Area 161

It’s Amazing What Focus and Excitement Can Do

// August 30th, 2010// By LordBron // 3 Comments » // Game Dev, Partnerships, Purpose, iDevBlogADay

We’ve had the idea for Area 161 since about January, I think. I didn’t really have any time to focus on it until April, when I officially left 360|Conferences. Since then, there was a lot of talk, but not much action. I attended a few sessions at the April 360|iDev (THE best iOS Dev conference!) and had a full schedule of sessions at WWDC in June. Smiley didn’t really get jazzed until he got his iPad in August.

In five months, we prepped a logo, knocked around a few game ideas and figured out our business. We dug deep to find out what we wanted in a company as well as what we hoped to gain out of the company in the end. I wouldn’t say that it was “wasted time” because all of that was good stuff, but it certainly was a sparse time of activity.

Excitement is Contagious

This is the great part of a partnership: excitement. Being excited about an idea, concept or notion all alone doesn’t make for much productivity. Without someone to share and help grow the excitement level, a lone person will find that excitement fades after a day or two.

When Smiley got his iPad (I still only have iPod Touches), it was a life changing moment. His entire family began to understand why he wanted to build games for the platform. They understood that it was truly a “magical” device. They began to ask questions like, “Will your games be as cool as these?” Our answer: “We sure hope so, that’s sorta the point of the business.”

Smiley was pumped full of excitement, so naturally he turned to his partner and said, “So are you programming skills up to snuff?” He didn’t ask like that, but that’s how my mind translated it.

A Partner (and/or Friend) Can Bring Focus

It wasn’t like Smiley was tossing down game art and full fleshed out game ideas that needed prototyping. However, that’s still no reason as to why I wasn’t prepared after 5 months to technically start whipping out prototypes. Part of my problem was that I started backwards. I went from Flash to iPhone Dev Kit to Objective-C. I was getting by and with some help from the great David Whatley of GeoDefense fame, I had even whipped out a small prototype using Cocos 2D.

Learn the Basics, It Really Does Pave the Way

I realized that if I was gonna take a serious stab at this, I needed to go down to the basics. I needed to learn C, then Objective-C, then Cocoa, then Cocoa Touch, then Open GL ES. I pledged a book a week, mainly the Apress series mentioned in my last post. In the month of August, I got through the C, Obj-C and half the Cocoa book. I’m at the point now where I can figure out how to build an app in Cocoa without following an example.

In ONE month, I gained more knowledge than the previous FIVE months due to focus and excitement. This despite the fact that I probably worked more hours in my day job in August than any other month. Time is not your enemy and there is ALWAYS time to get your learn on. Don’t fool yourself with silly lies. Stay up later AND wake up earlier. Most of my study time this month was 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm (aka until I passed out) AND 5:30 am to 6:30 am (after I showered and did personal development time). I was pretty much working all the other hours of those days. Yes, it was hard. No, it wasn’t easy. After spending 12 hours on a computer at work, the last thing you want to do is spend another 3 or 4 at home and after you wake up on the computer, but I did it.

Don’t Forget to Treat Yourself

With hard work comes great rewards. I’m not talking about riches and all that crap. I’m talking about little presents you give yourself. Like tonight for example, I gave myself a reward for my hard work. I took Smiley’s mom and little boy to a baseball game because he was busy. That’s why this is going to barely make the deadline. Yeah, another 4 hours on the Cocoa book woulda been great, but sometimes you have to remember: You can’t just work and live for the future good times. You need to stop and enjoy the current good times as well. This weekend, my wife and I watched over two boys that match my two boys in age. Sure, again, it distracted from my studies, but it was great fun.

Life is the reason we do what we do. Therefore, let’s not be stupid and let it pass us by while chasing “the Dream”. Because, we all know that if we catch “the Dream” but no one is around to share it with, the chase will be for naught. At least, it would be for me.

My Learning Resources

// August 23rd, 2010// By LordBron // 3 Comments » // Learning Resources, iDevBlogADay

I noticed today that I didn’t list any of the resources I used to actually learn how to program on the iOS. I have quite a few and I figure I should probably list them for posterity before I forget. I came to the iOS world from the Adobe Flex (read: Flash Platform) world. To say it’s a change of pace is a bit of an understatement. If you’re coming from PHP, JavaScript, etc., I’m sure the iOS world will seem as foreign to you as it was to me. What follows is my pointers to getting up to speed on the iOS platform.

Don’t Give Up

First and foremost, I have to say that the biggest hurdle to learning any new platform is your own stubbornness. The older we get, the more set in our ways we become. This applies to languages we speak as well as languages we code in. Objective-C in a unique language. I personally find it extremely fun, but I know the whole message sending and crazyLongAndDescriptiveMethodNames tend to freak people out. Stay at it. I promise, it gets to be very fun. I’m having a blast now!

Think the Objective-C and Apple Way

One of my problems when I started learning Objective-C and Cocoa was my technical baggage. I wanted the iOS platform to perform like other platforms I had programmed in the past. The more I tried to write apps like I used to, the more frustrated I got. It wasn’t until I looked at the language and platform from its perspective that things started to make sense.

Case in point, you’re probably used to subclassing framework classes. On the iOS platform, don’t do that. Subclass your own classes all you want. If you want to subclass NSString or NSMutableArray, don’t. Go learn about categories and use that instead.

Like all frameworks, look at how the framework makers code their stuff. Use that as the basis and jumping off point on how to code your own classes.

Books Are Your Friends

I love books. They are the #1 way I learn…period. In my last business, I worked and interfaced with a ton of publishers. On the iOS platform front, there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest: Apress. Granted, I sort of went in reverse order (iPhone -> Obj-C -> C), but hey, I’m stubborn and think I’m smarter than I really am at times.

