   Macrion: The Beginning NOW IN OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT!
  It is now official, Abhiware is finally properly working on Macrion: The Beginning, and I will personally track our progress here for wannabe game creators or indies who are just starting up.  Of course I can't share everything but I will share as much information as I can.What I have learnt in the past years could save many of you starting out some time and aggravation.1. 90% of the game creation happens outside of the programming and testing stage.  Thats the easy part!2. If you want to get your game into retail stores, no one will look at you if you dont have an esrb rating.  The big money comes from MASS sales, not from one or two games sold.  ESRB COSTS MONEY!  Near $800 per title that you send in, and that too if they rate it as over 18 then no one will accept your game.  Thats the silly part.  There has been long debate on the ESRB, but for now its like Micro$Hoft, everyone uses it, and if you are serious into making a large game empire, you need to have ESRB ratings on your games.3. ALWAYS MAKE A DEMO!  Its the best marketing tool you can have to show off to potential investors/clients/end users, what your game is and has in it.  Download.com is a great place to put your game on as many users go there to download software.  Shareware is tried and true, so stick with what works!4. TIME IS MONEY!  Dont waste your time (If its your first few games) unless you have time and money to waste.  Use RAD software (Rapid Application Development) for game creation if you dont know how to code the hard core C++ and stuff.  For example at Abhiware, we have used several packages including Dark Basic Pro, Blitz3D and currently we are glued on 3D Game Studio.5. Never give up!  Playing a game is easy, making a game is another thing all together!  You have to think of every area that players dont even think of.  What does every character in your whole game do when the user interacts with it?  For example, the main enemy all the way down to the rock on the side which might have some magical power to talk?! lol  Point is you have to think of everything and anything that the user can do, not just the key players.6. BARCODE IS A MUST if you are planning to get into the retail zone!  If this is your first barcode, then it will run you around $60 or so (www.gs1.org)7. FIND a good printer for boxes and a company that will master the CD's.  8. Sell both online and retail box versions and learn how to market your product well.  Sales skills are a must, but your demo will also help.  9. KEEP LEARNING!  You never can know enough in the game industry, and even if you do, there is someone out there who knows 10 times more than you do, so suck it up, drop your pride and LEARN!  It never ends unless you end learning, and when you end learning, well suffice it to say, your games wont grow.HOPE THOSE TIPS HELP.  Now lets get onto it.  Let me begin by letting you know that we are going to go through all those stages, and you can even join me up on twitter as I micro blog this (As well you'll also see some of our other deals which pop up from time to time). You can also visit our website at Abhiware.com and see the updates.  This however will be the official area.Right, so now onto business (BTW, for the other developers out there, I would be so very greatful for your input as I am sure you can all teach me something as I am always learning, and I am so happy for the help.  Thank you.  If I do make any mistakes, please correct me nicely and we can all work together to help everyone grow their businesses):FIRST AND FOREMOST, OUR NEWBIE INDIE VIDEO GAME MAKERS MANTRA:I WILL make mistakes, I know this, this is a part of life and a part of making video games.  If I persist at the final goal, I will achieve success.  Through learning and growing I will create the most amazing games the world has ever seen, through help from others and the greater power many call God I will continue to persist until I achieve success.  It is the hope that through persistence and learning I will make less mistakes over time and create a better game every single time!  SO LETS BEGIN!1. Select the GENRE.  Genre is a fancy term for what many in the game community consider as the game style.  Some of the popular GENRES in games are RPG (Role Playing Game), STRATEGY, ACTION, etc.  As you can tell, they follow in many cases what we refer to in movies as well when it comes to movie genres.  In the case of my first game, Macrion, we will be using the RPG genre.2. Select the TYPE.  The game type is the way the game is played.  There are many different types of game types out there.  Some of the common ones are FIRST PERSON (Where you dont see a character, and yet you are the character moving as if you are looking through their eyes).  THIRD PERSON (Where you are behind the character and are moving the character, like a camera behind the character. TOP-DOWN is literally that where you are looking from the top, down onto the game world and character.  The major ones are First and Third person however.  Macrion is all Third Person.3. Select the Graphics style.  3D or 2D or ISO-METRIC (Simulated 3D). 3D is the current popular format, however there are still many games made in 2D.  ISO-METRIC is a 2D style which simulates 3D by having images turned at a 45 degree angle.  Sprites is a common term used in 2D video games and basically a sprite is an image with pixels removed to simulate an irregular shape even though in essence its a rectangular box.  These same sprites are used in all video games for various things, such as power levels, special effects and even characters, however when people refer to a sprite its usually a game character in a 2D game.  Macrion is in the 3D graphics style.4. Okay so now that we know that Macrion is an RPG and is a 3D game in Third Person, its time to create the story.  