More Arts and Crafts!

Posted by Peter Jones on November 22nd, 2010 in General

We were feeling a bit crafty this weekend again, so we broke out the clay brick and modelled our very own Pic. It was a nice way to spend a lazy Saturday morning, and the good news is that there's plenty of more clay, wire and paint...so I think it's safe to say there are more Pics to come (probably better ones too)!

If you're ever feeling crafty with Snapshot too, make sure you show us what you can do. We'll put it up on our blog and maybe send you something nice in return!

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art
culture

Arts and Crafts

Posted by Peter Jones on October 4th, 2010 in General

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Dave and his sister redecorated our walls a bit this last weekend:

Each character is made up of about 200 foam squares bringing the total cost to about $20! Give it a shot if you have some blank walls. You can actually feel the classic inspiration emanating from the walls.

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art
culture

Boston Game Loop

Posted by Peter Jones on August 30th, 2010 in General

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Size Doesn't Matter Day

Posted by Peter Jones on August 16th, 2010 in General

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Pun-free from here on out, I swear. Today we're participating in a collective commentary on game length and the value of media consumption. It's a topic that hasn't necessarily been at the forefront of debate, but still manages to creep into the most sane person's reasoning why a game "isn't worth [x] dollars".

For the majority of the game industry's short history, length has been touted as a measure of quality. Since every new game was the same sixty dollars, length, graphics and sound quality were decent, albeit overly-simplified selling points (Fig. A*). Fast forward twenty years into a whole new ball game.

So why do we still expect a certain duration of game play? Even from games that are free? It's hard to say and is certainly not limited to one culprit, but I suspect the rapidly diversifying market is a key issue. The iPhone, for better or worse, has opened a floodgate of development; flash portals like Kongregate and Newgrounds have made available free versions of nearly every game imaginable; and services like XBLA, WiiWare and PSN have embraced the small studio. The rise of the independent portal has paved the way for a whole spectrum of games ranging from $125.00 to FREE. Is it possible to line up every game based on length and draw any comparison in quality? Of course not (Fig. B*).

Our perception of what makes a game enjoyable is lagging behind, and when one fails to meet those expectations we retreat to those traditional measures. Consider a painting with too little paint or a canvas that's too small. Would you pass over a book because it didn't look as though it had enough pages? "It was too short," is likely pointing to a larger issue.

Make sure you check out these other perspectives on game length:
Ron Carmel of 2DBoy
Chris DeLeon
Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games
Cliff Harris of Positech Games
Martin of Broken Rules
Lau Korsgaard
Jeffrey Rosen of Wolfire
Chris Hecker

*These charts are probably not scientifically accurate

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Retro Affect Goes to School

Posted by Peter Jones on June 14th, 2010 in General

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Last Friday, Dave and I were asked to speak with a computer science course at Inter-Lakes High School. We gave them a brief history of how we managed to stumble to where we are today, and explained things that they can do in order to make video games for a living. Half way through, we were unfortunately interrupted by a fire drill...it's been awhile since I've had to leave a building single file.

Inter-Lakes High School, Class of 2010

I had a phone call when we got to the parking lot, and took it a little ways away from the class so I wouldn't disturb anyone. A teacher actually came over and yelled at me to get in with the rest of my class. I even had to serve a detention, lame. Okay, I made the detention part up.

If you're a high school student (or early in college) reading our blog, then you probably already have a good grasp on the indie scene and know how to get started. In case you don't, I encourage any aspiring game developers to take a look at various middleware programs like Gamemaker, Flash, Unity...maybe some readers could comment on any tools they use too.

Also, get yourself to a traditional university after high school. I know those "game design degree in two years!" programs sound perfect (I almost pursued one myself), but you'll be much more versatile with a degree in computer science or the arts.

And as always, shoot us an email anytime with questions you have about making games. We love our jobs, and we love to help.

One more thing! Get your cameras ready, the next Snap-A-Shot Contest is a mere blog post away...

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culture

Boston Postmortem Postmortem

Posted by Peter Jones on June 10th, 2010 in Tools

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I attended the Boston IGDA Chapter meeting last night (known as the Boston Postmortem). It was great to see such a large group of enthusiastic developers (which later informed, was the smallest group they've seen in awhile).

Chris Allen from Infared5 presented their new SDK, Brass Monkey. With it, mobile devices, laptops, desktops, anything with a Wi-Fi connection can connect and exchange events. He demoed a pretty cool Star Wars game with an iPhone as a controller, and a drawing application with multiple phones connecting and interacting. A pretty interesting tool for any game developers out there. I encourage you to check it out at their website. Nothing is released yet, but Chris did mention an "Indie" price point for studios with 5 people or less.

Any developers out there should check out GameLoop too, a smaller, more intimate conference in Boston.

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New Office!

Posted by Peter Jones on June 4th, 2010 in General

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It's been a bit of a ghost town around here, hasn't it? Here's our excuse: we moved! From the sunny deserts of Arizona to the vast forests of New Hampshire. We're just now settling in our new office and rearing to go on Snapshot once again.

Retro Affect is here

Development is in full swing, so expect some more screenshots, some more contests and perhaps even a video! We're incredibly excited with how it's coming along and can't wait to share it with you.

As a side note, we'll be attending Boston's IGDA meeting this upcoming Wednesday. So if you're in the Boston area, you should go too! I'll have a stack of Snapshot Art cards with me...

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culture

Retro Affect Fun

Posted by Peter Jones on April 30th, 2010 in General

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culture

Postcard Delivery and igdaPHX...

Posted by Peter Jones on April 14th, 2010 in General

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All was a little quiet on the blogosphere last week wasn't it? Well the good news is that we've been quite busy with Snapshot, the bad news is...well, I guess the only bad news is that we haven't had a chance to write about it. For now, I wanted to let everyone know that our new post cards have arrived!

We'll get these sent out to our Birthday Contest winners as soon as we can. Did you miss out on our latest super-awesome post card? Fear not, I sense another Snap-a-shot contest in the near future...

One side note: our first Phoenix IGDA meeting last week was a success! We were privileged to meet over 40 of really cool developers from the area. If you're in the valley, make sure to check out www.igdaphx.org for more information about out fledging chapter.

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