Category: General

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Milestones

Pardon me while I ramble..   if you get bored you can pop over to the map editor and play around and let me know how it performs for you (IE users, don’t bother), and saving is disabled.   This is essentially me trying to externalize the process of development that seems to work for me.

It’s easy to get lost, sidetracked, disillusioned, or just plain worn out when embarking on a massive self guided project.

Even when you feel like you can just keep working on a project forever because you have so many ideas you risk it all if you don’t know what the final product is going to be.  For example, the megahit Minecraft was in development for over a year and sold close to a million copies before the guys at Mojang finally sat down and decided what they were actually making.   I’d wager if it hadn’t been for it going viral, it would have wound up just another of the tons of  half finished abandoned indie projects that litter the web because they didn’t know what they were making.

On the other extreme, there are just as many abandoned overdesigned, super perfectly detailed design documents for games that will never be created, scattered all over the internet as well.  Potential games that were literally designed to death, go dig around on sourceforge and you’ll find hundreds of em in ‘planning’.

So what’s an indie developer to do?

Frankly, I’m not sure.  I know what seems to work for me  (so far), and that’s self imposed milestones.

Now let me clarify a bit.  I’m not talking about your usual development project, spec sheet loaded, time and budget allocated, cut your funding if  you don’t make it milestone.  That’s for a different type of development, not a creative endeavor.  It has it’s place, but not here.

What kind of milestones?

I’m talking more of a softer, moldable, flexible type of milestone.  You take one, you work on it, do whatever you want withing the parameters specified, and when you’re done you have real tangible progress.  Then you pick another one that mirrors what you’re in the mood for.    That’s key for me.   When I get to the point in a project where I don’t have a choice in what I need to do next and don’t want to do it , I get distracted. (see the Mutant Sheep Eat the Earth!, game… it’s pretty much stalled because I’ve worked myself into a corner where there’s nothing exiting left and I’ve gotten totally de-motivated  (psst it’s not dead.. just hibernating in my subconscious.. I have plans percolating.))

For example, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll have wrapped up my latest milestone for BSDDoD! which was ‘Build a web based editor to let me edit game elements and export them into a flatfile for use in the game in 20 days.’

Flexible task definition

That’s it for the definition of it.  I didn’t have any other notes or plans other than I knew the map size has to be 20×20 due to memory constraints of the final 10×10 grid of 20×20 maps that the game will happen in.  I could go as feature rich and as crazy as I wanted to, but I always kept a mental track of trying to hit the date or at least get as close as I possibly can.   I didn’t even know what I was going to write it in (jquery, cakephp and custom javascript if you’re interested, it almost wound up a desktop based Python application or java applet)  I didn’t pre-plan features other than the map size.  This let me actually create and explore while working on it.

I really try no to make too many choices that will force me to wind up in a position of having to determine things for future milestones.  Now of course it’s inevitable that there will be some overlap, but striving to make each milestone into it’s own creative endeavor keeps me interested in the long run.

Know how long you can stay focuse… ooh look shiny!

I know how long my attention span is, and how long I can proceed with certain types of tasks before getting bored and I make the milestones accordingly, and I try to have a couple of milestone choices available to choose from, so if I’m in the mood for more coding I can do that, or if I need a break and switch to art asset creation, planning, music etc those options are available for me.

So my next choices for BSDDoD! milestones are:

  • Coding, Import map data and generate levels in the Torque Game Builder engine that alpha 4 was working in, 7 days
  • Art, Create Door, wizard (basic wand and arm) and basic creeper art assets, 14 days.
  • Design, come up with different enemies and concept art and various powerups available in the witch’s shop, 14 days.

Time is relative

Now you’ll notice that my ‘days’ have very very very little relevance to normal time, this comes with having a 1 year old, and a fulltime job, an art site and business to help launch  and some awesome swiftthought.com development work that all take priority.

That’s ok.  I’m fully aware that this 6 month project is already in it’s second year and I’m ok with that.

I can see progress being made.

I can see what  I need to do, to get there.

I still have to make up how to do it.

I can see the milestones all the way to the end.

I have no idea of  what all the things I will have created by the time I get there will look like.

That’s damn exciting.

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Editor Work

So what do you do if you have an unexpected 3 days of vacation.  Well if you’re like me you get a chance to dig into some new fun tech and wind up making a new version of the tile editor to support your game.   As I mentioned in the last post, I’m in the process of moving to a front face Isometic camera for BSDDoD! (like the original zelda).   Which is going to necessitate a new tile editor to do all the hard work.

