Feb 15, 2015
Podcast Beyond Episode 381: End of an Era, Beginning of the Next (x)
BEYOND!!
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Podcast Beyond Episode 381: End of an Era, Beginning of the Next (x)
BEYOND!!
Turn Blue - The Black Keys.
According to the Internet, the eighth album from The Black Keys, one of my favourite bands (although I own nine albums and an EP... hmmm. Perhaps their Junior Kimbrough album is also classified as an EP?). Turn Blue is a fabulous record, produced by Danger Mouse. Some critics are, uh, critical of his involvement, claiming he's leaching the blues out of the Keys. Crap. The haters said the same stuff about every stage of Bowie or Dylan's careers, and of the White Stripes. Morons. Just listen, you'll love it.
This song appears to sample the much-sampled Menahan Street Band, in the same way Jay-Z and many others have. Those guys must be making a fortune...
Contributed by @chrisroper.
Tunic (Song for Karen) - Sonic Youth.
It's an oldie, but a goodie. I could have said a goldie, as the gorgeous video for this features Kim Gordon and co crooning into a beautiful golden microphone. Go and check it out on YouTube.
The song itself is a lament for Karen Carpenter, a very sad song about her death from anorexia.
"Dreaming, dreaming of a girl like me / Hey what are you waiting for - feeding, feeding me / I feel like I'm disappearing - getting smaller every day But I look in the mirror - I'm bigger in every way / She said: You aren't never going anywhere / You aren't never going anywhere / I ain't never going anywhere / I ain't never going anywhere / I'm in heaven now."
Contributed by @chrisroper.
Hellwood is a side project of Jim White, one of the finest singer/songwriters America has ever produced. Saw him playing at SxSW in March, after years of longing to see him live. A great experience. Should probably have chosen a solo song, but I like this band.
The Last and Final Word: Chris Roper
Chris Roper aka Pug Fugly is a veteran GameMaker developer, who enjoys creating videogames that you might have played in arcade cabinets in the early eighties. He has created such memorable experiences as Return to Sector 9, Destructivator and a remake of The Pyramid that won the Retro Remakes 2006 competition.
Age?
37.
Country?
I live in Wales in the UK.
What do you do?
I work as a .NET developer for Gocompare.com. Have been there for 4 years.
Current development tool(s) on choice?
Recently I've been using both GameMaker and FlashDevelop with the Flixel library.
How did you get into game development and how did you discover Game Maker?
I've been into making games since I was about 10 years old (back in 1983!). Finding GameMaker was pretty random really. I just liked how easy it was to knock something out.
Since you've been developing games since 1983. What games did you play as a child and growing up that have strongly influenced your games?
Well probably the biggest influences are games like Galaxian / Galaga and Time Pilot - probably the two arcade games I've put more credits in than any others.
Between 1983 and before you started to use Game Maker, what other development tools did you have experiences with?
I started on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, using Sinclair Basic. I didn't progress onto machine code which is a regret.
Then it would have been using AMOS on the Amiga 500. I made quite a few decent games with that, all of them multi-player games to play with friends.
GameMaker came a long time after - 2004 I think it was when I got into Game Maker, probably about 14 years since my last AMOS game.
What was it about Game Maker that made you want to stick with it for so long?
Basically I've stuck with it because I got used to it and find that it can pretty much do anything I want. Some things annoy me about it, but those annoyances are minor compared to what it does well I think. Also it has a big community and plenty of ways to get your games played, which is good too.
Is there anyone that you look up to in the independent gaming community?
Thing is, I'm not a massive player of indie games.
How long do you generally spend on game development per game, what kindof game development schedule do you keep and how much of yourself do you invest in your games?
Well development time varies. I have quite a few games that only took around 2 weeks (Super Gio World, my latest mini-game was only a couple of weeks' work). I don't have any type of schedule or indeed any planning.
Basically I fit it in when I can, which is much less these days. Gone are the days when I could spend 6 hours a day developing!
