

I use an informal agile approach on just about everything I do. At each step, get something that works and check it in to a source control system before you go on. Then keep adding things: collision detection (ship must dodge), ship gun, rocks splitting when hit, a score counter, etc. Then add some feature, and get that working too. Get something working, no matter how limited and lame.
ULTRATRON SOURCE CODE SOFTWARE
Successful free software projects build a community and some momentum, but you won't get a community or momentum without making something that actually works.
ULTRATRON SOURCE CODE CODE
But nobody will volunteer to take a broken mass of code that doesn't even compile, and help you sort it out. If your music is weak, someone who is a musician may donate some better music. If you make a game that is quite playable, but just has one level that repeats over and over, you may attract a fan base and someone may volunteer to write a new level for it. You could call it some goofy name like "Nexuiz" and thanks to the miracle of the Internet, people would still find out about it (if it's worth finding out about).Īlso, here is a meta hint that applies to any free software project: focus on what you are good at, and make something that is usable even if limited. (That one is called "Sinistar".) So, don't call your project some lame name like "Asteroids Clone" it may not end up being a clone. Suppose you added gravity to your spaceship game, and the player has to fly in and out of cave networks, shooting little bases and collecting stuff? (That one is called "Gravitar".) Suppose you shoot rocks, but they don't blow up, and little crystals come out and you collect them? Then add a giant lion-faced robot boss. Once you have your core gameplay, you may start having original ideas that may take you in a new direction. In fact, there was no music, although that sort of "heartbeat" sound effect was kind of cool for the day.) (I used to play Asteroids, and it wasn't because the graphics were so good or the music was so great. Sound effects and rock graphics are easily upgraded later focus on the soul of your game. It doesn't matter if your rocks are kind of ugly or your sound effects are lame, but it does matter if the controls for the ship are sluggish to respond, or the game animation is jerky, that sort of thing. You could make a game that isn't called "Asteroids", doesn't have vector graphics, and has somewhat different rules, but it would still capture the essence. Then make a game that does something similar, and conveys the essence of what you like.įor example, the essence of "Asteroids" would be a game where you pilot a space ship in 2D, with a simplified physics model (if you stop firing the engines, your ship will actually slow down and eventually stop due to some sort of highly unrealistic "friction" in space) and you busily dodge and shoot things. Be a blessing to other gamers, not the studios.įigure out what it is that you really like about the game.
ULTRATRON SOURCE CODE PROFESSIONAL
You are not competing with them - you have a range of freedom the professional game developer can only dream about. The big studios are not going to produce the creative, fun-to-play kind of games that an independent developer can. If game writing is your passion, do it well. Do something that will challenge other game developers to rethink their gameplay. Seriously, we have too many games which are essentially copies of each other with different texture maps. Trust me, no one's going to even care to submit a bug report for a Yet Another Tetris Clone. If you plan to open source this ever, and want to take it beyond the initial stages, it will be helpful to have a community supporting you, i.e.

