Life changes, for the better...

Hi,

so I've been wanting to write this blog post a while now. There has been some major changes in my game development path the past few months, which now I think is a good time to share.

As you have noticed probably, there has been no public updates on my main baby, the survival crafting game called Meemo's Planet. This is because in January 2014 I decided it is time to get serious and start a business...and since I have a passion for games development it was the obvious choice for a niche online business. I have always wanted to start an online business (and tried a few times over the years), which is far reaching internationally.

So my wife and I started, and sort of head over heals jumped into the concept of yet another game assets store. Full steam ahead. I thought it will be a good idea, since that is exactly what I wanted: to buy game assets for my projects and help indie programmers get to the resources they don't have time to focus on. I had all the good ideas of simplifying the licenses and focusing on gaming niche instead of the convoluted Envato market places, etc. As we did more research and started talking to industry leaders in game development we realised, there are loads of these site. As well as many game engine communities already have this, like the Unity stores. So finally we decided to contact the CEO of YoYoGames, to pitch to them and get their blessings for a niche game assets store just for the Game Maker Studio community (or GMC) which is still non-existent.

Sandy Duncan, was very polite and promptly responded on 18 February with this comment:

"

Hi Morne,

We have an asset store that is ready to launch :(  It needs Studio 1.3 which is due to be final before the end of next month.

Sandy Duncan

CEO, YoYo Games Ltd

Twitter:@lordoftheyoyo

"

So clearly, good idea, but bad timing on my part as well as I realised you should not try to build your business on someone else community. Even if in the past they showed great support for their fans starting side business, tutorials and script sites and the like. So yeah I really look forward to this new assets site from YoYogames, but I had to cut my losses of a few thousands dollars of investment in web tech after it was developed 50%. Let this be another lesson in schooling fees. (Hmm, I have to wonder if the new Game Assets Market launched this past month is the one he was talking of ? Since I never saw an announcement after Sandy's reply, or another reply.)

Here is where it all changed for the better. My wife joined another already successful start up company and I decided to see if my programming skills in GMS are sell-able. 

Within the first month I did a successful project for a client and the work just kept coming, and by current date I've done 4 paid contracts of which one was a fully fledged drawing app with fancy glow and particle effects. Now finally I had validation and decided I love the idea of GameLancer and so created the name and company and started recruiting for an artist. 2 months ago Chris a very talented all rounder joined my company and has helped out loads to double my output! We have moved offices from hot seats to a dedicated lockable space and now have a company name on the door. We also did some of the work via oDesk, which is great since our profile now has proof of us being able to deliver on work. As well as purchased a 10inch Android tablet for development testing.

This however still is only minimum cash flow for the company and our dream is as we grow from victory to victory to carve out more time for our own projects, and build a portfolio of our own games on app stores and in publishers hands. To generate a passive income online!

Currently we are working full steam 8 - 10 hour days to setup the company and brand, while we improve our GMS code base and game engines. It has been an exciting time, and I've learned to publish Android games with in app purchases (which I think is the way to go to monetize and benefit your customers the best) and in game advertising (which we probably won't put in our own games, but give to clients as a sought after solution). Our focus will be on small to medium sized games and 'gamified' apps...

Chris, my first employee ever, has also done a great job! this past week to strip and update our new company website: GameLancer.net

Even though I really miss working on my main portfolio game, Meemo's Planet, which also still brings in the most of my current GMC based contracts; I'm really excited to tell you we have been working on a portfolio game for the Android tablet market. I just love Google Play and Android and my research shows a huge growth spurt here compared to iOS and the iTunes store. (Just wish their wallet will be supported in more countries!!! GOOGLE wake up!!) Just check for yourself in google trends!

Our game will be very similar to the original GTA style, but more basic and focused on racing and taking out your opponents before the race ends! It is going to be mayhem! It will be a free game, and as we work on it we will add in IAP to introduce more content and get some cash flow support from fans. Who needs kickstarter in any case, you want to know the people can pull it off before you invest in strangers, right!

It has been a humbling, but blessed journey the past  3 months and I'm really pleased with what we have accomplished so far! I plan to build the GameLancer brand from victory to victory and help other game lancers to make a living online in future and become a major player eventually. For now we will stay humble and take it one project and game at a time!

Thank you for your time reading this, and feel free to share it.

PS: I will probably keep this as a personal blog, and support the GameLancer brand. But GameLancer will be the official owner and brand of our future game projects and developments.

Also on another exciting note, my custom built race car was just completed and was started in January 2014! Yes, it will be our company mascot and soon will get GameLancer number plates if I have my way, check out a picture of it here:

The game: My Game Part 6 - (dev. log) : My games WIP topic

Hi Friend,

it has been a really productive month for me in terms of development on this game and exposure to the outside world. I decided to start a WIP project topic on the official game maker community forums, which has really showed a positive response from the community. It also is helping me significantly to get more people testing my game and help me find bugs to improve it by their suggestions. For all people helping me out there, I'm really grateful! 