Now fortunately for many years of toiling with Macrion I have the full story created.  At this point every game (except a few, like sports games) have some type of story to it.  Role playing games are the most story intensive games out there and if they dont have a story line, they end up being bad rpgs and thrown out the window by players.  This is the point where you can go wild.  Take some story writing classes and creative courses and come up with an exciting interesting story.  Imagine this, you are a book writer, and as a game creator, you are going to take this book and make it come to life for the world to play this "book".5. Now that we have our story, we need to break it down.  Who, what, where, when, why and how (5WH)!  You've heard this before, but you have to go into details here.  This will take you the most time!  Hours, Days, Weeks, even possibly months (Especially if you are doing this alone.  If you have a team this usually takes a big chunk of time but not as long)!  Thats right, you have to write out every detail!  Where is the first scene?  what characters are there?  If a user interacts with that character, what does the character say?  Who are the action characters (Characters that the user needs to interact with to continue with the story)?  How do you let the user know about these characters and the next step required to move along in the story?  THESE QUESTIONS ARE VERY IMPORTANT!  Once you have gone through your whole story like this you can then move onto the next step.  (Currently we are on this step in Macrion and so it will take us a lot of time to complete this step).6. After we are done with the story break down, we need to start drawing out the STORYBOARD!  This is where you draw physically on paper the major scenes and story step by step.  It is a very important part to the whole game process.  HAVE YOU NOTICED SO FAR we haven't even started sitting on a computer yet for any form of creation?!?!?! YA 90% happens outside of the actual creation/coding stages!  Also in the storyboard, think of what kind of music will be required.  During the storyboard stage, you are like a director of a movie.  Think of the lights, the sounds, the image.  What would fit in?7.  Once you have drawn up the story board, it is time to start working on creating the characters and animations you need as well as music and sound effects.  This is where modellers, graphics apps, sound apps and more are used heavily.  8. Once that is all done, the coding and testing stage begins (FINALLY) and this is usually fast as most of the stuff is done, its just a lot of plug and play and testing.9. After the game is complete, you need to create a demo to release.  This demo will be your flagship marketing device for this game.10. Time to put up the demo on popular sites and create many demo discs to hand out to all the people you meet.  Start booking meetings with the big boys (Walmart, Futureshop/Bestbuy, etc.) to go and show them your demo.11. Start creating the box for the game and send in the game to the ESRB for rating and get the UPC barcode setup.  Once everything is done, you can find a good printer for box printing, manual printing, and cd creation.12. MARKET MARKET MARKET13. After the game is out, maintain it.  There is a sales cycle which you have to realize in games.  First the game is not known in the market.  The price at this point should be introductory and on sale to get the game out there.  Then the word spreads and your game grows in popularity at this point you want to put your main asking high price.  After this point your game will climax out as many users have played it, beat it, got bored, and moved on.  You start going into the decline phase.  This is where you either create the next part, or hopefuly you coded a multiplayer option that will keep users playing more (For example a great strategy game which does this is Warcraft).  However if its just a regular game, this is the time to bring out part 2 and start the whole process again.Okay thats it for this post.  I will post along as I start developing more and more of the work...  This is just a very basic overview of the whole process.  Anyways, see you in my next post and GOOD LUCK!Nav[Edited by - abgupta4 on August 23, 2009 10:35:17 PM]
  Thank you for sharing this info. This is very useful, and interesting to read.   ;  USER REPLIES:-------------taby: You're welcome :)  Keep reading on as I post new info about the first official game Macrion.  You'll get to see the whole process from beginning to end so its a great experience.CONTINUED POST:---------------Okay so onto the latest post.  I have been thinking about all the details of Macrion from a creation point of view.  I'm at the stage where i'm determining what tricks i want to use to create the game.  I believe that I will be using a break apart methodology (I dont know the term so hopefully someone can enlighten me lol).  The idea behind this method is that the game world is broken down into smaller parts so that we can load higher detail meshes into the world and have a more graphical experience for the user rather than loading the whole world and having the game move slow or not even well at all.  Now if this is your first game you probably will be wondering about why you would want to think like this.  This is actually not our first game as we have made many various examples in training to make some great games, however once you make several games or even learn the coding part, you will learn a very important term called LOD (Level Of Detail) which is basically how many polygon shapes your objects can have.  The more polygons, the greater the images and game looks, however the slower it will go.  