The old editor is still online at http://irismel.com/tileEditor/ and functioning in it’s primitive state.  However the new editor, is slowly coming online at http://editor.irismel.com with the real magic happening on the editor pages ( http://editor.irismel.com/maps/editMapTiles/12 )  There’s still a bunch of fun stuff to do, like detecting and placing the  front facing tiles and being able to place and edit objects, not to mention being able to export this and get it into the primary game engine files.    But, overall, this has been an excellent week’s worth of progress.  Cake PHP is proving to be a fast and flexible framwork to be able to create complex data driven applications.  I really hope to get many more chances to dig into it and do fun web-app stuff..

The new editor does everything that BSDDoD! needs and then some, in fact it’s pretty close to being a whole generic level editor for all sorts of tile based games… but one step at a time eh?    I have a short list of to-do items left for the editor and then I can pop back into the main TGB code and start to implement the new map style (should be simple since the editor will generate complete maps) and start updating the player, adding new creatures, and adding the equipment shop…

What I’m Playing:

Revenge of the Titans: This is an addictive, just incredible take on the tower defense genre, and the latest version just simply does so many things right.

Space Chem: This is probably the puzzle game of the decade.  Build chemical compounds with an assortment of commands given to waldos… oh hell I can’t describe it.. just go get the damn thing or read Rock Paper Shotgun’s coverage...

X3: Terran Conflict :  the last entry into the X3 universe by EgoSoft.  It’s got a steep learning curve but leads right into the heart of one of the best space trading/combat/strategy games of the last 15 years.

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Updating the look.

As mentioned in the last post, GarageGames.com is back and that brings with it a chance to kick the development of BSDDoD! back into full gear.    (well that and finally having the motivation and (hopefully) time to work on it).

So I spent a bit of time this weekend trying to actually get SOMETHING finished on the game and I’ve got the basic Map tiles all knocked out.  Along with it came a change to a 30 degree Zelda like viewpoint which is going to provide some challenges later on, but the straight down view really wasn’t working and an increase in tile resolution to 128×128.  Also floor tiles got some subtle shading changes etc meaning I’ve got to rewrite my web based level generator (which I was wanting to do, it’s really way too inflexible).   So that’s the next task at hand.  So here’s a mockup of a screenshot using the new tileset complete with scribbled wizard for size testing.

The new Tilesets Used in a Mock scene
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Recettear and Stuff

Well The server migration is done for all but a few client’s subdomains that will have to linger for them to launch their sites first.  Overall I’m pretty happy with how it all went, only a minor hiccup or two (thank’s wordpress for storing all your config options for all the plugins in a nasty mess of a database table with file paths thrown whereever, Yuck!)

Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about.

Recettear (rhyme with Racketeer)

My Shop, it's not much but it's mine.. until I miss my payments.

An Items shop tale.

This little gem of a game is all about running your item shop supplying the foolhardy adventurers who go explore the dungeons.

The controls were pretty much undocumented but there’s only the arrow keys and 4 buttons (z,x,c,v)  so after a few moments pounding the keys on the keyboard I was off.

The story starts with you waking up and the local Collections Fairy, has come to collect on your (now Mysteriously absent) father’s debt.  After some dialog and a basic tutorial I’ve converted my house into an Item shop.

You Sell High, Buy Low.. and run around town, meet people buy all sorts of strange things and always keep an eye on the clock.

The Fairy Mob's Deadlines are always looming.

The game doesn’t take itself too seriously and riffs easily off all the RPG (especially jRPG) conventions.   Now don’t take that to mean it’s easy.  It kinda plans on  you failing so it lets you keep your shop levels between playthroughs, which is a bit  odd but not that big a deal.

Gradually you’ll meet more and more people around town and learn the individual shopping habits of your regular customers.

Then there’s the Adventurers.  Cheap bastards.  All of them.   However,  you can hire them and join them in their explorations of the local dungeons etc  (Played a-la old school Zelda where you control the hero) .

So you want the heroes to have good equipment so you can loot the dungeon for better loot so you can sell it to them before the Fairy Mob comes collecting their Massive Debt that dear ol Deadbeat Dad left you with. (what in the world did he buy to get so far into debt?)

Oh no Poor little lost girl!
Meet tounge in cheek RPG Stereotypes!
Explore dungeons! Kill things, Get Loot to Sell!

Overall, It’s a fun game that provides some challenge and plays well in small increments (yay for games that dont require 2hrs to get started playing!)

It’s available for a measly $20 at GamersGate, Steam , impulse etc etc…

Analog Diversions

And Finally I’ve managed to sneak in  a couple Hours of painting to finish up the First of the new Elementelves (i know clever isn’t it?) Paintings.  I’m resisting the urge to pull it down and tweak some more bits on it (which I might).

And last but not least.. there has been sheep progress.  Another 5 sheep drawn and inked.  So that’s down to 25 to go.  Then to paint them and place them.

