Battle of Brothers

Shaders and Starburst Make a Clever Health Bar

Sat, 26 May 2018 23:44:41 +0000

Up until now I’ve had placeholder health bars that do their job as intended, but require a ton of manual work and take up a lot of memory. I’ve always had the goal of making the health bars work programmatically, and I finally got around to doing it. Well, version 1 at least. Have a look at how I’ve used SKShader, SKCropNode, SKShapeNode and CGPath all rendered to one final texture to make my health system work.

What Have I Been Up To?

Wed, 23 May 2018 18:10:57 +0000

Most people who come to this site would be under the impression that it is abandoned. That’s partially true. But just because there is little activity here, that doesn’t mean I’ve been doing nothing. The truth is that a lot has been accomplished, followed by burnout, followed by a crossroads that I’m now at.

Where Does The Time Go?

Wed, 23 May 2018 17:59:23 +0000

Wow, can you believe that my last post was July12th, 2016? It’s been almost two years. Well, there are a few reasons for that which I’ve covered in a separate post. As for the game, there have been plenty of changes. Since the last update, I can’t think of a single system that hasn’t been touched. The update video will do a good job highlighting the most significant changes.

Isometric Projectile Trajectory in Swift and SpriteKit

Tue, 12 Jul 2016 18:08:19 +0000

How do you launch a catapult, grenade, arrow, or any other projectile in an isometric world? I had to joy of figuring that out over these past two days, and I thought I would share. Before jumping in, let me point out that the code below is for my specific use case, and is not a full featured framework. So, you’ll still have to understand the concepts, but if you’re Googling for help this will hopefully get you on the right track.

SpriteKit Save Files in Swift 3

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 21:07:39 +0000

Last year I wrote about saving game data in SpriteKit, and that code is now completely out of date. Swift 3 has brought about all sorts of fun changes, so it’s time for me to provided some updated code.

Gamedev with a Newborn

Tue, 29 Mar 2016 02:36:51 +0000

In case you’re wondering, game development is hard to keep up with when dealing with an infant. Now, I went into this knowing the first 4 weeks would be baby and family first. But, I secretly had hope that I would have some spare time to keep the game moving forward. Now that the first month is over, I’ve worked a grand total of:

Charge, Flee, Economy & Scene Management

Mon, 08 Feb 2016 20:53:48 +0000

January 2016. Getting close to that two year mark. This month marks the first full month of iteration on an existing “platform”. I’m rapidly iterating through smaller features instead of spending months implementing core code. Because of that, I’m also going to change these status updates slightly. I’ll have my videos go through all the incremental changes, while the posts look through the bigger picture of what’s left. This should allow for easier tracking of overall progress. Additionally, I can save thoughts, ideas, and other general topics for the blog posts.

Detecting and Managing Memory Leaks Between SKScenes

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 20:46:40 +0000

Memory leaks suck. You know they exist, and you dread the day you have to track them down. In SpriteKit, I’ve encountered two main types of leaks. One is where the entire scene is not deallocated after transitioning to a new scene. The other is where memory is constantly being used up while interacting with a scene. For the latter, you have to use Instruments in XCode, or comb over your code, to get a handle on what is happening. But, for cleaning up scenes after you’re finished with them, here are a few tips that simplified the process for me.

Abilities, Modifiers, Frameworks & Scripting Engine

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 16:06:23 +0000

It’s been quite the 2 months. In anticipation of becoming a father, I’ve significantly picked up my work efforts. It’s not that I wasn’t trying before — it’s just that deadlines have a way of motivating me further. I’ve tackled a few major rewrites / problems with the foundation of my code, and I now have a working “game” that is actually installed on 3 devices via Testflight! With all of this in place, I can iterate on the platform and slowly work towards a rough alpha and then polished beta.

Working With GKObstacleGraph

Fri, 13 Nov 2015 19:38:51 +0000

This purpose of this post is to document some of the frustrations with pathfinding. I’m finding that it is too boring to try to implement every map at once, so I’m touching pathfinding every other week or so. As a refresher, the video below has served as my primer on GKObstacleGraph whenever I need to revisit pathfinding. So, if you’re a SpriteKit / GameplayKit user, you may find my approach interesting.

A Month of Combat

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:46:47 +0000

This update is similar to my last update in that I spent a month trying to improve the framework of a more complicated portion of the codebase. Last time was pathfinding, this time is combat. In addition to improving combat, I wanted to focus on data integrity and porting combat pathfinding to iOS9 / GameplayKit.

Note: This post has been backdated to keep the documentation accurate — the game was in this state as of Oct. 1st.

Slow and Steady

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 17:07:22 +0000

I’ve been able to get a bunch done in the last month and I’m getting closer and closer to my short-term goal of having a playable first 4 levels. This update includes new character animations, new attack icons, an updated character select screen, intro movie updates, and pinch/zoom functionality.

A Month of Pathfinding

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 13:58:46 +0000

At the beginning of August I challenged myself to get pathfinding under control. In truth, if I couldn’t figure it out I would be forced to consider making the game turn based instead. So, I set out with a giant todo list containing many edge cases to solve. Fortunately, the main branch was merged in yesterday, so I’m in an infinitely better position than I was. It’s been an exhausting month, so I’m ready to move on. Let’s have a look at what’s been completed, and what issues still remain.

What makes a game fun?

Thu, 06 Aug 2015 20:15:39 +0000

I’m at the point of development where I feel I have a rough, yet playable, version of the game’s core functionality. I’ve built the intro, menu system, world map, battle maps, and character selection. I’ve created a playable, yet not very fun, game. And that leads me to my next big challenge which is to make the game fun.

Progress Followed By No Progress

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:05:55 +0000

It’s been nearly two months since my last status update. To quickly sum up those two months, June was extremely productive while July was almost a waste. June consisted of implementing reusable menus, music, sound effects, button effects, volume controls, unit management and more. Basically, a lot of foundation type elements needed for a game. Unfortunately, I started playing with iOS9 in July, which happened to be both a necessity and a time sink. Finally, just last Friday, I finished the contract with the composer, so all of the music for the game has been completed.

Character Creation

Thu, 09 Jul 2015 19:08:47 +0000

After working on the intro, world map, and combat layer, it was time to work on the character selection screen. My short-term goal is to have 4 playable levels and the only major missing piece is the functionality to manage your heroes. Everything is still in a bit of a rough state, but here’s a look at what I have so far.

Sound and Music

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:19:19 +0000

In the last update I demoed the latest version of the game’s battle layer and I’m comfortable with how that part of the game is progressing. There are still bugs to squish and polish to add, but now that I’m confident in the game’s art, animation, and general flow, it’s time to give audio some love. I’ve contracted the pros to help me out in this area, and with their help the game has gotten some fantastic ear candy. Here’s a look at the latest build with the new audio enhancements.

Understanding Shaders in SpriteKit

Thu, 28 May 2015 18:03:09 +0000

If you’re new to game development, you’ve probably heard of shaders but don’t quite understand them. If you’re new to SpriteKit, you’ve probably hit a few speed bumps working with shaders. Since I’m still learning more about the two, I figured it would be nice to put up a concrete example that covers cropping and effects using shaders. Specifically, we’ll cover two concepts:

The Battlefield UI

Wed, 27 May 2015 17:40:59 +0000

Many of my UI elements have been pretty ugly so far, but those days are soon coming to an end. I’ve now received pretty much all of the game’s artwork and in the last few weeks I started implementing the UI portion of that work. There’s still plenty of polish to add, but here’s a look at the battlefield UI in its current state.

Spawns, Heraldry and UI

Tue, 26 May 2015 18:07:51 +0000

This update is broken into three main events. First, I created spawn zones for the player to place their troops before battle. Second, I fixed off screen heraldry, and refactored the code to make it more flexible. Lastly, I played with consistent UI classes that will work for every screen. And in between all of that, I fixed bugs and worked with the composer (Tony Manfredonia).

A Wobbly Foundation

Tue, 12 May 2015 16:49:29 +0000

An unsteady foundation is still a foundation, right? I’ve continued my work of porting all code into a single project. You can roughly play the game from start to level 2 right now. This means loading, saving, world map, placing troops, enemy waves, game over state, resuming, story, and more. There is a lot of core code in place.

A Very Basic Game

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:50:52 +0000

Even though I missed my goal of releasing a game after a year of development, I still have a pretty solid foundation to build upon. And by foundation I mean an intro video, start screen, working world map, and very basic, yet playable battlefields. There’s still a lot of work to do, but here’s a look at those key foundation areas put together in the form of a simple game.

Piecing It Together

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:19:29 +0000

For the past year I’ve been working on a bunch of different code bases learning new concepts. For this update, I decided to piece together a first build of my “game” to get rid of redundant bits of code. I’m left with an app that has menus, navigation, saving, loading, and cutscenes. While it’s still far from an enjoyable game, it’s cool stuff to have a foundation to work with.

One Year Later – Late and Over Budget

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:37:55 +0000

Today marks the one year anniversary of our game development competition, so I can now safely say that the game will be late. Not only will the game be late, but I’m also about 2k over budget. If you had asked me a year ago if I would be disappointed about being late and over budget, I would have absolutely said yes.

$1500 on Music

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 20:02:58 +0000

I’ve entered into a contract with Brendon Williams to compose the game’s music. He’ll be doing everything from intro music, battle music, world map music, and any other types of music that come up. Brendon recently started with the music for the intro movie and it’s sounding awesome.

$7323 on Animations

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 20:00:14 +0000

I’ve received a bunch of animations over the last few months and you can see a lot of them over at Dualbo’s Vimeo Site and in my status updates. I’ve received 12 of the 18 characters that will be in the game, so we’re two-thirds there. I think this payment has officially put my game over budget, but that’s how these things go sometimes. The good news is that the animations are awesome and worth every penny.

$2500 on Illustrations

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 19:54:30 +0000

This expense wasn’t a lump sum payment, but 4 payments made over the course of a couple months. I’m extended the original contract with the illustrator because the game has more artwork than I originally anticipated. The following illustrations were done for this update:

Animating a Path Using Image Masking

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 18:40:23 +0000

I recently found myself wanting to animate a character’s progress path and initially I thought I would do this by creating multiple animation frames, much like a sprite. After a bit of frustration, trial and error, I realized that creating an image mask was a more efficient and effective method.

To give you an example of what I was trying to accomplish, here is a picture of a portion of my game’s world map. The yellow and line is the path that my character takes.

Music & Memory

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:17:38 +0000

I’m happy to report that I’ve received the first 30 seconds of game music and that my ears are happy with what they’re hearing. It’s amazing what a little sound can do to the intro video and I can’t wait to see how the future music adds more depth to the game. I’ve also continued to experiment with some memory concerns and making scene transitions as smooth as possible. That’s required a bit of a re-write, but the game is heavy on texture memory usage, so it’s important to tackle this issue sooner than later.

Parallax All Week

Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:01:09 +0000

I’ve spent every day of the past two weeks working on story. The good news is that it was worth the effort. There is a noticeable jump in quality, and it makes me feel a bit of pride for the product. I’m now optimistic that one or two more rounds of polish along with some sound and music will make it a worthy purchase for gamers. The bad news is that I still have one or two more rounds of polish to go, which turns into 2-4 weeks of work. Music starts on May 4th, so at least I have a concrete deadline driving me. Otherwise, I fear that I could tinker on this forever.

Another Shot at the Intro Video

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 14:40:01 +0000

I said I wouldn’t do it, but I couldn’t help myself and took another crack at the intro video. The main practical reason is because the game’s music is being composed, and it kind of all derives from the intro song. The main impractical reason is because I hated the first video and couldn’t help myself from trying again. Here’s look at the second attempt.

A Bit of Story and a Sprinkle of AI

Thu, 05 Mar 2015 20:31:58 +0000

The past two weeks have been 75% story and 25% in game work. That trend will continue for the next few updates as I prepare to send the story of to voice and sound. The encouraging news on the story front is that the first round of polish has resulted in noticeable improvements. Most importantly, the new chat bubbles add animation and interest while also allowing me to add dialogue to travel and battle scenes. As far as battle goes, enemies now have a basic spawn service and will attack the closest target they can find.

Intro Video, Artwork, and Audio

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 16:21:27 +0000

I have a lot to share this time around, including icons, character animations, splash screens, world map animations, music and sound, and cut scenes. But the biggest achievement over the last two weeks was completing the first take of the game’s intro video, which you can see below.

