Christmas vacation

Wanted to do three things in my post today:

1. Wish everyone a merry Christmas. Mine has been great so far. Got to spend lots of quality time with my family and my wife's family, all of whom are wonderfully kind, generous people.
2. Let you all know that my wife an I are leaving tomorrow for an extended vacation in Argentina. I'll be returning in mid-January, so I may not be posting for a few weeks. If I have the opportunity, I will post a few accounts of my trip as we go along, so if you're interested, please keep an eye on the blog the next few weeks.
3. Update you on the status of SPUDZOOKA. It's coming along quite well, but I didn't get as far as I would have liked before the holiday/travel madness started. I'll publish a demo level when I return and am able to get a little more polish on it.

Once again, I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. It's been a good year, and I'll talk to you in a few weeks!

Virtual reality and the Wii

Saw a really cool YouTube video over at Independent Gaming (strangely, the post seems to have been removed from the blog). The video is of a guy describing (and demonstrating) how to set up a VR display using the Nintendo Wii. Really cool stuff. Wouldn't surprise me if this makes its way into a few games in the next year or two.

The perils of self-publishing

There's a nice post from Leo Stableford today about the pros and cons of self-publishing. He's discussing things in context of writing, but I have a feeling many of the same issues apply to self-publishing games.

It would be easy enough to post SPUDZOOKA to a site of my own designing, set up a Google AdSense account and maybe earn a few dollars. If I did a decent job promoting the game, people might come play it.

On the other hand, if I attempt to get my game published on a well-trafficked game site like Shockwave.com, I would definitely get more players and could potentially make more money. The question is whether self-publishing would hurt my chances of being published on a site like Shockwave. Honestly I don't know. The game publishing business is certainly not as well established as print publishing, so my guess is that there are still more avenues available for indie game developers to publish and distribute their games.

I'm just starting to research the possibilities, but maybe I'm getting ahead of my self. I still have a game to finish before I can even publish it myself.

Introducing SPUDZOOKA

It's simple. It's fun. It's vegetarian. It's SPUDZOOKA.

SPUDZOOKA is a potato cannon shooting game (as one reader already guessed). It's designed to be super easy to learn and (I hope) really fun to play.

I'm still in the early stages of development, but things are coming together pretty quickly.

Some features
Like most casual games, SPUDZOOKA is built around a simple game mechanic. In this case it's shooting potatoes at targets. There are a million target shooting games out there, but this one will have a few features that I hope will make it stand out:

• Play in 3D. Most casual target shooters are still Flash-based. SPUDZOOKA's realistic 3D environment should make it more immersive.
• Customize your cannon. As you progress, you'll earn points that can be spent on new parts for your potato shooter. Barrels will affect ammunition and fire speed. Combustion chambers will affect power. Stands will affect accuracy.
• Use various kinds of ammo. Potatoes come in all shapes and sizes, and they're all good for shooting.
• Vent your frustrations on inanimate objects. Part of the fun of SPUDZOOKA is finding targets, which are often hidden behind obstacles such as boxes, crates, shelves, and barrels. You'll have to use your potatoes to knock them out of the way.

I've got some other features in mind, but they will take a bit longer to implement. Casual games are at their best when they're addictive, and that means you can keep coming back without playing through the same content every time. I'll save the details of my plans for another post, but my idea should keep things interesting.

I'll post a test level for everyone to play as soon as it's ready. I'm leaving the country on a long vacation right after Christmas, so I hope to have something ready by then.

The "social gaming" phenomenon

As a follow-on to my last post, I thought I would point everyone to a Gamasutra article published yesterday that predicts the next big thing in gaming (now that music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are a "phenomenon").

The analysts polled in the article all seem to agree that the future of video games (the short-term future anyway) is going to revolve around "social gaming," games designed to be played with multiple people present in the room.

A couple of the analysts make a nice (if a bit obvious) comparison between such social video games and the classical board games of a generation (or two) ago. The current crop of games happens to be focused on music, but music isn't the root of the phenomenon, according to these folks. I never much cared for traditional board games, but I do agree with them -- we're just witnessing the next incarnation of group entertainment.

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On an unrelated note, here's a quick hint about the subject of my casual side project...