Coming up with a balance between speed and detail is a very tricky game in itself and thats why I am putting it in here and thinking ahead.THIS however I know from my software engineering training is not a good idea (to try and determine HOW to make the game) as the current stage we are in is WHAT we want to make.  But i'm gonna skip good advice for this little part here and go ahead by thinking this out as well because I know the next step.  By the way, the break apart methodology is good for role playing or map type of games.  A sports game probably wont work out so well for example with this methodology as you might want to load the whole world in one shot as the worlds are small (like a basketball court for example).  Role playing games boast large vast worlds and it would be un-ethical with even our latest technology to place an entire world with such vivid graphics and designs all at once, unless we want to have a slow gameplay and freezing issues.  Chunking it down using the break apart methodology will make sure that you adhere to the very critical balance between gameplay speed and game graphics.  Another method that is used is to have what we call a fog panel which is a polygon which resembles fog and on the other side of it, load your objects so as the user moves, the objects come through the fog panel and it simulates as if you are moving through fog yet at the same time it is fast loading rather than loading the whole world.  We will be using a mixture of these techniques in Macrion.Okay so back to Macrion, we want to use the break apart method and break the full map up into a thousand different puzzle piece sized zones.  A user can move from zone to zone and that too with better speed than would have been achieved if trying to load all thousand+ parts of the map.Another thing is that our user will have to have a map window which will allow them to track their location while moving.  it will most probably be a window in one of the corners, or even a menu option in the users guide.  Every major role playing game always has some form of guide or stats viewer menu which allows them to see what items they have collected, what the stats are (magic, energy, etc.) and take other action and even view maps.  After further thinking I've decided to put the map in the stats/guide area.Okay so now we have 2 more steps made towards the game.  You can only complete things one step at a time.  So there is 2 more steps :) lol.Energy is collected through...hmmmm lets call them halos of energy and halos of magic power as well as halos of knowledge.  This is the fun part of game creation, you get to create things out of thin air in your mind and make it a reality in a game.  This is what I fell in love with!  So there is a 3rd step, i've now defined what are the major stats and how to obtain them via halos.So in this post we went over:1. Decide on the map of your game.  If it is a sports game, the maps are usually small (except for car racing games).  For rpg games and other games, maps can be large and vast.  (Also once you start learning about coding you can decide how you want to display the world.  Break it apart or load it all, or do a mix of the two.  It will usually be one of these methods.)2. Next decide HOW the map will be shown to the user.  In some games (like sport games) you may not need a map to show to the user because it is assumed that the user knows the map (Such as a football field or basketball court), but in a map the user would not really know, its best to show them what they need to know.  Think about how you would feel lost out in the woods with no GPS! lol!3. Next we figured out what statistics the user would need to know such as health, magic and knowledge in our case.  If its a racing game you might want to know damage level to your car or a basketball game would be Points in the game or even player energy to make a jump shot.  Its all up to you, but define this area as it is required.Hope this helps as it has helped me in understanding what I want in Macrion.Nav   ;  Looks like a nice read.   Gonna have to finish reading it later, but thanks.   ;  USER REPLIES:-------------HostileExpanse: Yes it is very interesting.  A lot of years and training and money went into learning how to develop games and I'm always learning.  I hope the information here will help you and others out there.  ENJOY and continue reading and following us on twitter and our website as well as here :)CONTINUED POST:---------------Okay so now for today's post as I am so busy uploading new inventory to our website as we speak lol, is going to push forward another 3-4 steps in our game development for Macrion.  Keep reading along if you want to learn some great things over time and as always if you have any great tips that can help anyone out, please post it as we are all here to learn and grow in the game development world! :)Now that we have defined the stats being used, we need to now define levels.  For example, how many levels are there to the stats?  Like in magic levels for example, I might make level 8 the most powerful magician out there and hence the magic meter would have to be filled 8 times and each time would get more and more difficult to fill up.  If you've ever played some of the street fighter games (Marvel Vs. Capcom type of games to be specific) you'll know that there are 1-3 levels to the power move stats and based on how high your level is, you can do larger super moves.  It then fills up again.  In the rpg Macrion a user will have up to 9 levels of stats for each area, life/energy, magic and knowledge.  The user will gain new size levels as their knowledge increases so everything increases together based on knowledge.  Thats specific to Macrion.Those specific stats will be shown to user in another stat area, like the options menu.  On the main screen there will be two fluctuating stat bars.  One for magic and one for energy/life.  