The Still of the Night Causes a Storm in the Mind

So E3 has come and gone once again leaving gamers everywhere in awe of all the cool new tech and gameplay concepts developers have come up with over the last year. This year’s E3 was actually a bit of a let down in comparison with last year’s. For the most part the final marketing push for the new products we saw last year are just now getting underway and that’s what this year’s E3 was all about. Microsoft announced the formal name for Natal (Kinect) and Sony’s motion controller is now officially titled “Move”. Nintendo is the only company to announce something new and truly revolutionary with its 3DS portable console that allows users to play 3D games without the need for any gaudy glasses. This would have been truly amazing had this information not been leaked 2 months prior to E3.

The biggest thing I personally took away from E3 is that the gaming industry is finally getting too big for me to purchase every cool new thing that comes out or even experience everything period. The industry has been supporting 3 big consoles for two generations, mobile phone gaming is now huge and growing, social games and sites like Facebook now have a piece of the pie, and that’s not to mention the old PC crowd or the new streaming services like OnLive and Gaikai. The game industry is F-ing HUGE!

It’s no surprise that I personally like the mobile space (particularly when a phone is involved). I’ve always favored on-the-go gaming because it’s so easy to share these experiences as an indie developer trying to show people my work. As a gamer I’m not much different. Portable experiences are the easiest to share and hook up with other people. I also used to really enjoy the arcades due to the social nature. After that I prefer social experiences like the Wii, then multiplayer titles like Halo, followed by single player console games, single player PC games, and finally real-time multiplayer online titles of any sort.

Considering the fact that I’m more of a social gamer it may seem strange that I’m not too big into online games. I’ve always been keen on multiplayer programming having developed several Internet networked titles myself but when it comes down to it, if I’m going to play games with other folks I’d rather do it in person. Either that or it’s just a phase since I haven’t renewed my Xbox Live subscription in two years

With the industry growing at such an alarming rate it’s going to be difficult to choose where to spend hard earned gaming bucks. Mobile is cheap and easy. For me it’s a no-brainer that I’ll be buying some more iPhone games this year. Chances are as well that Nintendo will get some money from me for the new Zelda and 3DS console. Beyond that it’s a tough call. Surely, I’ll pick up a few Xbox 360 games and perhaps a PS3 game like Little Big Planet 2 finally (after having the system for 3 years the only game I ever purchased was MGS4).

Anyway, it’s time to go. I’m busy programming something great but wanted to drop down some words about E3 2010. For the most part I was a lot more impressed by last year’s show but of course I’m ever excited for our industry. Ta ta for now!

So the summer is here again (almost). It’s been a busy couple of months. My last post was about Crash for Cash getting popular and boy has it ever gotten popular. In 2 months the game has been played 2 million times. Furthermore my estimates for daily profits were accurate. The first week that advertising kicked in I started kicking myself for not adding it sooner. Beyond getting played 2 million times, Crash for Cash also took the #1 spot in the racing category for about 3-4 days in April. The day it occurred was truly magical. My wife and I were in San Francisco on her Spring Break vacation. During the day we visited Alcatraz, walked from Fisherman’s Wharf to Crissy Beach, checked out the Exploratorium, and then finally walked the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge to and fro. After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back was the first time I noticed Crash for Cash in the #1 spot. That was a good day!

Of course Crash for Cash isn’t the only cool thing going on. I also completed the new book iPhone 3D Game Programming All in One, which is currently being printed. This great new 400 page book is published by Cengage and should hit your local Barnes and Noble sometime during the first week of July. In the book I show new iPhone developers how to create a casual flight simulator for the iPhone using Unity. A pre-release version of the game accidentally went out onto the App Store (I forgot to pull it once I uploaded it for book screen shots, that Apple wouldn’t give me permission to use anyway). Long story short though the game actually pushed the book into Amazon’s Top 100 Game Development, 3D, and Apple books in various countries (US included). I ended up leaving the rough cut of the game up for a while since it was promoting sales. I now have a slightly more user friendly version coming out to coincide with the release of the book. A big goal of mine is not to change the game much from what the book covers. Originally, I was looking for 1 : 1 parity but I’ve since decided that a few more play tests and minor minor tweaks aren’t a crime so long as I stay within the realm of the book’s lessons any user should be able to replicate my minor tweaks in a few minutes. In due time I would like to release a fully polished product using the engine from this book. The flight model is really pretty cool and allows for loops and barrel rolls using a fairly accurate and sophisticated method of force and friction applications to the body of the aircraft. It’s not a dead ringer for X-Plane but it’s pretty close in my opinion.

