Get more done in less time for lone wolf developers, hobbyists, large teams, and everything in between.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #026

In this expansive episode Brian and Ike discuss the dream, tech, design, best practices, and market strategies of virtual reality for game developers.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #025

In this first Metroidvania discussion Brian and Ike define the popular gameplay style, discuss its history, cite game examples, and explore player motivations.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #024

How to use the “Lean Startup” method for game development. A discussion and exploration of how and when to use it for your projects.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #023

An exploration on using physics as the core mechanic as opposed to just a supporting simulation system.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #022

Brian and Ike dive deep into different ways to monitize your games, and how to tie your monitization strategy with your brand.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #021

In this episode, Brian and Ike dive into puzzles and how to implement them in your game design. They compare games using puzzles as their main gameplay or as a feature thrown into the gameplay. They’ll also discuss how they go about using puzzles in their own games. So, enjoy!

Today’s Developer Diary

Brian has starting using Notepad ++ instead of MonoDevelop and Unity Visual Studio because it’s so light and fast. It’s a totally free, tiny little program that he changed all the colors to look like Unity and trained it to get all the key words in there. It’s just fantastic!

Ike has taken the opportunity to step back and put a couple of patches on the three games he has in the store after taking some of the feedback he’s gotten. He also has a fourth and fifth game in the works!

Brian explains that even though Fenix Fire hasn’t released any games this year, they have a lot that is being incubated so they’ve had a really busy year and it’s been the work for hire that’s been able to keep them going. Brian and Ike also discuss the totally different approaches their companies have to releasing games and the importance of having your game featured in the initial launch.

Puzzle Design

As a starting point, puzzles should include a couple of key traits:

1. It should be very clear what the puzzle is  – For example – With a jigsaw puzzle you know exactly what you’re supposed to do, fit all the pieces together
2. It should show progress as you’re solving the puzzles – Jigsaw example – As you join more pieces together, not only are you building a larger cluster but you’re also filling in this picture which is satisfying
3. There should be some sort of a pay off when the puzzle is solved – Jigsaw example – The joy of seeing the picture all together gives a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of completeness

Puzzles in Level Design

The puzzle should be obvious with clearly defined rules. In games like Metroid and Zelda, the camera takes over and points the player to where they need to go. This gives the player a call to the puzzle and also shows the player the ingredients of the puzzle. The most common are a torch, a totem, a door, or a lock and key.

You can be innovative as much as possible when designing your game because you have the amazing opportunity to design a brand new game and can do whatever you really want in it so why resort to something that has been done a million times before?

But, be careful since it’s very easy to lose the player the more you innovate. You’ll still need to have a lot of conventional game design elements because if the game is too weird or out there then people won’t be able to understand it.

 Puzzle Games – Match 3

In a puzzle game, the call to the puzzle is the game itself and it’s just a matter of learning what the mechanics of the puzzle are. Candy Crush example.

• Familiarity in games –  some players want something new but in a way that they understand it immediately
• Feedback Loop – the faster a path to failure is identified, the better it is
• Having clear, constant feedback is good – like a jigsaw puzzle trying to match pieces
• Sounds are very important – having satisfying sounds when making progress
• Effects are very important – Puzzle and Dragons example
• Having a tiny bit of input gives you tons of positive feedback – makes you feel great
• Prime demographic of match 3 games is women over 40 –  coincides with slot machine games

Every Game is a Puzzle

Anything that requires strategy, which is almost every game, the puzzle is defined by the fact that you have to make choices.

Starcraft – The puzzle is how to win the war.  You have all these tools at your disposal and there’s a constant change in strategy.

Clash of Clans – The puzzle is when you go to attack a village which of your pieces do you put down and where.

Gears of War – The puzzle is being in a large open space and shoot all kind of enemies. The AI is a puzzle and the level layout, level design is always a puzzle.

A puzzle is something that needs to be solved.

A way to declare you’ve beat a games is by saying you’ve solved it. There are puzzles through out the game but the game itself is a puzzle that needs to be solved whether it’s with skill or strategy. Arcade game example- Robotron 2084.

Different Categories of puzzles and Different levels of puzzles:

• The puzzle game – geared toward the strategy vs the skill
• Puzzles that are very obvious
• Puzzles that very subtle
• Entire game being some kind of a puzzle

Using Traditional Puzzles in Game Play

The motivation for sticking a traditional puzzle in a mostly combat game like Gears of War might be to break up the monotony of the action.

Sometimes people loose interest with having too many puzzles in a game because they’ve played so many games where they couldn’t solve a puzzle and got stuck. The challenge is how do you progress the level design of your puzzles so that you progress the difficulty.

