Month: July 2013

Though I’ve been working in video games for nearly ten years, I’ve never made a game. I’ve always been in a support role. Testing, marketing. Maybe some copywriting, if I was lucky, but not much of it. The few games I tried to develop in my initial college years were half-hearted and half-assed. My greatest creations of the era were little experiments like Larry the Looter and Herman Hunt.

But I learned some basics in programs like Flash and Photoshop, and since then I’ve witnessed the development of game titles from early stages all the way to conclusion. The world of hobbyist game development has also flourished, resulting in games that can be made by anyone who knows how to use a computer. The tools–such as Adventure Game Studio, GameMaker, RPG Maker, and Construct 2–are robust, understandable, and best of all do not require the once-limiting factor of skill with programming. Something like Twine can be used to write and create interactive stories that don’t require art. It’s a hell of a time to be alive if you’re into making your own games.

So I have the tools, but there’s the rest of the equation. Ideas, imagination, talent. There’s that question: do I want it enough? Can I overcome self-imposed walls to create something? I wrote short stories for years and started to develop a knack for it, but severe writers’ block and an inability to travel has stopped me from doing that for some time. The former the primary problem, the latter a hindrance for someone whose imagination is fueled by personal experience. For me, no travel means little in the way of story ideas.

That leads me to this decision. I worked on Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 during my time at EA. The span of time of those two projects (2009-2012) was also a particularly tempestuous time in my life. I started to think, how can I cap that off? Working at Double Fine is an incredible and inspiring change of pace, but I’ve tired of not spending my own time making something. Action toward creation. The decision then is to take action and make something. Get moving and gain some experience.

The tool: Construct 2.

The inspiration: Dead Space by B. Miggs and Metroid.

The goal: plan and execute a fully fleshed-out recreation of the original Dead Space as if it had been released in 1987. The closure of being done with that part of my life.

Though I’ve been working in video games for nearly ten years, I’ve never made a game. I’ve always been in a support role. Testing, marketing. Maybe some copywriting, if I was lucky, but not much of it. The few games I tried to develop in my initial college years were half-hearted and half-assed. My greatest creations of the era were little experiments like Larry the Looter and Herman Hunt.

But I learned some basics in programs like Flash and Photoshop, and since then I’ve witnessed the development of game titles from early stages all the way to conclusion. The world of hobbyist game development has also flourished, resulting in games that can be made by anyone who knows how to use a computer. The tools–such as Adventure Game Studio, GameMaker, RPG Maker, and Construct 2–are robust, understandable, and best of all do not require the once-limiting factor of skill with programming. Something like Twine can be used to write and create interactive stories that don’t require art. It’s a hell of a time to be alive if you’re into making your own games.

So I have the tools, but there’s the rest of the equation. Ideas, imagination, talent. There’s that question: do I want it enough? Can I overcome self-imposed walls to create something? I wrote short stories for years and started to develop a knack for it, but severe writers’ block and an inability to travel has stopped me from doing that for some time. The former the primary problem, the latter a hindrance for someone whose imagination is fueled by personal experience. For me, no travel means little in the way of story ideas.

That leads me to this decision. I worked on Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 during my time at EA. The span of time of those two projects (2009-2012) was also a particularly tempestuous time in my life. I started to think, how can I cap that off? Working at Double Fine is an incredible and inspiring change of pace, but I’ve tired of not spending my own time making something. Action toward creation. The decision then is to take action and make something. Get moving and gain some experience.

The tool: Construct 2.

The inspiration: Dead Space by B. Miggs and Metroid.

The goal: plan and execute a fully fleshed-out recreation of the original Dead Space as if it had been released in 1987. The closure of being done with that part of my life.