Here are a few 'large' (more then two employees) companies (with offices) which are using kickstarter to get the money to run their company (with expenses), while building a game project.  This, to me, is a terrible idea bound for failure.  But I can't quite put my finger on exactly why.  This sets a bad example for anyone just starting out.  Kickstarter works best when it's used to fund projects, not companies.  But then on the other hand, maybe funding is funding.

SHAKER
How can I tell it's a company: Art.  Great, great art.  They have hired and are paying an artist to make their kickstarter look spectacular.  They have a ton of employees:

Employee compensation is the largest single cost of a company.  Between salary and healthcare.  All those people in the picture?  That's a lot of expense.  Although it's quite possible that some of the people in this picture were let go with the cancellation of Ghost Recon Social game.

Nexus 2: The Gods Awaken
Again, a ton of concept art.  Someone has spent a lot of time (and money), perhaps personal, perhaps company, to create great looking concept art.  Although some of it is reused from a previous title, they also indicate having a large team.  And therefore large expenses.

Double Fine Adventure:
The obvious counter example.  They did really, really well without even naming a project at all.  Their kickstarter sums it up really well "The world of video game design is a mysterious one."  There are surprise successes, and terrible failures.  Do not expect the same results, even if you put in the same effort.  Even if you could make witty videos, you won't be able to get the same results.  One thing I notice in watching the videos, Tim Shafer understands that this is funding for a project.

Being but one person there is no way to find all the successful and unsuccessful kickstarter projects, nor determine which ones were funded at what stage.  But what I can say to the beginner, the person like myself looking to complete their first or second project, understand that a Game Idea != Game, and that Project != a company.  Err on the side of caution, and fund a project with a kickstarter.  If the project does well, use the revenue to then start a company.

Xcom: Sometimes the Redshirts die.

by Jeremy Springfield

Whether you love the game or hate it Xcom: Enemy Unknown pulls off a really neat trick.  It makes you care about the red shirts.  You celebrate when they do well and you frown when they die.  Sometimes their losses are hard to take.  It may be tempting to reload the game when you loose a valuable team member.  Don't do it.

Dungeon Keeper II

by Jeremy Springfield

Instead of discussing new and upcoming titles which have successful kick-starters, this week I want to use my long post to discuss on older title. Dungeon Keeper II is an oft overlooked classic of the RTS Genre and one of my all time favorite games.  One could imagine a parallel track of RTS designs based on the ideas expressed in DKII.  Alas, the world never saw such ideas.  Glimpse this alternate reality below the jump!

Games As A Service

So really who wants to title something GAAS?  I'm sure the SAAS people had enough fun with that acronym.  Then again a company called Valve created a service called Steam.  So I suppose GAAS fits oddly well in this system of tubes we call the internet.

Valve predicts big things for GAAS...  But so what?  Not only does it seem inevitable in the future, it seems that way now.  But there may be a bump in the road.  With cloud computing services from Amazon failing on Monday, it seems like there is still work to be done on this cloud idea.

I've talked about the minecraft business model before, and it looks like some folks have been putting that into the 'GAAS' category.  This is something that I had not previously considered and seems like a correct categorization to me.  But I'm a still little hesitant.  What do you think?  Is Minecraft a GAAS?

Boston Post Mortem, Post Mortem.

Scott K Crabtree @scottcrab discussed "Happy Game Design".  His talk was amazing and is highly recommended!  He highlighted scientific information, studies and the like, which provide insight into building a good work environment.  Although the talk was targeted toward game developers, it's really great information for just about any company.  It was a great presentation on the brain science of management, and working together.

During the presentation he recommended a number of books with great research to back them up.  Once I get the list from Scott, I will post them here.  So check back for that.

If you're looking to be a better project manager, check out his work.  If you want a happier, healthier, work environment definitely check out his website, HappyBrainScience.com.

P.S. Sorry about the URL recycling.  This information is way more interesting then what was here before, trust me.  It was a half complete blog post.

Indie Game: The Movie

Although shown locally at the Brattle Theatre, I watched Indie Game: The Movie on Netflix.  It really doesn't feel like 6 months have gone by between each event.  Wow.  Anyway it is a great movie, and sums up a lot of the feel of the development environment of the Boston indie scene.

The Greatest Gaming Advice ever.

Often times creators of any kind of game attempt to write plot. We see this a lot in table top RPG's and Live Action Role Playing games.  But also often in computer games. Plot is a terrible thing to write in a dynamic situation like a RPG or LARP. It can cause really problems in sandbox games. The greatest gaming advice ever is a way to counter the trap that 'writing plot' represents.

A game design challenge...

Imagine designing a game that the player couldn't look at, or touch.  Oh, and it's played while driving so it can't be overly distracting.  Given those conditions what kind of game would you design?  BRIGHTdriver is a company tackling that with two games.  They are using kickstarter to fund the final polish on those two games.

As for the kickstarter itself; the dollar amount seems to be correct based on finishing two games.  They are asking for funds to finish a project, but ultimately looking to start a company.  This is an interesting test case for project vs company kickstarter.  We shall see how things turn out.

