At my last game development meetup, the topic of discussion was social games, the room was filled with about five people. As the discussion progressed deeper into Farmville, and “why is Zynga making so much money” talk, a lot of us began to throw around a lot of different technologies that could be used to make social games and just games in general. I must say there were a lot of options discussed, UDK, Flash/Action Script 3.0, Objective-C, C#, and Unity.
Even though the topic of the night was about social games the conversations kept leading into “why exactly learn C and C++”, this was also brought up because one of the people at the meetup was saying he wanted to go back to school and do computer science, but we all managed to convince him other wise simply because there were so many technologies out there that could do what he wanted without having to learn all the nitty gritty. We also told him that if the theory is what he was after, the magical powers of the internets could help him.
Soon everyone in the room had come to the conclusion that really it all depends on where you want to be in the game industry. If you want to do the “indie” thing then you don’t necessarily have to learn C/C++ hardcore, getting into all that crazy Open GL/Direct X madness. There are so many other ways you can make games (and faster) without even touching that stuff. But if you want to get into the mainstream game development world meaning working with Epic, EA, Nintendo, etc, then yes, you do indeed need to learn C/C++ like the back of your hand.
I have noticed that just about every new person who comes to my meet ups, wanting to get into the game industry as a programmer always assume that they have to learn C/C++ this is so far from truth these days, the world of game development has become very diverse giving lots of options to up and coming developers. Sure there are very good reasons why C++ was (and still is) used for really hardcore game development, but these days a game doesn’t have to be a graphical powerhouse to succeed.
One of the first things any new game developer should stop and ask themselves is “where do I actually want to be in the game industry”? Very often these days new developers will come from the world of just playing those super high quality games thinking that is all that is out there. Possibly looking down upon any other type of gaming; browser, mobile, etc. These areas are booming, and to some extent making more then the “mainstream”. These type of, dare I say “casual” games also allow for more innovation and provide more creative freedom the developer.
This entire industry is a huge gamble, developers come and go, people get laid off all the time! It’s better to have a focus, know what your good at… Trying to be a jack of all trades can be good, but it’s not easy and I would say specializing in an area of game development would be more helpful in the long run. “Find yourself” before you journey into the big bad world and get involved in the community. I honestly can’t stress that enough, getting involved in the game development community and networking will open a ton of opportunities for you.
I suppose the point that I was attempting to make is that these are crazy times for the game industry right now, tons of radical changes are happening and things are moving extremely fast. I am not saying to go with the next hot thing, but for up and coming game developers to not always assume that you have to spend four to six years learning hardcore computer science, thinking that you have to start building your own game engine and learning every single possible detail of C/C++, you have options now, use them.
I am really curious to hear what others think about this topic, so by all means tell me how wrong I am! Ha.
Was doing some snooping around the Internets trying to find or really even think of one central location where all them lovely game developers come and do their thing, but sadly I couldn’t really think of one good place. There is of course Flash Game License, which do to it’s nature (buying and selling Flash Games) developers flock to the forums. Then there is flashgameblogs,gotoandlearn, active tuts, flashkit, devmaster.net, random social sites such as stumbleupon, reddit, digg, and so on… Where do you go when you want to find info on game development?
Ah yes, the mighty iPad! Who’d a thought that this magical device would bring so much joy, happiness and innovation in our lives without us even knowing it? Amazing, right!? After much thought (and contemplating the importance of food) I decided to purchase one of these bad boys a few days after it launched. Yup, yup, I’d say being an early adopter paid off.
The big question here is “Where does the iPad fit into my iLife?”. I mean why the heck would you actually need this sexy new piece of hardware? Is it because Steve Jobs knows what’s best? Or perhaps it’s something we’ve always really needed and never known until now? Hm, all very interesting questions indeed. Lets break it down and see if we can’t figure this madness out, shall we?
Hardware
I’m not going to get all nuts with hardware stats, so lets just keep it simple and say what it is; a bigger, shinier iPod Touch. There really isn’t a reason to deny what we all know it is. But is that a bad thing? I mean an iPod Touch is cool, right? Well, if that’s cool, why wouldn’t an HD version of that device be even better?
