[HN Gopher] Joys of Small Game Development
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Joys of Small Game Development
Author : ingve
Score : 90 points
Date : 2023-10-07 06:08 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (abagames.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (abagames.github.io)
| justinlloyd wrote:
| Read it. I cannot say whether the concept of a manifesto for
| small games is a worthwhile endeavour. It sounds like an
| ideology, a stricture on creative thought, and then you start the
| endless debates as to what qualifies, and audiences bifurcate
| into "but what does it _mean_?"
|
| That said, I like to make what I have often referred to as "$10K
| games." If I was being paid a realistic hourly rate to implement
| an idea, what could I do for $10,000 USD? $10K is one month of
| household burn rate (for me), and so I can aptly weigh the
| decision of "outsource this or do it myself?" It gives a very
| clear budgetary limitation.
|
| And sure, you could "work for free" or "get a friend to help out
| for a pizza" or "well if someone in a LCOL country could do it,
| that's like two years worth of income."
|
| But we would be arguing pointless nuances at that point.
|
| The question is "could _I_ implement this idea for $10K, if I
| were being paid the $10K? Would _I_ be willing to set aside all
| other possible endeavours to work on this, if _I_ were being paid
| $10K for it?"
|
| And so we get in to how to make a game that has a definite end,
| that somewhat fulfills the ideal of the small games manifesto,
| but still gives you enough creative freedom to achieve your goals
| whilst still shooting yourself in the foot by spending too many
| hours tweaking the individual pixels in a piece of artwork.
|
| A $10K game, for me, could be a day's worth of work writing code
| and $9000 worth of outsourced artwork to make it beautiful. Or it
| could be two or three weeks of intense labour, flying solo,
| creating the art, music and code because you simply need that
| itch scratched. The game then becomes secondary to the importance
| of the creative endeavour itself.
| usea wrote:
| $10k budget is no less arbitrary than anyone else's definition.
| TerrifiedMouse wrote:
| Only read the first page but is this a manifesto? I read it
| like a guide on how to start programming (what the author
| considers/calls) small games for fun. It's just guide, you can
| do whatever you want. If something isn't working for you just
| deviate from it.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| The Tao that can be told is not the true Tao.
| sillysaurusx wrote:
| I love how you quantify your burn rate. I've been living off
| savings in much the same scenario. Mine is $6k.
|
| Do you want to compare notes? I'm really curious to ask for
| details on where your burn rate adds up. Mine is half mortgage
| at around $2700/mo, but I've been surprised and a bit dismayed
| that an additional $3k per month seems inevitable. I've been
| trying to trim it as much as possible while still living life,
| but a lot of it is just... life things.
|
| It's ok if you don't want to go into details.
| justinlloyd wrote:
| I would state it in person, but not on an indelible public
| forum.
|
| In descending order of expense: Insurances > food > mortage >
| utilities > rent > hobbies > travel > cleaning > maintenance
| > takeout.
| meheleventyone wrote:
| TBH this sounds like exactly the same thing it's just you've
| put an economic lens on it. Has all the associated problems
| with bike shedding and 'what does it mean'.
| ckmiller wrote:
| This appears to be by Kenta Cho, a.k.a. ABA games, who has a long
| history of writing wonderful small games in D. His work is well
| worth checking out. https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/
| silenced_trope wrote:
| Yes! I know this guy's work.
|
| I haven't visited this site in years though. I wonder if mobile
| games are the reason why. I stopped playing a lot of
| web/flash/html5 games a long time ago when gaming (for me)
| moved to the app store.
|
| But I recognized the name and remember playing a lot of these
| games back in the day.
|
| I always thought they were delightful. Building off a single
| game mechanic or two and then moving on to the next concept.
| The dev has a good system in place for shipping :)
| jncfhnb wrote:
| I feel like HN is on a kick right now with this concept of
| "small games".
|
| But folks are tripping over the definition of small. There's
| the small as defined in the link you have, small as in low
| mechanic and low content like "Gone Home", small as in asset
| flips, small as in just not AAA, small as in really intricate
| but not large, small as in procedurally huge but limited
| visuals and simple mechanics, small as in just a dating sim or
| porn, and then small as in old school "small games" like Doom
| Guy's Commander Keen which is cute and good at the time but
| laughably unpolished for todays standards.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| I assumed small was referring to how much time/effort it
| takes to make them.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| Since the beginning of the industrial era, people have been
| looking for side artisan-gigs to distract from how droll
| their day job is. This isn't particularly different than
| woodworking, gardening, knitting and the legion of other
| hobbies used for this purpose.
| mejutoco wrote:
| I do not think at the early industrial revolution people
| looked for artisan-gigs, considering the hours, child
| labour, and general lack of safety.
|
| Happy to be proved wrong, I find that period very
| interesting.
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(page generated 2023-10-07 23:00 UTC)