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

The current positech plan (posiplan?)

Posted on September 8, 2010

I see no harm in making my immediate future plans public.

In no specific order this is what I have coming up:

1) Release of the 1.47 patch to all partners (valve etc). I did this this morning.
2) Release of the new Race (The Nomads) On my site, in a slightly strange way (details to follow) then on the partner sites when I know it works ok. Teasing screen:

3) Talk to Steam and other partners about selling the Mac copy of GSB.
4) Pre-order / beta access and eventual release of the GSB campaign game.
5) Game IV.

This should last me a good few months. Hopefully the money lasts a good few months too. Ha!

In amongst all this, I’ll be taking the first holiday (only a week) since I moved house, and it will be my Birthday. I also have a visit from a  structural engineer today to tell me if my roof can hold up solar panels or not. I will be mr sad face if he says it cannot.

Nomads

Posted on September 4, 2010

I spent some time today on a new race for GSB. It looks like I’ll release this pack before the campaign is finished. I actually had expected to have finished the campaign and have released it by now, but it’s much more involved than I thought, so I’m still working on it. Once I’ve finished complete bug free playthroughs as 2 different races, I’ll get some people testing it for me, then there will probably be a pre0order beta thing, then release. That is probably another month (best case) of work.

So in the meantime, luckily I have artwork for a new race all complete, and am working on the data and the balance. There is nothing radically different in the race in terms of gameplay yet, but the style is interesting. The backstory is that it’s a very very old race, a bit like the dwellers from The Algebraist (Iain M Banks). Over the years, they have rebuilt their ships from the salvage of their enemies, so you will see that their ships have some rebel engines, some order engines, and various other components. They are also the first race to have multicolored ships. I’m calling them Nomads, and they basically fight out of sheer boredom on their multi million year journey across the universe. They have a cool retro look.

I was lying awake at 2AM this morning unable to sleep, thinking about new weapon and ship modules for that race. This pack will be different, likely no new missions, just the raw fleets for you to use. I had originally thought no new modules, but I think I’ll at least add some variants.

A lot of the more interesting ideas involve a ton of code, which I’d rather not do when I’m so busy with the campaign, but there is plenty of scope for module variants that work within existing parameters. I keep thinking that a very long range sniper laser with high penetration but low tracking speed and low damage could be interesting. Hopefully I’ll do some work on it tomorrow.

Nobody wants my money

Posted on September 3, 2010

I’m interested in two new games, that I might like. Patrician IV and Starcraft 2. Neither game has demos. If they do, they don’t want me to find them. So I spent the money on an Iain M Banks novel and some archery target pins instead.

It’s like these companies owners are scared customers might find out what their product is actually like.

I’m not. Try some free demos. if you don’t like them, you won’t like my games. It’s easy:

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/demo.html

http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy2/demo.html

http://www.positech.co.uk/kudos2/demo.html

valves big surprises

Posted on September 2, 2010

People keep mentioning the UK PC Gamer article on Valve, where they say they have 3 big surprises coming up in the next year or so which will really freak people out.

It amazes me how mediocre peoples guesses have been, as to what the surprises will be. Some suggested Left For Dead 3 or Half Life 3. That would surprise you? Really? You think that is radical thinking outside the box? c’mon.

Here are some things valve could do, that really are surprises.

1) They could convert steam to a subscription model. All current steam games free, to all subscribers. Subscription is $20 a month, a revenue split is worked out with the developers.

2) They could launch a TV or Movie based venture.  Maybe an online streamed TV station based on gaming. They aim to become the #1 global media source for games news.

3) They could strike a deal where steam is integrated into the service pack for windows 7. Steam becomes the new games explorer, installed on every windows PC.

If I was Gabe, I’d be considering all those options, and lots more. Decisions such as ‘what game to make next’ are pretty small fry in terms of the big strategic picture in which valve are now a big part. They took all their Half Life 1 money and spent it to make steam. I expect them to take all the steam money to do another big thing. I’d still like to be surprised though*

*although anything that reduces the open nature of the PC platform would not be a pleasant surprise, for small little indies like me.

It’s good to have big, long term, strategic goals. If positech ever makes £10 million, I’m going to build a BIG wind turbine somewhere.

Online buying and rational decisions

Posted on August 30, 2010

I went to buy something online today, for about £90. I did a google search and found the cheapest one, and went to the shopping basket to buy…. and then hit a warning saying that the security certificate was issued by an unknown company.

I then stopped. The site didn’t look dodgy, it was still an https connection, it was a boat chandlery store (I was buying an ecofan), it wasn’t selling viagra or heroin. I suspect it was fine, and safe, and the certificate thingy just expired or somesuch.

In the end, I paid an extra £5, and bought it on ebay. I therefore can state, that in my mind, a warning-free buy page from a vendor I have already purchased from, is worth at least £5 to me. (or is it 5% of the purchase?)

We all make decisions like this a lot, and I find the process to be fascinating. I often catch myself making irrational purchasing decisions. Here’s a famous example of what people do:

You go to buy a TV for £200. Just before you hand over your money, someone tells you the same TV is £195 in a store thats a 2 minute drive away. Do you drive to the other store? Most people say no.

You go to buy a book for £6. Just before you hand over your money, someone tells you the book is only £1 in a store thats a 2 minute drive away. Do you drive to the other store? Most people say yes.

Which is bullshit. It’s either worth £5 to you to drive for 2 minutes or it isn’t. This makes no rational economic sense.

We are easily tricked into spending money on stuff that makes no sense. The phrase 90% OFF! will trigger a completely irrational number of sales. The phrase “90% OFF ONLY TODAY!” sells even more. Logically, we should not give a damn what the original price is, or what it will be tomorrow. We should just look at what the product is, and what it is worth to us. But almost all the time, we are manipulated into making irrational purchase decisions.

The worst, most emotional, most irrational purchasing decision I made, was to buy a high spec sony vaio metallic finish laptop which I’m typing this on. It is an overpriced, over-heating and over-specced luxury toy that cost me too much money. I bought it out of pure lust, totally irrationally, about 2 years ago. What’s the most irrational purchase you have made?