The business challenge, which is much more interesting, is the gut reaction most folks have.  "This isn't safe".  Overcoming that issue is a much bigger challenge.  That may be a bigger and more interesting challenge facing BrightDriver.  More then the game design issue, the business issue interests me.

Space: the New Zombie Game.

Kickstarter has a whole host of games, and right now Space games seem to be extremely popular.  From strategy to tactical, to resource management these projects range from the one man show up to the professional studio looking for fund a sequel.   Here are a few of the space related computer games on kickstarter.  Not counting Scrumbleship, here are five new games up on kickstarter.

Two Successful Kickstarters

At some point these two should be analyzed a bit more for what they did well, and what they did badly.  For right now I just want to mention that both Scrumble Ship and Dysis have either reached their goal or completed their kickstarter.

Scrumble Ship ends today at 1:27 pm EDT and is over their goal.  Dirkson requested $8000, but total pledges at just over $12,000.
Dysis has 17 days left.  They started with a $5000 dollar goal, but so far have pledges of over $15,000.

Now that they have succesfully raised money will they go on to be successful projects as well?  I hope so, and I'll be following them to find out.

2 things we can learn from Dysis

Dysis is an interesting game.  The kickstarter video could use a little more polish, and the project overall doesn't motivate me to want to contribute.  But I noticed two interesting things.  The Minecraft business model continues to be used by new game development projects.  And small dollar goals.

Christopher Farrell is basically asking for people to pay for software and counting that as a success.  This is a very reasonable request for a professional with a day job trying to create a game in his spare time.  The stretch goals, and all money above the $5000 base are going to flesh out the software and get poured into the game.  This kickstarter is well designed for the creators situation.  Indiegames.com picked up on the story last week.

As of 1:11 today the kickstarter is successfully funded, with 18 more days to go.  They are closing in on 3x the amount asked for.  Things are looking good for games of this type, like Scrumbleship.  Has anyone else noticed many Space games out there lately?  Seems like Space is the new Zombie.

Makers and Game Developers

Here is a chunk of the text called "The Long Tail of Lego" from the book "Makers: The New Industrial Revolution" by Chris Anderson.

To wrap the section up quickly for you, it talks about the transition from old manufacturing to modern manufacturing.  The difference between the original mass production Ford style assembly line, and a new emerging model.  In the new model a primary company produces the same goods using classic manufacturing techniques (Lego), but then niche companies produce specific products, where there is demand, but not enough for the primary company to produce product (BrickArms).

I wonder how well this model describes the relationship between AAA and indie games.  AAA companies churn out mass produced, but popular, titles under manufacturing like conditions.  Indie studios produce smaller title that smaller niche segments of the population are interesting in playing.

"Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey A Moore.

"Crossing the Chasm"
by Geoffrey A Moore.

I wrote this post a long long time ago, and was shocked that it wasn't posted yet.  This book is so fundamental to how I view technology, and the foundation of some of the blog posts about Minecraft.  In retrospect this should have been posted first to give you a chance to read it before jumping into a discussion of 'the technology innovation curve'.

Kickstarter Reluctance

Old School (now SHAKER) seems like a great idea being put together by a solid company with incredible credentials.  You can tell that if they get the funding the project will be completed.  This is not 2 guys in a basement with no project management experience.  This is the real deal.

So why am I reluctant to back this project?  My gaming hobby (is it addiction or lifestyle?) started with Apple IIe, D&D in Jr High and Ultima on the Nintendo. But Old School gaming is not really interesting to me.  Perhaps my reluctance to be excited about this project is that game nostalgia has no hold over me.  Well maybe certain titles...

The story seems really compelling, a nice balance between D&D and Cyberpunk. AKA Fantasy and Sci Fi, the two big genre's from the 80's.  But it just doesn't compel me to support the project.  It's just not pulling the right strings.  It was featured by Kickstarter via tweet on 10/7/2012, so apparently there are some fans out there.

Their request for a million dollars feels high.  It doesn't feel like funding a kickstarter to me.  It feels like a Studio seeking investors.  Maybe kickstarter to me means funding guys like Xavi (Towns) and Dirkson (Scrumbleship).  Maybe at heart I'm an Angel, not a VC.

A really sneaky aspect of Kickstarter is that we each individually get to decide what kickstarter means to us.  To me, it's funding that little guy who has no support but has good ideas and can prove themselves.  I don't have any right or intent to tell you what you should support.  Nor do you have any right to tell me what to support.  The beauty here is that doesn't matter.  We all get to support what we want to.

SimCity

...Oh yeah.  SimCity.  I remember playing that as a kid.  RCI, Roads, and water pumps and electricity.  I remember all that, it was very enjoyable.  My brother (the political communications major) LOVED that game.

Reddit brought this video to my attention last week.  Over many versions SimCity became more and more complex.  It looks like they have finally started reducing complexity.  Especially when it comes to power, water, and roads.  They are all simplified into one system.  Instead of forcing you to lock yourself on to a preexisting grid, the system zones automatically based on the weird roads you draw.  Looks awesome.