The must have books to get started are:

Learn C on the Mac was a great help. Like I said above, it was the latest book I read despite it being the one I should’ve started with. The thing it teaches you that I didn’t realize I needed to learn was pointers. If you got a handle on pointers, than you can probably skip it. If you don’t get this and get a good grasp on that important topic.

Also, if you’re brand spanking new to programming, this book has a great primer for getting you introduced to the concepts you’ll live in with your code.

Dave Mark is a great guy and he has a love for the language that shows in his writings.

Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster is a great follow up. This teaches you all about messages, categories, protocols and, most importantly, memory management.

Beginning iPhone Development by Jeff Lamarche and Dave Mark is the book that started it all for me. I figured I could just jump in and become an iPhone expert off their book.  Their book will get you darn close, but you really should go get a foundation of C and Obj-C before jumping here. Think of this book as the icing on your C/Obj-C cake.

Jeff is a great guy that I met a couple of years back. Despite a misunderstanding and miscommunication, Jeff was a great sport through it all.  He’s a great person and often teaches classes. If you find one open and in your area, definitely take it. I’m sure he’s worth every penny.

Speaking of events

Other than books, there is one thing I love: conferences. Books get you the technical knowledge while conferences help you find new friends to help you along in this new journey. Below are my two recommendations.

360|iDev

Hands-down, for community vibe and interaction, this is the show to end all shows. Granted, I helped start it, but I’ve got nothing to do with it now. It’s run by John Wilker and he’s a huge fan of community driven events. It’s cheap, but don’t let that fool you. You get quality goods for a low price!

WWDC

This is Apple’s big developer event. Unlike 360|iDev, WWDC will put a dent in your wallet. However, every speaker is an Apple employee. The people who build the products are the guys delivering the presentations. You can’t get any more expert than that.

The Labs are extra cool. You get to go and chat with the team responsible for all your favorite frameworks and packages.

Blogs

All the writers listed above have blogs. Speakers at the shows above have blogs. There are way too many to list here, but I have to mention at least two:

http://www.raywenderlich.com/

This is hands down one of the best tutorial blog sites out there. Ray really knows how to pack a lot of info into bite-size chunks. He has a donation button. I’ve contributed to it (and probably will give more), so don’t just leech. Pay the man for a job well done. He’s worth every penny you donate.

http://idevblogaday.com

This is the coolest thing to ever come out of any coding community. Organized by the fearless Miguel Friginal, this is a great resource from a (semi) revolving band of indie game devs. The topics are varied, but the knowledge (aside from ours) is deep. Subscribe, read, learn and enjoy!

That’s It

I’m not an expert…yet. However, thanks to the resources above, I’m on my way. The iOS platform is incredible and so is the community that supports it. Don’t forget to pull your head outta your loops and statements to participate in it. Make friends (and, heck, maybe some enemies) but get out there and participate. You’re learning will only increase because of it.

My Bookshelf: A sampling

// August 16th, 2010// By LordBron // 2 Comments » // Purpose, Storytelling, iDevBlogADay

Since I missed these “What’s on your bookshelf” theme the first go around, I’ll go ahead and publish my thoughts now that @Quebarium has restarted it for the #iDevBlogADay site.

My bookshelf is a bit different than most. This is Tom speaking here. Smiley can post his thoughts later, but I can tell you his has a lot of comics!

Speaking of comics, Amazing Spiderman #161 has to be first on our list. Without it, Area 161 (and the friendship behind it) may have never come to be. It won’t help you make better games, but hey…we hadda put it up first!

Next up has to be Jesse’s The Art of Game Design. Bar none, hands down, this is THE book every game maker should get. I’ve bought it 3 times given it away twice. Jesse is our modern day genius when it comes to game design. Read it, but be sure to have a notepad and pencil nearby. The ideas just start flying when you read this book, so you’ll want to capture them before they escape.

Stephen King’s On Writing is a must read for anyone involved in the creative process. Sure, sure, he writes about writing. However, you can apply the concepts and ideas he shares to game making just as easily to writing. I’ve wore out my first edition because I read it so much. What I like best about this book is the insights he gives to the business side of a creative career.

Titan: The Biography of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow is another must read. Regardless of what you feel about oil, monopolies or robber barons, you should read this book. Rockefeller at one time owned the entire oil ecosystem: wells, distilling, transportation, distribution, etc. This is how he became notorious. The most interesting aspects of the book though are his humble beginnings, his rise to power, his singular love (and respect) for his wife, and the fact that he always knew he’d give most of his wealth away. This was one of the rare paperback books I owned, so I wore it out quickly. For a present, my wife bought me a hardback first edition.

Lastly, insert title of your favorite spiritual or metaphysical book here. I personally like this one from my old pal, Jimmy. You can insert a book by His Holiness the Dalai Lama or the Pope or the Koran or the Bible or even a book on Karma. Just pick something that puts your thoughts out and off of yourself. The more you think of your fellow man, the better person you become. The better person you become, the more successful you will be.

That’s it for me. Next week, I’m thinking I may post for my first technical post!  :)

OpEd: It’s safe to discuss your game ideas

// August 9th, 2010// By LordBron // 6 Comments » // Game Dev, iDevBlogADay

One thing I’ve never understood is Stealth Startups. You know, they are those companies that don’t talk about what their doing for fear of people stealing their ideas. I can’t recall any stealth startup that has went on to major success.  A while back there was an #iDevBlogADay twitter discussion on whether it’s okay to share your game ideas. I think it’s perfectly fine to do so.

I know what some of you are thinking, “But what if someone steals your idea?”  I’ll admit that’s a possibility, but here’s what I think people forget:

There is only one you and only you can really execute your vision of your idea.

