The First Game That I Never Made
As I've mentioned before, games happen to be a passion of mine.
Since about as early in life as I could read and write, I've been fascinated by them - as well as their design. Such has not for the most part been a successful endeavor.
I found myself cycling between various programming languages in the hope of finally having something 'workable' with which I could really let it all out. That never really happened. I've developed a mental block that seems to prevent me from learning new programming languages (and whenever I do drum up the courage I ram my head against C# and give up).
It is perhaps because of this failure that I've not delved too deeply into other areas - but now I'm courting excuses - so let me get right into this description. The first game that I've never made.
Well... it was a space game.
I wanted to design a game where players had a choice to set their own pace and difficulty in an open space that can be explored, and would generate differently with each game played.
The premise of the game is that the galaxy is under threat by a race that is not just native to another World but which is also native to another dimension.
Through scavenging following various skirmishes, and the hard work of a cooperative of scientists, the first interdimensional drives were developed - and this is provides the galexy a chance to fight back.
The object of the game is to secure various dimensional levels and, ultimately, the home dimension of the antagonist race.
To do this will require the establishment of inter-dimensional relations, logistic resupply points and technologies, and the military defeat of the antagonist race.
Well that was the premise of the game. The expected play time of a game would be that of anywhere between 6 and 48 hours.
The graphics would have been simple vectors - not pretty - and I remember messing around with the Pascal programming language to try and figure out designing a "3D engine".
Fail. Fail. Fail.
It is what it is.
If I were to list my inspirations for designing such a game then I'd cite Starglider 2 by Argonaut Software.
Oh... and just a fun fact...
For those here who might be interested or otherwise 'tickled' by it...
...the game also features whales... in... space!^_~
Of course, if I were to have gone for a Bitmap Brothers' Xenon 2 feel then I might have ended up with something not too unlike Dimension Drive by 2Awesome Studio - though they did an amazing job on the story and I doubt that I'd have gone in nearly the same direction.
Admittedly there wasn't much to those first designs. I lost heart and moved on - and am now slowly but surely coming to terms with my past setbacks.
If you found this post interesting and would like to share this with your friends then a resteem couldn't hurt.
If you 'didn't' like this then feel free to share your views in comments. A civil conversation can go a long way.
Sincerely,
My son is very interested in designing his own game as well but he too has hit roadblocks and is too stubborn to ask for help...or to take classes. He thinks he'll learn what he needs on YouTube. sigh
On one hand, I have always been more fascinated with the storyboards and character development. I've never branched into this kind of writing but I love working on fiction. I hope that you have the patience and time to find the love of it and finish your project!
Now now. Youtube is a pretty good source for some types of information :c) Its just that it can be much harder to learn via such a medium as often enough the recorded teaching flows in a different direction from that of the student. I have not had a lot of success with it - but some things can be learnt.
Game design has many interesting areas and storyboards and character development are certainly among them. Much as @creativesoul had mentioned, establishing a team is a near-must.
There do exist games that have been mostly one-wo/man shows but very few have a significant following (I think Undertale is the poster child for such). But they are exceptions.
Thanks, @merej99 for weighing in on this and I do hope that you'll have a good time exploring - and that your son sees success also. :c)
I have always wanted to make games too. More real time mmo though. Open spaces with quests that can be explored...fantasy adventure. I know my way around blender and have made some really beautiful places. But that's the extent of my knowledge and just loving the modelling aspect isn't enough. I consider this a 'fail' because I have been unable to animate, learn unity, program or really just bring the models to life on my own. Something like this needs a team. Your experiences are interesting to read.
Thank you kindly for your personal perspective on this matter @creativesoul. :c)
Oh I never limited myself to space games - it just happens to be one of the stronger earlier memories (though, now that I think about it, I think a beat-em-up or top-down rpg might have preceded it by several years).
Blender is a powerful tool. I've had to abandon it as it outgrew the specs of my decade-old machine (replacement is on my to-do list) - and it seems that you have gone much further with your explorations than I did relating to the WZ2100 project (which I also got locked out of - pesky passwords). ^_^
While I would really have liked to go further with it - especially now that its capabilities have expanded, my dabbling with it when it was less accessible is bound to make thing slightly less difficult to grasp the next time around. Its on my mountainous 'to-do' list.
I completely agree that a team makes a difference - massively so. :c)
I do wish you future success in pursuing your wishes! ^_^
Not bad
Thank for the feedback. :c)
I see you're new. You might find this a helpful quick read. Welcome to Steemit.
I've created text based adventures, and also a "text-adventure making engine."
Long ago and far away.
I understand some of the frustrations you've described.
Have you succeeded at making any games? Best wishes...
😄😇😄
Thank you for stopping by to share your feedback @creatr :c)
Well... sort of, yes.
Things really took off for me in 2015 - with a crash as resounding as a desktop executive's toy balls crashing into each other. ;c) Took part in the Med Game Jam, fulfilled my small narrative role in a team on a game called Buzzed, and spent the rest of the weekend solo-making a prototype for a tabletop roguelike - 'Storm the coves'.
In the Global Game Jam for 2016 got a little familiar with Twine and and sorted the narrative for Job Up a crude game about interviewing one's way to success... and stuff.
In the Global Game Jam for 2017 I wanted to prove to myself that I could, in some way or another, produce a video game. I sort of did and I mention and link to it in my intro post.