The True Cost of Adding Story to a Game

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 17:56:20 +0000

Before I wrote a line of code, I knew that I wanted my game to have a story. And, of course, not just any story. It had to be a decent story with sound, art, movement and voice overs. Basically, a movie. Now that I’m 75% through the process of creating and implementing a story, I thought I’d share some lessons learned about this surprisingly difficult task that cost me around $7,600 and nearly 3 months of my development time.

Knights, Ninjas, and Wizards

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 14:16:41 +0000

Knights, Ninjas, and Wizards… If that title didn’t get you hooked, then you’re in the wrong place! I added some great sprites to the game in the last two weeks, but a man can only play with sprite sheets so long before he loses his sanity. I didn’t want to lose my sanity, so I also worked on my intro scenes in an attempt to regain control of my mind. I’m really happy with how everything is turning out so far, and you can see what I have so far after a quick word from our sponsors.

We Have a Story

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 13:46:52 +0000

Story, story, story. 8 of the 10 days over the past two weeks have been spent preparing story assets, implementing them into the game engine, revising dialogue, and getting the cutscenes to work. It has been extremely tedious, but it feels great to have finished a first pass.

$300 for Script Editor

Fri, 13 Feb 2015 19:56:02 +0000

Back in our Particletree days, we had a friend copy edit any major pieces we wrote. Inevitably, she would catch something that was poorly written. So, for a game that contains almost 15 minutes of dialogue, I figured that I would have to spend money on a second pair of eyes to help me out. Early on in the process, Mike Waterston emailed me with a desire to help out. He wasn’t in it for the money — he just wanted to help a game come to life. So, after a few back and forths, we’ll be seeing this story through to the end together.

Fights, cut scenes, and texture memory

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:15:28 +0000

The good news is that I’ve received a ton of artwork over the last two weeks. The bad news is that I can only demo a small portion of it because there just isn’t enough time to get it all into the game. That’s a good problem to have, though, and what I can show you is some pretty cool cut scenes, some character animations, and this sweet footage of a knight putting the beat down on an evil ogre.

Saving Game Data in SpriteKit

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:22:40 +0000

When searching for tips on how to save game data in SpriteKit, most posts explain how to save one variable (high score, for example). In that regard, this Thinking Swiftly post was extremely helpful, and is where a majority of the code below comes from. I just wanted to extend that post, and look at how an entire object could be saved in a self contained way.

All About Those Cutscenes

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:41:07 +0000

I’ve done quite a lot over the past two weeks. Work has started on melee combat. I’ve hired a composer! But most of all, I’ve been consumed with cutscenes. When I started this process, I didn’t realize that the decision to add a story to my game would end up costing me ~30% of my budget and an equal amount of programming time. Now that I’m actually implementing the story, I’m starting to understand all of the implications.

The Character Creation Process

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:15:48 +0000

One of the most enjoyable parts of the game development process so far has been creating characters. Using my imagination to discover how they look, what abilities they have, where they’re from, and how they talk is immensely satisfying. Largely due to the efforts of the illustrator and animator I’m contracting, the first character of the game was just fully completed. I’m extremely happy with the outcome and thought I’d share with you the process of how he came to life.

Create Skippable Cutscenes in SpriteKit with Timing Functions

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:05:10 +0000

Cutscenes are a labor of love, so it is hard accepting that some people just don’t care. That story that took months to bring together may be amazing to you, but to others it is just an inconvenience. So, for that reason, we have to make cutscenes skippable. However, I didn’t want to just settle at skipping the entire scene. I wanted to also make it skimmable for the speed readers, or those who are mildly interested.

$375 for a Music Tryout

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 14:38:35 +0000

Every once in awhile, a composer will email me asking if I would like for them to work on the project. I keep their names with the idea of getting back to them when I’m ready to focus on music. Anthony contacted me out of the blue with an eagerness, varied skill set, and past experience — all which compelled me to start a trial. So far, trial is going great.

Outline Text in SpriteKit

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 20:31:57 +0000

It’s funny how the tasks that should be easy end up consuming the most amount of time. As of this writing, there is no easy way to outline text in SpriteKit. It’s common to see approach that add a shadow node, but sometimes more contrast is needed. Here’s what I have discovered.

Barbarian Smash!

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:17:18 +0000

I feel like I made some really solid progress for the first time in a while, and I have some exciting stuff to share. A ton of little things were done, but the big accomplishments are the implementation of some awesome attack animations, battlefield animations, and world map animations. I also received some great new artwork and I gave my marketing efforts some much-needed love.

You can view all of this week’s updates with added commentary on YouTube or continue reading for a quick breakdown of each section.

Refactor, Health Bars and Ranged Combat

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:14:41 +0000

I’m finally able to start writing game code, and it is fun. Now that learning and performance issues are almost behind me, I was able to implement ranged combat and death, which is great to see in action. In addition to that, steady progress has been made on the world map, and early story boards are coming along. This update also marks the end of the first contract with Scott, my illustrator, but we’ll be entering a second contract shortly.

Transitioning an Image but Not a Mask in Corona SDK

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:09:10 +0000

I was recently playing around with image masking, and I wanted to transition the mask so that the image behind it gradually appeared on screen. Unfortunately, Corona doesn’t allow you to transition masks, but after doing a little research I learned that you can use groups to transition the image behind the mask. Here’s an example to see what I’m talking about.

$7600 on Illustrations

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 14:24:26 +0000

This expense wasn’t a lump sum payment, but about 10 payments made over the course of a few months. I’m at the end of my original contract with an illustrator, and so far he’s delivered:

My Take on Health Bars

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:35:41 +0000

Health indicators are found in almost every game. As Chris pointed out, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. When it became time to think about them in my game, I wanted to add something that was functional, but also unique or interesting in some way.

Character Dialogue and Scripted Scenes

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:43:26 +0000

With the holidays upon us, I wasn’t able to get much done over the last couple of weeks. But when I did get the chance to work, I made it count. I’ve been putting off character dialogue and scripted scenes for a while now, but I’m happy to say the framework to achieve that is now in place. Here is a brief example of a couple of characters engaging in a well written scripted scene, full of deception, intrigue, and suspense.

