Best of Orlando Weekly

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Indie Game Developers are the New Garage Rock Bands

Let’s Start a Band!

Remember back in the older days when a group of teenagers who would meet during their music class and talk about starting a rock band. Then they would meet after school assign themselves the instruments of bass, guitar (lead/rhythm), and drums. After all positions were decided then they will begin to “jam,” come up with songs, and write lyrics. However, it seems times are changing and youngsters want to develop the next top selling game.

Resources Offered

The resource tools for game developed that once belonged to big name game companies are now available to the mainstream public. Frameworks such as SDL, OpenGL, DirectX, SDKs, XNA, Unity Game Engine, and Unreal Game Engine are now available for download on the internet. Along with the primary websites offering the development kits also feature tutorials on how to use them properly.

There even exists websites and blogs which are dedicated to teaching people how to program their own video games simply and quickly. Now a person who has the drive, someone to do art, and another programmer is able to build a simplistic game to test the waters of game development. The further they dive down into it games will become more elaborate and feature better graphics and unique game mechanics.

No Corporate Strings

                One of the beauties of indie game development does not exist the higher seat of power that will limit indie developers’ creativity. Therefore, games can feature some unique game play features and intuitive game mechanics. Deadlines do not exist unless the developers themselves want to them to be present.

                However, indie developers want ways to monetize on the games they release to the public, and need to find a place to that offers that service. For Flash video game developers there exist a site called Mochi Media which places ads within Flash based games as so the publisher of the game will receive money for each ad that is viewed. Another way is through the Xbox Live Indie Games where developers pay $100 to Microsoft to publish games on their Market Place to monetize on the games they sold.

                With all these ways to learn a new game development framework and researching ways to monetize on creator owned products is why indie game developers are similar to garage bands. A small band of creative minds assembling together to produce a product for people to enjoy.

http://www.examiner.com/game-design-in-orlando/indie-game-developers-are-the-new-garage-rock-bands">Check out the article on the Examiner

More Arcade Games, Please

Over the recent years my collection for the next generation console games has not really grown. I have had my PlayStation 3 for about 2 years now, and I only own 7 games in total with the last games I purchased being Resonance of Fate, Super Street Fighter IV, 3D Dot Game Heroes, and Red Dead Redemption (which I just sold). However, within the several months my collection of arcade games from the PlayStation Network has grown exponentially. In other words most of my hard earned money is going to spending it on games that are not big titles, and I have to say I absolutely am ecstatic about the situation.

Which brings me to the point I am making for this entry; the games on PSN/XBLA are 5 times better than the big title games that are coming out. I believe more video game companies should put a little more effort into releasing a game on these markets. Allow me to make a few points on my proposal of why video game companies should saturate the PSN/XBLA markets.

2.5D versus 3D

The games I been playing have been falling in the realm of “2.5D Games.” Basically this dimension of games means it is a 2-Dimensional, but with the illusion of 3D. The games I have been playing are Bionic Commando Rearmed, Revenge of the Wounded Dragon, Rocket Knight, and Trine. Even though these games are one dimension less than most big titles coming out they are much more playable and enjoyable. I definitely have more fun when it comes to playing a game like Bionic Commando Rearmed rather than a game such as Red Dead Redemption.

Most of the games I am looking forward to play are all coming out on the PlayStation Network. Games such as Shank, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2; these are the games I am waiting to purchase and play. From looking at screenshots and game play videos on the internet I can tell that companies are making a consideration and an effort to develop these games.

Simple Yet Robust

Another reason I prefer these types of games over the other type is because they are inexpensive. Bionic Commando Rearmed cost me $9.99 as opposed to Red Dead Redemption costing me $63. I buy more of these games because I can afford them versus to saving my money to purchase a $60 game I will probably play one time. One thing I noticed about the PSN games is they feature quite a replay value to it. They are simplistic, but have a tendency to be robust with extra features. I can beat a game such as Revenge of the Wounded Dragon in less than a few days (less with a second player), but I can go back to play it again within that same week because it is there for to me play.

What I really enjoy about these PSN games is such a throwback to the old school gaming. When I play I cannot help but be reminded of old NES games such as Contra, Castlevania, and Ninja Gaiden. The irony of course is that Bionic Commando Rearmed is a refurbish NES video game. Playing a game that is on 2D brings back that frustration and that motivation to keep on playing to complete the game.

Opportunities Galore

Before I end this entry I have one other thing I like to say: bigger name companies taking an interest in PSN/XBLA games can create more jobs/opportunities for people who want to work in the video game industry. Capcom had a company by the name of Grin to develop the game Bionic Commando Rearmed for the PSN/XBLA.

What makes this an interesting idea is that another company can employee an independent development company to make most of these games for the PSN/XBLA markets. It is a sort of a win/win situation as long as the games are marketed and sold in the same manner as a bigger title game.

Ending this blog entry with a “thanks for reading” and visiting this entry of my blog. If you have an Xbox360 or a PS3 I say go out right now and purchase the following games from their perspective markets:

· Bionic Commando Rearmed

· Trine

· Rocket Knight

· Revenge of the Wounded Dragon

· Shatter

· Switchball

· 1942 Joint Strike

· Novastrike

· Matt Hazard Bloodbath and Beyond

These are some of the games I have currently on my PS3 and they are amazing to play J

Senior Project: Done, DeVry University: Done

Another two months have rolled on by real quickly! After next week I will officially be done with DeVry University’s Game and Simulation Programming major and I will have my BS in Computer Science. At this moment I am developing a web page for my fellow senior project comrades to host the game we been working on for the last 4 months. Working on this project was quite a struggle and it has taken its toll on all of us. This was first time the GSP major was separated from the rest of the other majors in senior project. We were our own independent entity (we were indie), which allowed us to be open to anything we can work on.


In the senior project team which comprised of myself (Dieppa), Leo, Dex, Jevon, Nick, and Magda to work on this project called Chimera Sanctum. I worked as Team Lead and Lead Game Designer while I had Nick and Leo on Audio Programming, Dex as Lead Programmer, Jevon and I worked as Programmers, and Magda worked on Art and Programming. I came up with the name of our mock company which was known as 9.81 Game Studios (if you know your physics then you would get the pun). We worked together as a team kept cohesion, communication, and diligence to make this game happen.

This led to the final build of our game; it may not be perfect but we did it with the functionality we wanted. You can read all about the trials and tribulations of Chimera Sanctum’s development cycle on GamaSutra (A link will be provided at the bottom for those who want to read it). The presentation of the game will be held at DeVry University Orlando Campus at 5:00 PM EST (06/16/2010). As of now we are setting up a website to host Chimera Sanctum for public downloading to be played on the PC. Which brings me to my next exciting news: I have purchased the domain name Enigmaticbrainmind.net on GoDaddy.com. Now it is official Enigmatic Brain Mind will be a website soon hosting the projects I will be working on (me or with a team). As always I want to thank my readers for stopping by my Web Log  You guys help keep me going!

PS I would also like to thank David J. Sushil for being my mentor throughout my career at DeVry University. He was the first professor I had in my first class and he was the last professor in my last class at DeVry.

PPS I would like to thank Joseph Adams at Adam Jones Productions for allowing the opportunities and understanding as I went through all the stress of college J

PPPS As of June 14,2010 links are provided below, so you readers can now visit the website where the game is being hosted, as well as visit Sushil's website, and read the postmortem on GamaSutra J

Links:

Enigmatic Brain Mind

Visit David J. Sushil

The Postmortem