This will be like a fuel gauge in a car and can go up and down based on use.So far we have a distinct menu system with statistics and from there a user can also do other administrative tasks like exit the game or change graphics and sound options.Next lets discuss how a user saves the game.  Should the game be saved via the option menu or should there be a point in the game a user must reach in order to save?  This is VERY important!  If you keep the save in the option menu, it might make an RPG game too easy, but for a sports game, that might work.  If you make the save game point too long to reach, if the system dies on a player, they will not want to re-play the whole world again just to get to the save point.  We need to have a balance if we are going to use this approach, balance between time to next checkpoing/savepoint and complexity of level.  If for example you have a complex level and only a few saves, it may frustrate the user.  However if you have a complex level and multiple saves in major checkpoints, the game player will feel happy.  Usually you want to keep a savegame checkpoint at every major interaction.  For example, a user entered a new level/world, or the user just defeated a boss, it would be good to keep a save game option there as a reward.  For Macrion we will be using the the checkpoint/savegame point to save the game for the user.Okay and how about fighting?  Thats right FIGHTING!  In RPG's this is a big thing.  If you dont have major amazing battles, then an RPG is quite silly and doesn't make you really want to play (There are exceptions to this as always).  There are several types of battle systems in role playing games.  Some of the most common ones are TURN BASED and REAL TIME.  Turn based is when each party gets a chance to take a shot.  It is very common in Final Fantasy and similar types of games.  REAL TIME is where the actions occur in REAL TIME meaning that when you see an enemy, you attack immediately with what you have.  This is like God of War or Zelda type of battle style.  We will be using this style in Macrion (REAL TIME BATTLE).  There are other types of battle systems out there and it would be a good idea to research them.  Now the battle system can be useful in the different types of games, for example in a racing game, battle such as crashes and hitting cars can be discussed.  Burnout Revenge is a good example of how battle can be incorporated in a racing game!  Use your imagination and who knows, you may come out with an amazing battle system!  Strategy games are usually real time battle.  Action games are also usually real-time.So in this post we took another 3 steps towards the goal of completing Macrion.  We discussed the following:1. Stat Levels - You want to make sure you figure out how many levels your stats have, and which stats are fluctuating and which ones dont.2. Save Games - How you save games is important.  Either you can save games via the options menu or you can save games via checkpoints in the game.  Its up to you how you do it, but define this so that a user knows what to expect.  Making it too hard or too easy to save can really ruin the whole game experience for a user!3. Battle Type - Selecting what type of battle system you want in your game is important and can really make or break a game.  The most common battle systems are TURN BASED and REAL TIME.Please let me know if you like these posts, and keep on reading as we continue working on Macrion.  Join us on twitter where you will also get more news on the game as well as other crazy IT tech deals along the way.  Check out our website at www.abhiware.com.IF YOU ARE NEW TO GAMES AND THINK YOU'RE A HOT SHOT KNOW IT ALL...READ THE FIRST POST AND GO TO THE LINK PROVIDED!  There you shall find out what can happen if you decide to act up (As I have started to read other threads and I can see there are others out there who are putting up their games and acting cocky only to be flamed by the forum :S) lol oh well they will have to learn the hard way like I did.  ENJOY!Nav;  Okay in this post (its very busy here lol) we will be going over something known as the DASH-BOARD.  This is a place where all your project information is kept for developers to view.  The second item is known as the STANDARDS BIBLE and what that is is a listing of all code methods that all developers must follow.  The third thing we will discuss is the MASTER BIBLE which is where everything for the game is placed.  This is the place where all people working on the game, from developers, to musicians, to sound effects crews, to artists and so on will all join in and read from.  IT IS THE SOURCE for the game!1. THE DASH-BOARD:When you have many developers working on a game, you need a common place to meet.  A dashboard serves that purpose as many times developers are dispersed throughout the office/city/province/country and even world.  An online method of connection to share all the data, ideas and other items related to the game, must be made so that it is easy for all types of developers to get things done.  The dash board we have is a php/mysql based custom built dashboard which lists the project as well as gives us chatting tools, online file sharing tools, and other custom built tools that we build as we go forward.  Our custom dashboard also has a project management and ticketing system which can send email notifications to developers on project dates and targets.2. THE STANDARDS BIBLE:This is a document or a set of instructions that all developers will follow when creating the game.  This is usually used in coding houses to keep consistent code, but in the game world there are other parts of developers that use this.  For example, how do you name a file?  If a file is a sound file, what is its name?  Maybe snd_ as its starting.  