Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

One thing at a time. Wine and Whine.

Posted on August 26, 2012

All that’s written on my big handy Positech Games office chalkboard right now is this:

ONE THING AT A TIME

Which I consider to be something I need to be reminded off. Unfortunately, I don’t naturally look at the chalkboard much. Really it should be written all over my monitor on post-it notes, or on the office door.  On the topic of office doors, it always depresses me that billionaires waste their money on jets or private islands. I’d spend it much more sensibly, like on having replicas of the Deep Space Nine airlocks made as my office door, which I think we can all agree is a far more sensible use of such money.

I was going to write a big tirade here about how the games industry is scarily too hit-driven, and I think there is a bit of a ‘people buying-what other people are buying’ thing going on, but it’s hard to put into words how I see that being bad without it sounding like I’m whining. People on the internet always hate anyone sounding like they are bemoaning their own lot, even when they actually aren’t. I remember all the abuse I got for asking people who had decided not to buy GSB why they had done so.

What I was hoping for was people saying “that’s cool, a guy asking for feedback on his game to win over people on the fence’. Whereas I got ‘This guys such a dick, moaning that nobody ever bought his shit game’.  Which is kinda funny, because GSB has sold easily over 100,000 copies without counting humble bundles. I just like to make my games as good as they can be.

That’s the internet for you anyway.

In any case, I decided not to type up such a rant, even after a big bang marathon punctuated by mixing various bottles of wine, which is the cause of most of my embarrassing rants.

I actually typed that ‘whine’ the first time by accident. Oh the hilarity.

Gratuitous Tank Battles Tweaks

Posted on August 24, 2012

I’m working on a GTB expansion, which means a lot of playing the game to balance out some new missions. In doing so, a few things have occurred to me:

1) Missiles are overpowered. I keep thinking their limited effective range (max-min) compensates for it, but it does not, because there is always *something* for them to shoot at. I may have to nerf them.

2) I really needed to have separate graphics for command/supply trucks and also for repair/command bunkers. This was me saving money, and it was a false economy. I need to fix it.

3) I may have been a bit too tight in terms of setting the supply-limits in battles. Constantly hitting them means you tend to loiter by the entrance tiles and not enjoy the full area of battle when attacking. They may need tweaking too.

There are also a bunch of graphical mistakes I made, which I should fix theoretically, but would involve considerable re-work by artists at unjustifiable expense. It’s such a delicate balancing act to know when you are ‘speculating to accumulate’ versus ‘throwing money away for no gain’. I suspect I *do* need to get a few more improved bits of artwork done though.

Games are never finished, you just run out of income and have to make something new :D

The trick to persuading yourself to re-invest in your business

Posted on August 20, 2012

Ok, here’s something I’ve mulled over for a while. I read a lot of business books, and websites, and am interested in everything from the very early movie entrepreneurs (talk about goldrush…) right up to the silicon valley startup mania. One thing that often sticks out to me is the incredible speed with which a lot of the big companies accelerate at the start. They can go from 1 employee to a hundred in a year. That sort of growth is just baffling to a tiny little operation like positech…

It often bugs me that I am aware that deep down, I am just too risk-averse. Running positech at a loss for five years in order to grab market share? total madness, I’d never risk it. Mortgage the house to get money for the next game? No…can’t see me doing that either. And I consider both of those things to be good, because without them, there is a real danger of ending up like ‘that guy’ who had a successful business once, but blew it, and now works in McDonalds.

However, I do seem to take it *too far*, in that the company actually has some money in the bank, is working on two projects at once, and yet I am often having to fight with myself to spend any of the companies money on expansion, artwork, music, promotion, PR etc. Why is this?

I think the problem is, because I own the whole company, I have a natural tendency to look at the companies earnings and companies money and think it is *my money*. And really, I think that is a mistake. We all know it’s much easier to spend someone else’s money than your own, and I think I need to trick myself into thinking that way. The money in the company account is not *my money*, it’s the current working capital of Positech Games, and Positech games should make sure it manages it’s money well in order to make great games. Some of that money will get paid out to the owner, which happens to be me, but that’s a business expense just like buying advertising space, sponsoring flash games, paying artists or buying new software or hardware for the business.

When I think like that, I find it much easier to look at the sales and revenue and expenses and realize that compared to almost any other business, Positech seems to be a super-cautious and incredibly unadventurous enterprise. I need to remember that ferengi rule of acquisition “The riskier the road, the greater the profit”.

Latest screenshots of GTB

Posted on August 16, 2012

I’m working on some new stuff. I thought I might as well upload some eye candy. Here is what I am working on today, click the smaller images for larger versions. New units and props and maps basically, And restricting some battles to just WW2 era technology (no lasers or mechs), to give the game a ‘WW2 Tower Defense’ mode, in effect.

Pushing 2D engines further

Posted on August 13, 2012

I have dabbled very slightly in 3D (Don’t be alarmed), and have retreated in terror at the additional grief it requires, and the compromises required, and the general ickiness as it seems to me.

So I am pretty unlikely to release a proper 3D game in the next few years, at least. I personally do prefer 2D games. However, that doesn’t mean I do not enjoy nice graphics, and certainly there are a ton of nice looking 2D games out there. The majority of them are side-scrolling or similar style games that rely more on a very good piece of art direction (Braid, World of Goo), than they do any sheer horsepower or rendering muscle. I’m not aware of many 2D games, indie or otherwise that tax a CPU/GPU as much as Gratuitous Space or Tank Battles.

However, having just bought a new PC, AND watched the latest cryengine demos, it’s pretty clear that modern gamers have enough firepower to render the bejezus out of anything in 2D, so we are in the happy situation of twiddling our thumbs thinking what crazy stuff to add next time-around.

One idea is is to push particle counts through the roof and have seriously complex explosions and smoke trails etc. This could certainly be ramped up, although smoothly transitioning to it from low-spec PC’s is a nightmare

Another idea is to use a LOT of different layers and components to build up individual units to give them a more unique feel. Obviously GTB is a big step up from GSB in that respect, but it’s got way, way more scope.

Shadows and lighting are two other possibilities. GTB infantry uses blob shadows. Animated shadows are certainly doable, but involve a crazy amount of texture RAM to do right. Maybe worth investigating. Faked 3D lighting using that clever deferred rendering thingy is another (fairly tricky) option.

More detailed environments is another. The problem here is art budget. It’s all very well saying we need 120 different bush or pebble models. Someone has to make them, and get paid for it.

More cunning explosions, using some sort of clever physics modelling, or procedural whatnots, or clever multi-layered shader thingies, is another option.

Of course the real problem is TIME. I already have this big scary change to Gratuitous Space Battles waiting for me to release for everyone. It’s just sat in-between holidays, GTB updates, redshirt, and talking to builders. Plus another new thing I haven’t revealed yet. I am quite tempted to just push out my GSB update very soon ‘as-is’. I was hoping to find a cunning way to use it to raise money for charity, but that’s a whole other story…