Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:47:00 GMT
Hamish McLeod has a nice post-mortem for War Angels up on his blog. An entertaining and self-reflective article, and certainly anyone who has been on a project that’s spiraled out of control can empathize. I especially like the graph shown above! It’s a pretty accurate depiction of game development.
The only way I can make games is by adhering to my own creative vision. By taking in outside input and ‘adjusting’ my vision, the game suffered. By fixing the game in stone, on a schedule I created, and not letting it grow with myself, I had sealed the fate of my game.
I think where scheduling can be useful is in planning and executing a game project that can be finished before you get to the point where the red, blue, and green lines start diverging. Creativity is boundless, but time, resources, and skills are not. You have to manage that on a large-scale project. And, to a certain extent, I feel like a lack of satisfaction with one’s work goes hand-in-hand with being a creator. It’s what drives you, right?
Regardless, I hope that Hamish gets back into game development sometime in the near future. C’mon, man, you know you still got that itch!
Posted in Community, Developers | Tags HamishMcLeod, Moonpod | 13 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:21:00 GMT
Kotaku is starting up a “Game Club” where everyone plays a game and then discusses it, in intervals. The first game is Mr. Robot, and the first discussion will be held this Thursday. You’re expected to make it through the intro and the storage room by then.
Sounds fun! And now’s a good time to get a copy of the game if you haven’t already, since Moonpod is offering a 40% discount to people participating in the Game Club.
Posted in Platformers, Community | Tags Moonpod | 9 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:40:00 GMT
War Angels, the very promising pseudo-sequel to the classic “Klik” game Factor X, has been canned in favor of something called Project Explosion. That’s right… Project Explosion.
From my experience there is always a point during a long project where development feels more like work than fun. There is always a point where you feel like you could do better if you started over. Why? Because you learn things during development. You grow, you get better, technology gets better… games in general get fancier. It’s inevitable. At that point, you have two options: you can sac up and finish what you started, knowing full well that, even though you’ve made some mistakes, your current game still has a lot of value, or you can give up and start your next game immediately. When you chose the latter option, you tend to rush the development of your next game and put undue pressure on yourself early on because all the time spent on Game #1 is now tacked onto Game #2 before you even start. What are the chances you’re going to finish this game (a bigger, and even more ambitious project), if you couldn’t finish the first one?
Of course, there is always the possibility that you never should have started a project in the first place, that the current project is a hopeless mess, that it’s time to cut your losses. I’m hoping this is one of those cases. But damn did War Angels look fine to me.
Posted in Shoot-em-ups, Community, Videos, Developers, Action / Arcade, Previews | Tags Hamish, Moonpod | 26 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:35:00 GMT
(Screens From Four Possible “Next Game” Prototypes)
Mr. Robot is out – you all have a copy, right? Good. Now you can ponder with me what the next delicious Moonpod game is going to be all about. Check out the latest Moonpod development diary to see what’s going on with the boys now that their game is out.
Geez, I guess this is going to be like Fost Appreciation week here at TIGSource, or something!
Posted in Community, Previews | Tags Moonpod | 9 comments
Posted by Lorne Whiting
Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:31:00 GMT
You can now download the demo and buy the game from the moonpod site.
Totally sweet.
(For those not in the know, Mr. Robot is a isometric action/adventure puzzle game, with RPG segments)
Edit: Goddamn you image, overlapping the site!
Posted in RPG, Windows, Action / Arcade | Tags Moonpod | 52 comments
Posted by Lorne Whiting
Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:55:00 GMT
Well, I’d hate to prove Derek right, and not post anything after my initial burst, so I did an interview with Moonpod about Mr. Robot. (Jeez, those questions are a lot harder to think of when you’re the one asking them.)
Pictured: Ghost Hacking
So, click here to read the full thing!
Read more...
Posted in Features, Interviews | Tags Moonpod | 17 comments
Posted by Tim
Sun, 12 Nov 2006 15:38:00 GMT
New developer diary entry and gameplay trailer for Mr. Robot now available.
And here’s something rather interesting…
Posted in Community, Previews | Tags Moonpod | 18 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 04 Sep 2006 20:19:00 GMT
Argh, I totally forgot to do a post about Moonpod’s development diary for last month. Anyhoo…
The Moonpod team is still working hard on Mr. Robot, their isometric platform game. August and September was about bots, boxes, and bugs, with a dash of ghost hacking for good measure. The end is nigh?
Hope all the Yanks are enjoying their Labor Day. I had to spend it sleeping and working… boo hoo fucking hoo hoo.
Posted in Community, Previews | Tags Moonpod | 3 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 14 Jul 2006 03:14:00 GMT
Bug-crushing, polishing, what’s next, and a really cool video of some of the special effects from the “ghost-hacking” portion of Mr. Robot. All this and more in the latest development diary from our friends at Moonpod!
Posted in Platformers, Previews | Tags Moonpod | 1 comment
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:05:00 GMT
Moonpod’s got another development diary up. This one is about the special effects in Mr. Robot and also storing data in games using XML. No sign of War Angels for a while… what’s going on with it?
Posted in Previews | Tags Moonpod | 3 comments
