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

Transcript

1. My Big Gay Adventure
   Making, releasing and selling an indie game
   made in python.
   

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

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3. Today
   (My) game design aims
   Using pyvida to make a point-and-click
   Releasing
   Publicising
   

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4. Fun gay science fiction adventures
   

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5. 2D point-and-click adventure ala LucasArts and Telltale
   Day of the Tentacle, Space Quest, Sam and Max, BTTF (3D)
   

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6. Scifi adventure
   Star Trek: TNG, Doctor Who, Space:1999
   

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7. 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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8. 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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9. Nonpornographic, serious attempt at a commercial game. It's paying the rent
   

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10. 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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11. 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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12. What should indie game
    developers aim for?
    

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13. Entertainment
    Game must be enjoyable to play
    gameplay, the beat, high/low points,
    rewards, push/pull, controls/interface
    

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14. Quality
    Game must be polished
    bugfree, complete, menus, goodlooking
    

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15. Interest
    Game must be interesting to others
    will want (vs want), delight, intrigue, stories
    

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16. My Ex-Boyfriend the
    Space Tyrant
    Entertaining - PnC, comedy, tips, gameplay
    Quality - complete package
    Interesting - compelling for gay men*, press**
    

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17. Let's make a game
    https://github.com/dodgyville/pyvida
    

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18. 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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19. Entertaining, quality,
    interesting?
    Bake it in at every level
    

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20. 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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21. game[1-2].py
    

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22. 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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23. game3.py
    

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

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25. tests, walkthroughs, help
    but ...
    python game3.py -s end -H -x -w
    and a mea culpa
    

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26. So the preferred pyvida
    workflow
    Write, step-by-step directions, build sets, get
    actors, write game scripts
    

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27. Accessibility
    People don't have accessibility issues,
    software has accessibility issues
    vision, hearing, mobility, cognitive
    

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28. Game accessibility guidelines
    http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/
    

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29. Commercial benefits of
    including source
    selling point, accessibility, longer life, bug
    fixes, promotes open ecosystem
    

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30. Game code is only a
    small part
    

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31. 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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32. Packaging
    game2exe.py + innoset
    py2app + create_dmg
    source archive + zenity install.sh
    1 config file, 3 build scripts
    

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33. Updating
    Auto-update would be ideal but checking for
    updates is OK too (you'll never launch 100%
    perfect)
    

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34. Website + Trailer
    Your website is your game's values in
    miniature - the first act of your game
    Entertaining, quality, interesting
    

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35. 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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36. 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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37. *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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38. 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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39. **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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40. Lessons learned the hard
    way
    3 fast ones
    

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41. Only gamers are
    interested in games
    and the gaming press is straight (not a
    criticism)
    

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42. $10 price point for indie
    games
    

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43. Great ideas become good
    ideas become boring
    ideas
    

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44. Kickstarter
    a lot of work, have a community, gameplay
    footage, kickstarter network (inc. swaps),
    realistic tiers, viable stretch goals
    

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45. Applying the lessons
    second game
    second version of pyvida
    sharing some of advanced ideas
    

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46. More entertaining
    shorter sections, bigger ideas, and ... gayer
    gameplay
    

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47. Higher quality
    More tests, more testers, mature engine, co-
    writer, same artists
    

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

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49. 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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50. 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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51. Thanks for listening!
    

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