One man team

I feel like a one man team with communication issues or without leadership. In other word chaos :D

Like I have said before... I would love to create and code games! Not marketing and graphics.

Marketing: This week I had to provide details and info on my game for someone to take a look at. Which is an area I found greatly lacking. I still need to create a official website for Delta Quadrant with a press kit and so forth. For when people have question about the game.

Graphics: Also graphic design  and blender 3d work for my UI. This is coming along nicely and I am very happy with what I have accomplished for my limited experience with it. If I can just bring in enough money to hire a game artist in the future it will make me the happiest indie in the world.

Tester: I play tested my game a lot this week. For all the usual things like balance, feel, bugs and does this make any sense?

Support: Needed to handle feedback from people testing and reporting bugs. Figuring out how to recreate the bug on my side to fix the problem.

Code: Finally! Never knew I would be happy for some bugs. Anything to code :D

What a hectic week with all the hats I had to wear. Not to mention the big hats of husband and father. Still if I look back I am happy with all the progress this week.

I finished a Beta 2.4 version of my game that I uploaded to FlexIndie to hopefully make some money. But more importantly have a few more people test my game for any problems. Seeing that FlexIndie is a new market, I would not get flooded with bugs, problems and questions to fast.

The end is in sight. March should be the month I finish Delta Quadrant. Don't get me wrong I love DQ, but for almost 2 years in the making... I can't wait to start something new. Maybe a smaller project first, have some fun. Ooo Ludum Dare 32 is 17th of April! :D

New screenshost:

Till next week.

Cheers!

Side quest - Blender 3d

In my search for sprites and ideas on Google for my UI designs, I found this wonderful site http://www.solcommand.com/. FREE 3D Sci-fi models!!! - with CC3 license of course.

But, I had no 3D design knowledge except for playing around in Unity 3d. This was to good to be true and I love the models and the style. So off to the wonderful world of you tube and tutorials. 

I started with the helpful videos from Chris DeLeon. His videos helped me before when learning more about Unity. His videos on Light Hook (Collaborative Freeware Game) where they design levels in blender and then use it in Unity, was extremely useful. 

After that I had the basics of blender under control and I didn't feel so overwhelmed anymore. I still needed a bit more advanced blender focused skills. 

BornCG came to my rescue. Blender tutorials galore! Everything from UV mapping and the mirror modifier to materials and nodes. I learned more about shaders and how they effect textures. I'm still not through all the tutorials, but I couldn't wait anymore. So I imported my first ship from sol command - The Ghost Ship.

Here is a before (on import) and after I played around with what I learned this week. Remember I am a programmer not a graphics designer. For now I am happy with the out come mostly thanks to the wonderful people I mention here above.Seeing this is a 2d top down game I focused my efforts on the top side of the ship. I also shortened it and added a weapon or hard point on top.

Then the result of all my hard work. Here is the before and after for the Delta Quandrant UI. All the weapon models or sprites on the button are also from sol command.

I am 90% happy with the result, need some fine tuning. Rest of the week is more UI work for me. Hopefully more screenshots next week and some more side quests :D

Do my homework!

I believe in doing ones homework, especially when paying money for something. So why in the world didn't I do it when I paid Google my $25 developer registration?

Maybe because I blindly love Google and all things Google. But the problem wasn't just them, but also this wonderful third world dark Africa country called South Africa. So I paid my 25 bucks and got the Developers Console screen in front of me and I am all excited and pumped!!! 

So I click the "Set up a merchant account now". An all white page with just a little message at the top appears that says:

Nothing else! Nothing to click or get more information! Nothing? Just unsupported? I would have really REALLY appreciated it when I entered my information and country with the registration process BEFORE I paid my $25. Just a little warning, just like that one at the top saying "WARNING: Your country South Africa is not supported as a merchant". Is that too much to ask? Anyway, enough venting my anger and disappointment. The fault also lies with South Africa being so far-far behind the rest of the world.

So what now? I was planning to release Delta Quadrant on the play store for a few dollars. I don't like the whole free to play and ads direction. Which is my personal opinion and not something I have done my homework on yet. It is also easier to just sell it like I want it, not change the flow of my game or add new mechanics to accommodate ads or what have you.

My new plan thus far is to release a "demo" version ad free on the play store with just the first two levels. This will not only help me get some exposure, but also let people try the game and see what they think and to see if it actually runs on other devices. :P

I am thinking of creating a payment service on my website where people can come and buy it directly from me. But again I still need to do a lot more homework on that subject. 

For now I decided to focus my efforts on DQ to finish it. The main mechanics, features and story are finished. Now to the part I am not good at ART. I bought a UI design on special on the Unity Asset Store called Fantasy Gui Pack which provides me with a base design I can modify for my needs.

So wish me good luck with trying to create a good looking UI for DQ. Hopefully next week I can show you a screenshot of my work :)

  

So it begins...

I honestly have no idea what or where this blog is going to take me. I am not the marketing or writing type, so I'll warn you upfront :)

I would rather struggle hours with a complicated algorithm or a piece of code than sit here typing stuff for other people to read.

But this is not "Hello World" anymore. Time to step up my gamedev thanks to LiamTwose.com with his #30daydev. Writing a blog each and everyday is very intimidating to me. I don't want spend what little time I have to work on my game, on non game development stuff. So I was very excited to see Liam start a challenge for an once a week blog for the next 52 weeks.

I am very lucky to have a wife with a good stable full time job and so I don't have to work full time. But I am also a full time father and do odd jobs like websites and tech support for people for that extra little cash to buy stuff from the unity assets store and some steam games.

Currently I am busy with my first serious game called Delta Quadrant, which is a Sci-fi Rogue-like. Being a huge Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica and the sci-fi list goes on fan. I decided to create a turn based game which is loot and skill point driven.

I first started playing around with XNA and then ADK (Android Development Kit + Eclipse). Then about 3 years ago I read about Unity 3d. Did some tutorials and I instantly fell in love with it.

I am not sure how long I should do this first entry, I can babble on about my history, Delta Quandrant, Unity3d or my painful experience with the Google Play Store + Merchant Account and living in South Africa. Will do that next week then.

Maybe show a screenshot of my current WORK IN PROGRESS with DQ: