My Bogle Sculpture

It feels like it's been more than just a couple weeks since my last entry, as we've gotten tons and tons of things done. Sound effects, guis, lots and lots of characters are done and in game, initiative system, offline/hot seat multiplayer modes, we've gotten dozens of animations created for the Runes and the list goes on and on. That's not to say our to do list is empty however... we still have miles to go before we sleep, but just because I haven't been posting every few days hasn't meant our progress has slowed at all.

Tomorrow should have been alpha, but we've rescheduled things a bit. We don't want to wear out our best testers and there are a number of things we want to get right before we put it in their hands. So essentially, we've moved a lot of the features forward and back and ended up with a slightly better plan of attacking the last few "big ticket items" that are still on our list. Anyway we plan to have the first official beta come in just in time for Dragon*Con and the IGF competition. We have a second (possibly open?) beta planned for mid September and a full release right around IGC. If we didn't already have 90% of the game itself done, I'd be worried about the schedule (and I'm still a little worried about the schedule!), but we're already quite a ways ahead of the newly revised plan, so we should have quite a bit of cushion in getting this out the door. Most of what we've got between now and October is logistical and while it's time consuming it's actually the easiest part for me to plan.

I always struggle with estimating design and research efforts. How long does it take to come up with a good idea? How long does it take to solve a riddle? It's those sorts of things that can stretch a project/task to a breaking point. But if you don't get it right ahead of time, you end up with a heck of a lot problems - things like feature creep as development goes along or maintenance nightmares to name but a couple. I've learned a lot about game design from My Bogle, but one of the most valuable things I've gotten from the experience is just a greater sense of efficient design. In my other life, I've been largely responsible for shipping (or not shipping, but that wasn't my fault! :) ), multi-million dollar projects that have taken years of planning and development to bring into existence. My Bogle is infinitesimal in comparison (okay, not really), but it's been a truly amazing feat getting it to where it's at today.

See, it's like making your first sculpture. The building blocks and tools are different than almost all other media, so it takes time to learn how to use them efficiently. How long it takes to pick up a vastly different set of tools and techniques is something that is extraordinarily difficult to predict. Without a clear sense of what you can and can't do with the tools means that it's almost impossible to come up with a clear vision of what it is you're actually going to be able to make. You have to start small, iterate often, experiment and iterate again. Once you know (at least think you know) what you can do, then you have to imagine what the best sculpture is that you can make with your knowledge, skills and abilities. When you envision the completed work in your mind's eye - you can see all the little pieces that it will take to make it whole. You can break down the imaginary sculpture a dozen different ways to try and find the best way to put it together. But how long will it actually take to make it? Will you really be able to make it come out alright in the end?

My Bogle is a lot like my first sculpture... It's not my first game or my first software product, but it's essentially my first video game product. I've created many, many applications in many different languages, using many different tools for many different industries, but I've had to learn a whole new set of tools and a whole new industry. I've successfully distributed and marketed my programs to the public, but instead of convincing my users that my program is useful, I've got to convince them that my program is fun. I've loved (nearly) every minute of this process as it's kept me on my toes. I would never had expected to be as whole-heartedly pleased with my first sculpture, and for it be so close to finished as it is, as close as it is to our original schedule, and for it to be, in my own humble opinion, more beautiful and fun than I could have possibly hoped for... it's really just too much to grok.

It's funny, in January I knew I wanted... needed... to do something different, but I had no idea what it was that I wanted to do. I looked at this as a unique opportunity... possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do, I just had to figure out what it was that I wanted to do with it. Given that opportunity, what choice did I have but to make a game company? I thought about what will happen when I'm 70 years old and look back on my career, and I look at what opportunities I had that I wish I would have taken advantage of, and realize what things I should have done but didn't do. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to be live with myself if I hadn't at least tried to make our game company a reality. Notice how I said our game company. This was not my vision alone. This was not my dream alone and I certainly wouldn't have been able to make it happen alone. Since childhood, my brother and I have been making games. We've planned out, strategized, executed and even managed to sell a few of them (mostly to friends :) ). But to actually make a game that was more than just something for ourselves and friends was outside our reach when we were younger, and that meant putting our hopes of ever actually making a game company on hold as we went about the process of becoming responsible adults. We make pretty good adults but we make pretty darn good game designers too. The only way I could fail was by not doing it. From that point of view, it was really a no-brainer.

So now as I look at our little sculpture in it's near finished form... it's hard to imagine that 7 months ago I wondered whether it was even possible. It's hard to imagine I had thoughts like "if we get 10,000 downloads I'll be happy". I'm so very proud of our My Bogle sculpture. I'm no long worried about being happy based on the number of downloads. I've certainly not given up wanting lots and lots of them... but I'm happy regardless of the download and conversion rates. As cliche as it sounds, this is about as close as it comes to having a dream come true. See, when you're building that first precious sculpture, it's not about how much you're going to sell it for once it's done, it's about whether or not you can really make it as great as you dreamt that it could be and in that regards it's far surpassed my wildest expectations.

-Andrew Douglas
theoreticalgames.com

P.S. no image?? well, if you haven't bothered to stroll over to our site in a while, you may have missed some of the newly announced creatures and a write about who they are over in Jonathan's blog - here. You must check it out... it's a moral imperative. :) I'll make up for a lack of pictures in the next post... I promise.