Let’s take a look at StarCraft II.  I mean, really.  It was 10 years in the making and anyone could’ve attempted to make another space alien RTS game, but people didn’t. “Well, they’re brand is too well known, they’re safe.” Okay, so a multi-million dollar franchise is not ripe for the picking, but that multi-hundred dollar to (the rare) hundreds of thousands dollar idea of yours is?

I was watching this Jeff Bezos interview and in it he talks about the iPad and says something to this effect:

Do you know what the #1 selling app on the iPad is? A game called Angry Birds where you launch birds at pigs.

The thing that caught my attention was the way he talked about the app.  It was in this, “Who would ever care about that?” Now, granted, he was talking about the iPad in relation to it’s competitive level with the Kindle, so that may be the reason for the tone. However, I think he partially thinks that Angry Birds is one of the silliest things he’s ever heard of.

Let’s take other ideas that have caught on. Jesse Schell (one of the few geniuses walking this planet) gave this talk at DICE. In it, he says something I whole heartedly agree with. To paraphrase:

If someone told you they were going to make a text based mafia game and make millions, you’d laugh at them. If people told you they’d make a game that required $80 plastic instruments to play, you’d have told them they were crazy.

He’s right. Mafia Wars and Guitar Hero weren’t successful because of the idea, but rather, the implementation of the idea.

I’m a comic book reader and there’s a great indie comic book that was around for 300 issues named Cerebus. Dave Sim was the creator and writer, while Gerhard drew these amazing backgrounds. When asked what would happen if the two got into a fight and split up, Sim responded in a way that showed he understood it was not the idea but the execution of the idea:

“We can each do our own version of Cerebus. His would look prettier, but mine would read better.”

It’s funny how we share ideas about other unique things, like children. No one ever “stealth parents”. You don’t keep a child locked up until the child becomes a perfect adult. Same should be for your games. Yeah, sure, have a 9 month germination period where you knock out the basic ideas and lock down your thoughts. After that though, throw it out into the world.

We’re hoping that in the next couple of months, we have a prototype of the mechanic for our first game. However, we can spill the beans on the game concept right now: Darts.

“Oh, darts have been done before!” You’re right and they’ll likely be done after us as well. However, we have a fresh idea that we think a lot of other people will enjoy in our version of darts over someone else’s. Plus, it’s better than yet another Zombie game, right? LOL

Maybe we’re right or maybe we’re wrong, but all we know is that it’s something we would like to play and currently can’t because it doesn’t exist. Therefore, we sort of owe it to ourselves (and really, the world) to build it.  Why? Because no one *can* build it like we can and thus we should do everything possible to bring our full vision to life.

How to Get Non-Gamers to Buy

// August 2nd, 2010// By LordBron // 2 Comments » // Game Dev, Pricing, iDevBlogADay

One thing that is so exciting about the iOS platform is the number of devices out there. Now, sadly, not every device is owned by a gamer. Even sadder, not every gamer is a buyer.

My Un-Scientific Research

Other than my little bro and Smiley (the other half of Area 161), I don’t really know very many gamers. However, a large number of people I come in contact with have iOS devices. This leaves me with, what I feel, is a great opportunity to do some market research.

There’s Good News, Bad News and Hopeful News

The first thing I ask people is:

“Do you have any games on your device?”

The good news is that, overwhelming, the answer is yes. People have at least one or two games on their device. They tend to be casual gamers, who only play when they have a few moments to spare. “Which isn’t very often,” they offer.

Next, I ask:

“Did you buy the games or are they free?”

Time for the bad news. “They’re free.” Even sadder, some of the people will tell me. “I don’t even think my account has a credit card attached to it.” Therefore, they couldn’t even buy a game even if they wanted to.

Free is still king when it comes to iOS in my findings. Oddly enough, the ones that do have a lot of paid games are the younger crowd. Those between 5 and 15 years old have the ability to convince their parents to buy them games. Some of these games are even the costlier big publisher games that are far above the 99 cent price point.

When I ask those with free games only, “Why don’t you buy games? ” The answers vary.

I hear a lot of, “The free games are so good, why do I need to buy a paid game?”

Some will tell me. “I would, but I don’t know which ones to buy.” To this I counter, “So, 99 cents is to great a risk to take a chance on a game that seems interesting.” The reply, “No, but again, the free ones are good, so why risk it?”

Part of it has to do with the non-gaming apps that have hit it big. For instance, one of the things that has made the App Store sucessful is now hurting it. People will mention apps like “that fart app for 99 cents” or other one trick pony apps. Thus, their mentality towards iOS games is much the same. “Will I really play it for more than a day?”

It’s funny to see these same people plunk down 4 bucks for a Starbucks or something similar, yet cringe at the thought of buying a 99 cent game.

After I hear they only have free games, I ask, “But what about In App Purchases? If you like the game, will you buy more levels, etc. as a way to reward the developer for their work?” Sadly the answer tends to be: “Umm…not really.” Case in point, LandFormer. I would gift the IAP of the levels to my friends if I could, but sadly I cannot. Most say, “Yeah, the basic levels are good enough.”

Is there no hope?

Luckily, if you’ve made it this far, I have some good news. There is a silver lining.

“So, there’s pretty much nothing that will get you to buy a game?” After much thinking, the resounding answer is: “Actually, if a really good friend told me I *had* to buy it because it was sooo good, I’d buy it.”

The key here is how do you let your friends know which games you like the most? I actually have some ideas around this. I’m chatting with my brother-in-law, to whip something up, but I may just offer it up to the community. The tool would be a benefit to indie game devs versus a huge profit center on its own, though I do have some ideas on how to make some profit out of it.

I’ll jot the ideas down and break it down for you in the next post. Maybe it can become an #iDevBlogADay effort. We’ll see.

