I was, unfortunately, a bit of a mess by the time I rolled up there. Generally, I don’t travel well anyway (as the missus will reassure you) but between a week with a distinct lack of sleep, a 6 hour coach journey where the coach turns up incredibly late and then toddling as fast as my little legs can take me to Antenna, guided ably by Mrs Bob on the phone for directions I certainly wasn’t even remotely close to my best. I think a bearded sweaty mess with a backpack would be a fair description.

However, any stresses immediately relieved by stumbling in to cries of “Ooooooh, here he is” from the Minster and immediately being flocked by the lovely organisers to get set up as fast as possible. Which we then did. Min dealt with the PC side of things, I took the Macwanker corner. Because someone had to, really.

Rather than go down to show off my stuff, which to be fair I get plenty of opportunities for, we opted to show off Min’s stuff and some not entirely random selections of the work of RR-ites.

So on display from the Retro Remakes camp during the night were Min’s Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Space Cabbage and Pheonix. (Due to framey-use on site, no individual links but here’s Min’s homepage), Stu and Smila’s Ultimate Bruce Lee and Quantasm, TCK’s COBEX, Kuto’s Typhoon 2001 and of course, at some point you have to regale everyone with the story of War Twat whilst blinding random passers by.

And by “on display” I generally mean “indulging in our own personal high score competitions with…” which is what happens when you let us lot loose in a room.

On display from the not-RR camp we got a glance at BlindGirl, a game I’d not had chance to look at yet on XBLIG thanks to life taking over. I really must write something up about it at some point and AVOID (short version – it’s a multiplayer Squares2).

Normally, when I roll up to something like this I’ll end up with a camera full of photos. With GameCity Nights my camera ended up stuck in my pocket being forgotten about because, well, here’s the great thing about GameCity Nights…

It’s highly relaxed and we spent most of the night just chatting. Which, y’know, any right minded person will tell you is far more fun than booth-babing it. Sure, you’re on hand if anyone wants to ask you something but that’s so far from a priority it’s silly. Enjoying yourself there takes absolute priority and for that alone I’d really recommend that if you can drag your arse down there, you do so.

It’s a good night and the gameiness stuff doesn’t take precedent over the social aspects.

Helped along by some seriously good company, one of the most relaxing nights out you could ask for punctuated with the odd bit of fun stuff to do and the panel.

Ah yes, the panel.

It was Doctor Who Adventures night so on hand, Mr James Moran, Charles Cecil and Anwen Aspden compered by One Life Left’s Simon Byron.

To be fair here, I’m more used to places where wot you get some indies in the room together and a level of candidness you can’t really apply once you get further up the mainstream ladder so despite the best efforts of everyone involved to spark it up a bit, for me on message stuff is always going to be a bit bland. At times I felt like I’d wandered into an episode of Dr Who Confidential (“we’ve got a wonderful team doing wonderful things and everyone is wonderful etc…”). That said, it was entertaining enough and getting a glimpse at Sumo Digital’s pitch reel for the Adventure Games made it all worth the while.

It was the sort of pitch reel you watch and end up thinking “yup, if *I* was making the decisions, I’d have picked that”. Good stuff, they really had nailed the show down rather beautifully.

A short Q&A followed with some general questions from the audience and the internets but y’know, when most answers are going to be “we can’t really say anything about that” there’s not a lot further you can take that sort of thing. A shame in one way but a not entirely unexpected one at that.

The three of us ducked out for a ciggy and chat outside for a while and wandered back into a Dr Who themed game of Consequences. We didn’t take part as I’m not allowed paper and a pen (or MSPaint or anything that I can draw on) at events after the Coders Workshop incident(s) about 5 or 6 years ago involving a kids art package and the drawing of manbits everywhere and no-one wanted to be that person who stood up at the front and instead of reading a story out had to say “and Bob has drawn a cock here”.

The winning entry is here for anyone wondering exactly what madness this entailed. A close second place must surely be the team who managed to have the ending to their story entirely in German and had to swap speakers to read it out to the crowd in a moment of lovely accidental performance art madness.

