I’ve caught the pragmatism bug. Everything I do now is the most pragmatic way I can possibly complete the task. This all started when my time started costing me money; when I started working for myself. I like to think of it as “The product justifies the means”. Today I’m going to briefly describe what I mean by fanatical pragmatism with some concrete rules I’ve been following recently.
[Spoiler Warning: Small spoilers about two modern games are contained in this post, without specific details]. Two of the most popular games of 2010 have involved narrative death of the player character. That is, the death of the player during the story elements of the game, specifically a cut-scene. Both Mass Effect 2 and Modern Warfare 2 took their narratives to a deeper level with these plot devices, however they were both watered down by one key problem which I’m discussing today.
In the days leading up to GDC this year Clinton Keith held a ScrumMaster course specifically for video game development. I attended the course and in this blog post I share my experiences with a brief review for anyone thinking of attending or sending some of their developers to attend.
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” will emerge out of the features in the future.
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. The blogs are listed alphabetically rather than by any preference of mine.
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 I’m going to discuss what virtual reality means for gamers and game developers.
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 team together to increase your chances of success.
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