Having these conventions helps all developers code and create so that no matter where in the world the code is happening, everyone will be on the same page.  For example what should the sound effects team do for every sound they create?  Is there a way to convert it to mp3 format from wav?  Or are wav files the only thing needed?  Are files that are music files supposed to be in midi format?  How about the artwork?  Is there a standard that all art must be done in a certain way?  How about the story?  Should it be written in theatrical format so that it could later be ported to a movie or an actual production?  You have to think long term!  Maybe someone looking at the project in the future is trying to follow what you have done and by having an actual set of standards it is very easy for future developers to pick up where you have left off and hence make a part 2 or part 3 of a game or even PORT IT to a different system such as going from PC to CONSOLE (PS or XBOX for example).3. THE MASTER BIBLE:This is the heart of the whole project.  Everything and anything to do with the project is kept in the master bible.  It is the ultimate resource for all developers in the game project to go to.  This is where you keep everything from artwork to code!  Its a place where all graphic concepts, hurdles, successes, etc. are all kept.  Images, drafts, storylines, characters, music, sound effects, storyboard, and more is all here.  It is the main point that all developers can go to to get the information for the project.  Without it all developers would be lost.  Imagine like a real bible or any book for that matter, if you are reading as a group, you would be pretty lost if someone else had the book and most didn't and you are trying to study for a test.  You wouldn't pass an exam if you couldn't study could you?  Same thing with the Master Bible, if developers and creators dont have something that they can refer to when creating the various parts of the game, it is very difficult for everyone to be on the same page.At Abhiware, our ABS (Abhiware Business System) is our dash-board where we keep all parts of the project and master bible.  It actually has many other functions than just our game programming projects.  We also have there our website programming as well as graphic arts projects and on-site tech support projects as well.  Its a full system that is integrated for our business which also has a full accounting and invoicing system and ticketing system.  It helps make sure our IT business is running and we can even update the website from it as well.  Now a normal dashboard is not as extensive, just for Abhiware, we do a lot of other things as well.Okay so thats it for today, we have gone over another 3 steps towards creating our first game Macrion.  After we have our dashboard completed at Abhiware (Check twitter for when this happens), we will then start working on creating the storyboard and character map (Listing of all characters and what they are and what they do) and start uploading into our master bible.PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF OUR JOURNEY TO CREATE OUR FIRST GAME MACRION!  Also if you are a developer, I would be so greatful to get any ideas or input you have as well to help out our fellow game developers and newbs out there on game creation and development.Thanks guys and girls and aliens ;) and we'll see u at the next post!   ;  Hello everyone, and I do apologize about the delay, but running a company can be a lot of work LOL!  I'm going to go slightly off topic for this post and talk about BUSINESS and more specifically MARKETING/SALES which you need to know which will help you out when you are selling/marketing/promoting your game.Here is the thing, when you create and finish a game and have everything done, you have several options of releasing the game.  EITHER you release it on your own (SELF-PUBLISH) or you go and try and get a publisher to buy in on it (CONTRACT) or you sell off the rights and full ownership to a company/induvidual for huge money as they then own the complete game and code and everything (FULL SALE).1. SELF-PUBLISHSelf publishing is a TUFF road! However if you can make enough sales and do it successfully, firstly you are your own boss...secondly you keep ALL the money (No next company takes any of it) and you are not restricted to where and whom you sell to.  The rewards are GREAT when done on your own, but it can also be one of the MOST DIFFICULT WAYS to sell your game.  HOWEVER if you are serious about creating your own GAMING COMPANY, you have to become the publisher of the game and sell it yourself to various companies directly.  Have meetings with various buyers from large companies such as Best Buy and Walmart.  Line up as many major retailers and have meetings and presentations ready to show your stuff to them.As a self publisher you will need to use some of the following methods to show off your new game (If you have questions on how to do this or what to do exactly, simply ask and I can try and go into more detail for any of these marketing areas) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING LINKED TO YOUR WEBSITE WITH AN EASY PAY METHOD LIKE PAYPAL or else how will you sell your creation?:-Game Demos to be placed on every download site, SPECIFICALLY get it on download.com by going to upload.com and signing up as a publisher.  -Hire several guys/girls to hand out the games to people in the downtown core of your city for free (Have like 500-1000 cds created for handout and hire the guys/girls on like craigslist or something and pay them hourly cash, might cost you like $200 and take around 3-4 hours so you can get like 3-4 guys/girls hired easily at a fair price)  Try and keep the people handing out the demos the age of what the target audience would be who are planning to buy/play the game.  