The typical AGS "game developer" is not a professional, but rather someone who makes games as a hobby. That's actually quite a neat thing- no pressure, no deadlines, no worries about a hostile takeover or whatever troubles the big players. But even the most carefree dabbler in the art of point and click sometimes has to throw up their hands, shout Arrgh in a most frustrated manner and drop a project for whatever reason.
How could your average AGS game dev help out? Our very own Baron (already famed in song and story as the mastermind behind SWARMAGS) came up with an interesting idea and the result is
Devs-Anon (formerly "Group").
The idea is simple. Sometimes all you need to maintain steam during the development of your game is someone who supports, fortifies, questions you. Or gives you a well-meant flick with a rolled paper. If there was a small group of people all working on projects, each one taking some extra time to check on someone elses project (and act as a mix between Gemini Cricket and Robocop), the result could very well be more completed games.
I've registered into the Dev-Anon mostly because the concept sounds awesome, and I have a game I am a bit struggling with and I'm really just curious how the group support will play out. If you like the idea even half as much as yours truly, go check out the linked page and get a closer look.
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
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Sometimes, you look at your past experiences, still clinged tightly to some of them, holding regret and angst, and you purposefully reach the conclusion to move on. Progressing equals the necessity to mature and grow up, or at least it should. Eventually we all strike people with elitism and arrogance levels that should be attributed to megalomaniacs and egoists.
Thus it's vital to take a step back and visualize the changes, even if that means adapting to them. And adaptation is the biggest step. Half of the work, if you will. However, only doing so, let us appreciate the past days, full of hopes and dreams. Looking back to your older self, don't you want to scream heartwarming encouraging words? Things will get better, won't they?\
And this is where zealots stand, to seperate the herd. Providing gateways to a vision, and grasping heavily to it, no matter what the odds may be. And does the outcome matter? If only to the victors. And to them, the steps have already faded from being a thought/idea to an action, thus to an output. The regrets too irrelevant after all this energy focused on a single crazy vision. And such was the one Chris Jones had. The will to single -handendly create an outlet, no, a gateway to dreams. Had we tried to explain the reasoning behind the countless hours spent developing what would end up as AGS, wouldn't we all fail? Does it even matter now? History has set such thoughts as obsolete, unremarkable and that's for the better.
Even if you weren't there as something was evolving under the similar patterns of parameters as it had when it first set out its eyes for the world to see, even though the recipe has been adjusted under the principle of progress, setting course undergoing a different path, sailing for a new voyage, one can't help but feel the presence of the pioneer in the all the small things. Stepping aside, is the hardest step, but also the fundamental one, it's holding out your heart for the world to embrace.
Thank you.
Thus it's vital to take a step back and visualize the changes, even if that means adapting to them. And adaptation is the biggest step. Half of the work, if you will. However, only doing so, let us appreciate the past days, full of hopes and dreams. Looking back to your older self, don't you want to scream heartwarming encouraging words? Things will get better, won't they?\
 |
| There's always light if you look up. |
Even if you weren't there as something was evolving under the similar patterns of parameters as it had when it first set out its eyes for the world to see, even though the recipe has been adjusted under the principle of progress, setting course undergoing a different path, sailing for a new voyage, one can't help but feel the presence of the pioneer in the all the small things. Stepping aside, is the hardest step, but also the fundamental one, it's holding out your heart for the world to embrace.
Thank you.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
AGS Recognition of the Month for June 2013: Ivan Mogilko
Its not everyday that someone is acknowledged for their hard work. We certainly appreciate what people do for us. However human nature sometimes allows us to forget to honor/commend or even acknowledge those that do work hard for us, especially those that do it for free so that others may enjoy the fruitage of their works. While Chris Jones should have the lifetime recognition award, I thought that as something new, I would present a little column showcasing who of the AGS Community stood out to me personally during the month of June. This entry would be the first of an on-going acknowledgement series.
It truly was not difficult for me to pick the first to be acknowledged in this regard. It gives me great pleasure to say that this months recognition goes to Ivan Mogilko, also known as Crimson Wizard on the AGS Forums. He has taken tremendous time from his life and generously donated it to improving Adventure Game Studio going as far as refactoring the code, fixing bugs, implementing features and in general just spearheading the development as a whole. Not an easy task as taking on such a project also creates a rather large demand and puts pressure on said individual. This month alone he has put in 23 commits to the AGS repository, not to mention the innumerable hours that went into making sure his commits worked behind the scenes before applying them. Furthermore, Ivan is actively discussing the future of AGS with the community, humbly listening and applying suggestions, complaints and bugs while spending countless hours thinking of the best approach so that everyone can remain pleased with the results of his work. A lot to take on, no doubt!
Ivan has shown us that he truly does care about the AGS Community and AGS in general. We owe him our gratitude. So Ivan Mogilko, to you, we say Thank you! You truly deserve the June 2013 Recognition of the month. Now get some rest and go on Holiday!
It truly was not difficult for me to pick the first to be acknowledged in this regard. It gives me great pleasure to say that this months recognition goes to Ivan Mogilko, also known as Crimson Wizard on the AGS Forums. He has taken tremendous time from his life and generously donated it to improving Adventure Game Studio going as far as refactoring the code, fixing bugs, implementing features and in general just spearheading the development as a whole. Not an easy task as taking on such a project also creates a rather large demand and puts pressure on said individual. This month alone he has put in 23 commits to the AGS repository, not to mention the innumerable hours that went into making sure his commits worked behind the scenes before applying them. Furthermore, Ivan is actively discussing the future of AGS with the community, humbly listening and applying suggestions, complaints and bugs while spending countless hours thinking of the best approach so that everyone can remain pleased with the results of his work. A lot to take on, no doubt!