SpriteKit: CPU gains from caching enumerateChildNodesWithName

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:48:27 +0000

Those of you who follow me know that I’m working on a game that will have ~200 nodes on the screen updating every frame. Because of that requirement, I’m constantly looking at how I can incrementally improve performance. Slowly but surely, I’m making this game a well oiled machine. Today, I stumbled on a significant slow down, and the resulting fix that shaved off 16% CPU usage: caching enumerateChildNodesWithName.

Now We’re Rolling

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 13:43:10 +0000

Things are moving along much better now. I wouldn’t say moving quickly just yet, but they’re at least moving. I’ve overcome a lot of technical hurdles and learning curves in the past 3 months. The latest of those was how to support 100-150 units on the screen at once. Serious progress has been made in that department. And, as always, I’ve received amazing illustrations and animations from Scott and Liron. Lastly, I’ve dabbled a bit in icon making.

Joy of Debugging: Command swiftc failed with exit code 1

Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:51:14 +0000

I’ve been working through a particularly nasty issue, so it feels right to document it for anyone else who encounters it. Also, just to serve as a note and reminder that game development is full of unexpected, time consuming tasks on a near weekly basis. This most recent problem — releasing a build to an iOS device fails to compile, but it works on the simulator. Specifically, this occurs when I try to change the Swift compiler optimization level.

Animations!

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 20:20:18 +0000

It’s been a little while since the last status update, due to the holidays and a mean case of strep, but I have some pretty cool stuff to share. I had hoped to add the functionality for dialogue into the game, but my animator got back to me with some awesome animations and I just couldn’t wait to implement them. So here’s a look at 4 of the hero character animations hot off the assembly line.

$1829 on Animations

Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:10:51 +0000

Two more characters were completed, which brings me to a total of 4 characters. This expense was about $450 more than I had originally budgeted for due to the unexpected time associated with animating weapons. Basically, characters with weapons will cost a little bit more to animate, and I’m fine with that.

Visual Progress

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:00:53 +0000

I really enjoyed working on the game over the last few weeks because pretty much everything I did resulted in visual progress. Adding code and manipulating JSON files is good and dandy, but programming is a lot more exciting when I’m working on something that my family and friends can visually experience.

More Difficult Than When I Thought Things Were Difficult

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 21:45:01 +0000

Alright, so that title is sort of doom and gloom. Really though, my mood is pretty good. I’m a married man now! On the work front, the difficulty I’m encountering is programming difficulty, which I feel is in my control. That’s always better than art, story, music, sound or gameplay difficulty. Current pain points? Pathfinding, and moving units as a formation.

Core Improvement

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 17:50:10 +0000

As planned after the last update, I was able to add scene management, loading and saving functionality, and the ability to view the game on a physical device. There are also some pretty cool new battleground maps and my first character sprite .png animation to check out below.

$588 on Corona SDK Pro Subscription

Mon, 20 Oct 2014 13:03:43 +0000

I was using Corona’s free product for awhile, but I decided to upgrade to the pro subscription once I continuously encounter bugs with live builds on the free trial. My game is still a ways off from completion, and I wish I could have used the free trial problem free for a little bit longer, but I knew I’d have to fork up the money eventually.

Quarter 2 Game Development Stats

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:15:41 +0000

I just finished up my second quarter of game development and have fresh round of statistics to share with you all. Numbers never lie and the numbers say that while my productivity stayed consistent, less time was spent on programming and more was spent on game design. My marketing efforts stayed about the same and both the blog and Twitter readership grew at a slow and steady rate.

Continuous Improvement

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 19:37:01 +0000

As planned, I was able to continue programming over the last two weeks and add some more features and a new character to the demo. I also spent a little time working on some new character concepts, battlegrounds, and animation preparation.

Level Design – Concept to Creation

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 12:52:38 +0000

I’ve been working on level design with an illustrator for the last couple weeks and things are really moving along nicely. What once took about 3 days of work is now condensed down into almost a day. We have 5 or so levels knocked out at this stage and I thought I’d share the process on how they come to life.

Animations for $8,095

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:35:21 +0000

Just as I have been working nearly non stop with an illustrator, I have been going back and forth with Liron, my animator. I eased into a contract with her due to fear from my last animation contract. We started with a $90 trial, and then another $500 trial. She did an amazing job on those, so the full contract began.

Kind of Back on Track

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:04:18 +0000

Last update was a rough one. My original concept for a tower defense game just wouldn’t work the way I had envisioned. So, instead of moving towards a standard tower defense game, I decided to change direction and make a sort of squad based defense game. This update covers that transition. Most importantly, I feel all of my problems right now are technical ones, and that the art will work out (or be adjustable).

Back to Programming

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:59:22 +0000

For the first time in what feels like forever, I was able to get back into actually programming. I had no idea that hiring artists, researching art direction, building design documents, and working with contractors would take so much time, but it does. I can understand why studios have art directors and game designers because those two jobs take up just as much time as programming. Anyways, I was able to spend a full week programming, and here is a video update on where the game is at:

Evolution of a Level

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:26:50 +0000

It’s amazing how long it can take to make your first level. It seems so simple at first. Just put a castle here, some grass there, and call it a day. But, questions arise. What art style should we go with? Will sprites be light or dark, so that we know what color grass and flooring to use? How wide do walkways need to be? Basically, figuring out your first level is like figuring out your entire game. Because of that, my first level continues to change. I thought it would be neat to take a look at where it started, and where it is now.

$3733 on Illustrations and Animations

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:18:04 +0000

I’ve been working with the an illustrator and animator for a few weeks now they’ve produced the world map, multiple battlefield maps, concept characters, character turnarounds, and 2 animated characters (semi produced). I’m pretty close to staying on budget so far, but I can see how both artists could end up costing a bit more than I originally thought.

How To Implement Squads and Formations, Part 1

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 18:38:01 +0000

There is an awesome article on Gamasutra about Coordinated Unit Movement. They also have a companion post about implementing said movement. However, the posts are from 1999, and they deal mainly in pseudocode. Also, I’m convinced there is absolutely nothing else on the entire internet explaining the topic. So, an experienced developer may be able to read the ideas and know how to implement them, but it has been a bit of a struggle for me as a new developer. I’m going to try to document a step by step implementation of formations, squads, and movement for someone who hasn’t done it before. I’ll be writing in Swift / Sprite Kit, but the code should be easy enough for anyone to follow. I also welcome corrections / improvements from experts.

