I am making a video game.
I am a computer science teacher who loves to learn new things. I am a gamer who owns more games than I’d care to admit. It seemed like this was only a matter of time…
I am going to try to make a video game.
Where to Begin?
I’ll be honest, I know a little about all the skill-sets a game designer needs to complete a game, but I am not an expert at any of them. I teach Graphic Design and Programming to elementary students. This means I have what might equate to a 1st year university level knowledge of these subjects. My students at the highest level in programming are using Scratch by MIT to program their own games. I am pretty good around Photoshop and find myself getting better every year; but by no means do I consider myself an expert. I know a little Java, I know a little C#. I know HTML because I teach it to my intermediate students in their Website Design unit.
My single largest asset in this project is my ability to project manage and self organize. I am going to do a good job at identifying what I need to do and the steps I need to take to get it done. I am also very good at educating myself and finding the resources I need.
Need to write a design document? Found a bunch of great online articles about it and a pretty great website that helps you lay out the document with key headers and a roadmap already built in.
Need to learn how to use a legit engine? The good folks at Unity have a lot of great tutorials on YouTube creating basic games and introducing you to the ins and outs of their system.
Need to brainstorm ideas and come up with a process flow? I’m pretty good at concept mapping and have been using apps like MindMeister for awhile in my teaching to help students plan projects. I’ve got that covered.
There is obviously a LOT more I will need to learn and I am certain there I things I’ll need to learn that I don’t even know about yet. I’m not afraid of the learning and I am pretty confident I will be able to find the resources I need. Making games is hard. I know this. I am not nieve. This might crash and burn.
The Names
I always find one of the fun parts of coming up with a new idea is coming up with a name for it. In this case I wanted to think of a name for the game company as a whole, and the game I’ll be making. The game name was pretty easy and it came to me pretty early on. The game company took quite a bit longer.
I’m not going to spill the beans on the actual game name and what it is just yet. I will say it is about education. It is NOT an “educational game” But I will share with you the company name and logo. That’s fun too right?
Introducing CREW
I’d like to say that there is some deep meaning behind this name. I’ll admit I thought of them all and they sound great! A rowing team is typically called a Crew. In rowing you absolutely have to work together to win. There is also the idea of a group of friends… your Crew. In the end, this is the name of the street I live on. Simple. I thought about just naming the company after the game, but then I got to thinking “what if I make a hit game and end up wanting to make another?” A guy can dream can’t he?
The Process
I am a giant fan of Banished and the work that guy did to make a game on his own. Banished is fabulous and his blog posts on the game creation process are 100% an inspiration for this project in a lot of ways. He knows a LOT more about game design to start with than I do, but the idea of guy doing it all and talking about the process seemed absolutely fascinating and something I’d like to emulate.
I am going to use Medium as my medium of choice (see what I did there..) for publishing semi-regular updates about my progress. I am also going to live stream sometimes. I’ll talk a little bit later about how important community is to me in terms of the projects I typically take on; I’d like to develop a sort of community around this project. Not just for motivation and encouragement, but also possibly for advice and even for play-testing — which will hopefully happen often.
All About focus
I have a sort of “idea A.D.D” I feel like I have a lot of things I would like to do. I’d like to write a book. I’d like to have a successful game stream on YouTube. I’d like to do that same thing but with my son and demonstrate how streaming can be used as a safe, fun, place for family time and even education. I’d like to do my Masters degree. I’d like to tackle my backlog of video games one by one and beat them all (I own over 600 games) I’ll be honest, every one of these projects has been started by me in one way, shape, or form, over the last 5 years. I own domain after domain for projects I will start and not follow through on or lose the motivation to continue — especially if the community I’d like to see built around it does not develop. I’ve even created Twitter handles and social networking devoted to some of these ideas. In the end I start them with a head full of steam and it eventually putters out in a cloud of smoke.
I don’t think it is that my ideas are bad. In fact, I think with the right type of focus and motivation any one of the things I’d like to do could be pretty successful. I’d like to come up with some strategies to combat this idea fatigue I deal with but its not easy.
How Can You Help?
I am honestly hoping I can make this game on my own. I have a very talented friend/co-worker who may help with some art assets but the plan is for this to be a bit of a journey of discovery for me. That being said, I would LOVE for this to turn into something where I am building a sort of community of encouragement and advice along the way. There is going to be a LOT that I don’t know and I am counting on the world out there to give me a hand once in awhile.
Next Steps
I am doing a few things right now. I am slowly writing my design document. I’ve been using DunDoc for this and while my level of design document experience is pretty limited (nil) I feel like this site is helping me cover all the bases.
I am teaching myself Unity very slowly by doing the YouTube tutorials. I’m worried that my actual game is going to get into a bunch of weeds that aren’t covered in any way. We will have to deal with that later. For now I am having fun making small games and showing off to my wife as if I am smart.
That’s all for now.
MW
Feb 11th 2016
