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

I released a game this week. It’s called Prime Minister’s Questions: The Game and it has you play as the British Prime Minister, David Cameron as you fight to the political death against the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, Ed Miliband. Before releasing the game, I was well aware that telling people I was an independent games developer would just be wishful thinking, yet, with PMQs out there, I have been asking: am I a real indie developer now?

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As of this writing, it’s been just a few weeks since I finished a project that took me more than a year and a half to complete – Adventure: All in the Game. Whenever I’m asked what this game is about by someone not familiar with adventure games, it’s always a challenge for me to explain it thoroughly. It’s a combination of so many different things clumped together that it’s hard to break it down into its essential parts. (more…)

Of late, the monthly adventure game studio competition or ‘MAGS’ has caught my eye. Participants take part my making a game with Chris Jones’s Adventure Game Studio engine in just one month – restricted by a specific theme set by the previous month’s winner. (more…)

Making games. Sometimes a hard task. Sometimes it is made to look like it’s not. What about trying to make again what’s already been made? Yes, this is an article about remakes. And it’s based on my HHGTG experiences.

But what is HHGTG (aka H2G2)? These are acronyms for ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. A book (and radio play) written in the early 80′s that became and still is a cult phenomenon for Science Fiction fans, very much like its author Douglas Adams. Shortly after the book, Douglas alongside Steve Meretzky, a programmer from Infocom, created a text adventure based on the book’s universe. One of the most successful and clearly one of the most remarkable games ever. (more…)

Patrik Spacek's (MISP's Captain Smirk) remade MI1 background from way back (click for more of his work)

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I haven’t written about Frantic Franko for quite a while, but it doesn’t mean my work on it doesn’t move forward at a crazy pace! I didn’t make it with the demo in May as originally intended, but it is pretty much ready now – just undergoing some testing. The big premiere is next week! It’s quite a large demo by my standards. It covers about 33% of the whole game, has both alternative puzzle solutions and special features not required to finish it. It also offers plenty of opportunity to get to know the main character – the grumpy psycho that he is. Hopefully the experience will be something truly memorable for the players. (more…)

Franko stands in the pale moonlight unaware of what awaits him

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