Gift Cards and App Gifting

The number one way I’ve found to convince people that it’s worth their time to buy games is to gift them games. Now, in addition to games you’ve made, I’d suggest you gift your favorite games. I’ve gotten many people hooked on geoSpark, Sneezies, and Harbor Master via these methods. (Shout out to LandFormer, which I can only “Tell a Friend” to since it’s free). People are scared to buy apps, but once they see just how fun they can be, some change their ways. Not all, and I don’t know for how long, but hey, every convert counts.

Another thing I’m gonna start doing is giving iTunes Gift Cards to people instead of traditional birthday/anniversary/graduation/holiday gifts. On the envelope, I’ll list the games I recommend they buy with the gift card. Again, we need to help get people comfortable with buying games for their devices. Obviously, people are buying now, but we need to help convert the non-buyers. It’ll only help us all in the long run.

Sidenote: During my research I stumbled across this infographic about App Stores. Here’s a link to my favorite slide that contains this gem:

“iPhone users spend an average of $80 on apps; 70% of that goes to developers.”

Another slide says:

“Even now 90% of app developers do not make a sustainable return on investment.”

No one said success is gonna be easy. However, I think if we all work together, we can help success find its way to us faster.

The Importance of a Good Story, Part 2: Your Game Story

// July 26th, 2010// By LordBron // 6 Comments » // Game Reviews, Storytelling, iDevBlogADay

Last week, I talked about finding your own story. This was in reference to your company, business, etc. This week I want to talk about finding stories in your games.

When Stories Rule, Game Mechanics Don’t Matter

There’s quite a few examples of this, but 2 come to mind that stand above the rest.

1. Myst: I think Myst has finally been dethroned as the best selling game ever, but it took some time. You also have to remember that it was released on CD-ROM at a time when not everyone had a CD-ROM. People either upgraded their machine with a new peripheral or they bought an entirely new machine just to play it. Now THAT’S dedication!
   
   If you think back to Myst, you’ll see the mechanique was very simple: Point and click. On the iPhone, it’s even simpler: Touch on where you want to go. There was beautiful graphics, but there was no animation at all during the game play. Instead, animations occurred in reaction to a move or during a cutscene. Despite the fact that you were almost in essence just clicking through photos, the game captivated millions upon millions of users, many of which were first time (and only time) gamers.
   
   What drew people to Myst was the story. It was a game in which you never died, a first I believe. You just wandered around, solving puzzles trying to figure out who you were, why you were there and how you could get out. They could’ve just made a game of the various puzzles and sold them as a game of brain teasers. However, had they done that, the game would not have been anywhere near as successful.
   
   The most amazing aspect about Myst’s story was it’s non-linear nature. You were free to go in any direction you wanted and solve puzzles in whichever order you preferred. It was like real life vs a movie. This new sense of freedom contributed to the enjoyment, so much so that many adults bought the game just to explore and never bothered to solve puzzles at all.
   
   The Miller brothers were pretty indie when they made Myst, working from garages, etc. This shows that indies have the power to take games to a whole new level when new technology comes out (in their case, CD-ROM tech). We, as iPhone developers, seem to have a new tech to take advantage of everytime Apple releases a new device. We just need to take the time to analyze it from the perspective of “How can this help us tell a new story?”
   
   
2. Dragon’s Lair/Space Ace: This game utilized the joystick and button setup commonly found in arcade cabinets at the time. The unique thing about this game is that it told you every move you needed to make. Unlike Myst, there was no wondering: Where do I go or what do I do. In fact, if you didn’t do exactly what it commanded at the moment it told you to, you’d die.
   
   Because of the linear nature of these games, they were able to make a very tight story and link it to constantly playing animation. Where as Myst was like clicking through a photo album of an unknown world, DL/SA was literally an animated cartoon world that you got to participate in.
   
   DL/SA both played to a male’s sense of manhood. They were stories that pretty much encapsulated what every little (and not so little) boy dreamed of. Who doesn’t want to be the knight in shining armor or the super-studly space pilot that defeats the enemy to save the hot girl?
   
   DL/SA was made by Don Bluth. While I’m guessing he had some deep pockets backing him, I’ll still call him an Indie because he was an Indie Animator trying his hands into video games.
   
   Both games also leveraged another disc based technology, Laserdisc. Again, we see how new technology allowed for a new way to deliver a compelling story.

A Game Plus a Story for 99 cents?

I know what you’re thinking. “These games were priced far higher than your typical 99 cent app.” You’re right. Myst, I believe, was $40 new and DL/SA were a quarter (or 2) a pop, which very easily became $40 per player. I have some opinions and some rough, non-scientific studies on price, but that will be in next week’s post. Suffice it to say, that despite our lower price point, story can indeed still be delivered.

Here are some games that are experimenting with story on the iOS platform:

• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor – Yeah, spinning webs and catching bugs is fun, but that’s not what makes the game great. It’s the stuff outside of your control that makes it great. It’s the photos in the background. It’s the trinkets in the secret levels.
  
  Lesson to learn: You can tell a story without words and completely in the background.
  
  
• Pro Zombie Soccer – I’m still torn on this game’s story, but hey, at least they have one. One thing I do like is how they’ve integrated the comic format into their game.
  
  Lesson to learn: Feel free to mix media in your games, in this case comics.
  
  
• Robocalypse (Seems to be pulled from US App Store) – I really like the story in this game. It’s very silly and makes up for what I find to be too complicated a game. I put up with the complexity though to see more of the story.
  
  Lesson to learn: Have fun with your story and it’ll be fun to the users.
  
