Porter's World

Here are the Prince’s top picks of the month, these are the best of the best from January of 2010.

1.) Alice is Dead: Chapter 2 – The incredibly popular point and click adventure delivers its second chapter with even more sketchy fairy-tale goodness.

2.) Battalion: Vengeance – The Battalion series brings itself to a closing with this final chapter; fans of the series won’t be disappointed.

3.) Transcripted – Transcripted is one of the more unique games to come out as of late. It’s fantastic art style and suiting ambiance track create a fantastic atmosphere worth checking out on its own. That aside, it offers a fantastic mix of both puzzle and action elements, definitely a must play for anyone interested in either genre.

4.) Civilizations Wars – Civilizations Wars is a very charming tactical strategy game with a lot of new additions to an already working concept. Fans of Nano War will be pleased with it’s fantastic visuals and enhanced gameplay through the ability to use spells.

5.) Helicops – Helicops is an entertaining action game with very nice pseudo 3D visuals. Tons of upgrades, various enemy types, and fast paced gameplay make this a must play.

If you haven’t checked out all of the above games, I strongly suggest you head over and give them a play, they’re all of excellent quality. Be sure to check back frequently to the greatest source of quality games on the net.

Epic Shadow Office

“After over a year of working together, Andrew and myself are finally united. Andrew has just moved form Illinois to Vermont to officially get things going for Epic Shadow Entertainment. We’ve just finished setting up our first official office in the basement of my house, and will be moving up as we grow. We’ve been through a lot in the last year, had some ups and downs, even a false move at one point, but it’s finally here, and it’s awesome.”

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That’s the word on the street at least, which is pretty accurate seeing as Andrew is just a few feet from me right now. The move has definitely been a huge change in our lives, both in and out of our career related activities. Andrew has upgraded his living environment, I have a significantly better work area, we’ve both been setting goals for the near future that are sure to expand both of our lives in great ways, it’s been good. If you’d like to see some pictures and read a bit more about the move, check out the post over at Alt Tab, our development blog.

Here are the Prince’s top picks of the month, these are the best of the best from October of 2009.

1.) Miami Shark – Casual, fast paced, and fun, Miami Shark does it all, and it does it well. You’ll go on a quick rampage of eating everything, people, boats, and even planes. The game is as easy to play as it is fun, a combination perfectly suited for the flash game industry. This game is definitely of excellent quality, give it a play.

2.) Clockwords – There have been a number of word games to this date, but Clockwords is by far the most entertaining I’ve come across. It’s an excellent mix of a word game, and the defense genre, something I’ve never seen before. It’s got some RPG elements to keep you addicted, and it’s a definite challenge, even for those who are rather literate. Definitely a must play for any intellectual types out there.

3.) Trap Master – The defense genre takes yet another rare step this month. Trap Master combines the excellence of both the platforming and defense genre, and does so wonderfully. Tons of traps, multiple characters, and amazing graphics, make this a must play for all.

4.) Gretel And Hansel – Gretel and Hansel is an excellent point and click adventure, with a very unique art style. You’ll enjoy rich visuals, as well as engaging story and gameplay in this excellent twisted fairy tale adventure.

5.) Cover Orange – Cover Orange is an excellent physics game with a neat twist on the genre. In each level you will prepare the stage to defend against an angry rain cloud. I don’t know what we’ve done to anger him, but it’s best we keep our defenses up regardless.

If you haven’t checked out all of the above games, I strongly suggest you head over and give them a play, they’re all of excellent quality. Be sure to check back frequently to the greatest source of quality games on the net.

The Boss

Being your own boss is pretty sweet. As a full time web developer, and flash game developer, I’ve come to enjoy far more time in my room and outside, rather than making pizza on the make line at Domino’s. As great as being self employed is, I perhaps jumped into the self employed role a bit too early, and I’m facing the consequences of that now. I do however plan to push through hard times and succeed, but I’m here to share the pros and cons of being your own boss, and what you can do to ensure a smother ride if you happen to choose this wonderful route.

Everyone wants to be there own boss; nobody likes taking orders from others, especially when your input on matters isn’t really appreciated, or even listened to. Aside from the horrible wages and lack of free time I experienced working a “normal” job, I also got sick of taking orders from someone above me, especially when that someone wasn’t exactly as intelligent or deserving of that position in comparison to myself. This is one of many things that finally drove me to the decision of quitting my job and becoming self employed. Sounds awesome right? For the most part, yes, but there are a few negative aspects to it that I’ll go over now.