Wow. You have a lot of stuff under your belt, and while your creating a text-based adventure is impressive, in my mind making the engine really takes it up a notch. I appreciate sufficiently that you probably put more work into the game - but the latter project is enabling. :c)
I really appreciate your well wishes and wish you well in kind!
Hi again, James, and thanks for getting back to me! :)
Thanks also for pointing me to your intro post. Sounds as if you've been having some fun, and that you have some cool ideas. Are you familiar with the Eye-Wire project? Kind of a "gamified" distribution of the task of mapping neurons.
You've also reminded me of some other "game crafting" I've done - I once wrote the code to enable a chicken to play Tic-Tac-Toe. I also wrote firmware for an electronic pachinko machine. I programmed an "Othello" board on a Sinclair computer. There may be a few other adventures that are escaping my mind at the moment. Oh, yes... I disassembled an early Flight Simulator that ran on an Apple ][ and hacked the database. I "picked up" the painted lines on the runway and used them to construct some barnstorming fixtures to fly through... Fun! I also hacked a version of "Spacewar" so that I could play it continuously without dying or being shot down. This allowed me to get an intuitive "feel" for how orbits work.
You have now reminded me of material for several more articles, THANK YOU. ;)
I have heard recently that there are several excellent tools for crafting new Text Adventures available these days... I'm tempted to try a new one! :)
In any case, I look forward to hearing more from and about you, and I'm appreciative of @merej99's challenge that has resulted in my "meeting" you here today. ;)
Thank you also for taking the time to craft such an elaborate response @creatr. :c)
This is the first time that I've heard of Eye-Wire. I just gave their front page a look and it sounds interesting (not that you didn't make it sound so already).
I'd also not heard of Pachinko machines before today. Its one of the wonders of Steemit - the perspectives that one runs into. :c)
I am guessing that you had a purpose designed 3x3 pad for the chicken to peck at? Thats a fascinating idea - I had wondered about the possibilities of using technology to keep anmals bemused (the most obvious candidate being laser pointers for cats (just don't have it accidentally lead the frenzied moggy leaping out of that 23rd floor window!
(Nooo! Moggy! Oh... you still have 3 lives left, do you? I'm not even going to ask about the other five.) ^_~
I admit that I never got into hacking games. Your mentioning the Apple ][ brings back nostalgic memories. Though besides playing a couple of SSI games (which still influence me today) I cannot remember ever having had any success with it beyond pulling up 'CATALOG'. I miss those black vinyl-like disks. Their skritchy-scratching almost melodious to my ears (no kidding - I still recall the loading skritches for one of those SSI games - to the smallest detail - and then it stopped working (and emulators don't simulate the hardware's feel - 'sobs' ^_~)).
It is very clear to me that coding has never been an issue for you. That, along with your inspired creativity - I'm guessing that you surely released some title in the past that I might have heard of. :c)
I am really glad that I gave you inspiration. Its funny how our resources always dwarfs our works. :c)
I too look forward to hearing more about you and your materials past and future. Thanks again @merej99 for enabling all this. ^_^
Now if you'll excuse me... I'll need to step away. :c)
Thanks, friend...
I code mostly in C, and in any flavor *asm you may care to mention.
I have written emulators and assemblers... never yet a compiler, though.
The chicken simply pecked at a flashing light - there was a chicken psychologist who trained it - and the "random" timing at which the chicken threw that switch determined which of a few select moves it would make.
I remember the sound of the Apple ][ floppy very well... all 128K bytes of it! :D
A friend of mine had advised me to write a text editor for Apple ][ back in the day when there were none... I should have listened! I'm sure an editor would have sold much better than the stuff I did write! ;)
Its been a year since I last earnestly attempted to adhere C# to my mind.
The day for me to succeed in such has not come. It might not ever - and thats OK. I am coming to terms with working around my shortfalls - but such is still a work in progress (I admit to feeling envy ;c).
Your chicken interfacing experiment sounds quite ambitious. Did you have any level of success?
Ah yes. A text editor back then was a big thing. It was still a big thing upon the Atari, let alone for the Apple ][. Still, I suspect that like myself you once saw programming as being a means toward an end rather than as the end itself.
I appreciate your insights and also your time here. These exchanges have been pleasant and I look forward to getting into further exchanges in the future. :c)
The chicken machine was not my own project - I was a subcontractor, paid only to do the firmware coding. It was, in fact, my very first consulting gig! ;)
And it was a great success. Several units were made and they made the rounds of fairs and shopping malls. There is something about a person's pride that makes it difficult for him to walk away after being beaten by a chicken at Tic-Tac-Toe. The temptation is too great to keep putting money into the machine until you beat the chicken, or at least until there is a draw.
As I programmed it, the firmware had two settings, selectable by a switch in the back. One setting guaranteed "Chicken will never lose." The worst case for the chicken would be a draw. The other setting was "Chicken may lose," and interestingly enough, the chicken seemed to win more often on that setting... :D
I too have enjoyed our conversation, and look forward to more! ;)
To land a consulting gig normally requires either intimate knowledge of the somebody in the loop, or a sterling reputation. I'd suspect the latter.
Well either way, you've worked on some really interesting projects even if they may not have been your own. ^_^
Hearing more about the chicken project makes it all the more intriguing to me. Very rightly said about pride. The psychology at play will have people demanding repeat chances until they manage.
I will certainly be seeing you around. Thank you for sharing your experiences! :c)