Game Development: It’s The Last Leg That Kills.

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So just when you think you’re done.

You’re not. You’re never done and I believe that’s what kills aspiring devs. I know it would’ve killed me, but now I’m taking a well deserved break. The Memorial weekend was productive and I can say I’m in beta.

But…

Do you know how infuriating it is to have a working beta only to have it not compile for no one else? No web, no mobile, no nuffin. So infuriate and it would make one royal pissed and throw in the towel if –

If I didn’t read all those blogs years ago about how the average dev doesn’t stay with his/her projects because they’re too complex, the scope not distilled and the documentation non existent.

Is this impromptu post mortem for development? Yes. Am I happy with my beta? Sort of, but developers and naysayers forget that game development is an art, so I don’t think I will ever be happy with my first project. So here’s the list.

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What I Did Wrong:

  • Living in constant fear.

I recently read a book lovingly titled The War of Art. You should pick it up sometime. It’s one of those books that spells out what lost in translation between the creative process and how human beings muddle it up by just being afraid, never finishing, self doubting and comparing. I started coding in 2009. I’m doing my first published game NOW. Right NOW at 2014. Fear will fuck you up. It wasn’t that I didn’t get it, nor was it that the tech was too hard to learn. I just kept comparing, kept starting over and kept thinking I wasn’t good enough to finish anything.  Instead of making games, I just made systems.

 

  • Listening to ‘Advice’.

Instead of trusting my gut, I listened to people, most with good intentions, who were so strung up on reinventing the wheel, that they forgot that they honestly didn’t reinvent anything…just their own functions. Very rarely is anything ‘new’ created. Thoughts may evolve to see the answers, but they were always there to begin with. Coding is nothing new. An elegant solution is not always best.

 

  • Bringing society’s ills into the picture

Do you know there are still yoohoos who believe that women and people who are not white have no concept of logic and can’t code? Do you know someone one told me that during an interview? To my face? In Seattle? Yes. That just happened and the sad ting was, I believed it. Black chicks can’t code, I thought. Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree. Every time I went to dev conventions, gaming conventions and industry functions, I was always met with cool exclusion or stupified comments. I internalized it. I let it eat at me. See point 1. This is not a feminist rant. I’ve learned that the majority of picked on high school nerds  amounted to intellectual bullies themselves. Then something happened; I said fuck it and I started to code. I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing and anyone who caught wind of it and had comment was immediately shut down. Race and gender are invisible social constructs. I don’t want society in my art. I want fun. If the neckbeards want to wallow in the mire of caffeine and office jobs, that’s their business.

 

What I Did Right:

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  • Kept it simple

My first project is just that. My first project. I didn’t want extravagant assets, killer teams or better than bread functionality. I wanted something that was simple, addictive and fun. So I kept it simple. No crazy power ups. No crazy scoreboards. No in-app purchasing. Just a free game with ads planned. Simple is easier for everyone and, most importantly, it’s a confidence builder.

 

  • Paid for my LLC paperwork

I didn’t take myself seriously when I started to code. I didn’t take myself seriously when I bought a developer’s license. But I took myself seriously when I dropped 1k for my LLC and associated paperwork. I took myself seriously when I applied for E3 as a business owner, not an employee. I paid for my own servers, my own webspace, TAXES…everything. What I learned from Glatta Papa is that no one will take you seriously, not even yourself, if you don’t invest in the fortress called ‘Business’.

 

  • Fuck it, I’m doing it live

I stopped giving a fuck. In more scholastic vernacular, I came to grips with the duality of any endeavor: The Ego and The Work. If something sucks, I no longer internalize it. I no longer think that ‘I suck’. ‘The work sucks’ and that can be improved. Haters will dig on you when they mean the work. People who don’t want to take the knocks and be their authentic selves will despise you anyway, so why please them? That’s helped me with my marketing, my process, everything. It’s as if I finally dropped the shackles of embarrassment/ ridicule and took the world on head first.

 

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  • Documentation and Schedule

Being a project manager first for AAA studio, start ups and mid size companies is an unintentional boon. When you learn to clean up other people’s stuff, when you get to your stuff…it’s a friggin cake walk. Why use a GDD when you can GLS (Game Lean Stack)  it? Pre production saves time and lives. Figure out what you want to do before actually coding kinda rocks. I wrote my ideas out on paper and drew out my UI. Physically doing something that doesn’t involve keys, API and IDEs put one through a labor of love that can’t be pitched. If you can draw or write it up quickly, then you can code it quickly.

 

  • Knowing My Limits. Paying It Forward

A lot of the work above is me. The art, design, coding, web development, marketing…me. Am I super great at it though? Nah, but I save money and I learn more if I do it myself. I knew I would need help though. When it came to music, I am pants. I asked Super Rob to do it and cut of the profits. I was not an Illustrator/Photoshop, so I ran to tutorials. I gauged what I could and couldn’t do, asked for help and paid for it. While I’m doing all this, I’m working and being a responsible adult. I miss out on bar time, but I consider this just as fun.

 

To sum it up, this process has roadblocks and pitfalls but it’s not impossible. Nothing’s impossible. So on to Beta and polish.

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