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Plan for Phil Carlisle

Name:	Phil Carlisle
Date Posted:	Oct 21, 2005
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Unlucky, me?

Well, another fun week another plan. This week I am mainly just spending time reinstalling software as yet again my computer decides to blow chunks and eat its registry.

This is definitely a good time to do a clean install and move over to XP I guess. At the very least I'll get all my drivers and dev software intalled and then ghost the install to another backup drive.

The other problem is that I really need a new machine! This old 2.2 gig P4 is showing its age and I'm not entirely sure what is causing the reboots and registry corruption (ok, its problably just some dodgy install of a driver or something and I know originally I caused it myself by running a registry cleaner).

The main thing, is that I install software ALL the time. I mean little apps, student work, casual games (for research) etc.

I simply cant keep it a clean-room dev machine, much as I'd love to.

So its about time maybe I invested in another new machine, a bit more speed, a whole lot more memory, try and keep it as clean as possible. But then, a new machine, wouldnt that run battlefield 2 better?

You know how it goes, I dont want to install something dodgy, but this machine is *SO* much nicer to run EVERYTHING on.

So I guess I'll try and get everything sorted this weekend. Maybe order the parts to build myself a new machine. Maybe just stick to getting a new HD or two.

Ok, enough whining about machines... the reason I came here, was to try and make clear my thoughts on the whole "casual" game space.

Although I might have sounded like I was against casual games, I'm definitely not. Its more that I dont have a passion for them myself. I cant imagine buying one.

But could I develop a good one? I think so! I think as a professional developer, I should be able to produce ANY game to a high level of quality and polish. Programming games isnt always fun anyway, often its just donkeywork or just grinding through feature lists, so there is no particular reason why I shouldnt find the fun doing a casual game versus an epic fps for instance. They are both engineering and design challenges.

So this raises the point. Do we *require* a specific passion for the games we create? Or do we just require a passion for the act of development?

I love being creative, I like being creative in many different ways, be it documentation, artwork (sadly not my bag),music, design, concept, discussion or argument or whatever. I am I think, someone who likes to be creative in nature.

This means that effectively, I can apply that creative element of myself to any task, be it designing casual games, or coding up a new camera/control system, to designing a course of study. Thats not to say that others arent better suited, or that I do these things well, just that I get the creative buzz from all of these efforts.

Next plan I hope to solidify some of the things I've been studying games wise into a more useful look at my study of current casual games. Including some pictures and things! :)

Plus we should have some updates for Air Ace and more updates to the website..

Recent Blog Posts

List:	11/28/08 - GDC AI sessions 09/18/08 - Tell me I'm not going crazy!! 12/05/07 - The importance of good tools for productivity 11/17/07 - Using the way back machine. 09/21/07 - Juggling cats. 09/04/07 - End of Summer. 08/27/07 - Come work with me!! 08/14/07 - The changing nature of entertainment

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Anthony Rosenbaum (Oct 21, 2005 at 13:21 GMT)

Phil, would you mind letting me look at your slides from IGC?

As for the question

Quote:

Do we *require* a specific passion for the games we create?

Yes, but passion dosen't pay rent.

I think your Sheep hearding game would be a great Casual game. Probably the most tedious part is to make a slew of levels for it.

Adrian Tysoe (Oct 21, 2005 at 14:47 GMT)

Xp is great, actually ran faster than 98 or win2k on my old P2 400 even. Just so long as I had enough ram.

Toby W. Allen (Oct 21, 2005 at 14:58 GMT)

Phil,
Keep the old machine, keep it as a clean server for your data or a games machine, and get something new? :P

Toby.

Joe Maruschak (Oct 21, 2005 at 15:02 GMT)

Keep the old machine.. with the new machine, use it for development only.. the old machine, nuke and pave the drive and do whatever you want with it, use it to surf and play games.. do not uninstall the spyware.. this will give you a test machine that accurately reflects the target audience.. old drivers, loaded with spyware, and probably running like a dog...

as for a clean room machine. I actually keep both of my work machines pretty clean. It is all a matter of piling enough work onto yourself that you have no time to do anything but develop.

Adrian Tysoe (Oct 21, 2005 at 16:03 GMT)

On passion, If you like developing the games, and for you the actual making of the game is the best game out there. I really think you can make almost any game. However if you make a game that you like and enjoy playing I do feel that will emerge in the game itself and produce a more enjoyable product. (assuming you have the skills)

I really enjoyed making Aerial Antics despite it not really being my thing. On the other hand, Market value held very little interest for me being a casual puzzle game, and having a completely different idea of what the gameplay should be, neither of us were all that motivated and a 1 month project soon became four.

