Comment on A Fateful Witness by herooftime1000
I don't mean to be too inquisitive though this game has sparked my interest as how for me it slipped under the radar and yet has gained quite some momentum. And I can say being an Indie dev myself how seeing another startup intrigues me greatly to how much talent went into it. It is quite impressive even if fan created for another IP(MLP).
To break the ice a bit. I started a company a year ago after leaving Simbryo, another indie company, to start my own company under Argus Computer Entertainment. I been under a project myself for over a year and just put the demo out as a soft release. So far it had a few downloads but that is about it. I definitely need to get on a PR campaign to try and gain more momentum with it. I have had at most 15 people on board at a time, we are now only 5. Many came and went over the year, but when you are working on really nothing, many don't stick it till the end. I personally had a part with every thing in the game project, wearing many hats too. I am glad those who have stuck around has begun to share multiple hats as well. Never easy when you are small and starting out.
The project/game is called Puffer, about a little fish in a big ocean which we hope to get onto mobile devices like IOS, Windows and Android. I can't say the game you have created would be allowed on mobile markets but due to the simplistic nature of the game and controls, it would be really good for it.
Since you are the programmer, what engine did you use to create the game if any? Or did you hash this from scratch using Microsoft Visual Studio? If so what languages did you use? And if you did this from scratch, you have my respects.
I've dabbled with game design in the past, but I never really focused on releasing anything... That is until I started making this and everything fell into place. I understand that I can never sell this and the 2+ years I've worked on this won't amount to much, but it succeeded in gaining an audience and establishing a foothold in the industry. Because I'm doing most of the work, I've had relatively no trouble organizing a handful of people. I ask a favor and they help me when I need it. This game has taken up a lot of my time and it's usually a strain at times, but I never once regretted starting this. I've had my fun learning on how to make a game. Now I'm just eager to make a brand name that isn't another IP.
Being an indie dev is a dream of mine. I don't want to be super famous, I just want to make fun games that will earn me a comfortable life. I hope that you have had one down the road that you follow.
Long story short, I'm not talented, just tenacious to learn how to make something I've grown up loving.
Tenacity is what it takes these days, setting your mind to something and not backing down no matter what anyone else tries to tell you. It takes allot to move ahead and going the indie route, it takes allot as it is hard many times especially when starting out. As they say, don’t quite the day job.
I got into videogames some time in high school, though what led me there was unusual. I wanted to be an engineer that designed new weapon systems for the military. What kept that spark was being able to use auto cad in the 8th grade as a part of one of the woodshop classes. I got in trouble allot for creating tanks and planes as the teacher stated to me quite frank, “We don’t draw weapons in school.” Mind you I was pretty good working with these tools.
What pushed me into video games was back in 2004 when Microsoft Flight Simulator came out and it had bundled with it GMAX which is like AutoCAD but a dumbed down version of 3ds max. After being able to create planes and put them into a videogame. I started to wonder how much further I could go with video games. From that point I had an revelation that I didn’t want to create weapons anymore. I didn’t want to turn like Kalashnikov and just wanted to make others happy.
It took 5 years after highschool to find a good college and I graduated in 2007. I was lucky that I did find a good one. Many schools have bits and pieces of what it really takes to build a game. It takes allot, from programming, 2d art, 3d art, animation in 2d and 3d, rigging, weighting, mocap, modeling environments much different than a person or animal. Design, writing and character development, It is really, really extensive to how far it can go. But it does allow you to branch off into other fields because how extensive it is.
I graduated this year back in May, and started Puffer last year around this same time, a bit earlier actually. And even though with this project I plan to sell, like you, you are stuck in a volunteer boat on start up. All you can do is promise to pay them after it has already been on the market. Which I advise any project to always have contracts written as this will help protect you if anyone defaults.
It has not happened in my time as a company but has happened when I was in college and it was a yearlong project as a part of the class to form a mock company, and build a whole game. And one student deliberately started to remove another student’s work and assets in effort to discredit them. So you always will have those you need to watch for and be sure you have a recourse incase anything does happen. Like backing up everything you do constantly.
Going indie is fun but I won’t lie, if you are the one starting it up. Be glad you are doing most things free because getting the tools, the licenses and everything else is a nightmare. The cheapest I found that still gave me room to hit multiple markets was GameMaker Studio. And I chose this because it can make really simple games but hit mobile markets without a headache of coding a compiler from scratch. For the standard licence $50 and YoYo games don’t take anything from your sales so pure profit. To get to mobile, you need pro edition plus the export. So $50 more ($100 for pro) plus the export which is $300 …. You can see things are adding up. Then to register your company as an LLC with the state is $600 plus the bylaws which are $75… Cutting to the chase, about $1,200 of my own out of pocket went into the startup and game and it is going to cost much more to get it even to port to other markets (IOS, Andriod, Mac) And don’t ask about having games rated by the esrb because that is dependent how much you spent on just development costs. The reason I bring all this up is don’t let it discourage you. Have a plan and stick with it. But know what you are getting into. From where I live there are good schools but the development companies for games are a bit still out of reach as they are a 6 hour drive. Not like I can easily go to work. So Instead of going to the industry I brought the industry to me.
Keep learning C++ that can carry you into using Unreal and Unity, Python and Lua are also good to learn and yeah, with any programming language get the logic and syntax down and all you need is a code dictionary and you are good to go.
Even though you won’t be able to sell this game it can make one good solid portfolio piece as it shows. It is why I am keeping my eyes on you as It has impressed me to how simplistic but in depth the game is and that takes quite a bit of skill.
I would like to get to hear more about you too. I been rambling on mostly about myself to further break the ice and not come off as a total stranger. Im curious to what made you want to start a project of this nature and to what kept the momentum after two years working on it.
Well, simply put, I was tired of hacking games and I wanted to make one of my own. The reason I chose a first-person adventure game is because I was heavily inspired by the MacAdventure series (Uninvited mostly). The mechanics and over UI needed some fine tuning from its inspiration, but I thought that it would be a nice game to have simple backgrounds and objects to solve the puzzles with.
Then, I got more people on board and the game evolved into something else entirely. I found myself doing a lot of drawing and coding just to create one household! The project kept getting bigger, but I didn't see it as daunting. I kept my optimism as I made one chunk of the game at a time, even while the work was steadily growing.
The reason I chose MLP was, well, it was my interest at the time and I kinda suck at making my own personalities. So, I decided to use the fandom's take on it and centered the world around the two main characters. Part of me regrets not using original characters of my own, but the audience I've attracted from these character is a definite plus.
Either way, I'm finishing this game. Period. I want to show other people and myself that I have the patience and skill to make something grand on my own and not give up on a project.
As with me, I know how stressful at times it can get as well as how many hairs you would be pulling at when things get rough.
I hope to keep in contact with you and hear even more as well. I notice from you gallery her where you were drawing your inspirations from and find that interesting. A new take to an old game more less. In truth we all take inspiration from somewhere. The first games I started to create were inspired by Atari such as centipede and missile command. Then I decided to do a 2d mobile game but toss in elements inspired by Crash Bash and old skool platforms.
The point is don't let what influences you stop you from creating something new. No matter where it comes from. I hope to see this project of yours to come to fruition and continue to speak with you.
I will have to continue this letter at another time as I have to be some where. Hope to write to you again soon.
Red Reynart-