Is the end pay-off always worth it?
The pay-off is always worth it I think. I haven't made a game that I dislike. I think they all have some value in them, so I'm proud of them all in some way.
Most of your games seem to go for the 'retro arcade' feel. What is it about the fast-paced, arcade gameplay that keeps you developing these types of games? Is it a case of sticking to your strengths?
It represents games I like to play I guess. I like games that are simple and easy to play, but offer enough depth and challenge to keep me hooked.
I've started plenty of non-shoot 'em up projects but they all seem to fall by the wayside, not because it's outside my comfort zone, but because I just get bored. I just can't stick to making story lines, rooms, levels etc.
At what point did you start taking game development more seriously?
I'm not sure if I've ever really taken it that seriously. I guess R2S9 was the first project that often felt more like work than a hobby, and The Pyramid was designed with the express intention of winning a competition. Since then it's been mini-games really. My next aim is to get an iPhone game published via YoYo, but I imagine that's going to be a difficult task.
I seem to recall that, some years ago, you had a hard drive failure and lost a whole bunch of data when you were smack, bang in the middle of development of a couple of games. What sortof effect does an event like this have on you - does it make you want to throw the towel in or does it make you even more determined to keep creating?
I give up when stuff like that happens. There's nothing worse than re-writing code and building assets that you've already done. This is supposed to be a hobby after all, and that's too much like real work. I'm quite happy to write it off and move on to something new.
One of those games that you lost was a promising looking game called Glum, which was a sortof experimental puzzle platformer - ever thought of returning to a similar territory?
I just can't stick to those projects for some reason. Glum was actually shaping up really well, but I lost interest. I'm generally more interested in building gameplay mechanics than creating lots of levels, so even though I thought it would be a very well liked game, I couldn't force myself to continue with it.
You've moved from GameMaker to Flixel. How are you finding it?
Flixel is good. FlashDevelop is the actual development tool, and it's excellent. I've only made one mini-game (Super Gio World) and it's pretty much all I wanted it to be (which admittedly wasn't much). It's not a shooter either!
What do you feel is your 'break out' game, that is, the one that started to bring you more attention from a wider audience?
Well Ambush in Sector 9 did well for me (my second game, clearly influenced by Time Pilot!) - it was quite a slow burner at first but I think it caught on well and certainly brought me to the attention of the more seasoned GM developers. After that it would be R2S9 as that is by far the most popular game I've made (in terms of numbers of downloads and feedback).
Which of your games are you most proud of?
Well the easy answer is R2S9 because I had to stick at it for many years, and it has been enjoyed by 10s of thousands of people. It's by far my biggest and best loved game. I was very proud to win the Retro Remakes contest with The Pyramid and have had a lot of great feedback regarding the accessibility of that game.
You've been developing games for a number of years now. What do you feel are the most important lessons you have learned?
Well I guess the main thing is to make everything in the game work as well as you can. It's all about making the game mechanics as enjoyable as possible. I've found that I can make a pretty basic game, but if it all works well then people will enjoy it, even if it offers little in the way of new ideas. So many potentially decent games are ruined by the developer overlooking small details.
Is there anything else that you wish to achieve as a game developer?
Well I would ultimately make money from this. Mobile games look to be the way to go to make a bit of money, so don't be surprised to see a Pug Fugly game pop up on your mobile phone in the near future..
Do you have any advice for new or aspiring game developers?
Well the obvious one is to be realistic with early projects. There are so many people who want to do a Smash Bros remake or MMORPG for their first game. I'd say forget something like that, just make a simple game as well as you can for your first project. After that you'll obviously move onto bigger and better things. And when you do that, always make sure that the basic game mechanics work as well as they should. There's no point in having 100s of levels - if the player controls aren't responsive, people aren't going to bother. Get the basics right first. On top of that, a little detail can go a long way. In my Horace game for example, Horace looks around at the enemies. It's a simple little touch but adds so much character.
