Gamification: The Misunderstood Dirty Word
Gamification is misunderstood.
“Gamification” is, in essence, the process of using game mechanics and game design to enhance things that aren’t games.
In the marketing and startup world, this concept is being heavily embraced and making a lot of people a lot of money right now, whether they have experience in game design and deserve that money or not. Similar to the buzzword of social media, the true experts at social media are the people who were experts at communication and social mechanics that took their knowledge and applied it to online networks. In this case, the true experts at gamification are the video game companies that have been applying game design and game mechanic concepts to actual games for decades.
But the industry still doesn't like the term. Understandably so.
How Free Should Games Be? Part 2
For the second installment of this feature, I decided to look at a different type of free-to-play game. I am, and have always been, a fan of first person shooters. And though I was never able to play the originals, Tribes: Ascend has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. The first two games set the stage for so much of what we as gamers and developers take for granted, it is sometimes stunning to go back through the list of features that they introduced, among them the very idea of a multi-player only game. Long before other games had anything of the sort, Tribes had classes, multi person vehicles, weapon kits, and support for up to 32 players (over dial-up!)
Inspiration for Running a Video Game Company from Rocky Balboa
Running Spark Plug Games is kinda like being Rocky Balboa, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Hercules, Han Solo and Darth Vader all at the same time. Thus begins the Inspiration Series - a few posts on the characters that have inspired me as I've built Spark Plug Games, a fun-loving video game company, over the past four years.
How Free Should Games Be?
If you try to keep up with the newest, best things in gaming, you are destined to be broke. Trust me, I know from personal experience. In college we had a saying: “Drugs would be cheaper.” Recently, there have been a few games that broke this expensive mold and have had enough clout, whether in advertising or pure hype, to gather the attention of the gamer crowd.
Designer-Friendly Programming 102
Continuing from my post earlier on in the week, here are some more engine-agnostic rules to help the gameplay engineers of the world communicate better with the game designers of the world.
Designer-Friendly Programming 101
If you are a gameplay programmer, you are the conduit between design and programming. You are the person walking the thin line between the fantasy dreams of every designer and the harsh technical realities of what your target platform, game engine, and human resources can provide. You play a critical role in the development of any game and should treat it as such.
Being effective in bridge roles like this means being able to communicate well with both sides as well as making good compromise choices that attend to the needs and desires of both sides. Those choices are the focus of this post.
What we love at Spark Plug Games
It's time for a shameless plug! And since it is the season for love, we thought we’d blog about what we love here at Spark Plug Games.
Well, for starters, we love bacon, and pizza, and donuts.
Kickstarter for Indie Game Developers (The Game is Changing)
If you missed out on the news last week, you need to go check out Double Fine’s Kickstarter project NOW. After a whopping 8 hours and 11 minutes, Double Fine and 2 Player Productions raised over $400k for a new point and click adventure game and a documentary filming the innards of game development. Under 24 hours, they've already raised over a million dollars.
Huge congratulations are in order for Double Fine!
This brings a FANTASTIC amount of attention to the indie developer/game scene on Kickstarter! As they say on their project page – Double Fine has had to rely on external sources like publishers, investment firms or loans in the past. And much like a start-up taking VC money, that means you’re required to listen to your investors and change the direction or, worst case scenario, the production is canceled altogether.
Defining the Design: The Game Design Document
Developing any kind of game is a big undertaking whether it's a full-scale console title or an indie game project. The better you map out a plan before putting the first pixel to the screen, the better off you are in the long run. That plan starts with a good Game Design Document (GDD). The GDD is what defines the core systems, mechanics and overall essence that makes a game what it is. Think of your GDD like the GPS for your game. It tells you which road to go down and where to make your next turn. Without it, you'll just wind up wandering around aimlessly making wrong turn after wrong turn as you try to find your destination while you burn valuable resources in the process.
Now your GDD doesn't necessarily have to be a 500 page mega-bible for every line of code in the game. In fact, it can be as simple as defining the idea, the core mechanics and the core concepts for your development team or any outside parties like publishers. The most important thing is that you take the time to map out the game and understand each aspect of the game play and how it's going to be integrated. The better defined the ideas and concepts are, the easier and more on-target you are going to be as development progresses.
Going into development blindly with the hope of defining game play along the way is a big ticket to disaster. Mistakes and hurdles can be avoided by simply doing a little pre-planning. Without pre-planning, those hurdles can derail your progress, cost valuable time/budget resources and can also be quite discouraging. Especially once you've realized you've gone down a road that should have had a warning sign on it to begin with. A good GDD will help you avoid most of those hurdles.
The Merging Cultures of Software Companies
The merging of serious traditional software and creative entertainment software has seen many growing pains. When you think about it, the development process of traditional software is one of hard deadlines and strict management. Whereas entertainment software is seen as having flexible deadlines, lots of fun, and a lack of seriousness. Coming from both sides of the coin, there are definitely advantages to both and a slow but sure merging of trends is taking place before our eyes.
Serious traditional software has always sat on fixed timelines, hard deadlines, and the point of view that software is utilitarian. This usually trickles down to developers being stuck in cubicles working 40 hours a week to hit deadlines and a profit margin. What traditional software companies have noticed is that groups like Google and Facebook are moving towards a more relaxed work environment and focus on innovation. As we know, even though these start ups are young; they are now dominant forces in the software industry.
On the other hand, entertainment software companies have centered on fun. Things like a relaxed environment that has no dress codes or solid work schedule is valued by developers in this industry. But this presents the view that software developers in entertainment software are lacking in seriousness and professionalism. People view deployment dates of new titles not as hard dates but a sort of moving target.