Recommend for games that aren’t puzzle games, like an adventure game with a puzzle thrown in, make that a supplementary experience somehow. So if the player can’t or doesn’t want to solve the puzzle they don’t have to, but it would be better for them if they did.

Mobile Games

Almost every huge hit on mobile has been a puzzle and there’s some elements that are very popular in the genre of a puzzle game but they’ve added these different elements like action and physics based.

• Taking the puzzle genre and doing more with it
• Different degrees of solve-ability and rewarding for more mastery – if you could solve the puzzle in a more perfect way, that is then score-able
• Angry Birds example

Solving Puzzles 

The mark of a great puzzle is to encourage the player to try a lot of different things especially if there’s a lot of different actions they can do and then give them feedback that’s appropriate to how they’re trying to attack the puzzle.

The Boss Fight

• Been around since arcade games
• Got all your basic mechanics that you’ve learned throughout the whole level
• Then you put them in front of the boss
• The key to a good boss – the character design is good enough to see what it is you’re supposed to do
• Zelda example

 Hidden Puzzles

Some games have unlock-able doors that you can only unlock later in the game because you haven’t been given the game mechanic yet to open that door. It becomes a challenge of how do you communicate to the player that they’re supposed to acknowledge that that is a puzzle but it’s not yet their time to solve that puzzle.

• You want them to see it
• Want to bait them
• Lets you create other chapters in the game
• Do want to acknowledge it
• The powers that you unlock to the player  – be very clear in what actions they do

Source and Puzzlin’ Pieces: USA

Brian talks about his game Source and the color coding puzzles they’re using and the challenges of making a Metriodvania game.

Ike talks about his game Puzzlin’ Pieces: USA and why he put in the hot and cold mechanic in the game.

Review

This topic of puzzles is something that we’re just scratching the surface of and it might be worth breaking this up into sub-categories.

Remember to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and leave us a review of your thoughts on iTunes!

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #020

Brian and Ike discuss the practicalities of how to get a company off the ground and rolling. If you’re looking for work-for-hire, then this episode provides some useful ways to obtain client work and how to build up your business development.

Today’s Developer Diary

Ike is back! He is fresh after working at iD Tech Summer Camp where he taught high school students game design. It was fun to show them how to make games and by the time they left the camp in two weeks they had their own prototype working on their own phones. Ike also rang his “game release” bell! Puzzlin’ Pieces: USA is now available on iTunes, Android and Amazon. His daughter helped develop this new game about learning about US geography. If there’s any Windows 8 Microsoft people listening, please reach out to Ike. He wants to release the game for Windows, but keeps on hitting road blocks. So, if anyone can help please reach out to Ike!

Brian just got back from Seattle! After doing his very first talk at Unite 2014 –  High End Mobile Development – highlighting his game Gates of Osiris. During the talk he spilled some tips and tricks on how they’re going about the art of the game, a lot of the effects and how they’re building the terrain. Was what really awesome was during his introduction when he mentioned he was a co-host of the Game Design Dojo, people clapped! And people also clapped when he mentioned their responsible for the Tuscany World Demo for Oculus VR. Our listener Vinny came up and talked with Brian. Thanks Vinny so much for coming out to the talk!

Contact Work/Work For Hire

The secret to Fenix Fire’s longevity has been balancing work-for-hire with their own IP. Brian has been an indie for the past eight years and was in AAA for the previous six years. So, he’s actually been an indie longer than he’s been in the friendly confines of being an employee. He owes this primarily to work-for-hire by getting good contracts and doing good business development.

General Thoughts About Work For Hire:

• It’s a balancing act – you don’t have control over your clients needs and timetables and you’ll have to work around their deadlines as opposed to yours
• Repeat business – is the most efficient way to get get more contract work
• Making your own games – can yield a lot of opportunities
• Have at least one game shipped – really important and brings credibility

Where do you begin to try to get Work For Hire?

For the purposes of this episode, Brian and Ike use the scenario of a start-up company either with a team of 2-3 or a lone wolf who has all the skills needed to make a game. So, how would you go out and start landing a steady stream of clients for full service game development?

Approach #1 – Try doing pro-bono work

Go to a bigger company and offer to make a game for them for free. You’ll make the game for them, they’ll share their IP and you’ll market it. If you have the ability to pull this off:

1. You’ll be getting a game on the shelf to then go and show other people
2. When you go to those other people, you’re showing the work you did for a big company
3. You might actually get numbers because that big company is going to be able to do a lot of marketing

This is something that’s recommended to do for your first project, you shouldn’t do it more than once. But it’s a great way to get your name out there and to build some credibility.

Approach #2 – Make your own IP

Coming up with your own IP and putting it out there does yield opportunities. Brian has had experience of this first hand when he released his game Roboto.