(P.S. Drawing sheep holding a martini glass is HARD)

That’s it for now.  As soon as I stop shaking I’ll get some thoughts down on Amnesia, scariest tensest game I’ve played since RE2.

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Odd Migratory Hiccup

For some reason something went *kerboolooie!* and the site went mostly poof for a bit..I might have uploaded of moved the wrong config file…
anyway everything looks better now..
Carry on.

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Impractical Exercise

Unplanned Diversions

So as I’ve mentioned before I’ve been playing / testing the Elemental Beta, which has since been launched er.. well… poorly… Apparently There was a bit of developer tunnel vision and it turns out the release version was kinda… well.. unfinished..  However Stardock has a history of supporting their releases magnificently.. and if the newly released 1.08 patch is any indication Elemental is quickly on its way to being worth it’s weight in gold.

So Funnily enough, this plus a couple other factors all gelled together and I’ve unexpectedly / inadvertently managed to start a new project.

First the elemental launch  got me thinking a lot about about the old classic Master of Magic(now available at GoG) and Age of Wonders (also at GoG and Impulse) and how hard it would be to make a classic fantasy TBS with modern tools.

Second, I’ve been coming to grips with building real web apps with CakePhp and getting used to working with the whole MCV concept.

And, perhaps, most significantly, I’ve messed with fun tool-set jQuery overlays and dungeon creation tools via web browsers in the past and while updating all my domains I found that I had registered fantasywarsonline.com a long time ago and simply never gotten around to messing with it.  So I spent some time re-discovering things I’d made a long time ago.

So one evening later, in the breaks between putting teething baby to sleep,  I’ve managed to get a good start on a random map creator, and some basic database modeling laid out.

I’ve got a few freelance projects to work on this weekend and a painting to finish, but hopefully I’ll be able to define some Fun Milestones to knock out so hopefully this can be a fun multiplayer web based TBS.

Analog diversion update

The Sketches for all 4 element paintings are done.

The finalized sketches

And the Fire Element Painting is getting closer to being done.  I hope to wrap it up in the next few days (baby willing)

Step 3 the Hair
Step 3 the Hair

That’s it for now.  I know I haven’t gotten to the Amnesia or Reccetear games post, I just haven’t played anything in the last couple days to get screenshots from them, however they’re Both Excellent and you should buy them.

Amnesia is probably the scariesy 8-10hrs you’ll play this year, and Reccetear is an addictive, cute and surprisingly huge rpg where you play the town’s item shop owner!

[edit] clearly this was written late late at night and makes little sense in parts… updated for coherence.

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Migration

Boring Technical Stuff

So my old virtual server over at godaddy is at this point running a 3-4 year old image with just miniscule specifications and it’s time to switch providers.

I’ve been hosting client sites at media temple for a while now and they’re seemingly rock steady and way more responsive that the mess that godaddy has devolved into. Which kinda seems to be the trend.. the last host did the same thing 6-7 years ago.

So the new account has been purchased, and the great migration is underway. In the process I’m streamlining my internal and test sites significantly so I can provision and deploy client previews much easier. Additionally I’m consolidating my SVN repos and starting them out with a clean slate so I wont have so many indivdial branches and subprojects to keep track of. (YAAY!)

I’ve got 16 domains and about that many subdomains to shuffle over and so far the process has been running smoothly. Wenderflonia.com and swiftthought.com (and their related client pages and subdomains) are going to be the last things punted over before pulling the plug.

I’ll be notifying clients indiviually with the new name servers they’ll need to point their domain registrations to over the next couple days or so.

I’ve also shuttered Drakkheim.com for the time being. It really deserves to have it’s own special purpose and until I can do something with it It’s going to re-direct here.  The performance increase is really noticeable over at www.beautifulbasics.com (our food and healthy living community site) which has been re-opened for registration btw! So pop over and tell us about yourself.

Ok 7 domains moved.. now to get some rest.

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Don’t look now, but that kinda resembles progress

Ok so it’s not the groundbreaking massive “woo it’s done!” Kind of progress, but it’s a start.

Quake con was a great fun filled event, with me and Parker spending 2 long days blowing stuff up to our hearts content.   We’ll be heading back next year for sure.

So that progress thing?  Swiftthought games is real now, has all sorts of business stuff and is paying for it’s own hosting etc…  I’ve got a handful of jobs wrapped up or 90% there, with hopfully a couple new ones (potentially including an actual web game) coming down the pipe. 

And! I’ve got some progress on the Mutant Sheep Eat The Earth! made as well.  several new cards were finalized, text revisions made, and the website is getting there.  Also thegamecrafter.com has updated their production pipe so soon they say they can offer tuck boxes and full color instructions.

