Area 161

I’d buy an iPod just for this game.

// September 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Game Dev, iDevBlogADay, Purpose

My brother-in-law muttered the phrase, “I’d buy an iPod, just for this game.” He said it in reference to “Angry Birds”. It was exciting to hear him say that, even though it wasn’t my game.

Smiley, my biz partner in this crazy venture, has a 5 year old son. The first thing his son says when he groggily walks out of bed in the morning is, “Where’s the iPad?” He stumbles to it, swipes it on and goes to town playing “Angry Birds”.

Smiley’s wife asked how fun a game where you cut fruit could be. He pointed out, “See how high of a combo you can get?” She got a good combo and shouted, “Booya!”

My brother-in-law comes over to my house for dinner often. At some point, an iPod invariably finds its way into his hands. He fires up GeoDefense. This weekend he was stoked that new levels were released and was immediately engrossed in them.

When my boy wakes up Saturday morning, or if he’s awake when I get home Friday night, I’ll get a hug and an excited, “Daddddy!” Shortly thereafter comes, “Where’s the iPod?” He knows I buy new games on Friday and he’s jonesing to play whatever it is Daddy has brought home.

My wife has played “Box of Sox” for over a year. I asked her once, “Do you really like the game?” She said, “No, not really. I’m just really mad that no matter how high of a score I get, it always says, ‘You should move back in with your mom.’ when I die.”

There is something magical about games. For some, it’s logical. For others, it’s emotional. Regardless of the reason, games are magical. They have the power to transport us away from this place we call home and even life. It can help us pass time while waiting in line. Or it can be a companion to keep us company when no one else is around.

As game makers, it is our duty to seek out that magic. Too many people rely on copying other people’s magic. Eventually though, we’ll need to step up our game and move onto original ideas. I love this quote from Kurt Cobain that GMail likes to show me quite often:

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

I think that applies so well to indie game makers. Yeah, we’re the same in our desires and our goals, but it’s our uniqueness that makes us strong. Huge game studios and publishers can outspend us on yet another copy cat game. The more we try to compete on that copy cat level, the more power we give them. They will win because they have to money to do it. Let our uniqueness shine through and they can’t touch us. No money in the world will ever buy them what’s inside of us. They know it and they’re scared of the day when we show them that we know it.

I love Pixar movies. One of my favorite film of theirs is “A Bug’s Life.” It’s often overlooked and pushed into the shadows of their other “great” films. In the film, the grasshoppers have bullied the ants for quite a long time. They dictate the terms to the ants and the ants just take it. The grasshoppers are bigger and badder than any one single ant. One day, Flik (one of the ants) and Hopper (the grasshopper leader) have this exchange:

Hopper: Let this be a lesson to all you ants! Ideas are very dangerous things! You are mindless, soil-shoving losers, put on this Earth to serve us!

Flik: You’re wrong, Hopper. Ants are not meant to serve grasshoppers. I’ve seen these ants do great things, and year after year they somehow manage to pick food for themselves *and* you. So-so who is the weaker species? Ants don’t serve grasshoppers! It’s *you* who need *us*! We’re a lot stronger than you say we are… And you know it, don’t you?

Now, I’m not saying that the Game Biz is filled with slave drivers. I’m not saying that at all. But if you look at a game studio, by definition, not everyone can be a game designer; Some just have to do titles, some just AI logic, some just character design. I don’t doubt that some people still manage to put a bit of themselves into their repetitive studio work. The fact that there are great studio games prove it.

However, we live in a different time. We live in a different age. Apple spends more money than most of us can ever dream of, creating this magical platform for us to leverage to explore our dreams. They invite us to dig deep into ourselves and find that piece of us yearning to be freed. They hope that we mix that together with their magical device to create something that will wow the masses. They want us to make something so great that people will say, “I’d buy an iPod just for that game.”

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.

My Bookshelf: A sampling

// August 16th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // iDevBlogADay, Purpose, Storytelling

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!  :)

An introduction to the company and our purpose

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

“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.