I realized a long time ago that my website was looking a little dated. A dark
theme, drab colours and not exactly mobile-friendly. So when I started fulltime
in December, one of the first things I did was a major styling overhaul.
Happy new year, dear readers! This post has nothing to do with new year’s
resolutions; it just happens to coincide. Studies have shown that setting and
announcing explicit goals helps drive success. And who would I be to argue with
science? So here’s what I’m planning to do in the first half of 2016 (until
the end of June).
Put your spatial insight and worldly knowledge to the test! Rocket Mail is a company that delivers packages to anywhere in the world – by rocket! Use your phone’s compass and accelerometer to launch your delivery rocket to cities throughout the world. The closer you get, the higher your score!
I recently did an interview with Robert of Tornadic Dev
Studio from Melbourne, Australia. He
noticed my recent announcement about
starting as a fulltime indie developer, and got inspired:
At the core, Rocket Mail is a very simple game. I made the early prototype
(Doomsray) in less than a day. There are no complicated physics, no advanced
graphics, and very little in the way of performance requirements. Of course
there’s a long way to go from a prototype to a finished game, but even after
the game looked, felt and sounded polished, I still found that I needed several
weeks to get it ready for beta testing.
After thinking this through over and over and over again, I’ve finally decided
to take the plunge, quit my day job and become a fulltime indie game developer!
Just a short post to share something I’ve been working on that mightily pleases the Kerbal Space Program player in me. In testing Orbital Express, it became clear that having three controls (compass direction, inclination, and launch speed) is too much for beginning players. So I decided to simplify the first two levels:
Virtual reality seems to be all the rage in gaming these days. Everyone seems to be buying into it. Big corporations like Facebook (Oculus Rift), Sony (PlayStation VR) and Microsoft (HoloLens) are pouring money into VR as if it’ll be the biggest thing since sliced bread. But right now, few people who aren’t game developers actually own the necessary hardware. Will it all be worth it in the end? I think not.
As I’d hoped, my 48-hour game
Glauron
did pretty well in the latest Ludum Dare game development competition: it
ranked #58 overall, and made the top-100 in the graphics and fun categories as
well.