The Game Design Rough Sketch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 30, 2013

I heard a joke the other day: “Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning.” It’s pretty true, although for certain familiar tasks for veteran programmers, the planning can take a lot more time than just jumping into code. I think in code. But of course, that’s the kind of thing that gets me […]

Filed Under: Design, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

The Death of Deathfire?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 23, 2013

I’m saddened. Guido Henkel and the Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore have officially pulled the plug. The Deathfire Team: Thanks you for all your support This crap happens all the time, really. Games get canceled, for many reasons. But in this case – with the failure of the Kickstarter and the episodic alternative – the reason […]

Filed Under: Biz, Production - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

The Indie Roadmap

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 25, 2013

What does it take to make an indie game? How do you begin? How do you know your idea holds water and is on schedule? Here’s a suggestion from Cedric Guillemet: The Indie Roadmap Now, obviously, there is no “one, true way” to making a game. But this is a good “average” case and warns […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Indie Games: Learning From Failure

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 1, 2013

Just a couple of links to articles today. As usual, when these articles call out the failures, I wince. I’ve done a lot of these myself. This first one comes with a great warning: The following list might be filled with things so stupid that you wouldn’t ever imagine doing them, and yet I did […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Game Biz: Serving Two (Or More) Masters

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 18, 2013

Blizzard officially announced the shut-down of their auction house for Diablo III. There are several more months of operation before it gets phased out, but Blizzard has thrown in the towel on this controversial in-game feature. I don’t play Diablo III, myself. Oh, I was going to. I very nearly pre-ordered it. But then I […]

Filed Under: Biz, Design, Production - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Checklists for Making Awesome Video Games, and for Making Game Development Awesome

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 18, 2013

Making video games has always been as much art as science. At times, chained to the oars of a ship chasing the bleeding-edge horizon of technology or constrained by massive budgets to make obsessively risk-averse design decisions, the industry has drifted further out on the “science” side. Perhaps now, with the rise of indie games, […]

Filed Under: Design, Links & Tidbits, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Joss Whedon’s Productivity Advice

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 8, 2013

On one of the indie gamer forums over the weekend, someone shared this excellent article: How to Be Prolific: Guidelines for Getting It Done From Joss Whedon The points seem to be a little bit meandering, but the key points resonate pretty well with me. While I’m hardly perfect at implementation, when I’m on a […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

How Do I Know When My Game Is Finished?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 13, 2013

I saw this question on a forum recently: “As a ‘lone wolf’ developer, how do I know when my game is finished and ready for release?” Snarky answer: It’ll be ready approximately three to six months after you are completely sick of it. Real Answer: This question probably reveals more about you and your process […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Production - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Sneak Peek Into Rampant Games’ Super-Secret Development Methodology

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 8, 2013

Without a producer or manager, here at Rampant Games, we (and by ‘we’ I generally mean ‘me’, unless I manage to wrangle some time out of contractors for far less than they are worth) have to work extra hard to stay on-task, on-schedule (HAH!), and productive on projects that are really just too frickin’ huge […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned From Game Jamming…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 5, 2013

While I agree with Chris Hecker that indies need to set their sites beyond game jams once in a while, it’s still a very useful exercise IMO and can teach you a lot about game development. Sam Coster counts the ways Game Jamming teaches you to be a better game developer. As I’ve said before, […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: Comments are off for this article

New Year Plans: How To Become a Better Indie

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 2, 2013

I have been making games for a while, now – both as a full-time mainstream professional and as a part-time indie. Some day, I hope I’ll be pretty good at it.  But in the spirit of New Years’ Resolutions, I figured I’d set some goals and some concrete plans to meet those goals this year […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: Read the First Comment

Five Steps To Get Motivated to Make Your Indie Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 31, 2012

Full-time indie game developers have a pretty accessible motivator called “the bank account.”  Sadly, it works best when diminished, which is not it’s preferred state. But let’s say you are a part-time indie, or an aspiring indie, and your ability to keep eating is not tied to the completion and success of your next game. […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Indie Games: After the Gold Rush?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 27, 2012

I guess this is a little bit of a follow-up from yesterday’s post, but allow me to get a little pessimistic for a minute. Except I personally think I’m being realistic. Indie games have been enjoying a gold rush, a boom. Inevitably, after the boom peaks, comes a bust – a contraction. Almost everybody knows […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games, Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Making Games. Faster.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 10, 2012

I was reading a little bit this weekend about fiction writers “going indie.” I’m not very in tune with the fiction biz, but what little I gleaned sounded like indie is progressing in that industry about at the same pace as indie games, maybe a couple of years behind. However, those writers who have effectively […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

It’s All Done Except For….

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 26, 2012

A comment over the weekend led to a short conversation about where all the development time goes. I joked (though it’s not really a joke) that if I’d chosen to use a text-based interface, Frayed Knights 2 would be done by now. Lars Doucet (Defender’s Quest) and Craig Stern (Telepath RPG) and others quickly chimed […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Nine Game Production Lessons Learned from the Arcades

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 19, 2012

Many game developers of the modern era have begged that the industry transcend its arcade roots. And I cannot disagree with them, as far as they go. The arcade machines were patterned after a different amusement than what games are now (or should be). The old arcade games were designed to maximize quarter revenue, for […]

Filed Under: Production, Retro - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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