Area 161

It’s Amazing What Focus and Excitement Can Do

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

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.

OpEd: It’s safe to discuss your game ideas

// August 9th, 2010 // 7 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 // 2 Comments » // Game Dev, iDevBlogADay, Pricing

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.

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

// July 5th, 2010 // 6 Comments » // Game Dev, iDevBlogADay, Partnerships

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?

Our first game – Tiny the Blob

// April 24th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Game Dev, Prototyping

While we have grand plans for this company, we realize that everyone has to start somewhere.  For us that somewhere is our first game.

Miguel will likely be our main game designer, while I’ll likely be the game programmer. However, while he’s adjusting to a new baby (who is the cutest thing on Earth I might add), I decided I needed a project to work on to get my Objective-C/Cocos2D skills up to speed. While at the last 360iDev, I participated in the TouchArcade Game Jam.  The theme was tiny and this was what I came up with: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=51998

Check out the basic game mechanique below:

RollAndShakeConceptDemo from Area 161 on Vimeo.

As you can see, it’s an accelerometer based game where you roll you little blob into matching blobs.  The goal is to pick up all the blobs on the level without crashing into an obstacle. If you crash, you turn back into little pieces and have to start collecting again. Some obstacles, like the yellow ones, will have special actions associated with them (screen shake, rotate level, transport ,etc).

I’ll probably rope Miguel into the design as well.  I figure we should probably put some story, characters, powerups, levels and head-to-head competition at some point.  He can help with that, but first a demo of the mechanique.  If the basic idea isn’t fun, there’s no use continuing.

Stay tuned for more videos and updates. My Cocos2D skills are coming up to speed and this will definitely be a Cocos2D based game. Let me know your thoughts, if any.