Then it was back to shifting between the bar and chatter for a while before the three of us had to peg off (ah, being a parent is so much fun…) into the night. Or in my case, into a long and torturous return journey that saw me land back home at gone 10am the next day. No matter though, a minor suffering to endure for a fine night with some fine people at a fine venue.

If you’re in the locale or y’know, a lunatic like me who fancies a bit of a trek, and there’s a GameCity Nights on – go there. Really. It’s lovely.

Even with the hellish travel, I had a stonkingly fun night and I’d definitely do it all over again.

Which is totally awesome. Just as awesome was watching how much he’d come on when typing a thank you comment (and getting the CAPTCHA right, something I routinely fail at). Only a few months ago I’d have had to hang over his shoulder to be a guide but no such larks this time. I went off, made a brew and et voila his first comment on the internet was done.

Everyone who has a kid and can write games should totally make a game with them.

Although, until yesterday I didn’t actually realise that this was something even remotely exceptional to do.

I make all my games with Boo and have done since he was old enough to sit down and play them and make suggestions. It’s how War Twat (he has his own “War Bus” version) ended up with handbags and yellow diggers as the enemies and well, everything I’ve put out since has been done with his input. Because he’s fab.

Sometimes it’s just testing things out and playing them lots but more often than not, he’s got ideas to throw in the ring too and I’ll listen to them and talk them through with him and more likely than not, end up with them in game.

I’m not one of those parents who wants a long and successful career for him in game dev or whatever daft stuff like that, it’s just fun and one extra thing to spend time doing stuff together because we can. That it could be argued I write games roughly on his level probably makes us the perfect team.

So yeah, parents! Make games with your kid. It’s ace.

Whilst I sit here and on one hand wonder how complaints about Limbo are “3 hours for £10″ instead of “£10 for Fat Bob Smith’s Another World Emo Edition Extreme” and on the other hand try and suppress the urge to shout out “WHY DID YOU KILL IANTO?” at James Moran at this Friday’s GameCity Nights entirely for my own amusement, it’s time to do some links.

Because I like links.

Pixels At An Exhibition – Magical Wasteland

“Even the most beautifully pioneering ones have clear points of inspiration, still the result of a non-gaming lineage”

Lovely piece and bang on the nail.

A New Challenger Appears

Excite Mike vs Dejobaan at Indie Kombat.

As myself and Farbs are close to wrapping up our bout, it’s time to get in the ring once more with two kings of the indie frontier.

And watch them beat the shit out of each other, obv.

Benchmark Reviews Busted.

Note to editors. A cursory google search of who you’re actually emailing might help in future.

Gillen on the Develop Micro Studio panel.

Well, not on it but writing about it.

Also, this is why I read RPS.

Edge go Bullshit Hunting.

And find some. SCIENCE FACT!

The Stifling Of Creativity

SCIENCE FACT! No wait, the other one. FALSE PREMISE! I’m not sure whether to be confused, irritated or angry over this one. But that was last week and it’s a new happier day now!

Ehhhhhhhh [stop with the Fonz - Ed]

So sang Ian Mcnabb and for once in his life, he was actually right.

Theory:

Games do music wrong. Ok, ok, not wrong but we’re very much stuck in a tried and tested formula which we rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

There are notable exceptions. Runman: Race Around The World gets it right. The bar scene in Prey gets it right. The end of Portal gets it right. Music is emotive and wonderful, it doesn’t have to be variations on a techno theme, aping John Williams or generic movie score #21 or some bleeps and bloops.

The right soundtrack can elevate something into the wonderful more often than not, we get a soundtrack that just fits. It doesn’t elevate.

I have been equally guilty of this in the past.

Experiment:

If you have both Left4Dead (the first) and Spotify. Turn the default music down and play through a campaign with this playlist.

You will, naturally, lose a number of audio cues so be on your guard. Despite playing the exact same game you normally would, the experience is drastically different from normal.

Proof:

via the lovely Mike Meyer. A request from earlier in the week from myself. Fulfilled for Klik Of The Month. Give it time to load.

The simple addition of Moroder porn ‘tache disco makes all the difference.

Conclusion:

More games need disco.

