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This talk is about how I learned to make games. Before October 2010 I hadn't programmed a day in my life. But I wanted to learn how to make games, so... I decided the best way to do that was just to make games. A LOT of games. In this presentation I'll take you through a ton of the dumb little games that I did along the way that helped me get where I am today.
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HOW I LEARNED TO MAKE GAMES
I KNEW LITERALLY NOTHING ABOUT MAKING GAMES.
I WANTED TO MAKE GAMES.
I DECIDED TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE GAMES.
I MADE GAMES.
@wtrebella
PROLOGUE• Always loved games
• Make them? No way I could
• Then: THE INTERNET
• Can be applied to anything, not just games
NAME CHANGE• TESSER + BLACKALL
• TEER + BALL
• TREBELLA
PYTHON
INVENT WITH PYTHON• inventwithpython.com
• Free e-book
• “The + sign tells the computer to add the numbers 2 and 2. To subtract numbers use the ‘–’ sign, and to multiply numbers use an asterisk ‘*’.”
• Tutorials
• Guess the Number• Jokes• Hangman• Tic Tac Toe• Sonar Treasure Hunt
GUESS THE NUMBER• Tutorial game from Invent With Python
JOKES• Tutorial game from Invent With Python
TIC TAC TOE• Tutorial game from Invent With Python
SONAR TREASURE HUNT• Tutorial game from Invent With Python
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TUTORIALS AND CREATIONS
• Tutorials
• Teach you syntax• Teach you how to copy• No bugs (unless author messed up)• No problem-solving!!!
• Creations
• Teach you how to solve problems• Teach you how to be creative• BUGS!• Despair• The satisfaction of solving problems!!!
• My first non-tutorial game
• Based on Guess the Number
• Even though super basic, I was proud and could share
THE MAN-RODENT IS IN THE BARN
• Culmination of my first week of programming
• Taught me TONS of technical issues
• "My code is messy and sort of a hack job, but it works, and that’s all I really care about. My code will get better and better the more I do this.”
• How do I make visuals without a console?
• Minesweeper Trailer
MINESWEEPER
IOS
Exactly 1.5 years.
ANSWER:
LOST• Read some books on C and Obj-C
• Learned a lot but also felt completely lost
• Console graphics -> visual sprites??
• Often felt completely overwhelmed in making the leap
• BIG change in thought process needed
• How to affect visuals through code• What is a sprite?• What is a class?• What is an object?• What is a delegate?• Etc.
BASIC COCOA
TIC TAC TOE
• Even simple-seeming things often require mental gymnastics.
• ASK FOR HELP.
• You *will* figure it out eventually. Don’t give up.
TIC TAC TOE LESSONS
MORE COCOA APPS
FRACTION CALCULATOR
YES AND NO
BOUNCING HEADS
BREAKWHIT
MATCH 3
JUMPY GUY
ITENNIS
COCOS2D
• Game engine for iOS in Objective C
• Recommended by Matt Rix (he made Trainyard with it)
• Progressed a LOT since I used it
COCOS2D
• Based on a tutorial from raywenderlich.com
STAR SHOOTER
• Had local multiplayer!
• Multitouch
PONG
• Inspired by Tilt to Live, a game by One Man Left
• Accelerometer controls
TILT TO CLONE
Tilt to Live Tilt to Clone
• Randomly thought it would be cool to have paper graphics.
• Accelerometer controls.
• Had to use a bit of basic trig to solve ball rolling. Felt GREAT.
PAPER WORLD
• Inspired by Simogo’s brilliant Bumpy Road.
CLONEY ROAD
Cloney RoadBumpy Road
PARTYMAN
by Craig Sharpe
• Practiced animation
• Started to practice parallax
• Feeling like real game
• Turning into dumb endless runner
• Got some art from Michael Hussinger
• Pizza Guy Trailer
PIZZA GUY
With my art
With Michael Hussinger’s Art
• Inspired by Trainyard
• Wanted to see if I could make a grid-based path
PARTYBUS
Trainyard PARTYBUS
• Added a depot where the bus left from.
• Added a speed slider (also Trainyard inspired).
• New (terribly ugly) UI
• Important lesson: representative index and exact pixel location
PARTYBUS 2: PARTYMAN’S BIG WEEKEND
• Based on a Flash tutorial (http://www.strille.net/tutorials/snake/index.php)
• Translating from Flash to Cocos2d was a good exercise
• Breakthrough in how I thought about snake movement
SNAKE
• Inspired by Doodle Jump
• Collision is HARD
• One-way collision is HARDER
DOODLE CLONE
FLIXEL DETOUR
• Took hiatus off programming in beginning of 2011
• Half year later got into Flixel
• Game engine in ActionScript 3
• Fun to learn a new language
• Gave me motivation to get back into game-making
FLIXEL
POLYMER
• Started out as “another dumb game.”
• Started as simple number matching game.
• Over time I realized the numbers were unnecessary.
• Match 3’s just connect any tiles; Polymer’s need to be completed.
• This time: POLISH!
POLYMER
Title, font, menu items, game mode names, UI all changed
EARLY AND FINISHED TITLE SCREEN
ITERATING BOMBS MODE UI
Early Mid Final
• Maybe not as pretty, but makes more immediate sense
BUGS. MANY MANY MANY BUGS.• Making Polymer
taught me more about bug-fixing and problem-solving than anything else
• Didn’t have a specific method
• Near the end of dev, tons of little to-do’s popped up
• Now I use Trello.com
MANAGING TO-DO’S
• Polymer was designed without any IAP’s
• Polymer’s unlock progression was NOT intended for IAP originally
• Near the end of dev, decided to put IAP insta-unlocks in
• Everything can be unlocked in game, so who cares?
IAP’S
• Launched April 26th, 2012 on iOS
• iPad launched couple months later
• Android launched about a year and a half later
• 58th in U.S. games
• 107th in all U.S. apps
• Polymer Trailer
POLYMER LAUNCH!
IAP BACKLASH
• I did NOT take the backlash well at first
• First time I’d been judged outside of my “dumb games”
• It was “real game” so criticism was harder to take
• Was only a vocal minority
• But I greatly respected these people
• Around a year later, I took all non-cosmetic IAP out
• Corrupts gameplay
• Design issue; not ethical
RETHINKING IAP
PIVVOT
SIMILAR PROCCESS TO POLYMER• Prototype ideas until
one sticks
• Then POLISH!
• Polymer was soothing, slow-paced, thought-provoking and relaxing.
• Super Hexagon inspired me to do the opposite: fast, hard, twitchy.
• Code-based drawing instead of just sprites.
BUILDING ON MY SKILLS
• Launched August 1st, 2013 on Universal iOS
• Android launched a couple weeks later
• 41st in U.S. games
• 74th in all U.S. apps
• Pivvot Trailer
PIVVOT LAUNCH!
CONCLUSION
• Game 3 will have the same process.
• Multiple ideas. Prototype some until one sticks.
• Iterate a lot.
• Polish.
• Never stop learning.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The ONLY way to get better at making games is to…
MORAL OF THE STORY
MAKE.GAMES.
• Make LOTS of games.
• Keep trying.
• Keep making.
• No matter how much they suck.
• Make STUPID games.
• Each game is a tutorial for the next.
• I learned SO much from all the stupid little games.
• 1. Think of idea 2. Make it!
• Even if fail, you’ve learned.
• Don’t just copy me. Follow YOUR path.
• Goal should determine tools, not other way around.
MAKE. GAMES.
GO MAKE A STUPID GAME NOW.
@wtrebella