I spent the first two days of GDC undertaking my Scrum Master Certification. As part of this course we had to add an extra item to the agile manifesto. I came up with the concept of “Fun over Features”. Focus on finding fun within your game rather than just adding features in the hopes “fun” [...]
Back in 2006 I wrote an article detailing one of the biggest problems I saw with indie game development. Since then, I’ve seen a rise in another problem that I’ll outline today. This problem stems from the lack of communication within the indie game industry and I look for possible solutions.
Below are a collection of Blogs relating to game development, primarily graphics programming. Use your favourite reader (eg Google Reader) to read them. Know of any blogs not on the list that you can recommend? Add a comment and I’ll add them to the list. Big thanks to Damian Trebilco for help with the list. [...]
Game designers often find themselves writing code in modern games. Often, they have little to no programming experience and therefore must be taught the basics of programming (sequence, conditionals and loops). I propose utilizing a technique that simplifies the code written by game designers in their games. This technique is known as “Fluent Interfaces”.
How many virgins have played your game? Do you make sure they’re virgins before they play? You need at least one virgin per week to keep you on track and you should be filming them!
Have you ever used Virtual Reality? Whether the big cumbersome headsets in the early 90’s or the sleeker more refined technology of today, chances are you’ve encountered virtual reality in your travels. It was touted as the “next big thing” in computers and was expected to be in every home but it never eventuated. Today [...]
Are you looking to set up an independent game development team? You’ll need a team that covers all areas of game development including programming, art, design, sound, project management and business. You need to pick the right people that can work together for months or even years. Below are some tips for putting the right [...]
Good software development books are hard to find. I’m always being asked which books I recommend so I thought I’d compile a list of my favourites. These are books every software developer should read. All of these books have made me a better programmer. The list covers everything from the basics [...]
Do you want to learn how to make your own computer games? Not sure where to start? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to create your own games for free using XNA. I’ve been asked by a number of people what the best route to take when learning to develop games. The following tutorial will [...]
Games take a lot of time and money to create. Many companies can’t afford this ever increasing drain on their resources, particularly independent game developers. Developers need to become more pragmatic in the way they developer their games. This article describes the steps we’ve been taking to focus on releasing a good game, in the [...]
Does the title of this article make you cringe? People have mixed feelings when it comes to C# and the .NET framework. Just like many hardcore game developers 10 years ago swore that games should only be made in straight C, many developers today say that C++ is the only way to go. This article [...]
Steam’s having great success at the moment, with 40% market share making it the #1 platform for online game distribution. They’ve expanded from in-house games to publishing titles of all shapes and sizes (from Modern Warfare 2 to Osmos). I’ve always thought they were missing something, Steam Points. Steam Points would be to Steam as Microsoft [...]
Have you ever thought about becoming an indie game developer? Has your game company just gone under, sick of working for publishers or do you just want to break into the games industry? Whatever the reason, one thing that rings true for all Indie developers is the goal of making a good game. A lot [...]
I’ve been talking with a number of Indie game developer friends about what platform they should develop their next game for. There are a number of great platforms available to game developers and this choice of platform is critical to the success of your game. Many people have a game idea, but aren’t sure what [...]
What is the best scripting language for game development? Every different game engine has its own scripting language making for a difficult choice. Game programmers have a unified language in C++ however game designers are left with whatever language their engine supports. I propose a unified scripting language that all engines/platforms can share.
Sid Meier once said “A game is a series of interesting choices” [1]. By focussing on the choices made by the player, we can create better games through Choice Driven Design. This focus on player choice should happen both at design and implementation time for best results. I will discuss why the focus on choices [...]
Valve’s Gabe Newell was on Good Game recently and brought up a topic close to my heart; community funded games. This is where the community (gamers) all chip in small amounts of money to fund a game, rather than a single large publisher. The question is, will it work?
A bunch of my friends are working on Edge of Twilight at Fuzzyeyes (the first game studio I worked at). They have a new video out which is quite impressive. Check it out here. I’m hoping to have an interview with a couple of the developers in the coming months. Fuzzyeyes is one of the [...]
I’ve worked with a lot of awesome people in the games industry. I’ve learned a lot from these people and I thought a great way of sharing their knowledge and wisdom would be to start a game developer spotlight. This is my first attempt, I’m interested in people’s feedback. I worked with Greg on Battlestar [...]
Quite a few people recently have been blaming Java for part of the downfall in current computer science (CS) graduates. While I don’t particularly like java, I’d like to go to its defence to say that teaching Java is not the real reason that a lot of CS graduates are no good these days. [...]
