Plan for Scott Shumaker

(note: personal updates first, actual spiel a page or so down)

I just graduated this Saturday (Honors Computer Science, University of Michigan, Summa Cum Laude). The graduation ceremony was actually pretty nice, to my surprise.

The last couple of days, I've been meeting old friends before they go off their separate ways. I'll probably meet some more in the coming weeks as well, but I decided I needed something to occupy my time until I start work later this summer.

I really enjoyed working on Smash TV 3D and Project Venus last semester (check out my projects page). Both were small games done in a very short time period (about three weeks apiece). As a result, I've decided to do another small game, to be completed in an equivalently short time period.

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The key to actually finishing an independent game is to think small. This is not to impugn your programming or artistic skills, but let's face it, we all have grand visions of enormous worlds, full with interactivity and gameplay variety.

You are absolutely, totally, positively NOT going to finish a project like that on your own. Not even with a small group of people. It takes huge teams and tons of funding to complete a project on the scale of Deus Ex, not to even mention any of the massively-multiplayer games.

In other words, put those grandiose dreams on the shelf for now, and pick a simple, streamlined idea. You may be able to add a lot to the game later on, but you will never get to a workable state if you don't slow down and start simply.

Twitch action games are the simplest and easiest to make into fun games. This is because a lot of the 'fun' is actually provided by the player in the form of adrenaline. You can simply throw lots of enemies at the player in certain patterns, and gameplay emerges from the resulting chaos.

Puzzle games are a bit more difficult. If you modify an existing puzzle game style (tetris, columns, magic drop) you can make a pretty good game in a short time, and even with a unique idea you can usually make a puzzle game that's enjoyable. On the other hand, making a truly great puzzle game is something that requires far more talent and a very healthy dose of luck.

I'd have to bill strategy games as the most difficult to actually make enjoyable. By strategy, I mean everything from RTSs to tactical combat games, to ground-breakers like Civilization or Pirates!. When the thrill is entirely cerebral, the game has to be a lot more compelling and deep and the amount of effort spent in playtesting and designing skyrockets as a result. RPGs fall into almost the same category, since they are basically entirely based on content (storyline, music, quests, etc).


In fact, content is the single most expensive resource in game development, in terms of both time and effort. That's at least partially why Quake 3 could be made with a 6 person (admittedly very talented) team, while Deus Ex took well over 50 if you include the voice actors.

The applications of this rule to independent game development are obvious. You don't need to necessarily rule out hopes of creating the next huge immersive world, but you need to start small. Start with a game concept that is entertaining and engaging at it's very outset. Make a few small levels or stages to test your design. I can already hear the objections: "My game is a holistic experience; it needs to be complete before it can be enjoyed." Bullshit. If a game concept isn't good enough to stand on its own in a small demo, than there's no way it will be good in a larger game. Would you play twenty hours of a game that isn't even fun for the first 10 minutes?

In essence, you're doing the same thing with game design that you're do when programming: prototyping. I'm not claiming that you'll be able to design a game completely and then freeze all of the gameplay. Of course not. Design, like all software development, is an iterative process. But if your central idea is flawed and unexciting, no amount of modifying it will ever make it work.

Even more importantly for independent game development, if you start too big you simply won't finish.

This isn't just true for games; this is true for all aspects of software development as well. When working on a large piece of software, having it buildable and runnable (even if it doesn't do much) throughout the course of the entire project adds immeasurably to team enthusiasm.

I can't tell you the number of projects I see here that are unbelieveably ambitious in their descriptions. I hate to pick names here, but how about this one:

"This game intends to combine all aspects of everything I possibly hold of value in a game while using a structured system that allows for unlimited possibilities in the game universe due to the design of the game


It's intended to be massively multiplayer. There will be mobs/enemies with a custom evolution engine so that one enemy that may be easy may come back in force the next day. It's going to be entirely scalable, with a server setup that will allow for fast, comprehensive gameplay at a minimal of lag."



Now, I'm not going to make any outright predictions, but I'd be willing to put money that this game never even makes it to the playable demo state. :)


In summary, think small and think achievable. The independent game industry changes very rapidly, as people get jobs and graduate from school. It's unlikely your team members are going to be around very long unless you can show significant progress. Try and get something actually playable within a few months. If you can develop a really compelling demo, you'll find no shortage of people willing to work on your game in the long haul.

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As an aside, the game I'm planning on working on is a quick and dirty action game, called Hunted (working title). The concept is pretty simple: you control an agent trapped in a foreign nation, and you have to escape to a safehouse or the border. Meanwhile, there are hordes of enemy agents, secret police, and military all trying to hunt you down and kill you as you navigate over landmines and through narrow streets. Picture a 3d obstacle course while being pursued by hordes of enemies. The view will be 3/4 perspective and the control scheme will be a lot like crack.com's Abuse, except from a 3D top-down perspective rather than side-scrolling. This will let you run and shoot in entirely different directions. The idea is that you won't be able to stand toe-to-toe with the unlimited numbers of enemies that chase you, you'll have to constantly run and shoot as you make your way to the exit, all while dodging obstacles and navigating through city streets and other terrain. If you stop to rest for a moment, you'll quickly be overwhelmed.

The central idea is simple, it won't require that much new technology to be developed (I'll probably just modify the engine I wrote for Smash TV 3D), and the required content is fairly minimal, so I should be able to get a working prototype up and running rather quickly (I'm planning on a 3 week time period). If there are any artists out there who would like to help with 3DStudio Max or Quake2 models, or would be interested in providing concept art or textures, please send me an email at sjshumak@umich.edu.