Approach #3 – Target a category of companies

Once you’ve targeted a category of companies that you’re interested in, come up with a prototype or a demo that they can play on the device that you ultimately want to launch it on and show it to them using their brand. When they see it playing in the device, it will make it a much easier sell for them.

Make sure it’s something that you can expand upon yourself or it isn’t so specific to one particular company.

The term used is: speculating or spec work – where you make something in the hopes of getting a contract behind it

The business world is really tough. Nothing is a done deal until the contract is signed and you have the deposit check. It can fizzle at any point up until that moment.

You should have at least five people you can show the prototype to or would be interested in it. It’s important for them to see their own IP in it but always have an exit strategy.

Approach #4 – Website

Put together a solid brand for yourself and make an awesome website. You should include a great trailer for your game and a services page. Using a Word Press theme is recommended. Once you have that website going, you can start emailing companies you’d like to work for.

Approach #5 – Work with local businesses and companies

Make sure you don’t overlook local businesses and companies around you since it’s really easy for them to tell you to drop in and being able to walk into someone’s office is very valuable. Brian had had experience of this by being in the LA area. Location is key.

Approach #6 – Know, Like and Trust

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust.

• They’ll KNOW you – if you’ve put something in the market place, built a name for yourself and/or have a really nice website with a great presence.
• They’ll TRUST you – if they start talking with you and you start working with them, also doing spec work for them will build a lot of trust
• They’ll LIKE you – if you’re someone they enjoy doing business with who delivers on time and over delivers

Face time is absolutely vital for any sort of real business development. Regardless of what your personality type is, start getting used to inviting people out for coffee and then talking to them there. You have to get used to that face time, it’s going to pay off later on even if it’s a problem to start with.

Rule of Thumb – 20% of your clients give you 80% of your revenue and the other 80% of your clients only give you 20% of your revenue.

Once you start getting clients, it becomes a fun game to see who are your best clients and then being able to turn away from some of the other clients.

The Importance of Networking

Your ability to get business is 100% based on your relationships. The more relationships you have, the stronger those relationships are and the value of who they’re with can give you a lot of staying power with your company.

A teacher explained to Ike that you’re ability to network has more to do with your success after school then the actual skills you learn in school, like math and science.

Developing a good strong network:

• Answer emails
• Be responsive
• Get on LinkedIn
• Talk to your friends
• Get out to meet ups
• Network yourself around

What’s really enjoyable about the game industry is it seems like developers have other developers back because they all know how hard it is being on the bleeding edge of technology.

Get used to being a sales person. Even if you’re an artist or a programmer at a big company, you’re always in some way shape or form a sales person. You’re always selling yourself and selling what it is you’re making whether it’s in a big team or by yourself or as a representative of your small company.

Keep in mind, nobody likes it when you’re like the used car salesman and you’re trying to push something on someone. Everybody is much more comfortable with a conversation so just be sincere and pure to yourself.

Brian and Ike provide an example of successful networking which basically results in:

1. Making sure your friends in your network get business
2. Opening yourself up to more questions later on and eventually might be asked for something you can actually do
3. Creating like and trust

Why do all this Business Development?

Ike’s numbers on a small mobile project range from:

• $20,000 – on the cheap side
• $50,000 – moderate to average size
• $100,000 + – something pretty fantastic

Big companies are looking at games as advertising and as a marketing expense with a large marketing budget that they’re used to throwing that money away. It’s a blue ocean opportunity. Nowadays everybody needs a bunch of apps and all of these big companies are dinosaurs to this.

Game developers can use what they’ve learned and by applying it towards a major brand, it can be extremely lucrative.

Brian’s numbers for Fenix Fire:

• $50,000 – Starting
• $80,000 – $90,000 – Median
• up to $150,000

Negotiating

Option one:

• Start by figuring out the man month – if one person is making X amount of $ per hour, then how much are they making per month
• Then you figure out how much work you can do if you’re working on it full time including the total cost of each one’s man month

Option two: A better way especially if you want to balance your own IP with work-for-hire

1. Look specifically at what your client wants to do
2. Figure out how long it’s going to take to do all those features based on your hourly rate
3. Add it all up
4. Pad it a little bit by like 20-30% (because at Fenix Fire they like to over deliver)
5. And that’s the number you come up with for the project

Some general advice about negotiating:

• Suggest getting some sort of deposit
• Be aware of royalties – can be challenging to get that money
• Sometimes companies will say, “That’s above our budget we can only afford this and it this does well, we’ll get you on the next one.” – this can be a hit or miss

Deciding to Work with Somebody – The 3 Main Criteria

1. Is this a project that will get me either repeat projects or other projects? –  Is it an awesome portfolio piece? Is this a big opportunity or a major brand?
2. How’s the money? – Is the money good? Is the money mediocre? Is it a very rich project or a very poor project?
3. What’s the working relationship like? – Based on the way the negotiations are going is this a company that is very laid back and easy to work with or are they going to be very difficult to work with?

