We continue the interview with American McGee…

T: Big Head Bash, Crazy Fairies and Akaneiro are all “Free to Play” titles. What draws you to this model? What opportunities do you see in it? and what’s your own definition of Free to Play? 

A: I like to think of it like a ‘pay what you want’ model. You can get into any of our games and access 100% of the content for free – though you have to exchange your time in order to do so. Or, if you don’t feel like waiting, you can pay for access to those things you don’t feel like earning. That means it’s up to the players whether or not – or how much – they pay. If they feel like the game is worthwhile or the content is interesting, they’ll pay for it. If not, they aren’t out of pocket. It also provides a wonderful way for us to maintain a connection with the audience and provide constant updates to the content and game play. Coming from the world of console games, this is probably one of my favorite aspects of the model (which is really more related to being an online game in general.)

T: From a production point of view what are some of major differences between working on a title such as Alice: Madness Returns and the current Free to Play titles you’re developing.

A: With Alice we weren’t able to really grasp the entire product until it was Final, burned to a disc and shipped in a box. And by then we were completely unable to make meaningful changes to the content in response to customer reactions. With most retail titles, within 3 weeks the sales drop to nil and it’s “game over”. With online games we can release an early Open Beta, get feedback, make adjustments and continue to develop more content and features. This type of development continues on an ongoing basis for as long as there are players to support it. The result is a development that’s more driven by the gamers and their desires.

T: When does the production of a game like Big Head Bash stop? In theory you could keep adding new characters and levels forever. Do you have a certain criteria when to pull the plug on a title and move on to something new. 

A: Again, that’s totally up to the players. If they continue to play and to demand new content, then we continue to support it.

T: Most of the currently developed games by Spicyhorse are heading to many different platforms both desktop and mobile. Do you plan on that early on in development or the decision to go multi-platform comes later on. 

A: We knew from the inception of this latest phase of development life that mobile plus web were going to be huge platforms for a new audience of games around the globe. And from the start we knew that finding a way to allow gamers from all devices and platforms to play together inside the same games, in real-time, would be key to building really strong communities.

T: Can we expect anything from Spicyhorse on iOS anytime soon? 

A: All of our current slate of games run fine on iOS, but because of limitations on live updating of content we’ve yet to release a build to that platform. Android makes it much easier for us to release updates to content on a regular basis, so makes this easier for us from the start. We’re building tech to help automate this process across all platforms (including iOS) so this won’t be an issue in the near future.

T: From the begining of your career until now you have seen many shifts in the games industry. Both in respect to design and business models. What’s the key secret that allows you to keep finding ways to be able to create games for such a long time. 

A: Everything keeps repeating itself! If you stick around long enough you don’t even have to be original – you just have to know how to leverage new technology around classic mechanics and stories to attract new audiences. Ok, you have to be a little original – but the basics remain the same while the platforms and technologies are constantly shifting. The key is in understanding where in a particular cycle you are (especially as it repeats) and leveraging past experience against current trends.

T: I know you’re a busy man American, Thank you for taking the time to answer these. What can we expect from Spicyhorse in 2013?

A: We’ll be launching Akaneiro: Demon Hunters into the wild and releasing two new titles before mid-year. At the same time we’re making constant improvements to both BigHead BASH and Crazy Fairies – so the team will be staying busy and our players can expect to see tons of new features and content across all of our online games.

To celebrate the release of Toy Glider and to spice up the blog a bit I thought I start a series of interviews with other developers from the game dev community. Who’s better to start than somebody who has been making games for a long time without any signs of slowing down. Enter American McGee.

T: Beta testing Akaneiro, regularly adding content to Big Head Bash as well as Crazy Fairies and now  planning your Kickstarter Campaign. You’re keeping yourself busy. How do you manage all these projects at the same time?

