SSMP

[ssmpgame]

Announcement: Introducing "A Shot in the Dark"

So instead of working on the game, I decided to take some time to talk about working on the game. It's more of a diary than a podcast, but hopefully if you're in a similar situation to me, or thinking about transitioning from a steady gig to working for yourself you'll find some value here, or at least some comfort knowing that I'm probably making just as many if not more mistakes than you.

The plan is to put one of these out every week for the duration of the project, and probably a bit afterwards as well. Each episode is released the week after it's recorded because... well, I only have so much time to edit. I was hoping to get the RSS feed up and running by today so this would be on iTunes and other notable podcast machines, but I hit a snag so hopefully that will get sorted out in the next week or so. Finally, if you decide to listen to this... THANK YOU. It's a weird choice to make, but I appreciate you indulging my blatant narcissism. 

[ssmpgame]

Announcement: LIFE IS WEIRD

Life is weird.

I guess I should qualify that.

In case you weren't aware, SSMP has been an on and off part-time effort for a little while now. I worked a full-time job during the day, and then tippy-tapped away at the game on evenings and weekends. The plan was to do this until the game was done. It was supposed to be simple. No biggie.

Well it turns out it was in fact a “biggie”. I burnt myself out pretty hard, and toward the end of 2014 was accomplishing next to nothing on the game. A few months prior, I applied for some funding on a lark. I didn't think I had a chance at receiving any money for the project but figured it was worth a shot. It turns out it was.

In the midst of my recovery period I received a phone call. The details don't matter much, but after I hung up my life felt drastically different than it did before. The project had been approved, which meant I would be able to make working on SSMP my full-time gig.

Fast forward three months, and here we are. My last day at work was this past Friday (three days ago if you're from the future). Now I’m here, alone in a room where I will sit and work on a video game. Work on my video game, every day until I finish it. This is what I do now.

Like I said, life is weird.

[ssmpgame]

Announcement: Oh M'God We’re Back Again (dun duh-nuh dun)

In a shocking turn of events, keeping an up to date devlog while making SSMP in my spare time turned out to be way more work than I expected it to be. I’m going to try to be better about this moving forward, but at the end of the day making consistent progress on SSMP is my top priority.

A lot has happened in the past five months, so here’s a quick rundown:

I chose the four games that will make up SSMP, and subsequently scrapped one.

The game received a grant from the Ontario Government, allowing me to travel to events like IndieCade, and GDC.

SSMP was selected to be shown as part of Gamercamp this year in Toronto.

Sync is being shown at the upcoming Wild Rumpus #6 in London, England.

Which resulted in the game showing up in a Polygon article.

I will be attending IndieCade in October (not as part of the festival, I’ll just be there).

One day, Tobey Maguire walked into the coffee shop where I do most of my work on SSMP.

Pretty exciting right? My life is basically as glamorous as a Jefferson Airplane music video.

I’m hoping to keep this tumblr a bit more up to date than I have been. Ideally I’d like to dig deeper into the design process and implementation of the game. But like I said, it’s largely dependent on how much I have going on week to week.

Until <time frame that is definitely going to be less than five months>!

[ssmpgame]

Plug: Pre-Order Primal by SSMP Audio Wizard Ryan Roth & Ryan Henwood!

Ryan Roth and Ryan Henwood (Audio Wizard on Lovers in a Dangeorus Spacetime) have put their new collaboration Primal up for pre-order. I've had the pleasure of listening to the album, and it's pretty rad. Don't listen to me though, you can stream the title track yourself. Give it a listen and maybe toss them a pre-order if you dig it? Yeah. Yeah.

[ssmpgame]

Announcement: Ryan Roth Is The Audio Wizard For SSMP

I'm super jazzed (pun intended) to announce that Ryan Roth (aka DualRyan) has been working with me on SSMP for the past month. Ryan's past work includes The Yawhg, Starseed Pilgrim, and Sokobond. The Yawhg was a finalist for Excellence in Audio at this year's IGF awards, and the soundtrack is in the latest Game Music Bundle.

Also we're buds.