More Difficult Than Expected

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 16:13:06 +0000

The past two weeks have been a real shot to my confidence. It turns out that a perfect game does not live inside of my head. Instead, a game with real usability, budget, and gameplay issues lives in my head. Researching some of the questions I needed answers for last week revealed that there isn’t always a perfect solution, and that my game idea needs refinement.

Character and Level Design

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:58:27 +0000

I had just started working with an illustrator when I last left off, and most of my time over the last two weeks was spent designing some pretty cool characters and battlefields. I was also able to contract a character animator, who is now working on the game’s first character animations.

$8,380 on Illustration Contract

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 13:29:28 +0000

Chris, Scott and I came to an agreement on an illustration contract that would involve Scott alternating weeks in which he works for us. My portion of the contract was $8,000. It ended up finishing mid-week, so I extended it the extra $380 to round it off. The goal was to finish all illustrations for the game during this time. That did not happen because I changed my game midway through. Still, a lot was accomplished.

$96 on Trial Animations

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 14:57:34 +0000

I had a couple of animators create test animations off of one of my character concepts just to see if their style fit what I have in mind for the game. Both animators were able to mock up a 3D animation in about 3 hours. Neither of the trial animators was the right fit for me this time around, but I’ll hold onto their contact information for the future.

$800 on Illustrations

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 14:24:03 +0000

I found an illustrator for my game, and he started out by creating some character concepts and a couple of battlefield scenes.

$200 on Behance

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 14:21:40 +0000

I’ve been looking for an animator and the three methods of recruitment that I used were making a blog post, reaching out to people I admired on Carbonmade, and paying for a job listing on Behance. I received 52 applications within 5 days and ended up finding the right man for the job through Behance. If he works out, then this was $200 well spent.

Designing Backgrounds for Multiple Aspect Ratios and Corona’s Config.lua

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 13:50:19 +0000

One of the reasons I chose Corona SDK as my development platform was because they support many devices across many platforms. But mo’ devices means mo’ problems, and one of those problems is creating artwork that scales across all devices.

First Half of Animation Contract: $1,558

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 13:20:48 +0000

I wrote about a contract that I broke before it was finished, and this amount accounts for that mistake. Our contracts are structured in a way that either party can leave, and payments are spread out. Anything paid is no refundable, and anything completed must be delivered. This allows flexibility for both parties.

Memory Usage in Sprite Kit

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 14:58:39 +0000

Now that I’m receiving real art for my game, I thought it would be a good time to learn about memory usage and limits. This was also prompted by my current level running at 55-60MB before any gameplay action or characters loaded on screen. That memory usage seemed a bit high, so I decided this was an issue that I needed to delve into. In hindsight, most of this is basic to an experienced game developer, but I found the process to be quite fun. You can just read my lessons learned below if you don’t want to follow my detective work.

Found an Illustrator

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:40:56 +0000

When I left off last time, I was working with an illustrator to see if he could create the style of art I hope to use in my game. I’m happy to say that he exceeded my expectations and will be playing a large role in the game’s development. In addition to formally contracting the artist, I spent a little time playing with game mechanics and a lot of time preparing for the art that’s about to come rolling in.

0 to Art in Two Weeks

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:26:58 +0000

If you remember, I left off last update finding and losing two artists. This update marks the beginning of my first contract with an illustrator, and the revelation that I have 1000 unanswered questions about my game. So, while I’m now super motivated, I’m also a bit stressed since every design decision I get wrong directly amounts to spending more money.

$325 on Illustrator Trial Run

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:55:48 +0000

I made a list of illustrators who I planned on contacting for trial illustrations, but I lucked out by having Scott Pellico go first. Scott illustrated a piece of my world map as a trial to see if his style was a fit for the world I’d like to create. He nailed it and I’m lucky to have found a quality illustrator on the first go.

Handling Z-Index by Screen Coordinates

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:48:27 +0000

One problem that I ran into with my game was that my characters and images were not being properly z-indexed. For example, the dwarf in the image below looks like he’s pasted on top of the tree, even though his position on the map suggests he should be behind the tree.

$249 and trials are completed

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:16:03 +0000

More, more, more trials. Finally, I’ve found an animator and an illustrator. Ready to begin contracts with both. This brings my trial budget up to $1,483.

A Bit About Design Documents

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 16:25:40 +0000

Now that I’m working with other people, all sorts of questions come up about my game. How many illustrations where there be? How many actors? Is the script finished? What tone should the game have? Pretty much every single thing you could think to ask about the game needs an answer. Everyone I have spoken to says to start art / sound / music / copy editing / storyboarding early in the process. Don’t wait until the last minute, they say. And while most people have my best interests in mind, it is still a ton of work to answer questions in a thoughtful way.

$475 on Animator Trial Runs

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:47:16 +0000

Things are moving quickly now. I’ve started to line up as many character artists and animators as I can to do some trial runs. Ideally, I’ll find one super talented person, or multiple people who have complimentary skill sets. Trials get expensive, but they’re worth it to find the right person. More should come in next week.

The Start of My Game

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:29:33 +0000

Up until this update, everything that I did was basically learning and testing basic concepts that could be applied to many types of turn based games. Characters moved, attacked, died, etc. I’ve known that I wanted to make a turn based game, but I didn’t know exactly what I was going to build. That all changed this time around, because over the last two weeks I decided what game I want to build, created an art design document, and contracted an illustrator to draw preliminary sketches.

Art & Working With Others

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:37:58 +0000

The past two weeks did not go as planned. What started out as a coding week that would involve balancing unit attributes turned into a full on art blitz. I received a lengthy, somewhat painful, and costly introduction into the world of art. At the same time, I received the invaluable jolt of excitement and motivation that comes from working with other talented people.

What I’m Looking for in an Illustrator

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 15:00:24 +0000

I’m in the process of contracting an illustrator and so far I’ve looked at more profiles on deviantART and Behance than I can remember. I thought this would be an easy process, but I’ve never worked with an illustrator before and I never realized how many variables would come into play when searching for the right person. I know I won’t find everything I’m looking for, but here are some of the variables I’m taking into consideration while looking for the right person.

Keep the concept art coming with $424

Wed, 30 Jul 2014 15:48:07 +0000

It turns out finding a final style is harder than I thought. Ran more experiments with both an animator and illustrator this week to try to merge their styles / find a final appearance for the game.

My Experiences Searching for an Artist

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:19:47 +0000

Finding an artist has been my biggest fear since this competition started. There are so many things that could go wrong when you have to depend on someone you don’t know to contribute a third or more to your project. The style may not be a match, they could leave half way through the project, the budget estimations may be way off — the list goes on and on. I must say though, I’ve gained confidence in art contractors in the two weeks I’ve been speaking with them. I thought I would share some of my notes.

Trial run with an animator for $135

Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:02:47 +0000

I’ve found an animator who I like working with, so I decide to start a trial with him. The main objective is to figure out an art style that works with my illustrator, and to get a rough idea on pricing in that given style. I’ll share the result when they come in.

$200 on Trial Art

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:23:44 +0000

I’m starting to reach out to a few artists, and it is difficult to determine cost, style, availability and friendliness just by exchanging a few emails. So, I plan to contract out a couple of artists to see their take on my existing level and characters. In the end, I imagine I’ll spend $1,000 on this sort of purchase.

Spent $105.93 for Apple Developer

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:19:39 +0000

To be an Apple Developer, you have to register with their developer program. I have no problem paying the $99+tax since I love the developer program they have in place. I enjoy working in Xcode, notice fast download speeds, frequent beta updates, and so on. Overall, it is a pleasant environment to work in, so please take my money.

Getting Started with Corona

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:37:32 +0000

I’ve been working on my game for about three months now and I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot. I have a good grasp of LUA and the Corona SDK and my problems are more focused on what type of game to make and not how to make a game. I’ve spent a lot of time reading documentation and taking tutorials and I want to share the resources that helped me get started with any fellow beginners out there.

Highs and Lows

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:21:54 +0000

Last update marked the beginning of my conversion to Swift, and this update marks the end — almost. I continued to be plagued by conversion issues (64 bit this time) and time off (Bachelor party), but also enjoyed faster refactoring and cleaner code. I’ve now gotten the game back to playable with 10% of the code left to convert. Small details like synchronized walking animations, missing damage over time and other bugs remain, but I finally feel like I’m in the clear. This is a huge thing because for a second there I was a bit depressed and questioned my choice to convert to Swift.

Refactoring of Character Creation Code

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:37:29 +0000

After the last update, I had plans to build out the HUD and add new attack actions to my characters. I added a new attack action to the archer and was feeling excited about all the new awesomeness about to go into my game. Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived because I quickly realized that my code needed to be refactored before adding new action functionality to all my characters. Warning: This article gets technical.

Stats From the First Quarter

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:41:59 +0000

It’s hard to believe that we’re already 3 months into the competition. My first quarter of game development consisted of many highs and lows, but most importantly I still consider it among the most rewarding things I’ve done. From a purely stats perspective, I think my productivity can be summed up as a strong start, medium middle, and lacking end. I thought it would be fun to look at some concrete numbers, so here is what I came up with.

3 Months of Game Development Statistics

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:18:38 +0000

I’m hoping make my game development process transparent as possible, so on a quarterly basis I plan to publish some figures related to productivity, marketing, code count, and anything else that may be relevant to other game developers out there. So without further ado, here are some stats related to my first three months of game development.

Swift Distractions

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:35:17 +0000

It has been awhile since my last update. 4 weeks to be exact. And to top it off, my game has fewer features than it did the last time you heard from me. There are two reasons for this: The introduction of Swift, and the perfect storm of distractions.

Dynamic Image Selection with Corona and Texture Packer

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:26:31 +0000

Most mobile apps are developed to run across multiple devices, which means developers have to account for multiple screen resolutions. Image scaling is an important part of multi-device support because you want to use higher resolution images on modern, high-res devices, while using lower resolution images on low-res devices. That saves memory on the low-res devices while maximizing all of the pixel density goodness on the high-res devices. Lucky for Corona SDK developers, Corona makes image scaling a breeze with their dynamic image selection feature.

Multi-Device Support and HUD Elements

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:25:12 +0000

This update was delayed by a week because I took a “vacation“, but I’m back in action and hard at work again. After the last update I had some concerns about making my game work across multiple devices, but I’m happy to say that Corona makes multi-device support pretty easy. It was actually so easy that I was not only able to make my prototype work across multiple devices, but I also had time to start adding some basic HUD elements to the game.

Thinking About the Cost of Art

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:21:02 +0000

I’ve ventured into the unknown while working on my game — I don’t know what art costs. This is becoming an issue because I have all sorts of grand ideas for levels, characters and features. It is clear that art, or more directly my budget, will be the deciding factor on the scope of my game.

Health Bars and Taking Damage in Corona SDK

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:30:09 +0000

It’s common to see health bars attached to a characters in video games, and in this tutorial I explain how that can easily be accomplished in Corona SDK. And as an added bonus, the health bar also updates as the character takes damage.

10 Movement Grid Display Techniques

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:59:51 +0000

An easy way to add distinction and flavor to your game is to make seemingly standard concepts into unique game art. For example, two visual elements that pretty much all turn based tactical games contain are a means of displaying how far character can move and what enemies are within attack range. It would be easy to just make some squares green and others red, but you’d be missing an opportunity to add a little polish to your game. To visually understand what I’m talking about, here are screenshots of games that implement standard concepts in unique ways.

Challenges You May Encounter While Porting Your SpriteKit Game to Swift

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:20:02 +0000

The introduction of Swift comes at a perfect time for me. I’ve been working on a SpriteKit game in Objective-C for 10 weeks now, and some of the code is definitely in need of refactoring. Refactoring is known to be tedious, so being able to learn a new language during the process is a plus. I’ve been taking notes of any challenge I’ve come across during the conversion.

Zombies, Archers, and Dwarfs! Oh My!

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:19:33 +0000

I’ve added a lot of pretty cool changes to my prototype in the last two weeks, including new characters, attack animations, directional movement, death animations, and sound effects. The game is still a very rough prototype, but as you can see in the video below, I’m now able to actually play a complete level from start to finish.