  
• Plants Vs. Zombies – The story here is very subtle, but the neighbor/vendor guy is a friggin’ hoot. They could’ve very easily given you a storefront without him and no one woulda really noticed. However, I’m glad they spent the time to create what has to be one of the more memorable characters out there.
  
  Lesson to learn: Even something as simple as one character can liven up a game with a story.
  
  

But It Needs to be a Good Story too.

I’ll keep hounding about story, but there’s one thing I have to admit. I hate a really, really poor story. You can’t force a story. I like Steven King’s explanation:

“Writing a story is like excavating dinosaur bones. You’re job as a writer is to carefully brush away the dirt and other items not important to the story. The story is there whole, waiting for you. You just have to make sure not to mess it up.”

However, the only way to get better at story telling is by telling stories. Therefore, don’t be scared to add a story, but just try to learn each time and learn from others:

• Chaos Rings – I love me some Final Fantasy, so I was stoked about this iPhone original. However, I think it’s fairly clear that Square Enix has their B-team working on their iPhone games. The story is painfully horrible. Maybe it’s poor translation, but I simply can’t play it because the story is so bad.
  
  Lesson to learn: Read the story out loud. If it’s hard for you to follow while reading, it’s gonna be even harder for your users.
  
  
• N.O.V.A – The dialogue in this game is atrocious. I realize that dialogue is exteremely hard to do, but that’s no excuse not to do some homework. My favorite hobby as a teenage writer was to go to the mall with headphones on my head, but with no actual music playing. I’d sit next to perfect strangers and listen to how the spoke to each other. I’d then take notes and add that to my dialogue.
  
  Lesson to learn: It’s not what your characters are saying that’s important, it’s how they say it: word choice, inflection, sentence structure, etc.
  
  
• Rogue Planet – My issue here is the amount on Non-Player Characters. I think this is an example of people trying too hard to put story into a game. “More characters mean a more complex story. The more complex the story, the more engaged the users will be.” Sorry, but that’s simply not true. More characters means you need to be a better a writer.
  
  Lesson to learn: It’s hard to keep track of a story as it is, so limit the number of characters when you can. Many of your are just starting out, so don’t make it any harder for yourselves than you have to.
  
  

“Where’s your street cred?”

So what makes me think I can talk so much about writing, eh? Why don’t I put some examples out there that can be critiqued?

Fair enough. I haven’t written in awhile, but below are links to some of my work and writing tools I’m making:

• Dragon Lore – A fantasy story of a little girl and an old dragon. I think the dialogue shines here, but you can judge for yourself. This was written about 10 years ago.
• Unemployment – A modern fiction piece about an unemployed man. This piece utilizes that trick I mentioned last post where you start and end a story with the same thing. In this case, it’s a wedding ring. This was written in high school, roughly 17 years ago.
• Poems for my Wife – A collection of almost 600 poems that I’ve written for my wife in the 13 years we’ve known each other. Some are really bad, but some are really good. I’ll let you decide which are which. I used to try to write one poem a day, but it still hasn’t happened. I also used to have this open so other guys could write poems for their wives, but no one ever signed up so I shut that part down.
• Pictstory – A website that I’m building to help get people writing more often. Basically, I’ll post a picture and then users write a story to go with the picture. It’s a tool to get in some writing via your mobile phone, during down time. It currently has issues in Firefox, but I’ll be cleaning it up as we get closer to launch. I’ll be sure to make some noise about it here when it’s ready for prime time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little two parter on the importance of story. I have some thoughts on world building too, so let me know if you want a write up on that.

Next week, I’ll be writing about app pricing. I’ve been doing some non-scientific research and the findings are rather frightening for us indy devs.

The Importance of a Good Story, Part 1: Your Personal Story

// July 19th, 2010// By LordBron // 1 Comment » // Company Related, Storytelling, iDevBlogADay

In my one brief year of college, I studied Computer Science and English – Creative Writing. It was the 93-94 school year. In the 16 years since, I’ve read a few hundred business books. One thing I’ve always found odd was how the latter pretty muched ignored most of what I learned in the former.

Business books tell about profits, products and growth. They’ll tell you about a lot of the logic behind building a successful business. This is because those things are repeatable and concrete. “Keep tabs on cost until cash flow is positive, then focus on growth.” There are 3 stages to a startup that can easily be mapped and checked for progress. As indie game devs, these logical steps provide a checklist that we can use as a sanity check.

There is one thing, however, that cannot be described in books, because for each and every business it is unique. The item I’m referring to is: Your Personal Story.

eBay Has a Great Story, or Does It?

Let’s take a quick poll:

Why did Pierre Omidyar start eBay?

1. To help with his girlfriend’s PEZ collection
2. He had a long weekend and wanted to code something

Every programmer has the “B” story, but very few have the “A” story. If you approached a news reporter back during the internet bubble, chances are you had a “B” story. However, there was only ever one “A” story and that was the story of eBay.

Funny thing though, there was no girlfriend with a PEZ collection. It was a complete fabrication by eBay’s earliest PR people. However, most of you probably thought the answer was “A” because a good story is hard to let go or forget.

Now, I don’t advocate flat out lying like eBay did. Lie or not though, it was that story that got eBay it’s earliest press. (Sidenote: For a really good story, but not press worthy, look up why the company went with the non-sensical name of “eBay” vs their more intuitive sounding “Auction Web”.)

Pixar (King of Story) Revealed a Gem During Lunch at WWDC

Michael B. Johnson from Pixar gave a great brown bag chat during WWDC. Amidst showing cool footage, talking about internal tech initiatives and showing off in-house tools, he talked about something that Pixar gets that not many other companies do:

Story is King.

When Michael started with the company, he went to one of the tech guys (Anthony A. Apodaca) who explained the history of the company including where the name “Pixar” came from.

“It’s a moon of Degobah.”