At Brian’s company Fenix Fire, he likes to make sure to get 2 out of the 3 when deciding to work with that company. When it’s all 3, then it’s great! And over time they figured out that if they’re not getting all 3 then they want to start moving away from those clients.

When a client comes back to you for the 3rd, 4th or 5th time it will get to the point where there’s so much trust and transparency that they will just tell you what their budget is, tell you what their timeline is up front and then let you do your magic.

 Review

We talked about how to get out and get clients. We talked at length about how to network and how to be sincere in your networking.  We talked about some of the negotiating processes of once you start talking to a prospective client, how to close the deal, some of the pitfalls that might come up and what to look for in a client.  What makes a good client? And how do you know that you should keep it, how do you know if you should go after it and how do you know if you should let it go. And Ike implores you to get face-to-face.

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #019

Brian and Ike talk about death in video games where the character dies or vehicle explodes at the end of the game loop. They discuss what death brings to a video game and why it may be important to include it your game. So, get ready for some great insight!

Today’s Developer Diary

Brian is extremely excited to announce his own Twitch TV channel! Here is the link to check it out: Fenix Fire Twitch TV and if you haven’t caught wind of it yet, now would definitely be a good time. It’s become a tool in the indie game dev by using it to broadcast the making of your game while making the game. It’s a pretty awesome way to connect with fans!

Brian’s mind is blown by just experimenting with it. He says the good thing about Twitch is just how raw it is and that production value is considered a bad thing. People who watch want to be a fly on the wall and want to see what makes the game tick, what makes the designer tick and all the decisions that are being made. There’s no post production and really no pre-production. It’s just a matter of hitting play and performing.

Ike is heading to downtown Denver to teach some young budding high school kids how to make video games. He’s really looking forward to it. While he’s away, we plan on having some guest hosts on the podcast so stay tuned for that!

Death in Video Games

Death doesn’t have to be a morbid topic, in the case of death in video games it’s a really interesting topic. Death in a video game is the ultimate point of feedback in your feedback loop. You have to have a carrot and a stick to get the full range of emotions out of a player. But as a player, it feels awful when you die. So why have death in your game?

Well, if you take death out:

• It remove conflict or friction in the game
• The mastery element gets thrown out the window
• There’s no desire for the player to learn a new skill

Rewind the Clock Back to the Arcade

The one good thing about mobile games is they have heart again and some skill going on all of a sudden which is great to see. Reminds us of where video games began….in the arcade.

The entire coin-op industry throughout the 80’s were all about mastery. Atarti made a bunch of coin-op games about mastery like: Pong, Pac Man, Missile Command, Pitfall, Space Invaders, etc. All these games were hard and they were quick. It was a bite sized game. In order for it to be a game, you had to die and that was part of the business plan to throw in more quarters and play again.

Before internet and Twitch TV, you would go to the arcade and just watch someone play since it was a skill based game and be amazed by his abilities. Not only did you have to know the game, but you had to know your specific arcade since all the machines were different.

Mastery is a huge part of all of this that started the video game craze. It’s a feeling that males as opposed to females really strive for which is why it became a male dominated sport.

It was high technology and at the same time brutally difficult. All of this stuff was really hard core and that’s where video games were born from. It’s important to acknowledge that.

Death in Video Games – The Discussion

Brian and Ike go through many different scenarios and ideas of what death can bring to a game as well as some good insight into this interesting and important topic.

The dreaded loading screen:

• Mostly found in Console and PC games
• After you died, the game had to re-load and that was a penalty in and of itself
• Death was painful not because you had to put another quarter in but you had to wait

An example of a game without death was the game Planescape: Torment  where you’re this immortal character and you didn’t “die” you would re-load in your spawn point. The whole game was built on the concept that you don’t die and there was no loading.

 The need for conflict:

•  In a game, there almost needs to be a back and forth
• Like the old saying goes, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder.”
• People need some conflict  – not only to appreciate the good portions but also to learn and to grow
• Very similar to relationships

Death has been the go to as an instrument by a game designer, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s time tested, but not the only solution.

Death in games today:

•  In the free-to-play model, death gives the game designer a monetization point
• Somewhat like the original arcades where you had to drop a quarter in when you died, that all of a sudden is a real tactic today
• A direct correlation between the free-to-play and the arcade games
• Expect the arcade games didn’t have the internet and couldn’t save progress
• If used properly, free-to-play mobile games can be fair to both sides
• People now don’t want to pay for anything which is totally different from the arcade market

In multi-player games death is a great tool to give finality to the game, as opposed to just a point system. When death is involved it makes the game finalized with a declared winner – the one that didn’t die.