A: Over the years the studio has developed an internal culture that expects and rewards multi-disciplined people who are comfortable wearing lots of hats and jumping between a variety of tasks and projects. At times it can feel a little disorienting to keep track of everything that’s going on – but no one has ever complained of boredom from repetition. For everyone in the studio the balancing act requires decent organizational and prioritization skills. We all try our best to maintain basic tracking sheets with an understanding of priority based on feedback from the studio at large. We hold a weekly meeting where we assign resources for the next week – and from that basic resource planning flows the detailed planning that makes each department hum along for another week.

T: Over the years, I’ve noticed that you have a very refined daily routine. Could you share a bit how you developed it and how has it evolved over the course of your career?

A: As with many things, it was the child of necessity. Moving to China while still working with Western publishers meant needing to be up early enough to engage with them on conference calls. This was especially true (and initially painful) with Gametap, who were based in Atlanta, Georgia. Over time I became more and more accustomed to starting work super early and going home at some reasonable hour like 6PM. Most of the development I witnessed in the US involved long hours and late nights, which meant people had no life outside of work. I found that with an early start and relatively early return home I could actually do things like cook dinner, get some exercise and spend time with my loved ones. Though the early morning calls are fewer these days, I still maintain the ‘farmer schedule’ because I think it’s a healthier one – and the people working in the studio seem to agree.

T: In the last few years indie game development has exploded. New ways of funding combined with easier access to market allows smaller companies to bootstrap and fund themselves creating a lot more games that vary in quality and size. How do you think this affects the industry as a whole. 

A: More content from a wider range of creative voices is always a good thing. It’s a sign of an ecosystem in which developers and consumers have a choice. When distribution (and development by proximity) is controlled by a select few, everyone suffers; except of course the monopolists. We should expect to see more variety in game types, art styles and distribution/monetization models as a result of more developers and having direct access to distribution platforms.

T: When you started Spicyhorse you took a chance on hiring a fairly inexperienced team. Since then many of them have moved on to work for some of the best game companies in the world. It could be said that you jump started their careers. How do you feel about that. 

A: It’s always been my intention to give people a chance. It’s one of the main reasons I came to China in the first place. When I first arrived in Shanghai what I saw was a landscape of highly talented game developers trapped within a select few industries – either outsourcing for Western publishers or working for local operators. In both cases, the amount of creative freedom to be had was pretty limited. My thought was that by opening an independent studio with a focus on original content and high quality of life we’d be able to attract some of the best and brightest from the local and global market. Ever since my own entry into the industry was the result of someone taking a chance on me (when John Carmack hired me at id, despite my lack of experience) I’ve felt it part of my responsibility to continue that tradition. The formula early on was “hire highly experienced local talent and pair them up with inexperienced expats looking for learning and adventure”. That’s worked out great for everyone involved – creating very unique company culture and outputting a large number of highly skilled developers who’ve gone on to amazing new heights after their time here.

T: For anyone interested in getting into the industry. What do you look for when hiring? 

A: We don’t look at written qualifications anywhere near as much as personality and the uniqueness of their ‘pitch’. When trying to get into the industry, it’s important to keep in mind that everyone has “passion”. Passion alone won’t get you anywhere – you have to find a way to go above and beyond in proving your ability and desire. Just saying “I’m passionate about games” isn’t enough. Find a way to prove it by building a demo, creating fantastic art or making a video in which you show off your ideas.

For the Second part of this interview with American McGee be sure to check back this Friday.

Enter Aaron,

Hi all – great to ‘be’ here. First, a quick shout-out for Tomasz – it’s awesome to see how another game contractor is making it work, so thanks for being so open. I hope my post adds something to the conversation.

I’ve been developing games since 1995, and mostly as a Designer, though recently as a Project Manager / Executive Producer. My background is Computer Science, with an Art minor – I know my way around Photoshop, Illustrator, and a sketchbook, and spent 5 years building levels in 3D Studio Max.

I mention this because as a freelance developer, you never know which skillset you’ll be called on to use in a given day. The client may need artwork cleaned up, or a prototype written, or a new feature implemented. As you delve into various tasks, of course, you’ll need to have the “Producer” hat on at all times to be asking “Is this getting me towards the client’s goals”, and “Am I on track?”

So if you’re interested in getting into freelance game design, I offer this inventory. Check your skills against it to see where you’re strong and where you want to grow. While an incomplete list, this is the set of skills I have used as a freelancer since July 2011 (the past 10 months):

CORPORATE

• marketing
• customer relations
• advertising
• legal / contracting / incorporation
• finance / expenses / QuickBooks

PRODUCTION

• team management
• agile software development
• estimating
• conflict resolution
• communication skills
• budgeting

ENGINEERING

• HTML5 / Javascript / CSS3
• xCode / iOS programming / Cocos2d
• Android development
• server development (ex: heroku / node.js / amazon web services)
• Facebook Development

ART

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Particle Designer
• Flash
• Sketches / whiteboard / etc.

DESIGN

• Prototyping (Hype on Mac, Balsamiq Mockups, HTML5 click-throughs, Powerpoint, etc.)
• System design (economies, mission scaling)
• Writing (dialog, quests)
• Scope management
• brainstorming

When judging whether to take a job (or how much to bid), I consider the list vs. the client’s needs, and ask things like:

– Will this client give me time to come up to speed on new skills?

– Does working on this gig help me add or improve to that list?

– Can I partner with / subcontract to someone who has the skills I don’t?

– How will I handle it if I hit a wall? (And anyone who’s ever logged into developer.apple.com knows what I mean)

– How does this fit into my schedule, especially around the other things I need to do as a freelancer – signing up more work, networking, etc.?

– How long is the contract?

– Is there any flexibility in timeframe, or are milestones blocking for future work?

My current client is most interested in prototyping, and I really enjoy that body of work, so it’s a good fit. I’ve learned a lot on the client’s dime, so my advice to new freelancers is that getting that first gig is worth taking a pay hit for. You’ll learn more by doing it once than by trying to hold out for more money. Don’t underestimate the value of learning a new skill while someone else is paying you for it – that’s value that YOU get to keep and bring to your future clients.

Finally, a little dose of reality. Which of these do you think is the highest priority to a game freelancer?

– writing solid code

– being on time

– communication skills

– innovative design ideas

– ability to express a visual idea / art quality

Of course, the answer is none – or all, if you want to look at it another way. Job #1 – the ONLY job that matters – is customer satisfaction. As frustrating as it is, the customer really is Always Right. Your job is to learn where the friction points are in the client relationship, and then TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY to fix them. Case in point: one of my clients consistently jumps to conclusions about when things will be done, or tries to dictate it. I’m a firm believer in the Project Management Triangle – you can set parameters of any two items (price, speed, quality), but I get to choose the third. So if you tell me what to do, and that it’s going to be shown to users (i.e. quality must be high), then I get to tell you it will take 3 days. This client consistently got upset when things took more than 1 day, so I developed a system of estimating tasks, and started communicating that to him as we set my tasks.

Now, when we sit down to make a plan, I open my excel template and start adding tasks, including estimates of how many hours it will take. When we’re done, I’ll say “I can have a first playable tomorrow morning, and then will iterate on Feature X over the day. I figure I’ll have another build for you in the afternoon – will that work?” Sometimes the client will say “Oh, no – we had a design meeting scheduled to review this at lunch tomorrow”. I look at the list and find which bits I can cut out to get him a second build in time for his needs. “Well, if we drop the replay component, I can get you the rest by lunch, is that OK?”

Whatever the issue is for your customer, it is up to YOU to fix it. That’s the hard reality of being a contractor – it doesn’t matter if you gave them plenty of notice, if their requests are unreasonable, if you don’t think they’re paying you enough…etc. It’s All. On. You.

Once you start taking ownership of issues like this, though, you become indispensable. You’re better to work with than their own employees, and they will happily keep throwing money at you to do their work.

I hope this is helpful for someone out there, and would love to hear from you. If you have any game development needs, be sure to check out our studio, at voidalpha.com! We’re also on FaceBook andTwitter.

Good luck!

Let’s take Photoshop as an example.

