GreenSlimeGames

Enter Stranger …

I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and a coder for pretty much all that time as well. I’ve always dreamed of writing games: creating things that others will play and enjoy, coming up with intricate and detailed plans of the most obscure facet of an imaginary uber-game, day dreams filled with twisted level design, intricate plot details, funky mechanics and awesome game play. But these always remained just that – day dreams and ideas.

Time and time again I would begin a project – the next big game – spending many hours coding the back end and engine. But then, an even more awesome idea would take me, and I would start on that – another engine, another back end system. Sometimes, a project would stick for a while, but always my own personal motivation fell for some reason or other.

The other flaw with these imaginary uber-games is complexity. It is not enough for me to develop Pong – I want to develop EveWoW+++. This, for one coder, is an impossibility. I need to be realistic with my goals.

This was an infinite loop: constant ideas and constant projects, leaving me with many, many unfinished systems, megabytes of code and databases – and not a single finished game to show for my efforts.

And now, my friends, I have discovered God.

Well, no, not really 🙂 With a landmark birthday rapidly approaching, I have decided that these fruitless exercises needs to stop. Now. Oh, and the closest thing I have to a deity is Cthulhu.

And this is why I have created GreenSlimeGames. The goal is quite simple. I want to produce games, I want them to be played, and I want to play them myself. All my previous ‘attempts’ have always been secret; hidden behind personal web space, locked to just my ip, not a word mentioned about my developments to anyone. I feel that this, in itself, was a mistake. So now, I am going in a totally different direction – full disclosure if you like. Previously shunning social networks (and their GOD AWFUL games), micro blogging and all those other mainstay corners of the internet, I shall shun these no longer. Making people aware of my ideas, of my projects, in itself should dramatically increase my motivation enough to finish one ( ‘Hmmm all these people will think I’m super lame if I can’t get X out for when I said’ ).

So with this in mind, I start out again. My task list is as follows :

1. Register a domain.
2. Make a blog.
3. Make domain along with blog public, along with a rather long and potential tedious post explaining why I am doing it.
4. On paper, draft out a simple, but expandable game. [Maybe the game is a prototype or a minigame for a bigger one. The important thing about is that it is actually playable in a standalone fashion : there should be a score, progression, risk of death, etc].
5. Build said game in 19 hours. Work on no other personal projects during this time. Every hour taking five minutes to record said game progress (maybe an amusing drawing if it refuses to work), and write down what I am doing currently. [why 19 hours? Well, the simple reason is that my real life work takes up a HELL of a lot of time, both during long office hours, and in ‘freetime’ mode. Overtime of course being a myth 🙂 After sitting down and working out a time table, over the next week (starting on Saturday and ending on the Saturday after) I will have 19 hours to myself. Within in these 19 hours, I shall craft my game.]
6. Play the game.

After this, of course, I’m not sure what happens… I’ll probably have to make another list 🙂

So wish me luck – or come back in just over a two weeks and play my game ! 🙂

tl:dr; I’m going to make a game in 19 hours.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.