Still in other news I began working at L3 Communications doing some serious games work in February. The work I’m doing there has been very fulfilling. I work with a fantastic team of individuals who love this stuff as much as I do (and GASP … I didn’t have to move to the West coast to find them, although one of them is from San Francisco). Through this job I’ve gotten to attend some really great conferences I might otherwise not have gone to and I’ve gotten to polish my skills even further all while working on projects that have a real world impact (something that I often find hollow in the traditional games industry). At some point I hope I can share more about my work in serious games but for now I’m just happy for the opportunity to apply my skills and communicate with a slew of talented people in this new (to me) arena.

There will be some more game information soon. I haven’t actually released a new game for the iPhone since last year. The funny thing is that by focusing on marketing I’ve been able to increase income from the App Store tremendously without releasing anything new. I plan to reinvest all that I’ve earned through the App Store although it may not be in the traditional sense. Keep reading to find out how all of this will grow (hopefully) into part of a larger plan

In 1997 I came up with a game concept. That concept was a fun and simple 2D building demolition game where players would plant charges and try to level a cityscape. I developed this concept about a year after learning some BASIC programming on my TI-85 calculator and before I entered college. At the time it’s safe to say I didn’t really have the skills to do the concept justice.

Fast forward to 2006. I sit down at my computer one evening and I finally prototype this concept now calling it Debris. I develop a working sim with blocks, bombs, and a caution tape line. The premise is simple, plant the bombs in such a way that upon detonation all the blocks fit below the caution tape line.

I work on this prototype for a few months (mainly tweaking the physics) and eventually show the concept to a company who’d published my earlier work. They write me back and tell me they don’t see any promise in this concept. They tell me they can’t suggest even a single bit of advice in order to make the concept more fun for them.

Their feedback of course stood in stark contrast with my vision as well as the feedback I’d received from several other people who I’d actually gotten to show the game in person. As with anything communication is key when unleashing a brand new game concept. I’m sure something was lost without myself involved to fill in the blanks as someone played this game for the first time. Such is the potential fate of any unfinished prototype.

In October 2007 I attempted once again to show off this concept.  This time at the Indie Games Con. Again, it’s turned down for publication by this company that had worked so closely with me in the past.  To add insult to injury, I’m told by someone I’d once considered a mentor that it “sucked”.  I went home dejected and dropped the development of Debris to work on Full Contact Debate another idea I’d had banging around my brain for years.

Of course there was one redeeming event which took place at IGC that year. The morning after I was told the game sucked I walked in an there was a group of 6 other developers standing around a computer laughing. As I walked up I realized they were playing Debris and they’d just realized you could take the helicopter out if you planted the bombs correctly. In the PC/Mac version of Debris the helicopter would go spastic and bounce around the screen taking everything out in its path. As they left a few of the guys told me it was a great game concept. Seeing their reaction to the title renewed my belief that eventually this would be a hit game.

Now we move on to October 2008. At this point I’d long given up the idea of pitching ideas to publishers with lesser vision than myself. Throughout the years I’d pitched concepts to a plethora of publishers and I was always disappointed with the results. Finally though, the iPhone and the App Store had arrived and there would no longer be a difference of creative opinions to stop the publication of any title. I jumped onto the iPhone development wagon as quickly as possible and I knew exactly what my first title would be.

