We’ve officially moved to PieceOfPieStudios.com. Fustian Future is alas heading into retirement. I originally set up Fustian Future as an umbrella site for my indie projects and interests, but it is time to focus clearly on the company and the games we are creating.
I invite you to join us on PieceOfPieStudios.com and update your bookmarks accordingly. Thank you.
We’re currently in the process of moving to a new website. The whole move should be seamless for rss and email subscribers, but there may be a few hiccups in the next few hours. I will post again when things are done. See you soon!
I haven’t got much to say at the moment. I considered finishing up a couple drafts that I have been languishing on the blog. Like responding to the PC fanboy backlash that the Fez creators received when they announced their game for Xbox Live Arcade. Or bitching about how Microsoft’s new Xbox Indie price structure and how it’s unattractive to developers. But both of these stories are a couple months old. So let’s move on.
Work Done Last Week
Some progress on the new levels. More improvements on the gameplay, fixing a few bugs. I’ve also added a few improvements to the renderer, to make things a bit easier when capturing
The artist has designed a cool new theme for the company site. Now it’s matter of getting the rest of the structure in place so I can roll it out. We also think we have a good potential name for the game. We’ve starting to get some of our marketing plans into place.
Of course, we won’t let that overshadow progress on the game. First and foremost is getting the demo done.
Work Planned This Week
Still lots to do to get the gameplay demo ready. New levels, testing, polish. More tweaks to the gameplay and iteration.
Again, a bit more website work, but that’s all after-hours.
I haven’t got much to say at the moment. I considered finishing up a couple drafts that I have been languishing on the blog. Like responding to the PC fanboy backlash that the Fez creators received when they announced their game for Xbox Live Arcade. Or bitching about how Microsoft’s new Xbox Indie price structure and how it’s unattractive to developers. But both of these stories are a couple months old. So let’s move on.
Work Done Last Week
Some progress on the new levels. More improvements on the gameplay, fixing a few bugs. I’ve also added a few improvements to the renderer, to make things a bit easier when capturing
The artist has designed a cool new theme for the company site. Now it’s matter of getting the rest of the structure in place so I can roll it out. We also think we have a good potential name for the game. We’ve starting to get some of our marketing plans into place.
Of course, we won’t let that overshadow progress on the game. First and foremost is getting the demo done.
Work Planned This Week
Still lots to do to get the gameplay demo ready. New levels, testing, polish. More tweaks to the gameplay and iteration.
Again, a bit more website work, but that’s all after hours.
I wrote a longer piece this week, and decided to break it off from the dev diary. Enjoy.
Work Done Last Week
All the new gameplay stuff is in, and we’ve started testing some new behaviors. There are still issues to iron out, but we’re getting a sense of what works and what doesn’t and how to improve it. We’ll be tweaking things a lot moving forward.
I made a little progress on the event system. There are some interesting challenges in making it flexible and exposing all the possibilities to the editor while still making it usable. I keep going back to the design board. I’ve got what seems to be a good solution planned out, but I need to make sure I have all the base covered.
I also did some miscellaneous administrative tasks that have to get done. Nothing exciting. Also no movement on the renderer side sadly.
Work Planned This Week
We’re gearing up towards another gameplay demo to try out on people. We’ve got IGF looming around the corner, and we’re also eager to get a demo ready show to publishers. Right now, our target for the end of the month is to get a bunch of good levels together which show a good mix of gameplay. We’ll put that in front of people and test the hell out of it.
I’m working on levels this week for the most part, with bits here and there on the code side. There’s also some web work being done, but that shouldn’t take up too much time.
Not all my inspirations are game developers. One of my biggest inspirations is Tucker Max.
Who’s Tucker Max? He’s a writer and blogger who chronicles his drunken adventures and mishaps with incredible wit and humor. On a bet, Max put up a website 7 years ago to share his stories with his friends and the wider public. In the process he’s built up a fan base in the millions. He’s actually not just a writer, but a NY Times Best Selling Author (for the last three years).
Now he’s about to release a movie based on his stories (NSFW trailer here), penned by him and best-friend Nils Parker. And he’s currently touring – premiering the movie to students across the US in order to build up the buzz. His style of humor nay be brash, rude and offensive, but it’s also hilarious and honest. It won’t appeal to everyone, and I’m not trying to convince anyone. What I want to highlight is why this man inspires me: he lives life by his own rules, and refuses to bow down to preconceived notions of how things “should be done”.
He says what what he wants, and does what he believes. He refuses to sacrifice his artistic integrity nor the ownership of his art in order to achieve his goals. This is not anymore evident than in the path he took to get his movie done. He turned down multiple studio offers so he could retain creative control. He turned down upfront money in the belief that if he created a good piece of art, he would reap much bigger rewards. This, and the rest of the development process for the movie (from writing, pitching, casting and shooting to marketing, touring and the upcoming release) has all been meticulously documented on his entertaining production blog. It’s a unique and unrivaled look into the process.
More than anything, this one piece encompasses why he inspires me: how the changing internet-driven world is creating immense opportunities for art creators to take control of their future.
Max has also taught me the value of hard work. While his book and movie success may now look easy, it’s been anything but. He has offered an unrivaled behind the scenes look ever since his site went up. His regular participation on his forums has provided fans with a front row view on his trials and tribulations over the years. I got to see all the failures and setbacks, the mistakes and the corrections, the analysis of what went wrong and why, the predictions and the payoffs. I saw all the hard work that is necessary to reach his level of success.
I could stop there, but it would be a shame to overlook how he has used his writing successes to help nurture and launch the careers of other writers. His company, Rudius Media, now supports a dozen independent and unique writers. Rudius Media seek out artists with an interesting story to tell, help them hone their craft and build an audience. Check out Philalawyer and his book deal. Or Love on Wheelz. Or The Bunny Blog. Or Ben Corman. Or ShrinkTalk.
It doesn’t take a leap to see what he will do if his movie is successful (and I predict it will be). He can then help artists in the movie medium the same way he has done for writers. He will be in a position to help them achieve the same sort of success, while helping them retain creative and financial control of their art.
I know all this comes across as hero worship, but I don’t care. I’m a big fan. I love his work. Mostly, I admire his honesty and how he pursues his goals without ever sacrificing his vision.
I used to fancy myself a writer. I gave up on that a while back, and have focused instead on where my talents lie: game development. I’m still learning every day, but I have used the lessons imparted to continually improve my skills. One of the quotes posted above my desk is from Tucker:
“Only failures think that natural ability is what separates them from success”.
Whenever I doubt my abilities to succeed, I look to those to refocus myself. I know I have some talents. Maybe not much but enough. I know that if I put in the work necessary to be great, I can achieve something tangible.
I’m keeping this one short today. Stress levels are elevated and the writing inspiration hasn’t really hit me. Sorry.
Work Done Last Week
Some good work done this week.
The level editor received a few tweaks to make it easier to distinguish between overlaying tiles.
We also made significant progress on the gameplay side. The last missing core gameplay element is almost in place. It’s just not working right yet due to a multitude of bugs.
On Thursday, I met with CorePlay, another Munich indie dev. They are actually one of the bigger studios in Munich (with 12 employees), and have really nice digs right across from a massive beer garden. Check out the preview of their upcoming XBLA game: Ion Assault. The game is very visually intensive and is worth seeing on an HD display (check out the 720p video if you can).
Work Planned This Week
First, I’ll deal with all the lingering bugs in the new gameplay code. The goal is to get that polished and checked in so we can finally play with all the different elements.
I will also continue to improve on the event management system (this will be an on-going project).
Finally, once the gameplay elements are out of the way, I hope to turn my attention to a couple renderer improvements.
Today, I’m going to discuss some of the issues of setting up a business in Germany as an English speaker. We’ll see if I can keep this interesting.
What’s up with Germany?
Germany is not exactly the most entrepreneur-friendly country. If I was geographically unrestrained, I would pick the US to startup. Germany suffers from high taxes, and high entry barriers, making it prohibitive to small entrepreneurs. This is a shame because Germany also has a very talented and highly educated work force, and Munich in particular appears to be a technology and media hub.
Why is the situation so challenging for small developers? I’m not exactly sure. I do see efforts to improve things, offer business services and funding, but the tide moves too slowly, and the country is still largely geared to protect and serve the interests of larger, classical established businesses.
So why create a start up in Germany? Well, it’s mainly a consequence of a personal situation, but originally, I wanted to set up an online company and figured I could operate out of anywhere. That changed once I decided to focus on a console title. The company needs to be registered in Germany (in the place I currently live) in order to get access to development hardware. I could not operate a company out of the US and expect to keep the hardware here without breaking all sorts of binding agreements.