Also this topic post is the reason I found my first sound engineer, whom was so impressed by the project that he was willing to work on it for free until the day it is published...really nice when success breeds success. So I think the model of proving to people first that you are serious with a demo, and progress is the way to go instead of just spamming the internet with team requests of your idea. Ideas float in the air, so make sure to start as soon possible to make your ideas into real products or demos.

So yeah, now the game demo sounds are also improving, with a rather cool retro pew pew atmosphere.

I have done so much in terms of the game development that it will be easier for you to follow my WIP topic, where I will also maintain the latest demo for the time being. 

Here is that link now:

My Game WIP topic

Will you please go try out the latest demo there, the inventory system is working so much better now and the crafting chest inventory also works...as soon as my game engine runs smooth with no bugs, I need to add light effects for day/night cycle and then can focus more on game goals and giving a sense of direction for the player...

On a personal note, I joined an awesome shared work space, where freelancers and business start-ups are joining and sharing the same office space. It is really exciting and productive, and get me to a schedule to focus more. So let us hope this improves the productivity even more...I do recommend this to anyone rather than working alone from home.

Thanks for reading this, I appreciate your time and feedback!

I'm back and so much changed...

So I want to start by apologizing for the lack of blogs, see blogging is not just new to me, but life has taken a rather busy but exciting turn for me...

I've gone through an emotional time lately since as per my original posts I promised to share with you how it is to make small games for profit with Game Maker Studio (which is easy to do doable and for this you can follow the crazy dude TrueValhalla's posts at http://www.truevalhalla.com/blog/); while still having a full-time professional career. Unfortunately I realized I wanted more out of life than just that, and that my skill-set in making games (which is one of my life dreams still) need to level up a bit first. (I've played with GM8 and GMS for 2years now only) Also on this note, don't try to tackle HTML5 games if you are not ready to persevere through some bugs and having to deal with large optimization requirements in your code as well as limited use of functions you may use in GM, and don't bother making TDS or huge movement based CPU hungry games - until you master a game with a decent player base on Windows.

I did a lot of introspection and decided its time to take it to the next level and find the passion inside myself, find my inner child and nurture it again a bit. 8-5 grind at work can be dangerous for your health...so yes I resigned! I had a very successful career as a Senior Chemical (or Process) engineering position at a large factory, which I'm very grateful for - but I want to make games! And also not just for profit, and maybe in the same time make games more relevant for the "real life" or non-gamer world out there... I will probably elaborate more on these ideals in a much later post.

So here come the difficult news to my readers whom only read this because of financial drives. From now on I'm leveling my game making experience with game ideas I want to make and want to play. I do care if its successful, since time is precious and that gift comes expensive. I'd like to say I don't care, but that would be a lie. I can be a bit idealistic...so don't take too much offence or hold me to it...I'm sharing and if your inspired by it...that will make me happy. And if I sound down I will appreciate some cheerful or positive criticism from you for sure. If you still want to make money, and know how I could retire or take a year off at age 30 and support my wife also, well then just say so and I can easily give you that life secret in a 1 comment reply. (That's if you have a working salary, for the most part). Sjoe (Afrikaans slang for "darn" or "golly" ), I digress and get distracted fast...

So this life change explains my hiatus from the blog and mini game release world the past 4 months, as we packed up and left a small town Secunda, Mpumalanga (South Africa) to move to the beautiful entrepreneurial and creative (also tourist) capital of South Africa. The most south city in Africa, the continent. My close friends you can read those more personal and somewhat private adventures on the other blog my wife runs...

The good news, I've already set up and settled in a nice new 4bedroom 2bathroom home (renting) in Somerset West, Cape Town...only 5minutes away from large malls and creative produce markets and most importantly the Ocean in a town called Strand. I share this because South Africa is truly a land of milk and honey, and should be the next indie game dev equivalent to silicon valley. Yes here I work from home, and was fortunate enough to make use of Yoyogames offer to upgrade to the Master collection. Still however struggling a bit to get the new YYC compiler to actually show up in the product. 

Also I must say, deciding to make game for fun and value instead of financial gain, has really liberated me. "So don't try this at home kids, ha ha." - I'm just joking.

Right, so please don't expect income reports yet, but rather game design ideas, etc. Oh, yes I came last in my first ever game JAM on GMC (wanted to neglect saying this, but in the spirit of honesty), man that really is embarrassing since I'm not use to failure! I really recommend it to you all. It made me feel like I leveled up once, and got me some much needed community reputation. It also taught me some hard lessons in the game development world, and that you must still think of the customer and not yourself. Thankfully in this blog I may rant as I please, well until I offend the wrong person.

Luckily I found some good friends in the South African game dev community here at http://www.makegamessa.com/ ! Please check it out if your a local. I hope to see this grow significantly for our country.

So on with my adventure to try and find willing and affordable game artists to make my dreams a reality, at least the pre-alpha technical demo I hope.

Thank you for reading my rant. 

In my next post I will start by sharing my thought on the game(s) I want to make this year, with this new found time and adventure at hand, games genre's I like and do not enjoy and why, etc.