Influences

The biggest influence on me to take up game development was playing Cave Story by Pixel Studios. There are so many things that hit the right notes for me in this game. The memorable characters (and their fantastic pixel art,) the incredible 8-bit music, the metroidvania gameplay, and the multiple endings all contribute to making this far more than just a retro rehash. I was floored when I found out that it was the work of one man, Daisuke Amaya, over a period of five years.

The Wikipedia entry for Cave Story has additional information, including links to download the game, and an English translation patch.

This also leads me into an interesting situation with Flash and Actionscript. After spending some time with learning it this week, it seems that working with sprites is really not its strong suit. I believe that it’s more geared towards vector graphics and animation, and that it would be difficult to realize the kind of pixel art I’d like to do. I believe that I’ll continue working with Flash for smaller games to start with, but may have to look at other additional languages/environments to achieve what I really want to do. It is a bit early to tell though.

I also found a great freeware MIDI composition tool called Anvil Studio. I used to compose a lot of electronica back in the day using MIDISoft Studio 3, and this looks to be a very similar tool. I think it will come in very handy for game music once I get to that point.

Murphy’s Law

It’s been a while since my last update. I had actually found a Network Engineer position with a local construction company which had taken up most of time. The position, naturally, fell into my lap the very moment that I really dedicated myself to learning game dev.

Oh, Murphy, and your inescapable laws of illogic.

So, game dev was put on hold… until now. I could certainly handle the 60+ hour weeks at the new job, but I draw the line at personal abuse. After talking things over with my wife, we decided that I would quit, and take the next year to try to make a go of game dev. It’s a huge step trying to live on just her salary, but we’re cutting out a lot of things. For instance, I’m giving up my car (and all the crazy expenses that come with it.) We’re both giving up much of our entertainment expenses, and we’re also probably going to be eating a lot of ramen. Good thing I developed a tolerance to it in my college years.

So, I decided that I’m done messing around with Game Maker, and have taken on Flash and Actionscript as my language of choice. My thoughts are, that I basically have this next year to make some money, and I think that Flash is going to be the quickest way to monetize my work. Game Maker was a great first step, and helped me to understand the core fundamentals of game design, but everything I’ve read leads me to believe that the real money comes from Flash sponsorships, and injecting ads.

I really think my wife is the greatest person in the world for believing in me, and giving me the chance to follow this path. I couldn’t be more excited.

Flash! He’ll save every one of us!

I found out some additional info regarding Flash game dev from Ben over at Fat Badger Games. It looks to be a pretty lucrative prospect after reading a lot of the info at FlashGameSponsorship.com. One of the big selling points for me is that the money is being made by sponsorships and ad revenue while the games are free to play. I believe that I’ll be pursuing Flash as my language of choice once I finish up my Game Maker’s Apprentice book. Because, well, I like money. A lot… Ahem… Anyways, in all seriousness, it would be great to be able to support myself while doing something I love. Especially since I would have creative freedom to make the kind of games I want to.

On the Game Maker front, I’m working with more advanced animation using different sized sprites on another tutorial game called Lazarus. I had a lot of fun tracking down a bug where the animation of the player character would animate correctly while moving right, but not animate at all when moving to the left and just jump jarringly to the next position. After looking through the events, it turned out that I forgot to attach the actual moving left sprite to the moving left object. It’s interesting in the context that I seem to learn and understand things much better when I have to think my way through troubleshooting issues, and this was no exception. It gave me a much better grasp of the positioning of the objects and how the animation really worked.

Flash Fires in Funtown

I checked out Fires in Funtown recently by another one of the regulars on the Penny-Arcade Games and Technology forum.

It has excellent music and a really neat art style, so I dropped the creator a note on how much I enjoyed it. While discussing the game, he mentioned that he codes his 2D games in Flash and recommends it as an engine. I will definitely add it to the list of environments that I check out once I complete the Game Maker’s Apprentice.

His site, Fat Badger Games, also has a really cool looking upcoming game called Blobulous in the Kingdom of Blobonia:

It’s really exciting to see a lot of the cool indie games that are coming up. I hope my games end up having half the charm and style as those.

Into the Galactic Breach

I started making my way through The Game Maker’s Apprentice, and finished three chapters. So far, I’m really impressed with how engaging the book is. It teaches basic game design concepts by having you create actual playable games. Seeing three playable (albeit simple) games completed has been a really rewarding start.

Chapter 1 is a Bouncing Balls tutorial that teaches the basic Game Maker environment of sprites, rooms, objects, events, and sound.

Chapter 2 has you playing as a fire breathing dragon shooting down demons to protect her young. It introduces collisions, animation, and score tracking.

Chapter 3 has you delivering mail in a rocketship to moon colonies while avoiding asteroids. It introduces multiple levels (rooms), more advanced sprite manipulation, and executing blocks of instructions.

Everything is really clicking so far, and I’m having a lot of fun. The whole process makes perfect sense and seems natural. I do wonder how far I can push Game Maker though for my own ideas. My understanding is that the advanced scripting opens up a world of possibilities, but it is still a minor concern. I am really looking forward to digging in to the advanced scripting piece since I did a lot of automation scripting with vbscript at my last job. I have a feeling that scripting for game dev would probably be at least 10x more fun than Windows registry manipulation and batch file I/O.

Tools and Directions

Before diving in to game development, I did some research on the available tools and decided on a course of action that would be a good fit for my lifestyle. Sometimes it’s easy to get swept away by passion and have grandiose plans that never come to fruition. I want to avoid that, so my goals are much simpler. This should give me room to adapt and change.

I decided to start with 2D game development using a scripted environment rather than C++. This should be an easy way to start learning and get some immediate results. A small project will also give me an opportunity to touch all areas of creation and decide what I enjoy most. Once I learn the basics and core concepts, then I’ll start working with C++.

The three packages I looked at were Game Maker, Torque Game Builder, and RPG Maker XP. Game Maker is cheap. It’s free to use and only $20 for the full version which unlocks some advanced effects. Game Maker can only compile for Windows though and the sys requirements for your compiled games are higher. It also feels like more of an entry-level/hobbyist environment. TGB seems a bit more robust. While it is also a scripted environment, you get access to the C++ source and can make changes to the engine itself around your game. It also costs more at $100. There seem to be compatibility issues though when creating games for portals. I decided to pass on RPG Maker. While I enjoy playing RPGs a lot, I don’t think it would be a good first project.

After reading many of the posts on the Indiegamer Developer Discussion forums, I decided Game Maker would be a good start and picked up The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners. Once I complete the book, I’ll decide whether to start a design document for an original small game, or start working with Torque Game Builder and/or learning C++.

Game Development: The Journey Begins

I love videogames.

The fascination began early when my Mom brought home a brand new Atari 2600. I was awestruck while I basked in the glow of Combat and Space Invaders. I was hooked on magic. Videogames have stayed with me my whole life through coin-op cabinets at the local bowling alley, to computer RTS and FPS’s, to lately playing games on the Nintendo Wii and DS with my wife. They are a fundamental part of my being, and the core of who I am.

I recently decided to follow my dreams and create my own games. This blog is intended to be a chronicle of that journey, and you’re welcome to come along for the ride.

I’m not sure if I’ll be successful. I’m not really even sure of what lies ahead. I am absolutely certain though that it is a going to be a great learning experience and a massive amount of hard work. I can’t wait!