Debris appeared on the App Store by December 5th 2008 and to my knowledge was the first 2D casual building demolition game created. When I originally developed the prototype I searched for other controlled demolition games and the only thing I found was an obscure PS2 game released in Europe but it was a more serious 3D simulation instead of a casual physics game. My prediction circa 2006 was that the most popular casual games were going to be physics based as opposed to the match-3 titles that dominated the early-mid part of the decade. Looking at the iPhone market today I was absolutely correct and I’m proud to say that I not only made an accurate prediction but I took part in the market with a handful of causal physics sims which I developed.

Now it’s the end of 2009 and it’s been the roughest year of my life. It hasn’t all been bad but it has been a roller coaster. As most people who read this blog know, I lost my dear mother to suicide on March 23rd. I have been depressed since then although certain events have been overwhelmingly positive this year, the loss of my mother casts a shadow over those events. To further add to my pain this year a title called Implode! landed on the App Store about a week ago and since then has risen up the charts into the top 5 best selling iPhone games. Implode! is Debris, it’s a casual 2D controlled demolition game and it arrived almost exactly 1 year after Debris on the iPhone.

Considering that I developed this concept sooo long ago I’m heart broken that I wasn’t the one to fully capitalize on the concept. When I developed it in 2006 I knew it had the potential to rise straight to the top. Unfortunately, being first isn’t always best and in fact some people would say it’s detrimental. This is one of those cases.

I rushed Debris out on the iPhone trying to take advantage of the devices unique abilities such as pinch/zoom, swipe momentum, and the accelerometer tilt. Unfortunately, using these special capabilities of the iPhone was ultimately a distraction from the core experience. Implode! for the iPhone is actually much closer to what Debris was originally for the PC/Mac. Plant bombs, detonate, and try to get the blocks below a line. The version of Debris I ended up putting out for the iPhone wasn’t received particularly well because the core was watered down in an attempt to make it iPhone-centric. Granted, some components of Debris are great fun but overall I let the core suffer in favor of design diversions such as tilt, zoom, and killing aliens with the blocks.

Still, I’m not jaded or angry (OK, just a little). Debris was after all the title that allowed me to develop my own concepts as my sole source of income. Without Debris I wouldn’t be where I am today. Furthermore, there’s no law against sequels and while Debris may not ultimately get recognized as the title that brought the casual controlled demolition genre into the limelight perhaps its sequel can utilize the success Implode! is currently enjoying to be an even bigger success.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

A big dream of mine has always been to appear on late night TV with a host like Jay Leno because I created the next great video game. To me, this sort of accomplishment would signify the real rise of video games as a cultural phenomenon. Writers, actors, musicians, and animal trainers appear on these type of shows all the time, but you never see anyone promoting a video game unless they’re Tiger Woods which just doesn’t count. I wanted to see an actual game developer on late night TV, not someone else who just happened to have a video game made after them because they were good at something else.

Last night we finally hit the big time as Kudo Tsunoda took the stage to showcase Project Natal on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I had some mixed feelings about Project Natal as a gamer but I do think it will revolutionize gaming with regard to the mass market. The Wii showed everyone the door but I think Natal has the potential to really welcome everyone through it. However you feel about Natal though it was totally rad to see an actual game developer up on late night TV with Hollywood and all the rockers.

The funny thing was that I made a joke to my friend 2 days ago that Kudo looked like a Bono wannabe during his E3 presentation. What the heck though, if that’s what it takes to legitimize game development as an art form so be it. People like interesting people and Kudo definitely had that going for him at E3 and on Jimmy last night.

Of course I also think this breakthrough has a lot to do with the type of games we’re getting into these days. E3 was quite a bit different this year with all the human performances to go along with the games. Between the Wii and Rock Band we finally have games that appeal to people not just nerds. Before now the best the industry could muster was to mimmic Hollywood and make epic looking pre-rendered trailers.