I’ve used Photoshop for many years but until recently never dug very deep behind the basics. Photoshop is an interesting example because it’s used by both amateurs and professionals. At the most basic level Photoshop is an image editing program and at that level it does what it needs to. Perhaps a person who just wants to edit a photo they took of their dog might learn how to open a document, use different selection tools, crop the image and perhaps do basic colour manipulation.

A student of Photoshop might dig deeper and start with an empty document, use different fills to construct a background image, use the pen tool to add scalable vector graphics, save the image with the correct compression settings and file formats based on their project requirements.  On top of that a better student might invest time in learning all the keyboard shortcuts to improve efficiency.

Digging even deeper a professional who uses Photoshop daily might setup different “Actions” to allow them to automate more tedious / repetitious tasks. Create their own custom brushes. Utilize the whole toolset of an Extended Version and know how to combine different tools/methods together to tackle any design challenge in a fast and high quality manner.

Each of these levels of depth require different level of commitment in both time and resources. And each will yield relative results based on the level of engagment you initially decided to commit to.

As I’m trying to juggle between art, design, coding of my game, I’ve been having to make decisions on how deep do I want to go in each aspect, knowing that each decision will have a direct impact on the final quality of the game.

The current game offering I’m cooking up is not very text heavy, I recon I’d need less than 30 words to communicate all I need and I’m trying to reduce that as much as possible. (Currently replacing the “Play” button with the “Play” icon).  I’ve been focusing on trying to communicate as much as possible visually and hopefully that has a bit more of an international appeal.

A game released on the app stores spreads across the whole world with one single click. Having traveled over the years, I know how much being able to say even simple things in the local language is appriciated. So I decided to localize my game into several languages… it’s not that much extra effort for this current game.(this obviously changes based on the type of game you’re making) A lot of the translations are basic one word translation which I was easily able to find online. I’ve already implemented a language button that toggles between several languages and I’ll be thinking of adding more with updates.

So who knows, if you’re native language is not English, you might just enjoy my future game in your own language. Not that it’s a requirement for the game but just because it might be nice.

Pocket Gamer

TouchArcade

SlideToPlay

iPad Board Games

AppStorm

Padvance

iPadGames

AppSpy

TouchGen

AppSafari

AppGamer.net

GameZebo

There is more, this is just a start and it will be updated as I go along. Feel free to let me know what I missed and what your experience is in submitting your games for reviews.

Over the years I’ve moved around quite a bit and the result of that is that I have friends and family in many places. As I develop and grow my business, I want to make it as location independent as possible. I want to have the option to stay on top of things from anywhere where an internet connection is present. This will allow me to get work done at the same time enjoy the benefit of being with friends and family in whatever area I feel like being at the time.

Cloud computing is just taking off. The current options are limited and still have a lot of ways to grow and improve. Issues of security and privacy are still valid but it’s something that will improve over time.

The transition to cloud based computing has been a gradual one for me. I’ve installed Evernote as my primary note taking software. Evernote allows me to take notes, pictures, and audio clips and store them on Evernote servers. It’s a great way to quickly and easily write down ideas when inspiration hits. I like the fact I don’t have to save my progress, automatic save feature allows me to drop in at anytime, make any changes or additions that I need to my notes and step away. It automatically syncs when accessed from other devices which is nice to make short notes on mobile devices.

Wunderlist is my task management solution. It allows me to add/check off tasks with ease. If necessary I’m able to share my tasks with other people who can check of lists as they get it done. It’s a great way for me to organize my ideas into actions I can easily tick off and manage. Once again the biggest benefit is that it’s available on many different platforms so I could do it from anywhere on any device.

I use Google Docs for storing bigger files such as spreadsheets and more formal Word documents and PowerPoint Presentations and Dropbox as my online storage/basic backup solution.

So far I’ve been satisfied with using these applications and the promise of cloud based applications definitely has it’s appeal especially for a business who plans to be mobile and be able to move whenever and where it needs to.

In no particular order AutoCad, 3D Studio R4, 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave, SoftImage, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, Combustion, UT2004(Engine), Unreal, UDK, FL Studio etc (most likely missed some) and now Unity.

