Indie-Resource.com

Well, considering that my experience has been mostly in PHP/Web development, as opposed to game development, I decided to ask any of my friends if they'd like to learn and grow with me as I learn to design games. So I posted a few times on Facebook, and got a pretty good number of replies. (actually it was only 3, but considering that when I was attempting to get PHP developers for my web applications we got zero replies and had to resort to hiring interns, 3 was a good turnout).

So here are the people we got so far:
- My company's part owner, (my business partner), is going to be a designer/team leader
- An ex-coworker of mine, whom I worked with on several audio engineering / production projects for music and soundscapes, is going to head up the music/SFX department
- I have a friend who (at least for now) is willing to do grunt work, IE data entry, testing, etc.
- And me and another programmer (another old friend) are going to lead the development team

Still no graphic artists, and of course this team is a hobbyist group at best, but I am excited to have some people to collaborate with! We decided to start small so that we can grow together as a team and learn how we interact with each other. We're going to do a bunch of small projects, IE flash games (tower defense, avoider, simple RPG), maybe continue the PBBG I started, and create some basic side-scrollers on Unity.

BTW, I had never tried Unity before, despite the high recommendations from everywhere, including this forum. But I have to say, it is by FAR the easiest tool I have ever worked with and I am extremely surprised by how fast development goes and how easy it is to learn.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Any ideas for an indie team name?!

Congrats!

However, do keep in mind that just because something is in Flash does not mean it is a "simple game". Flash can be just as complex as creating a game from scratch in C++. I would think a good first project could be a simple puzzle game in Flash. It may be more work than your thinking. Even a simple RPG in Flash is a gigantic project!

Jackolantern wrote:Congrats!

However, do keep in mind that just because something is in Flash does not mean it is a "simple game". Flash can be just as complex as creating a game from scratch in C++. I would think a good first project could be a simple puzzle game in Flash. It may be more work than your thinking. Even a simple RPG in Flash is a gigantic project!

I am in agreement with Jack on this one. Flash is no easy walk in the park. I wanted to create our website using flash and even something like was difficult...but the point still stands, Flash is no easy ride...but will be rewarding if and/or when you get it done.

Well, I understand that all of this could be a big undertaking. We are just going to be growing together as developers as we work out ideas. What I suppose I meant was, compared to the scope of the MMORPG I want to eventually make, we will be making simple games. I can't see the development of a simple tower defense game taking longer than a few months with a few people.

Or, as I had stated, we could continue my PBBG, of which most of the core work was done in just a few weeks. (Of course it needs some serious tweaking and testing)

I don't expect that any of this will be easy. Sorry I came off sounding arrogant

BTW though, I did manage to create an avoider game in Flash (as simple as it was) in just a few days. AS3 is pretty easy to get the hang of; what get's me stuck is the artwork haha.

Working with vector art in Flash is a huge load off of the artists IMHO. I can't draw a stick figure, but I can make a passable spaceship in Flash using vectors. Perhaps look into that, and even if you aren't able to make assets you would want to use, it may allow a future artist who joins to turn out assets more quickly

I have worked with flash before and after a little while and you get the huge page of code its going to get hard and confusing.

Baseball435 wrote:I have worked with flash before and after a little while and you get the huge page of code its going to get hard and confusing.

Was that with ActionScript 2? AS3 basically forces you to write code in a tight, compact OO way. I mean, you can write procedural code in AS3, but you will be at odds with the base class library, since it makes full use of small, single-purpose scripts almost entirely set one class-per-file.

Jackolantern wrote:Working with vector art in Flash is a huge load off of the artists IMHO. I can't draw a stick figure, but I can make a passable spaceship in Flash using vectors. Perhaps look into that, and even if you aren't able to make assets you would want to use, it may allow a future artist who joins to turn out assets more quickly

Very true. Although I'm not used to the provided tool-set yet, it does make design easier then say, photoshop. I'll keep playing with it as time goes by.

Jackolantern wrote:Was that with ActionScript 2? AS3 basically forces you to write code in a tight, compact OO way. I mean, you can write procedural code in AS3, but you will be at odds with the base class library, since it makes full use of small, single-purpose scripts almost entirely set one class-per-file.

That's exactly why I like AS3 so much. OOP makes everything better

Also check out Illustrator if you happen to have it in a Creative Suite. It is like Flash's vector art tools on steroids, with many, many additional features. They can be tightly coupled due to their heavy focus on vectors. You just have to be careful with the way Illustrator handles vector curving. In my opinion Flash handles it in a much more intuitive manner than Illustrator, but you can get used to it

Is it done with that silly pen tool? I hate that thing

OMG btw I was checking out some 3D graphics programs, and I came across ZBrush. I must have it!!!@! ($700 is a bit steep for me right now, but I'm seriously considering it - painting on textures just seems so much easier then mapping them)