Zynx's Escape

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Inspired by the success of Flappy Bird I decided to create a 2D game with a similar mechanic.  I am not into making straight up clones, so I switched up things to create a different mechanic.This also allowed me to punch up my JavaScript, 2D art, and UI skills.  I used the the GameClosure Framework, which I recommend because it has some built in features like billing which make in app purchases easier to implement.  This will be available on Android, I-Phone, and maybe Windows phone soon.

You play as Zynx RedRabbit, a rabbit who enjoys wearing turtle shells for armor.  You must escape from an endless horde of beasts, who will move at ever quickening paces throughout the game.  You can defeat the beasts by going inside of your shell and knocking the snurbles back into the beasts.  You can also collect gold in order to purchase shells with special abilities.

Free Art!

If you clicked through hoping to get your hands on some free art... Sorry but you'll probably be disappointed.  It seems to me, that these days asking for free art for your indie project is a normal thing to do.  I see this from a somewhat cynical position...  I've been around the block a few times, and know that it's a tough world in terms of your game project taking off.   Though it seems that since I have received emails, and see many posts on indie forums for unpaid work, there must be a sizable number of artists doing work for free.
I have thought about approaching others, or posting a "job" on a forum for my own projects... but being that I am also an artist, and know what it is like to be young and aspiring I cannot really do this in good conscious. I would feel as though I am taking advantage of the artist, because in all reality I would in fact be doing so.
Others may disagree with me... but I feel that art is undervalued as it is, everyone wants bad ass art... but they don't really want to pay for it.  We see this in companies large and small. When you as an artist give your work for free, that only adds to the perception that what we do is cheap and disposable.
I am curious about how many artists out there have found doing free work to be beneficial to them.  In my case, if I am gonna work for free... might as well do it for myself on one the million ideas I have in my head... rather than on someone else's idea.  I'd love to know other's perspectives.

My experience pitching to SF VC

I mentioned in my last post that I feel that the games market is heavily over-saturated with content.  Based on this, I feel that releasing a game without any backing is about the same as throwing it into the ocean.

You always hear stories about people getting venture capital.  Last month I saw post about a local gaming start up "poised to change gaming" or something along those lines, being funded.  So I google the company name and check out the site only to see a not too exciting webpage touting the same tagline... Only with zero content showing what they are actually doing.  You think to yourself, these guys got a million bucks?  I don't see anything here... and at least to me, it seems like hey... there is free money out there for the taking... What are you waiting for Jason? Go get some!

  I have recently been receiving emails from the sf game dev meetup for "free" demo / pitch start up mixers. It's worth noting that, pitching at this kind of event is NOT free.  You must pay $125, for a table to be able to set up you a demo table and pitch on stage, which at the time seemed fair enough. Given that I feel I needed backing... It seemed logical that this might be a valid outlet.  I excitedly recorded a pitch video and submitted it.

 Not too long after I received an email back. "CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE ACCEPTED"  in all caps, I of course felt a little excited again... As well as nervous, being just an artist / developer... I have no experience pitching... Additionally, spending endless hours of your life stuck in front of a computer screen doesn't do much for ones' interpersonal skills. Still, I am of the breed that one can do anything they put their mind to.  I have two days to prepare my pitch, and that seems more than adequate.  I do prepare and memorize my pitch, as well as get some materials together for networking and showing my demo.  By Friday I am feeling OK, I committed my pitch to memory and head off to the meetup.

The meetup was cool enough, I met many interesting people as one does at these kinds of events.  I was the only guy pitching a game.  Others were pitching a variety of web services and technical concepts.  I think what others were pitching ranged from fully developed systems, to more abstract concepts not fully developed.  Still, I felt a little out of my element given that I was the only person presenting a game.  Speaking to others it was pretty easy to gauge the interest level.  Generally, what I gleaned from those I talked to was, they thought my game looked cool... But based on that alone you have zero chance of getting money.

