Once more unto the breach, dear friends!
by Donald "Yadot" Harris · 02/10/2008 (10:19 pm) · 2 comments
So it's been a while since I made a .plan entry. I have been pretty busy with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Since I have expanded the family and investing a lot of extra time training in my career to grow, I have not had much time to work on gaming. I did at one point have a team together and working on a neat title. There were a lot of reasons as to why we didn't finish and I have hopefully learned from them. I guess we will see with this next run. First let's chat a bit about the old game.
It was a basic break out game with some added features. The player could change his paddle different colors to match the color of the ball that was being bounced around the screen. If the player matched the color of the ball the ball would stick to the paddle and then the player could launch it at any angle. At the top of the screen was another paddle that was controlled by the computer. Along with that paddle, the computer also got to control two minions which had special powers. Some of them could shoot lightning bolts which would stun you. Shower down columns of water which would restrict you left right play area. And hit you with a spell to blind you (remove all color from the play area. All you see is yourself) There was 12 total. All the enemy paddles represent a different bad guy in an overall story line. The art and story line came from the publisher at the time. Really cool stuff here are some screen shots:
Now onto the next game. This one I have been thinking about for a while now. I have played some clones but none of them ever had what I wanted most and that was true teamwork! My goal is to create a simple fun multiplayer 2d experience. I have found a great professional coder and 3d/2d artist to boot. We just recently had a team meeting this last Sunday and things are progressing pretty steadily. My personal goal with this game is to turn into something bigger.... (Insert reading audience sigh) my own MMO! Soon I will have some content to hopefully post on this subject but as for now you get text.
Had some other interesting things happen to me as well. I went to a Video Game mixer at a local coffee bar here in Austin. The interesting part is this sitting right next to me is none other than Warren Spector. Once I found out who he was I was like dang.... I better get some insight out of this guy. But I got so freaking nervous I asked a stupid question I already knew the answer to. Luckily however someone else asked a more interesting question... "Do you have any best practices for Game Design?" You know what his first response was? That game design documents are dead. I thought to myself dang it I have been busting my hump for the last 2 mos on my game design doc. He then went on to say that video game design is like any other true art form. It changes from day to day and its really hard to tie down to a document. Very interesting thoughts on that subject.
Something else that happen to me is that one of the reps from Mary Margaret has asked me to write and an article about the game industry. I am thinking about writing based around Warren's response. Anyways I hope to write an update soon..
PS: The TGB behavior design contest is on hold. We have some issues and one of the key leaders is not able to help out at the moment. I am sorry that we didn't post something sooner. But we will try and run this again soon. Thanks for all your help and contribution this far.
It was a basic break out game with some added features. The player could change his paddle different colors to match the color of the ball that was being bounced around the screen. If the player matched the color of the ball the ball would stick to the paddle and then the player could launch it at any angle. At the top of the screen was another paddle that was controlled by the computer. Along with that paddle, the computer also got to control two minions which had special powers. Some of them could shoot lightning bolts which would stun you. Shower down columns of water which would restrict you left right play area. And hit you with a spell to blind you (remove all color from the play area. All you see is yourself) There was 12 total. All the enemy paddles represent a different bad guy in an overall story line. The art and story line came from the publisher at the time. Really cool stuff here are some screen shots:
Now onto the next game. This one I have been thinking about for a while now. I have played some clones but none of them ever had what I wanted most and that was true teamwork! My goal is to create a simple fun multiplayer 2d experience. I have found a great professional coder and 3d/2d artist to boot. We just recently had a team meeting this last Sunday and things are progressing pretty steadily. My personal goal with this game is to turn into something bigger.... (Insert reading audience sigh) my own MMO! Soon I will have some content to hopefully post on this subject but as for now you get text.
Had some other interesting things happen to me as well. I went to a Video Game mixer at a local coffee bar here in Austin. The interesting part is this sitting right next to me is none other than Warren Spector. Once I found out who he was I was like dang.... I better get some insight out of this guy. But I got so freaking nervous I asked a stupid question I already knew the answer to. Luckily however someone else asked a more interesting question... "Do you have any best practices for Game Design?" You know what his first response was? That game design documents are dead. I thought to myself dang it I have been busting my hump for the last 2 mos on my game design doc. He then went on to say that video game design is like any other true art form. It changes from day to day and its really hard to tie down to a document. Very interesting thoughts on that subject.
Something else that happen to me is that one of the reps from Mary Margaret has asked me to write and an article about the game industry. I am thinking about writing based around Warren's response. Anyways I hope to write an update soon..
PS: The TGB behavior design contest is on hold. We have some issues and one of the key leaders is not able to help out at the moment. I am sorry that we didn't post something sooner. But we will try and run this again soon. Thanks for all your help and contribution this far.
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