The Shaping of a Game

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:11:47 +0000

If last week was a feature rush, this week was a feature overload. I’ve slowly been breaking out of the learning phase and into the implementation phase. I definitely know what needs to happen now — it’s just a matter of doing it. Exciting times are ahead because I can now begin testing features that will make my game unique. My update this week introduces a lot of those features, including a defendable castle and dynamic spawn points.

Isometric Tiles and Pathfinding with Corona

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 17:43:32 +0000

I previously wrote a tutorial on how to create a square grid and implement pathfinding with Corona SDK and the Jumper library, but now we’re going to take things up a notch and do the same thing on an isometric grid. Isometric grids use rhombus, or diamond shaped tiles, as opposed to square tiles. The introduction of angled tiles adds the perception of depth and can dramatically change the visuals of your game without adding much complexity to your code.

First Look at SKLightNode in iOS8

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 17:24:14 +0000

Lighting effects were curiously missing from SpriteKit in iOS7, so I’m happy to see them appear in iOS8. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect from the light source / raycasting implementation.

Feature Rush

Tue, 27 May 2014 16:50:37 +0000

Last update I had a playable game. This update has been spent trying to add as many features to the game as possible, which has been an enlightening process that has revealed two lessons. First, I need to prototype since you don’t know what’s fun until you try it. Second, while my code is getting better, it still isn’t ready to scale to an entire project. Each time I add a new asset or feature, I’m finding myself copying a lot of code. By going through the motions, it’s becoming clear what needs to be fixed up.

A Little Perspective

Tue, 27 May 2014 15:40:58 +0000

I was really excited after the last update because I felt like the foundation of my code was relatively solid and the core game mechanics were working. With that core work out of the way, I was free to focus on polishing what I had built and thinking about what type of game I ultimately want to build. In the last 2 weeks I was able to fix a bunch of bugs, add obstacles, add art, and switch the camera point of view. Add all of those together and you get a game that’s starting to look pretty sweet in my unbiased opinion.

Common Turn Based Game Projection Techniques

Wed, 21 May 2014 16:53:09 +0000

A couple commonly used projection techniques for turn based video games are orthographic and isometric projection. I’m in the process of figuring out which technique I’ll be using for my tactics game and I’ve been looking into the pros and cons of each method and how they’ve been used in previous games. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far.

Trial and Error is a Necessity for Game Development

Tue, 20 May 2014 14:51:08 +0000

While working on the catapult for my game, I came across the first of many design problems I will face. Turns out it is much easier to critique another game’s design than it is to create your own with confidence. In my situation, I was deciding between a player controlled catapult and an automated catapult. I was so torn that I posed the question to /r/gamedesign and had to write the code for each. Let’s look at the results.

Learning Sprite Kit by Example

Thu, 15 May 2014 14:13:33 +0000

I hated school. I hate technical books. Generally, I feel like I can learn faster with the unstoppable trio of myself, Google and wonderful online communities. The trouble with game development is I don’t know what questions to ask. In web development, I can search how to make two elements sit next to each other and find what I’m looking for. In game development, I wouldn’t have looked for a finite state machine, much less double dispatch for physics. I may be late to the party compared to other developers, but I’m finding myself humbled by both books and open source projects that are extremely well crafted.

The Beginning of a Game

Mon, 12 May 2014 18:55:50 +0000

I’m a little over a month into my game now and I feel like I finally have something that resembles what will one day be a playable game. When I left off last time, I was hoping to add some AI to the game, and I’m happy to report that the AI system wasn’t as hard as I had originally feared. In the last two weeks, I was able to add archer and mage characters to the game and also give the enemy characters some intelligence.

To see where I’m out, check out the following video.

And Then There was a Playable Game

Mon, 12 May 2014 15:49:28 +0000

Don’t look now, but I think my Xcode project just turned into a playable game. That’s right, you heard me correctly. User input, gold and a game over state. I would almost say it’s time to wrap things up and call it a win for team Ryan.

Health Display Roundup

Mon, 05 May 2014 16:59:16 +0000

Visually displaying a character’s health has been around for over 30 years and continues to be a mainstay of video games. From Zelda to Starcraft, these small graphics play a large role in how games are played and how information is communicated. The turn based game I’m working on will include health bars, so I’ve been looking into how other successful games have given their characters life. Here is a quick roundup of some of the more popular techniques I’ve come across.

Can a Mobile Game Have a Great Story?

Fri, 02 May 2014 13:50:30 +0000

Forget the big ports like X-Com or Final Fantasy Tactics and you’re left with mediocre stories in most mobile games. Hits like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja excel in gameplay, not story. Even standout indie games like Hunters and Battleheart fall short. I expect almost every mobile game I buy to be light on gameplay and even lighter on story. I thought the same would be true for my game, but The Adventures of Princess and Mr. Whiffle by Patrick Rothfuss changes everything.

Refactoring

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:24:53 +0000

When I left off two weeks ago, I had the goal of adding some bad guys to fight my valiant knight. The good news is that those bad guys can now be seen and attacked, but the bad news is that for every step forward, I’ve had to take about 0.9 steps back. If learning was the name of the game before my first update, refactoring is the name of the game this time around. I knew there was going to be a price to pay for plunging into my game without much thought given to organization and structure, and it was time to pay the piper.

But in an effort to stay positive about game development, let’s celebrate the visual progress I’ve made.

It’s Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:09:18 +0000

With update #3, I bring you my most challenging two weeks so far. As you can see from the featured image, working with Finite State Machines, and AI in general, plays a big part in my frustrations. When this cycle began, I was hoping to have wave movement, group formations and melee combat working. Since only one of those three goals was accomplished, let’s take a look at what went right and what went wrong.

Pathfinding in Corona with Jumper and A Star

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:57:28 +0000

If you’re making a grid based game and you need a character to move from point A to point B while avoiding obstacles, then you’re going to need some type of pathfinding. Luckily for us, Roland Yonaba utilized the power of A Star, a popular pathfinding algorithm, and made it even better with his open source Jumper library. Visually, what we’re trying to accomplish looks a little something like:

4 Tips from The App Store Playbook

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:06:43 +0000

I recently bought The App Store Playbook, written by Shane Lee, because Hunters was highlighted and it’s one of my favorite iPad games. Fortunately for me, the other 9 interviews were all solid, and I came away with some good indie game dev tips that I thought I’d share.

