I originally got into programming because of horse racing at the age 12. I fell desperately passionately in love with it and have been programming ever since. I worked full time as a Controls Engineer/Programmer before quitting to pursue creating video games, apps, and websites full time. I blog about my experiences as a programmer and GameDev at www.gildedoctopusstudios.com. I've made a mix of horror and RPG games. Currently I am working on Bramblewood a cheerful sim/RPG game about working for a sorceress. My games are on Itch.io and VoxPop. I also work fulltime as a Senior Unreal Developer for another studio.
I’ve been around a few different tech startups at this point and one problem I see very often is that at some point someone says lets make this multiplayer. If your not a programmer you probably don’t know why this can be a problem and if you are your probably cringing a little bit. So…
Making a logo can be one of the toughest parts of game development. Don’t believe me? Take a moment and think about all the places that the logo for a game shows up. When you are looking to buy a new video game what is the first thing you look at? Normally the first thing you see is a piece o…
At the end of 2020 I met a ton of really cool ttrpg folks through us all having our games in a bundle that we worked together to promote. https://itch.io/b/705/ind-of-the-year-2020 Frost Bite was the only video game in the bundle so it was interesting to see other styles of game development.
Whi…
Sometimes you work for months or years on a game and when you release it- it just flops- dead in the water. Sometimes it is because your marketing is off. Sometimes the launch bugs get you. Sometimes it's just not the right game for the times. It happens. Realistically it happens far more often tha…
Sometimes you work for months or years on a game and when you release it- it just flops- dead in the water. Sometimes it is because your marketing is off. Sometimes the launch bugs get you. Sometimes it’s just not the right game for the times. It happens. Realistically it happens far more of…
Recently I ran into this fantastic resource by Erin Lux(@erinluxx) who does illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar. She was kind enough to let me post it on here. Motion graphics is something I’ve only recently become aware of due to researching key art but now that I know what it is I see i…
Dustwalker has been such a fun project. It’s the first game I did a beta test for and I was blown away by how many people volunteered to test it. I implemented a ton of cool features because of the beta testing and fixed a smorgasbord of bugs.
Only a couple more days now and everyone wil…
Key art has got to be one of the hardest things for me when it comes to game design/marketing. It’s something I have really limited experience in and it’s so different from other sorts of art.You have to think about things like margins and dimensions, leaving space for titles, and it ha…
Beta testing has been going well. So far beta testers have found several bugs and made numerous suggestions for improvement. It’s been really useful. I’ve also gotten some really positive comments about it.
Beta tester- “I’m really in…
I’ve been mulling over a game idea for several years now about a warlock who has horse familiars and lives in a dust bowl/Mongolian plans like area. I’ve used it several times in the past to practice various skills but it’s never really come together into a full game before now. F…
