Monthly Archives: January 2009

Oh Crap, Winter Is Here (And It’s Ruining My Car)

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Are you familiar with the old game production wisdom that says: “Fixing one bug just leads to 3-4 new bugs”?

I’ve just encountered it. Kind of. With my car.

Today we saw about -10 degrees (celcius) here, and the car doors were frozen. I tried opening one door, and then closing it, just to notice that it would not close anymore. I did all kinds of fancy stuff (no, I’m far from being a car mechanic) but with little luck. In the end, I just decided to try another approach and decided to open another door.

Bad move.

That door didn’t close either. The freaking door lock mechanism (or something) was simply so frozen that I could not close the door any more. I tried all sorts of melt-your-key-hole-thingy-sprays and whatnot but with little luck. Now I had two doors that could not be closed.

Eventually I just slammed the doors and thought that I let it be. It’s too bloody cold anyway so robbers won’t be stealing it (hopefully none of them is reading this blog now).

Nasty winter.

Luckily (like with any programming bugs) there’s always the ‘quick fix’ method. I’ve played so many adventure games that I know what to do when I see a long rope in the trunk of my car…

Steps On the Path of Becoming a Successful Game Producer

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Daniel from GameDreamer.net joined the Insiders and asked if I could review his brand new blog. (Those of you who don’t know, the yearly Insider subscription comes with a review bonus) This is a review about Daniel’s site, but also article about “steps on game producer path”.

The two steps
While a blog isn’t a product, and reviewing a (new) blog seemed bit difficult, I still agreed to do this.

The first thing that caught my was the site slogan: “Steps On the Path of Becoming a Successful Game Producer”. I read Daniel’s first post and I get the feeling he really wants to become a game producer/developer.

I think that means the first step out of 2 necessary ones are fulfilled. The second step is “go forward until you are a successful game developer”. I suppose if Daniel really wants to become a successful game producer, and takes steps forward every day (even small steps) he’s got a good future ahead.

Take what you need and leave the rest…
Another interesting point Daniel mentions in his about page is that “take what you need and leave the rest”. I tend to think similarly, so here’s some tips to consider regarding the website. Take what you need and leave the rest:

  • More content: Daniel’s blog needs more content. I realize it’s brand new, so I guess this is only a matter of time.
  • Newsletter: I always suggest people to start gathering emails from people. It’s one of the best ways to keep in touch on those people who visit your site.
  • Take away ‘visitor locations’: or put them somewhere less visible (like a separate page or something). Right now the ‘visitor locations’ takes the best space on the site.
  • Site layout could use something, but I think this is simply a matter of taste…

Since the site is brand new, it’s quite hard to suggest major changes. I think the basics are okay. If the goal is to gain traffic, then getting more content (and frequent updates) is a good start. I think that alone will bring a big difference in terms of gaining traffic. Then spending time on marketing the blog by participating different forums for example, will be helpful too.

If the GameDreamer.net blog’s purpose is to simply log Daniel’s progress on becoming a successful game producer, I see nothing wrong with that approach.

Starting to Feel Better (Check Here If You Won In The Xmas Contest)

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My fever (and most of the other stuff like sore throat) seems to be over and I’m feeling better. I start delivering those Christmas gifts during the first days of January, so please email me in case you won something in the Xmas contest (unless you’ve already done that). I’ve emailed people, but haven’t got replies from everybody yet.

I’ll be posting the links and other stuff to people who participated in the GTA4 donation during the following days.

It’s Good to Start a Year By Doing What You Promised

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It’s a brand new year now. First day of the year, and I want to start it by doing one of the things I promised to do. Here are the list of donators of those who helped me to get GTA 4.

In order of apperance…

Ofer (Pompi Pompi)
Tobias (Spell of Play)
Penny (who game me the idea to ask for this)
Janette (Evolutionary)
Martin (Running Pillow)
Jake (Grey Alien Games)
Josh (Leadwerks)
Jay (Hobbit Hole)
Julio (Lemon Team)
Daniel (Game Dreamer)
Michael (Michael James Williams)
Ronny (Kybernesis)

Thanks guys.

I’m emailing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Producers ebook to you now. Those of you who participated, please subscribe to the Dead Wake game newsletter to get informed when the game is released (so that you can claim your copy when the game is out).