Handling zPosition in a 2.5d World

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:28:10 +0000

Not surprisingly, dealing with zPosition in a 2.5d game is about as complicated as everything else in game development — it will be harder to handle than you think it should be. For example, how should you handle moving a sprite from behind a tree to in front of a tree in perceived depth. While the initial drawing of objects is straightforward, things become tricky once they start moving around. Let’s take a look at how I’m approaching zPosition in my Sprite Kit game.

Texture Packer and Physics Editor for $50

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 19:00:48 +0000

I thought I could avoid throwing down any cash for sprite sheet development, but I finally broke down and purchased Texture Packer. They just make sprite sheet creation too easy, and the tool spits out exactly what the Corona SDK needs to render and scale sprites.

Beginnings

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:48:47 +0000

I’m two weeks into game development and I’ve realized that making a game will require a lot of learning and hard work, and this is going to be a lot of fun. I know so little about game development that it’s difficult to even know where to start. What should be a seemingly simple task, like animating and moving a sprite, can be challenging due to amateur hour mistakes.

On the Shoulders of Giants

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:44:21 +0000

Game development has always been intimidating to me. There have always been so many unknowns that learning how make a game, let alone write in C, seemed unachievable. The past two weeks have been shocking to me because the tools and libraries available have come so far that game development is now accessible. I feel like I did when developing for the web and jQuery/Prototype.js came out. It’s an amazing time and indie games will only become easier to produce.

Animating Sprites from a Texture Packer Image

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:58:48 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with animation and recently ran into a little trouble with spritesheets, TexturePacker, Corona SDK and animation. The problem started when I wanted to animate some sprites from opengameart.org. The download included 89 animation sequences and each animation contained 8 individual character sprites, which looked like:

Possibly the Most Fun I’ve Had Professionally

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:18:18 +0000

I was going to sit down this morning and write a post on why I’m choosing Sprite Kit, but instead I feel the need to express how fun game development has been so far. It will be interesting to track my mood over time because I do see the tedious nature of the craft lurking around the corner, but for now I’m loving life.

Why I Chose the Corona SDK over Sprite Kit, Unity, or Cocos2d-x

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 15:17:57 +0000

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks testing out different 2d game development frameworks, and I’ve decided that the Corona SDK is the tool for me. I was hoping there would be a standout framework that could make basic 2d games much better than the others, but I feel they each have pros and cons and they can all make games just fine. What it really comes down to is what makes me comfortable and excited about game development. I’m not qualified to list out the pros and cons of each environment, since I’ve been developing games for all of two weeks, but I can tell you why Corona won my business.

Video, Audio, Fonts and Other Useful Sprite Kit Fundamentals

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:28:54 +0000

When learning a new language or environment, some things that should be trivial seem to take forever. Once you learn how to do simple tasks, it’s hard to remember how you originally struggled. So for that reason, I’ve decided to keep a running log of useful code snippets that were stumbling blocks at some point. Anything that I think I’ll reuse, or had trouble understanding as a beginner will be added as a gist to my Github account.

Stats From Our Launch

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:35:36 +0000

Since this contest is in the spirit of sharing and learning, it makes sense that my first post should report on our launch traffic, and how many users will come back to read more. We primarily reached out to people on Reddit, Hacker News, Facebook and Twitter and saw varying levels of success.

Let’s Do This!

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:04:17 +0000

April has been in my sights for some time now. After a move, some traveling, a bit of relaxation, building out an office space and designing this site, I’m finally ready to start working on games. Actually, this dream is a lifetime in the making.

Spent $15 on video tutorials

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:02:00 +0000

I’m not usually a fan of books, or any tutorial for that matter. I prefer to look at docs and start playing around. But since I know so little about game development, it makes sense to look at someone else’s code and project to get an idea of their code structure and approach.

How Designing This Site Prepares Me For Game Development

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:00:33 +0000

Whether it be video games, web development or mobile software, coding is coding. And launching something is hard. Every developer knows that. One of the main difficulties comes from design. Or, more specifically, polish. Anytime I can exercise my design muscles, I’ll be better prepared the next time around.

Predictions About the Upcoming Year

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:59:46 +0000

One of the interesting parts of documenting a journey is seeing how wrong (or right) you can be in the beginning. Whether it be budget, timing, quality, success, enjoyment or one of the many other measurements — something will not go as planned. I thought it would be fun to try to write out some concrete guesses about the future so that they can be revisited.

Come One, Come All

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:59:14 +0000

Welcome … to Medieval Times! Ahh, I wish I was eating there right now. Wrong place though. You’re at my blog for the Battle of Brothers game development duel. My brother, Chris, and I will take a year and $25,000 to see who can make the most profitable game.

Expectations

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:56:29 +0000

The official winner of this competition (and bragging rights) is going to be the brother whose game makes the most money, but all won’t be lost if I come closer to my end goal of becoming a game developer. Bruce Lee said that, “a goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at”, and here are the targets that I’ve set out to hit.

Why I Blog

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:55:58 +0000

When Ryan and I decided to hold this competition, the first thing we did was create this blog. It was tempting test game development frameworks, prototype, or do anything actually related to game development, but we know first hand the benefits of blogging on both yourself and your product. Blogging does cut into precious development time, but I believe the benefits outweigh the costs for a number of reasons.

I’m a n00b

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:53:44 +0000

All journeys have beginnings and today is where my journey starts. While I might not be as useless as the n00b MTG card above, I do lack most of the skills required to build a video game. Advancing from beginner to competent game developer will be a difficult task, but I’m hoping that’s where this quest leads.

3 Game design books for $80.80

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:50:40 +0000

I thought I’d kick this contest off by purchasing a little bed time reading material. I want to start prototyping games as soon as possible, so hopefully a few books on game theory and design will help me to avoid some of the mistakes beginners make.

Welcome to the Site!

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:40:22 +0000

Hi there, I’m Chris and welcome to my game development blog. In case you came directly to this site and not through the splash page, let me give you a quick intro as to what’s going on.

Budget

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:26:03 +0000

content

Contact

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:25:42 +0000

content

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:25:13 +0000

content

Timeline

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000