It’s 7th of January, 2009. Seven days has passed, and I’d have a question: have you started taking action to reach your goals for this year?

Seriously, I have been thinking and planning, planning and thinking my goals for this year, but haven’t really done much yet. (Okay, I have been sick, but that’s still an excuse). It’s “only 7 days”, but that’s already about 2% of the time we have for year 2009.

I don’t mean you’d need to rush or anything… but I think we gotta wake up if we really want to finish the stuff we plan for the year 2009.

If you already have goals, start working on them. If you don’t have goals, set them.

Have you already started taking steps towards your goals?

I’ve been playing Savage 2 game for a bit, and I think these guys have really nailed how the whole “play online for free (but give your money to us little by little)” strategy should be done. Not sure if this is can be called ‘micropayment’, but at least their 5-10 buck payments are smaller than 20 buck games.

Their concept is really simple:

• The game is free: it’s not trial. It’s not demo. It’s not “free download”. The game is free. Absolutely free. I think this is a terrific idea for spreading the game. People want free stuff, so why not give it to them.
• People can pay for some stuff (that’s the catch): They are selling ‘premium accounts’ that give you some benefits (you can see more stats and get some extra perks - I think they could do bit better job saying what exactly all these benefits are). It cost like 10 bucks only. That’s again cheap.
• People can pay for ‘items’ (that’s another catch): There are runes in the game, and if you spend 5 bucks, you can create yourself rune (or runes) that help your character a bit (like… give you more health or armor etc.). I find this terrific idea: it’s not ruining the game balance, but it’s very good offer for such a small price.

I think they could describe the benefits bit more clearly (so that the buyer really understands what he gets, and how many runes you get and so on), but I really like the concept. It doesn’t feel like ‘trial version’ (although I suppose that’s what it is by definition: feature limited version that you can play as long as you want). I suppose they have done good job hiding it.

That’s something worth checking out and learning.

Yesterday’s blog post about the best RPG character development system is getting series of good comments.

I spotted one comment, written by Jake:

The XP model, whilst commonly used, is weird if you think about it. You kill a load of monsters with a sword, then can spend your XP on magic. It’s totally unrealstic.

I agree that this type of development system (kill monsters, gain experience, spend points on whatever) is unrealistic but there are ways to make it more realistic.

For example, Lorezo Gatti commented:

I personally like (at least in theory) point buy systems, even if they are unlikely to be very balanced, because they are flexible: if some change makes sense (e.g. the GM decrees that during a long cruise everybody picks up some Sailing skill points), it can be compensated with available experience pools and other changes without changing the power level of the characters; if the power level changes (through experience awards or planned inflation) there is the maximum flexibility for converting the improvement to actual power; the character’s point value can take into account gear and other externalities.

This style works (I believe) well in some pen & paper RPGs: if the player can convince the game master that his character learned certain skills, then he can put some points to those skills. This can actually create more drama in the game as you try to find a way to convince the GM.

Another thing to ponder is: is it always bad?

It might be unrealistic, but does that really matter (in all cases)? Most games are unrealistic anyway. GTA 4 - you’d be dead very soon if those car crashes would be realistic. In Left 4 Dead you would be scared to hell if you’d see screaming zombies running towards you. There’s probably not a single real time strategy game where they would always display “failure” after campaign instead of “victory” (there’s no winners in wars) and no civilian kills or mental health aid that the soldiers require after killing people. All the games are somewhat unrealistic.

I think if the system works and makes the game feel fun - even if it’s unrealistic - it can be a good system.

I do agree with Jake, that there are games where this type of “kill monsters with sword, learn fireball spell” sounds dumb, and totally takes away something from the immersion. If it ruins the gameplay, it’s bad.

Your thoughts? (or suggestions for character development system)

I was discussing with friends of mine about the “best RPG character development system”, and here’s few of the ideas suggested:

• Using of skill makes the skill better (in other words: if you use sword, you’ll become better in sword usage)
• Experience points, that can be put to different skills (but so that you cannot develop everything, you need to choose which skills to develop)
• Description for skill levels (Cyberpunk style, where skills had values from 1-10 and for example value 5 in leadership equals plummer, value 11 is Captain Kirk (the value which you can never reach))
• Certain natural elements (race for example) define the maximum values, and then the closer the maximum you get, the more difficult it gets to develop the skill.

I personally enjoy a system where you have experience points (and even ‘levels’ - at least in some context) and then can put few points to different skills as you please. In addition to this, I like if characters have options to choose from different special skills, but so that they might need to choose their ‘path’ (bit like Jedi-style: choosing between The Dark Force or The Light Force, which then defines what sort of specialties you can get).

It was interesting to see, that people prefer to have very different ways on how to develop a gaming character. Some guys wanted a realistic approach, while others thought it was boring.

What about you? What kind of character development system do you like most?

Are you familiar with the old game production wisdom that says: “Fixing one bug just leads to 3-4 new bugs”?

I’ve just encountered it. Kind of. With my car.

