2011
19JUL
Still Makin' It Up - Part 8
Last time: Music makes the people come together (and subsequently sperg out).
Today's music choice: None yet. Check back soon! (Note: this is probably a lie.)
Progress Report: Excitement! Episode Two is less than two weeks away, and I've already started on preliminary resources and whatnot for Episode Three.
A pretty common defense in the indie game circuit is "I make games for me." Basically, a game is treated as an outlet to tell the story you want to tell, and not necessarily one that anyone else wants to hear. Plus, you're giving it away for free, so why spend more time than is necessary on it? Of course, not everyone feels this way, but fortunately, there are a few quick and cheap things you can do to make your project have some sense of professionalism - you never know when this will pay off, especially if you happen to get noticed. Just look at what happened with Minecraft. Hell, 13 or so years ago, I made a stupid little sidescroller freeware game, and a magazine in Singapore asked if they could put it on their free software CD. You really never know just who will end up playing it, and if you look like you know what you're doing, there could be an honest payoff in your future.
So, here are some tips that I've completely made up and cannot guarantee will actually cause you any sort of financial windfall! Note that this is more for the design and polish than the actual coding / eventing / scripting, which would be too difficult to really generalize.
So, uh, that's just a handful of ways you can be better prepared to entice and amuse an audience. Little bits of polish here and there can go a long way without interfering with the creativity injected into the game itself. There is a lot that goes into making a game - especially by yourself - so why not work on making it look more like the "real thing"?
Next time: Taking a break with the release of Episode Two coming up. But will it return???
Today's music choice: None yet. Check back soon! (Note: this is probably a lie.)
Progress Report: Excitement! Episode Two is less than two weeks away, and I've already started on preliminary resources and whatnot for Episode Three.
A pretty common defense in the indie game circuit is "I make games for me." Basically, a game is treated as an outlet to tell the story you want to tell, and not necessarily one that anyone else wants to hear. Plus, you're giving it away for free, so why spend more time than is necessary on it? Of course, not everyone feels this way, but fortunately, there are a few quick and cheap things you can do to make your project have some sense of professionalism - you never know when this will pay off, especially if you happen to get noticed. Just look at what happened with Minecraft. Hell, 13 or so years ago, I made a stupid little sidescroller freeware game, and a magazine in Singapore asked if they could put it on their free software CD. You really never know just who will end up playing it, and if you look like you know what you're doing, there could be an honest payoff in your future.
So, here are some tips that I've completely made up and cannot guarantee will actually cause you any sort of financial windfall! Note that this is more for the design and polish than the actual coding / eventing / scripting, which would be too difficult to really generalize.
- Test everything twice, you idiot. You would not believe the number of times where I'm wrapping up a scene and decide to throw in one more dialog box at the end, and then I play through it later and discover I've inadvertently used the wrong face graphic for it. Or made a typo. Sometimes both. It doesn't matter how insignificant the change was - test it and all its ramifications, because you will mess something up eventually and spectacularly. Don't make it a bad habit like I have.
- Goad some poor schlubs into testing for you. On a related note, don't rely on your eyes alone. If you are the only tester, you're very likely to only play the "right" way, or along a path you predetermine yourself. Naughtiness. In a commercial game, you would have a team of testers testing everything - walking on every single tile in the world, hammering on buttons during cutscenes, trying every item on every object you come across, etc. You probably don't need to go this far... but you should keep it in mind.
- Create an installer program. A plain old .zip file (or, if you are feeling saucy, a self-extracting executable one) gets the job done if there is nothing special that needs to be installed, but an installer looks so much nicer, and for very little work. I use ClickTeam's free "Install Creator" program (I have supported ClickTeam for over a decade now, but I can't stomach paying $150 just to have a splash screen removed). Add your own graphics and icons, and a freeware EULA to look more legit (you can even steal mine - just be sure to change the names).
- Decide on an graphical motif or theme, and stick with it. This goes for menus, icons, instructions, web pages, forum posts; all of that! Something uniform and identifiable, but not overwhelming. I went with blue and black, and an eclipse motif. Simple enough for a sci-fi game, but internally consistent. Maybe your game's theme is about nature; use a stylized tree. Maybe it's a war game; use an outline of your fictional country's crest or army symbol. Sharp, clean, vector graphics and simple shapes are your best bet. Avoid shrunk-down photographs or anything that looks like a pixelated mess when scaled up or down.
- When trying to differentiate your game, little touches can help. This goes mainly for RPG Maker users. Everyone knows what the menus look like, but with the advent of Ruby code, you can change the look of your interface without having to go all-out with a custom menu system. Rearrange different elements. Use icons. Change the font or wording. Ideally, it should be usable without being immediately recognizable (though the two go hand-in-hand for grizzled RPG vets). While you're at it, drop that hideous Arial font. I used Lucida Sans Unicode in both my games, and it looks great and is easy to read. It's free on any Windows machine after 1998 or so, so try that. Avoid gimmick fonts like Comic Sans or Impact unless it's for a reason (I'm guilty of using Impact, though - it just happens to look good when compressed into a tight space).
- Have a consistent graphical "style". If you're going for a purposefully humorous game like Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, then go out of your way to make it a mess. Otherwise, choose a style and don't deviate from it. Even if this means using the graphical elements included in the design program. Some people consider this a cardinal sin, but at least it's a unified appearance. Feel free to tweak those graphics if you have the right software - GIMP is free, and Photoshop Elements is very inexpensive. Even something as unremarkable as a hue shift can let you interject your own color-based mood or personality.
- Fix all glaring typos. A very obvious one. Oddly, even commercial games miss this sometimes, but it's a very easy (though potentially time-consuming) way to demonstrate effort. If you just plain can't spell, then see the above about having someone else test for you.
- Don't skimp on the instructions. Help files used to be all the rage; these days, you're probably better off with a .doc or a .pdf file. You don't have to go crazy so long as it's serviceable - just having it there shows that you care - but having a fancy, full-color document that looks like a "real" manual isn't a whole lot more work for a lot of payoff, even if you think no one will ever read it.
- Brevity is ... wit. Yes, I fail at this one sometimes too - so who better than me to tell you about it! Keep snobbery to a minimum on commonly-used interface objects that the player should know about. Say "New Game" or "New Story", not "ASCEND TO A DIFFERENT PLANE OF EXISTENCE". Stats and the like can be mixed up, but preferably not something completely opaque or obtuse, or worse - with the same name but different meaning (like "Strength" actually being defense). Alternatively, so long as these labels are explained sufficiently well at the time the player needs to know what they mean, you won't look like a 15-year-old who just discovered thesaurus.com.
- Expect criticism, you large child. Pretending it doesn't exist does not make it go away. Force yourself to read it, respond thoughtfully, and plan for what to change next time. Don't ever be outright dismissive, even if said critic is being nonconstructive or even inaccurate. Especially on the internet.
So, uh, that's just a handful of ways you can be better prepared to entice and amuse an audience. Little bits of polish here and there can go a long way without interfering with the creativity injected into the game itself. There is a lot that goes into making a game - especially by yourself - so why not work on making it look more like the "real thing"?
Next time: Taking a break with the release of Episode Two coming up. But will it return???