About 5 months ago I spent a weekend creating a project management tool (named BrainWave) for my game development. I received positive feedback and a few developers were interested in trying it out so I launched a private beta. During the last 5 months I’ve had a steady trickle of invite requests. I’ve also continued to develop BrainWave. {continue reading}
BrainWave v0.4
August 27, 2010 – 4:44 pm
Star Fusion HD development update
August 14, 2010 – 6:57 pm
Just a quick development update on Star Fusion HD. Overall it’s progressing well. It is however proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated since I’m identifying and improving upon a number of weaknesses in the original game design.
I didn’t expect the addition of waves to be trivial but it’s certainly challenging me – I’ve already been through half a dozen custom systems. I messed around with the concept of a pattern creation system that enables me to manually control what you see on the screen. I’ve now scrapped this and moved back to a more dynamic system that lets the program decide what to throw at you – its currently fairly dumb but that can make for some interesting situations. I’m adding layers of complexity to this system to ensure that there is enough to keep you progressing through the waves. I’m also looking into tying wave progression to the scoring system (and therefore making progression a result of player skill).
Coffee and Code
August 1, 2010 – 9:58 am
I’m eschewing the pursuit of useful information this week to instead bring you this frivolous post on coffee… enjoy.
Coffee, like cooking and baking, seems to be synonymous with being a game developer (Why do game developers like cooking and baking so much?). I’m sure some game devs out there don’t actually enjoy coffee (purely for the purpose of disproving my theory). So, for those of you that fall into that camp… sorry. Keep enjoying your tea, water, or whatever (maybe someone can write a herbal tea guide). For the rest of you, here’s my guide to coffee for game devs.
Coffee is very much a personal thing and you should create a process that works for you and produces coffee that you like. This is my process. {continue reading}
My iPhone game graveyard
July 25, 2010 – 10:44 am
We’ve all started work on games only to abandon them part the way through. There can be many reasons for this but for me it’s usually because they just aren’t fun to play or were too ambitious. My iPhone game graveyard is the place where all of my abandoned games are laid to rest (or put on indefinite hold). One day I may mutter some incantations to resurrect some of them, or even pieces of them, but generally speaking they are dead and buried. I’m about to lay another game to rest so I thought now would be a good time to share my iPhone game graveyard with you, along with the various reasons for its undead residents. {continue reading}
Star Fusion HD
July 18, 2010 – 9:29 am
I’ve been toying with the idea of a new version of Star Fusion for quite some time. It was the first iPhone game I created (over a year ago) and, despite its simplicity, I still really like it (A slightly biased opinion I know). I always felt that its core mechanics were solid but that it didn’t quite hit the rights notes with its overall polish and depth. {continue reading}
10 don’ts of iphone game development
July 11, 2010 – 11:51 am
To date I’ve designed, developed, and published a couple of iPhone games and am currently knee deep in a third, and as of this weekend a fourth. Whilst I don’t yet feel that I have enough experience to advise you on what to do to ensure success, I can turn it on it’s head and tell you my top 10 don’ts of iPhone game development. Here they are… {continue reading}
Inspiration for your next iPhone game: Retro Games
July 4, 2010 – 12:39 pm
I’m going to make a sweeping, possibly inaccurate, generalisation. Modern games are highly derivative, boring, and predictable. They nearly always involve some form of shooting; be it people, robots, zombies, or indeed anything that moves. They are set in the same environments we have seen a million times before; WWII, SciFi, or Fantasy settings. Now, if this is something I feel, I’m sure at least one other person out there must feel the same.
As game developers/designers, this is our source material. This is where we gather our inspiration and “research” our next big game. {continue reading}
A beginners guide to iPhone game development
June 27, 2010 – 10:28 am
Last week a great blog post, followed by a seemingly innocuous tweet from @mysterycoconut, escalated into what is now known as iDevBlogADay. The concept is fairly straightforward; Every day a developer (or two) will post on their blog. We all have an allotted day so that there is at least one blog post published every day of the week. @mysterycoconut has done a great job of organising it with the #idevblogaday hashtag, a twitter list for the participants, and even an aggregated RSS feed of all the blogs. There’s a wide variety of developers joining in – Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the roster.
We’ve already had great posts from Game from Within, Acorn Heroes, Retro Dreamer, Rizer Games and Québarium. For my post I wanted to cover something I’ve been meaning to write about for some time…
{continue reading}
Weather dot Rain
June 6, 2010 – 10:12 am
It’s been some time since I wrote an update on my latest game. Whilst i’ve been fairly quiet on this blog, the game has changed a fair bit and, I suspect, it will change further still. {continue reading}
The Sketchbook Project 2011
May 21, 2010 – 7:55 pm
There was a time when anyone who asked me “What will you be in life?” received the rather confident and totally serious answer “I’ll be an Artist”. I studied Art at college you see. In fact I recently stumbled across some photos of my old college artwork, including a rather disturbing 6 foot tall crucifix! (Photographs of said artwork are embedded below; more for nostalgia than anything) Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that I made a mistake or even that I was particularly good at Art – it’s just that I was so certain.
Somewhere along the line fate intervened and I ended up in software development. Whilst i’m certainly out of practice, my creative streak has never really left me. However, I now find myself increasingly frustrated that skills I once possessed have become dulled. “Get to the point” I hear you cry. Ok, scroll on past the pictures… {continue reading}