Can I work for vlambeer
If you're a trusted person that happens to be exceptional at a specific skill that we currently require, then yes.
Ask @tha_rami
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Of the languages you know, which is your preferred to converse in and how often do you get the chance?
English, but mostly because it is the language most of the people I care about share.
Okay, so, the "why u marketing?" one was borderline, but the second one about how "indies" sure do think they're better than everyone" couldn't possibly have been worth the keystrokes.
It's a surprisingly common perspective, so even if the original creator of the question was disingenuous, it is worth addressing.
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Aren't fantastic games fantastic regardless of who made them? Who cares if you don't like Phil Spencer, Fumito Ueda or Takashi Tezuka. They make great product. "Indie" developed games aren't inherently more valuable. But "indie" developers sure do seem to think so a lot of the time.
I think you'll find indie developers have the utmost respect for creators, whether they're AAA, indie or whatever description they fit.
Developers might not agree with each other - in fact, we rarely do - but most people I know respect that the only reason someone would be working in the games industry is because we care. For the skillset required to make games, this industry is relatively low pay, low security, high stress and lots of pressure.
A lot of developers care a lot about videogames in ways consumers rarely do. "Product" is rarely that exciting to devs. We care about the medium, about expression, creativity, progress, evolution, advancement, reaching new markets, breaking paradigms. Every developer - veteran or aspiring - wants to change games for the better. It's a different perspective than 'wanting to play the next best game', or 'product'. It's about making something great or meaningful.
And here's the thing: the realities of AAA make it really hard to achieve any of those goals beyond making money and keeping your job. There's a reason so many big names in AAA are going independent. It's because that's where the risks are. It's where expression, creativity, progress, evolution, advancement, reaching new markets, breaking paradigms can bloom in unexpected directions.
That's not to say AAA games are devoid of expression or creativity or progress. I definitely want to play the next Call of Duty. I can't wait for a new Mass Effect. I love my racing games, my shooting games, my RPG's, my horror games. I want to see the titans of our medium pushed further. I am impressed beyond words by the AAA games of our industry - they're behemoths of team work, dedication and loving care. They're amazing things and I spend many hours analysing how they are made, learning tricks and things I never thought of.
But for the unexpected leaps, for the exciting stuff to a lot of devs, you kind of end up looking at indie games. That might be a difference between developers, gamers and people that play indie games. They just care about games in different ways. That's fine, though, isn't it?
Developers might not agree with each other - in fact, we rarely do - but most people I know respect that the only reason someone would be working in the games industry is because we care. For the skillset required to make games, this industry is relatively low pay, low security, high stress and lots of pressure.
A lot of developers care a lot about videogames in ways consumers rarely do. "Product" is rarely that exciting to devs. We care about the medium, about expression, creativity, progress, evolution, advancement, reaching new markets, breaking paradigms. Every developer - veteran or aspiring - wants to change games for the better. It's a different perspective than 'wanting to play the next best game', or 'product'. It's about making something great or meaningful.
And here's the thing: the realities of AAA make it really hard to achieve any of those goals beyond making money and keeping your job. There's a reason so many big names in AAA are going independent. It's because that's where the risks are. It's where expression, creativity, progress, evolution, advancement, reaching new markets, breaking paradigms can bloom in unexpected directions.
That's not to say AAA games are devoid of expression or creativity or progress. I definitely want to play the next Call of Duty. I can't wait for a new Mass Effect. I love my racing games, my shooting games, my RPG's, my horror games. I want to see the titans of our medium pushed further. I am impressed beyond words by the AAA games of our industry - they're behemoths of team work, dedication and loving care. They're amazing things and I spend many hours analysing how they are made, learning tricks and things I never thought of.
But for the unexpected leaps, for the exciting stuff to a lot of devs, you kind of end up looking at indie games. That might be a difference between developers, gamers and people that play indie games. They just care about games in different ways. That's fine, though, isn't it?
Liked by:
Alek Spindler
Jordan Maeve
Irene Koh
Lui
How come you choose GameMaker as the engine for Nuclear Throne? Why didn't you pick a more advanced engine such as a custom C++ / C# engine?
