Resource dump!

Welcome back to Game Core my friends!

Lately I've seen a huge influx of views to this small blog and I want to thank you all for making this a much bigger thing than I thought it would be, especially after just six posts! I'm currently at around 900+ views just in the past month and about 600 of them were just for the last two parter.

So thank you every one, you all rock my socks!

I ,of course, couldn't make this blog without reading a ton of articles, blogs and facebook posts over the years. I've been gathering as much material as I could that I felt would be relevant to my success and help me with my games. I didn't save all the articles if I felt they were covered with what I already had. I also missed some of my earlier reading material as I didn't have the fore sight to save them.

So lesson learned: If you read something, watch something or otherwise find something that is helpful to you make sure to save it. In the future it may seem useless as the information gained from an earlier piece of media is now common play for you, but always remember to brush up on your basics.

Well without further delay let me share with you some articles and videos that I find helpful. To start off I'll share some broad sites/channels that has a ton of information that is helpful. You really can't go wrong with these:

1. Extra Credits on youtube – This channel is amazing. It's education, fun, smart, witty and really helps people of all levels in game dev. I often re-watch every episode nearly once a month just to brush up on anything I may have forgotten. They teach about game development primarily, but they also have moved in to history as of recently and they once in a while do a deep dive into a game and why it works or doesn't work. I honestly can't suggest this channel enough. 
2. Gamasutra – This website is a hub of information. Wanna learn more about programming, art, audio, design, production or the business of games? They got you covered. This is a great place to just stop by once in a while and check out some of their articles. I follow them on Twitter and often find myself looking for what they post just so I can learn something new. I feel that this site is great for when you've read all the articles on your various social feeds and need more. Or when you are looking for something more specific you can always start here and see if they have that topic covered.

Those are my go to places to learn. Now I'll share a few select articles to help you with various aspects of game dev.

Here is a few articles on marketing, kickstarter (or any crowdfunding outlet) and expos:

1. http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/marketing-your-indie-game-the-single-most-important-thing-that-no-one-knows-how-to-do--gamedev-7157?utm_content=buffer7d269&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
2. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PhilomenaSchwab/20160609/274252/Niche__a_communitybased_Kickstarter_campaign.php
3. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlbertPalka/20150413/240943/Understanding_YouTube_2__Evaluating_YouTube_Channels.php
4. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JCSantiago/20150507/242760/What_Kickstarter_Taught_Me_About_Game_Development_Mid_Campaign_postmortem.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+GamasutraNews+%2528Gamasutra+News%2529
5. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidWehle/20150511/243176/Greenlight_The_Times_They_Are_AChangin.php
6. http://blog.marketo.com/2015/06/checklist-dont-forget-to-pack-these-essential-tradeshow-items.html
7. http://nancybadillo.com/21-proven-marketing-strategies/
8. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ThomasBrush/20160223/266282/Why_Your_Kickstarter_Will_Fail.php
9. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DWn7tAAtT0SVQRqlJRknQ

This list is meant to be a jumping off point for you. I hope you start finding more blogs, articles and videos to share. I also hope that you share those venues with us here in the comments. I'd love to see what else is out there and I'm sure the community as a whole will benefit too.

Also keep in mind this bottom list isn't in any particular order. It's pretty much ordered in how recently I found the resource. So the top is the one I've read first and saved and the bottom is the most recent resource I've found.

I hope this helps all of you budding devs out there and I can't wait to hear about what you've learned!

A fan requested I make a post about how to manage a team and how to keep a team together through out the game dev process. So next post I'll be taking a stab at explaining what I've learned through my own experiences and through what I've read and gathered over the years. So don't miss out!

Also, we added a facebook page here to make it easier to connect and update every one.

Until next time take care!

Forming a team: Part 2

Welcome back every one! As promised I have part 2 of finding a team.

You've waited long enough, so let me jump right in!

As you all may remember we discussed some of the work that goes into finding a team. Primarily we talked about how you need a lot of stuff to show off before any one will be interested in your project. It's a huge task to tackle, but well worth it. If you haven't read it check it out.

This time I'm going to focus more on community and finding like minded individuals who share a passion for making games. Networking is a huge part in any business, not just game design. It also is very useful when doing nearly every aspect of game design. Stuck on an issue with your code or art? There is a community to help you. Need investors or promotion? There is a community out there for you.

Finding and joining a multitude of communities is very important for a host of reasons. Groups may talk about a wide variety of things from issues they have, the latest release from an obscure studio or just help wanted ads. All of these and more will teach you about what does and doesn't work for their respective issue.

So what are some good groups to join? Here is a small starter list to help you. I highly suggest using this as a jumping off point and find more groups to join.

Facebook groups:

GameDev Beginners

Indie Game Developers

Indie Game Promo

Twitter Hashtags:

#indiedev

#indiegamedev

#indiedevhour

Reddit:

GameDev Classifieds

DevBlogs

GameDev

Alright, now that you've found some groups, how do you interact with them in the most benificial way?

Well really there is no easy answer. Right now you are forming relationships which takes time and effort. You just have to be active, friendly and as helpful as possible. Here is a quick list of how you can be a better community member.

1. Share other peoples stuff without expecting a like or follow.

People share a lot of cool things and you shouldn't be afraid to show that you enjoy whatever they posted. This is where you get to show a bit of your personality without constantly updating your social media with what you did today. I personally really enjoy art, especially game art. I'll take time to look through various posts by artists on Facebook and Twitter and share those pieces of art. The artist will like getting the publicity and the people that look at my feed get to see what inspires me.

I encourage you to share awesome art, informative articles, funny quotes and so on. Let your personality shine through.

2. Praise other for good work.

Just like you there are tons of beginner developers. They put themselves out there and hope some one will care about their project. They, like you, put a lot of work and time and energy in to their projects so when they share their progress I often praise them. Now, I don't always praise people. If I don't like something then I simply ignore it. I won't go out of my way to bash them of course. But when there is a cool piece of media I'll at very least like it.

3. Ask questions in groups.

I'm sure you have tons of questions (I know I do!), so go ahead and ask them. Just try to have your question well written. This is especially important if you are asking your question in a language that isn't your first language. If people can't understand what you are asking they may ask for you to clarify, but more often they are either rude or ignore you. So please take the time to format your question in a way that is easily understood and make sure you give as much info as needed.

4. Answer questions that you feel you know the answer to.

If you think you have the answer or you want to look up the answer go for it. The person asking will be very happy and most likely willing to help you in the future with a problem you may have. But this goes beyond just answering questions. You can always critique peoples work too. If some one is asking for some critiques and comments on a piece of art, some code or a section of their game give your two cents. I suggest the 'sandwich' method when giving feedback. For those that don't know the sandwich critique is when you give a complement then the suggestion/negative feedback then wrap it up with a complement again. You don't want to come off as a dick especially when you are surrounded by your peers. But don't think you can't be honest too. People are sharing to get honest feed back, so give it.

These 'guidelines' should help you get a nice start on joining groups and communities and also some tips on how to meet new people and form some connections. But all of that is mostly for online interaction. Next I'm going to quickly cover more face to face situations.

The best thing for you to do is join your local IGDA (indie game developers association). I believe most states have a branch and they are awesome. IGDA will introduce you to indie game devs who live near you. You'll learn what they are doing for work, where the work is, how they do their work and much much more. This is the perfect place to meet like minded individuals who live and breath game development.

On top of that there are always game jams. These can be both in person and online. I personally am fond of Global Game Jam, which my local IGDA hosts in my home state of Minnesota. Game jams are a great way to not only meet people, but also learn your craft.

Game jams help you understand what you can and can't accomplish in a given time. It also helps you prioritize aspects of your game as they tend to be 2 days long or so. Each game jam has their own time limits, themes and so on.

You'll also get to meet new people and make a quick game with them. You'll really get to know about your team mates as you'll spend just about every waking hour working with them on you game, solving problems and brain storming. This will be scary for you introverts, but I can't suggest this enough. You will be with a group of people who all love games as much as you and who are happy to get your help.

The most important aspect of game jams is you'll learn so much! You'll come across problems you never even thought about. You'll learn how to meet new people, especially face to face. You'll learn communication skills and most importantly you'll learn very quickly what your skill set really is and what needs to be improved. You'll also get a glimpse of new and cool aspects of game design. Maybe you've never touched level design before, but now your team needs a level and they are too busy, thus you are thrown into the mix. It may be scary, but you'll learn quickly and with every one being excited and eventually sleep deprived you'll also have a very fun time conquering those challenges.

What are some groups that you suggest or have found? Let us know in the comments and maybe even share your twitter handle or facebook page (whatever you feel comfortable doing).

Next time I'm going to dump a bunch of reading material on a wide variety of topics from level design to marketing. I just want to give you some resources to read up on.

Take care and I look forward to seeing you around the web!

Forming a team: Part 1

Hello again every one!

Last time we talked about making a proof of concept before we touched a computer. This allowed people to test and play your game and work out some early kinks. If you missed out on that go ahead and read that post. It will help you prepare for this one. Go ahead, I'll wait.

…..

All set? Excellent, lets move onto the next big challenge that myself and many other devs face; Finding a team of dedicated developers to make your game come to life! This topic gets me a bit excited as it is a difficult task that feels like you are climbing a never ending mountain, but once you reach the summit all that hard work really pays off and you feel ever more ready for the next summit!

First things first – produce as much stuff as possible!

No one wants to invest time and energy in a project unless they can see they're get something out of it. You have a job because you know you'll get paid. You go to school because you know you'll get an education that will benefit you in the long run. You join a dev team because you can see the value in the product.

Many of you probably want to join Bethesda, or Rockstar or what have you; Because you have seen what they can create. They may have even inspired you to strike out on your own and start your game. But you probably wouldn't care much about any of these places if they just came up to you and said something along the lines of “Hey dude, I wanna make this huge open world game that has tons of monsters and guns and towns where the player travels around trying to put together a broken world! But I currently don't have any assets or art to show you and I haven't programmed any of it, so you can't play it yet.”

You would probably laugh and move onto the next help wanted add. Those of you who do stay will quickly realize just how much work and rework will be needed all with little guidance or reward.

Same goes for every one looking at your help wanted ads. No one will invest their time if you haven't even invested your time. And I mean a ton of your time. You'll need to climb most of this mountain on your own, I'm sorry to say. But no one will care about your project until you prove yourself and it's merit.

Alright, alright, enough with the sad llama. I get I need something to show, but what do I need? The long and short of it is everything. I did say this is a seemingly never ending mountain after all! But let me break this down.

Artists, this is for you – programmers, you're next.

Artists, you'll need character designs. Character turn arounds, sprite sheets or models (you know, depending on if you are making a 2D or 3D game – obviously). Create your menu's and GUI as well. Now here's the big thing. Since you are an artists and not a programmer the best way to show off your game is to animate it. Yes, you'll fake the game play and everything. Got a computer game that requires a cursor? Better be animating that into your 'trailer' too. You'll need to show any given programmer that is interested in helping you exactly how the game will operate and why.

This animation you'll be making is essentially a trailer and a tutorial. You'll be teaching programmers and the various other members of your future team how the game works. You'll show as much aspects of the game as possible – everything if you can. This video should be easy to understand and lay out as much info as possible. The more confused the programmer is the more unlikely they are to help you.

To give you an idea here is a first draft of what I made for Fleet Calamity. In this video I'm trying to teach some one who has never played the game how to make it function and how it generally should look. Take a gander here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrR_ta-L27I

Now the programmers turn!

Programmers, you'll need to produce your GUI and menu's- even if it is just temporary art or simple boxes. Something that shows the look and feel of how one would navigate through the menus. In addition and more importantly you'll need to actually produce an Alpha (or better) version of your game. Characters and environment can be sparse and made of blocks and random shapes or stand in art. But an artist needs to be able to jump into the game and play it to see what it is you're trying to accomplish. This version of the game should be easy to access and set up without any programming experience. The more time some one else has to put into just getting your game to work the less interested they are in helping you.

Are you a programmer and an artist? Then you should be doing all of the above.

Start with your strength and boost your confidence, then move onto the harder stuff.

I suggest starting out by mocking up an Alpha build. Get the basics in there and see who bites. As you are searching for people keep buffing up your video/game until you absolutely can't go any further alone.

Sure enough people will still have questions about your product but they will be much more concise, such as 'Ok, I saw you opened that menu, but can I open a second one as well' and/or 'were you going for a more noir atmosphere or just dark and dingy?' - you know, more about making sure they understand the full idea. They should never be asking 'so what is it about?' or 'why am I [the player] doing this?' Those questions should be answered just by watching and/or playing your video/game.

This will be the largest hurdle thus far. You'll be working alone, only getting feed back from what you share on social media and from testing your physical prototype. This will be a real test of how much do you want this game. 

With Fleet Calamity I spent about a year working 2-5 hours a day nearly every day before I got that first draft of a video. I made 80+ models all of which are textured, menus, and GUI. I also tested frequently and updated my GDD as I went along. I also created over 400 cards, made business documents, financial documents and marketing documents. I did ask for help through out, but no one lasted more than a week. It was only recently that I found a programmer that stayed on for a couple of months, but he left as life got in the way. I am now again looking for a programmer, but I'm further up the mountain than I was before and my resolve has been honed and refined ever more as I made my climb.

I believe you can make your dream game, but the road will be long and unforgiving. If you stick with it you'll reach a reward that very few others have obtained. Also, as a side note. Start small! Don't make a huge open world game as your first game. That kind of scope is too big to chew. Start small and build up to that awesomely huge game!

But all of this is just scratching the surface. There is much more, such as connecting with communities, where to look for help and joining game jams. I feel I should break this up into a two-parter as these posts are getting long and I'm sure you don't want to spend hours reading.

Next time I'll discuss connecting with your peers and getting yourself out there. In the mean time please feel free to leave comments and give your opinion about this topic. Also I'm open to suggestions for future topics!

Hope to hear from ya.

Take care everyone!