At E3 this year the most boring presentations were old school gamer gamers like Modern Warfare 2 and God of War III … I almost fell asleep watching people play them. Second up was the epic trailers, which needless to say were also pretty boring. The best presentations were the Wii, Beatles Rock Band, Playstation Eye/Motion, and Natal demos where real live people were performing in sync with fine cinematic sequences in the backdrop along with real gameplay that the players were interacting with but in a way that was also entertaining for a crowd. By comparison the old school way of playing games seemed really archaic.

That’s not to say that I don’t like old school gameplay. I think it’s fine for 1-4 people to sit down and play together. However, it was never going to be an all consuming force like music or movies until you could simultaneously enjoy other people playing. The human element that music and movies contain was simply missing.

Anyway, congratulations Kudo and I hope to see many more game developers appear side by side with actors and rockers in the future!

This past Friday a good friend and I flew up to Boston to attend the MIT BIG conference. There were a variety of high profile industry guys there including Ken Levine and Curt Schilling. Overall this was probably the best conference I’ve been too. I enjoyed GDC and of course IGC was also fantastic back in the day but MIT BIG seemed to cover more ground in far less time. The panel discussions were almost all interesting with the only downfall being the QA sessions, which were far too limited. Overall, I’m looking forward to attending again next year and hopefully there’ll be some more iPhone discussion.

On a side note, Boston is a great city. This was my first time visiting and I’m already excited at the prospect of a return visit. This particular trip was a whirlwind. We woke up at 4AM on Friday to catch a 7AM flight. We arrived in Boston at 8:30 and hot footed it over to the conference (the T helped). The conference lasted until 6 including the reception and then we made our way over to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game. We scalped some decent seats and drank beer until our hearts were content. Finally, we made our way back to a relative’s house to spend the night. The coolest part about that was waiting on Commonwealth Ave. for our ride. I decided to see what would happen if I let out a little scream of joy (a whooooOOOH if you will). The response my scream elicited was pretty cool. Two blocks down someone screamed back, then another from 2 blocks in the other direction, before long people in their cars were honking and screaming into a crescendo of joy over the Red Sox victory. It was all in good fun, and good fun it was!

I just added a link under Blogroll to davidjaffe.biz. This is the blog of the designer who inspired me to actually pursue a career in game development. Sure, the thought of becoming a game designer had crossed my mind about 5 times as a kid but it wasn’t until I was 18 during my last spring break of high school that I decided I was really going to do this thing. The first Sony Underground Disc (which is still in my personal museum collection) contained a demo of Twisted Metal 2 and an interview with Dave Jaffe then at the tender age of 25 (5 years younger than I am now). I know this because I was just watching some videos on his blog and he mentioned that he’s currently 37. All I can think about though is how time flies and I wonder if I’ve made the most of mine.

Back then my goal was to work for Sony or some other large game company. After graduating I sent a really ridiculously stupid package containing a brand new Texas Instruments TI-85 calculator (bought for the sole purpose of sending it to Jaffe), the first 2 games I ever programmed, and an instruction manual I created with an ancient 486DX 33 MHz PC and a sharpie. As far as I can tell the package never reached Jaffe. It was sent to Jaffe with an SCEA Attention: Laura Dison but a Senior Correspondence Representative named Sandra L. Kay is the only one to ever read it as far as I know.

I was thanked for being such a big Playstation fan and told that no one could examine my “game idea”. Initially, I was a little flustered. First of all, I wasn’t like all the other kids. I realized 5 minutes after I thought about being the “idea guy” that no one was going to make my ideas into games for me. I actually sent some real working games including code, but whatever. The letter also advised me to seek a career counselor and that Sony looked for degrees in Engineering or Computer Science. Again, I was flustered. Out of high school I was not good at math. If you read a Games Demystified article or play one of the physics based games I’ve developed that may be hard to believe but it’s true. Until I created those first 2 calculator games I really didn’t know what algebra was for. Somehow I had managed to get through the classes but it was as if I had to derive it myself through programming before I really understood it. As such, the thought of going to college for Computer Science or Engineering was extremely frightening.

