It has been a long year.
by Michael Cozzolino · 07/10/2009 (1:19 pm) · 5 comments
I think I'm in that magical phase of the last 5% of finishing a game.
Download the Play Test
What Got me to this point?
I have been messing around with Torque products pretty much from the beginning. So I had a lot of little prototypes and mishmashed projects. My advice is to keep them around. You are bound to find something useful for later projects. At the very least you can hit the ground running with prototypes going further.
I tried to take Jeff Tunnell's advice as much as possible.
Keep the scope within your limits.
I'm a one man team. So I needed to find a project that I could finish as a guy who has never created a game start to finish in his life.
Find a niche
I think I have done that to an extent. Though this style game is available on the web in flash I don't think the versions I have found are really all that well executed. Wii also has a version as part of Carnival Games. Actually quite good imo. So I guess my audience would be people that like to play a casual game on their pc/mac that do not necessarily own a wii and don't want to spend $30+ on a game of this sort. Obviously I'm not going to get rich. I think I found a market that is being under served. We will see.
Get Feedback
Obviously this is important. Especially when you are a one man team. Also can be harder than I thought. Really for most of development it was only my wife who I granted access to my game. On the plus side she doesn't hold back on criticism. I also posted to game dev forums such as here, TIG, IndieGamer, etc. The "Play Test" had a survey attached to it using surveymonkey.com, and would bring you to the survey when you exited.I probably at this point have gotten feedback from about 30 people between replies on message boards and surveys. I actually had no negative feedback. I received constructive criticism and I surprised myself that I didn't get annoyed. I changed the original controls to do sort of a mimic of throwing the ball. Kind of cross of the Skee Ball Flash Game controls and kicking in Madden at least one of the Madden's they change it all the time.
***[Update]*** Casual players hated this so I went back to the original control scheme.
So I started looking at publishers. I'm somewhat worried that none so far really have this kind of game. I'm wondering if I'm going to have a difficult time finding a publisher. Even online publishers seem to be having the industry wide view of wanting more of the same. Not to say my game is original what so ever. It is a game that was invented in 1909. It just isn't the norm.
Any advice on publishers, etc.?
bigmonkgames-at-gmail-dot-com
www.bigmonkgames.com
Download the Play Test
What Got me to this point?
I have been messing around with Torque products pretty much from the beginning. So I had a lot of little prototypes and mishmashed projects. My advice is to keep them around. You are bound to find something useful for later projects. At the very least you can hit the ground running with prototypes going further.
I tried to take Jeff Tunnell's advice as much as possible.
Keep the scope within your limits.
I'm a one man team. So I needed to find a project that I could finish as a guy who has never created a game start to finish in his life.
Find a niche
I think I have done that to an extent. Though this style game is available on the web in flash I don't think the versions I have found are really all that well executed. Wii also has a version as part of Carnival Games. Actually quite good imo. So I guess my audience would be people that like to play a casual game on their pc/mac that do not necessarily own a wii and don't want to spend $30+ on a game of this sort. Obviously I'm not going to get rich. I think I found a market that is being under served. We will see.
Get Feedback
Obviously this is important. Especially when you are a one man team. Also can be harder than I thought. Really for most of development it was only my wife who I granted access to my game. On the plus side she doesn't hold back on criticism. I also posted to game dev forums such as here, TIG, IndieGamer, etc. The "Play Test" had a survey attached to it using surveymonkey.com, and would bring you to the survey when you exited.I probably at this point have gotten feedback from about 30 people between replies on message boards and surveys. I actually had no negative feedback. I received constructive criticism and I surprised myself that I didn't get annoyed. I changed the original controls to do sort of a mimic of throwing the ball. Kind of cross of the Skee Ball Flash Game controls and kicking in Madden at least one of the Madden's they change it all the time.
***[Update]*** Casual players hated this so I went back to the original control scheme.
So I started looking at publishers. I'm somewhat worried that none so far really have this kind of game. I'm wondering if I'm going to have a difficult time finding a publisher. Even online publishers seem to be having the industry wide view of wanting more of the same. Not to say my game is original what so ever. It is a game that was invented in 1909. It just isn't the norm.
Any advice on publishers, etc.?
bigmonkgames-at-gmail-dot-com
www.bigmonkgames.com
About the author
Indie Developer in the Albany NY area. iOS, PC, Mac OSX development. http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-cozzolino/id367780489
#2
"Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work in your live"
"stop making things that you hate, you only have ONE and ONE LIVE to make the things that you love" (no 3 like mario bros)
Check the Casual Games Association
www.casualgamesassociation.org/ they have good info about casual game development too:
www.casualconnect.org/content/content.html
How about self-publishing?
07/10/2009 (7:31 pm)
good intro, inspiring:"Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work in your live"
"stop making things that you hate, you only have ONE and ONE LIVE to make the things that you love" (no 3 like mario bros)
Check the Casual Games Association
www.casualgamesassociation.org/ they have good info about casual game development too:
www.casualconnect.org/content/content.html
How about self-publishing?
#3
@ Javier Canon. I really have no desire to self-publish. Of course if all other avenues are blocked, I will consider it. I love the idea of Steam, Direct2Drive, GarageGames and other digital download/distribution where they handle the money transactions and do a good deal of marketing. Again being a one man team makes me want to avoid anything that ties me up from development time. Especially when those things are not necessarily skills that I have. I would much rather focus on product, direction of platforms to develop, and getting myself up to speed when I try different platforms.
07/11/2009 (3:55 pm)
@ John K. Thanks for the camera height advice. It has been updated.@ Javier Canon. I really have no desire to self-publish. Of course if all other avenues are blocked, I will consider it. I love the idea of Steam, Direct2Drive, GarageGames and other digital download/distribution where they handle the money transactions and do a good deal of marketing. Again being a one man team makes me want to avoid anything that ties me up from development time. Especially when those things are not necessarily skills that I have. I would much rather focus on product, direction of platforms to develop, and getting myself up to speed when I try different platforms.
#4
07/12/2009 (6:45 pm)
Hey Cozz! It looks good! Glad to see you getting something out there. If you are considering Direct2Drive (IGN), drop me a line and I'll help you get in touch with who you need to
#5
Anyway thanks for the offer. Give me a few days or a week and I will get in touch. Thanks for the compliment.
Heh I ended up going back to the original control scheme. Seems that veteran indie developers on other forums have a much different idea of good simple controls than casual gamers. I think I need to listen to my prospective audience as far as that goes. It was almost unbearable to watch my wife and others who liked the original controls, struggle with the suggested controls by another developer. There other feedback helped a lot though.
07/12/2009 (11:16 pm)
Hey Jeremiah. How are things? Working on any projects?Anyway thanks for the offer. Give me a few days or a week and I will get in touch. Thanks for the compliment.
Heh I ended up going back to the original control scheme. Seems that veteran indie developers on other forums have a much different idea of good simple controls than casual gamers. I think I need to listen to my prospective audience as far as that goes. It was almost unbearable to watch my wife and others who liked the original controls, struggle with the suggested controls by another developer. There other feedback helped a lot though.
Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
John K.
www.envygames.com