Michael then went on to talk about how he met one of the founders, Ed Catmull. During the meeting, Ed started to also give the rundown of Pixar history. When he came to where the name Pixar came from, he said, “We wanted something computer related like Pixel, but we also wanted something more…” Michael interrupted Ed and said, “Tony already told me where the name came from.” “Oh yeah, what did Tony say?” “He said it was a moon of Degobah.” Ed paused for a moment then said, “Oh that’s a better story, run with that one.”

Michael’s point was that from the tools his team built to the directors of the films themselves, there’s a common goal among them all: To deliver a well-told, compelling story.

Every Story is Different, But…

Here’s the long story of Area 161.

In the fall of 1993, Tom is in line at a 7-11 to get change to ride the bus home. In the register line before him is Smiley, about to get some quarters to play some video games. Smiley opens his wallet to remove some bills to exchange. A picture in Smiley’s wallet catches Tom’s eye. “Hey, is that a picture of Spider-Man in your wallet?” Smiley says, “It sure is.” A geek bond is created in that instant. As we all know, geek bonds are the strongest.

Many years pass and the two share a myriad of experiences:

• They work briefly together at a software shop. Smiley teaches Tom a lesson in business he never forgets, “You work for them. If they pay you to pick your nose, you pick your nose. They pay for the luxury to tell you what exactly to do with your time.” That bit of advice makes working for others tolerable for Tom.
• Smiley’s wedding ceremony is inside his wife’s parents’ home. Oddly enough, Smiley’s wife and Tom’s life criss-cross years before Smiley meets her. Tom stands as co-best man in the ceremony that takes place in the living room.
• Smiley eventually buys his in-law’s house. During the house warming party, Tom visits and says, “Some day we’ll live close to each other.” Smiley asks, “How? I live here near Seattle and you’re wife never wants to move here?” Tom replies, “I don’t know how or when, but I know somehow, someway we’ll live close to each other.”
• Tom finds himself in Arizona years later. While looking for work, he gets a call from a recruiter up near Seattle. “We have this gig.” “Where exactly?” Tom looks up the address, it’s 3.5 miles from Smiley’s home. Tom then finds himself living in a spare bedroom inside Smiley’s house. He tells Smiley, “See.  I told ya, we’d live close.”
• Life works in odd ways. Realizing that the year-long job contract is no chance experience, the two friends strike up a company. While debating company names, they settle on Area 161. Why “161″? As far as we can recall, that was the issue of Spider-Man that Smiley had a reprint of in his wallet.

Almost twenty years have past and not only is the geek bond stronger than ever, but it’s still finding ways to permeate their lives.

Now that’s obviously a lot of story there. Is it a great story? I can’t say, but it’s our story. Is it a good story? Well, I think it’s a heck of a lot better than , “Two geeky friends start a game company.” Which is pretty much every indie dev story, right?

Tools of the Trade

Storytelling is an art, but so is game making. Since you’re all game makers, you know that you are artists. You’ll have to use some of that skill to create your own story. Never told a good story before? Don’t worry there are tricks. The two simplest ones are:

1. Put an ordinary person in extraordinary situations or Put an extraordinary person in an ordinary situation. – From the fantasy world, think Batman (for the former) or Superman (for the latter). In the real world, think Pierre/eBay during the dot com bubble (for the former) and John Carmack/ID during the shareware days (for the latter)
2. A story should always end where it begins. – This one used to confuse me til I realized they didn’t mean quite literally. They just mean you mention something at the start that you then bring back in towards the end. In our case, Spiderman issue 161. It was there at the start of Area 161 history story and pulled back in again towards the end. From the fantasy world, Alan Moore is a master of this technique.

Dig into your history and find your story. The sooner you find it, the sooner you can “own” it. It’s important to own it, because like a good joke, it’s get better every time you tell it. Whether in your head to yourself or to others. You don’t want to be in the middle of an interview with a reporter and find yourself bumbling, “Oh wait, before that…oh and I forgot about…Then was it after or during that time we….”

Next week, I’ll talk about stories in your games. A game is just like a company. There’s a story there, you just have to find it. And when you do, it’ll help you stand out that much more.

3 lessons learned from my last company

// July 12th, 2010// By LordBron // 2 Comments » // Company Related, Partnerships, iDevBlogADay

Thanks to @chrismwaite‘s post, I realized that I have some start-up knowledge that may help some people. My last business, 360|Conferences, was a partnership with John Wilker. It is also the host of the 360iDev conference, which has quickly become the de facto event for iPhone indie devs.  While vastly different from game dev, each one is a business. This means they have a product, they sell said product and profits need to one day surpass expenses. If you never achieve profit, then my tax man says “You have a hobby, not a business.”

Apple wants you to succeed, but you have to bet the house.

// July 5th, 2010// By LordBron // 5 Comments » // Game Dev, Partnerships, iDevBlogADay

I attended a lot of game sessions and spoke with people in the game support divisions of Apple last month at WWDC. The resounding message I picked up on was this:

“Please, don’t make the same old tired games. This is a new platform with a new set of rules. Innovate, not duplicate.”

In our intro post, we talk about the purpose of our company. One of the things we talk about is innovative ways to play games on iOS platform. Therefore, Jobs and his minions pretty much let us know that we are on the right path. Not only are we on the right path, they’re doing everything in their power to make it easier for us to be successful. Easy, that is, if you do one thing:

Bet the house on the iOS platform.

I’ve talked to many that have been successful on the iOS platform. While all are not actively porting, a lot say they’re not counting out the possibility.  To me, this is counter intuitive for a variety of reasons.