Limiting Liability
In US and UK, one can set up a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC in the US, Limited in the UK) in a few hours with a couple hundred bucks. In Germany, setting up a limited liability company (known as a GmbH) takes two to four weeks, roughly costs 1000+ Euros and requires 25,000 Euros in assets deposited into the company. As a one-man operation trying to minimize costs and risks, I am unable to pour 25,000 Euros into the company. The GmbH is simply not option for me until I either sign a publishing deal, or find a lot of funding.
Because of the prohibitive cost of setting up a GmbH, a surprising number of German entrepreneurs register a UK Limited company. EU laws require that the German governments treat this corporate form with the same legal rights and protection as its own GmbH. A Limited is required to keep an address in the UK (easily provided by a variety of service companies) and manage tax fillings there as well. Aside from that, it operates the same way as a GmbH, paying taxes on income and profit here in Germany.
Due to EU legal requirements and the competition offered by the Limited, the German government introduced a new legal form casually referred to as a mini-GmbH. This corporate form was targeted at small entrepreneurs (like myself) and introduced a more stream-lined and cheaper registration process (which still takes a few weeks and costs a 1,000 Euros). More importantly, it requires a minimum investment capital of only 1 Euro. Unfortunately, instead of truly creating a fresh, modern legal form, the government only managed to produce a bastardized version of the GmbH. The mini-GmbH is still unknown to a lot of big companies and is apparently even less respected than the UK Limited. Good job Germany.
So with all these options, what did I go with? Well, since none of those forms appeal to me, and each of them require more administrative costs than I’m willing to spend until I have to. So I’ve stuck with another form available here: a fully liable one-man company. It’s the equivalent of a single-proprietorship LLC in the US without any of the liability protections. I’m pretty much fully exposed. This isn’t much of a concern until I am signing contracts. In those situations I can either limit my liability in the contract or through liability insurance. Regardless, when I reach that stage, I will convert my company to a full GmbH. Until then, I am focused on producing a demo.
Feel free to post any questions you may have, and I’ll answer them as best I can. In the unlikely event this topic proves popular, I may even do a follow-up post!
Work Done Last Week
I’ve completely reworked my contact management system, stripping dependencies from the avatar. It’s now been able to support all areas of the game. I’ve begun the work on the event manager layer above it. I’ve also looked at upgrading box2d to the latest version. The boys over there have been working on some major improvements to their contact system (which my system is built on top), but I am concerned with spending too much time trying to upgrade to their bleeding edge; they’re not due for an official release for a few months.
I continue to add refine certain elements to the gameplay, but again the work in this area is not moving as quickly as I would like it to. With the new contact stuff in place, it should pick up.
Thursday I spent the afternoon in meetings. I got the opportunity to meet some local Munich developers, including the indie startup Reality Twist. I also had another productive business meeting, and I hope to have more information on that very soon.
Work Planned This Week
I’m continuing to focus on the event management system, and some more improvements to the editor (exposing the components).
There’s one major core gameplay feature missing, and my goal is to have it in place this week so we can go back to building some new test levels.
My good friend and fellow indie developer Rudolf has just started the Optimus Beta for his delightful indie game, Dyson. In honor (and lazyness), I’ve decided to devote this space today to their game. So, check out it. And sign up to the beta. There’s a good chance you’ll get accepted if you’re a chick. Something about trying to test a greater spectrum of the market, who knows…
Dyson is an ambient real-time strategy game with abstract visuals developed by Alex May and Rudolf Kremers. It is due to be released in early October, bug squashing permitting. Go help them hit that target.
Work Done Last Week
I spent a lot of time on administrative issues as expected. This took up most of my days and my mental energy. The side effect is that I didn’t make much progress on the game.
Code-wise, I made a few small improvements here and there, but nothing major. Some texture improvements, some tweaks to the gameplay. I’m itching to get back to it.
Work Planned This Week
Most of my focus this week will be on the gameplay and editor. I’m improving some core systems, like contact managing and filtering, and the exposure of components to in the editor. Up to now, my contact handling has been specifically geared for the player’s avatar, and it was awkward to extend that to all objects.
I’m rewriting a cleaner, global interface. After that, I will add some higher level logic to register various components and trigger appropriate events. This will lay the base for a robust event manager, which will in turn allow me to add more platformer elements (such as “when this button is hit by a solid object, open the door over there”).
I am dying to start showing off something. I’ve been delaying things for so long, and I know some of my readers must be getting bored and/or frustrated. I apologize for the repeated delays. I am doing my best to get the game ready to start showing off some of the work done.
I’ve got a little bit more to handle on the business side this week, but this won’t take up much of my focus. I’m looking forward to some real progress.
