"My big gay adventure. Making, releasing and selling an indie game made in python." by Luke Miller

Transcript

1. 1.

   My Big Gay Adventure Making, releasing and selling an indie

   game made in python.
2. 2.

   welcome to dodgyville Luke Miller twitter.com/dodgyville dodgyville@gmail.com

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   Today (My) game design aims Using pyvida to make a

   point-and-click Releasing Publicising
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   Fun gay science fiction adventures

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   2D point-and-click adventure ala LucasArts and Telltale Day of the

   Tentacle, Space Quest, Sam and Max, BTTF (3D)
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   Scifi adventure Star Trek: TNG, Doctor Who, Space:1999

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   Gay, gay-themed, openly gay, not as gay as Call of

   Duty Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Melbourne gay bar culture
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   Released December 2012 as digital download. You play as Captain

   Tycho Minogue, brought out of retirement to face an invasion fleet led by your ex- boyfriend.
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   Nonpornographic, serious attempt at a commercial game. It's paying the

   rent
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    Why Lack of same-sex love interests in scifi A gay-theme

    implies a gay story Point-and-click great for narrative, casual 2D "Disney-style" non-threatening, fun, colourful, lends itself to comedy
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    Before we go any further The sum is greater than

    the parts Art, tech and interest all work together, baked in How the components fit together and compliment each other is the craft of game developing
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    What should indie game developers aim for?

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    Entertainment Game must be enjoyable to play gameplay, the beat,

    high/low points, rewards, push/pull, controls/interface
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    Quality Game must be polished bugfree, complete, menus, goodlooking

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    Interest Game must be interesting to others will want (vs

    want), delight, intrigue, stories
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    My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant Entertaining - PnC, comedy, tips,

    gameplay Quality - complete package Interesting - compelling for gay men*, press**
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    Let's make a game https://github.com/dodgyville/pyvida

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    Write your own adventure Tycho enters the foyer. There is

    a guard at the door. There is a steady drip from a small crack in the dome. Tycho widens the crack, causing a flood. The guard leaves his post to plug the crack, leaving the door unguarded. Go inside, destroy the machine.
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    Entertaining, quality, interesting? Bake it in at every level

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    Basics of pyvida simplicity, feedback, runs anywhere A stage mentality

    Scenes Actors Items Portals Test driven mentality "The play is written first, then acted". look at [x] interact with [x] use [x] on [y] Actor.says Actor.goto Actor.do
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    game[1-2].py

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    pyvida smart layout main.py data/actors/ data/fonts/ data/items/ data/locale/ data/music/ data/portals/

    data/scenes/ data/sfx/ saves/ game.smart()
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    game3.py

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    Test driven development tail -f saves/pyvida.log python game3.py -a -s

    end -x
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    tests, walkthroughs, help but ... python game3.py -s end -H

    -x -w and a mea culpa
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    So the preferred pyvida workflow Write, step-by-step directions, build sets,

    get actors, write game scripts
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    Accessibility People don't have accessibility issues, software has accessibility issues

    vision, hearing, mobility, cognitive
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    Game accessibility guidelines http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/

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    Commercial benefits of including source selling point, accessibility, longer life,

    bug fixes, promotes open ecosystem
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    Game code is only a small part

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    The tools google docs/drive python 2.7 / pygame (pyglet?) /

    pyvida github.org trello.com game scripts packaging py2exe&py2app&bash aws bmtmicro
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    Packaging game2exe.py + innoset py2app + create_dmg source archive +

    zenity install.sh 1 config file, 3 build scripts
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    Updating Auto-update would be ideal but checking for updates is

    OK too (you'll never launch 100% perfect)
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    Website + Trailer Your website is your game's values in

    miniature - the first act of your game Entertaining, quality, interesting
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    Digital download stores bmtmicro, humble store, indie bundles, desura, gog,

    steam the long tail, sales started picking up six months after release
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    The death of the author You have no control over

    how people receive your game feedback, journalists, review copies, reviews, hero swag, play this, community politics, tangential media, third party advocacy
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    *Feedback Thank you for a wonderful game playing experience, and

    the fact that it was a 'gay game' made it ever so much more enjoyable for this gay player. - John I'd like to compliment you on the game, My Ex-boyfriend the Space Tyrant. I enjoyed the artwork, the tongue-in- cheekiness, and the sense of a campy space-adventure. It's nice to have a gay-centric game, especially since most games are heavily influenced to appeal to the straight guy- gamer. - Jason It's a whole lot of fun, as a gay guy this is the game I've wanted to play all my life! - Brian
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    Negative feedback I have friends that are gay and work

    daily to fight the type of prejudice that things like this create. Down voting just for being a cancer to their own cause. Every game I saw on Greenlight, I gave it a yes, but I can't give a yes to this shit, sorry but the game shouldn't be on steam, I really hate it ! Umm... Well thats one way to scar a small child for life. This game makes me want to projectile vommet... If it did not, then I would be gay, but I am not gay.
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    **Press Gay (a few) eg towleroad.com Local Gay (a few)

    samesame.com.au Local (hardly any) eg theage.com.au Local Gamer (a few) eg blackpanel.com.au Gay Gamer (a lot) eg gaygamer.net Pop culture (a lot) eg polygon.com theverge.com cinemablend.com and many more Gamer (a few) eg kotaku.com Social Networks (a lot) twitter, facebook, youtube, google+
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    Lessons learned the hard way 3 fast ones

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    Only gamers are interested in games and the gaming press

    is straight (not a criticism)
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    $10 price point for indie games

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    Great ideas become good ideas become boring ideas

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    Kickstarter a lot of work, have a community, gameplay footage,

    kickstarter network (inc. swaps), realistic tiers, viable stretch goals
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    Applying the lessons second game second version of pyvida sharing

    some of advanced ideas
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    More entertaining shorter sections, bigger ideas, and ... gayer gameplay

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    Higher quality More tests, more testers, mature engine, co- writer,

    same artists
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    More interesting: Code as art presentation, content, value adding [main.py]

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    def setup_queue(game, x, y, num_of_actors=6): “”” Create the NPCs for

    the aqueue set-piece “”” for i in range(0, num_of_actors): spaceperson = create_spaceman(game, name="cosmonaut%i"%i) game.add(spaceperson) point = (x, y + random.randint(-15, 15)) rocketpilot = spaceperson rocketpilot.relocate("aqueue", point) rocketpilot.ai = False x += random.randint(120, 180)
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    So I hope this presentation has given you some ideas

    on taking your own game idea from dream to reality pycon-au Brisbane August 2014
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    Thanks for listening!