There's a trade-off there. Basically, for anything but the most graphically intense games, creating your own engine is preposterous. I don't think any engine was ever created 'just to be an engine'. Every great engine that exists was originally part of a game development process, and -when the developer found out there was more value to their tools than their game- turned into an engine.
Very few games get made on a fully custom C++/C# engine, even in AAA. Nowadays, there's a myriad of tools that can help you make a game, and many of those easily satisfy the needs for the majority of games you can think of. UDK, Unity, CryEngine, GameMaker, Twine, Stencyl, Construct - whatever you want to make, it's likely one of those tools can do it for you.
So the question really becomes: "why would I waste time on making a custom C++/C# engine, if everything I need is already here?"
In our case, J.W. is super familiar and super fast with GameMaker, and it fit our needs for Nuclear Throne. There was no reason to choose otherwise.
Very few games get made on a fully custom C++/C# engine, even in AAA. Nowadays, there's a myriad of tools that can help you make a game, and many of those easily satisfy the needs for the majority of games you can think of. UDK, Unity, CryEngine, GameMaker, Twine, Stencyl, Construct - whatever you want to make, it's likely one of those tools can do it for you.
So the question really becomes: "why would I waste time on making a custom C++/C# engine, if everything I need is already here?"
In our case, J.W. is super familiar and super fast with GameMaker, and it fit our needs for Nuclear Throne. There was no reason to choose otherwise.
Why do so many "indie" developers spend so much time in front of a camera to talk about their product instead of actually using that time to improve said product? There's good and bad examples of this but right now most of them seem really intent on a shortcut to fame?
A game isn't a game unless it's being played. The idea that "a good game rises to fame regardless" is nonsense - if you want your game to be played, you have to spend time marketing it. You have to get to know press, YouTubers and audiences. You have to go to events and do interviews.
Believe me, every game developer in the world, myself included, would love to spend less time doing that sort of stuff. It's why I made tools like presskit() and distribute(). The reality is that, with how little effort most gamers put into finding good games, a bad game with great marketing will do better than a good game with bad marketing.
Most indies don't have the money to spend on super-effective marketing deals, like YouTube sponsored content or page-takeovers on websites, so we'll have to play it by our own and our games' visibility.
You don't want to be that developer that made a great game but nobody played it. So you do anything you can to reach the people that would love your game, if only they heard of it. Even if that means having to get in front of a camera.
Believe me, every game developer in the world, myself included, would love to spend less time doing that sort of stuff. It's why I made tools like presskit() and distribute(). The reality is that, with how little effort most gamers put into finding good games, a bad game with great marketing will do better than a good game with bad marketing.
Most indies don't have the money to spend on super-effective marketing deals, like YouTube sponsored content or page-takeovers on websites, so we'll have to play it by our own and our games' visibility.
You don't want to be that developer that made a great game but nobody played it. So you do anything you can to reach the people that would love your game, if only they heard of it. Even if that means having to get in front of a camera.
Liked by:
Cam
Justin McDaniel
How did you initially handle the insane life changes that comes with being a successful game developer? Any tips?
I will never know how I handled it, but basically you have to deal with pretty much everything changing. I've helped quite a few developers deal with that over the past few years.
Financial success comes with many new opportunities and many new problems. It also comes with weird expectations and commonly, a general feeling that you don't deserve it. Critical succes comes with audience expectations, a sense of having to outdo your previous work and attention from other developers. Travel comes with, well, travel - lost sense of home, friends being all over the world, etc. Visibility comes with responsibility and a sudden increase in Things You Do Wrong That You Didn't Even Know.
In all cases, the best way to adapt really is to take things seriously. If you earned a lot of money, talk to a number of accountants and find one you like. If you had a critical hit, don't worry about 'making that but better'. The reason people liked it is because you weren't worrying and just making something sincere. If you travel, make sure to keep track of how you're feeling - it's OK to take breaks (I love travel, so I don't). Finally, when you say something and people are upset, avoid the knee-jerk 'defensive stance'. Just listen for a bit. Visibility opens you up to thousands of perspectives, and it'd be a shame to just disregard them.