I've been playing and composing music for the better part of my life. I wanted to see if I could set a decent tone for sync, while making it. I think I was successful for the most part. But for SSMP, I wanted to achieve a higher level of craftsmanship than I could just working on my own. As luck would have it, Ryan and I got to talking over beers after GDC, and the rest is <a cliché>.

We're trying to make the game's sound and music as dynamic as we can, including the use of some generative music. So unfortunately, positing a clip would be rather uninteresting. I'm hoping to capture some video to show off some of the audio we've currently got, but that's sort of low priority at the moment. Anyway, hold on to your butts, rad stuff is on the way. 

Oh, and don't forget to check out Ryan's Bandcamp!

[ssmpgame]

Screenshot: Intermediate Menu Flow

Finished working on the basic menu flow for SSMP (for now at least). The difference from the work I did yesterday isn’t huge, but necessary. For each game I added an icon, and title. I also added a sub-menu for sync. Though I’m now realizing that it gives the impression that you can only return to the main menu from sync's panel.

Although,the plan is to enable every game from the get go, so I’m not going to lose too much sleep over it.

[ssmpgame]

Screenshot: Basic Menu Flow

After a couple weeks of fighting against inertia I started up a new Unity project. On Saturday I wrote my first lines of code for SSMP. A lot of the work was importing libraries, and refactoring sync functionality. Despite the grind, I ended up with a decent looking menu flow.

It needs a polish pass (I'm resisting the urge to spend the rest of the week just doing that), but it gets the idea across. I just need to populate each game menu when they’re in focus, and I have got a pretty solid front end if I do say so myself.

[ssmpgame]

Announcement: SSMP @ Bit Bazaar

I guess now is as good a time as any to announce this. I’m going to be at Bit Bazaar on May 10th to show off SSMP. Bit Bazaar has always got a bunch of neato stuff from neato people. So check out the site, and if you’re in Toronto that weekend you should try to make it. Also, Bento Miso has been one of the greatest contributions to this community in the past few years. I just needed to say that.

I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never shown off anything I’ve ever worked on at something like Bit Bazaar. To be honest, I made the decision to apply for a table on a whim. Yet, I think it provides some notable benefits.

A spot at Bit Bazaar is inexpensive compared to similar events. Regardless, putting down money acts as a type of commitment device. Either I have some rad stuff to show on May 10th, or I have just thrown money into the void.

In the same vein, it provides a deadline. I'm not going to go into the importance of a deadline. A lot of smart people who do creative work have talked about how great deadlines are for finishing projects. Since I’m doing this work in my spare time, and am trying to not let the rest of my life turn to complete shit, it's super important.

Then there’s the learning opportunities it affords me. I don't know everything about making games, far from it in fact. I know even less about marketing, PR, and "generating hype". What sort of promo materials do I need? How do I make worthwhile merch (i.e. not just trashy marketing materials)? How do I showcase a game in a public setting!? I bet that I’m going to make some stupid mistakes. But, I’d rather learn this stuff now than when I’m getting ready to release SSMP. At that time, I don’t even want to be thinking about that stuff. Doing that sounds miserable.

Oh, also the first time I showed sync off was at Bento Miso’s Games With Friends #50. So there’s something poetic about debuting SSMP at the same venue. Then again, I’m a horrible poet.

Hope to see you on May 10th!

[ssmpgame]

Introducing SSMP

I released sync in early February. I thought that was the end of it. It did well for being a little jam game, at least by my standards, and I was happy.

In early March I was gearing up for a new project. Something out of my comfort zone, and rather different from sync. Then life threw some curveballs (as it is wont to do) and making a new videogame thing fell pretty low on my list of priorities.

Then sync was part of That Venus Patrol & Wild Rumpus GDC Party. That was pretty neat.

It turns out that positive feedback (as well as a daily dose of doitmotherfucker) makes you feel like you might be onto something. When you feel like you're onto something, you should continue exploring it.

So that’s what I’m going to do. Sort of.

There’s still a lot of work to do on sync itself, but I have always envisioned it as a part of something larger.

As the name implies, Shoot Shoot Mega Pack (or SSMP) is  a collection of minimalist party games where you shoot stuff at other stuff. sync is one of these games.

I don’t have much more to say other than that at the moment, but I plan on keeping development open and will have more to share soon!