Today we saw about -10 degrees (celcius) here, and the car doors were frozen. I tried opening one door, and then closing it, just to notice that it would not close anymore. I did all kinds of fancy stuff (no, I’m far from being a car mechanic) but with little luck. In the end, I just decided to try another approach and decided to open another door.

Bad move.

That door didn’t close either. The freaking door lock mechanism (or something) was simply so frozen that I could not close the door any more. I tried all sorts of melt-your-key-hole-thingy-sprays and whatnot but with little luck. Now I had two doors that could not be closed.

Eventually I just slammed the doors and thought that I let it be. It’s too bloody cold anyway so robbers won’t be stealing it (hopefully none of them is reading this blog now).

Nasty winter.

Luckily (like with any programming bugs) there’s always the ‘quick fix’ method. I’ve played so many adventure games that I know what to do when I see a long rope in the trunk of my car…

Daniel from GameDreamer.net joined the Insiders and asked if I could review his brand new blog. (Those of you who don’t know, the yearly Insider subscription comes with a review bonus) This is a review about Daniel’s site, but also article about “steps on game producer path”.

The two steps
While a blog isn’t a product, and reviewing a (new) blog seemed bit difficult, I still agreed to do this.

The first thing that caught my was the site slogan: “Steps On the Path of Becoming a Successful Game Producer”. I read Daniel’s first post and I get the feeling he really wants to become a game producer/developer.

I think that means the first step out of 2 necessary ones are fulfilled. The second step is “go forward until you are a successful game developer”. I suppose if Daniel really wants to become a successful game producer, and takes steps forward every day (even small steps) he’s got a good future ahead.

Take what you need and leave the rest…
Another interesting point Daniel mentions in his about page is that “take what you need and leave the rest”. I tend to think similarly, so here’s some tips to consider regarding the website. Take what you need and leave the rest:

• More content: Daniel’s blog needs more content. I realize it’s brand new, so I guess this is only a matter of time.
• Newsletter: I always suggest people to start gathering emails from people. It’s one of the best ways to keep in touch on those people who visit your site.
• Take away ‘visitor locations’: or put them somewhere less visible (like a separate page or something). Right now the ‘visitor locations’ takes the best space on the site.
• Site layout could use something, but I think this is simply a matter of taste…

Since the site is brand new, it’s quite hard to suggest major changes. I think the basics are okay. If the goal is to gain traffic, then getting more content (and frequent updates) is a good start. I think that alone will bring a big difference in terms of gaining traffic. Then spending time on marketing the blog by participating different forums for example, will be helpful too.

If the GameDreamer.net blog’s purpose is to simply log Daniel’s progress on becoming a successful game producer, I see nothing wrong with that approach.

My fever (and most of the other stuff like sore throat) seems to be over and I’m feeling better. I start delivering those Christmas gifts during the first days of January, so please email me in case you won something in the Xmas contest (unless you’ve already done that). I’ve emailed people, but haven’t got replies from everybody yet.

I’ll be posting the links and other stuff to people who participated in the GTA4 donation during the following days.

It’s a brand new year now. First day of the year, and I want to start it by doing one of the things I promised to do. Here are the list of donators of those who helped me to get GTA 4.

In order of apperance…

Ofer (link pending…)
Tobias (Spell of Play)
Penny (who game me the idea to ask for this)
Janette (Evolutionary)
Martin (Running Pillow)
Jake (Grey Alien Games)
Josh (Leadwerks)
Jay (Hobbit Hole)
Julio (Lemon Team)
Daniel (Game Dreamer)
Michael (Michael James Williams)
Ronny (no link)

Thanks guys.

I’m emailing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Producers ebook to you now. Those of you who participated, please subscribe to the Dead Wake game newsletter to get informed when the game is released (so that you can claim your copy when the game is out).

It’s the last day of the year, and time to look back for my plans & predictions for the year 2008. I must say that the plans I laid have not been happened as such, but rather in different forms. Let’s take a look at them:

• Weekly updated blog didn’t happen. I ‘tried’ doing it, but it simply didn’t fit my style. I tend to make complex things simple, and long short so this type of ‘long weekly articles’ was a dead end for me. It meant that several months passed with little updates. It wasn’t until August 2008 I got back to (almost) daily updates. This ‘update daily’ style fits me, so I’ll stay doing brief updates but more often.
• I think due lack of updates, the site didn’t receive 100,000 monthly visitors (the traffic actually went down, but is now increasing - due daily updates I think). Getting back to Wordpress was a move to better times.
• I didn’t form an ltd as I didn’t see it necessary (I hate extra paperwork… ;). We’ll see if I can tackle the paperwork and reports next year. Right now this current situation feels good about me, nothing to complain.
• Monthly Dead Wake zombie game updates was ‘close’, and I think the biggest good thing I did was first switch the engine back to something old I knew in September and then to BlitzMax and Leadwerks in November. This caused some delay in monthly updates, but I’m very positive about the current path. It feels right, so I’m happy about the progress.
• Insiders got new upgrades (several ebooks, article resources, press release consultation), and there’s new fancier services coming (and price will go up) next year.

