Game Development So Far
Hello all! Sorry for the two week silence! No real excuses other than being busy and making the most of this amazing weather we’re having in the UK. I also took my Dad and son to the British Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend and we had an absolutely amazing time! I wasn’t sure how Neo would cope being only 3 years old but he thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it J my mission to make him an F1 fan is complete!!
So into the game dev stuff…
The last progress update focused on:
· Test the idea of using textures as the primary method for giving characters clothes – so the test was a success! Using textures for the clothes is working great and is looking like the solution. Therefore the rest of the work over the past week and a half has focused on setting up the textures for all of the model types and then working with that to apply different clothes styles.
· Add more external environment updates – due to the focus on the textures and clothing I didn’t make any updates to the external environments
· Look at UI updates – due to the focus on the textures and clothing I didn’t make any updates to the UI
Other Developments
Something else that has happened over the past week was that I did my first ever game dev interview! It was a funny one actually…
When I released GLO I was contacted and asked if I could send a review copy to a podcast named Fragments of Silicon, which I obliged. Upon listening to the review at from the start I could tell it wasn’t going to be favourable, which I had no problem with as not all games or for everyone. However quite quickly the review turned form a constructive criticism to an all out assault on my decency as a game designer. That for me was unfair, especially as they requested the game in the first place. I said from that point I wouldn’t send them anymore games I make. Six months later I was in the process of sending out links to the early development trailer for Gym Empire and accidentally sent Fragments of Silicon a link. They quickly responded with a request for an interview. What a dilemma! I don’t think they remembered me from GLO and I wasn’t sure I was comfortable doing an interview considering what had happened. Do I cut my nose off to spite my face or do I give them the benefit of the doubt and move on? I chose the latter.
In my response to the interview request, which I accepted, I made a light reference to the previous unfavourable review as I wanted it to be an open and natural interview. Come interview day I started chatting with Adam and the guys from Fragments of Silicon and we hit it off to a good start. When the interview went live they opened with questions around my path to becoming a gamer and game dev and also about GLO. This led nicely into acknowledgment of their opinions of the game and I feel it gave a great opportunity to showcase my dedication and passion as a game developer. I’m OK with the fact that they were not fans of GLO but I’m happy now that they can understand the heart and soul I put into making it. The interview then moved on to Gym Empire and the development behind it. Honestly I had no idea I could talk so much about game development. In fact I think I could have talked for five hours let alone the one hour duration of the interview. It absolutely flew by!
So I’m really glad I made the decision to move and not get caught up in silly grudges. There’s nothing to gain by doing that. Instead I got to have my first game dev interview experience and managed to get to know the guys at Fragments of Silicon that bit better and I assume the feeling is mutual.
You can check out the interview here:
Time Management
So back to planning. This week I’m going to finish off the clothing for the clients and then move onto the next task which will be chosen by Team Raven from the Discord server as they won the latest team challenge.
The week after this may be another slow one as I’m going on holiday for a week but I will be taking my laptop and squeezing in some development whenever I get the chance.
Gym Empire is now available to add to your Steam Wishlist.
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