You'll slowly adapt, and figure out a way to remain true to yourself. Some things about you will change, and that's fine. Keep your friends from before your succes close - they can keep track of whether you turn into a total asshole.
The new you won't be the old you. It has different issues, different opportunities and different problems. Don't try to stay 'the old you'. Use every life change, good or bad, to make the best of your new perspective, and learn to be a 'better you'. Staying the same just doesn't work.
Financial success comes with many new opportunities and many new problems. It also comes with weird expectations and commonly, a general feeling that you don't deserve it. Critical succes comes with audience expectations, a sense of having to outdo your previous work and attention from other developers. Travel comes with, well, travel - lost sense of home, friends being all over the world, etc. Visibility comes with responsibility and a sudden increase in Things You Do Wrong That You Didn't Even Know.
In all cases, the best way to adapt really is to take things seriously. If you earned a lot of money, talk to a number of accountants and find one you like. If you had a critical hit, don't worry about 'making that but better'. The reason people liked it is because you weren't worrying and just making something sincere. If you travel, make sure to keep track of how you're feeling - it's OK to take breaks (I love travel, so I don't). Finally, when you say something and people are upset, avoid the knee-jerk 'defensive stance'. Just listen for a bit. Visibility opens you up to thousands of perspectives, and it'd be a shame to just disregard them.
You'll slowly adapt, and figure out a way to remain true to yourself. Some things about you will change, and that's fine. Keep your friends from before your succes close - they can keep track of whether you turn into a total asshole.
The new you won't be the old you. It has different issues, different opportunities and different problems. Don't try to stay 'the old you'. Use every life change, good or bad, to make the best of your new perspective, and learn to be a 'better you'. Staying the same just doesn't work.
Liked by:
Cam
I hear the word "loser" thrown around a lot. What's a loser to you? What do you think of when you hear that word? It's a super vague word, and I always think it's interesting to hear the variations in different people's definitions of stuff like that. What kind of person would you call a loser?
I don't call people "losers" in the way I think you meant it.
I feel 'loser' is one of the worst non-discriminatory things you can call people. I ties not only in to a persons' actions, but also their motivations and your assumptions about both. People define their own goals, they define their own standards of succes. It is not up to anyone but them to judge what standards they should want to live up to, nor whether they've succeeded or not.
I feel 'loser' is one of the worst non-discriminatory things you can call people. I ties not only in to a persons' actions, but also their motivations and your assumptions about both. People define their own goals, they define their own standards of succes. It is not up to anyone but them to judge what standards they should want to live up to, nor whether they've succeeded or not.
Liked by:
Michael Marandino
One line thank you emails, yay or nay?
Yes. Make it a rule to respond to e-mails as succinctly as possible. It might feel unfriendly at first, but it really is a much better way of communicating. E-mail is not postal mail. We're not waiting for days before a response arrive. It's more formal than chat, so get your capital letters and interpunction right, but unless you need to, three sentences is enough for most communications. Don't waste your recipients' time.
Liked by:
Cam
batman9502
Did you have a stuffed toy or blanket or something similar that you favored as a child?
Yes. I had a giant plush bunny that I always thought was a bear. It was called 'knuffie', which translates to 'plushie' in English. I tore the material near the armpit by accident some day, and after that it started sort of causing me throat irritation because the stuffing would get out when I rolled near it while sleeping.
It got a spot across the room where it could watch over me when I was sleeping - and I think it remains in that spot in my childhood room to this day.
It got a spot across the room where it could watch over me when I was sleeping - and I think it remains in that spot in my childhood room to this day.
I just want to write here and let you know that you're a really awesome guy! I've never met you in person and I'm not sure if it means much to you, but the way you go about yourself online is commendable and I thought it'd be a nice thing to tell you that :P Salaam!
Shokran, and thank you so much for taking the time to send a little positivity my way!
How does an indie developer get backed by devolver digital? Thanks!
You e-mail them with a great game pitch. Like everything in the industry, step 1 is actually doing things. Whether they succeed or fail is step 2. Either way, it's one step ahead of just lingering at step 1.
Liked by:
Cam
Justin McDaniel
This is a bit complicated, but as someone who went through a shooting, how do you want people to react to you when similar news happens? I am thinking about Kenya and that intense photo. Part of me wants to check in on a friend but what if doing that makes it worse, like introducing a trigger?
