GameDev Advice

Game developers talking about game development. Email Twitter Curators wanted!

[gamedev-advice]

Easily one of the best sets of 2D geometry code I've ever encountered.

If you're looking for a specific shape intersection algorithm, this is an invaluable reference!

[gamedev-advice]

You cannot overhype a game, you can only under-deliver.

Chris Hecker (creator of Spy Party)

[gamedesigntips]

Feel free to replace “fun" with whatever the hell you are trying to accomplish with your game.

[makegames]

Making it in Indie Games: Starter Guide

Every now and then someone will ask me for advice on making it as a professional indie game developer. First, it’s a huge honor to be asked that. So I want to say “Thank you!" Second… damn, if I really want to help out it’s a serious endeavor. Of course, I could always say "Give it your best! Work hard! Be true to yourself!" and it wouldn’t be a terrible reply… just not a terribly useful one, either.

So here it is. Here is what I’m going to link when that rare situation arises again, because it’s too much work to write it up more than once! This is advice that I feel may actually be practical to someone who is just starting out as an indie game developer. Hope it helps!

Read More

[joccish]

Planning method: Todo map

In June I made Sky Slash ep1, an experiment in different working methods. The big plan for the game series won’t be focused on today. Instead I will present my planning tool I used for this game.

I can’t imagine me being the first one to use this, but I haven’t heard about it earlier. It’s basically a visualization of a todo list. Here it is!

The idea combines two working popular methods - the mindmap and the todo list. The whole idea is pretty much, make a mindmap of the things you want to add to the game in the near future (skip the mmorpg parts for now?). I added basic stuff such as some feedback, some enemies, some combat status thingies and some environment to mention a few. Next, I picked something from the mindmap that I wanted made. If it’s not in the mindmap, just add it. Whenever a task is completed, I draw a bold line around it. After a while you can see where you focus, what area you skip entirely and so on.

During the development, I borrowed some basics from the SCRUM method - have weekly builds. Every week I made a new mindmap, a fresh start. In the new mindmap, I add new ideas that I want made this week, along with a few things from last week that didn’t get made but are still important to the game. I added enemies, some world stuff and some menu items from the last map. Since I was making each every week, I could easily track my progress during the whole month, and I also got a simple and easy week planner as well. Using this mindmap/todo list was a pretty ok combo actually. Even though I didn’t do everything on the mindmaps I still got a lot of stuff done, and always knew what I was giving up in order to add that one extra enemy for example. The biggest strength with this tool was to be able to work visually. I’m a big fan of todo lists, I have like a thousand of them, but working visually like this was fun and even though they are quite rough, I think they look quite good. Working with a mindmap was a pretty good way to categorize things that needed to be done. Even though I will probably not be using this tool during the next game (I’m trying another planning tool), I really recommend using this one for a project or two. It’s a good way to get away from todo lists for a little while. Also, if you are working in a small team, you could use different colors for each member? Maybe make the mindmap together, and plan out small by drawing bold lines with each members’ color, and finally make a bold black line when the task is done. Will probably look real pretty! Don’t forget to follow me on @MarklundGames =)

Play Sky Slash ep1 here.