Ivan has shown us that he truly does care about the AGS Community and AGS in general. We owe him our gratitude. So Ivan Mogilko, to you, we say Thank you! You truly deserve the June 2013 Recognition of the month. Now get some rest and go on Holiday!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Character Development
Greetings everyone, and welcome to my first post on the AGS Blog!
I was brought on board to help with the general game, industry and forum based stuff, but also to do articles about game development and writing a good game. I’m going to focus this article on a very important aspect of writing/creating a good adventure game: character development!
Without characters that are well developed, the game becomes tedious for the player. Who cares whether Jack climbs the beanstalk and defeats the giant if he has the personality of a cardboard box? It is when the player builds a ‘relationship’ with the characters in the game, and come to actually care about what happens to them, that the most immersion happens and the game seems to take on a life of its own. It is in these instances that an adventure game can really shine.
I did a lot of research on this topic in 2009 when I released Murran 2 and a lot of the reviews come back saying the game lacked any real character development. I made sure when the sequel was released this year that I had spent as much time as possible trying to turn the pixels on the screen into a living, breathing person with feelings, desires and motivations. I would like to think I accomplished this task, and here are some tips I can share for developing a character:
Make sure before you begin writing any dialog that you plan out each character. What are their back-stories? What happened to them in the past to make them the way they are now? What motivates them? Do they desire money? Fame? Power? Are they just a drug addict willing to do anything for their next fix of drugs? Make sure the back-story for the character SUPPORTS and helps along the flow of the game.
Delve further into the character… Do they have any pet peeves? Does something really irritate them? What is their daily schedule like? If they are a busy person, maybe their character will always be in a rush. Maybe they will be forgetful because they are always rushing around.
When you write dialog, write it “as” the character. Put yourself into the shoes of that character, and design the speech and behavior as that person would. Keep in mind their history, desires, quirks and their feelings on things.
Make your character question themselves. Some good drama can be had by introducing a twist which can cause the character to question who they are.
One arc or two? There is the arc of development which comes over time as the characters experience things and learn. There is ALSO a more subtle arc that characters can experience as they SEE the other characters doing things. A good example of this is character A getting jealous of character B when they are seen going to visit character B’s ex-girlfriend. Character A is developing through the outer arc as he learns about the stolen jewelry she has, and Character B is developing through the inner arc as he perceives some kind of affair going on. It is unfounded, but he doesn’t know it.
Emotions. Learn the five stages of grief : http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/ Nothing ruins the immersion in a good game like characters who don’t have realistic responses to events. We all know that if someone is killed during a moment of high drama, the main character shouldn’t laugh. But what might not be so obvious is that the character, to be believable, should follow a staged and set path of dealing with this event. It shouldn’t be “I’m pissed off! “, then 10 minutes later be acting like nothing happened.
So to sum it all up, there is a lot that goes into character development, and well developed characters will make for a more fun and immersive game for the person playing it.
I was brought on board to help with the general game, industry and forum based stuff, but also to do articles about game development and writing a good game. I’m going to focus this article on a very important aspect of writing/creating a good adventure game: character development!
Without characters that are well developed, the game becomes tedious for the player. Who cares whether Jack climbs the beanstalk and defeats the giant if he has the personality of a cardboard box? It is when the player builds a ‘relationship’ with the characters in the game, and come to actually care about what happens to them, that the most immersion happens and the game seems to take on a life of its own. It is in these instances that an adventure game can really shine.
I did a lot of research on this topic in 2009 when I released Murran 2 and a lot of the reviews come back saying the game lacked any real character development. I made sure when the sequel was released this year that I had spent as much time as possible trying to turn the pixels on the screen into a living, breathing person with feelings, desires and motivations. I would like to think I accomplished this task, and here are some tips I can share for developing a character:
Make sure before you begin writing any dialog that you plan out each character. What are their back-stories? What happened to them in the past to make them the way they are now? What motivates them? Do they desire money? Fame? Power? Are they just a drug addict willing to do anything for their next fix of drugs? Make sure the back-story for the character SUPPORTS and helps along the flow of the game.
Delve further into the character… Do they have any pet peeves? Does something really irritate them? What is their daily schedule like? If they are a busy person, maybe their character will always be in a rush. Maybe they will be forgetful because they are always rushing around.
When you write dialog, write it “as” the character. Put yourself into the shoes of that character, and design the speech and behavior as that person would. Keep in mind their history, desires, quirks and their feelings on things.
Make your character question themselves. Some good drama can be had by introducing a twist which can cause the character to question who they are.
One arc or two? There is the arc of development which comes over time as the characters experience things and learn. There is ALSO a more subtle arc that characters can experience as they SEE the other characters doing things. A good example of this is character A getting jealous of character B when they are seen going to visit character B’s ex-girlfriend. Character A is developing through the outer arc as he learns about the stolen jewelry she has, and Character B is developing through the inner arc as he perceives some kind of affair going on. It is unfounded, but he doesn’t know it.
Emotions. Learn the five stages of grief : http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/ Nothing ruins the immersion in a good game like characters who don’t have realistic responses to events. We all know that if someone is killed during a moment of high drama, the main character shouldn’t laugh. But what might not be so obvious is that the character, to be believable, should follow a staged and set path of dealing with this event. It shouldn’t be “I’m pissed off! “, then 10 minutes later be acting like nothing happened.
So to sum it all up, there is a lot that goes into character development, and well developed characters will make for a more fun and immersive game for the person playing it.
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