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I want to make a game. (Or, an autobiography.)


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I want to make a game. (Or, an autobiography.)
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-13, 16:13

Over five years ago, when the DS was first announced, I knew exactly what kind of game I wanted to play on it. It perfectly "fit" the DS's features; it's like the DS was designed with this type of game, this use case in mind. And over the last five years I've been waiting for someone to make that sort of game, but nobody has. Some people have gotten close, but nobody's really done it, and perhaps more importantly nobody has done it right - they'll coat their game in a paint job that makes it look like the game I want to play, but under the surface it'll be just a collection of unrelated minigames or something.

There is a quote I love that says "A good time to write a book is when you go to the bookstore and the book you want to read isn't there." Because chances are, you aren't the only one who wants to read that sort of book. And that's what I've been thinking about, during NaNo, when I'm supposed to be writing my novel. (I actually find it really exciting that games, and especially DS games, are sort of becoming more like books in that many of them are cheap enough to buy pretty much on impulse. I think the sooner the industry starts looking beyond the $60 "event" game, the better we'll be. But I digress.) I think that game is an idea with very wide appeal that would actually lend itself very well to becoming a series, a brand even...with annual or even quarterly installments...but nobody has really done it yet.

As a gamer, I'm sort of tired of waiting. And as a person, I'd like to...y'know...be the one who does it.

I have lots of ideas. This is depressing, because I'm never in the position to do anything about them. I'd love to market an aluminum space frame electric car with mesh seats and in-wheel motors, but I can't. I'd love to make a Fantasia-style film to celebrate a century of animation (this year, folks!) but I can't. I designed a Chicago '16 logo (it was so cool, because the "g" doubled as a two and the "o" a zero, so it had a subliminal "2016," all in a very American, very baseball font) but...well, that doesn't matter any more anyway. The point is, it's really depressing making the future in your head and then waiting around and watching someone else do it (and usually fuck it up). The curse of the designer, I suppose. (I'm not the only one here like that, am I? )

That's why I write books, now. That's something I can do, now, without needing anything or anyone else. But if you were to ask me if I would be happy doing nothing but writing books for the rest of my life, the honest answer would be "no." I'd want to design the book, if nothing else, and direct the film adaptation, and maybe oversee the video game. And then the e-book reader that the book would be read on. And the game console the game would be played on. I want to make stuff.

Probably the first thing I really wanted to make was video games. This was an almost immediate reaction to playing them; I think before we even had our own Nintendo I went to the library and pored through all the back issues of Nintendo Power. I established my favorite genres, which I defined and described at length to my mom. (I actually thought RPGs were a little more complex than they really were at the time, and was just a little disappointed when my first 16-bit RPGs didn't have the grid system of later tactical RPGs.) I even "designed" a console, which I wanted to launch in the far future of 2005, and then 2010, and then 2015...

...but as time went on, I sort of put making games on the back burner, the way, way back burner. Partially this was because I developed other interests, partially this was because my parents didn't approve, but mainly this was because everybody around me started wanting to make games too. That sounds like a dumb reason, but it's the truth. The problem was that I quickly gathered that everybody around me didn't really want to make games, they just wanted to mash their favorite parts of their three favorite games together. "Wouldn't it be awesome if...? That'd be the best game ever." I didn't really get that; I guess I felt like we really weren't on the same level. That sounds like hubris, and maybe it is. I'm not blaming them for that, because they were just kids, after all - and what kid in the nineties didn't want to make games? But those are the people who those late-night "game tester school" ads are targeted to ("Let's tighten up the graphics on level three!") and I was worried that I was, well, like them. ("Is that the way I sound, when I describe my ideas? Are any of my ideas really...new?")

So I moved on to books and film, convinced that those were more "artistic," that what drew me to making a game in the first place was just directing the pretty FMV opening (we were in the PlayStation era now), and so why not just make a film? I wanted to tell stories, so why let a game get in the way? (I still sort of feel this way, but regarding other games; I'd like to ask Kojima that. Developers have a world of interactive possibilities at their disposal, so why do they strive to be cinematic, to emulate film? Why not create a whole new method of storytelling, one that involves the player as a participant, not a spectator? But I digress.) But I think that I keep on returning to games - and to the DS in particular, which doesn't really support pretty FMV openings - suggests that I was wrong, and that maybe I should think about this seriously.

So. I didn't really mean to write any of that. What I wanted to ask was, how do I...y'know...get to the point where I can actually do something about this? Do I have to go to one of those "tighten up the graphics on level three" institutions? I don't really want to launch a career as a game tester...

I was thinking about the iPhone. I don't think the iPhone is really going to replace the PSP or DS; rather, like the Wii, it's just going to expand the market -- people buying an iPod touch partially for games probably weren't going to buy a DS or PSP anyway. iPhone games are so totally different than real console games, and a big factor of that is price. $8 is considered expensive for an iPhone game. I'm not sure you'd be able to make a really deep experience and sell it for $20 on the iPhone - $2 or even $0.99 are pretty much the iPhone's magic price points. It's just a totally different world.

Nonetheless, I have considered making a sort-of "proto" version of the game I want to make, on the iPhone. I don't know a thing about coding, and I'm not sure I'd ever really be any good at it. But I'd like to get to the point where I could get to the point where I was in a position to actually do something with some of my ideas, y'know?

Anyway, um, thanks for reading all that. (Sorry?)

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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Artap99
Totally awesome.
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC
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2009-11-13, 16:36

Sounds a bit like Bob's Game.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2009-11-13, 17:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by Artap99 View Post
WTFFFFFFFFFF?
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-14, 03:26

This thread went over like a lead balloon covered in fat people.

I should have noveled instead. I'm so far behind!
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scratt
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: M-F: Thailand Weekends : F1 2010 - Various Tracks!
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2009-11-14, 03:56

Unity is now free... See how you go with that, and if it's good you can decide to buy the license and publish it.

If you want to read a fairly good article about what it is and what it is not, and the workflow, then there is a piece which cuts through Unity's own marketing double-talk on GameDev.net.

Note : Most GameDev.net articles and content in general is utter crap, but someone obviously managed to sneak past their compulsory crap filter just once. Although the guy who wrote the article above did criticise Unity for working with the default editor for each and every asset file you work with! He would have preferred a dedicated text editor, for example... *smacks forehead*

For the record. I love real coding, but if I was to ever use an authoring tool it would be Unity.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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scratt
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2009-11-14, 04:36

Or...
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