Porter's World

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.

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

1.) Cyclomaniacs – CycloManiacs is an incredibly casual bike racing game that is in my opinion the best racing game flash has to offer. It’s incredibly casual and you can jump right in and play, whether it be for a few minutes, or an hour plus. It’s strongest points are simplicity, as well as straight up fun, it’s just an enjoyable game.

2.) Guardian Rock – I’ve always been a fan of puzzle games, especially those that are simple in solution, but really make you think. Guardian Rock offers incredibly awesome visuals, 48+ levels, and enough challenge to keep your mind busy for just the right amount of time. This is definitely the best sliding puzzle game to date, I’ll go as far as to put it above my own game in the same genre, Dominus Void.

3.) Another Small Favor – Another Small Favor is another one of Zeebarf’s finest creations to date. Excellent art and an enormous environment make this one of the best point and click adventures to date.

4.) Frantic 2 – Frantic 2 is another great arcade styled shooter with style. Tons of weapons and other upgrades make this a great game for action fans and RPG lovers alike. If bullet dodging wasn’t on your to do list, I suggest you add it and give this game a play.

5.) Pyro II – Pyro 2 offers more of the same great fun the first game had to offer, but includes an amazing level editor to create and share levels with the rest of the world. You can’t find better anywhere else, at least as far as physics and bouncing fire around goes.

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.

Becoming A Game Developer

There’s a lot of work needed in order to become a game developer. People often feel that if they have an artist who can animate, and a programmer who knows the language, that they’ve got a team ready to produce quality  games. In reality, those skills are just the tip of the iceberg. A team ready to produce games may be true, but nothing at all says those games are going to be of quality. It takes a lot more than knowing the coding language you’re using, or being an excellent artist; game design itself should be thought of as the third skill required along side programming and art.

I myself excel in my ability in game design. I admittedly lack in programming skills greatly in comparison to what I wish I knew, but I make up for that with my ability to both detect what makes a great game, and how to build one. I find it odd that most teams don’t feel they need a project manager of sorts, someone who understands how games work, what games are good, and what it takes to make them. The team doesn’t necessarily need someone dedicated specifically to this, but one of the artists or preferably programmers should have this skill.

The reason I give this position so much credit, other than the fact that it’s my strong point and I’m proud of it, is that it truly is a concept that I hope more teams embrace. We’ve all come to accept that average art won’t do, if you get higher quality art you’ll see your game value multiply by at least two-three times, if not significantly more. That being the artist’s job, we can look at the programmer now. The programmer is supposed to know what the game needs, then program it. They simply look at a set of instructions and bring the game to life. The last position, again in my opinion usually the secondary skill of the programmer, if not both members, is to know what it takes to make a great game. This however does not mean that the artist cannot have the mind set of a programmer and contain these skills as well, I simply imply that I believe them to be more common among programmers. They need to get over the hype of the game idea and analyze if the game will actually be quality fun; far too many games work as far as functionality, but when it comes to fun they’re simply a bore.

You may be wondering why I suggest that the programmer is the one who holds the magic of the third skill, the answer is simple. The programmer generally knows how the game works from the ground up. They must know how the ideas suggested will co-exist with ideas currently out there, and leave room for ideas to come. That being said, the programmer really shouldn’t be some guy reading an instruction manual on how to build the game, he should be deciding how the game itself is built. This can be done with a firm knowledge of programming, however it’s significantly easier if you possess the skill of understanding how games are built, as well as what makes them fun.

If you’ve already got these skills present within your team, you’re in great condition. If you lack these skills however, I highly suggest you look into partnering with somebody who has experience and understands the above concepts. They may seem like common sense at first, but it’s things like this that make the difference between the average games on the net and the big hits. I’ll continue on these thoughts with follow-up articles elaborating on how you can gain such skills yourself or refine what skills already exist. In the mean time, check out some other useful articles such as, The Importance of Plot and Game Inspiration, to help get yourself prepared for becoming a better game developer.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Perfection

One of the biggest issues I face as a flash game developer is the fact that I’m a perfectionist. I absolutely hate submitting a game to the world that isn’t absolutely polished to the best of my ability. This is both good and bad at times, depending on which way it’s looked at. I’ve been trying to look at both the negative and positives sides of being a perfectionist and have come up with a lot of content for both sides. The biggest matter to come to mind when thinking of this, is the importance of a brand. Is it really worth having a quality brand name? Do players recognize names such as Ninja Kiwi and Berzerk Studios studios and know that the game is going to be good? Such thoughts circle through my mind on a regular basis and keep me from releasing anything below my best efforts.

The negative side of being a perfectionist is a rather big one. On a regular basis I’m sliding by in life spending little money, usually saving up what I’ve earned from previous games for rent. I am admittedly still learning a lot and don’t work nearly as much as I should, but that’s irrelevant for the most part. My main issue is that I just can’t stand the idea of producing a quick mouse avoider or simple puzzle game in a few days, and then selling it for a couple hundred bucks, I just can’t get myself to do that. I feel that everything I do has to be some epic project, something that’s going to be a hit on the net to some extent and not just give me money to survive; I try to design games for fun, not for a living. This obsession goes so far that I’ve actually considered creating a “fake” brand that I would use for my smaller projects and I would literally make no association to my main brand. This is in fact a very simple solution that would indeed work, however I would morally hate myself for sinking so low as to feed sponsors a sub par game that wont’ go anywhere, but will give me my rent. The biggest conflict of working with bigger games is taking a risk, something I’ve been doing for some time now. Every time I get into a project that will take 1-3 months I risk not having rent money to pay my roommates, not a good feeling. If I dedicate that much time to a large project, and it somehow doesn’t pay off, I’m not going to be in a good position. I could go back to working a day job at Domino’s just to pay rent, but I truly do prefer dedicating my life to something I care about, rather than wasting my days away eating pepperoni on the line.

Aside from these complications, there really are a lot of positive aspects to being a perfectionist. Having a quality brand really does pay off. A single hit game will establish a relationship with sponsors and help build a good reputation. Players definitely take a liking to games produced by popular artists, and regardless of the game’s quality, the ratings show. I’m not saying a bad game from a big name will do wonders, but a good game under the right name may go above and beyond, even if it’s not necessarily deserving. One of the biggest issues sites such as Kongregate and Newgrounds suffer is user ratings. A great game can go under the radar on Newgrounds if the right people zero vote your game out of the “awesome score” range of 3.60 or higher. Every game receives it’s fair amount of zero votes, but having a good brand name among the public can easily counteract such assaults. Regardless of the perks with the public, there’s also a certain sense of fulfillment to having a pile of great games under your belt. I don’t mind experiment every now and then and making a game that doesn’t do so well, but having the majority of my games clearly be of great effort is something I hold highly.

Click Through Rate

Recently a lot has been on my mind concerning the approach I should take when designing games. I’ve learned a lot as of late concerning shaping my games specifically for this industry, things such as the importance of mouse support and catering to the desires of casual gamers. Despite my knowledge of what works well, and what works not so well, I still have a desire to create retro styled games that stay true to the classics I grew up on. Despite the fact that I won’t be making as much money, I realized that games of that nature are the reason I got into game design; A few extra bucks (okay, perhaps a couple thousand, whatever, I’ll keep eating cheap Ramen) isn’t enough of a reason to stop creating games the way I love them. Such thoughts got me to asking myself questions such as, do sponsors care about more than CTR (Click Through Rate)? Do they care about more than getting their money back directly from the games they sponsor?

Many developers may be under the impression that the answer is no, but after a bit of thought, and a quick interview with Lars, the games acquisition manager of King, I realized there’s a bit more to it. My primary question pertaining to this matter was this; is sponsoring a game that doesn’t perform well in returning it’s sponsorship cost through click backs beneficial to the sponsor? Here’s what Lars had to say on the matter,

“CTR is very important, but not everything. The quality of the traffic is equally important because sponsors want traffic that like their site, and traffic that returns to play again. High-quality games, and a wide array of games, help with this retention since players only return if they like the games. Moreover, publishing high-quality games that end up with high ratings and front-page features (achievements, etc) obviously increase the brand presence of a site ‘out there’, which in turn increases the likelihood that previously acquired traffic returns. Hence, the answer is: No, CTR is not everything, you need quality and success to attract and retain visitors.”

It was refreshing to hear that there was indeed still a place in sponsor’s hearts for games that are of high quality, but don’t necessarily perform so well as far as CTR goes. The value of a game that is high quality and low CTR can easily surpass the value of a medium quality game that has a CTR of 40%. Having a very diverse game that can’t be found anywhere else is definitely something sponsors want. If you have something original and of decent quality, than it’s of high value, even if the money earned back directly from the CTR of your game isn’t nearly as high as other games. Sponsors want variety to attract the most players possible. If your game is in a genre that doesn’t normally do well among players as far as ratings, but is superb for it’s type, sponsors want that because there is in fact an audience for the genre, one they want to control. Sponsors want quality traffic, traffic that doesn’t just click an in game link because it was well placed, but traffic that clicks those links because they agree with the sponsors taste, traffic that will become a long time visitor.

As my original plan was, I shall continue creating games both to get myself enough cash to survive, and because I love doing so. I’ll mix things up between what sponsors want, and what I want. It’s good to know that even what I want has a place in the world if it’s of great quality, despite how well it may treat the sponsor directly with click backs, because to be honest, the flash industry has far too many rules for me to completely express my creativeness. The fact that Lars said that King looks for a great variety of games definitely backs up my thoughts on the importance of originality. If you find yourself having any trouble deciding whether to follow the various guidelines to help you produce more cash, or going with what your passion for game design wants you to create, think back to the above information, there is always a place for your game if it’s of good quality, despite all the rules.

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

1.) Finite State Machines: A look into FSM (Finite State Machines) by the one and only Colby Cheese.
2.) Interview With Vortix Games Studios: An interesting interview with Vortix Game Studios.
3.) Concept First: A quick reminder of why you should plan your game fully before you build it.
4.) Sockets and IE7 Trouble: A look into some issues IE7 has with dealing with sockets.
5.) What would you pay for?: An interesting article that poses the question, what would you pay for when it comes to micro-transactions?

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