Note of Caution: Before I proceed and expound upon these reasons trying to sound authoritative, you have to remember two huge holes in my credibility: First, I’ve never published a game on any platform. Second, Smiley and I intend to keep both of our jobs as we publish our first few games. If you think those two items make my points worthless, then I’ll thank you for reading this far and hope you have success doing opposite of what I suggest. If you can overlook those holes, I think I have some valid points.

Point 1: There is a marriage between hardware and software that cannot be denied.

To quote Alan Kay:

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”

That’s why I LOVED when Sony announced the Cell chip. Sony took all their expertise and success of the original Playstation and Playstation2, then thought up a crazy complex, way-ahead-of-its-time processor and plopped that into the Playstation3.  Apple didn’t have a gaming platform to ride on.  However, one thing is clear: Apple is very serious about software and that’s why they make their own hardware.

We’re serious about games. If you’re reading this, you probably are too. What Apple has done for us is create this wonderful platform of software and hardware, given it to us and said, “Make the magic happen.” That’s why I can’t get on board with Droid game dev. There’s no perfect marriage there. Yes, I realize we now have 3 platforms within the iOS world: iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. Yes, there’s various models of each, not to mention past OS versions as well. However, Apple makes it very clear: “Target the latest, don’t dumb it down for the slackers that don’t update.” For a game developer like me, that’s exhilarating. I know that I can target the latest devices and Apple is not gonna punish me for that. If anything, that’ll give them more reason to help me succeed.

Stop looking at the iOS platform as just another screen that wants a d-pad. Making a d-pad on a touchscreen is NOT innovation, it’s dumbing down a platform to fit your old skool way of thinking. Yes, directional pads were sweet in 80s when NES was making it’s name. However, we have something new on our hands. Something the world has never seen before that we can exploit to create some fun games.  Let’s look at 3 top sellers of the iOS platform: Doodle Jump, Flight Control and Angry Birds. (Hmm…it appears having a two word name for your game also helps. LOL)

Let’s examine their basic play concepts:

Doodle Jump – Accelerometer to move and touch to shoot

Flight Control – Touch to draw “flight paths” to guide the planes

Angry Birds – Slide to launch, pinch to zoom in/out

Let’s examine what they lack:

• On-screen D(irectional)-Pad
• First person shooter perspective
• Gratuitous blood
• Scantily clad, big-busted, small waisted woman

The numbers don’t lie. Success is not doing the same old, same old. It’s taking an objective look at the platform and asking yourself, “What can I do here, that I couldn’t do as easily somewhere else?”

Point 2: Partnerships work best if built upon trust and leverage of expertise.

I don’t know how to solder a motherboard. I don’t know how to write a mobile OS. I don’t know how to run an electronic software distribution system. I don’t know a human eye can only distinguish roughly 300 pixels per inch. But that’s the beauty of having Apple as a partner, they do. They spend millions upon millions of dollars to make the very best platform they can.

I’ll share a quote from WWDC that I don’t think Apple will mind me sharing. It was from a Game Design session. The menuing system for the demo game was created using UIKit and then skinned to fit in perfect with the game environment. The speaker said, “Use UIKit. It’s there to make your life easier. Why spend days or weeks building your own internal system, when you can use UIKit and make it in a few hours.”

This is where betting the house comes into play. The biggest reason why you wouldn’t use UIKit is to make porting easier. “Well, if I want to port this to Droid or something else, it’ll be easier if I do this stuff in C vs a native iOS Framework.” Thinking like that makes you a bad partner and thus creates a non-optimal partnership.

Apple needs awesome apps to make their platform (and thus, their company) a success. That’s where they rely on us. They could hire (and have in fact hired) some great game makers that would run circles around some of our meager game making attempts. Time and time again though, Apple has made it clear. “We are not in the game making business.” Steve Jobs knows how a good partnership works (him and Woz) and how a bad one works (him and Eisner). When there’s no trust, there’s no chance of success. When there’s absolute trust, the skies the limit.

Point 3: Constraints are not inhibitors of great ideas. In fact, greatness flourishes with constraints.

Throughout time, great things came from constraints: Shakespeare often wrote his prose in iambic pentameter, while his chosen form of poetry was the sonnet. Donkey Kong was designed by the master Shigeru Miyamoto with the constraint of the hardware being made for a different game, Radar Scope.

There are constraints to the iOS platform. We have 3 killer ideas that we want to do that leverage these constraints. I’m not going to tell you them, because to be honest, that’s what we’re trying to exploit for success.

However, I’ll give you advice on how to find constraints you can exploit for your own purposes:

• Read the documention: There’s so many nuggets of idea gold to be found in what many think are boring docs.
• Don’t think as a game maker: Take an objective look at the platform and look at it for what it is and what it can be, not “how will this device fit my game idea”.
• Dream big: By dreaming big, you’ll find things you can’t do…right now. However, smaller more doable ideas will come forth to fill the void.

That’s all I got. Remember, this is a partnership with Apple and with a partnership comes trust. Just like you (the reader) and I (the writer) have an unspoken trust: You will come with an open mind and I’ll do my best to provide you with ideas to succeed. Just like Smiley (the friend and gamer) and I (the friend and programmer) have an unspoken trust to do our best to create something we’ll both be proud to own. Without trust, this whole thing falls apart and everyone fails. The question for you now is: Who do you trust?

An introduction to the company and our purpose

// June 28th, 2010// By LordBron // 3 Comments » // Company Related, Purpose, iDevBlogADay

“Why make games?”

That’s a question you hear often when you tell people you’re starting a video game company. The answer is different for every game maker, so I can’t speak for them all. However, I can answer the question for me and partially for my business partner. Before I get to that though, I want to tackle the reason we’re not starting the business.

Usually, the next thing people say after asking the above question is:
“Oh yeah, I hear people are getting rich off those iPhone games.”