I’m still reeling a bit because y’know, I didn’t actually expect to raise enough money for a monitor and sort of vaguely hoped I might cadge enough to offset the costs a bit. Yet, thanks to some lovely wonderful people I’m sitting here typing this on a new monitor. Ok, I’m not typing on the monitor, I’m typing on a keyboard and looking at the results on a monitor.

Which is totally awesome and amazing.

After a bit of mad financial wangling involving mailing the hosts and getting a couple of days grace (this week is hosting monies week) and the magic of a Paypal top up card (and the switching of hosting payments onto said top up card) and then using the hosting money to peg it out at the last minute to go and get a monitor, I can has visuals. Which is crazy stuff.

Bit of bargaining on an ex display model to come away with a pretty decent size considering and yeah. Bloody hell. Thank you.

Rolled back in and starting wending my way through the thank you emails and working out who I need to send “a special drawing” too with a monitor that actually turns on! If I’ve not gotten back to you yet, sorry – it’s been a bit crazy and it took me a while to actually let what just happened sink in too.

After a few days of the old thing thing barely starting before killing itself this morning, that’s weirdly special. Especially given the month or so I’ve had where you sit tight thinking “as long as nothing blows up, I’ll see the other side of this in no time”, it was crushing to actually have something give up the ghost when you know there’s nothing you can do to sort it. And then admit to that in public.

I sorta kept shtum about the hows and whys of having to drop out of World Of Love, it wasn’t just the money as I said there were care-y concerns I had to factor in too but being hit by a pair of bills that wiped me out the day after I’d spent hours writing out the talk and doing the slides was harsh and made the difference between “I could still pull it off with a bit of a wangle” to “oh, nuts – I haven’t got a hope in hell”.

Really, I can’t thank everyone enough and y’know, the download link and a scribbled cock doesn’t seem like nearly enough to express my gratitude. Yet, grateful and humbled I am.

So, yeah, thank you. All of you who tried to rustle up a monitor or chucked in and dug me out of a hole or just offered words of support. You’re lovely and wonderful.

I guess I better get on and make some games then. Starting with beating the hell out of Farbs.

<3

It’s been a bit flunky for a few days now but today it finally bit the bullet and killed itself. Fuckety fuck.

Problem is, I don’t actually have the money to replace it. Nor do I know when I’m going to have the money to replace it.

As anyone who knows me well is aware, I don’t really have much in the way of money. I’m not saying that in a “oh, pity me, hard done by me” sort of way. It’s just a fact. 50% of what comes into this house (which is not a lot) goes back out again, split between paying to keep myself and others online with the RR server and paying for my internet connection. My idea of a luxury is the odd cheapo game in the Steam sale and a monthly Spotify sub to stop me from going mental.

There’s a few kind RR subscriptions that come in but they’re small (but vastly appreciated) amounts, they don’t even cover 1/10th of the server bill but they do make the difference between teabags and no teabags at times.

And Bagfull, obviously, isn’t earning me a wage. Not that I especially mind about that either, I don’t make games for the money, the fame or the glory. I’m a full time carer and that’s always going to be my priority.

I bought the computer and all the gear 4 years ago when we had a bit of an influx of money. We spent out a fair bit knowing that it would have to last out as long as it possibly could. It is, aside from getting the odd dusting every now and then, as is when purchased 4 years ago as well (including the most ill purchased graphics card ever in the case of the 2900HD), we knew we wouldn’t be able to afford to upgrade it on the fly so you just hope bits hang in there till I dunno, something happens. Maybe you get a week where things go especially well.

So, fuck. I dunno what to do right now other than throw this out there and ask for some assistance. I can’t write any more games if I can’t actually see what I’m writing on (before you ask, I’m typing this on the missus’ ancient Macbook, GM4Mac is a write off in my books and well, everything is on the PC anyway) and the time it takes me to even consider saving up for a new monitor, we’ll probably be looking at 3 or 4 months out of action. Yup, things -are- that shit. Part of (but not all, there were other equally pressing reasons I can’t discuss) the reason I had to pull out of World Of Love was that I simply couldn’t afford to get down there.