And all the meanwhile, I’m discovering that playing dad is a lot of fun and continually exhausting. 

This weekend promises to be quite productive and the future remains as unpredictable as ever, which is half the fun.

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Good grief, what happenend to the summer?

Man, what happenend to the summer?  There was so much I wanted to get done and yet all I’ve managed to do is stay sane an knock out more freelance work (which is a good thing btw).

So its time to re-re-rededicate myself to get going on all my dang projects.  Well, hopefully, the freelance work will keep coming, so I’m taking that into account as well. 

Regardless, expect more posts and goodies to start popping up around here starting next week. 

No really…  this time I’m pretty sure I mean it.

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thedailywhiteboard.com and other progess.

What’s that weird thing above about?? Well Every day at work I have a whiteboard behind me, and Every day I make a little scribble or something while warming up my first cuppa coffee (shade grown, south american organic breakfast blend FTW!)

So I’ve collected them together and started a pseudo comic thingie.

you can see em all Here http://thedailywhiteboard.com/ The last 60 days have been counting down an office mate’s trip to Kenya and started with a simple scribble of a lion in the top left corner along with a number.   Unfortunately I didn’t know I’d be keeping them all so I only have 18 or so images so far.   But the basic story seems to come across.

ALSO!

Ok so remember that super productive week thing?.. well ok It tunred out to be a couple of days.. then errands etc etc kinda ran interference and messed up parts of it.

I’ve got some awesome oil painting getting done and and super excited by the amount of cool freelance stuff that’s pouring this way!   However, the sheep.. well… I got a handful done.. so the traction is a little slow in getting going on that front.  Also GFW is having all sorts of fun with Kelly Rae’s Flying Lessons e-Course and that’s been educational for us both.

More funs stuff coming along all weekend, with plans galore of starting the whole health food thing againg and more happy crazy goodness.

Anyway, I’ve got a sleeping baby and a canvas to go screw up.

laters.

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Super Productive Week – day 1

Super Productive Project Week is on!

So I’ve got the house to myself while GFW and Co. are out visiting grandma in Merkel.  Which means it’s a rare opportunity to listen to loud music till the odd hours of the night and work on All those things that I’ve been meaning to get done.

But, first things first.  Today was wrapping up some consulting for Kell. And also getting an awesome start on the Jones Communications website / CMS re-design.    After today I’ve got the element layout of the site in place so tomorrow I can focus on getting the content styling in place, and then gradually flesh out the pages and programmatic requirements of the site.

Additionally in order to further my adventures with water soluble oil paints, I’ve decided to start a second piece while working on the first.  Its a significantly larger size (14″x18″) But I’ve got plans for attempting something resembling a portrait… But the texture of the canvas in the first piece has become a hindrance so this new piece I’m starting out by layering many coats of gesso and then once dry, sand it back to a smoother surface.  Hopefully the texture will help my control of the paint. So tonight has been spent putting down 4 coats so far and hopefully one more before bedtime, and then allow it to dry fully overnight.

So the theory goes the remainder of the week will be a couple hours of website work, followed by some sheep illustrating  intermingled with breaks  on the paintings.    It might all be too much to do but hey.. its summer vacation and I can sleep in til 7:20 now 🙂

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Time.. can I haz some more?

Well the swift summer days are here again. Somehow the motivation levels have deflated a bit, probably due to being super super busy at the 9-5 and a good showing of freelance work this month.

Well that and babies appearantly seem to need more and more human interaction as they grow, and I’ve gotta do my part to keep gfw sane 😉

So sheep productivity has seen more active days. That’s ok though, there’s nothing wrong with being busy. 🙂 even if its not the kinda busy i’d prefer.

Oh well at least I got a couple sheep done last night so it’s a start. Oh and I can live vicariously through gfw’s adventure in Kelly Raes e-course, whic shell be blogging about over at her Wenderflonia art blog.

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A minor change of Title

So with the acquisition of a planned fun little markting site for Mutant Sheep, the game has undergone a Minor Title change.  It’s now:

Mutant Sheep Eat the Earth!

[read that in a booming movie trailer voice]

So with the arrival of the new scanner  and spring mental cobweb cleaning done, it’s time to get down to brass tacks.

The big things to get done:

  • Art – lots of art still to do
  • Trademark/copyright  the game name/title
  • File actual paperwork for Swiftthought Games n stuff
  • Playtest the new version of the rules and card changes.
  • Create Marketing site mentioned above.
  • Make tutorial videos that explain the rules for above mentioned website.

Yeah so that’s a decent chunk of work..  Ok I’m gonna go watch SG-1 and draw 5 sheep before bedtime.