Good thinking EA or Maxxis or whoever's making this game.  Now, will it be on Steam?  #wishfullthinking

[News] 3 day Pax East tickets sold out.

Games beat is reporting that 3 day passes have sold out.  Pax Site confirms it's true.  So it's single day passes or nothing.  Buy them now, or you're not likely to get in.  I was able to acquire 1 3 days pass.  No you can't have it.

Minecraft Biomes o' Plenty

The Minecraft mod Biomes O' Plenty does one thing.  It adds 60 (at the moment) more terrain regions the player can wander through.  This is a great example of something simple done very well.  The mod isn't overpowering players, it does not give them an edge in playing the game...  But it does make the Minecraft world a lot more interesting to explore.

There is a greater lesson in simplicity for game developers.  Simplicity is key.  You want the core mechanics and core game play to be as succinct as possible.  Sometimes you have to strip out all those bells and whistles that you think might be fun in order to reduce complexity and provide a simple yet moving experience.  Biomes O' Plenty is a simple and great mod.  If you have a game idea that's too big to tackle on your own, can you instead mod an existing game?

BOP (not Birds of Paradise) a great mod, and you should check it out.  Especially if you are an Explorer at heart.  As of my writing the current version is a bit buggy and causes lag spikes and block lag.  The author of the mod TDWP_FTW indicated this has presumably been cleared up for the next release.  Looking forward to it!

[News] Pax East tickets available.

Jump over the Registration page to claim your tickets to Pax East.  I'll be there all three days.

Greenlight Towns

Towns is one of the first 9 games to be 'greenlit' on steams new Greenlight Service.  This is amazing!  It is right up there with Project Zombiod, and Black Mesa.  This did not take long considering the game was posted to Greenlight on Aug 30, 2012 @ 2:27pm.  Congradulations Xavi!

It would be helpful if Greenlight also recorded the date the game was 'greenlit'.  Is that a word we can use?  'Greenlit'?

6 Reasons why I hate Mojangs new office.

The title may make you think that I hate Mojang.  Far from it.  I love the company, the business model and Minecraft.  Kotaku recently reported on the amazing new offices of Mojang.  They are certainly pretty, perhaps a bit too pretty.  As evidenced by the comments to the kotaku piece. When it comes right down to it, they made a mistake here.  After the jump, are 6 reasons why.

Windows 8 and Ouya

"I hope we can keep a lot of open and free platforms around. If Microsoft decides to lock down Windows 8, it would be very very bad for Indie games and competition in general.
If we can keep open platforms around, there's going to be a lot of very interesting games in ten years, mixed in with the huge AAA games that we all love." -[Notch]

"Windows 8 locking down is the best thing that could possibly happen to the Ouya."
-Me to Caleb Garner 10/2/2012

The timing of the Ouya may be perfect, assuming Microsoft doesn't change plans to fully integrate Xbox with Windows 8.  Even if it takes a year after Win 8, launching an open platform like Ouya could really be a coup if gamer and game developer angst is running high.

Developers who write their own code, and don't look to get approval through the XNA platform have reason to fear the future.  Anyone who codes for iOS says "Meh, been there, done that".  Personally I think it's all noise.  Trying to search 'Windows 8 lock down' returns so much Persson that it's hard to find any real details.

The State of Play

'The state of play' was a New England Game SiG event held at the Microfsoft NERD Center on Oct 2nd 2012.  It was well attended by all kinds of developers, designers, and even the CEO of Kickin Kitchen, an educational website looking to open up a game platform to their existing audience.  The presentation and talks evolved from a panel discussion into more of a 'town hall meeting'.  There was some good back and forth between the panel and the audience, and even some great interaction between audience members.

The big issue, raised by the brilliant Caroline Murphy, is the lack of funding to game development companies in the Boston Area.  Boston has incubators, game developers, great students, and great start-ups.  It's almost a perfect atmosphere to build game companies.  Except Boston Angel and VC execs rarely come from a game design background, therefore are hesitant to fund game companies.  The Boston Indies scene was created by and supports tons of great bootstrap start-ups that develop games.  But save a very few examples, there has not been much VC support.

There was one problem with the night, microphones always seem to be in short supply in the NERD Center. But ultimately not a big deal.  Mike, look into that for next time.

Google+

I just found and pushed the Google+ button on my blog.  Let's see what happens!

Also I have accepted a contract position with Sallie Mae's Upromise group.  So starting in November I'll be helping companies administer their 529 plans!  It also happens to be for the highest hourly rate I've ever been paid in my life.  Which is a nice way to close out this time of doing the best I can during bad economic times.  Very exciting!

I have a great blog post coming up on Monday: "6 reasons I hate Mojang's new office".  I think you'll get a kick out of it.  Stay tuned.

Scrumbleship; more then Minecraft in space. Hopefully.

Minecraft is an inspiration for just about everyone who wants to design games. Everything from straight up copies to 'inspired by' titles are popping up all the time. There are plenty of not so interesting clones... cough Yogventures, cough. (Which feels more like a retaliation then a game).  But there are some equally fantastic projects such as Towns and now Scrumbleship. Check below the jump for an introduction to the Scrumbleship kickstarter and game.