Codex Worlds is preparing to go to Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in mid-March. In addition to showing off the Infinium Strike Deep Space Arcade mode at the show, we are announcing our next title...Battlecursed!
Read MoreHow do we develop project teams within our overall 25-person team? There are many challenges in making and publishing a game and just as many challenges in managing a team of 25 people. This blog will give more insights on how our decentralized indie team works on both development and publishing projects. Here are some of details/challenges:
Read MoreI think it is important to dive deeper into the concept of project management. It's not complicated: A project manager or producer manages resources and processes to optimized efficiency in development. How one goes about it is often up for debate, and being an indie developer, this further stretches the already thin resources available to manage game development.
Read More
E3 is this week, the ultimate business convention where people in the game industry from all corners of the globe converge. It's almost a sacred event.
I went to this event over the years specifically to meet people, from developers to vendors, averaging 10 meetings a day for 3 to 5 days straight. It’s an exhausting experience, but I end up meeting a lot of great people and get a lot of learning experience when it comes to conventions.
Read More
“What does a publishing manager do anyway?” one may ask, or, “Why should that matter for an indie company?” Those are good questions. First, here’s what a Publishing Manager does: make games successful.
To explain this, let’s start with the basics:
Read More
Any developer who has done a project of any significant size will tell you production issues are just as important as the game design, who is on the team, and even what is the total project budget. Developing a project is lot like learning a skill or sport ... You can always get better, and often, there are new ways to do things. Game production has always fascinated me because there are so many opinions on what to do, how to do it, and why one way is better than another. I certainly have come to some conclusions in my 20 years of producing games. In this series of blogs, you'll hear about some of my experiences.
Read More
Making a Role Playing Game (RPG)
RPGs are one of the biggest, most immersive experiences in gaming. RPGs can be compared to reading a great book; there is a lot of time put into reading one and a great deal of deep, emotional satisfaction after completing it. Making an RPG is truly a huge undertaking and is a great case study in development.
Read More
Game Design is similar to the design process of building a car. There are many systems to be developed and many stages of development. Taking this analogy further, cars have a body shell, primary parts, like the engine, fuel system, brake system, and electrical system, not to mention the interior, tires, stereo, paint, safety features ... You get the idea. The car we drive every day takes thousands of people coordinating for years to design, develop, and manufacture a product that does all these things, hopefully well. Of course, these systems need to be designed before the engineers can develop anything or manufacturing can meet specifications for functionality and quality.
Read More
I started out writing these design blogs to offer some tips about game design, and I decided to tie that in with what has been going on with Codex Worlds. It is also important, however, to talk about what else goes on in pre-production in addition to design. In the past two blogs, I covered some production, project management, producing, and team evaluation points. Now onto some tactical game design tips ... the whole point of this blog. :)
Read More
My last blog covered some of the higher level items worth thinking about during the game design pre-production phase. Resources, communication, team size, and individual skills all play into how our processes work, but that's not the end of the road. Here are some tips to help maximize efficiency:
Read More
There are a ton of different ways to implement your game design. Some considerations may include team size, member experience, difficulty level of the project and resources. Of course, big publishers may have team sizes anywhere north of 50 or even 100 people, and their approach to design may necessarily be different than 10 indies doing a "garage" project. Having stated all that, it might be fun to look at how we are doing things at Codex Worlds.
Read More
It might be fun to look at some design strategies early in pre-production. These are quick snapshots of strategies; I will have much more game design details coming soon in my personal blog for game students at gamelifecoach.blogspot.com
It might be fun to look at some design strategies early in pre-production. These are quick snapshots of strategies; I will have much more game design details coming soon in my personal blog for game students at gamelifecoach.blogspot.com
Read More
Deciding what platform to develop for is as big a decision as what game to make! Over the past 30 years, there have been about 4 or 5 platforms (computer/video/handheld game systems) to decide to develop on at any given time. Now, it has never been more confusing or exciting to be a game software developer. It is utter chaos now with mobile, web, micro consoles and even watch games all competing with "classic" PC, video game and handheld systems.
Read More