Filed under Process

Ludum Dare Tiny World: 1 hour down, 14 ideas

by

The theme for LD23 is Tiny World. After handling an unrelated work call I got cracking on ideas. I think a lot of these are pretty good!

  • Platformer with impasses that require the player to shrink down to sneak past.
  • Medical War game
  • Tower Defense game with pixel sized monsters that creep up (unnoticed) but grow suddenly when they reach growth pads near the player.
  • Manage resources on a tiny planet with too many people (2)
  • a creature lives in your nose mining boogers + fighting allergens
  • Position Planets in space so they don’t crash into the sun
  • Grow planets in a lab setting + release them into the wild
  • Insect cowboys on a bug ranch
  • Your in a cell and you can only interact with things that pass by your window
  • ON a small planet, every bit of acid rain or toxic waste erodes your planet a little. Stop it before the core is exposed!
  • A platformer where whenever you get hit you shrink a little (everything else grows). The monsters get more detailed and it takes you longer to reach the end (but you never die, just get impossibly small)
  • Some kind of puzzle or obstacle course using close up photography for graphics. Macaroni Tetris?
  • City building game where you can only use pieces of molecules that fit together
  • A game where you destroy particles (ants?) one or a few at a time. Try to get a large score in the hundreds or thousands (1 pt per particle). Violent screams for sfx of course.
I’ll be voting on these using the criteria:
  • Easy / Simple to make
  • Innovative
  • Fun
  • Kelly’s (wife’s) Pick
  • Mims’ Pick (worth 1000 points)
Tagged

Why there are no million dollar ideas

by

It is well known among my friends that I “do something to computers that somehow makes apps exist.” As such, I am often approached with the inevitable proposition that goes something like this: “I’ve got a million dollar idea for an app and when you build it we’ll be rich.” These pitches typically make use of the pronoun “we,” as in “we can charge 50¢ per penguin,” and a pre-meditated revenue split, as in “you can keep 50% of the penguin monies.” This is the modern version of the old favorite, “can you make me a website,” for free implied.

Some of these ideas are great, many are not. But regardless of their quality, I want to try to reset the expectations of the idea generators. I hope this post sheds some light on the legal, social and practical implications of these ideas and provides some ground rules that will help bring these ideas into fruition.

(Read the full article after the jump)

Continue reading

Tagged , ,

Never Again

by

I’m officially done with my last banner project ever. Yes, I’ve decided this New Year’s to take a stand against work that makes me miserable. Among these things are…

  • Banner ads
  • ActionScript 2.0
  • Last minute crazy hectic projects
  • Working with recruiters (Actually, this one was from a couple of years ago)

Some people say I’m crazy or that this sort of work is unavoidable or that it may be shitty but is highly lucrative. However, I always try to avoid projects where I cannot reasonably predict success. Banner ads, AS2 projects, and last minute work all have in common that they seem more subject to chaos than the usual job. Banner ads are difficult to plan because they require loads of tweaks, tedious restraints such as file size restrictions, and duplication of effort for multiple sizes or multiple ad standards across target sites. Or at least they have in my experience so far. ActionScript 2.0, aside from being nearly obsolete, tends to encourage poor programming practices by being a hybrid of non-OOP and OOP paradigms. Last minute fixes and jobs that need to be done ASAFP are rife with issues: the time a developer needs to familiarize himself with unfamiliar code is usually not considered, formal architecture and design is omitted leading to freestyle coding, and because the deadline is so short, if even a tiny issue arrises the project is fucked. Of course, any project can get out of control, but with a little forewarning and careful choices, chaos can be avoided. These types of projects tend to practically guarantee that there will be issues and that there won’t be a smart way to negotiate them.

As for recruiters (or staffing agents, or talent scouts, or whatever else they call themselves), in hard times they might seem like a necessary evil. Still, I feel that I can almost always find a much higher quality match with an employer or employee by direct referrals from other colleagues and friends in the industry – even if it’s through linkedin. Besides, I’ve had enough shady recruiters call me with “incredible offers” on nights and weekends to make me want to disconnect my phone.

So no offense to anyone else who is stuck making banners for their job. I know that all of these things are a neccessary part of our industry. However, I personally don’t want to be involved anymore. I seriously am going to add a “no-banner” clause to my next contract. Instead, I hope to focus on some of the following things that make me happy…

  • Game and application development
  • Working with people whom I respect and enjoy
  • Writing books and blogging

Wish me luck!

A website costs as much as a car

by

When people ask me how much it costs to make a website, my answer is always “A website costs as much as a car.” This invariably triggers the response “Oh, ok… Wait, what kind of car?”
“Exactly.”

A car can be many things. A new sedan, a used 1987 stationwagon, a hummer limo, a highly tuned race car, or a smart car with a 2-year lease are all examples of cars. They may range in price from a few hundred bucks to several hundred thousand or even a monthly fee or sometimes even free.

Websites are the same way. Based on the complexity, customization, features, and level of detail, a site can span the same range of prices. Many people decide that they want or need a website without asking the basic questions that help guide the process like “what is the goal of the site”. Quite often, the actual needs are very simple and generic solutions (such as a PayPal shopping cart) are ideal – the same way that a person commuting 10 miles to work needs a reliable but modest car to get them there and not a sports car (or sometimes it’s better to take public transit). I’ve found that describing the work in these terms tends to help potential customers to create more realistic expectations and reconsider their needs by presenting the concept of a website not as a fixed product but as a toolkit of solutions to specific business needs.

I’m not promising anything, but hopefully this has been the first entry in a short series on my work philosophies. Stay tuned!

Tagged , ,

Interviewed about KitchenSync on Inside RIA blog

by

Oh my goodness gracious sakes alive!* I have been interviewed about KitchenSync for InsideRIA blog by RJ Owen of EffectiveUI. RJ is a very swell guy. Mercy me!*

Read!

*My dear grandmother is prone to use expressions like this.

Tagged , ,