A Hardy Developer's Journal – as written by indie adventure game developers

Don’t worry, dear reader – I haven’t conducted an interview with myself by myself.

Not yet. But somebody else did (with me, I mean, not with themselves).

Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2. Have a great read!

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Starting a game is easy. It’s really easy – so easy that we often jump in before we’ve thought about it. But we’ve already covered thinking about it beforehand, so assuming you paid some attention back there, we’re ready to look at the next step. (more…)

There are fewer things more enlightening about what is really wrong with a game than play-testing, and if you’re lucky, physical play-testing with a real, breathing person. The creator of a game always views things in a certain lens that skews the true perception of what’s going on, what’s needed, and what’s really visible to the player. For instance, in some of the play-tests I’ve had, I would run into a recurrent problem about the player’s visual direction–I want the player to go a certain way, open a certain door, or go down a certain ramp–but what’s the obvious direction for me is not the obvious direction for the player. (more…)

I’m a big admirer of Czech animated movies. The Czech school of animation really perfected the thing that is so great about this medium – making the most real behave unreal. First, start by reconstructing frame by frame our experiences with objects like plants, machines, and all types of grit. And then twist them around and attribute with a completely different nature. In this kind of manner, the game Machinarium by Jakub Dvorak and Amanita Design offers us a whole city created and inhabited by a population of machines (more…)

Heed

I’m sure that anyone who has played a game at some point in their life has wondered “I wonder if I could do this?”. While I don’t often make a habit of discussing game development with people outside of the various online communities I frequent, I know that people have at various points mentioned to me that they’d love to have a go at making their own game – just that they don’t feel that they have the time or skills to take the first step.

Seeing as you’re reading this, I feel it is safe to assume that you’ve already considered making a game. You’ve probably already come up with some ideas, maybe even started building a few into code and graphics – heck, for all I know you may have finished more games than I have.

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This time we introduce Borut Pfeifer who already has a career in the gaming industry and is a specialist in AI design. Now he set up to create his own independent game that while may not be an adventure game in the strictest sense, nevertheless is definitely within our scope of interests. Firstly, the main heroes have an enticing quest to accomplish. Secondly, it relies a lot on character interactions that represent real life people interactions. Finally, the game goes directly for what almost every game designer seems to yearn for (more…)

The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood – a title that instills fear, tension and deep expectation in any loyal Monkey Island fan. When we click that big green DOWNLOAD button, we know we’re in for a real treat. And boy, we sure are! Chapter 4 is simply the most intriguing and exciting episode yet, and it can only get better with Chapter 5!

Remember that spoilers of Chapters 1 – 3 are very likely!

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