Update

I have slightly changed my mind about my comics. I will try to post them daily!

I have also made an other blog so that the comics don't bother anyone. This will stay a blog about Game Design, and therefor, you might want to have a look on my other blog: Castle Wonderstein

I'll be back in a couple of days, when I return from "Drawing Hell" where I must spend some time to get my grades up...

First Comic

My first comic: German Efficientie.

Click on the comic to view full size

Comments are apreciated!

Still here

I'm still here!

I've been bussy this last week working for school (drawing & 3D), so thats kind of the reason there weren't any posts.

I am working on a little comic. Here's the first panel of the very first episode:


I don't think I'm going to do a daily series, but expect updates weekly/bi-weekly!

Prototyping

I've been working on something for a few weeks now and I have come to a conclusion about my way of working. It's not good. Always waiting to do the code until I "feel like it", the graphics that need to be ready before I testdrive the project...

The best way to overcome all this, I've learned via GameProducer.net :
1) Make yourself work, when you see progress, you'll feel much better.
2) Use Placeholders!

I've taken the time to look at those 2 tips and to actually do them.
So, I finished the shooting and moving code to near perfection (could always be a little better, but it's good enough for now). And I've used some squares with different textures to be the ennemy/myself/meteors/... (I guess I told a little bit too much about the game... But you'll have to wait for the details a bit longer ).

Having done this, I completed what I thought to be a multi-day annoying job, in just under 4 hours and I had fun doing it. This just goes to show that those tips from other indy dev's are very valueable!

Server hard-/software ready!

A few days later, late at night...

I finally got my server up to the point that I wanted it!

Currently running:
* Windows XP Pro SP2
* StatBar
* YnHUB for DC++ (much easyer to share via a HUB)
* Nero (Automated to make a backup of the project files every 4 days)

That's about it at the moment.
I haven't encountered any serious problems with this fileserver appart from the little battery on the Motherboard being dead. Everything runs smooth with a inside temperature of only 36°C.

New Server

I just got myself a new computer to use at my dorm house.

It's a simple one, capable of sharing files at a normal/not-to-slow rate, containing a 900 Mhz Processor, 172 MB DDR Ram, HDD1 10Gb, HDD2 160Gb.

This system will be mainly used to share our project files and maybe , on a later date, will serve as a web-server for basic stuff we might need during vacations.

I found some decent software, mainly in the backup-ghosting area. DriveImage XML (google it, I forgot the link), is the best free, NON bootable tool I found laying around on the internet. This is very handy as I still got a 3 year old EDItoUSB cable wich I rarely used.

I've backed up the main drive of the fileserver, and I must say, it went quite of slow. 6+ hours backing up 9.31Gb. If I find a tool that works faster (gets me under 2 hours for a PERFECT disk image) AND is freeware, I think I'll switch. But for now, it's the best thing I found to date.

Carnival of Game Production

I send in my first blog article a week ago, to the gameproducer.net Carnival of Game Production

I've made it to the last few who are mentioned on the front page!
I wasn't sure I'd make it, because this is the first time I wrote something for a competition.

I was amazed to open the gameproducer blog, and see my name with a brief description of my article.

As you might see, the writingstyle of my first article is more like a daily-life blog, with comments and a bit of jumping from subject to subject. But I'm going to write a bit more about the things I learn in school, trying to refine my writing style & bringing my own thoughts and straight facts to this blog.

I hope you keep checking back! Also, please check my portfolio Alternative Link.
It's not finished yet, and I haven't removed my posts from my blog yet (I moved here). And a LOT of stuff I haven't put online yet, but I'll try and do that this weekend.

Valentines Day

Yes, it's here again. The day where we show our love to our partners (like we don't do that every day... *sigh*).

Xbox.com however, doesn't think that to be important but invites you to turn on your xbox to play with it all day long (link) .

I personally don't think Valentines day is special. I love my girlfriend and I try to show it everyday. I will buy something small, just because I know she'll like it (she likes to unwrap gifts). But still,... I find Valentines day to be too comercial.

Playing with an Xbox isn't what you should do today (unless you need to test your latest build of your XNA game). Just go up to the one you love and tell them they have a special place in your heart.

Interesting Schooldays

Last week was my first week in the 2nd module of my first year in Digital Arts & Entertainment.

I must say that I have enjoyed the week, learned a LOT of new things and there is more yet to come!

The most interesting things I've learned where drawing humans in the right proportions, animations in 3DS Max and off course modeling and texturing with 3DS Max and Photoshop.

Psychology is a VERY fun thing to do! Maybe it's just the way the teacher brings it, but I like it a lot.


So, now back to my drawings to finish my assignments.

New Blog

I have desided to move my blog here instead of keeping it on my own site.

Due to bandwidth issues, this is much cheaper than keeping it on my private server.

So, from now on, you'll read about my life here on blogger.

Psychology in Games

Psychology in Games

I’m in a course called Digital Arts & Entertainment. We recently got our first Psychology lesson and I must say it astounded me that it had such an impact on gamers. Here are some facts/thoughts and bits of information about our first lesson on this topic.

Most gamers don’t look behind the game mechanics. They play their games, have their favorite genre’s and are looking forward to the release of that new game.

But behind this tension and amusement lies something more, something game designers know about. Without influencing the costumer psychologically, he won’t play your game.

It might sound like a bad thing if you’re a gamer. “What?? He’s playing with my mind?? F**** him and his stupid game!!” is a reaction that would happen in most of the cases. But as a game developer/designer, you must think the other way around. You got to think and know about psychology to keep the player occupied and/or interested in future releases.

The most common way to do this is the reward/punishment method.

When the gamers passes a certain obstacle, he earns points, finishes a level or gets some nice looking graphics/animations (Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball). But when he fails to keep his health up, hits an obstacle or just doesn’t get the picture, he loses the level and/or dies.

Lots of games put this into context with a trial-and-error learning curve in their games. For example: Streetfighter 2. Most people who played this game didn’t read the full manual or all the button combinations, they just started key-bashing. That leads to frustration in the beginning but that also helps to keep the player playing. He wants to win the battle.

After a while, the player will start seeing that a certain button in combination with an other button gives a much bigger blow. The player has learned a new move, is rewarded for that because of the bigger damage he deals, and is happy about it and starts to be better in the game. This all leads to the player playing the game, and keeping him play. The player feels good about himself because of the points he finally scored.

These are just basic examples of what happens inside the mind of a gamer, but it’s all in this general direction. The human behavior in this is predictable (with a certain margin of error), and will give almost the same results with other people.

The main goal of every game developer (huge company/small indie) is/should be to get into the mind of the gamers and use psychological tricks to convince the gamer that it is a good game, they are doing good and the developer did a great job.

The margin of error on this does tend to make some gamers complain about the game, no game will be that good that every gamer in the world would buy it and be hooked on it. The margin just doesn’t allow it.

When speaking about gamers, I tend to use the male form. I know there are female gamers and I apologize to them. It’s no discrimination, just my writing style.

All products mentioned above are property of their respective owners. My views do not, in any way, represent the views of products/companies mentioned above/holding copyrights on any information in this document.