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

HM. Dr. Konstantinos “Gnome” Dimopoulos, Grand Commissar of the Soviet Gnomic Monarchy not only writes for his own Gnome’s Lair, he also regularly writes about Gaming on the Go and hunts for Retro Treasures, as well as countless other projects.

He is an unswaying retronaut, an energetic promoter of the obscure, forgotten and remarkable in the world of gaming, and today we are lucky enough to be given a sneaky peek into the lovingly tended attic that is: Konstantinos Dimopoulos’ mind.
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Sebastian “Mellotron Stew” Pfaller has worked not only with me on a number of games making music, but also provided music and testing for such popular adventure games such as The Vaccuum and Death Wore Endless Feathers Disk 1.

His quirky, colourful musical style is an ever changing kaleidoscope of ideas and experimentation and here we are offered a glimpse into the funk safari that is: Sebastian Pfaller‘s mind.

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So, you’ve got a whole lot done on your game, graphics are looking how you want and you’ve got some puzzles you really like. But hang on a minute, how do you know when your game is done? There’s always going to be moments when you go “I could just add a bit more on here”, and sometimes this is very beneficial. But you have to stop working on the game somewhere, or it’ll never get done.

This could be something so much bigger: It’s a natural feeling to get near the end of your project and think “This could be so much bigger!”. Parts you could add, bits you could extend – in fact if you’re like most people you’ll probably have ‘realized’ that the story you wrote would work so much ‘better’ as the first part in a trilogy. (more…)

Oh yeah, here’s the hard part. Ask anyone who has ever built a game and I am sure they’ll agree that this is where it stops being exciting and starts requiring some real determination. The honeymoon is over, the initial glory of your incredible idea has worn off and you’re left looking at your ‘to do’ list which seems to have no end. Stuck for motivation? Aren’t we all…
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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…)

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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