Productivity and Feeling “Done”

Done is a strange word. So strange in fact that most development paradigms and frameworks make attempts to nail down their own interpretation of the word to help developers grasp the concept of “done” and turn it into something tangible. A classic example of this would be SMART targets. SMART targets turn qualitative goals and...

Thoughts on Flow State

As I read more and more about designing and developing games, the more frequently I come across the term “flow” or ”flow state”, especially when reading about designing game mechanics for players. The goal of this form of design is to immerse the player so deeply in the world of the game that they disconnect...

A return to blogging

So I may have become a little lackadaisical when it comes to blogging. My last blog post on here was back in 2016 while we were taking part in Tranzfuser. Since then a lot has happened, more than I can fit in one (or six) blog posts, so I will be continuing as though I'd...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #5 – Features

Since my post about the midway review two weeks ago, we've been very busy cracking on with filling up Here There Be Monsters to the brim with details and spectacle. Unfortunately that meant I forgot to blog about what we were doing, but no longer! today I want to talk about some of the key...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #4 – Mid-way Review

We have now reached the halfway point of our Tranzfuser programme and Here There Be Monsters is really starting to take shape. Over the last five weeks we have navigated through the muddy waters of progress and raging tides of development, and are now striding towards our target of a feature-filled, technically impressive demo for...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #3 – Team Building

Week 3 of Tranzfuser has been all about finding people to flesh out the skill range of our team. While the four initial members have skills in development and composition, we lacked any skills in the form of design or 3D modelling. We have spent this week seeking to resolve our dilemma, alongside further work on...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #2 – Small Victories

This second week blog has come a little late, but with good reason. As I stated last time, we wanted to finish our MVP by today and … ta dah we just about managed it. We now have a basic working version of our game with the core functionalities implemented. Of course, we aren’t finished...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #1 – You da real MVP

Monday 4th July marked the first day of the Tranzfuser programme, well the first day as far as BetaJester go. Our first day saw us head out from our office in Hull over to the Digital Creativity Labs in York. We also took our 4th team member George Marshall (a PhD student at the University of...

Tranzfuser – Dev Blog #0 – Prologue

You may have noticed I've been absent from this blog since Christmas. With numerous events, expo's, meetings, contracts and having to move house twice, I unfortunately did not find any time to blog about the work I've been up to. That being said, I did find time to apply to Tranzfuser, the new talent development programme brought to...

An Indie Christmas …

  Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house Not a peripheral was stirring, not even a mouse! To a family party the developer had gone To talk of Christmas and gaming from dusk until dawn. When a young boy came up to the developer and asked "What games have you made in...