If your going to make a casual game, make sure you like it on some level and aren't just trying to make a quick $. I think today, I'd only develop one if it was being paid for up front, or there was a very solid design doc behind it and everyone involved knew what was to be done from the start. Rather than using asketchy lets start and see what happens kind of attitude (ultimately what happened with us).

Logan Foster (Oct 21, 2005 at 16:21 GMT)

Phil I agree with Joe. I do this same thing at home with my machines and I find that it works out great for having a bunch of boxes to test your game on while keeping your Dev machine isolated and clean.

Media @ KrabbitSoft Studios Inc. (Oct 21, 2005 at 16:32 GMT)

Edited on Dec 06, 2005 17:22 GMT

Mark Berry (Oct 21, 2005 at 16:49 GMT)

If you just want one machine, then just install windows twice. Give most of your HD space to general stuff, games, open office etc. The second install you just install your dev stuff on. Its easy. I used to do that for work and games, that way I had a completely clean and easy to update windows install to install games on, and it didnt interfere with any of my other software.

Cheers.

Phil Carlisle (Oct 21, 2005 at 18:52 GMT)

Thanks for the feedback guys... I think its probably a good idea to clean up my old machine a tad (i.e. get it working again) and then put together a new machine.

Brian Wells (Oct 21, 2005 at 18:56 GMT)

Yeah I am still running a 2.4 here. I am probably going to get a new one around Xmas once I get a chance to play with Windows Vista to make sure whatever MB/CPU/Vid Card combo I get seems to work nice in it.

Brian Hunter (Oct 21, 2005 at 19:56 GMT)

... I still run a AthalonXP 1.8GHz ... *sniff sniff* ... and a 2.2 P4 is "showing age" ?
/runs crying into the night, especially when he accidentally looks at his GF3 Ti200 choking on Empire Earth 2 :,(

Paul Dana (Oct 21, 2005 at 20:00 GMT)

I think Mark's advice has merit.

Vashner (Oct 21, 2005 at 20:10 GMT)

Phil it could be spyware / trojans corrupting your pc. I use Norton Internet Security / AV 2006.

Hardware wise I think the more you invest in the new machine the better off you will be.

I have my eye on a Dell Gen 2 / M170 laptop... perfect for TSE coding.

Edit: Just realized you said BF2 ...
bf2s.com/player/Vashner/
Edited on Oct 22, 2005 06:28 GMT

Jesse (Midhir) Liles (Oct 23, 2005 at 05:49 GMT)

I have found with dozens of machines since my old 486 sx laptop, that what inevitably causes them to run like festering dog manure is the fact that they have Microsoft Windows (Insert Version Here) installed on them. This is unfortunate, as almost all commercial quality 'end-user' software is targetted towards Microsoft Windows, thus making the developers life a living a hell if he/she wants to develop software they actually want to sell. My compromise is to install Linux on a second hard drive on every computer I own, thus ensuring that I can almost always recover from the damage done by Windows simply by booting into Linux and fixing the problem, backing up the Windows drive from within Linux, and usually reinstalling Windows (the only real way to clean up the registry ;). I highly recommend this option as an $80 hard drive with Linux on it is the best system restore utility I've ever owned.

David Dougher (Oct 23, 2005 at 18:55 GMT)

Do we require passion for the games we create? No, I could make more money writing accounting software. So, I could certainly write games I don't enjoy creating at all, but can you give me any possible reason that, as long as I can make enough money to survive, I would want to spend one minute of my life doing something like that?

Yes, I can make more money doing other things, but no matter how much money I have I cannot use it to buy back one second of the time I spent doing something with my life I didn't enjoy.

It's all about your priorities. In this case my prioirty is me. I admit it.

I work from home now via the Internet. I could go back to consulting and make 5 times what I make developing the game I'm currently working on. But whenever I think the cash is tight and the job is frustrating I get up a little early in the morning, walk downstairs and turn on the morning traffic report. As I watch the car crash scenes, the traffic jam reports, listen to the awful weather, and the soaring price of gas, I sip a cup of tea. Then I get up and I go into my office, turn on my computer and go back to work.

There is a smile on my face the whole day that nothing can remove.

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