New year, new game.

It occured to me that I have not yet posted anything about the making of games in this thing. Which is something that I should do, as it will help to seperate the blog from all the other 'This is what I played today' blogs out there. Also, I don't expect there are too many other blogs out there in interwebland that are discussing games that I am making at the moment!

The plain brutal ugly truth is that at this precise moment in time I am not making ANY games. Or, to be more honest, not physically making any. I am working on several ideas, but none of them have gone beyond the theory stage. This has to change. It is 2009, and I think my New Years Resolution should be to have a completed game ready before this year ends. A completed NEW game, which will hopefully stop me from going back and just adding more to the games I have already done. Should anybody reading wish to see any of them, they can be found at the Wee Games website, although this concept has been put on hiatus for now. I do have plans, but they are plans. It turns out I am GREAT at planning, but fucking awful at putting them into action.

A perfect example of this displacement activity that I am World Champion of is 'Untouchable', and my treatment of it so far. It was an idea that I happened upon, expanded, and made into a game for a first year University assignment. It garnered me a first-class pass, AS IT SHOULD HAVE DONE, and I decided that there was almost certainly room to improve upon it. To that end, I spent some time thinking about additional modes, and even have a name for the sequel : Untouchable Retouched. Here is the plan :

1.) Convert Untouchable to Flash, and have it on the site.
2.) Make Retouched, and have it on sale.
3.) Get the free Flash game out there, so that people can play it and love it and hopefully buy the superior 'real' version.

Here is the action I have taken so far :

1.) Learn a bit of Flash.
2.) Think a LOT about Retouched.

Now, I know that a lot of the creative process is the thinking about it, but there has to be some action. This is the bit I am not so great at. Also, I suffer from inspiration. Or rather, I suffer from brief periods of enhanced inspiration, when every single thing I lay eyes or ears on gives me another great idea. At times like this, I find myself coming up with several themes, most of which are doomed to just remain as prototypes IN MY OWN BRAIN.

Right now, there are multiple ideas floating around. Some of them include :

• 2D platformer where the hero can temporarily affect gravity.


• Simplified strategy/boardgame where the units are geometric shapes, and combat is decided purely mathematically.


• FPS Robotron. (Best thing I can think of to call the idea for now.)


• Exploration based platformer set in the darker side of fairy tales.


• 2D top-down vertical shmup, with the gimmick that the game exists in more than one dimension at the same time, and the player can phase between them. Some enemies become weaker in some dimensions, and the scoring is affected by this.


• Forces of Nature. Puzzle game akin to The Lost Vikings.

This is on top of actually finishing 'Doodlebugs', making 'Untouchable Retouched', and finding some use for my blob engine. Oh, and converting 'Untouchable' to Flash. (And somewhere in there perhaps converting 'Doodlebugs' to XNA and releasing it onto XBox Marketplace as a Community Game.)

All in all, quite a busy little time I have ahead.

I think what I need most of all is a partner, or even a team of people to work with. I think 3 people would be enough, although ideally I would like to go as far as 5. Myself, a dedicated programmer or 2, a dedicated artist, and a dedicated musician/sound effects guy. Of course, this would bring with it additional headaches, but I have always found that having people to lead brings out the best in myself.

The main problem I foresee with recruiting a team is that they would bring their own ideas to the table. I am not saying that I am some kind of all-knowing facist who would refuse to accept the input of others. No, I am merely saying that I don't want to add even more ideas onto the 'Stuff I want to do someday' pile. I am trying to complete something, not give myself even MORE reasons to procrastinate!

For now, I need to work on my motivation, and set myself a timetable that I WILL STICK TO! If this means less time playing games, then so be it. A sacrifice must be made, as I do fully intend to live the dream.

I guess what I need to do is find someone to brainstorm with, or at least to get some idea of what would be the best thing to focus on from. This person could actually exist purely online, but I would rather it be someone I could spend face-time with. It just so happens that I now have some friends who may just have the time, so perhaps I should take advantage of circumstance.