The concept of Permadeath:

• When playing a game, you’re advancing on and something’s killed you and there’s no way to resurrect you – you’ve lost everything
• In Dungeons & Dragons, permadeath was part of the rule set and because of that everyone would be glued to the situation
• To see what you’ve invested all go away was catastrophic

In the free-to-play market you see permadeath all over the place and it makes the player respect death and play to that. On top of that, they have to pay if they want to keep their character alive.

The direct relation between time and emotion:

• If your character dies and you’ve invested 2 weeks in him or her, you will be upset because of the time that you invested – you might not be emotionally upset
• RULE – You’re not emotionally invested unless in addition to all that, you customize the character in some way
• When you create a character, you’re giving life to something – a reflection of you, an alter ego – and you wind up loving this character
• MODIFIER to the RULE – how much social sharing have you done with that customized character that you’re invested in

Players can become so attached to their characters in the game that they actually experience the 5 stages of loss. The last stage being acceptance. And in this case acceptance would be deciding to play the game again and to re-build and re-make new characters.

Video games are very magical because you can have a new beginning and a clean slate.

With death, the player has to feel like there’s a decision they made that caused the death. Otherwise, the death is just maddening.

The Theory of Trial and Error Gameplay:

• You’re put in a difficult situation, you try something, you fail, you restart and stay in that loop until you discover the one or two ways to pass that area – in a nutshell
• This is gameplay is mostly in adventure games and in Dungeon & Dragons
• The Swiss army knife of actions
• Not a very favorable game design method when dealing with death
• If the player doesn’t know what to do, then they’ll just turn the game off

The use of trial and error might be more effective when the player is not dying but trying to solve a door puzzle to see what levers and switches open each door, for example.

Is Death in games necessary?

• Without death, will there be enough conflict or friction?
• Are there other ways to put in friction?
• The Next Gen Shooter games at E3 have hit points and to re-heal yourself you just need to get out of that situation – kinda makes someone feel g0d-like
• There’s a delicate balance
• Have a hard time with games that allow you to survive regardless
• Clash of Clans example
• Building a real life snow fort example

Review

Death in video games is a topic that we’ll talk about many times. It’s something that finishes the game loop and it’s a powerful thing in a video game. If done right, it can draw a lot of emotion out of the player. But if done wrong, it can derive a lot of anger out of the player and have them leave the game and never play again. It’s a double edged sword.

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and leave a review of what you thought of this episode in iTunes! Thanks!

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #018

We received an inquiry from a fan and it inspired us to discuss how to use music and sounds in video games. Brian and Ike tackle this topic with great detail using some of their personal experiences. So, enjoy!

Today’s Developer Diary

Ike’s watching movies and Brian talks about his experience at E3. This was much different than PAX which was all consumers, so you’re audience and players and you can see that they really are interested in what you’re doing. But the main difference at E3 is it’s more of everyone sizing each other up, more of a competition. It’s basically media and industry professionals at E3. The fact that the game is made by just a two person team is getting some attention.

The One Room Schoolhouse had been busy and getting pretty close to launching another education game this year and doing some contract work as well. He does contract work during the day and at night works on his own stuff just to have enough fuel to get through the day. Game development involves a lot of momentum.

We just want to thank you because we’ve received a bunch of great reviews on iTunes! “Keep on killing it guys! It’s like Christmas opening up my podcast app and seeing a new episode.” Thanks so much! It means a lot that we’re resonating and hope to live up to your praise.

Sound and Music In Video Games

Many of you may not know this, but music is Brian’s first love. Before he was an artist, programmer and video game developer he played the guitar and music is in his blood. He’s currently playing in a band too!  Brian’s love of music certainly shows in his games and trailers as he uses it as a centerpiece. In the film industry they say score, but in the video game industry it can be broken up into two sides:

Sound Effects:  Put onto a jump, a bullet shooting, button sounds in your UI – those are usually a one off, you just play this and it plays a sound file and of coarse there’s some tricks to the trade

Soundtrack: You can do a lot with it like have different soundtracks for different levels like classic Super Mario Bros. or blend from one soundtrack to another like Journey did and make it very composed.

Music and Soundtracks in the Mobile Market

When people play games on their mobile devices, there is more of a tendency to play covertly and the player might not want a ton of sound and music. So how much effort do you put into your sound on a mobile game if a lot people are playing it silently?

Keep in mind people can play with headphones on and there is something to the sound. It would be a huge mistake to not give your sound the attention it deserves. Obviously you wouldn’t give it as much attention as art because that’s visual and how you get your foot in the door. So, you’ll want to get your art style down first and then make sure your sound can support it.

Ike remembered the game EverQuest and how the game had a sound when you leveled up that was the most satisfying sound on the planet. Never forget how impactful sound can be. It can do so much for your production and if you put the effort into it, it will just pay off ten fold.

 Putting Sound in Your Game

It’s really part of the basic core feedback to the player. If you think about a game mechanic, there’s three things to think about as far as your core gameplay mechanics:

1. A visual of the gameplay – show the actual mechanic
2. There’s a sound to go with it – put a sound to it
3. A visual component in the UI – somehow draw attention to it in the UI as well

Brian shares his experience when he worked at High Voltage Software with the lead audio guy. He said after the game was prototyped and they’re ready to start putting sound in, he would look for anything that looks like it would add some sort of a sound like if something moves would be the first thing he would look for. If it moves, does it make a sound, then let’s get a sound in there for it.

So, if in doubt put a sound in there for it.

Another interesting thing the lead audio guy would do is ask the Dev team for early video footage of the game and based on that he would put together all the kinds of sound he thought that would be happening. Brian explains this with the game he worked on Hunter: The Reckoning

• Got awesome sounds – guts spilling out, blood splatters, etc
• Layered them on top of themselves and made that musical
• He put that in 1st along with a bunch of weapon sounds – sword slashing, axes slashing, guns firing
• He created this composition of all the sound effects and pitched them – made them musical in and of themselves
• Then only after that part of it did he approach the soundtrack

He found that the mid-range pitches (in the musical spectrum everything has a certain pitch to it) and a lot of the high-range pitches were all being handled by all the sound effects so he was looking to fill in the sound spectrum with the soundtrack to give everything a nice pulse to it and keep everything moving. He arrived at a kinda of techno/goth beat that fit the style of the game and it worked out perfectly. When the sounds for the hack and slash started coming in, it really made the game!

Visualize It

If you were to visualize it on the art side and put nothing but green in your game, there would be nothing for your eye to play on and there would be nothing to identify what’s important or not. Then, if you throw a splash of red on the screen that’s probably really important. It’s similar in the musical world – fill in all the action, then you know what you’re missing so you can fill that in afterwards.

Same idea exists with visuals. You can take any image, bring it into Photoshop and look at it’s histogram and it shows you it’s visual spectrum – how much light, how much darkness, how much mids. They say you want a nice balanced spectrum and there is a bit of a science to it. If spectrum look bad, then it’s probably a bad image. There’s a correlation.

When you Don’t Have a Sound Guy

How do you get that polished sound when you don’t have a sound guy and you’re trying to make something that works?

Being a game developer makes you really sensitive to stealing other people’s stuff whether it’s online or not because so much gets pirated. So, if taking things make sure it’s either public domain, follow the licensing rules.

• Start with grabbing truly free stuff
• Then create sounds based on about two or three sounds that was grabbed
• If picking up a pick-up, might add a chime, a boom or a hit of a drum
• On top of that record your own voice – saying “yeah” or some kind of a tone
• Then combine all together – creates something that doesn’t sound like just got off the internet

Brian goes to websites. About 95% of the sounds he gets comes from 3 different websites. One he uses for sound effects specifically is Soundrangers.com and this website has a bunch of videogame sounds. They have it set up where you can play each file right there before you buy it and the cost ranges from $2-$5 for each sound.

You’re going to want to give yourself about a half a day to listen to all the sounds and you’re going to want to batch it. Get your game to a certain point and then get a batch of sounds. Pick out the ones that you think will work and then pick out a few alternatives because you never know until you get it in the game. A spreadsheet can be helpful especially if doing a bigger project and to have a list of what you intended to use each sound for.

Have Fun With It

Ike likes to look for sounds when he’s eating. It’s a good activity when you have something else you’re doing, like the equivalent to flipping through a magazine since you don’t necessarily know what you’re looking for.

It’s kinda fun being the audience for a minutes instead of creating and putting your essence out there you can sit back and listen to a lot of different things and think about how they would work in your production.

Another thing that’s a lot of fun is to try to create some sounds for the effects that you’re looking for. You can make a lot of sounds just from sitting at your desk using: ceramic jars, keys, bells, chotchkes, a coin and a bottle to make a coin drop. With a simple little microphone you can get pretty far with a lot of these sounds and it might not be 100% professional grade but it’s lots of fun.

Brian wanted a certain sound for his game SOURCE but couldn’t find anything that would fit so he went over to his cheap old Casio keyboard and used it as a MIDI controller and plugged it into his Mac through the USB. Then he used the program Logic Pro and was able to create the perfect sound after doing a bunch of takes. It was really fun and brought everything to life!

