My first computer game is nearly finished!

I am very excited.  My first computer game is nearly finished!

I've been working away in my bedroom, and sometimes in my funky Brunswick St office in Fitzroy, Melbourne, feeling like a pretty cool dude, to be honest...

I've been working away on the code, and the art, and the sound!  And it's nearly ready.

Recording skateboard sounds on my old 80s skateboard!

I've been sketching out ideas for games since I was 8 years old.  My grandmother was a draughtswoman, and loved to make funny birthday cards for us with pen, and water color pencils.  And of course, I was also inspired by fantasy book and games...

I've always loved a whole range of genres, and over the years I've dabbled away on text adventures, and little RPG projects, and sketched out designs for vehicle simulation games, driving, flying, jetpacking. I've worked on an Adventure Game Studio project or two.  I've made levels for Quake and Thief.  But I've never released my own game.  I've just never been able to!



Despite more than 10 years working on the games industry around Melbourne, I've never been able to figure out how to make my own games.  Until now.


I'm finally going to do it.  Release my own computer game.


Thanks to Apple bringing the marketplace directly to the developer, and mobile phone games in general helping to bring back smaller sized games, and Game Salad giving me a platform where I can create the behaviours, art, and sound for my games entirely on my own, I can now do it all on my own.  Indie games are the new indie band.  

I love the olden days of the one-man-game teams.  Many of the classic games from my youth were made by just one person.  Sometimes a few, but often just one person who did everything.  And I think there's something brilliant about that.  Like a novel, the vision is created from just a single person's imagination, and delivered to the reader / player in that intuitive form.

I want to make so many different sorts of games.  Retro action games, funny games, fantasy strategy games, vehicle simulation madness, story mystery games, oldschool adventure games, B-grade 70s games, stealth games, and beyond!


I'm worried that I will not make a good businessman.  That my choices will be based on fun, rather than monetisation.  Because fun is what seems right to me.  This whole Freemium craze has it's place, but many decisions seem to be made to the detriment of the game itself.  And in my books, game design is all about whatever is best for the game, best for the player.  I guess, as long as I can support myself, I really don't care.  I don't want to be a businessman.  I want to have fun!  I want to create games that people love, that engages them and forms a special place in their heart, like those magical games I've played over the years.