Somehow I managed to get through my Computer Science courses. Of course there was a new trend just starting to gain momentum while I was in college, the indie movement. I became obsessed with the idea that I could create a game on my own. Garage Games, DarkBASIC, and Blitz were the big 3 influences at the time and I ate them all up. By the time September 11th 2001 came around I was programming calculator games while listening to my physics professors in class, carrying an idea notebook with me to the restaurant where I worked, and programming PC games in my spare time. It was at this point that I realized life is short and I decided to go full time indie.

One guy I talk about a lot is Jeff Tunnell. He’s the one who sold me on the indie dream and the first real game developer to pay attention to what I was working on and help me move beyond simple tinkering. Jeff frequently references Dave (a recent twitter post got me thinking about this whole sequence of events) and all I can think about is how small the world is. Something else I think about is whether I made the right choice by going indie so early. At this point in my life I’m making a living solely on my own game development work. However, a part of me feels like perhaps I missed out on that old Sony dream.

Dave Jaffe did quit Sony to start his own company which makes me think I made the right choice. However, just because a certain milestone in life is measured by striking out on one’s own doesn’t mean it’s not right to work within some establishment for a period of time. At the end of the day it’s just part of the ride. That makes me wonder what it would have been like to work for Sony.

The game development landscape has changed so much since 1997. Even watching Jaffe’s recent blogs I feel like I’m watching a ghost of the past. I’m still a huge admirer of his work. If there’s one thing I really need to do it’s learn to focus more on the craft. In that regard I feel like I’m light years behind. However, by being “off the reservation” for so long I’ve learned to think for myself unrestrained by the system. At this point in time Sony, retail, and all the rest of the “old industry” I had wanted to join when I was 18 seem like relics. When I enter a GameStop for example I imagine it blowing away like dust in the wind. Dave’s blog and general perception of the game industry still reflects the “old industry” though. One of his recent posts was actually about the stickers GameStop puts on the shelf cases and the pain associated with getting the last copy of a GameStop game. This has always bugged me too, but it’s old news.

I guess the moral of the story is that you never lose respect for your idols but there comes a time when they are no longer idols. The feeling is very similar to the first time you realize that your parents might need you more than you need them. It’s scary and yet empowering all at once. By this measure I feel pretty good about my time spent.

PS, I have to add that there are tidbits of design advice weaved within Dave’s blog that are utterly priceless. Whether his focus is old-school-big-industry or not there’s no accounting for his mastery of the craft which regardless of platform, publisher, or distribution method has not changed. The games he designs are still miles better than most.

I just uploaded a new video of Cosmosis for the iPhone and iPod touch. This game is really promising and I have high hopes for it. Everyone who played it pre-launch got a kick out of it and told me it was addictive. I literally would hand my iPod to random people and they’d instantly just start grooving with it which was just an awesome feeling. Hopefully the greater audience at large feels the same way

After reading about the success enjoyed by Ethan Nicholas with iShoot I decided to try a “lite” version of Cosmosis. I did this in a slightly non-traditional way though. The QE stands for “Qualifying Edition”. The gist is to tell players they are “qualified” to enter the Official Cosmosis Challenge if they can pass the 2,000 point mark in Cosmosis QE. Obviously, the complete game gives users a host of new gameplay options to make it worth the entry fee.

Everyone and their brother is doing a “lite” version of their app now, especially after hearing the story behind iShoot. I couldn’t bring myself to create just another “lite” game though. Hopefully, the concept of “qualifying” to play the complete version of Cosmosis will be considered different and entertaining by players. Wish me luck!

Cosmosis was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch this past weekend. This is a very simple game and everyone who gave it a try thought it was addictive so I added some online leaderboards and called it a day. So far sales are modest but every little bit helps

Say hello to Cosmosis for the iPhone!

I wrote this feature which has been published by Gamasutra. It’s a good read for anyone thinking of taking the iPhone development plunge.

Check it out!

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