Comments on: I Sure Am a Consumer Who Wants to Buy Stuff (That’s Why Companies Must Love Me)

By: Juuso

Juuso — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:06:31 +0000

@Brian: I start calling it “occupational hazard” too ;)

@Jake: Hah, hah. Sure :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:17:33 +0000

I was thinking the same before but now stopped buying this tool and that program. I told myself not to buy anything befre the next project is finished. And surprisingly it works great!

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:12:44 +0000

Just get the game done dude. Then buy some neat games as a reward when you are in the brainstorming phase for your next game.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:26:40 +0000

I call it the “occupational hazard” of a game developer.

One thing I’ve been doing more of lately is getting more stuff on the cheap. I play Flash games and load up emulators (of games I have sitting in storage, right?) to get my inspiration. I look for discount games that people used to rave about. Steam’s specials are also useful for picking up a game on the cheap.

Rushing out and buying the game on release weekend or buying a new board game because the box was attractive isn’t really “research” though. ;) But, I won’t tell anyone your secret if you don’t….

By: Juuso

Juuso — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:25:42 +0000

Custom deck = prototyping ;)

(yeh, right…)

By: Marcin Seredynski

Marcin Seredynski — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:51:36 +0000

No, this kind of research isn’t very useful. It seems you’re buying everything “cool”, not necessarily related to the project you work on at the time. You’re writing “Dead Wake”, and how does a custom card deck relate to your game? It doesn’t make sense to be paranoid about not knowing enough about the gaming industry – if one had a full time job of “being up to date” in the industry… he would have to work overtime a lot. Limit your research to what’s relevant to your current project. The rest of the stuff you buy is just for fun (of course, there’s nothing wrong with that), don’t fool yourself :)

By: Robert Dowling

Robert Dowling — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:08:13 +0000

I stopped kidding myself that I buy a game to gain creative ideas or whatnot from, long ago.
The thing I fight over now is, I know I shouldn’t buy the game, because in all honesty I already have a hard time finding the time to get all the work I want done. But I still buy and play games, and then I feel guilty for it.