Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

It's that time again when I talk a little bit about what I've been playing lately. So, as of late I've been playing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Crash has a very special place in my heart because it was such a big part of my childhood but also because the original Crash Bandicoot game was one of the first games to spark my curiosity and interest in becoming a Game Dev.

So does Crash still hold up today? You bet your ass it does! Of course the remaster has the benefit of better looking art and animations but what shines through is its charm. A charm that comes from the original games. Crash is still that lovable goof, out to save the world. I had such a wonderful time remembering each character and feeling of nostalgia while playing through the games again. 

Something that really struck me was how good the level design was after all these years. It really is such a well made game that even after all these years, it can still stand up against a lot of platformers today. Another thing that I love about the Crash Bandicoot games is how well they tell their stories through such simple mechanics. A limitation of the tech back on the originals games that made for a fantastic simple way of setting up the world and your goals. 

They are the perfect games for simply picking up and jumping into without having to worry about getting focused on anything other than fun gripping gameplay. It also was interesting to play through the games as I'm currently working on a 2D Platformer and it made me appreciate the effort and design skill required to design a platformer of any kind. I personally loved the remaster and it brought back so many fond memories for me. If you played the originals as a kid or are looking for a game that's just fun and charming to play, then I urge you all to pick up the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy ​and enjoy a blast from the past.

​Until next time!

Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

Over the last little while, as I've been updating my portfolio, looking back on old games I've made and looking at how I design games now. I started thinking about how I've changed as a developer and the things I've learned over the years. So, for this week, I'm going to talk about some of the things I've learned along the way.

1: You're going to bite off more than you can chew.
When I look back at when I very first started learning to make games, I remember how ambitious I was. Now, being ambitious is something you need and should keep all through your years as a creative because without ambition, what's the point?

However, there's a difference between being ambitious and knowing what you can achieve at the time. When I first started making games, I had dreams of creating big open world games with huge stories and multiple.....well, multiple everything! While it's good to have that ambition, it wasn't realistic to aim for such an ambitious game at that early stage of my game dev life.

The most important thing is to finish projects and that means creating smaller projects first. Set goals you can achieve and work towards a deadline. Once you become more disciplined at your craft you can start pushing yourself on more ambitious projects. But you need to actually do it. The mistake a lot of people make is that they spend all their time in the planning phase. Where ideas seem great because you haven't put them to the test or where you keep refining that idea and keep saying "I'll start tomorrow" START TODAY!

2: Even small games take time to develop.
Another mistake I made in my early days was thinking that just because I was making a small game that it would be easy and quick to develop. Even small games take more time than you first realize to develop. General rule of thumb, if you think you'll make your short game in four months, add two more months to that and you might have a better idea of when it'll be finished.

It's important to understand that anything worthwhile doing is going to take time and is not to be rushed. Be realistic about how long it should take and don't try to rush through it. Both the game and you will suffer if you do. 

3: Your dream game is not the only game.
As game developers, we all have that game idea that we consider our dream game. What we think is our best idea and the game we just have to make. I know I have an idea that has been on my mind and I've been planning and testing for a number of years now. But it's an ambitious game and while it's a game I will get made over the course of time, it's important to realize your other ideas. Making other games not only improves your skills and helps get your name out there but those other games are what make working on your dream game possible. Don't fall down the rabbit hole of working on one game for so long that it burns you out.

4: Finish It!
In case it hasn't been obvious from what I've wrote so far, finishing a project is so important. Even if the game you finish is just a free game that you put out there for people to play, it's a finished game that you can point to at a moments notice if and when you need to show a portfolio piece. Keep your core game simple and avoid the feature creep. Get something finished and out to the world and then continue doing the same the next game. 

5: Stay motivated.
In our early days of making games right up to our more experienced days we can struggle with motivation. You know that feeling of being super excited and motivated at the start of making a game only to quickly find yourself losing that motivation as you develop a game you feel will never get finished. Don't worry, it's not just you. It happens to the best of us. The thing about games development is that a game will seem crap for about 90% of the projects development. It's only in that final stretch when things start to come together and it actually looks and feel like the game that you had envisioned. 

What I do to keep my focus on work is set a pace. I'll work without interruption for an hour and then I'll take a ten minute break where I'll take a break from the screen and stretch my legs. After that, I'll do another hour and repeat the process. I make a strong effort to not crunch late hours and also take time to try forget about the game for a bit and focus on other things that make me happy. It's important to take car of both your physical and metal health. Games may be your passion, but YOU still come first. Take time for yourself and spend it with family and friends doing things you enjoy. When you come back to your work you'll have that fresh motivation to keep going.