While profits are a concern of every business, I can honestly say that it is not our primary concern at Area 161. You have to remember that Smiley (my biz partner) and I have never made a game before in our lives. (Technically, I made a word based dungeon game in 7th grade, but no one besides me and my teacher saw it and played it, so that doesn’t count.) We realize that there are companies that spend millions of dollars with many employees who never attain “riches.” We’re two guys working on our games part-time after our day jobs. The likelihood of us striking it rich are slim, even slimmer than those small shops that at least give it a full time go.

“If you’re not gonna make it rich, then why bother?”

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. To help understand why, I’d like to start with a story about my grandfather.

My dad’s dad is a Mexican immigrant to America. He started working young, so young in fact that he never learned how to read or write in Spanish, much less English. My grandfather has lived 80+ years of his life never having read a book or signing his name. My grandmother handles all the bills and does all the signing. That didn’t stop him from buying a house for $15K in an area of town where that same house is now worth over several hundred thousand. He paid for this house working as a gardener at a cemetery. (Funny aside: His plot is in that cemetery at the top of a small hill. When asked why that spot, he says with arms stretched out, “Look at that view!”) My grandfather liked lawn care so much, that aside from doing it 40+ hours a week, he’d come home and do it on the weekend.

My grandfather had a pretty healthy side business doing lawns in the neighborhood. When I was young, he hired me as a sub-contractor. He showed me the ropes of the biz and even helped me get my first business going (doing lawns, of course). It was hard work, but he taught me two great business lessons that’ll I’ll never forget.

1) Laziness is contagious. The way my granddad put it was: “If you’re tired and you don’t feel like working, then don’t come to work because you’ll only bring others down with you.” It’s a lesson I’ve applied to my business life and I think it shows. The one thing people comment most about me is, “It’s going to be sad when you’re not around anymore because you make work so much fun.” It’s not that I’m the world’s greatest person. I just make sure I have a smile on and try to make work not suck.

2) It’s a good feeling when you can see the fruit of your labors. I asked gramps why he liked doing yardwork so much. He answered with: “When I finish a job, I can see how much better the yard looks than before I started.” So often in coproraate America, we don’t ever get a sense of accomplishment. Yeah sure, we can check off items on a list: close a bug, rack up a sale, meet our numbers, beat a deadline, etc.  How often though do you get to point at something and say, “I did that.  That is the work of my hard labors.” After 15 years of being in the workforce, I can tell you: not often.

“Who is Area 161?”

I’m a developer by day. Smiley is an appliance sales man. We’re both good at what we do and are successful enough to support our families. We both have a wife and two kids. He lives in Washington state while I live in the deserts of Arizona. As luck would have it though, I landed a contract that was 3.4 miles from his house. With my wife’s blessing, I spend weekdays in Washington, renting a room from Smiley.

Smiley and I have known each other for 20 years. We went to high school together and also worked together briefly at a software company. We can talk for hours upon hours and never run out of things to say. One night, we get to talking about the iOS devices. I tell him how low the cost of entry is to the platform. He’s starts to ask how hard it is to learn Objective-C and how do you go about starting a business. At first I’m a bit perplexed, “Why do you have to learn that stuff? I’m the programmer and business guy. You’re the games and sales guy.” His response, “I wasn’t sure you wanted to go into business with me.” I smiled, “Of course, let’s do this!”

“What makes your games special?”

Our company is broken into two roles. Smiley is gonna be the one in charge of Sales, Marketing and Game Design. My area is Game Programming, Social Media, and Business Operations. My dad is going to be contributing as the artist and our friends will likely be our QA department. While the business will eventually go beyond iOS devices, we realize it’s the simplest (and coolest) market to begin with. Our company’s goal is to break the mold of traditional gameplay either through unique gameplay techniques or interaction methods.

Smiley loves games: he’s what people refer to when they think “gamer”. If there’s a game he likes that you do too, he can probably beat you at it. I, on the other hand, am selective about my games: I’ve played the Myst games and Final Fantasy games. Other than that, I dabble with others but don’t feel any real affinity to them.  Our game design process is this: I think up unique approaches from an iOS/hardware perspective, which will spark a rough idea for a game. Smiley then takes that idea and runs with it. Making it way better than I could’ve on my own.

While the process seems simple, it was rough getting started. At first, Smiley had good game ideas, but there wasn’t anything unique to them, i.e. no reason why they should be on the iOS device vs any other platform. Then I had an idea that I tried to flush out during the 360|iDev game jam, just to get the process going. Smiley then rough patched some ideas onto it afterwards. After we flushed out the game ideas, we realized it was going to be a pretty big game for our first venture. One that will be easy when we’re pros, but probably a bit much to make our first go around. Then finally, after WWDC, things clicked.

We sat around and I was telling him all the cool things I learned. I went to the labs to get some information about some hardware ideas that we had, but weren’t sure if they were even possible. We got some confirmation on those, which then sparked other newer ideas.

We now have 2 concepts to move forward with (3 if you count the game jam idea). We super jazzed about them both and while both will still take some time to program, it’s likely that we can hopefully have one (if not both) out in about half the time it would take for the first idea.

“So these two normal guys think they can change the video game space?”

Yup, pretty much. One thing I’ve found in my past business was differentiation is key. In a crowded space like video games, it’s even more important. We may not (though hopefully will) be the best at something we come up with, but we’ll be different and for that we’ll at least get noticed.

We don’t think our lack of games industry background as a detriment either. We actually see it as a strength. With iOS, the games industry is being turned on its head in more ways than one. How can you get stuck in old world thinking if you’ve never been in that old world to begin with?

If nothing else, we’ll be two old friends going on a new journey together. As the saying goes, “It’s not the destination, but the journey that’s important.” We hope you’ll share that journey with us.