So, y’know, if you’ve enjoyed my games in the past or something and want to help me be able to write more, if you want to say thanks for some pluggage or promotion or you’re just passing by and feeling generous… I’d love you dearly if you could help.

I don’t really have much to offer but y’know, usual Bagfull rules – any amount donated will get you all my games released on Bagfull for the forseeable future, fuck – I dunno. I can probably punt up a custom version of SYNSO or War Twat or something if you wanted one when I’m back on the road, or draw you a cock on a piece of paper and mail it you or something.

And you have my thanks, natch.

[I've removed the paypal link now, thanks everyone. I dunno what to say other than sincere thanks but I've had a go here. Thank you.]

I picked up Red Faction:Guerrilla in the Steam sales for a couple of quid last week. Being me, I’d somehow managed to avoid knowing absolutely anything of note or worth about the game other than a few tidbits posted a while back on the Rodent forums which I’d long forgotten ever reading.

And it’s ace.

I’ve got a thing for toybox games. I’ve got a thing for games that let you cause absolutely massive amounts of destruction. Watching the skyscrapers topple in EDF:2017 is still one of the most amazingly cool things in games of recent times. That RF:G lets you topple buildings is equally cool. That it lets you topple them by smacking them up with a large hammer is even more cool.

Whilst in the near 30 hours I’ve been playing now I’ve amassed a fair armory, nothing really beats just running in with a hammer and a few sticky explosives and playing at demolitions. That it lets you play the game with only rarely needing to shoot anything is super. I’ve got lots of games where I can shoot things but not many games where I can smack things down with hammers.

Actually, this is the only game I’ve got where you can smack things down with hammers unless you count a thousand 8 bit variants on Space Panic.

As usual with these things, I spend more time pissing about than I do with the missions and advancing the story. I’ve over 20 hours wracked up on Just Cause 2 and I don’t think I’ve done a proper mission in about 18. RF:G encourages you to do the missions by virtue that you get more things to smash up with your hammer. However, once you’ve completed the mission you’re invariably left with a large amount of buildings in the area and each one of them can be battered to rubble. It’d be rude not to oblige, wouldn’t it?

And before you know it, you’ve just lost half an hour reducing everything to dust.

Well, it works for me anyway. Best £4 I’ve spent in ages.

If you’ve ever played any of his stuff on the humble Speccy, it’s not a great leap to see where I get a fair bit of inspiration from.

And here he is with the greatest bug fix ever.

RIP Mr Smiff.

Forget Reality

I’m sure many of you are aware of the tale of Limbo Of The Lost.

In 2008, a barely known group of chaps dropped over 13 years worth of dreams onto the world in the shape of an elaborate (and admittedly not very good) 3rd person adventure game. Originally starting life as a 16 bit game, time passed from an initial demo in 1995 with nothing of note occurring to the day in 2008 when the internet discovered that there was a new game out there that had quite a few issues surrounding it. The issues, of course, mainly being that the game was made up pretty much entirely of stolen content.

Sure, the writing and the puzzles (for the most part) were original, the same could not be said of the assets. Steve Bovis and the rest of the folks behind Limbo of the Lost had managed to write the biggest mash up game in history. Wherever they felt something from somewhere else could be used, they used it. From the movie Spawn to so many games, the content of Limbo of the Lost began life far from the purpose it was eventually used for.

Overnight, the elation they must have felt at getting their game finished and published must have fucked off pretty rapidly as piece by piece, denizens of the internet traced the origins of each piece of art, each movie grab and each piece of source art. Sure, it’s likely the game would have languished in absolute obscurity given its quality were it not for the notoriety surrounding it and yes, overnight they became pariahs but…

Bovis and pals managed something many people don’t. They’d wrote and completed a large scale adventure game, something they clearly wanted to do for over 13 years. As I say, not an especially good large scale adventure game but I think we all know just how many short form projects don’t even make it that far and how many ambitions are dashed on a daily basis.

The thing

Now, I’m not going to stand here and tell you that what they did was right. Clearly, it wasn’t.

Steve Bovis is the extreme end of the spectrum, sure. Whilst he had a certain determination that eventually led to mass content re appropriation in order to make Limbo Of The Lost a reality, most people just shrug their shoulders, give up and walk away.