When to Add Sound Effects

Ike suggests putting them in pretty early, at least for the core game loop. He finds that it also helps set some landmarks. Having about 20 basic sounds like button clicks and bullets, even if they’re not great, can highlight key game play things very early is probably really helpful.

We’ve talked about the core gameplay loop, prototyping that core gameplay loop and adding the UI around that so that you really have a continuous experience – That’s a perfect time to add the sound.

When you add sound at this stage, something magical happens and suddenly the game feels more finished. Even if it’s not the perfect, right sound put it in anyway.

Another landmark or beacon as Ike like to call it, is before you hand your game over to someone, get some sound in there. The general consumer expects it and can’t overlook it.

The Video Game Soundtrack

Brian’s game SOURCE actually came from the soundtrack and that’s what really guided the artistic direction of the visuals of the game in case anybody’s curious why it looks the way it does.

It’s really hard to write your own soundtrack, so here’s some tips:

• Look to a professional or a musician that does composition
• Go to a website –  Audio Network plc.com – Amazing high quality soundtracks with cost ranges $100-$400
• Especially mobile games, there’s potential to embrace player’s own music library and allow them to play their own music – has to be the right kind of game
• Websites go by mood to find sounds – can act as a guide if end up hiring a professional
• If find good sound guys, keep using them

One definition of being creative is being put in a box and actually trying to come out with something interesting and awesome. This is very true about sound guys. If you can find good sound guys keep using them. There’s a lot of people that can make sound, but not a lot of people that can create an emotion from their sound that plays perfectly to your visuals. Very valuable people.

A ballpark number would be somewhere around $800 for a 30 sec loop custom made by a top LA studio that also had movie and TV credits.

Or you can try to team-up with graduates or students who want to build up their portfolio and work out a deal like if they make the sound for free, you’ll put their name in the credits for example.

We’re big fans of if someone does work and they do good work, then compensate them for it. It’s not easy. So try to take core of the people that are helping you out with your productions. It’s also important to never burn bridges with people.

Trailers and Cinematics

Can approach in two ways:

1. Create the action and have the sound match it
2. Find the sound 1st then use that to fill in the tone and the pacing of the action

Both work fine, it depends on how you’re going to source the actual sound.

For SOURCE, Brian started with the soundtrack for the trailer. He used Adobe Premiere as the video editor and started by putting the soundtrack down then cutting up gameplay footage and laying in on top of the soundtrack while being mindful of the overall duration of the trailer. He ended up doing a bunch of design and implemented gameplay for the sake of the trailer.

The trailer was actually  driving development because it forces you to think about:

• What is the story line?
• How does this all roll out?
• What’s the progression?
• What are the arcs?

Putting it all together in a cinematic really helped and gave some great functionality that hadn’t planning on doing until further in the development.

The good thing about a song is it has a beginning, middle and an end. If the song has a peak to it and you don’t have any grand moments in your game – that’s a problem. It can help you fill in the picture.

Promotional Materials for Sony and Microsoft

They will ask for things with and with out sound effects. Sometimes they want something called ‘B Roll’ – which is straight gameplay, not edited it’s just a stream of someone playing.

It’s important to make sure there’s an easy way to turn your sound effects and your soundtrack on and off when doing your screen grabs. True for both the consumer and marketing reasons.

The Key To Sound Effects

Feedback 1st and Mood 2nd. It’s a combination of feedback and mood. Highly encourage using the rule of 3 with any key gameplay element: have the visual of the gameplay, the sound effect and the UI support all together on your core gameplay experience.

With SOURCE, did the opposite and started with mood and now have an extremely moody game.

How you approach that is going to have a big impact on your development and how you progress.

Thank You Again For The Great Reviews!

Please support us by giving us reviews on iTunes, Twitter and Facebook. Let us know what you think and if you have any ideas for a new episode!

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #017

We received a Facebook question from our friend Bradley Erickson asking us “How do you finish and ship the dang thing after months(or years) of iteration and work?” after we published the episode ‘How to turn an idea into a game?’. So, we got together and recoded this episode to answer his question. Enjoy!

 How Do You Know when a Game is Done?

This brings up the question, “Is it ever done?” Well, at the end of the day you need to just ship it and get it out. This episode will give you some insights on how you can tell when you’re ready to rap it up.

Creating the Minimum Viable Product

Ideas are everywhere. An important skill to develop is taking an idea from start to finish. In general it is good practice to finish what you started. Finding a way to create a minimum viable product and getting that out in the world will do wonders for you and even hopefully earn you some money.

What Does Minimum Viable Product Mean?

