Autonomous AI and the First Dinosauria
by Andy Schatz · 01/19/2009 (7:52 pm) · 1 comments
Don't throw away your old game designs.
YACP (yet another cross-post)
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This is the story of how Dinosauria came to be. In fact, the entire Venture series was born in a dorm room in 1998, and has been percolating in my head all these years. I also owe thanks to Tom Wexler (now an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Denison University), who was my game design collaborator back then, and has never been properly thanked for helping to develop many of the ideas that form the basis of the Venture series today.
The Early Years
It has always been my dream to start a game development company. I was already programming when I was 8 and in junior high I finished my first game, a multiplayer top-down arena combat game with magicians and skeletons. Next, I made a Warlords clone with randomized maps called Servants of Darkness. I wish this game was still functional, my family used to gather around and play against one another all afternoon.
Flush with success on my first couple of games, I started building bigger and better games while developing a bigger and better ego about my game development abilities. I started thinking about actually trying to sell my games. As usual when money becomes involved, this is when things went bad.
Big dreams, Few Results
By the time I went to college (1996), games weren't made by one guy in his garage anymore. I made a friend in Tom Wexler, a brilliant Math major who shared my interest in making games. We started work on a game called VOID. Between game development, ultimate frisbee, and sleep, my schoolwork and prospects for summer jobs fell through.
This game was XCOM-ish with a more real-time approach to the tactical battles. I took a summer off from working (actually I failed to get re-hired at my job making games for one of the earliest internet game portals in 1997) and tried to finish the game, but I just wasn't mature enough then to have the work ethic necessary for commercial game development. When I realized that the project was too big and my motivation to finish it too meager, I told Tom that I couldn't continue and that we were going to have to shelve it.
YACP (yet another cross-post)
FULL POST AND MORE PICTURES ON THE BLOG
SUBSCRIBE
This is the story of how Dinosauria came to be. In fact, the entire Venture series was born in a dorm room in 1998, and has been percolating in my head all these years. I also owe thanks to Tom Wexler (now an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Denison University), who was my game design collaborator back then, and has never been properly thanked for helping to develop many of the ideas that form the basis of the Venture series today.The Early Years
It has always been my dream to start a game development company. I was already programming when I was 8 and in junior high I finished my first game, a multiplayer top-down arena combat game with magicians and skeletons. Next, I made a Warlords clone with randomized maps called Servants of Darkness. I wish this game was still functional, my family used to gather around and play against one another all afternoon.
Flush with success on my first couple of games, I started building bigger and better games while developing a bigger and better ego about my game development abilities. I started thinking about actually trying to sell my games. As usual when money becomes involved, this is when things went bad.
Big dreams, Few Results
By the time I went to college (1996), games weren't made by one guy in his garage anymore. I made a friend in Tom Wexler, a brilliant Math major who shared my interest in making games. We started work on a game called VOID. Between game development, ultimate frisbee, and sleep, my schoolwork and prospects for summer jobs fell through.
This game was XCOM-ish with a more real-time approach to the tactical battles. I took a summer off from working (actually I failed to get re-hired at my job making games for one of the earliest internet game portals in 1997) and tried to finish the game, but I just wasn't mature enough then to have the work ethic necessary for commercial game development. When I realized that the project was too big and my motivation to finish it too meager, I told Tom that I couldn't continue and that we were going to have to shelve it.
About the author
Torque Owner Scott Wilson