I don’t think that’s right.

Wouldn’t it be much better if we lived in a world where people didn’t feel like stealing content was the only way to make an ambitious game become reality or that, well, people didn’t feel such a need to run away screaming from game development?

Y’see, there’s this thing about game development. For all the progress we’ve made over the years towards sharing knowledge, making more accessible tools and all the wonders the internet has brought in enabling more people to write games there’s still a few fundamental problems that keep people away from game development.

It’s stuff we should be concerned about changing. The more people we can bring into the development gene pool, the more we can expand what we have. The more chances of getting a wider variety of games and more chances for something truly different and quite wonderful to appear. It’s in our own interests as players of games and as writers of games to do this.

Oh yeah, that thing? It’s called exclusion and most of us probably don’t even realise we’re doing it.

The test

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who wants to write a game but doesn’t know where to start. I realise that’s probably a long time ago for a fair few folks, but try. If you need a bit of assistance with this, go to a game development forum – pretty much any one will do. Go and find one of those threads that crop up on a reasonably regular basis. You know the ones. “I want to write a game but I don’t know where to start”.

Often, the first thing people will need to know is well, what they need to type their thoughts into. Often, the replies are frankly fucking useless and end up in bickering and arguing over what package is best. You should use C/C++ because of this reason, you should try XNA because of this reason. “No!”, someone else will cry. “If you’re just starting out you should use Unity. It’s fantastic for beginners.” and someone might pipe up with “You could always consider Gamemaker or Construct or MMF”. Often, because we’re nothing but human beings, a small heated argument will follow bickering over who’s coding cock is the biggest coding cock.

Very helpful, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Now, as you’re in the shoes of someone starting out, go and download each and every one of these things and look at them. Just look at them and imagine the heartbreaking disappointment large amounts of people feel as they’re faced with either an empty window and a blinking cursor or a myriad of windows docked to the left, to the right, to the top and to the foot of the screen filled with what might as well be absolute bollocks.

Writing games isn’t just about coding either. Even if you’ve managed to write your game, often you still need art and sound too. I know of a lot of cases of games getting trapped in limbo because Person A can code a game but feels the art requirements beyond their reach.

I’m not talking “I want to write Crysis 16″, often we’re talking small, simple puzzle games or platformers.

The simplest of things, things some of us probably find second nature or not a problem become mountains that cannot be climbed.

We will, we will fix it

I know, I know. I know what some of you are thinking right now.

“When I was starting out, I went to the library and I got every book on coding I could find and absorbed it. I went on a course and did this and I did that”

Well done you. You’re not going to get a gold star or a sticker for it though, are you? If nothing else, in saying that you already admit the barrier is a high one.

We’re talking a creative endeavor here, not heart surgery. There’s no need for the barrier to be that high.

“But you should just pay for an artist or musician. It’s what I do”

Or y’know, we could teach people that if they’re sitting there writing games on their own there’s many ways to get a decent looking game without having to throw money at it hand over fist. Or, we could actually do something to help them rather than fob the problem off with a flippant remark.

I realise that’s going to sit uncomfortably with some of you folks but this is about making games not being CJ from Reggie Perrin. I’m glad that you got where you are today by doing what you do. Thankful for it, even. It doesn’t mean that everyone can do what you do and it’s wrong to assume that your way is either the only or the right way.

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, I think there are better ways. And we can all do something to help. All of us as indie developers have the advantage of not being tied to corporate structures requiring approval before we can open our gobs. We can just do.

So let’s do stuff. Let’s help get more people making games.

In 3 Easy Steps

Look, it’s easy. I’m not going to stand here and ask for a miracle or the impossible, just some stuff that each and every one of us can do.

You can help people.

I don’t expect everyone to be Dr Petter and release tools that take the pain away from creating sound effects or introducing people to 3d modelling the easy way, for a start I know most folks probably don’t have time in their already busy lives to go off writing tools for the public as well.

Even something as simple as a level editor can get people involved in content creation.

If you can and your game suits it, include something in there that makes it easy for people to modify it.