I’m not sure if it’s quite strange or very common, but I feel that my plans for the year 2008 have been changed, even though the goals have remained same. If I think about the idea of ‘weekly updates’ in this blog, I think the thought behind this is what matters (I wanted to try and see how it would go, and provide value). It became clear to me that my style is better suited for daily updates. I shall write longer articles every now and then, but it’s fun to update daily, so I’ll do that.

Also, the ‘vision’ behind ‘forming an ltd’ was to make my mind feel more that I have a ‘true’ company (I have a registered company, but still ‘ltd’ feels ‘more’ like a company). Business wise at this point it would have some benefits, but also some hindrances. I think the important thing is the vision behind the plan.

Top blog posts and things for the year 2008
Here’s some stuff that people really seemed to enjoy based on the page views:

• How to create your first game - interestingly enough, this was the most popular article in year 2008, even though it was written in May 2007…
• 100 ways to be more productive - I really enjoyed writing this article, and many people seemed to like reading it.
• Consider different cultures in games production - written in 2006, and VERY interestingly enough this was also one of the top 10 read articles in year 2008.

And here’s some of my own picks for the year 2008

• I’m a Vista user - good thing.
• Good signs - about Dead Wake.
• Wicked marketing plot - can get you banned in some places…
• Game producer Christmas calendar - I enjoyed doing it, hopefully you enjoyed checking it (even though I messed up things).
• Producer roundtable - producers from AAA companies answer questions
• How to set up the world’s simplest version control and backup system in 5 minutes - So easy and simple that anyone who can read this blog can do it.

If you want to check more articles, simply check out the archives. All the blog posts are listed there.

Crystal ball, year 2008 predictions…
You can go an take a look at the crystal ball - predictions I had for the year 2008 - and while it’s bit difficult to name whether most of those stuff happened, it seems that DRM, micro-transactions, ad-supported games and casual games are being talked more and more (in retrospect it seems pretty understandable). Social gaming didn’t flop, in fact - I think it’s getting bigger than ever. Just think of Little Big Planet for example.

My foggy crystal ball tells me that in year 2009:
Please notice that all this is totally guesswork. Don’t buy stocks based on these.

• Valve’s Steam will open a program crafted for indies to publish their games (just a hunch - can go totally wrong)
• The so called ‘worldwide recession’ (or ‘panic created by some people’) will mean loads of dead companies, but it will also mean great opportunities and more and more gaming companies will be born. Those who (still) deal with physical gaming products will shift more and more to digital products: Steam will get competitors.
• Blizzard will announce a new MMO game called the World of Diablo - the MMO that will combine Diablo 3 (Metacritic score 91 in the end of year btw) and WoW and will become so big hit that the recession will end.
• Big Fish Games will start buying more and more indie game studios under their wings, recruit more people than ever and grow so big that people start to resent it (but still keep buying their products) and complain how ‘Casual Games’ category should be renamed to ‘Clone Games’.
• 89% of computers will support DX9 according to Steam hardware survey.
• Makers of Crysis will introduce a DirectX11 supported game prototype.
• Windows 7 will be delayed and people will hate Microsoft and then go buying their products.
• Alan Wake will be published and it will introduce a new type of gaming genre: thriller.

Disclaimer: I really gotta point out that these are guesswork. I know squat about anything, so you should not believe me or try doing anything stupid (or anything to be exact) based on these predictions.

My visions for the year 2009
Besides making predictions for the year 2009, I also want to point out some plans and visions I have for my own company. These are some of the points where my focus will be in year 2009.

• Daily updated blog: like already mentioned, I really enjoy doing daily updates. If I miss some days, that’s fine - but on average I’ll stick with the daily updates. 5-7 blog posts every week still feels fun. I don’t have traffic goals other than I’m sure it’ll increase. That 100 000 monthly visitors sounds reasonable to me. The main vision is, that many people would enjoy the site - and people would like the articles and get inspired to do games. (And of course share their sales statistics ;)
• Finish Dead Wake: I switched to Leadwerks engine in November (and I warmly recommend the engine to anybody who wishes to make games) and I’ve set an internal goal to make Dead Wake in releasable shape during the first quarter. No promises yet, but that’s my goal - the ultimate visualization being the release of Dead Wake.
• Prototyping - something tells me that I will be releasing some sort of prototypes (similarly made in short time: bit like Highpiled that was created in 20ish hours). This is a gut feeling, so we’ll see how it goes.
• The community for Game Producers: There’s now close to 80 Insiders, and I feel like I want to create a great service for those developers who want to make a living making games. I want to give people tools and aid them in developing games. The next year Insiders service will get bigger and better than ever.

I look forward for the next year. What about you? What did you finish in year 2008 and what plans you have for the year 2009? Feel free to share your story.

Happy New Year everybody!

“Patience grasshopper” is the phrase I repeat to myself. I’ve had fever for several days, but things are getting better and now I just need to get my sore throat better, throw away the headache and remember that it takes time.

I have several things that I meant to do a few days ago (like send some of you readers some gifts, program my game a bit, write some blog posts and so on), but now I try to remind myself that getting healthy again takes some time. Gotta be patient (and I hope you guys bear with me…)

Some things simply take time.