If you’ve ever worked on a large software project, you know that keeping track of your tech stack can be a full-time job. Especially when your project uses multiple languages and frameworks, it can be a painful process to set up the environment correctly.
In this article, I will explain how I use Buildout, an open-source automation tool written in Python, to create reliable builds for my game written in C++, JavaScript, and Python.
For the past year, I’ve been putting out a newsletter about adult gaming called Naughty List News almost every week. I say “almost” not because I missed a week, but because I started out by posting every two weeks instead of every week.
Paper prototyping is about making your game ideas playable as fast as possible. This allows you to catch mistakes that would have been very expensive to correct later on. It also means that you can get a feel for the gameplay without relying on artists or programmers. Paper prototyping is about using a game engine that runs on your own creativity.
There are a lot of new games coming out every day. By the time you’ve finished reading this article, 50 more games will have been added to Steam, Itch, Epic Games Store, etc. In a crowd like that, it’s very hard to stand out. That’s why you must put in the effort for your game to get any attention at all.
Luckily, there are a number of straightforward things you can do to improve your chances. If you want attention for your game, it often starts with writing a good marketing story.
One of the biggest issues facing game developers of all stripes is staying motivated during development. Making games is hard work and a lot of what we do does not pay off straight away. Luckily, we can use platforms like Twitter to keep in touch with our fans, engage with our peers, and keep ourselves motivated during development.
Notion is a supremely powerful tool for creating wiki pages and databases. I use it to keep my tasks organized, compile notes on my narrative, and even for writing this article. With just a few tweaks and my custom template, you can make Notion work for you as your project manager and let it help you prioritize your tasks and maximize the impact on your projects.
At the start of December, I switched jobs to a new games company. While I really enjoyed being a lead programmer at my previous company, I found it difficult to combine both my leadership and programming responsibilities. I ended up feeling like I wasn’t doing my best work on either. My calendar often looked like Swiss cheese, with small meetings interspersed throughout my day. I’ve taken a step back on my leadership responsibilities now, so I can focus more on writing code.
Whether you’re looking to improve your game design chops or just trying to get your start in the field, you should consider building a paper prototyping kit for yourself. Having this kit means you can easily try out your ideas and get other people excited about them.
In this article I will explain what you should put in your kit and you can go about acquiring the parts.
For Up There They Love, my upcoming visual novel and character management sim, I am not just programming the entire game. I’m also creating my own engine. 🤷♂️
When I was young and horny, I would play a lot of dating sims and other types of “adult” games. I would either pirate these games via torrents or play free Flash games on sites like Newgrounds.com.