Dev.Mag Issue 19

[Nandrew]

Christmas comes early!

Here's an early Christmas prezzie for all the hardworking elves at Game.Dev. This edition of Dev.Mag has to be one of the prettier ones to be released, thanks mainly to a gorgeous press kit that the folks at Aquaria have ready for all the media commoners out there.

And with that, we put a lid on Dev.Mag activity for the year and relax for a while before our next release in February. Be sure to gather around the fireplace next month -- we'll have many stories to tell, and many articles to assign to eager writers.

If somebody is willing to write a nice big juicy review, there may even be a free copy of Aquaria waiting for them. We'll see. ;)

But enough of that. Read, enjoy, and grant some feedback once you've recovered from all the holiday celebrations. Merry Christmas, all!

[Squid]

Oooooh, I bags the Aquaria review :P

Awesome issue though, I especially like the "DB Says" bits. It's good to make him more of a regular icon throughout the mag.

[Tr00jg]

Wow! Its an awesome issue. Well done to everyone. Its been a great year for Dev.Mag! :D

[Thaumaturge]

Overall, a quite good-looking issue, with some interesting articles (albeit that I haven't yet read all of the magazine that I intend to) - well done to all! ^_^

And ooh, Aquaria's out! This is good news - I want to look into getting that game! ^__^

(Although I may well wait for the review to appear before I make a decision. ;P)

Aah, and I see that Electropy was picked up - I'm glad to see it. ^_^

Hmm... One of the fellows in the Aquaria interview makes an interesting suggestion - a publisher created by a collaboration of independent developers. I rather like that idea...

The GUI article looks interesting (I've read some of it, but not yet all). ^_^

Gazza, you make an interesting argument in your opinion piece.

With regards to places like GameDev.net and the apparent pulling down of new developers aiming to create immense games, I think that most of the posts (you do get some flaming, from what I've seen) are probably at least intended to be helpful, and spare the new developer some frustration. I think that it also becomes a little frustrating to see people proclaiming such plans as often as can happen in larger forums.

Perhaps you are right, however - perhaps it is better to let them crash (as they most probably will, when planning on creating MMO-level games, at least), and let that filter and teach those who have a large degree of interest and perseverance. On the other hand, I wonder whether it might not be better to at least steer new developers away from the more gargantuan tasks - such as MMO games - while leaving developers who appear to be overreaching by a lesser degree...

[Gazza_N]

AQUARIA! AQUARIA! AQUARIA! Ohhhhhhh..... 0.0

"Nice issue" goes without saying. I agree with Squid that "DB says" is a stroke of genius. :D The Blender tuts are also starting to get very in-depth, which is nice. This edition taught me a few little tricks that'll make my life with Blender a lot easier. :)

@Thaum:
I agree that newbies should be guided, obviously. That's why we're part of this community, after all - to help and be helped. :) By no means am I saying that the poor newbie be left on their own - let them start work on Monolithic Project X, help them where they get stuck, answer their questions, let them get a feel for what goes into building a game like that. Then, if/when they fail (though not for lack of support), it's up to them. They'll either drop out completely because they aren't willing to learn, or they'll keep going with a smaller project. I've seen exactly that happen plenty of times over the past year, with my projects and with those of others. Those with the drive and passion will bounce back, having learned something from their failure, while those who were just in it for the image of a game development rock star will find something else. Besides, those with the drive will work on Monolithic Project X despite your advice to the contrary. *cough* Deathbringer *cough* ;)

[Tr00jg]

Hmm... One of the fellows in the Aquaria interview makes an interesting suggestion - a publisher created by a collaboration of independent developers. I rather like that idea...

Yeah, that's very intriguing.

[Gazza_N]

Wasn't Gathering of Developers (GoD Games) a collaboration?

*checks Wiki*

Yup. T'was a bunch of developers (Epic, Terminal Reality, Ritual, and a couple of others) who pooled their resources to form exactly that arrangement. They had some good titles under their belt and got bought out eventually, so I gather they either did fairly well or went bust.

[Thaumaturge]

I agree that newbies should be guided, obviously. That's why we're part of this community, after all - to help and be helped. By no means am I saying that the poor newbie be left on their own - let them start work on Monolithic Project X, help them where they get stuck, answer their questions, let them get a feel for what goes into building a game like that. Then, if/when they fail (though not for lack of support), it's up to them. They'll either drop out completely because they aren't willing to learn, or they'll keep going with a smaller project. I've seen exactly that happen plenty of times over the past year, with my projects and with those of others. Those with the drive and passion will bounce back, having learned something from their failure, while those who were just in it for the image of a game development rock star will find something else. Besides, those with the drive will work on Monolithic Project X despite your advice to the contrary. *cough* Deathbringer *cough*

Heh, true, true, I would say - although I do wonder whether we don't also lose some potentially-good developers that way.

Yup. T'was a bunch of developers (Epic, Terminal Reality, Ritual, and a couple of others) who pooled their resources to form exactly that arrangement. They had some good titles under their belt and got bought out eventually, so I gather they either did fairly well or went bust.

I wonder which it was - the former, hopefully.

Based on the Wikipedia entry on them, they do appear to have published some high-profile titles - I particularly note the Age of Wonders series, Jazz Jackrabbit (were they formed that long ago, or am I mis-remembering Jazz Jackrabbit's age? o_0), Max Payne and Serious Sam.

[dislekcia]

Generally I find that developers that are going to stick around tend to have a blend of hardheadedness with a touch of foresight. They'll start out being stubborn and making their dream game, which is usually a large project that they just don't have the knowledge and experience to pull off as yet. Then, eventually, they start realising that the advice given to them isn't a crock of **** and they'll shelve said ubergame and start working on smaller things to get skilled up. That's where the foresight comes into it...

At some stage they'll head back to their dream game and make that a reality.

Pretty much anything else that deviates from that pattern isn't going to stick around long enough to even make one game. Sad, but true. I've got about a 1% conversion rate going at the moment: 1% of the hopefuls that rant at me about their awesome game idea or how they totally want to get into the industry stick around and actually make something of it.

-D