This is obviously a personal answer. Every person is different.
If you're only talking to them because they went through a shooting, that doesn't help a lot. At least, it didn't help me. It just reminds you that something out of the ordinary happened, and that something is awful. If you can talk normally -ie. the conversation would've happened regardless of the shooting- and you can raise the subject, that's fine.
Ironically, if you're not sure whether someone was involved in a local shooting, when things like these happen a lot of people ask whether 'you weren't there, were you?' expecting a 'no' as an answer. Don't be that person. It's really tiring to keep explaining to stunned people that 'yes, I was at this awful thing'.
If you're only talking to them because they went through a shooting, that doesn't help a lot. At least, it didn't help me. It just reminds you that something out of the ordinary happened, and that something is awful. If you can talk normally -ie. the conversation would've happened regardless of the shooting- and you can raise the subject, that's fine.
Ironically, if you're not sure whether someone was involved in a local shooting, when things like these happen a lot of people ask whether 'you weren't there, were you?' expecting a 'no' as an answer. Don't be that person. It's really tiring to keep explaining to stunned people that 'yes, I was at this awful thing'.
How would you describe compare GameLoading to IndieGame: The Movie for someone who has yet to see the former.
In Indie Game: The Movie, there's this scene where Edmund gets a phonecall from Danny Baranowski. It's the one moment in the movie where it hints at the fact that indie games aren't made in a vacuum, but as part of a community.
GameLoading is the movie about that community, the games, people, trends thoughts and issues in it, in the period from 2013 - 2014.
GameLoading is the movie about that community, the games, people, trends thoughts and issues in it, in the period from 2013 - 2014.
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Myriame Pilgrim
What do you think about #freethenipple?
My feelings on that are complex.
Personally, I'd prefer everybody just covers their chests and/or nipples - independent of gender. Then again, my feelings on that are prefixed with 'personally' because that is my preference, and I don't believe my preference is relevant in what other people do with their bodies or clothing.
As such, I guess I'm a silent supporter. I don't openly retweet or endorse the actual act of being topless (again, gender-independent) - but I support the idea of 'people should be able to dress as they want', and 'if male nipples are legally and societally OK, why can't women nipples be OK too' behind it.
If the law went and prohibited anyone from showing nipples in public (obviously, with the exception of breastfeeding), I'd be just as fine as if the law went and allowed all of it. It's the imbalance between men and women that I think is wrong.
Personally, I'd prefer everybody just covers their chests and/or nipples - independent of gender. Then again, my feelings on that are prefixed with 'personally' because that is my preference, and I don't believe my preference is relevant in what other people do with their bodies or clothing.
As such, I guess I'm a silent supporter. I don't openly retweet or endorse the actual act of being topless (again, gender-independent) - but I support the idea of 'people should be able to dress as they want', and 'if male nipples are legally and societally OK, why can't women nipples be OK too' behind it.
If the law went and prohibited anyone from showing nipples in public (obviously, with the exception of breastfeeding), I'd be just as fine as if the law went and allowed all of it. It's the imbalance between men and women that I think is wrong.
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Arjun SIngh Lotay
You mentioned awhile back that your spoken Arabic was rusty. How is it after your trip to Lebanon? How much continued use does it take to knock off the rust?
Still rusty. I think it'd take me two or three weeks to get a flow going again, two or three months to get back to something resembling fluency. I'll get those in sometime in the future :)
Do you EVER get tired? It seems like you have more hours in the day or something with all of the amazing things you do.
I think I've learned to sleep smarter. There's this whole story about sleeping more making you more productive, but while it's true that being well-rested is paramount to productivity, simply saying 'more is better' is ridiculous.
There are also myths about sleeping during the night and I don't know what. I sleep about 4 to 7 hours a night, and if I didn't hit at least six hours total for the day, I'll take a number 20 minute powernaps throughout the day to make up for it.
Your body is really good at hiding that it's tired, so that does take some discipline sometimes. Lack of sleep stacks up, though, so it's better to just not let it happen at all.
