Zombie Minesweeper Launch and Design Article

WOO, WE DID IT!

Zombie Minesweeper has officially launched for iPhone/iPad and is for sale. Were getting great reviews and great ratings. I'm so proud!

However, having it on the market, we now discover the truth of all the assumptions we've made so far. So there's going to be lots to write about in the near future!

Lara and Mike have each posted a retrospective article at zombieminesweeper.com, and today I just posted my first article on the site: Why Zombies? Big Decisions in Design.

You can read it there, or, if you are a dark-on-light person like myself, I've copied the text below.

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The Zombie Minesweeper trailer was recently featured on IndieGames.com. What an extremely proud moment! Getting posted there has been one of the little tick-boxes on my list of 'things to do before I'm a real indie.'

However, there was a fairly strong sentiment running through the comments:

"Bleh.... zombies." ~Briker Ed

Zombies are a funny theme: They've been going strong for a long time, and regardless of how much fatigue players express, developers keep making these games, and players keep buying them! But that's no excuse for us to jump on the bandwagon and pump out 'yet another zombie game'. No, in fact our choice of zombies was fairly carefully considered, and it's just our burden that we have to push past all the 'me too' zombie games out there.

So why zombies?

The first thing was that, making Minesweeper, we wanted some kind of slow, clueless enemy. This would allow us to keep it a puzzle game where the enemies are there to add pressure, rather than having fast, smart enemies, which would have turned it in to more of an action game. We thought of a few different kinds of enemies, and zombies just seemed the most 'right'.

The second was that land mines are kind of a touchy subject, so we wanted an enemy that would be 'okay' to blow to bits. Again, there were a lot of possibilities, but zombies seemed to strike the right balance between 'okay to destroy' and 'make a big mess when you destroy them'.

We did try to inject our own flavour in to it though by making the zombies cute animals, and even plants (cue zombie mushroom). Although there are probably other games that have done this (there are a LOT of zombie games. ;) ), we felt that at least that was an aspect of zombies that hadn't been done to death.

But here is, I think, the most important part: We decided that we wanted zombies, and we threw ourselves into it fully. We considered the ramifications and alternatives, put our own style on it, and ensure that it was made to the highest quality. It's important to never get caught in the flow and do something without intention. Make a choice! Even if it's the wrong choice, being conscious of the decision allows you to evaluate the outcome and make better choices in the future. This is the only way to improve and be happy with what you've created!

Going Zombie Crazy!

So this is just a quick post so I can say, "Yes! I wrote in my blog!"

Basically, things have been completely nuts getting the iOS version of Zombie Minesweeper ready for release. Well, that's finally come to fruit: We've been approved, and the game is launching on the 9th of August!

Part of the work going on right now (apart from all the other work!) is PR stuff. And part of that is making myself more notable! Which means I should probably write. Because designers who don't write basically don't exist on the internet, amirite?

Well, I'm writing a piece about Zombie that should be out by release, so this is really just a prelude to that. So here goes!

Why So Sad, Indie?

Indies are awesome. If there is one thing that has been hammered home to me this year at GDC, it's that independent developers are completely awesome, and we are going to save gaming as we know it, while simultaneously trailblazing the roads that mainstream gaming and the future of what gaming will become will eventually take.

Indies are successful and happy and relevant, they love eachother and their communities, and their communities love them back. I keep walking up to famous, respected indies, cutting immediately past the bull crap, and having delicious, inspirational, and deep discussions with them about games and science and food and life. We are the best thing there is in games right now.

So why all the self pity? Why all the jokes about being poor schlubs and being downtrodden? We are significantly less trodden than mainstream developers, and there's nothing schlubby about being an entrepeneur, no matter what your product is.

Why does everyone act like we have something to prove to mainstream development, that we are somehow second-class citizens? Is it because we don't participate in that incestuous ecosystem of stock-price-driven business decisions? Is it because we aren't willing to hide our voices beneath mountains of compromise? Is it because we don't want to release mediocre games into the world?

Sure, there are wastrels and hanger-oners and misfits in indie games. But so are there in every other industry and profession in the world. Indie! Stop acting like you have no worth!