For example if its teens, hire teenagers, if its professionals, hire a 20's crowd. Usually games are associated with the teenage and 20s crowd, however do your research in this marketing vehicle to see if it would match your game.-Game ads created for various video sites like youtube-Game ads created for twitter, facebook and other social websites-Sell to Wholesalers and suppliers (This is one method to get into retail store)-Sell on consignment to consignment stores (This is another way to get into retail stores)-Book meetings with large retail chains to meet with their buyers who have certain amounts that they are allowed to spend to purchase goods for the company.  If you can impress them enough and your product is on par with other games they sell, you may just score a large deal!!-HAVE GAME TOURNAMENTS LOCALLY WITH PRIZES!  This method will build awareness and really get players pumped about the game!  You can even charge a cover fee!-There are more methods, but i have just listed a few.IT WILL BE DIFFICULT but the rewards if done right can end up launching your company and you ultimately keep all the money earned.  Plus once into large stores and everyone has seen a positive return on investment, it will make sure your future games are something they would be interested in buying!  WEIGH this option carefully as sometimes, based on your costs, it actually might be more beneficial to get a contract with another publisher or even do a full sale, so it all depends on what your costs and profit margins are, but you will have to figure that out!2. CONTRACTThis is one that most people go for because they either dont want to go the self-publishing route or just want to have their game associated with a bigger well known company.  In this way games are made for large publishers with their names and you either get a cut of sales (AFTER SALES), or a flat rate pay per piece (BEFORE SALES).  The benefit here is that your game is attached with a known publisher and you also get to now have their massive publishing strength!  You could see your game out in the market faster and in larger amounts than if you self-published.  GETTING A CONTRACT is very hard as there are a lot of competitors out there!  Everyone is trying to get in on a large contract with a game publisher as that can establish your company instantly.  I can't go into full details in this area as at Abhiware we self-publish and do things on our own, however if you go down this route, it is amongst the popular ones.3. FULL SALEThis one is one of the last choices but is still a choice by people.  Create the game, sell it off and let others own the whole thing (Without your name on it).  They are basically buying all rights off of you.  Now something like this can sell for good money and can be another option all together.  The victory isn't as sweet as the whole world will not know that you created something, so if you create the next tomb raider and do a FULL SALE, you could end up crying loud in the end just because you saw short term quick cash...on the other hand if you create 10-20 of these games it can get you up and running so you can start working on self-publishing and contract work.SO THERE YOU HAVE IT.  Thats just a little bit of off topic rants about how to get your game out there.  If i am missing anything, please let me know, and also if you have any knowledge or can elaborate on any of these, then please help out our future game companies by writing it out here and letting us all know.You can keep up with our game development of Macrion here and also via twitter (Abhiware is our twitter name) and you can also ofcourse check out our website which is abhiware.comUntil the next post, see ya! :)Nav   ;  Hello everyone, okay so back to the next post here, finally after many days of coding and contracts...this is very important...WHILE you are getting yourself established in the game world, understand that you still need a place for bread and butter to come in.The greatest music, movies, books, video games, etc. tend to come from the poor and starving artist...in many cases the geniuses of the world usually dont have the money, influence or power like others do to create or display their dreams.Luckily in our time, we have many FREE methods of promotion or creation, but keep in mind that as an indie of lets say 1-4 people, you still all need full time jobs until your game hits off and becomes big.For me thats my computer IT business.  That way I can keep up with the computer world and have something related to what I love.  My company provides, websites, on-site tech support and more!However all this helps to fuel my passion of game creation which in turn one day will become self sufficient and fuel my love for humanity and hopefully eradicating hunger worldwide one day.That being said, you need to have a MINDSET to do this stuff...one of the biggest things is that as you're creating games, you get to a point where you ask WHY THE HELL AM I DOING THIS?  It brings in no money, everyone says i'm wasting my time, and I get only "Great job" from people testing out my games and demos...One thing I can tell you all is that if you have a dream and goal NEVER GIVE IT UP!  You WILL encounter the "Nay Sayers" the ones who will put you down, make you wonder why you're even making video games.  Listen...FIRSTLY understand this...just as the world needs doctors to heal human beings, it needs game creators like us to bring entertainment and a step out of reality for humans as well.  YOU ARE REQUIRED and have a very important role in the development of humanity.  UNDERSTAND that being a game developer IS as important as any other profession, and by spreading joy or meaning to the peoples lives who play your games, it can be a very gratifying feeling.  Here are some common myths and misconceptions people try and put into us INDIE developers to try and scare us away from our craft:1. OTHER COMPANIES MAKE BETTER GAMES FOR CHEAPER, WHY ARE YOU EVEN TRYING?Its people like US in the game development world who CREATE those games in the first place, and if it wasn't for people like us who have been trying for decades, we wouldn't have a need for pushing computer technology, nor would that so called better game for cheaper even exist!  Throw this scare tactic away!  You are required, and its people and indie companies like you who help push the game development industry further.  Even today the simplest games people still play such as tetris!  Graphics doesn't necessarily make a great game as the hype would suggest.  Heck look at that recent game with the moving block in which you have a block moving side to side and you have to stop it in the middle.   It became so popular that now I see that same game in walmart for prizes!  NO GRAPHIC QUALITIES whatsoever!  Just a simple few pixels!  ANY game can be amazing so dont sweat the small stuff.  ALSO understand that the reason why the game is cheap could be for many reasons.  Either the game is old, or the game was just not a popular game.  Maybe the reseller bought a whole bunch and are blowing it out.  You dont know what the reason for the price is, but normal price ranges as of today are below:-Jewel case games (various titles): $4.99-$14.99-Old game titles: $4.99-$19.99-Newest game titles: $29.99-$49.99-RPG game titles: $29.99-$99.99THOSE ARE PC GAME PRICES from various computer stores.SO trust me, that comment that people say to put you down, DONT LISTEN TO IT!2. YOU WONT MAKE A LIVING MAKING/PLAYING GAMES! GET A REAL LIFE AND A REAL JOB!Those sour pussy's are all jealous that you even have the BALLS to create something that they could never or would ever try to attempt.  It takes courage to go against the grain.  Firstly if done correctly, a game developer can make just as much as others in the market...thats if u are looking for a job.  AS AN INDIE developer, you can actually become a multimillionaire making as much as the top doctors and even more!  It all depends on how you run things, but NEVER give up, NEVER surrender (Galaxy Quest). These people have a low self esteem about themselves and usually are unhappy negative people who like bringing everyone down to their level.  If you aren't there then they aren't satisfied...ask yourself this...are you living for their satisfaction or yours?  Live your life and your dreams! If its family...well family will always try and put you down...you gotta work hard at being successful...the other thing that bugs people is that if you DO succeed, then they will kick themselves cause they working their asses off while u get paid to make video games which is a dream come true!My quote is, "Many dream a dream and wake up to reality...Some dream a dream and make it their reality!"DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT!FINAL TIPS FOR MOTIVATION:--------------------------1. Read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill2. Never give up, keep on going, and you will succeed!3. There are more people becoming millionaires in the game industry DAILY!4. The game industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry SO THOSE NAY-SAYERS can go and suck a beach ball! LOL!  YOU CAN AND WILL FIND WORK if you are looking for jobs.5. Pretty much now every household has at least 1 computer system.  You're tellin me no one plays games!??!?!?! :P6. With the invention of facebook and other social sites, marketing your creation can be a snap!7. There are many companies and developers on gamedev.net who started off as single guys (EDIT: And Girls lol sorry bout that) with a dream and now have full video game companies!  There is a LOT of information on how to succeed here and YOU WILL have all the help you need from these forums.  Including myself, I am guiding you through the creation and business of our video game Macrion so you can see it go from conception to being sold in stores!!  Now if you're serious about this stuff, then my posts will be invaluable just as many other posts you will find from other seasoned professionals...I dont consider myself a professional of game creation...just a lover of game creation as I'm always learning so I will never be the best ever...there is always someone out there who knows more than you so always remember that!Anyways until next post (And yes I will get back on topic of Macrion, but these are very important to the overall game development.  Mindset is a KEY factor in creation!  You need to know WHY you are doing all this in the first place!)Add us on twitter: AbhiwareCheck out our website: www.abhiware.comor email me personally if you have any questions: nav@abhiware.comUNTIL NEXT POST...KEEP ON GAMIN![Edited by - abgupta4 on August 17, 2009 8:24:51 PM];  K its been a while since I posted as I've been working on several company projects.  Anyways, today's post is going to be on music.Listen to the following two songs on youtube:1.2.Ya ya you can join the fan page too on facebook if you wish lol.Anyways, those two tracks were created in a program called FL Studio (Fruityloops) which has taken on an industry level of recognition for its capabilities.  Many new popular artists are using the software to create top class music such as Basshunter and many others.As video games have evolved, so has the music making capabilities.  Competing in this area can be quite difficult, and having the right sounds and music in your game is VERY important.That being said we must understand what things a game has when it comes to music...HERE THEY ARE:1. SOUND EFFECTS2. MUSICAL SCORE1. Sound Effects:  These are sounds in the game that users hear when some action usually happens.  For example, the user slashes an enemy with a sword, or the user starts running, or the user is swimming.  