A lot of time and resources was spent in learning these new technologies, a lot of them have became outdated, and many I haven’t used for years and I sometimes question how long it will take until the technology I’m using right now will be replaced with something new.

One thing is for sure, with each new software that you learn, you take away key concepts that make learning the next one easier.

Out of nowhere on Dec. 23 in the early hours of the night I get email from Unity3D informing that a new 3.5 Beta and a Developer preview is available for download. Included was news about a Flash in a Flash contest with a Jan 5 Deadline. What transpires is a two week fairly intense game jamming session where the result is Pigment Hunt. Three levels of Pigment collectin fun while avoiding oinkers full of… you guess it, pigment.

First Contest Ever

I’ve never entered a game contest before. I’ve always somehow found an excuse not to enter. This time was no different, it was Christmas and holidays, I had plans, my automatic response was no way. The plans changed once a friend of mine had to cancel last minute due to family reasons. No more excuses, I decided to give it a shot.

The rules were simple and fairly open, use Unity3D 3.5 Developer Preview and make a game or interactive presentation using the new Flash Export. Submit a link before the Jan. 5 deadline.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/WaTt3MvIo0I[/youtube]

Initial stages

After downloading and setup I spent couple of days getting familiar with the new features and found that a Pro version was required to bake navmeshes. I’ve been playing around with the basic version for about 4 months now and I’ve always had plans to give the Pro trial a spin. If I was going to really test this Developer Preview Beta I thought this was the time, upgraded to the Pro and started loving it right away.

Getting inspired by the Tech Demos

Included with the the release were several demos showing off the latest tech. After loading them up I tried to break them in as many ways as possible always making sure that it worked in the Flash build. For most cases the demos worked fine. And I was impressed with the new navigation and particles systems. Without having much idea at the time what the game will be about I knew that I wanted to show these systems off somehow. The two main idea trigger points were an example of a paint particle effect included in one of the particle demos and the general color coded NPC pathfinding maps where NPCs of different goal had their own specific targets to go to based on colour.

Evolution of the Idea

It started with NO idea. After checking out the particle demos I thought the paint particle looked cool. After playing with the navmesh demos I thought the color coding of elements was cool. Somehow the word Pigment came to mind and it became this matching of different colors idea. I thought making the characters bundles of colourful pigs was kind of funny and comedic enough to include it. Thinking of unique selling propositions that Flash offers and how to distinquish the game from thousands of other Flash games out there seemed that the game should probably be full 3D rather then the common vector graphic style. For most part a FPS camera perspective setup worked fine with the Flash export and its not YET as common.( Except one major problem which I’ll get into in a bit) Most games I’ve worked on before have used third person camera perspective I thought it would be fresh change to try something new. All these small bits of information started to shape the idea for the game.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/y5_YmGj9cXg[/youtube]

What Went Wrong

Initial test with the first person camera revealed one major problem. Locking the cursor doesn’t work in the current version of Flash. I thought there must be a solution but after checking out the Unity Forums and asking the Twitter Brain found that Flash doesn’t support mouse locking at this time. Major downer in my case as it severly hurts the overall experience.  Testing the games in the Unity Web Player and Standalone was fun as the cursorLock wasn’t a problem, so I thought I go ahead with it anyways. I hope between Unity and Adobe they’ll figure out a way to fix the cursor lock problem. I hear it might be fixed in the next version of Flash.

What Went Right

A finished playable build in less than two weeks and a solid foundation to build on. A proof that a combination of a solid deadline, the right tools and a 20 thousand dollar carrot on a stick can make you sit down, focus and create something you’re proud of. Now the goal is to eliminate that carrot and make it a daily habit no matter what.

Going Forward

Pigment Hunt was meant to be a side project created specifically for the contest but it turned out much better than I expected and I feel like I should continue to build upon it. Whether it lives on Flash will still need to be seen as the cursor locking problem at its current state is not acceptable. At the same time it works fine with other builds and perhaps that should be direction I should be taking it in.