Thomas Pasieka Interview

Thomas Pasieka is a Unity developer who is currently working on a RPG called "Dungeon Legend."  He sat down with Mixamo for an interview about Dungeon Legend, which will be released for the iPad in March/April 2011, and some of the ins-and-outs of production.

(If you want an iPad at a good price, check this great deal, from Amazon!)

For Indie game developers like myself, there's always something to learn from interviews like this.  First, but not the most prominent is a key point - find a clear need in your market.  In Thomas' case, he perceived an overreigning of Hack-n-Slash RPGs, so he reacted with a Turn-Based RPG in Dungeon Legend.

Also, Thomas agrees with the "Publish first, patch later" philosophy.  If you've got a great game that never reaches your audience, it's far worse than if you have a passable game that does.  Games are very much a form of communication with the audience, much like a book, blog, or movie; if there is no audience, it may as well not exist.

One final thing that I did note about the interview was the great international team around this, which is always a bonus.  The synergy of skilled people in concert around a common goal is never something to underestimate, especially if you want to create a competitive interactive experience.  And when that team transcends artificial boundaries...well, you have a recipe for success!

Please read the interview, and also do Thomas a favor and sign up for his monthly magazine, 3dattack!  But most of all, be sure and chime in with your thoughts.

Zombies vs. Knights Released!

It's a day I've been waiting for.

Zombies vs. Knights has been released!  It's currently live on FaceBook and Wooglie, and is pending on Shockwave and GameJolt.

The game's release isn't a final one, though.  I've got a few more features planned for it still:
-Multiplayer
-Leaderboards
-New Units!
-New Maps!

This is all leading up to my next project using my strategy setup, Kittens vs. Combat Cyborgs.  And I agree, these would all make awesome Supreme Court cases.

The line between "casual" and "not replayable"

So, I've been working hard on Zombies vs. Knights the past few weeks, and even though it's my second project, it's been an educational experience.

A question I've been asking myself - with varying levels of success - is at what point a "casual" game is or is not "replayable."  This was one mistake I made in my first project, SHMUP: Orbital Combat, and one that I'm attempting to solve in Zombies vs. Knights.

I've come up with a few answers - some are easy to the point of being self-explanatory.  Others are the most esoteric parts of game design that ludologists struggle with on a day-to-day basis.  In any case, here's what I have:

Feedback - Merely telling your player, "You Won!" or "You Lost..." can have a powerful impact, from a psychological level.  It's a form of authoritative feedback that defines the results of the experience and allows the mind the ability to evaluate a set of choices...and all a game is is a set of choices.

Compelling Decisions - A series of compelling decisions is one thing that will keep gamers coming back to a title for years to come.  Why is Final Fantasy VII a revered title?  It's not Sephiroth's sword, that much is certain.  It's the Materia system - you can set a character up any way necessary to overcome challenges posed by the game.  Moreover, you have to change your setup periodically - for example, certain bosses have different strengths and weaknesses - and also to suit your challenges - Yuffie stealing all your materia comes to mind.

Rewards - For the single-player, short projects I make, this is the hardest thing to get right, from a balance perspective...yet for replayability, it's absolutely necessary.  When a player succeeds at something - be it destroying a wave of zombies in the middle of a match, or winning outright - the player needs to be given something that helps them continue doing so, not only for functional reasons of keeping the player "on top" while the game makes things tougher, but also as a form of positive reinforcement.

My big beef against rewards in single player, casual games is this: you can ruin your balance easily, making what starts off as a real challenge filled with compelling goals turn into a crapshoot for your players.  While it is true that no one has ever gotten griped out for a game that's too easy, it's equally true that a game that lacks challenge and depth can repel players.  Thus, I'm struggling for a means of integrating good rewards into the existing choices and feedback my games have evolved.

I'm sure there's more to a replayable, "addictive" game than this.  Of course, I could be wrong.  The only way to find out is make more games, and test the theories!

SHMUP: Orbital Combat Rerelease!

Once upon a time - which means, back in May when I was about to graduate - I had this game I had completed.  It took four months to develop, because it was my first time using Unity, and I was frankly a noob.  It had flaws, it had strong points, but it was complete.  I sent it to GameJolt, then onto Wooglie.  I never put it on Shockwave.  I never used the limited means of putting it on FaceBook at the time.  I was content just for it to be done.  Lesson learned.

Fast-forward nearly seven months.  My second project, Zombies vs. Knights looms ahead not quite like a toxic, but pretty fog.  In eight mere days, I will take that project public for all the world to see.  Until then, I am rereleasing SHMUP on dimeRocker's Arcade on FaceBook.  While it will very obviously be a first attempt at game design, in eight days we will see how very far I've come from that first game, the lessons I've learned, and most importantly, how the community of friends and fellow gamers has changed how I look at gaming.

Tactic Map AI Technology

In this thread you'll find a little bit of Unity JavaScript that currently dosen't work.  That said, it's one of my next big enterprises in my own game development technologies.

The concept is what I call a Tactic Map.  In essence, you make an image consisting of a few colors.  The number of colors depends on how many actions you want the AI to do, each color gets translated into an action by your in-game AIs.

While I originally intended this technology to be similar to perhaps a variant on Waypoints, which are commonly used in First-Person Shooters for pathfinding, this is turning out to be more closely related to Influence Mapping, except that the AI is not changing the tactical map; it only ever reacts to it.

While Zombies vs. Knights dosen't use this technology, this could have a home in future games I make.  When I have a stable version, I'll let the world know...

Lions and Tigers and Blogs, Oh my!

Andrew here, with the first entry for my new blog.

I am an independent game developer and recently-graduated programmer, with a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor.  Gaming has been a passion from a young age, and learning the technology behind it has really changed my outlook on the modern world.

I've got a strategy game called Zombies vs. Knights which is almost complete - just a few more fixes and some polish needs to happen.  My next post will feature the game!