EPIC QUEST: Jank-O-Vision Presents

Jank-O-Vision presents!

EPIC QUEST

Play it online now!

Epic Quest was the first game I started trying to make on my own in Game Salad, in 2011.

Everyone clearly says, "Don't make an RPG!", so I thought, this'll be a good idea, and went straight to it!  Surprisingly, I ran into all sorts of problems and gave up!  But I learned a bunch of stuff doing it.  

Prototype Notes

• Janky as fook!
• Saves your progress!
• Stand on an Inn to trade gold for health over time (time speeds up while resting).
• Fighting is "not very good".  Just keep clicking the enemy you want to attack (you can actually just hold the button down to keep attacking).
• You can flee, too!

My Goals with the Game

• Build an RPG like Phantasie!

Features

• A small island, and a single dungeon.  EPIIIIIC!
• Day / night cycle!  IMMERRRSSSIIIIIIVE!
• Wonderfully laid out janky resource wasting tile set!

Lessons Learned...

• Make systems that do the work for me!  Don't do all the heavy lifting myself!  
• Make a map system that uses tiles, and reads the values from a table!
• Have a UI controller, which spawns in the HUD elements and places them in code, instead of rebuilding the HUD by hand in every scene of the game!

I took these lessons and later started building a tile-based RPG world, reading it's data from a separate table, and using a small set of tiles to show the current surrounding area. 

Hopefully that game will be released into to the world for realz some time!

Rocket Frood: A game-jam prototype

This is an old prototype that I made in 2012 at TIGJam, a two day game jam.

Game Instructions

• The goal is to save all the astronauts by picking them up with your rocket.
• But the rocket can't pass through the debris that blocks the way (grey blocks).
• You can destroy the dirt blocks with explosives.

Click here to play Rocket Frood in your browser now!

Prototype Goals

I wanted to try out some ideas with simulating a few different systems that tie together to make interesting gameplay.  Specifically I came up with:

• Resources (fuel, health, air and coolant) which combined interestingly with
• Environmental elements (air, water, lava) and also...
• Level design (dirt blocks, debris barriers) and...
• Physics gameplay (flying around, bumping the astronauts around the level).

Future Thoughts

It's pretty rough around the edges, and the level design was rushed in the last few hours of the game jam!

I'd like to come back to this idea some time and bring in all my other ideas that I've had since!  I think I'd make this in Unity if I were to come back to it again.

It would be a cool game for Android TV with a gamepad, perhaps!




Here's a bunch of photos from that weekend...  :D

Looking back now, I realise this was a sort of launching point into becoming part of the local Melbourne indie community, and it felt great to go and work amongst a whole bunch of people who are still strong members of the Melbourne scene today.

Gathering up all the junk to take to the jam!

Packed!

Everything strapped on, and riding to the jam!

Arriving at Inspire 9 in Richmond for the jam.

I'd been listening to the glorious Looking Glass Podcasts by Matthew Weise at MIT Gambit, and I took inspiration from these, wanting to make a systems based game.

This was the end of the jam when people could volunteer to show off their stuff!

My Pet Programmer

When I tell people about the limitations of Game Salad, some useful souls like to mention helpfully, "You know, you should get a programmer."

As if that's easy.  As if that's just a decision you make, and you're done.  Oh you want a programmer to create your games for you from scratch, and support all the code bases you want to release on?  Oh!  Great, now you have a programmer, then.

Seriously?!  No.  

That is not the answer to my problems.

I've worked really hard to learn Game Salad, so that I can enable myself to make games.

Getting a programmer is not the answer that makes everything possible.

Game Salad has been my answer to making ANYTHING possible.

I spent 10 years working at games companies, surrounded by lots of talented people, half of them programmers.  And they don't want to go and program your game for you.

No, "getting a programmer" is not the answer.

BECOMING the programmer is the answer.  Doing everything myself is the answer... for now.

Until people want to join me, and work on my projects, with me, together, I will keep making them on my own.

Putting together games on my own, and having to assemble them bit by bit, has been really liberating and empowering... it makes me think about the design in its entirety.  And that is a really enriching and educational process.

Later, I would like to have a few more people work on the games, but right now, my job is NOT to go around begging and pleading at the door of all the programmers I know, or to trawl over forums searching through a bunch of wannabe programmers looking for someone to try to connect with, someone I can trust with my entire business.  No thanks.  

My job is to build games the best I know how, with the skills I have, and the skills I can develop.

Designers don't get much cred.  Everyone thinks they're a game designer.  That anyone could do that design task, if they had time.  Well, that may be true.  

Trying to get someone to program your game is like trying to get Hollywood to make your movie.  Why?  Why your movie instead of their own, or someone else's?

You can spend your whole life trying to convince people that your idea is great.  But I think the best test is to go out and do it yourself, build your skills, make better and better products.  And then, people will start to join you for future projects, because they can see that you have created great things, that you have a following, that you have a well deserved fanbase.


If I have to do it all myself, I am investigating the medium to its very fullest and being exposed to all the accidents and inner workings of every system.  It is an opportunity for discovery and self-empowerment.  I am in direct contact with every little detail.

So like a filmmaker who writes, produces, shoots and edits his own films, and then later brings in experts in their fields do shoot and edit and write the films, I want to move into my career as a game developer understanding all the disciplines involved as fully as possible, so that when and if I get the chance to work with other great people, I can understand as Director and Producer, how to create a strong, cohesive vision for the game that's moving the medium forwards.