These are the environmental sounds that are heard and go ontop of any musical background.  In Macrion we have many sound effects, from running to using weapons to even collecting various money and gems and orbs.  Coming up with sound effects can be troublesome at times but it is all worth it when you see it in the game.  For example, be creative...If you are in a battle scene and you want to represent the sound of someone's neck getting cracked when your character defeats them in battle...you can record yourself breaking a carrot or celery in half.  For many years great movies have had their sound effects gurus use techniques like this to create some sound effects that SOUND like what we think we are seeing.  Have fun with sound effects as they will help you out to make your game more interactive.  Now remember, sound effects are always on and are ABOVE your music.  Just because your music is playing in the background doesn't mean that your sound effects are off.2. Musical Score:  This is the actual song that you want in the background.  New games are using mp3's however the older generations and some current games still use two of the industry standard ones which are wav and mid.  MIDI files were the MAJOR industry style for music and were put into the system via a midi keyboard or midi creation software.  Many game developers may even still use this today, however everything is converting over to mp3s due to the higher quality of music that can be brought into a game.  Great examples of this are actual songs by bands which are now in many driving games.  Burnout Revenge for example has many rock songs sung by actual artists.  If you ever played the original Zelda however, you'll notice the MIDI music score or even TETRIS, which also had a midi like score going on.  To develop music for Macrion we are using FL Studio/Fruity Loops.Okay folks so there you have it, I hope this helps as game creation is a very long process and has a lot of things involved which is what we will be going over in these posts.Take care and see ya in the next post! :)Nav   ;  Its Map Making Time!!!In a previous post I discussed choosing the map of your game.  Now its time in Macrion that we are going to CREATE THE MAP!  In the previous post I discussed break apart mapping.  We are using that method to break the map apart into square like blocks.Okay so now here is how we work on a map...FIRSTLY, choose your software!!  Since in this case I am personally designing the map here for my staff to work with later I can walk you through the steps I'm using to make the map.I'm using a freeware map creation tool found online on download.com called MAP it (http://download.cnet.com/MAP-it/3000-6675_4-10842833.html?tag=mncol).  Now there are some good map making software programs out there so choose whatever one you like but make it basic as we are simply creating the base maps here, its not the actual game, but an overview of WHAT AND WHERE things are and where they should be.Now we are working on an RPG game, so basically we are going to need to create several types of maps.  The FIRST kind of map is known as the WHOLE WORLD MAP.  This map is literally the whole world with all levels/areas in it.  This works well in RPG's, but not so well on various level games which dont have a fluid land.  In that case you may need several WHOLE WORLD MAPS or LEVEL MAPS if you wish to call them that.  Since we are working on an RPG we have 1 main world map and actually a second one in another level.  If there are many different areas you may wish to create many of these larger style maps.The second map that needs to be created are ZONE MAPS or MINI-LEVEL MAPS.  In the game world, as coders, we dont really have the luxury of unlimited memory, speed or storage, and hence even though we are trying to grow our technology further to achieve this, it is still always a limitation.  The smaller the ZONES the more higher the graphics you can keep in them and the better your game will look, however the smaller the size of the zone.  If you want a LARGE open field for example, you need be creative to show this using either fog to load objects behind of or a sky or some form of barrier.  ZONES usually consist of a full area that can be moved around in and as you move from one zone to the next, it actually has to load the level and the game gets paused and you usually see a loading screen.  ZONE MAPS are good when you are going to require a mix of detail and size.  However keep in mind, you can't keep it too large or things will just slow down.  Think of Tomb Raider games, when you went from one area to the next, even though the world seemed large, it was all a zone.UNLIMITED MAPS are the fog or cloud sampled ones and they allow for unlimited size as you can continuously load objects behind fog or cloud cover.  If you aren't sure about this technique, then you can easily look it up online in google for how to load objects like this.In Macrion we are using a cross between ZONE MAPS and UNLIMITED MAPS.There are other types of maps as well, which are very popular however I've just highlighted the 3 major ones that we are using and most of the time you will probably use some version of these.Once again for overview:1. WHOLE WORLD MAPS/LEVEL MAPS2. ZONE MAPS / MINI LEVEL MAPS (Within a level itself)3. UNLIMITED MAPS (Within a level itself)I will return with more details, on what happens next, such as placement of actors/characters/monsters and then proper scripting of these characters for major outcomes (Such as bosses or major enemies).  Unfortunately I cannot share the map creation itself of Macrion as you will have to wait for the release of the game for that one so that it doesn't spoil the game for future players.Ask any questions or even post a positive comment as all your great comments help me to make my posts even more better for you all :)Nav   