I can't even count the number of below-the-breath grunts and groans I heard from the crowd every time a speaker dared to imply that we were somehow pathetic or worthless. Most of us know we are awesome, but for some reason keep clinging to these bizzare stereotypes.

Ron Carmel made an awesome point about Indie Fund, where he said that he wanted to make sure that he was (paraphrasing) investing robustly into indies, to show the rest of the world just how much indies are worth. I think we all need to take that stance and start projecting to the world just how awesome we are, rather than repeating the same tired jokes about "will code for food".

I can't say it enough: Indies are awesome. So why so sad, indie?

A New Leaf

Well, here we are. The present is now. I guess that means life is changing.

So it's been an exciting and busy year for me. The biggest change is that I've gone full-time indie. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means, but it's finally starting to feel comfortable.

GDC is coming up, and for the first time, I will be attending. This has brought into focus several aspects of my career that I've neglected, mainly revolving around the way I participate in and present myself to the game development community and the rest of the world.

pages after pages... by Hellmy

I'm determined to put myself out there more, in all meanings of the phrase. There have been some good changes already:

I've gotten back onto twitter, at least in a small way. I feel like now that I'm doing game development full time again, I might have interesting things to say. Though to be honest, I still don't feel like Twitter is a very effective communication platform. I guess I just don't get it.

Design Dojo, the game design discussion group I run with Nels Anderson, has been a success. It's still evolving and growing, and almost two years in, we are still trying to figure out what exactly it wants to be. But we are having a good time running it, I'm learning lots, and I love hanging out and talking design more than almost anything. I still feel in my heart that this group could become something big and world-changing, and I know that the single greatest factor preventing that is that I'm not giving it the love and attention it deserves. I don't know if I can do that just now though, what with everything else going on, so I make no promises here.

The Vancouver Indie Meetup, run by Alex Vostrov and Jake Birkett, has been phenomenal as well. It's been such an encouragement to me to discover all these other people in the Vancouver area who are on the same journey as me, that I can share with and learn from. Mostly though, I'm just going to hang out. There are two critical steps I need to take to really get the value I should from this group. The first, is I need to give to it in a big way. Jake and Alex have been harassing me to give a presentation for quite some time now, and I keep waffling on them. I hate public speaking, but I know it's the right thing for me to do. GDC has come along and provided me with a convenient excuse for not speaking at this next meetup, and I really need to get past that and just do it. The second thing is that I need to start engaging my fellow indies on a more professional level, so that we can tangibly assist and benefit eachother instead of merely providing encouragement and socialization.

Importantly, I have just released my first game developed fully independently. With the help of Lara Kehler and Mike Labbe, Zombie Minesweeper is live on Kongregate. This is a pretty huge step, and a week and a half later I'm still buzzing inside from the satisfaction. I'll be writing more about this one directly in the near future.

Which brings me to the things which I still need to do to really turn things in the right direction:

First and foremost, I need to make more games. Each person has their own way of adding to the conversation, and I know that mine is with practical examples. I feel dirty when I talk about game design ideas that I haven't proven, of when I discuss my skill and have not shown it off. I'm going to try to be happy and outgoing, but I know that I won't really be able to until I have the weight of proof sitting behind me. And besides, that's what I'm here for anyways! All this, and I mean all this, is in service of ultimately making more games and making better games.

But even before I'm satisfied with my portfolio, I need to be part of the conversation more. Twitter and Buzz are a start to this, and firing up my blog again is a part to this. I need to tell people what I think, I need to add my 2 cents to the pile. I often feel like my opinion doesn't matter (see previous paragraph), but it does matter, and as little worth as it may have, it's utterly worthless if I don't release it to the world.

I need to make more developer friends. I have many developer acquaintances, but not many people I can just talk to openly and honestly about my work and life. This is also part of the aim of joining the conversation. I know that us developers tend to be shy introverts, and there are people out there just like me that I need to get to know, but it isn't going to happen until I step out and make my presence known.

