Founder of GameSalad Discusses Making iPhone Game Development Mainstream

Michael, founder of Gendai Games, talks about getting non-programmers to make games

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/cc-game-salad-final.mp3

Or listen to it here…

[wp_youtube]W9cHfhx9z9M[/wp_youtube]

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CEO of Flying Wisdom Studios Talks About Emerging Mobile Game Design Opportunities

CEO of Flying Wisdom Studios discusses their mobile games as well as new game design opportunities for mobile games

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/cc-fws.mp3

Or listen to it here…

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The Perfect Indie Development Contest…

Hey folks,

Here’s an inspiring contest for indies…it’s a Ludum Dare contest…but this time, your goal is to make a game and sell at least one copy of it.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/09/22/povs-challenge-make-a-game-sell-1-copy/

This contest is great because it gets developers thinking about the overall business rather than just the game.

I thinks this idea highlights the potential of contests. I’m going to borrow from this and set up a contest for this show that is in a similar spirit, mainly focusing on getting indies to start their own successful game studio rather than just making a rough game.

Keep you guys posted 🙂

In the meantime, check out that contest…I think it offers a lot of fun and opportunity 🙂

Indie Game Makes $250,000 per day…

Hey folks,

In the Steam Birds Interview we heard about how he was able to turn a month-long flash project into $40,000.

Indie Game Dev success seems to be alive and well…the game Minecraft is making $250,000 PER DAY in revenue. It looks like the game was done in Java! Who says you need flash!

I think the interesting thing about both success stories is that they pursued their passion…and they are committed to adding new content to the game…for example, Minecraft adds content each week and supposedly even each day.

Any other things you notice about the game that lead to its success? I think its interesting to wonder why some indie games make $2.50 per day and other game can make $250,000 per day!

What other reasons do you think explain the success of Minecraft vs. other indie games?

Has Anyone Made A Fun Game While Not Having Fun…

Hey folks,

I’m trying to get a better understanding of the steps needed to make successful games…the last post was about how the game development shouldn’t be too long…or too short…both will lead to a “non-fun” game…

Now the question is…has anyone made a fun game while in a boring/painful state of mind. Basically, what is your development process…are you having fun at every moment…are there moments of boredom when you’re creating the core gameplay?

Here’s an interview on the show from an IGF Finalist…that talks about having fun while developing their game…the exact question about this issue is answered at position 400

The games I’ve made that have resonated best with players…were games where the “fun design” was made in a high emotional state (any emotional state…as long as it was intense)…and the games that really didn’t do as well were made with the traditional linear software approach in a normal state of mind.

Anyone want to add their development experience to this…have you made any fun games…what were the circumstances during the development of the “fun” part of the game…how have games that you enjoyed making turn out vs. games you didn’t enjoy making turn out…add your comments below 🙂

Ignoring Game Development To Make A Successful Game…

Hey folks,

Here’s a pattern I’ve noticed…that some of the best/most popular indie games … most successful games have taken less then 2 weeks to make…and usually only a couple days. I’m talking about the core mechanics of the game…of course, the developers may have taken weeks/months afterward to polish the game.

This includes games like Bejeweled, Minecraft, Pocket God, and even some very profitable social games. In fact, the guy that developed Steambirds…mentioned that the core gameplay for his successful game only took a few days to make.

However, I’ve seen other situations where people “are in development”….and they may spend months or years to finish something … only to have the game flop. Basically, no one plays it or it’s not fun.

I think it’s interesting to note that billion dollar companies like eBay, Facebook, etc…only took a few to several days to develop the core concept.

I now have a clearer development philosophy…basically, set a time limit of only a few hours/days to finish a basic game. If I do not finish in that time, throw it away…because it’ll probably fail anyway. Also, you need to feel emotion while developing the game…you have to infuse some passion into the game anyway…maybe that’s why month-long/year-long games don’t work. Because over the course of that time…you are infusing logical energy into the development and that kills the potential of “fun” in the game.

Btw, this development philosophy exempts sequels and clones…because if a company is making a sequel or clone that is a rehash or revision of the original idea….well…the original idea was already successful…the “fun” was found…and so making development an engineering issue is alright in that case.

here’s the summary…
when looking to do creative development…too much time or too little time will kill the chance of success…you need to find the right time…usually only a few days…and work with that. If it doesn’t work by then…kill it, move onto another prototype/mini-project…maybe revisit the idea again in a few months/years.

Any thoughts on this development perspective 🙂

Indie Flash Developer Discusses The Changes He Made To Develop A Hit Game

Andy, developer of Steam Birds, talks about how he transformed a below-average flash game into a success

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/cc-steambirds.mp3

Or listen to it here…

[wp_youtube]9p6MwHRucuo[/wp_youtube]

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Games As Art? How About Games As Utilities…

Hey folks,

As I attend various game conferences, I usually hear discussions about “games as art”…I’m not sure that’s the most important question. For games to be ubiquitous, they need to be utilities. I think the important questions to ask are…what mechanics/systems do we need to invent to turn games into utilities.

When a game becomes a utility, it then jumps out of the consumption curves of movie content/mmos…where there is a huge uptake initially and then a taper off over time…and into the utility curves of things like Google or Facebook….services that have grown over time.

We’ve already seen some innovations in ways to make games utilities…with services like FourSquare, Digg, and SCVNGR

With a utility, the games success grows over time. Now the question is…what are mechanics/systems that we can reference to build these game utilities…
Here’s an incomplete list…mostly borrowed from MMOs and Casual Games…

a) The game utility needs to work within the normal habits/acitivities of people/teams. That means…these games are not diversions from everyday life…but either amplifiers or accelerators of everyday life. FourSquare amplifies your experience of visiting a specific place. When you check-in, you may get a badge, etc. Digg relates to ranking and organizing news.

b) Badges/Achievements…this gives folks mini-missions/goals as they use the utility

c) Persistence…this is something that helps to show people’s time investment in the utility. This can be in the form of points, rank, or other types of system-generated content/information that helps to communicate the player’s investment in the utility…like an archive of their posts, comments, or ratings by others.

d) User-generated/Community-generated information streams…systems like Digg and FourSquare rely on users GENERATING content (rather than consuming it) … that content is added to the system to help make the game utility more valuable…for example, one player may create content relevant to other participants in the system.

These are the obvious mechanics…there may be other new ones…there has to be…because right now, the current design spaces have not thoroughly identified the mechanics/systems that can modify current games and turn them into utilities. Once we discover/invent these mechanics, we can easily apply gaming to everyday activities like search, dating, news, etc….with the expectation that the games will grow over time, rather than decline and taper off.

Any thoughts on other mechanics/systems that can turn games into utilities?

Free Seattle Casual Connect + Gamesauce Conference Videos…

Hey folks,

For those of you looking for some good game design/development content to watch/listen to during the day…Casual Connect and GameSauce have been nice enough to put videos of the conference sessions online…

Check them out here…
http://seattle.casualconnect.org/content.html

and

http://gamesauce.org/news/category/lectures/

Also, we got some great interviews at the conferences…they’ll start airing next week 🙂

Development of the game, Vox Populi Vox Dei

Pablo talks about his game, Vox Populi Vox Dei

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/werewolves-gdc-2010-interview.mp3

Or listen to it here…

[wp_youtube]cRxiO4cNPWo[/wp_youtube]

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