6: How you ​measure success.
This is something we all struggle with. Everyone will measure success differently. You need to figure out what success is to you. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do is become a game developer and even though I don't work in a big game studio and I make small games. I can proudly say I'm an award winning game developer who gets to make the type of games I want to make and people play them. Games may not make me rich but they make me happy and I'm in a position where what I've done so far is allowing me to return to college pursue a degree in Software Development and I continue to make games. As far as I'm concerned when it comes to being a game developer, I'm successful and most importantly, happy.

As always, I hope this has been of help to folks  and please, feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch.

​Until next time!

Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

This week, we're going to talk about why and when it's okay to make a bad game. Now before you ready your pitchforks and burning torches all the while proclaiming "It's never okay to make a bad game", let me explain.

Spending three or more years working on a game only to have it turn out to be a bad game is never good. It happens, but it's never a good thing really. Spending a full development cycle on a bad game means losing a lot of time that you can't get back and a lot of money too.

So when is it okay to make a bad game? Well, there's a lot to be said for Game Jams. You have a very short amount of time to make a playable game and the best part of this is, you don't have to worry too much about bugs or polish. As long as the game is playable and fun, then you've done great. There's something very rewarding about making a game and not having to worry about bugs and polish because you'll not only have a lot of fun with it but you'll learn a lot in the process.

So, what should you take away from making a game in such a short space of time?

1: You'll learn if the game idea is good.
Working in a Game Jam or even just making a game yourself over the course of a weekend is a great way to prototype a game fast and determine if the idea works.

2: You'll see what works.
Setting up mechanics in such a short time forces you to focus on the core gameplay and avoids the feature creep, allowing you to determine the mechanics that work best with your game.

3: You'll see what doesn't work.
Most importantly of all, you'll see what doesn't work about your game very quickly and you can adjust the design of the game or scrap it if it's just not working out in favor of a new idea.

The information you get and the lessons you learn from making a bad game in a short period of time is invaluable. So, can you really call a game like that a bad game? I don't think so. For now, if you have an idea for a game you want to make, then take a weekend and just knock out a rough game and see if it's a bad game or something you can actually learn from and build on.

​Until next time!

Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

This past weekend I had the chance to do some much needed catch up on a couple of games I've been meaning to get to for some time. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Hitman Season 1..

I managed to complete both games over the course of the weekend and both were great. I loved both games for very different reasons. Let's start off with uncharted 4. As a game developer who tends to create very narrative driven games, Uncharted 4 is a dream to play. The story is crafted so well with fantastic characters, each with their own traits that make you love or hate them. The gameplay is balanced very well too. The world artists and level designers do a fantastic job of making it clear where you have to go and what you can interact with without once making something seem out of place. It all blends perfectly to make for an enjoyable exciting experience.

As someone who has followed this series of games since the beginning, it was also quite an emotional game to play. It being the final installment is the series had my expectations very high and very curious as to how they would end it. Now, I won't spoil the ending as I'm sure there's more like me who are taking their time getting to it. But, it was a perfect ending in my mind.

Ok, let's talk about Hitman Season One. Once agin, I've been a fan of this series of games since the start with Contracts and Blood Money some of my favorites in the series. Absolution, while a solid game, was I found lacking in some of the classic elements that made the Hitman games so good. It went for a more linear style that suited the story they wanted to tell. However, Hitman Season One has gone back to the design that made me fall in love with the games.

While there is still a story and it is interesting, the game is structured in such a way that you can just completely ignore the story and it won't be a problem. What I love about Hitman is the open ended levels that are so detailed. The characters all have their own routines to go about and the possibilities for how you can take out your targets are almost endless. I have to hand it to the game designers on this one. The ability to be able to craft a world that not only feels alive but also giving the player the ability to interact and manipulate the routines in that world to benefit yourself but for it all to come together and make sense is amazing.

Often times when I'm replaying a mission, I'll ignore my objective and simply explore the level just listening in on conversations, observing ways I could plan out a way to kill my target and even just enjoy the attention to detail in the levels. The game design and level design in a good Hitman game is some of the best you'll see. One of the best things about this Hitman game is how much you can replay it and you can be sure I'll be jumping back in once I get some free time.