I dont know if this counts but I'm currently in the middle of a contract with an indie developer (Arcen Games) to help out with their newest one. It's my second time, actually, but I'm a heck of alot more involved this time. The first time, my job was to make bullet-hell style patterns for the new enemies in an expansion to one of their games (and balance out stats and such for the new stuff), since the ability to make those patterns and actually have them be GOOD is apparently a very rare skill. It went very well. But I can do lots of other stuff too, and while this second contract still involves alot of the pattern and enemy/boss design (because why in the heck wouldnt it?), I was brought in during the early concept phase this time and have been able to make about 10 bazillion suggestions (the game is a combination of a roguelike and a shmup, both of which are genres I know a ton about), most of which are ending up in the game so far. Ranges from various gameplay elements, to things that I think the game engine itself should have in it. I have alot to do, actually. But alot of freedom to do it in; I can work on it when I want to, and I'm not working some specific amount of hours in a week or something like at some damn job. I take the time needed to complete each part as I see fit, and even within the designs of those parts I do, most of it is up to me. Like the first one it is going very well. But it's got a long way to go. Still in the fairly early parts of it, with no testers outside the dev group brought in, and an NDA firmly in place (or what passes for an NDA for them).
I've always had a major interest in game design, but I lack the resources to do it on my own (I sure as heck cant do art and music and such by myself), and I'm *definitely* not the sort to lead a team.
The only problem for me: BUGS. Ugh. I hate dealing with them. Particularly when they're mine. The game in question (what there is of it right now, anyway) spits out this monstrous wall of red text (and by "text" I mean "gibberish") anytime there's an error of any sort, which I'm supposed to somehow decipher to figure out what screwball thing went wrong. It can take forever. And then often turns out I made a typo somewhere or left out some crucial symbol (and you know how programming works... leave out just one ">" and the machine detonates).
My stuff is mostly done in XML scripting.
I dont have a normal job... I havent worked a normal job in probably 8 years (I dont work at all now, period) and I dont need the money, so I'm often bored... and this gives me something to do. Specifically, something I dont hate. Which is nice. Sooooo much better than the old days of being yelled at by some manager in some menial, brainless cashier job.
26 Oct 2015, 12:45 pm
