Go Indie. Live Well. Make Great Games!
Every day I work with game designers who either want to make a living making games or want to learn how to make better games. Those of you who have had me as a coach know the kind of tangents I can get into when I get ranting about something I’m passionate about. Those of you who haven’t had me as a coach yet – here’s one for you.
Every week I spend an hour with a group of artists and programmers who want to move into game design. We spend that hour discussing how well (or badly) elements of design have been used to create a great experience. Between sessions we play or make games. I’m writing up these workshops both as a record for me and so you can run them yourself.
Every week I spend an hour with a group of artists and programmers who want to move into game design. We spend that hour discussing how well (or badly) elements of design have been used to create a great experience. Between sessions we play or make games. I’m writing up these workshops both as a record for me and so you can run them yourself.
In 2006 Nic Watt and Bruce Thomson moved from UK to Australia to build a games franchise that will eventually span film, TV and toys. Frustrated at how developers have historically been marginalized in a publisher driven model, Nic felt it was time to strike out on his own and demonstrate to the games industry that Creatives don’t need a Suit to be commercially successful.
Created this challenge as a break between milestones Prototype and Alpha – both as a chance to work on something else for a week and generate ideas for the next project. Will also be using this as a format for teaching kids game development. Use, share, enjoy – post results in the comments!
Start small, make something well polished and fun and then think bigger. Build a foundation. Find a niche. Do you really want to be the Nth million developer on a particular platform or would you rather do something exciting and unique on a platform starved of great content?
“Grrl Power” is a concept that confuses me and most of the women I know. But many of you with “outties” want to design games that appeal to those of us with “innies”. As someone who has to be reminded of the supposed gender divide I’m afraid my only qualifications here are having the requisite bits, but I’ll do what I can do help – because damnit, I want better games:
Game design exercise for you. Try to spot the demographic.
That’s my average day.
Now, reading that, which target market do I belong to?
Want to be a great game designer? Know yourself. Make games that matter to you. Lots of them. Every game you make develops your instinct for crafting experiences and spaces of play.
Every week I spend an hour with a group of artists and programmers who want to move into game design. We spend that hour discussing how well (or badly) elements of design have been used to create a great experience. Between sessions we play or make games. I’m writing up these workshops both as a record for me and so you can run them yourself.
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