought through every aspect of the game. Every detail was covered. Because of my love to structure and plan, I wanted to make sure I am covered from every angle. Then I have read one book, then another. Received feedback. Played other games. New ideas came. Old ideas went. smashET GDD And now, the GDD now serves only as a reference guide. Is writing a GDD bad idea then? Not at all. I have to admit, I thought that it was a very bad idea. Why did I bother, spent days coming up with ideas, only to scrap them now? Yes, lots of ideas I initially had, have changed, improved, and the document comes useful now, only when I need a reminder of what my original thinking was. When new idea comes I amend my design, simple. Witcher 3  I was reading "Blood, sweat and Pixels" by Jason Schreier and during a chapter on Witcher 3 , the author mentions that the developers of that game were worried to make actions in the game

Why Angry Birds & Breakout

W hy does anyone do anything?  Because they like it. A big motto in my life is, only do things that make you happy. I possibly should start with Breakout . The game developed by Apple's very own Steve Wozniak. As he was the brains behind Apple development so was he the mastermind behind the Breakout arcade. A fact not known to many. I played that arcade in 80's - yes, I am that old - and loved every minute of it. It was exciting, challenging and new for 8-year-old boy, to interact with things on screen and friends around you hearing you up. The most exciting was the power ups, and then countless iterations of the Breakout on commodore 64. I must admit, I've played countless games since, some excited me more, some less, yet when the Angry Birds came out, it was something new. For starters, I was able to play a game on my iPhone, which was released just two years before launch of the Angry Birds, but more importantly, as a designer, I enjoy the simplicity.

Writing A Game

It's been two months since I decided to develop a game. I am writing a 2D "puzzle game featuring extra-terrestrial invasion of the earth and monsters, who try to save the key landmarks. The game is coming up quite promising. I have decided to start recording the progress of my voyage. I have been designing and writing code for over a decade now. Always for someone else, for a corporation, individual, freelance, but never for myself. The time has come to make something, that I will be able to call my own. SmashET App Splash Screen Smash ET is a name I have selected for this new game. The title was meant to be word play as well as the actual game theme. The game focuses on player controlling a trampoline which sends monsters into the air to eliminate alien space ships. I have decided to make all elements 2D, clean and simple, no shadowing and detailed drawing. The game also will use AI to control the difficulty of gameplay level by level. That's it for the