The beauty is that you really just hold it however you like and it adjusts to your needs. The screen’s resolution is crisp and clear and it can be nice and bright when adjusted (same with volume). The battery life is also pretty darn good; that sucker will last for a long time, even with heavy use.
Due to the size and how fragile it is… I don’t know how practical it is for outside use. The screen does not do well at all outside and when the sun hits it you’re pretty much screwed. I’d say this device really is all about the inside use. It doesn’t have a USB port, or anything nifty like that, outside of what Apple supplies. But really, considering the type of device it is… I honestly don’t think you’ll need a USB port. You may think you do at first, but you don’t.
Currently there are two models; one with wifi (the cheapest) and another with the3G plan. I chose the one just for wifi, considering I really only use it at home or places that have wifi.
The biggest complaint I have heard so far is the lack of a camera, which is a legit argument, but knowing Apple they’ll release another cheaper version a few months down the road with more features (A nice little slap in the face to early adopters! Booyah!).
Software
The iPad is all about media consumption, not creation! Although there is software you can download and use to create things it’s really about taking it all in. It’s got plenty of apps, music and videos from the iPod Touch/iPhone and now specially made media that supports the larger screen of the iPad (super sexy!). A lot of old apps for the iPod Touch were not meant to be blown up on the iPad (some apps look down right terrible). But when you do get apps that are made just for this device they look really, really amazing!
Another big feature that Apple was talking about when they came out with this device was being able to use it as an E-Book reader, like Amazon’s Kindle. Ha! Their book selection is poor, at least for my taste. I enjoy indie graphic novels, tech books and other random stuff, which the store seems to be lacking severely in. The application I actually use to get quality books is not Apple’s book application (iBooks) but the free Kindle application from Amazon.
Flash, HTML5, blah, blah…
Browsing on the device is smooth and very natural. Even with the virtual keyboard I haven’t had a problem at all with finding my way around things. The iPod Touch’s screen was a bit clunky, but the extra space the iPad provides really simplifies everything.
Now there has, of course, been a lot of talk (and more then enough articles out there for you to read on the topic) about Flash not being supported on the iPad, and how Steve jobs has a serious love for HTML5, so I won’t re-hash it all here. All I will say is: honestly, who needs it? All of the browsing I’ve done with this device has just been for simple media, nothing insane that would require Flash. Simple, casual stuff, which I think this device is perfect for.
“But, Joe, I want to play Facebook games and so many sites I visit every day use Flash!”
If you really wanted to play those games then chances are you already spend more time in front of your time in front of the computer then on the go with your mobile device. While it is true that there are a ton of sites that use Flash for ads and such, they could always be done in HTML. Whatever you need that badly in Flash I am pretty sure “there’s an app for it”.
Sure, the stuff I am saying is both blasphemous and very much flame worthy, but I will be honest: I hate doing AJAX stuff with a passion. I find it to be verbose, time consuming and just not fun.I’ll just make an app for whatever I need the user to use. There are alternatives outside of Apple’s stone age toolset that will allow you to develop for the iPad. I really think people are making a big deal out of nothing with all of this…
Games
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I must say, the games are all kinds of sweetness! The device is absolutely perfect as a gaming device. It really, really is. Although a lot of time you will see an older version of a game with an “HD” label slapped at the end of it and then you will be charged three times as much.
The type of games this device is perfect for are the ones that doesn’t really require a lot of user feedback via controls. So like strategy games, board games, card games, or anything else that doesn’t really need you to use some sort of game pad. For those type of games (both casual and hardcore) it works out really well. God Finger, Zen Bound 2, Plants vs Zombies, Real Raching HD, are a few games that I am pretty much hooked on.
Okay, seriously… Why do I need this thing again?
Ha, well I can’t blame people for still wondering where this product actually fits in, I mean it’s not really a laptop, but it’s not really an iPod, it’s like some weird inbetween. Although there are some places I do feel this device does fit in pretty nicely… For taking notes in class, quickly showing off some video, just relaxing on the couch while you do some quick gaming or browsing. In all honesty I don’t think people really need this device, it’s just a luxury. The best way to really think about the iPad is like going from an standard defenition T.V. to a high definition T.V. it’s something you really don’t need, but damn do you want it.