I've started my own business.  I'm basically risking everything, betting everything on being able to make some good games.  I am not prepared at this point to bank my life on some programmer who may or may not hang around.  They might leave the project at any point.  Then I am back at square one.  I need to be able to proceed on my own.  So I choose Game Salad.  I've released a game with it already.  I can release more.  I know how it works.  It's a known quantity.  I feel I can rely on it as much as I can rely on anything for now.

I'm writing this because it actually makes me angry.

People say it, like it's something I've not thought of, or not tried.  "You should get a  programmer!  Yeah!  Get on a forum and get a programmer.  Ask one of the guys you worked with."

They say it like I need one, like I can't make games on my own.  It belittles what I have achieved on my won.

That after so many years of wanting to make my own games, and finally putting in the work to do so, people NOW say, "You know, you could really do with the expertise of a real programmer."

No shit.

No fucking shit.

This statement is ignoring the practical issues involved in "having a programmer", like having to find them, having to pay them, having to keep them interested and passionate in your project, and relying on them to stick around.

If I could have a pet programmer, entirely dedicated to my cause, of course I would!  :)

Rant complete.

Doubts, Fears, Frustration, Perseverance

I'm in the last weeks of making my game, and sometimes I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall.

Game Salad

I'm using Game Salad to build my game.  

I've tried programming in the past. I built a text adventure as a kid. It was a massive task (largely a homage to Space Quest), and ended with just one chapter of the adventure done, only a handful of interactions possible, and as soon as you teleport to a new dimension, you'll hit lines of text like, "This is as far as the adventure goes, not programmed yet!" This was GWBasic in about 1987. Thousands of lines, all numbered with GOTO rules everywhere. A nightmare.

Suffice to say, I've tried programming since, but it never worked. I learned something every time, but it's not for me, I don't want to do low level programming. I have enough to deal with doing the design, music, sound, art, promo... everything.

Along comes Game Salad! 

Let's start with the downside to Game Salad:

• It's not the fastest engine. (Improvements are promised to be on the way).
• It can only do 2D.
• It can be a bit slow to work in, in some ways.

But the benefits far outweigh these issues:

• I can make my own games!
• I don't need to get a programmer on board to make my own personal projects.
• You can focus on game logic, and ignore system/engine development.
• You can publish to iOS, Android, Mac, and to the game Salad Arcade (HTML5).
• You can publish with it for FREE, or pay for extra features. (I'm a Pro member).

The real problem for me is that I keep making games that are too complex. 

I should be making a cool quirky word game! But I keep making relatively complex action games.

Game Salad is built around an internal scripting language called LUA, and it's not all that fast. Games that someone could code from scratch and run smoothly on an iPhone 3G, run like sludge in Game Salad. It's not highly efficient. (Although like I said, this is hopefully going to be improved soon with a version of Game Salad with the LUA ripped out and replaced with native code).

I've learned more about what Game Salad can do, and what it can't. And also, what I'm capable of, and what I'm not so good at.

I want to make an adventure game. A game with a story, with rich voice acting and a great musical score. That's what I want to play, and that's what I want to make.

I'm excited about what I've learned. I'm excited that I've achieved so much with this game. I want to work on the next game. But this game needs to be finished. And I'm worried I'll never get it smooth. I hate that I can't get it to run smoothly. It makes the controls feel unresponsive at time, and generally looks unprofessional.

Player feedback

Making games is hard, because you have to finish them. Everything needs to be tied up neatly. Everything needs to work, and serve the game.

And every time I show my game to someone they have feedback, thoughts, ideas. That's great. But everyone has DIFFERENT ideas! And it's impossible to tell exactly what the best thing to do is. You have your own ideas, and they fight one another. Then other people's feedback and feelings are thrown into the mix as well. It can be a challenge!

My brother Hill testing the game on iPad

Mother's Day

Checking out my latest version after a nice family get together.

Dad says "Put it out! Time for the next game!" 

I think I'm inclined to agree with him.

Polish, Expectations, Fear

After working at Firemint for 4 years, I know what a good game looks like. I know how much effort goes into polishing a game up just right before releasing it. And I just don't think I can do it. It's a tough place to be in.

I wish I'd made a simpler game. You can never make a game TOO simple, if it's fun! It's win win! Make a simple game, get it out! Hope people like it! Then design another rad simple game. That's what I'm trying to do, but the games keep getting away from me! They keep growing.

Yesterday, I thought about building a whole new game to put out in one week. I still think that might be a good idea. Am I mad?

Should I just put this game out and hope for the best? Just do the best I can? 

There's No Excuses

I can hear all my excuses...

"It's just my first game, it was for me to learn how to build my own complete game. I've learned a lot! I know it's not very good. I know the framerate is jerky. The next one won't be!" 

It's not good enough. These are no excuses. I want my ALL my games to be great. That's what made Firemint great. We made hit after hit. Flight Control. Real Racing. SPY mouse. All hits. And that took time, and a lot of work. We didn't release games before they were ready. The core managers, Rob and Kynan, were always determined to improve every feature, iron out every krinkle, make it the best we possibly could. That's what makes hit games. Those guys really know how to make games, when they're left to weave their magic.

I like my game. I do. But I can't reconcile my hopes for the game with what I have in front of me at the moment. And I can't see my way around some of the discrepancies. 

Fear Is Good

This fear is good for me. You should feel the fear, or you're probably releasing something average, something with problems you can't be bothered to fix. I want to fix the problems, to make it better! Sometimes I'm bashing my table out of frustration, trying to fix or find a bug, but when I come out the other side, it was all worth it.

Wish Me Luck!

All I can do is keep working, and try to beat away al the bugs, all the slow downs, and come out the other side with a really fun first game.

Wish me luck. The invaders are coming.