Monthly Archives: June 2009

I know that a lot of the people reading this are game developers who make games themselves. So to that audience I ask, how often do you find yourself sitting around, talking with friends, and coming up with hilarious ideas for weird little games? If you’re like me then it probably happens a lot – I find that at GAMBIT we discuss weird concepts for little games all the time, especially when we’re eating lunch. Normally these ideas are funny in theory but would probably be terrible in execution, however this time I think that we came up with something that could actually be both funny and enjoyable to play.

So I think we’re going to try to actually give it a shot, and maybe put on a small game jam to make the game a reality. I won’t spill the beans about what the idea is about, but I will say that it involves explosions. I’ll either post a link to the results in a few weeks, or I will come back on the blog and admit, head hanging heavy in shame, that we did not succeed in making the game because we are super lame. Stay tuned!

Got a few hours to kill? Are you really into trial and error? Then do I have a game for you! Grow Cube is a fun and addicting little game in which you add elements to a cube and watch them interact. It seems simple but the combinations possible through trial and error make the game really interesting. It’s also wicked cool to see the little dudes do their thing and run around the environment. While the end goal may not be clear I can assure you that you will know when you’ve won.

If you like the game I’d recommend checking out all the other offerings at by EYEZMAZE, like the Grow RPG. I might do a separate blog post on that one later.

Dungeons and Dragons is something that I’ve always wanted to play, but in shame have never really gotten around to it. Sure, I’ve played variants like Final Fantasy (the original) and Baldur’s Gate II, and last summer I even played around two minutes of an awesome campaign headed up by Josh Diaz at GAMBIT, but I can’t say that I’ve honestly ever spent time with it.

Well, no more! I’m planning on starting a new campaign using the new 4th edition rules. And I need people to join me! 4-6 people, specifically. So I thought I’d have some fun and invite you, loyal Fire Hose blog reader, to play. Want to join? Here are the requirements:

• Must live in Boston/Cambridge
• Must be free on Monday nights, from 7-10pm
• Must be super awesome, and have fought dinosaurs before
• Ideally we’ll have a mix of guys and girls, game developers and non-game developers

If you’re interested shoot me an e-mail! You can use my super secret address of my first name at firehosegames.com to profess your desire to join, and if you make the cut we’ll get you set up.

Today Sharat and I gave a talk at the Singapore MIT GAMBIT game lab on rapidly building video game prototypes. It’s something of a rip off of Ethan’s and my IGCE talk from last month but this has a stronger focus on development and how to make different types of prototypes. I suggest checking it out! For more info on prototyping you can also see my guest blog from last week on Sande Chen’s game design website.

Sande Chen recently asked me to a guest post for her monthly blog on game design. I was happy to help, and honestly a little bit flattered/stupefied that she would even ask me to help. Nevertheless I was happy to help, and I’ve copied the entire post below. It’s a bit of a how to on video game prototyping, with emphasis on getting shit done and why this is important. Enjoy!

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So you’ve got an idea for a game, but you’re missing an artist, you don’t have the design nailed down, you need to find funding, and you don’t know what platform you’re going to develop for, you’re not sure that the concept is even feasible, or you [insert development hurdle of your choice here]. How do you even start? With prototyping!

Prototyping is the process of making a small, crappy, slapped-together version that demonstrates certain key aspects of your final vision. It’s a great way to start making games since it is far less daunting, and during the process you’ll learn a lot about what you should actually do in the full version. Prototypes are throw away, but that’s a good thing since it’ll give you more freedom to experiment in ways you might not normally try.
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