There are also myths about sleeping during the night and I don't know what. I sleep about 4 to 7 hours a night, and if I didn't hit at least six hours total for the day, I'll take a number 20 minute powernaps throughout the day to make up for it.
Your body is really good at hiding that it's tired, so that does take some discipline sometimes. Lack of sleep stacks up, though, so it's better to just not let it happen at all.
Liked by:
Myriame Pilgrim
Would you rather sleep on a plane or a boat?
Plane.
Kinda, hardware-related, but what lenovo laptop do you & JW possess?
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P, if I'm not mistaken.
Do you have a favorite color of toothbrush?
Blue. I don't think I've ever owned a toothbrush that wasn't blue. With two siblings, each of our toothbrushes had seperate colors, and since I was the first born, I picked first and I picked blue. So that stuck.
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Myriame Pilgrim
In Nuclear Throne there are quite a few menu options that are disabled. As a beginner game designer, this makes me curious. I've heard developers say to build a menu system first because you won't want to do when the game's done. Is it that, or simply to communicate something that's coming later?
Nope, it's that. Sadly, we've by now established that what we have is terrible, so we'll have to redo it anyway.
Liked by:
Cam
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
If I can pick two scoops, I pick chocolate at the bottom and mango on top. If I can pick a third one, it's either melon or a good vanilla, depending on my mood. Always whipped cream.
What are your views on putting a political message in video games. Because games like Mario and Monster Hunter obviously don't need to stress this, but do all story driven games need a political message or can they still be an enjoyable story on their own merits?
I think not all games intentionally have a political message in them, but I do feel all creation is reflective of our culture and worldviews - and as such our politics too. That means that every game has those personal reflections in there, and every story has them too.
Some of my favorite games have an enormous amount of politics involved in them. Deus Ex, Bioshock 1, Papers Please, Metal Gear Solid, Braid or Assassins Creed are highly political games that I thoroughly enjoy playing. Honestly, I think a game can be much richer for having a political core, but that core can also be cultural (Farsh), or a relationship (Gone Home), or an elaborate spreadsheet (Starcraft), or mastery (Super Meat Boy).
Personally, I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing games while wondering what the intent of the creators was for the game, or the mechanic, or the level, or the character, or whatever - seeing where they succeeded or failed to do that, or where they diverged or tried to cut corners. Sometimes, you can even tell a little bit about the team dynamics of a production by looking at a rough version of a game. It's a way of looking at games you have to learn if you want to give good feedback to students and other developers, and it's how I enjoy playing them now too.
But when you do that, you suddenly see that there's a bit of politics in every game. Vlambeer games don't feature alcohol because I'm muslim. It's no grand statement, but it surely is a socio-political one. Every game makes a statement about what games are, or could be, or should be. Every creation tells you how the creator views the world, themselves, in some cases how they see social structures or heroism or life or death or politics.
I read this article on Polygon the other day (http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/30/8297515/africa-draft) in which an African developer discussed their thoughts on RPG's - and I thought it was a great quote.
"American RPGs are based on conquest or saving the world for justice or peace," says Meli. "European RPGs, even if they draw upon Greek or Nordic mythologies, are often based on Christian philosophies and focus on prophecies of a chosen one. Japanese RPGs are based on the Hiroshima trauma. The hero tries to avoid a big explosion."
While that is, of course, a simplification - there's a truth there. We tend to base what we make upon what we know, and what we know is colored by what we -and those around us- believe and feel. If I were to argue that games weren't by definition a reflection of our cultural, political and personal beliefs, I wouldn't be comfortable arguing that they are a personal expression.
If games are a creative expression, they are a reflection of their creators as a whole. That includes the political. If the creator wants to make that, all power to them. If they don't, that's awesome too - there'll still be a bit of their political views there in the background noise of creation - but it won't be the focus. That's cool too.
Some of my favorite games have an enormous amount of politics involved in them. Deus Ex, Bioshock 1, Papers Please, Metal Gear Solid, Braid or Assassins Creed are highly political games that I thoroughly enjoy playing. Honestly, I think a game can be much richer for having a political core, but that core can also be cultural (Farsh), or a relationship (Gone Home), or an elaborate spreadsheet (Starcraft), or mastery (Super Meat Boy).
Personally, I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing games while wondering what the intent of the creators was for the game, or the mechanic, or the level, or the character, or whatever - seeing where they succeeded or failed to do that, or where they diverged or tried to cut corners. Sometimes, you can even tell a little bit about the team dynamics of a production by looking at a rough version of a game. It's a way of looking at games you have to learn if you want to give good feedback to students and other developers, and it's how I enjoy playing them now too.
But when you do that, you suddenly see that there's a bit of politics in every game. Vlambeer games don't feature alcohol because I'm muslim. It's no grand statement, but it surely is a socio-political one. Every game makes a statement about what games are, or could be, or should be. Every creation tells you how the creator views the world, themselves, in some cases how they see social structures or heroism or life or death or politics.
I read this article on Polygon the other day (http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/30/8297515/africa-draft) in which an African developer discussed their thoughts on RPG's - and I thought it was a great quote.
"American RPGs are based on conquest or saving the world for justice or peace," says Meli. "European RPGs, even if they draw upon Greek or Nordic mythologies, are often based on Christian philosophies and focus on prophecies of a chosen one. Japanese RPGs are based on the Hiroshima trauma. The hero tries to avoid a big explosion."
While that is, of course, a simplification - there's a truth there. We tend to base what we make upon what we know, and what we know is colored by what we -and those around us- believe and feel. If I were to argue that games weren't by definition a reflection of our cultural, political and personal beliefs, I wouldn't be comfortable arguing that they are a personal expression.
If games are a creative expression, they are a reflection of their creators as a whole. That includes the political. If the creator wants to make that, all power to them. If they don't, that's awesome too - there'll still be a bit of their political views there in the background noise of creation - but it won't be the focus. That's cool too.
Liked by:
Cam
Arjun SIngh Lotay
Have you checked out the reddit button?, any opinions on that? cant avoid to relate it with twitch plays pokemon, which i loved so much http://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton
I barely managed to not press it. Reminds me of games like 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness by Petri Purho (http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/4mins33secs) - social experiments like these become so interesting when you've got something like Reddit as the pool for it.
Hi, I don't know wether you'd be able to answer this, since I don't know if you know spanish, but I have never ever met a muslim, so the little I know about Islam I read it here: http://yaelfarache.com/islam-101/ it puts in in a very bad light, and I wanted to know how much of it is true.
I think the main thing you should take away from that article is that there are 1.6 billion muslims around the world, or about 23% of this planet's population. If Islam truly was a religion of war, we'd be fighting World War 3 right now.
That does not mean the religion is free from bigoted or regressive views, or that the Quran is free from violent passages. But one thing about Islam that is important is that even the Quran itself says that no human should take it as an absolute, for its true meaning is known to Allah only. More problematic content exists in the human written content that is part of the culture in Islamic countries nowadays, which includes the Sunnah and Sharia. For me, Islam is based on the Quran, and as said, the Quran explicitely states that no human knows its true meaning.
The phrase that muslims use to communicate that idea is الله اعلم, pronounced "Allahu a'alam". It translates to "Allah knows best". If any muslim ever says something absolute, or communicates an absolute judgement based on the Quran, a wiser muslim will retort with that phrase. The wiser the muslim, the less likely they are to want to judge another human based on religious texts - instead they'll leave judgement up to Allah.
That does not mean the religion is free from bigoted or regressive views, or that the Quran is free from violent passages. But one thing about Islam that is important is that even the Quran itself says that no human should take it as an absolute, for its true meaning is known to Allah only. More problematic content exists in the human written content that is part of the culture in Islamic countries nowadays, which includes the Sunnah and Sharia. For me, Islam is based on the Quran, and as said, the Quran explicitely states that no human knows its true meaning.
The phrase that muslims use to communicate that idea is الله اعلم, pronounced "Allahu a'alam". It translates to "Allah knows best". If any muslim ever says something absolute, or communicates an absolute judgement based on the Quran, a wiser muslim will retort with that phrase. The wiser the muslim, the less likely they are to want to judge another human based on religious texts - instead they'll leave judgement up to Allah.
Liked by:
Hussein Haji
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