The last figures I found for Little Big Planet stated that there were over 725,000 levels created for the game. There’s over 100 million entries into the Sporepedia, all user generated. On a much smaller and more indie scale, Knytt Stories by Nifflas has a thriving community of folks who create levels for the game.

There’s thousands of people out there itching to create something and the more accessible a tool you can offer them, the more likely they are to start creating. The only thing the three titles I’ve just mentioned have in common really are that they all ship with accessible content creation tools and it seems to be working for them.

If you can and you do put out non game specific tools that make creation easy, even better.

Oh yeah, and document your stuff. In English. Not in coder-ese.

Don’t complain that no-one uses your level editor, tool or package if you don’t explain to most people how to use it. Shit documentation or documentation that makes no sense to 99% of the population is far too regular a thing.

Don’t make that mistake. Don’t assume that whoever picks up your package already has prior knowledge of coding conventions or understands computer.

Ideally, of course, your level editor/tool/package should be usable without it anyway, but y’know, just in case…

We can share stuff.

Going back to Limbo Of The Lost for a brief second – one of the reasons why you’d feel the need to steal content is because there’s not that much in the way of art assets out there for people to use.

Consider that we writers of games are often terrible for reinventing the wheel. New game, new door texture. New game, new sprites. I know some of you, like me, will be serial recyclers but by and large, a new game means it’s time for new content.

Why not offer up the assets to your old titles for reuse and recycling?

I’ve done this and already know of a number of people who’ve used some of the content in their own titles because it takes some of the pain away from stuff they feel they can’t do or (shockingly) because what I’ve done is better or more appropriate than what they’ve managed to throw together.

There’s a lot of banging on in certain quarters about how sharing your source code is the ultimate in generosity. I’d argue that the source code is, when all said and done, only valuable to a small amount of people. The people who can already read and understand your code. Art assets and sound effects on the other hand can be universal.

And who knows, perhaps it’ll lead to an exciting remix culture. We already see Mario Vs Tetris Vs Metroid done in certain more underground quarters to great effect, imagine what people could do with your game and what new things they could create. It could be amazing. If The Kleptones can do it for music, someone will do it for games.

There’ll always be people willing to pay for their own original art and sound or with a want and need to create their own original art and sound, let’s give those who can’t a leg up the ladder and take one pain away from them getting their first game out the door.

We can encourage people

And I don’t mean “enter my competition and win a huge amount of wonga” here.

All of us have it in our power to make a difference. Me, you and everyone in this room.

I know it’s a coders want to moan and complain that making games is hard, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read or heard stuff like “you wouldn’t build your own house, would you, eh?”

Let’s be honest here though. Making games isn’t hard.

Making a good game is hard and not everyone is equipped for that but just making a game? Nah, that’s not difficult at all.

Yet you listen to the way some of us go on and you’d think we were rerouting the internals of an elephant with keyhole surgery rather than typing some shit into a box.

Here’s a wild thought. Instead of spending our time moaning and griping how hard it is to make games or complaining about the frustrations, we spend some time encouraging people to have a go at it themselves.

If you’ve got a blog attached to your site, why not write a post suggesting that your readers write their own game and hey, it might be fun. Tell them that they can do it if they really want to.

And next time you find yourself in one of those forum discussions where someone says “I want to make a game but I don’t know where to start” – instead of confusing them or scaring them or getting into the obligatory “my language is better than your language” fight, ask them what it is they want to make.

Listen to their needs.

If they want to tell a story, perhaps Twine or Ren’py is more than enough for their needs without having to dig into the code of Inform or C++. Maybe they could do everything they wanted to with Gamemaker. Or maybe they do need C++, C# or whatever.

It’s their needs that count, not yours.

Point them at tutorials, point them at starter kits, by all means offer the wisdom you’ve acquired along the way in your own game making adventures.

Together, we can all start breaking down some of these barriers and get more people interested and excited about writing their own stuff. We’re already seeing this shift happen, it’s why Indie now is not what Indie was even 5 years ago and it’s absolutely brilliant. Between the lot of us, we can make this gaming landscape even better.

And it won’t take much effort at all if we all help, share and encourage.