I admittedly jumped into being self employed a little too soon, I can cope with it now, but at a price I would have avoided had I known what I know now. I definitely should have gotten more experience under my belt before making this my actual day to day job, especially without having too much funds saved up. Stability of income is an incredibly important thing, if you’re not entirely prepared to be out on your own and self employed, you’ll find yourself facing unstable income from time to time. This can all be easily avoided if you save up enough funds to support possible issues, so I definitely advise anyone considering becoming self employed to do so. I also encourage you to be well prepared for what it is you’re doing. If you’re a programmer, make sure you know your stuff, learning is much harder when you have to worry about paying the rent and where that money will come from.

The next issue, and biggest issue for myself and others from what I’ve heard, is motivation. It’s really hard to put in the proper amount of hours, as well as actually stay focused, when sitting in front of a computer. I’m not addicted to any social networking sites, nor do I play any MMO’s, yet I still find myself wasting far too much time in front of the computer; this generally consists of doing things such as browsing the net, reading interesting articles, looking at computer parts on Newegg, and so on, it’s just one thing after another. When I finally do get settled down, and into a mental state that is ready for work, a friend will call me up and invite me to some gathering that all my friends are going to, something I have a hard time passing up when there isn’t someone there to tell me no. It’s not that I don’t have self control (believe me, I’ve passed many events in the last few months), it’s just not as easy to pass up a good time when nobody is stopping you but yourself. If you think that this could be a possible issue for yourself, check out my other article titled Motivation Boost. In addition, I strongly advise you to change your desktop background to a little motivation, it’s effects are rather impressive.

Lastly, there’s the wonderful world of taxes. This really shouldn’t be an issue, at least once you’ve learned what’s required of you as someone who is self employed, but unfortunately for me, I’m one of those people who has been delaying the research and will have to deal with it when the time comes. Some sponsors require you to fill out a W2, while others don’t. Regardless, I don’t exactly know what to do when it comes to my taxes and being self employed, and this could prove to be an issue in a few years. It really isn’t a huge issue since I have records of all my game sponsorships, but it’s still something you have to be aware of when becoming self employed.

Cons aside, there are definitely perks to being your own boss. I can sleep in as late as I want, whenever I want. I’ll repeat that for those who are in shock, yes, I can sleep in as late as I want. There is no greater perk to being your own boss than that. I don’t have to rush out of bed, take a shower, catch a bus, then fly down to a place I don’t want to be. Instead, I can wake up slowly, grab some food, hop online for awhile, then let the course of my day roll out as I please. We all remember the dreaded sound of an alarm clock waking us up for school or work, rarely do I hear that sound anymore, and when I do, it’s not I who has to wake up with the feeling that smashing something against the wall is a great idea.

As far as free time goes, there is a lot more free time to be had, and it really won’t hurt you if you use a bit of self control and plan out your work schedule. On that note, I highly suggest you plan out actual hours for yourself, don’t feel that you have to work those exact hours, but giving yourself a rough outline will help you maintain a balance of free time and actual work accomplished. I suggest using the program Klok, it’s an excellent program to keep track of the hours you work, and those you don’t.You’ll also find that having more free time makes you a happier person, which in turn makes your actual production hours more valuable because you’re in a better mindset. The amount of work achieved when happy and working on something passionate is significantly larger than work you have to do, and really don’t give a damn about.

Lastly, and most importantly, there is a certain sense of accomplishment one gets from working for him or herself. My biggest complaint with a “normal” job is that I constantly felt like I was wasting my life, like I was literally a slave to society and the system that it rests within. Making pizza is fine, but it’s not something I want to do, it’s not something I can feel proud of. People shouldn’t have to sit behind counters and take orders for nearly 25% of their life (168 hours in a week, full time employment is 40 hours, often times more). If I’m going to be working that long, it’s going to be towards something I’m passionate about, something that I enjoy, regardless of how tiresome it can be at times. That being said, I would rather work 40 hours a week as a game designer and just barely be able to pay my rent, then work 20 hours at a gas station making more, it’s just that much more fulfilling.

All in all, being your own boss is excellent. You’ll live a happier lifestyle, feel more accomplished, and eventually make more money than any retail job will ever pay you. It takes a lot more work than those jobs do, and often times it’s much harder work, but you’ll gain valuable knowledge along the way, and actually enjoy yourself. The few cons I mentioned aren’t really cons, but more things you should be aware of before becoming self employed. If you enter carefully, and well prepared, you’ll find yourself a much happier and successful individual.

Here are this week’s useful links posted by me, for you, check them out,

1.) Macropayments: Steve, over at 8bit rocket, expresses his opinion on the idea of a macropayments.
2.) Unity3D Game Portals: Unity3D is slowly on the rise, follow it closely, it could impact flash games greatly.
3.) Why You Should Use Flex And Flash Together: Title says it all, check it out.
4.) 3 Minute Lesson: Lain gives us some quick pointers on some key factors you need to keep in mind when making games.
5.) Destroy All Cars: Squiz is working on a new game in which you can drive fast and smash things, I’m sold.

Check back with the Prince often, because I love you.

Classic Games

Games have evolved a lot over the years, so much in fact that some developers have begun to forget to focus on the basics in game design. Classic games have been around since the days people camped outside bars to play Pacman, yet despite their age, they still remain popular today. Modern games are often frowned upon for taking too much time making things shiny, and not enough time making things fun. I’m in no way against modern gaming, but it’s my honest opinion that very few developers do things right these days.

Now you may be thinking I’m just nostalgic for oldschool games, especially with me releasing games such as Tower of Greed and praising Super Mario World all the time, I can assure you this isn’t the case. I am nostalgic for classic games, I won’t deny that, but I take that into consideration when observing games and my thoughts still stand true. Every modern game in existence today builds itself upon ideas that have already been done. New games may expand upon these foundations, but the foundations are always the same. There are certain fundamentals within games that please us over and over again, from game to game, they’re just disguised differently each time. Puzzle games make us think, then give us gratification upon completion, that’s what makes them good, always has, always will be. Action games keep us entertained because we can move quickly, explore, use cool abilities, kill things, experience a challenge, never have a dull moment, the list goes on.  Contra on the NES may not be Ninja Gaiden 2 on the Xbox 360, but the same elements exist, and without them the game would fail. What made Mario so great? You explored (went to new worlds and found secrets), collected coins, avoided tricky situations (were presented challenge), and had a definite ending that was to give you gratification upon completion. Mario hasn’t changed since it’s first game, Super Mario Galaxies may have tons of shiny new features, but those core elements all exist, and the game designers are definitely taking those into consideration when designing the game.

Let’s take a look at a new game that really utilizes what I’m getting at. Grid 16 is an amazing flash game, built almost entirely on a collection of classic mechanics. It adds the neat twist of switching between 16 games as you go, but if you were tossed even 100 crappy games, would you care that it was switching between them? Grid 16 is successful in part by it’s creative switching mechanic, but mostly due to the fact that it presents a bunch of proven games to you all at once. Everyone loves pong, even if for just a few seconds, it’s great fun. Platforming has been around forever, still stands strong to this day. Dodging has been a core element of games such as Pacman and Space Invaders. As you can see, Grid 16 basically is the classics, nearly all of them tossed into one game.

Okay, so all games are built upon the same core foundations, what does this mean? In short, study your classic games, they are a limitless source of knowledge pertaining to what makes all games great. Combining your knowledge of what makes the classics so great, while keeping the importance of originality in mind, is exactly what makes a successful game. If you’re looking for a bit of something to get you into the classic games, I suggest watching the movie “The King of Kong“, it was recently suggested to me and I loved it; it’ll definitely open up your eyes to how the gaming world used to be, and perhaps give you ideas of where you can take things in the near future.

Becoming A Game Developer

Becoming a game developer is hard work, really hard work. There are however a few advantages to becoming a game developer that other careers in the world just can’t offer. In order to become a lawyer, you have to go to school, lots of school. In order to become a doctor, you have to do the same. To become a game developer however, you just have to be passionate, have an internet connection, and have the occasional motivation boost.

In the previous chapters of becoming a game developer, I spoke of what abilities will help you excel as a game designer, as well as gave some tips on how to analyze games to further yourself as a game developer. By now you may be wondering what it takes to actually get the job, to actually enter the industry and get a paycheck for your hard work. Sure you can make games, but how do you sell them? How do you get hired? When it comes to flash games, you’re good to go from the start. Unlike other careers, you don’t need credentials, you simply need to know how to make games, and do it well. Anyone in the world can start creating games in flash, selling them, and earning some very nice cash. It takes a lot of work, and I mean a lot, but it is within every single person’s grasp to do so if they choose. I started by making games for fun, but I soon found out that I could get paid for what I was doing. Bottom line is this, you don’t need a college degree, you don’t need to find a boss to hire you, you can self teach yourself and become your own boss overnight.

As I said, I began creating and selling games when I was 18 years old, back in the days of living in my first apartment away from home. One of the greatest things about entering the flash game industry is that you can do it at any age. You can be 13 years old, have a passion for games, take the time out to teach yourself, and instantly hop into making games. You won’t succeed with your first game, at least not on the level you would like to, but practice really does make perfect, especially in the flash gaming industry. I really do wish I had been into this when I was younger, I can’t imagine how evolved my skills would be had I started doing this at the age of 14 or so. Granted I was messing around with flash 4, getting an understanding of the time line and flash IDE, but I never actually touched code until much later. If you’re a younger reader and interested, don’t get discouraged, keep trying and I assure you time and patience will bring you to a very nice place once you get things down. In fact, if you’re a younger reader, I encourage you to start your career early, even if just as a hobby. One of the hardest things I find in trying to make this a full time job, is the inconsistency of pay. Start while you’re living at home, or at the very least get a few thousand dollars to sit on before you go and pour yourself into the job, it may take longer to pay off than you anticipate.

Alright, so you don’t need credentials, your age doesn’t really matter, so how do you actually get started? Adobe Flash is a rather expensive product itself, a great tool, but a bit expensive. I suggest using FlashDevelop if the price of Flash it too high, it’s an amazing program that is better suited for your programming needs than flash itself, not meant for animating, but that can be done in other programs. If you read up on the FlashDevelop page, you’ll find instructions for downloading Flex and other programs in order to compile your projects, in the end, creating a completely free set up. Once compiled, you can either play the swf in the browser, or you can download the flash debug player. All in all, that’s about all you’ll need to get started.

There you have it, you’re ready to start programming games. You don’t need to be any specific age, you don’t need a $600 program, and you don’t need to go to school and earn a fancy degree in order to secure your position. You will need determination, more common sense than the average human seems to carry these days, and a lot of free time, but if you’re reading this I have confidence that you can pass the above prerequisites. Enjoying your job and becoming financially stable doesn’t come easy in this world, and most of the time your caught within the system of going to college and following the rest of the cycle. In the flash industry the opportunity is up to you, you choose how far to go. If you really want this to be your future, get to work and make it a reality, it really is entirely up to you.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Here are the Prince’s top picks of the month, these are the best of the best from September of 2009.

1.) Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 – Momentum Missile Mayhem 4 is a fast paced, action packed physics game like no other. I rarely sit down and play an entire flash game these days, this one really drew me in and presented an excellent level of challenge. Tons of levels, a great skill tree system, and a variety in enemies, make this an excellent game that should definitely be played by all.

2.) Madness Accelerant – Madness Accelerant offers an action filled adventure like no other flash game. Beautiful graphics and intense boss moments give an experience that really isn’t found anywhere else in flash games. Any fan of the Madness series will be truly entertained by this masterpiece of a quick action filled adventure.

3.) Mushroom Madness – Defense games have always been among player’s favorites. Mushroom Madness offers an impressive mix of charming graphics, balanced gameplay, and action oriented defense mechanics. Various weapons and upgrades make this medium sized game pass by without a dull moment, give it a play.

4.) SkyFyre – SkyFyre offers some of the internet’s most intense side scrolling shooter action. Four classes, a shop, and a level up system, all allow you to customize and play the game in a number of unique styles. Take the above combination and mix in some retro graphics, and you have one hell of a gaming experience.

5.) Back To The Cubeture – Cuboy has been a successful animation on the net for some time now. Cuboy has now entered the gaming atmosphere, and in what better way then through a time traveling adventure? Highly entertaining voice acting and a crazy story make this one of the best point and click adventure games to exist on the net today.

If you haven’t checked out all of the above games, I strongly suggest you head over and give them a play, they’re all of excellent quality. Be sure to check back frequently to the greatest source of quality games on the net.

Ninja Gaiden Intro

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the differences in design pertaining to flash games versus console games. This brought a new thought to my mind that I’m rather surprised hasn’t hit me until now; why don’t more flash games have cut scenes? Movie intros to games help set a mood, entertain the player before they even start playing, and give the player a feel for what’s to come. For a minimal amount of work, a significant increase in value can be added. I’ve spoken of the importance of plot, and it’s simple intros like these that can achieve the desired story telling effect.

Cut scenes have been in games since the NES, even earlier if you count the character intros and instruction demos arcade classics such as Pac Man had to offer. The NES had what I would say is the closest style of cut scene that a flash game should offer. Games such as Ninja Gaiden 1 had very simple cut scenes, but they really added to the game. They weren’t complex, the animations were minimal, but they got a point across and they looked pretty good too. Other NES titles that had incredibly short, minimal animation intros include, but are not limited to, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Ninja Turtles, Blaster Master, Night Shade, and so on. All of these games were excellent, and those quick intros and mid game cute scenes really added to the game, whether the player noticed it or not.

So why haven’t developers been adding cut scenes? First and foremost, I think the biggest reason is that it just hasn’t been a custom in flash games yet. People aren’t leaving them out on purpose, they’re simply not thinking to add them at all. When is the last time you developed a game and planned out mini cut scenes for a game that wasn’t an RPG? I’m sure a select few of you can give an example where you did, but I’m guessing that most would say you haven’t ever, I know I haven’t. Another reason to leave them out of the plan is that they do require a bit of work, nothing significant, but nothing that isn’t going to add a few hours to the production time; for what it’s worth though, those extra hours will go a long way. The last reason I can think of to leave them out, is due to a players patience. Most players click through instructions because they just want to get in and play, cut scenes would delay how quick players could jump into the action. A solution to this however is to make a button that allows the player to skip the cut scene if they so choose, simple, yet effective solution.

There you have it, yet another way to increase the value of your flash games. It’s not rocket science, but I’m sure we can all name a few games that left out cut scenes that shouldn’t have. I remind you that this in fact a generalization, there have been games that follow my above thoughts in every possible way, Hero’s Arms being a perfect example of such a game. If you’re looking to add a bit of value to your games and haven’t been adding cut scenes, you know what to do, get on it.

Regular Jobs Suck

As some of you may know, I got myself in trouble with the officers of the law exactly one year ago, yeah, those guys. To make a long story short, I was with someone who mixed tin foil and “The Works” toilet bowl cleaner. We went to my downtown area around 1 AM (bars were really active, lots of people around) and he mixed a few in a couple soda bottles and tossed them. These are for the most part completely harmless, but make a very loud explosion sound. In the end, we got caught by the cops and got ourselves in far more trouble than should have been possible for such a small stunt. I received a $300 fine and had to go to court. My charges for court were a felony charge for hoax explosives, and two misdemeanors. I ended up getting court diversion because I’ve never been in trouble with the law and seemed like an intelligent guy; this got me 1 year of probation, 40 hours of community service, and I had to meet with the community rep board to show how I was sorry and give back to the community. Where am I going with this you may ask, here’s where.

Being on probation sucks, but that’s not exactly relevant to the flash industry. Doing 40 hours of community service sucks too, that however, can be relevant. I used to be an MMO gamer back a few years ago, until one day while working at Pizza Hut in Idaho for $6/hr, I had an epiphany. I knew from that moment alone that I did not want to work at normal jobs for the rest of my life. Yeah I wanted to go to college, get a great job and have a life, but I didn’t know what for. This particular day it became very clear to me that I wanted to be a game designer, and that I was going to start working my ass off from that moment on to make that a reality. As you may know, this is exactly what I did, and I do in fact make games today for a living. I may not be the best at it right now, but I’m definitely learning the industry and well on my way to getting up there. As everyone knows, all motivation has it’s limits, it eventually wears off and things start to slow down. For me, this has been the last few months. However, because my probation was coming to an end in two weeks, I was forced to complete my community service hours or face some huge penalties.

During this 40 hours of community service I worked at my local Salvation Army, a thrift store that accepts donations and sells them back to the community for an incredibly low price. This may not sound so bad, but 40 hours of this just isn’t my cup of tea, at all. I go insane not using my mind, I start to get very angry and just have a hard time keeping myself in high spirits. This is the exact feeling I had working that day when my epiphany arrived in Idaho. Working this 40 hour week of mindless work around a bunch of people who clearly aren’t going in the direction I want to sucked, but it also brought back my motivation. Just like before, I was enraged and filled with a desire to escape the system that surrounds us all. I vowed to myself to get out of normal jobs and continue to support myself through my own business as soon as my community service was done. Saying such things may not sound to powerful in text, but if you have any idea how much negative emotion fills my body when I’m working a crappy job and doing 8 hour days, for a low wage, you would understand how much I mean what I say.

So that’s how things are going for me at the moment. I’m back in the mood to get work done like never before, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. If you’re like a large majority of programmers or stay at home workers out there, you probably lack motivation yourself. It may sound crazy at first, but I highly suggest that if you are, you go out and work a crappy job at McDonald’s or Burger King, or toss yourself into 40 hours of community service and do 8 hour days. Put yourself through the reality that you’ll face if you don’t step up your game, maybe then you’ll have the same motivation I’ve found. That aside, I’m officially done probation and will be a free man with a clean record as you read this; now all that’s left to do is crank out some games with my newly found motivation.