Woah, I didn't know this would be such a hot topic. I forgot that I even posted it, haha.
First of all, thanks for everyone's interest. The reason I posted this is because I specifically wrote the article for an audience that does not have in-depth knowledge of video game developing. That is why I did not name any companies or software. Also, I had to keep that article to a maximum length. If it was up to me, it would have been about twice as long. So that should answer a lot of questions. I'm not going to lie, I like people knowing about my game, but that was not my main purpose of this article.
@ Matt Rock: thanks for the criticism. It's always appreciated.
Quote: "But what about the history of early computer games?"
Like I said, I would have loved to elaborate, but there were space restrictions. I researched the history of video games, and found a timeline. I found that the first "video game" was a pong-type thing actually created on an oscilloscope. Well, that's what the site said anyway. I just didn't want to go too in-depth.
Quote: ""people" is used quite liberally here. Maybe you could say something like "although there were no vast internet resources for programmers to utilize that could help them learn the art of video game creation." Or in some other way remove one of the uses of the word "people.""
Yes, you're completely right. I overlooked the wording of that sentence. Sorry, I should have fixed that. You should be an editor, haha.
Quote: "What language and tools were you using? You say "a new programming language," but I'd personally like to know which one. It adds another dimension of discription to your text"
Actually, the "new programming language" was Dark Basic Classic, haha. Like I said, I wanted to keep the article simple so that there wasn't too much in it that was hard to follow or keep track of. My audience was the average college student, not indie developers.
Quote: "That's not necessarily true. While it takes considerable amounts of money to advertise any product, especially in such a manner that it would compete with major studio productions, you could get decent results based on "geurilla"- style marketing tactics. Some indie games were released on bare-bones budgets and have sold remarkably. What is your game about? How accessible is your game to the market? Are the controls simple to learn and apply? And most importantly, what price is the game set at? It seems to be generally acknowledged by our community as a fact that you should release freeware games, then shareware, then work your way up to full-blown commercial titles. Did you follow this hierchy? I honestly believe it helps."
Again, you're correct. I did not do as well as I could have. My game isn't the easiest game to learn to play, and it is probably a little bit too expensive. But I trusted the publishers who were interested in my game, and I let them advise me on the price. I guess that was another one of my mistakes. I also probably should have made more free stuff first. I just got too excited about being published and paid for something that I worked for so long on.
Quote: "I'd hate to say it, but the mainstream industry is definitely breaking new ground more often than the indie industry."
Yes, actually commercial developers are starting to make great innovations in game design. You stated a great example with "Spore." But think about it for a bit. How many games are produced by big companies, and how many are innovative? Now how many games are actually published by indie developers, and how many of those are innovative? In my opinion, a much larger percentage of published indie games have new ideas and show more creativity than commercial games. I'm sure that someone can prove me wrong if they want to. Be my guest, I know that I am not always correct.
Thank you Fallout and Steve J. You're both right. I didn't really expect to change anybody's view. Like I said, this was an assignment and I figured I'd use this as my topic, it was the first one that came into my head. Good ideas in my head are like purple camels: very rare.
A lot of people mentioned that my article sounded like an advertisement. That's because an opinion article is technically an advertisement. It is an article that tries to change the view of the reader and get them to consider your view point.
Thanks everyone. Sorry for not responding sooner, but my finals are next week, and I've been extremely busy.
Xander Moser - Bolt Software - Firewall
