No Time To Play

Well-known game developer Raph Koster starts 2012 with a 6-point guide to making cheaper games, to which the Rampant Coyote responds thoughtfully as ever. Here at No Time To Play, we are definitely interested in this particular topic, though we prefer to frame it as making games faster instead. Since time is money, that’s the same thing in the end: both come down to making games with less work. That’s especially important nowadays, as development times/costs are skyrocketing towards unsustainable levels (as Shamus Young points out at every turn).

But how can you do that? Let me add my own two cents first.
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I finally took a break from game development this week, mostly due to my brain refusing to focus on anything resembling code. So instead I’ve been following news more closely than usual, and making plans.

On the news side, the 2011 Interactive Fiction Competition is in full swing, and looking good. There’s a good handful of CYOA titles, mostly browser-based, and at least two experimental works. A refreshing variety of authoring systems are represented, including Alan and the reborn Quest, and the comp enjoys mainstream coverage. As a minus, not only there are still untested games being entered, but I caught one author openly advertising that!

Let’s make one thing clear: a game that hasn’t been beta-tested is half-finished at best. I don’t care if it’s as simple as Hamurabi, it will have issues. Don’t open it up to the public in that state.

In the way of plans, I’ve decided to pause the development of Dungeon Romp for now, and start a more streamlined, graphical roguelike instead. It will be based on a novel concept, and make a better browser game, in addition to being portable. When I resume work on Dungeon Romp, it will be running in the natural environment of traditional roguelikes: a Unix terminal. That way I hope to satisfy both casual and hardcore players without too many compromises.

But first I have some other things to get out of the way.

One of the most frustrating and wonderful elements about modern games is that they usually require more than one person to make them. Back in the days of the Atari, a single person could make a game if they wanted and do quite well with it. Some modern developers are still able to do this. Cave Story was written, designed and programmed by one single person. But he took five years to finish his game, and not everyone is Daisuke Amaya.

What this means is that you need a team to create the game you want. Some of us may remember the ordeal of group assignments at school and work and groan at the thought of having to deal with and manage such an endeavor. But it doesn’t have to be bad. It can even be exciting. So what should we look for in a team?
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There is no shortage of gamers who want to make their own computer games. There is also no shortage of material on how to get started. But few have given advice as good as Jay Barnson’s: Make Pong.

As I pointed out previously, game development is hard work not because of the programming (as many seem to think), but because of all the other stuff that goes into making a game. The development process itself is not simple. Mr. Barnson points out many of the issues; but he still glosses over an important part.

Your game must end up in the hands of an audience.

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I was just reading about the making of Darkfall — a good read for any gamer who dreams of making their own MMO, and who isn’t? — when a particular bit grabbed my attention:

We quickly learned the greek word “avrio” which means “tomorrow”. Whenever there is a problem that needs to be fixed asap, the natural greek reaction is “avrio… avrio”.

That’s the wisdom of a millenia-old civilization for you. A bit of wisdom we have forgotten in our frantic drive for more. And “more” is the kind of god who demands human sacrifices… sometimes literally.

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Sooo… I have good news and bad news. The good news is, I’m working on a new game. It’s too early to show you more than a screenshot, but it’s coming along nicely. What’s it about? Imagine a combination between Pac-Man and Robots, except with a few twists. It stayed in Limbo for a while, as I had the base game mechanic down, but no idea how to use it. Now I’m past that hurdle, it shouldn’t be long.

The bad news is, of course, that this post is late. You’d think that after four years and a half of blogging I’d know to prepare better. But nooo…

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It’s only natural for a gamer to dream of making their own games. The good news is, the means for doing that are available to just about anyone nowadays. The bad news is, many people shy away at the thought of having to learn programming. And while that fear is completely unfounded, getting help as a beginner is of course useful.

In part one of this article, I mentioned a number of game-making tools that make game programming much, much easier than starting from scratch. This time I’m going to look at the kind that seeks to eliminate programming altogether, at least for the most part.

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The one thing I like the most about game development in the 21st century is that it’s possible to do it alone, like in the good old days. Developing alone means you have freedom to experiment and to do what you know is right, and as the indie market proves, that’s a good thing. But there’s a downside to it as well: you have to be good at everything. Graphics, programming, sound — it’s all on you. And it’s hard enough to become an expert at one of these things, let alone all of them.

The obvious solution, then, is to look for a co-developer. But what if you can’t find one from the beginning, or at all? In such cases, sound is usually the first victim; you simply omit it. But with graphics, it’s not that simple.

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So, I spent much of last week preparing and then running an RPG session. Normally, I suck at making up stories (believe me, I tried for years). But as a game master, I’m actually adequate, or so my players tell me. Which used to puzzle me: if static, linear storytelling is hard, interactive storytelling should be much harder, right?

It took me a long time to understand that it’s the other way around. With the imagination of other people helping you, it should be much easier (for reasons I will explain in a moment). But this conclusion raises another question: if that’s the case, why do videogames, as a rule, have such sucky stories that some people question whether they should try for stories at all?

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The browser is tempting as a game development platform, for a variety of reasons. But while output is pretty much standardized now that we have <canvas>, input is still a problem. Or so I thought.

That’s because people keep complaining how making DOM events work across browsers is a pain, blah blah. And for a while I listened to the complaints and just didn’t bother. But I should have.

See, I have this game called Square Shooter (also available as an Opera widget). Due to the nature of the gameplay, I need to track the position of the mouse inside the canvas. Easy enough, right?

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