I had a business meeting last week. It was the first time I showed the game to someone who wasn’t a friend or family. It was our first opportunity to get some real un-biased feedback by people in the biz. The meeting went well, and there are definite opportunities to explore. For now, we’ll keep relatively quiet on this front while things progress. We’ll make sure to bring you more information when the time is right whichever way things develop.
IndieCade formally turned us down last week. It was nice to receive a letter, and I’m obviously disappointed we didn’t get in. We haven’t received feedback yet because of an issue in their review tracking system, but we are promised something by the end of the year. Timely feedback would have been useful, but there’s not much I can do about that.
Work Done Last Week
I spent my time fixing bugs and preparing for the business meeting from last Tuesday.
Bug-wise, one of the big ones was relating to parallax. For a while, we thought the parallax was working fine. Scrolling left-right or up-down worked fine. Zoom-wise, things were actually pretty messed up. Textures on different parallax planes were zooming in at the same rate. You can actually get away with that in 2D games. In search of references, the artist and I tracked down a bunch of games that did the exact same mistake (whether by design or mistake, we’re not sure). Check out the Odin Sphere clip below. Look at how much the moon grows when the camera zooms in. Not very realistic, right? We had the same visual problem. It doesn’t make sense for the background to shift so much when we zoom. It doesn’t look right.
Fixing this zoom bug was straightforward. Fixing the editor afterward was a lot more tedious. In the editor, the texture you lay down has the same size and position regardless of which parallax plane you are working on. This makes the artist’s life simpler. Fixing this bug involved a lot of trigonometry math I no longer enjoy. Anyways, it’s done now. I doubt it will be the last of my camera concerns.
Meeting-wise, the lack of laptop led me to make some contingency plans. I prepared new builds for the demo, and spent several hours capturing video as a fallback. I’ve had issues with the build not running on certain computers. I’ve been working through the issues I’m aware, but I didn’t want to be caught unprepared in case I couldn’t demo the actual build on
I got in touch with Dell and got my situation escalated by a wonderful customer rep named Bill. I never had to spend a minute on the phone with any tech support (whether in German or English), and on Monday, a technician came by and replaced the entire motherboard. The laptop’s working fine now, and it’s got that fresh out-of-the-box smell. Happy Days!
The wedding and the entire UK trip was great. Good to see old friends and drop by the old Evolution offices.
Work Planned This Week
I’ve got lots of administrative issues to deal with this week.
I’ve also got tons more work coding-wise ahead, and I’m looking to get a handle on it. The priority is still on the gameplay and artist support, but I’m hoping to start making some improvements to the renderer soon.
The contract work is over for now. I may have more work ahead, but nothing has been finalized. Either way, it’s nice to have the breathing space again (when it comes to cash). It’s also nice to be back full-time on the project, both mentally and physically.
Sunday night, while I was happily working away, my laptop crapped out. Like, completely crapped out. The graphics card just went berserk, the display become corrupt, then the whole thing locked up. It’s a one year old laptop, so such failure this early in its life should come as a surprise. Unfortunately it does not.
Last year, 2 days after I received my laptop, I came across this distressing post on Dell’s blog. My laptop (the M1330) was one of the affected systems. I spent a few days fretting over this issue, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It had already been 21 days since my laptop had been ordered (so I couldn’t return it), and there was a chance it wouldn’t fail after all. And frankly, it’s a lovely piece of machinery (epic nVidia failure aside). I decided to not worry about the problem until it affected me.
Well, it’s here now, and it couldn’t have come at the worse time. I had a business meeting today, and I needed my laptop to demo some work. Luckily, the people I met with were cool; they let me setup on their machines, and everything went well. Still, the epic failure in quality control by nVidia is ridiculous. The entire production line for that generation of laptop chips suffers from the same flaw. I’ve seen class action suits happen for a less.
I will withhold judgment on Dell until I see how they handle my laptop.
Work Done Last Week
The checkpoint system is now working, which is kinda cool. All dynamic objects are saved out and reset correctly, with no trace of any memory leaks. Some of the more complex logic (like cycling through multiple checkpoints) is not yet complete, but the core system is in place, and we will continue to improve on it.
I tracked down a few bugs in the camera system and the editor which had been adversely affecting the artist’s work.
I also wrapped up my 4-week contract on Friday, so my focus is now fully back on the game
Work Planned This Week
Gameplay improvements and more test levels.
I’m traveling to the UK on Wednesday for a wedding, to see old friends and to work my connections. I was gonna take my laptop with me, but, well, it’s as useful as a brick right now.