Here is what I learned that others should find useful.  These people don't care about your idea.  They don't want to know about how the game mechanic works or how it is similar to this or that. They may admire how cool it looks, and the novelty of it being a game... But that only represents a surface reaction and doesn't represent much in terms of value.  They are really only willing to put money into something that already has traction, meaning users, or data that people are using your product.  Or.... A team of people with a successful track record.  Which basically means they are looking for a sure bet.  At this point I don't have a sure bet... So the only other option for me is to create some traction the best that I can.

The time came to pitch on stage... You pitch in front of the crowd as well as some SF venture capitalists who are the judges.  As I went up onto the stage to pitch I was feeling ok... I had memorized it so... I should be fine I thought.  I Started out just fine, then... about two paragraphs in, one of the venture capital guys interrupts me. "Excuse me, excuse me! What value are you offering?".  This caught me off guard, I hadn't expected to be interrupted.  "I am pitching a game concept, I am not sure of the value."  I answered.  "Ok, Ok, (sigh) continue" He replies condescendingly.  By now my nervousness had spiked, I tried to regain my composure, and pick up where I left off... But it was too late my memory was blank.  I then fielded a couple more questions from the VC, iterating that I am not trying to create something completely new and unique... Only trying to look at what is successful and tap into that vein in the market.  Mr. Condescending had no more comments, another VC offered support in info about a incubator he is starting... So we'll see what that means.

My advice is if you are thinking about doing one of these events... I think you can skip the pitching and paying them $125.  Going to the mixer and networking is free... and in hindsight I could have gone to this without pitching, and had the same experience... and met the same people.

Cherry Bomber Demo... and other thoughts

I have seen a couple of posts lately where indie devs broke down the stats from their games.  I was glad to see these, given I was thinking about publishing this game solo.  The articles were informative.... and... a bit depressing.  (see here), (here), and (here)  Looking at the info though, it seems unlikely my game will be able to compete with the gigantic marketing machines employed by the larger companies.... What to do?  I am as of yet unsure, but it seems like if possible finding some VC, or a publisher might be a better option.  Given that, a publisher or VC will see potential in this project.
Currently it seems like the indie games space, and maybe games in general is just oversaturated with content.  It seems extremely difficult to stand out from the ocean of games out there... At least without backing to help you cut thru the noise...  Any body else out there have some insights?

Guess I should post some progress.  Gonna try hard to finish this week!!!

This is the training scene, like the army base for the cherry bombs to practice.  Each scene will have 15 levels to play.  There will be dummy cupcakes for them to practice on.  There are 5 more scenes:
Gummiville
Jelly-Land Theme Park
Chocopolis
Pepperminster
Soda River

Defeat the Cupcakes and push the onslaught back across the soda river....

Been a while... Got a new project in process that I will show soon.  In the mean time I am gonna focus on putting cherry bomber out.  Here are some images for the intro sequence to show you the direction I'm headed....

Cherry Bomber post mortem?

I really don't like the word Post Mortem. As to me,  it implies the project is dead.  I think,  it is something you do once the project is complete and either a success or a failure.  That way you can reflect on what you did, and improve or add another trick to your bag to be used in other projects.   It seems that in terms of projects created in this competition, it is only the beginning where your creation can go.  Personally speaking, I have found Ludum Dare to be a great way to spring board accelerated game development.  I believe Cherry Bomber has great potential to be a cool, fun, and hopefully successful mobile game(Ive already started testing)... If at the least web game somewhere that people will enjoy playing.

Why would we spend the greater part of 48 to 72 hours glued to a computer toiling away?  We like to make games?  Yes, of course.... but by no stretch of the imagination is it easy... at least not for me.  I think the real reason is because we want to share those crazy thoughts and ideas we have in our minds with other humans... and make a connection... And this is a great platform.  It also cant be under stated that we want to be successful.  We like making games, and I am sure we all aspire to be able to do that as a means to our financial well being.

This was my first Ludum Dare.  I am astounded at the number of entries submitted.  Actually I find it somewhat intimidating that the competition is so high.  To me this signifies a real change in the games industry.  I think the production bar is low enough that large teams for development are really not an option anymore.  This is actually a great thing.... It means that we all have the power to create the thing that we have been imagining for so long...  So let's do it.

We are Indie, we are strong.