From a gameplay perspective:

• You can feel the meta loop – the core game loop
• You’re able to replay that loop in the right amount of time and have a continuation of where you left off
• The whole system is working for you
• Social Media – perfectly acceptable high level meta loop or meta game
• If you can get that short term, medium term and long term loops in place that’s a good indicator that you’re close to being done

No Bugs

It is extremely important that as your playing in all three loops of your game  that you’re not coming across any bugs or errors. The worst thing you can do when launching a game is get a bunch of 1 stars for something you had control of.

Soft Launch

Launching to a small market first avoids the disastrous results if there are any problems with your game.

Analytics

Find ways to get as much feedback as you can. Seeing how people are playing your game can be a safety measure to catch problems really and make sure there are no road blocks.

Using achievements is a cheating way of doing analytics. It works based on what achievements the player is getting you’ll have some analytics. Brian used Flurry Analytics with his game Roboto and put a hook in the beginning of each level to gauge how people were playing the game.

What Corners Do You Cut To Get Your Game Out Sooner?

It is really hard to hand something over to someone when you know it had flaws. At some point you have to make the decision that this is good enough. But what do you give up on?

Monetization

On free-to-play games, you can shave (not cut out) on monetization and focus more on player retention so they are more likely to play the game and stay with it; then over time you can introduce more areas to monetize like more in-app purchases. How about an in-app purchase that takes the ads away, for instance.

Amount of Assets

Visual polish is more favorable that the amount of assets. Instead of making six worlds for your game, you can put all your focus on worlds one and two and make them absolutely amazing.

Determining When Your Game Is Done

 Create An Amazing Experience

Your experience can be shorter and better.

Keep in mind, the game doesn’t have need to be the everything game that does all kinds of stuff. Players are going to move on to a game that has a different kind of experience – go in understanding that.

But, the experience you’re making is so special and so different and so unlike anything else that they only get it when playing your game. So, take that one thing that you’re doing so far and you’ve presented it in such a brilliant way  that it’s going to be unique and fresh and that’s why they’re sticking with it.

Working Through the Half Way Point

When working on a game, about half way through the game, you want to start working on the next game. Don’t. Finish that thought (remember, it was once a brilliant idea) and then move on to your next game instead of trying to turn this game into your next game.

It could be a tough pivot. Make all your pivoting early on. It’s not the time to pivot when all the features are in and everything’s working, it’s time to wrap it up.

UI is Super Super Important

Spend a lot of time on UI:

• Making the graphics
• Piecing it all together
• Changing the flow
• Adding options for different platforms
• Can’t cut too many corners

It’s all about how you’re handling UI buttons for tablets and phones:

• Are they fun to press?
• Do they have little noises and sparkles that come out of them?
• Do they slide in really cool?
• Is the frame rate on these sliding UI panels really sharp and clean?
• Are all these elements super slick?
• Is it fun to navigate though menus?

These points are super important to consider for App games.

 Features – To Add Or Not To Add

A skill that is learned at this point of game development is knowing which features to put in and to keep going on in the development and which ones to not include and be thinking about wrapping it up.

Ask yourself:

1. Realistically how long will it take to put in and be flawless?
2. Does it solve a problem you have in the game?
3. Does it solve your short, medium or long term game play loop?
4. Is it needed for the meta game to make the experience fun and interesting?
5. Does it address the minimal monetization needs that you have?
6. Is it needed to understand more of what your players are doing from an analytics standpoint?

Identifying whether or not you need that feature to fit the core basic needs of the player is how you would evaluate it at that point.

Let’s say you’re a year in, the game has zero bugs and you’re determining if you put in a new feature – Stop innovating, no more creativity.  Look at other games to see what they did and take innovation off the table. Why re-create the wheel when there are plenty of mechanics that people already accept and know.

Deadlines – Respect Your Own

Give yourself a firm deadline! Treat deadlines seriously even if they’re artificial and stick to that timeline. People generally work to the amount of time given. Think of it this way: if you want to get better at running, sign up for a race. The real pressure will help motivate you.

Hold yourself accountable and do whatever mental trick works for you. You have to learn what buttons to use to motivate yourself and see what works as far as timelines go.

Knowing When Your Game Is Done

You’ve made sure:

• To fit the core needs of the core game play loop
• Have a hint of a monetization model – you can fill out more as time goes on
• You’re deadly serious there are no bugs – can cause permanent damage
• It feels fun and it doesn’t have to be long winded
• What you show is extremely polished – especially the UI
• It’s heavily themed
• The visuals don’t detract from the experience

These points make up your minimum viable product.

Thank you again Bradley for asking us this question, hopefully we helped out with getting your games out into the world. Good luck!

Keep the questions coming!

Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #016