Category: Words of Wisdom
What is Indie: A Manifesto
Last month at Boston Post Mortem, Eitan grilled the founders of Moonshot Games, Macguffin Games, and Dejobaan Games on the topics of game development and being indie. Attempts to define “indie” and questions about whether something or someone is “indie” strike a chord with a lot of folks, so Scott Macmillan (of Macguffin) followed up the talk by posting an interesting manifesto on his studio’s blog and Gamasutra. Check it out, it’s good stuff.
Bottom line:
1- Don’t ask if something is indie, it’s a waste of energy
2- “Indie is the aspiration to create something new, interesting, or different. Something you as an artist find worthwhile.”
Update
Eitan: Man, Scott is such a little bitch. Waaaaaaa, I don’t wanna define what indie is! Waaaaaa!
August 11, 2010 | | Comments (3)
Category: Events, News, Rant, Words of Wisdom
Tags: Boston Post Mortem, Dejobaan Games, fire hose games, Indie Games, Indie Manifesto, Macguffin Games, Moonshot Games, Scott Macmillan, Slam Bolt Scrappers
Words of Wisdom: Sound and Music as Narrative
Vincent Diamante and Steve Johnson are two of my favorite people. They are the two sound geeks behind the music in Flower, and they are VERY good at what they do. Here is a talk they recently gave on using sound and music to create narrative in that game, and it’s a really cool listen! They discuss influences, how they went about creating music on a shifting project with an abstract goal, and what interesting things they did to make the game sound awesome. And considering that Flower is (in my opinion) one of the best sounding new games out there I’d say they did a great job?
Yes, this is only the first 8 minutes of an hour long talk. Wanna watch the whole thing? You can catch it the full talk (chopped up into 8 sections) here.
SEMI-RELATED TANGENT TIME!
1. As long as we’re talking about video game music, does anyone else think that the Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack was extra awesome?
2. I’d like to point out that in addition to being a composer nerd Vincent is also has a kick ass blog on photography, food, and anything else interesting that comes to mind. Definitely a fun read.
August 4, 2010 | | Comments (0)
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: bionic commando rearmed, Diamante, flower, Johnson, music, narrative, Sound, Steve, thatgamecompany, Vincent
Words of Wisdom: Advice on Starting an Indie Studio
One last PAX East related post! At the conference I was on two panels (Indies Will Shoot you in the Knees, and I Have a Great Idea for a Game), both of which had similar themes of giving aspiring indie developers some helpful info. Rather than rehash everything that was discussed (like Chris’ cat penis drawings) I’ll just go over some highlights.
Start up advice in no particular order:
- Don’t go it alone! Find other people to work with who complement your abilities. There are extraordinarily few people who can support themselves by making video games alone, and if you’re reading an advice blog post on starting up a video game studio you’re not one of them.
- Honestly look at your (or your team’s) abilities and assess what your weaknesses are in terms of game development. Once you’ve done that, fix those problems! Don’t just hope they’ll go away. Conversely focus on your strengths when making your game.
- If you are depending on the venture for a living then be sure to have a go-to-market plan that is better than “We’re gonna release it on the iPhone!” Marketing and distribution is really important, be sure to figure out a way that your game will be sold in a way that can actually make you money.
- Find smart people who have done this thing before and get advice from them on a regular basis. You can ask them to officially advise you if you’d like. These people should be local if possible since it’ll be easier to meet with them.
- Raise money! You need money! Without money, you can’t do anything. With money you won’t be going out of business. It’s ok to ask friends and family to give you some money to get started. Also, there is no shame in going to a publisher for funding! While it may not be “indie” according to some I would argue that making your original, innovative game is what is important, not where the money comes from.
- Be prepared to work really, really, REALLY hard. You’re probably going to be busting your ass for a while. This pretty much goes for any start up you might be thinking about, not just an indie studio.
- Take care of the legal stuff. If multiple people are founding the studio, draw up formal papers saying who owns what and how much. Form a company. A coding bug can cause you to lose a day or two of work; a legal bug can cause you to lose the company. Be careful!
- Try to strike out in a new direction with your game. If you are just copying another title out there you probably won’t be able to do it very well, and your chances of success will be small. Make something original! Think about all the successful indies you know – they ALL have some serious creativity and originality in their game, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have hit it big.
- Make your game! If you aren’t making a game, you’re not indie! Don’t just talk about it, do it!
Ok, that’s it for now. I know we talked about a lot more stuff than what I listed here but we can always do a follow up post if I missed a bunch of critical stuff. Other panelists (Darius, Chris, Ichiro, Scott), please feel free to jump in and remind me about anything good I might be missing here.
Of course, if I’m gonna have a post like this I have to open it to questions. Ask in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer!
April 4, 2010 | | Comments (2)
Category: Rant, Words of Wisdom
Tags: advice, Chris, Darius, development, east, Ichiro, indie, PAX, Scott
IGDA Rapid + Iterative Prototyping Slides Available!
By popular demand, here are the slides from my web based talk on Rapid Iterative Prototyping. Take a look why don’t you! If you’d like to present this to a class or to someone else feel free to do so, please just give me a credit somewhere.
If you have questions on the talk or one that didn’t get answered during the presentation please feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll answer it there, alternatively you can just e-mail me. And if this is your first time here then welcome, and be sure to join our twitter/facebook/rss feeds!
Oh man, I’ve gotten soooo many good suggestions for awesome web comics from this talk 
January 27, 2010 | | Comments (10)
Category: Events, Words of Wisdom
Tags: comics, Eitan, Facebook, IGDA, iterative, lecture, presentation, prototyping, rapid, rss, slides, twitter
Words of Wisdom: Boston Indies on Monday, IGDA Webinar on Wednesday
Eitan’s going to be giving two great talks next week – first, at Boston Indies on Monday, second as an IGDA Webinar on Wednesday.
Boston Indies – Monday, January 25 @ 7pm – The Asgard, Cambridge, MA
Join Eitan at Boston Indies on Monday as he shows off Slam Bolt Scrappers and discusses the development of the game thus far. It’ll be a pretty informal event, and it’s at a bar, so you get to drink some beer and hang out with the rest of Boston Indies. Find directions to the Asgard right here.
IGDA Webinar – Wednesday, January 27 @ 12pm – Dial In
After you’ve heard all about Slam Bolt Scrappers on Monday evening, tune in Wednesday afternoon to hear Eitan presenting an IGDA webinar on Rapid, Iterative Prototyping. Eitan will be explaining why it’s a great way to get started on a game if you’re missing other essential elements like an artist, funding, etc. Plus he’ll be showing off some of the builds we’ve developed using this method.
It’s going to be a busy week of talks, hope to see you at the events!
January 22, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: asgard, Boston, IGDA, indies, iterative, prototying, rapid, Slam Bolt Scrappers
Words of Wisdom: Mia Consalvo on Western Otaku Culture
Attention anime nerds: Ever want to hear a academic reconstruct your obsession with all things Japanese related? Well you’re in luck! In this talk Mia Consalvo, noted game academic and all around kick-ass individual, delves into why we love Japan when it comes to games. It’s a long talk but pretty interesting and definitely worth watching. Thanks to Gene and CMS for the recording.
Here’s the talk description:
From Nintendo’s first Famicom system, Japanese consoles and videogames have played a central role in the development and expansion of the digital game industry. Players globally have consumed and enjoyed Japanese games for many reasons, and in a variety of contexts. This study examines one particular subset of videogame players, for whom the consumption of Japanese videogames in particular is of great value, in addition to their related activities consuming anime and manga from Japan. Through in-depth interviews with such players, this study investigates how transnational fandom operates in the realm of videogame culture, and how a particular group of videogame players interprets their gameplay experience in terms of a global, if hybrid, industry.
Enjoy!
January 11, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: academic, anime, CMS, Consalvo, Gene, Japan, manga, Mia, MIT, otaku
Words of Wisdom: IGDA Webinar on Rapid Prototyping
If you can’t get enough of Eitan’s talks, you’re in luck! On January 27 at 12pm, Eitan will be presenting an IGDA Webinar on Rapid, Iterative Prototyping.
What do you do if you have no artist, no funding, and the design isn’t even complete? Prototype! In this webinar, Eitan will share some ideas for rapid, iterative prototyping, including how we used it in the development of Slam Bolt Scrappers. You’ll even get to see some of the super early builds we developed using this process. And of course there will be plenty of dinosaurs as well.
Unfortunately, Eitan will not be completing a Super Metroid speed run while giving this talk – but we promise to give you plenty of notice when that does happen.
January 7, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: dinosaur, Eitan, IGDA, prototype, prototyping, rapid, Slam Bolt Scrappers, Super Metroid
Words of Wisdom: Eran Egozy talks about Harmonix at GAMBIT
Another lecture blog post? HELLS YES. We’ll stop putting these up when the awesome guys at GAMBIT stop making them. Thanks to Gene, Abe, Ken Zolot, and anyone else who was involved with making this that I’m not aware of.
In this talk Eran Egozy (co-founder and CTO of Harmonix, whom you know and love for Guitar Hero and Rock Band) talks about how Harmonix started out, how they got off the ground and shifted into (and ultimately defined the genre of) music games, and then fields a bunch of questions from some really smart MIT and Sloan students. Check it out!
December 7, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: Abe, Egozy, Eran, GAMBIT, Gene, Guitar Hero, Harmonix, MIT, music, Rock Band, Zolot
Words of Wisdom: Dave Edery on Digital Distribution
This talk is awesome. I mean, really, really relevant stuff if you are an indie trying to get your game onto XBLA, PSN, WiiWare, or Steam. Dave Edery delivered a fantastic keynote at the Digital Distribution Summit in Australia on what indies can really expect to have to do to get their game accepted onto the Xbox Live Arcade, where the bar is an how it’s moving, and how to best hedge your bets and make sure that your game does as well as it possibly can.
Skip to 8 min in and then watch the entire video. It’s super business oriented but again, if you make games and are serious about making a living doing so then I would really recommend checking this out.
November 24, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: business, dave, david, digital, distribution, edery, keynote, lecture, psn, steam, wiiware, xbla
Words of Wisdom: Northeastern Biz Panel and BPM AI Panel
So what do you think of the new website? Pretty badass, huh? If you are experiencing problems viewing the page please, PLEASE e-mail us at support<at>firehosegames[dot]com so we can fix the bug. Please include what browser and version you were using when you saw the bug (you can find out by clicking in the top bar on Help, then About to find out what browser version you’re using), and a screenshot would be super useful too. Thanks!
This week has been packed with talks. On Tuesday I was part of a panel at Northeastern on business and making a name for yourself in gaming. Some of the highlights? The most game changing innovation in gaming in the past 5 years has been the advent of social networking in games (and games in social networking), that new UIs will be one of the main changing forces in the next 5 years, and that the iPhone is a complete shit platform for developers without major IP to make real money (although the business model of a 70/30 split with the distributor is a pretty good one). The panel was a bit pessimistic about one’s chances of “making it big” in the games industry given how fragmented and hit driven the industry is, but that’s with good reason! Think how many studios are shutting down nowadays, and how many people try to make games and never get off the ground.
The AI talk at Boston Post Mortem on Wednesday was a bit more technical, and featured a high powered panel of AI designers for major titles like Halo 2/3, Bioshock, and F.E.A.R. . The panelists discussed some of the problems with making “intelligent” AIs (”Ray casting is the bane of my existence”), and there were lots of interesting anecdotes. One panelist pointed out that it is more important for characters to NOT look stupid than to look smart, since people may not notice an AI that is coming up with a neat plan but will definitely notice a character trying unsuccessfully to walk through a wall. Another good point was that many people won’t notice AI when they are desperately trying to survive, but that if you put the game on god mode all of a sudden you can see all sorts of little bugs you might not have normally noticed. The panel was really great, I hope future post mortems are of the same quality!