Grand Junction, CO
Ramblings of an old application programmer who's life has new meaning as a game programmer.
November 21, 2011
I haven't posted in a while. Mostly it's because I've been so busy working. Terrible problem...too much work!
As an independent developer, I depend on contract work to make an income. That means that I spend a lot of time working on other people's stuff. Not that I'm complaining. I enjoy the wor…
As an independent developer, I depend on contract work to make an income. That means that I spend a lot of time working on other people's stuff. Not that I'm complaining. I enjoy the wor…
July 29, 2011
Moving forward
I am a great believer in the Bible, that is, the Game Design Document. Although the urge as a programmer is to get coding as soon as possible, I know the benefit of a good design document from experience. Without it, your ideas get fuzzy and you end up doing a lot of programmin…
I am a great believer in the Bible, that is, the Game Design Document. Although the urge as a programmer is to get coding as soon as possible, I know the benefit of a good design document from experience. Without it, your ideas get fuzzy and you end up doing a lot of programmin…
June 04, 2011
The new era of indie games
I remember a time about as eight years ago when I was first researching the game industry. The general consensus at that time was that the days of the small "garage" team game developer was over. Games now cost millions of dollars to produce and thousands of man hours. Fu…
I remember a time about as eight years ago when I was first researching the game industry. The general consensus at that time was that the days of the small "garage" team game developer was over. Games now cost millions of dollars to produce and thousands of man hours. Fu…
March 09, 2011
It's been a while since my last post. Part of the reason is becuase life has been a little chaotic since then! Unfortunately, I was laid off from my previous studio, and since then I've been working at starting an independent studio. The way I see it, going indie is the only choice I have righ…
December 06, 2010
So you want to go Indy?
I see a lot of posts on forums that look something like this:
I want to break into the game industry, but I really don't want to waste my time going to school or anything. I've got this great idea for a game and I know it will be the greatest. I'm thinking I'll just skip the w…
I see a lot of posts on forums that look something like this:
I want to break into the game industry, but I really don't want to waste my time going to school or anything. I've got this great idea for a game and I know it will be the greatest. I'm thinking I'll just skip the w…
October 12, 2010
Well, it has been quite a while since I posted to my blog, and of course, a lot has happened. I have moved on to "greener pastures" after begin laid off, yet I am still going strong. Stay tuned here for my current venture. Until then, let's continue my topic on how to break into the game industry.
I…
I…
July 19, 2010
You probably don't remember watching the game show Let's Make a Deal as host, Monty Hall, asked the proverbial question: "Is it behind door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3?" Picking the correct door meant winning the grand prize. Picking the wrong door meant, well, not winning the grand …
June 23, 2010
Continuing on with my thread about game education, I would like to share my thoughts about a particular program that I am very familiar with because my son attended there. This post is not designed to either endorse or criticize the program at Full Sail. Although I am very pleased with the educati…
April 08, 2010
I am proud to announce that I can finally reveal the game that I have been working on for the last six months: Dark Void Zero. Released in January for the Nintendo DSi, my focus was on the iPhone and PC versions that will be released on April 12. Be sure to pick this one up. It was great fun to pro…
March 31, 2010
Well, I've spent the last six weeks in crunchy goodness getting my latest game out. By the next time I post I should be able to let you all in on the name of the game. But not yet!
Today's topic is education. One of the most common questions I get from people interested in pursuing a career in the g…
Today's topic is education. One of the most common questions I get from people interested in pursuing a career in the g…
March 15, 2010
First, let me say that the feedback from my last blog was welcome and stimulating (see my Gamasutra post). Ad to that the honor of being chosen by Gamasutra to be the featured blog of the week! I had hoped to keep up my once a week "resolution", but as you can see, I haven't quite done so. But now …
January 15, 2010
I thought I would start the year with a series of posts related to getting into the game industry. I get emails from students and others all over the world asking me questions about this.
In some ways, the game industry is like any other industry. You get an education, typically with a major in the …
In some ways, the game industry is like any other industry. You get an education, typically with a major in the …
January 04, 2010
Well, it's the beginning of a New Year and the start of a new decade. One of my resolutions this year is to make regular entries into my blog. Most of my past blogs have been about my entry into the game industry. I have thought a lot about what kind of content I wanted to move forward with. Should…
July 25, 2009
I think I have set some kind of world record. Since being laid off in January, I have applied for almost 300 jobs. From those, I received about 20 followup calls, phone interviews, and programming tests. I have had only 2 face-to-face interviews. The result: until yesterday: 0 jobs.
This should rea…
This should rea…
June 22, 2009
Well, I'm still between jobs. Since I was laid off last January, I have applied for over 250 jobs. I have had a few interviews, but so far, no job offers. So far I think I have the world's record for the shortest career in the game industry! But I have not lost hope...never give up...never surrend…
February 06, 2009
If you've followed the news in the game industry for any time, then you already know it's a volatile industry. Studios open and close at the the drop of a hat. People get hire to meet the needs of the current project then get let go when the project is complete. And then there is the spectre of out…
January 16, 2009
My last post dealt with the issues involved in creating a sequel. The project I was working on was a casual game targeted for both retail and downloadable sales. Although the development time for such games is much shorter that that of AAA titles, the process involved is very similar.
As promised in…
As promised in…
December 01, 2008
Hello again everyone. Well, now that I have had some sleep, not to mention a little break during Thanksgiving, I thought I'd talk about what has been going on since the Great Crunch.
The last project that I worked on was a sequel to an existing franchise. As much as possible, I'd like to be open and…
The last project that I worked on was a sequel to an existing franchise. As much as possible, I'd like to be open and…
October 30, 2008
...since I wrote in my blog. That's because I just crawled out of the long, deep, dark black-hole called crunch.
Unfortunately, crunch is still a reality in the game industry. While many people decry crunch as a moral outrage, the truth is this:
Crunch Happens.
I'm not kidding when I say that I have s…
Unfortunately, crunch is still a reality in the game industry. While many people decry crunch as a moral outrage, the truth is this:
Crunch Happens.
I'm not kidding when I say that I have s…
July 29, 2008
Well, I've been crazy busy these last few weeks! I just spent about 2 week in iterator hell trying to rework some code and I can tell ya I'm not all that fond of the C++ implementation of iterators! It seems like no 2 iterators want to talk to each other.
If you've been reading my blog, then you jus…
If you've been reading my blog, then you jus…
July 11, 2008
I jokingly refer to my on-site interview the "six hours of torture." For six hours I stood at a whiteboard assailed by questions as small teams of programmers threw scenarios at me to solve. Some required actual coding (no IntelliSense on a whiteboard) and others required design. I was told at the …
June 13, 2008
After my phone interview, I was sent the feared programming test. These tests are designed to gauge your knowledge of the C++ language as it applies too games. I ahve seen several versions of programming tests sent by game companies. In my opinion, many of them are an unrealistic test of an entry l…
June 02, 2008
So I had just received my first phone interview from a game company. I was both excited and anxious. I had applied to this company precisely because their advertisement encouraged those who were trying to cross-over from general IT into game programming. I knew that I had no game-related experience…
May 31, 2008
Well, I am now officially starting my seventh week as a game programmer and I have finally taken time to start my developer blog! I think my story of how I got here is sufficiently interesting, so this is the topic of my first entry.
I have been programming since 1979. Yes, I'm that old. I got my st…
I have been programming since 1979. Yes, I'm that old. I got my st…
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