Shut up you Apple fanboy, Android is the future!
Yes I do have Apple products and yes even after all the madness that has happen I will continue to develop for Apple products because that is where the customers are. No matter what the developer community thinks about what is happening it’s still reality that a large number of consumers use Itunes and own iPod, iPhone or possibly an iPad. And as much as we will complain and whine about how about what Apple is pretty wrong, many people tend to forget that many developers have families to support, hungry mouths to be feed and bills that need to be paid. But with that said I am very much a lover of Android platform, Google is very open, perhaps a little to open! But I will happily develop for that platform and will most likely buy the Android tablet when it comes out. I will use all tech that supports developers with open arms, and even ones that are closed if that is where the money is… Sure I sound like a sell-out, but this sellout will surely not be living in a box with a sign saying “will code for food”.
Just so everyone knows all of my thoughts are my own opinions on the matter and based on how I prefer to use my devices… Many of you I would imagine would not agree on my stance with “flash on the idevices” (especially other flash game devs who want their games with ads in them seen by all!). I don’t hate you guys, it’s just personally I don’t need it, that’s all
Well I am sure there is plenty more I could say about this device but really all I have said is plenty, as usual Apple is trying to change the game for better or worst with this magical device, will it really be the success the the iPod and iPhone were? Only time will tell.
As I had stated in a previous posted I made, I am the organizer of a game development meetup in the Sacramento area, and well… It turned out amazingly well! The whole event was hosted and catered by an a truly awesome Sacramento social gaming company called Klicknation, best known for the creation of Super Hero City on Facebook. Not everyone in the entire world could be there to see the awesomeness that is Klicknation but luckily lots of media was taken for your viewing pleasure! First up we have a lovely slide show of all the images taken from the meetup, enjoy
This first video was basically the introduction for everything that was going to happen at the meetup… Sadly the camera was positioned underneath some sort of vent or something, so it was really hard to hear what was going on in the first 15 minutes, sorry about that. It’s still good stuff, you get to hear the CEO of KlickNation; Mark Otero and his partner discuss the origins of the company and how they got to where they currently are now.
In this next video Mark gives an awesome presentation showing off the features of their new game along with a short demo (amazing stuff!).
Then Aaron Nemoyten the product manager of Superhero City gives a great presentation on Superhero City. He talks about it’s creation, where it’s going and much more!
Then to finish it off the Klicknation crew open up to some Q&A, were they answer a ton of questions. Sadly due to the distance of the camera and the lighting it’s a bit hard to see and hear what everyone was asking, still great though.
After a long night of Klicknation I very gracefully finished the night off with my presentation on using the Flash platform for mobile game development… Sadly the battery went out on the camera about halfway through my talk, so things had to be cut short. Oh well, at least you get to see me make a fool of myself for the first 25 minutes
Well that was the meetup, all and all id say it turned out to be pretty darn good. Well Over 70 rsvp’ed and from the looks of it probably 30 or so showed up, which I think is a pretty great turn around. It was really nice to see all of the game development talent in Sacramento, and hopefully with more of these meetings it will allow for the game development community to really develop and make Sacramento a hot spot for game development like it is in the Bay area. I mean we are like two hours away from San Fransisco! So close, yet so far away.
Sorry once again for the audio/video quality, was the first time I actually did video and what not for a meetup… Next time should be much better
I do believe I have reached some sort of podcasting mile stone or something, for I have reached ten episodes!!! Yay! And I couldn’t be more pleased with the tenth episode of The Game Developers Radio. In this some what long episode (well worth it though), I interview Manuel Saint-Victor, the creator and owner of the popular Unity content site infiniteunity3d.com.
The topics we cover in this very excellent episode are all the different techniques, strategies, and tools you should utilize when it comes to marketing your game. It’s pretty insane how much we manage to cover, from how to approach a blog, Twitter, Facebook, was to approach networking… And so much more!
Seriously people, if you are an indie game developer just starting out on your game and wondering how you can expose it to the world this is something you need to listen to!
Been a long time since I have released new episodes for my podcast; The Game Developers Radio, but now finally I have some new episodes! They are super old, that I will not deny… But they are all kinds of tasty.
I have released two episodes as of late, first one being my interview with two good friends of mine on the IPhone game they worked on together called Ax Raven, and the other one with Jesper Juul about his book about casual gamers.
Both talks are pretty darn interesting (at least I think so), and I think all of the insight they offer from their experiences is pretty juicy stuff! So take a listen, leave some feedback, chat on the forums, suggest new people for me to interview, just show your love
Outside of the Twittersphere and the interwebs in general I am the organizer of two meetups, one being the Flash Developers Meetup and the other being Game Developers Meetup. Both are awesome, this is true, but my game developers meetup is especially awesome this time around!
Knowing some of the guys at Klick Nation; creators of Super Hero City, managed to setup a meetup with them. They will be discussing their game development process and information about the new game they are working on. And what makes things even more interesting is that they will be hosting this awesome event!
What has really blown my mind about all of this is that currently there are over 70 people who have rsvp’d yes! I have never had those many people in a meetup at once..
The kind of people who will be showing up will be artists, designers, animators, illustrators, indie game developers, students, it’s some really amazing stuff! This is seeming to be an event to remember, and don’t you worry boys and girls if all goes according to plan the event will be recorded or possibly live streamed
As many of you know who follow me on the mighty Twitter as of late I have been going a bit nutty about Elips Studio, an amazing tool for developing applications using the Flex framework to build applications to multiple mobile devices with a click of a button! Well I figured id spread the love and give a short presentation on how to use Flash technologies to build mobile applications… Should be interesting. Of course I will post whatever I present (source code and all) on the interwebs for all of you to consume.
I know this meetup is only really relevant to people in the Sacramento area, but it is seeming to be like such an amazing event that had to share the news. Maybe now Sacramento can finally start becoming a hot spot for game development like San Fransisco is.
When building my Flex applications I tend to extend the “Application” class a lot, but there is one thing really funky that always seems to happen when I go and test it in the Flash Player… For some reason no matter what I set the width and height properties to in my custom Application tag it never shows that way in the Flash Player while testing… Very annoying.
It seems the way around this is to define the swf’s width and height inside of the metadata tag somewhere between your opening and closing Application tag.
I have been playing with some very awesome tech for the past few weeks now and I must say it keeps getting better and better! This awesome tool is called Elips Studio, basically it allows you to use Action Script 3.0 and MXML to build applications for a whole bunch of mobile devices. So I went ahead and did a quick little test and created an fps test app to see how easy it would be to push it out on a bunch of platforms… In this case I did it with the iPad, iPod, Droid (Android) and an HTC windows mobile phone.
Yes I know it’s far from the best picture in the world, I never said I was some sort of photographer or something… Erhm, but yes, as you can see it’s on each of the platforms and Elips studio made the whole process pretty painless, I mean seriously all I did was select from a drop down and hit “build”… No fooling, that easy! Okay, well I had to change a few settings but that’s because each platform needs different things (I freaking hate certificates!).
Few things you will notice though, first that on the iPad the app is super tiny, that’s just because I forgot to set the proper size, also you will see a funky plastic case looking thing, that is my IPod… The app I am running try and ignore it, the fps test is kinda off, I was just doing some random stuff…
I like this picture because the fps for the IPad reads “infinity” LOL, not even sure how that happen Maybe the IPad is just that powerful, idunno.
Anyways, that’s all for now I suppose, all I can say is Elips is an amazing tool! If you are familiar with Action Script 3.0 and MXML there really isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t be using it. I mean come on people currently the beta is free for commercial use! I’ll have more to say about this amazing product soon, but for now just look at how awesome my photos are
Well first I have to say it’s good to be back, ha! It’s been almost over like four months since I posted something? Yeah that sounds about right… I am back and stronger then ever, oh the things that have happened in those four months… Joined the awesome team over at Flash Game License with the title “Developer Evangelist“, Started a new podcast with the awesome reviewers at Jay Is Games, working on some games at Ascended Games, picked out a new theme/forum for my game development podcast with some killer interviews all queued up that I will be posting soon, and got some other exciting personal projects which I hope to show off soon! Not to mention the Flash Gaming Summit and GDC 2010 are right around the corner, things have been crazy! Going to try and get back to posting some what regularly again, so much to talk about, so much to share! Good to be back