There are many changes I should make in my life that aren't related directly to game design, but I feel like many of the shortcomings I percieve in my career and life are due to a lack of focus and willful distraction. I feel like if I really want to get this new life as an independent game developer kicked off, I need to really focus on it and give it my full attention. So this is my plan, this is my new leaf. Here goes nothin'.

Art and the Mainstream

Image of "The Marriage" by Rod Humble.

Artfulness and mass-market appeal can be looked at as opposing forces. Here are some illustrations of qualities of these two forces.

Creating an artful game:

• Has a specific "point".
  • Anything that doesn't directly support that point is noise.
  • Design by subtraction.
• Is fundamentally self-serving.
  • That is, your work needs to remain true to its intention (even though that intention itself may not be self-serving).
  • Your voice is the loudest; the work represents your opinion or perspective.
• Success is defined by the depth of its communication.
  • Should encourage the player to introspect.
  • At the end of the day, the hope is that it has somehow affected someone.
• The more any given personality likes it, the more another personality will hate it.

Creating a mass-market game:

• Tries to appeal to many personalities.
  • Bolstered by a plethora of minor facets, so everyone can find something they like.
• Can't offend. Mediocrity is the safe route.
• Is fundamentally audience-serving.
  • If the player percieves something to be incorrect or poor, then it is, since you are creating it for them.
  • Your voice is the quietest. The work is a gift to the audience to consume or dispose of as they please.
• Success is defined by the breadth of its communication.
  • As many people should experience it as possible, regardless of what their takeaway is.

You may not agree with every specific point in this list, but for now just focus on the shape of the comparison. When I say these are opposing forces, I mean that it is challenging to serve both these goals at the same time.

The very qualities of an artful work tend to make it hard for the mass-market to accept, and the very qualities of a mass-market game tend to destroy or occlude it's artful elements.

It's definitely possible to create something that is both, but at any given moment on a project, it's prudent to know which of these goals is more important to you, to ensure that you aren't focusing on elements of the work that are wasting your energy and diluting your purpose.

That Schell Game

There seems to be a bit of furor over that talk that Jesse Schell gave. I think it's much ado about nothing. Let me explain:

I saw a chart a ways back that looked something like this: (if you remember where this is from, let me know so I can link it...)

The implication being that there are all kinds of games out in that "unknown" area, and that in order to expand our art, we need to be exploring out into that unknown area. In general, I agree with this observation.

Mr. Schell's contention is that a fairly large slice of that pie consists of "Social Network Games", and another fairly large slice consists of "Making Games From Real World Things." And I agree, and await the future he describes with both eagerness and trepidation.

The general internet reaction, however, has been "ZOMG WOW. I don't want to make evil Big Brother games! Facebook evil! What happened to my beloved games!"

However: To me, a similar chart could be drawn up that looks like this:

Now imagine that only the right half of that chart had been "discovered", and you are a writer. All of a sudden someone comes along shouting, "We have no idea what the potential of books is yet! But I think you could collect a bunch of recipes and put them together in a 'Cooking Book', and sell these for millions!"

Well, yes, that's true. Does that mean that you should stop writing novels and start compiling cookbooks? Of course not!

Likewise: I joined the game industry primarily to craft escapist experiences. Are there other uses for games? Sure! Will my grocery store points card get more use if a talented game designer crafts a game around it instead of just a raw, boring point accumulation? Sure! But where I am, and where that is, are not really the same place.

As an aside: Everyone who has all these Big Brother fears from that talk... Well, you already have a grocery store points card, don't you? And you get bonus points for buying the off-brand cream corn, don't you? The future is now!

Link Dump (weekly)

• DrPetter's homepage - sfxr

  Its purpose is to provide a simple means of getting basic sound effects into a game for those people who were working hard to get a prototype done and don't have time to spend looking for suitable ways of doing this.The idea is that they could just hit a few buttons in this application and get some largely randomized effects that were custom in the sense that the user could accept/reject each proposed sound.

  tags: tool, free, games, sound, effects

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teaser

So, I'm working on a game project on my own, and decided that I'm going to make it a bit more of a public affair to help with motivation. I'll try to post updates, prototypes, and tips I pick up on the way.

But right now I'm busy working on it. So here is a teaser: