This puts me in a fairly unique position to comment upon the production cycle at what I dare-say is a fairly typical development house. I have a degree of experience with generalized project management and have been a life-long gamer and for the past few years a game-writer, so I understand the basic structure of gaming. Getting in up to my elbows in the swamp that is production, though, has been an illuminating process, and something I’ll likely be writing about with some degree of regularity here.

Now: the topic at hand. Urbansquall released recently Battalion: Skirmish, a one-level preview for its upcoming releases in the Battalion franchise (multiplayer, single-player and cooperative games are due to be released in frighteningly rapid succession over the course of the summer). I had joined on as a producer at the final stages of Skirmish’s lifespan, and was asked to assist in its general release to some of the major Flash game portals that Urbansquall releases at (Kongregate, Newgrounds, etc.). And here’s what I learned.

1) Verify the .swf you will be Uploading

I would sincerely hope that this comes across as a massive no-brainer for everyone out there, but it bears mentioning. This is especially true if you are releasing with any degree of exclusivity to any particular portal. If that’s the case, it’s likely that you are releasing an .swf that has full-functionality with your main portal, and limited functionality with all others. It’s pretty crucial that you verify that the .swf will behave properly in each location. So, pretty please, take the extra time, check your file.

2) Pay Attention to the Small Things – Short vs. Long Description, Instructions

Do not underestimate the power of these small items. If you’re releasing a game on a major portal, you’re talking about hitting into the hundreds of thousands of gamers—a pretty hefty demographic spread. This horde of gamers is also choosing between a mob of games to play. How do they choose which to play and which to avoid? Presentation. And this is presentation before they have even loaded your game, so pay attention to the little things.

Most portals have two sets of description you can post, a short and a long. The short will display on their main page, the long once the game-page has been loaded. Some tips for creating these descriptions.

Your short description needs to be carefully crafted. Chances are you have no more than two fairly short or one complex sentence to get across the sense of what your game is. Don’t waste your time spouting how great and revolutionary your game is. Do give the gamer a sense of what they have to look forward to. What action can the gamer expect from your title? What experience will they be having? Distill that concept down to a single sentence. That’s your short description. If your game is part of a series, find a way to work that in, especially if the earlier games were popular. People will zero in on that keyword immediately.

The long description is where you want to get into the various features that will give your game legs. Think of anything that might be unique selling points, anything that will allow the player to customize or extend their gameplay past a single run-through.

Instructions: just because you have them in-game doesn’t mean you should half-ass writing them out by hand. Maybe in-game you were limited by screen-space or functionality. Take the time to write out some solid instructions for posting alongside your game description. It’s a useful exercise, too, because perhaps it will highlight something to you that you had overlooked previously. And when it comes to Instructions, step 4 below is crucial.

3) Choose the right Thumb

Thumbnail selection is probably the single most important step here. We’re very visual these days, and Flash portal main pages are rife with images. If your screenshot does not stand out in some way, you are lost in a sea of colors. Just as your short description should encapsulate the feel of the game experience, so should your thumbnail. I’m a fan of including notable in-game art. The player character, a cool enemy, a critical power-up. Something that will give the player a sense of what the game will actually look like. Thumbs of the splash screen are doable, but less exciting. That art likely doesn’t reference what the game will actually look like. It’s either boring or disingenuous, and those are both bad. Bottom of the rung in my opinion is a thumbnail showing the game’s title. I know what the title is. It’s right next to the thumb. Now I just see the title twice.

4) Have Someone Else Review All of your Release Materials

I cannot stress this enough. Even if you are a one-man development team, you need to have someone else review your materials. In fact, it’s better if someone who is not part of production review these materials. You’re too close to it. The concept is to have all of these items grab someone unfamiliar with the game and pull them in. Who best to review than someone who is actually unfamiliar with the game.

Do your thumbs look clear? Or are they too jumbled? Does the description give them a good sense of anything? Is the longer description readable? Do the instructions make sense?

Never underestimate your ability to gloss over mistakes. The brain is adept at this. It autocorrects, so be sure you have a failsafe.

1. Sirlin’s talk on competitive multiplayer was one of my top three favorite talks at this year’s GDC. You can get all the juicy details from his very helpful handout
2. The post mortem for Tale of Tale’s Graveyard.
3. Fairly sobering reflection on 2008 from Introversion (Uplink, Defcon, Darwinia, etc.).
4. Destructoid’s “Everything You Wanted To Know About Going Indie”.
5. The Four Hour Game Design from this year’s IGS. Genius.

That’s it for this week.

One case where you might be tempted to copy/paste code is when you’re performing some logic on a group of related objects. In the following example, we test the neighbors of our tile to see if we are surrounded by sea. This technique can be applied effectively to many other scenarios, however, like initializing a set of buttons, or aligning a bunch of logos.

var isSurroundedBySea : Boolean = false;

var leftTile : Tile = map.getTile( m_currentX - 1, m_currentY );
if( leftTile != null && !leftTile.isSea() )
{
    isSurroundedBySea = false;
}

var rightTile : Tile = map.getTile( m_currentX + 1, m_currentY );
if( rightTile != null && !rightTile.isSea() )
{
    isSurroundedBySea = false;
}

var upTile : Tile = map.getTile( m_currentX, m_currentY - 1 );
if( upTile != null && !upTile.isSea() )
{
    isSurroundedBySea = false;
}

var downTile : Tile = map.getTile( m_currentX, m_currentY + 1 );
if( downTile != null && !downTile.isSea() )
{
    isSurroundedBySea = false;
}

Copy/pasting has bloated the size of the code and made it incredibly brittle. If we need to modify the basic logic of the query (like perhaps testing for a modifier called “Sea” instead), we have to hope we remember to do it in all 4 places, and to do it correctly.

Never fear, though, Mr. For-Loop is here to save us. What I like to do in this particular case is plug all the objects into an array and then use a for-loop to make sure the code is written only once:

var isSurroundedBySea : Boolean = false;

var neighbors : Array = [
    map.getTile( m_currentX - 1, m_currentY ),
    map.getTile( m_currentX + 1, m_currentY ),
    map.getTile( m_currentX, m_currentY + 1),
    map.getTile( m_currentX, m_currentY - 1 ) ];

for( var n : int = 0; n < neighbors.length; n++ )
{
    var neighbor : Tile = neighbors[ n ];
    if( neighbor != null && !neighbor.isSea() )
    {
        isSurroundedBySea = false;
        break;
    }
 }

Not only is it faster to write this code than it is to copy/paste all that junk up there, the code is significantly more robust because we’ve converted 4 potential sources of failure into (basically) one.

You have to be able to write bug free for-loops to use this trick effectively. But I’m pretty sure you can handle that.

Daniel James, who is awesome, posted enough data on his blog to keep us all busy for weeks.

He also linked Lessons Learned which has a great article on launching the “minimum viable product.” It’s sobering stuff for us indies who usually have ambitions that exceed our capabilities.

I am looking for a junior programmer with a proficiency in Actionscript 3.0. You need to have a strong work ethic, be a good team player, and be willing to work virtually. You will be given the opportunity to learn cutting edge game technologies including some of the most advanced topics out there like large scale real time online multiplayer.

This is a relaxed search. I’ll fill the position when I find the right candidate. I don’t have any dates or deadlines driving my decision.

If you’re interested, drop me a line. Send me a link to your resume or portfolio and let me know what you’re looking for from a work environment, and if possible a Skype, YIM, MSN or AIM handle so that I can get back to you via e-mail or IM to discuss your needs and if they align with ours at Urbansquall. I look forward to hearing from you!

The following need to RESUBMIT:

1. Toggle
2. Rocket Santa
3. Peg Puzzle
4. PBM Cube
5. 4k Shoot Em Up

Basically, your entry went silently into my spam box before I could get them. I believe I have the issue resolved now, and apologize profusely for the bother.

The following are confirmed received:

1. Bovis Abyssus
2. Whac A Mole
3. Attack of the Rage Beast
4. Minex
5. 4k Pillars
6. Hammy Wars
7. Color Stack
8. Rampart
9. Ghost4Koin
10. Little Missile Command
11. Dungeon Romp
12. 2in1under4
13. Face Dodge
14. Neon Bricks 4k
15. Infinite Ammo 4k
16. Fork Defense
17. space 4000
18. Event Horizon
19. Go And Turn
20. Switch
21. No Discrimination
22. Pie
23. Vector Fighter 4k

To be honest, when I started this competition I told myself I’d be happy to have 3 entries. Not only are there a lot of competitors, the competition is FIERCE. Some of these entries are truly amazing despite the draconian constraints.

The quality of execution and the joy of seeing how awesome these games are means I’ll definitely be hosting more 4k competitions in the future! I will be looking for more ways to sweeten the prize pot on future competitions because these games are simply amazing!

1. The Flash 4k Game competition ends March 9th, 2009 at 8:00 PST. I’ll be posting winners and such next Friday (the 13th).
2. Are you going to be at the GDC this year? I’ll be there for pretty much the whole week. I have a few appointments and such but it would be great to meet and shake hands if our schedules are in sync. I’ll be going to the Indiegamer dinner, along with the Flash Gaming Summit and also the Flash Gaming Summit After Party if you plan to attend any of those events.
3. Are there any sort of articles you’d like me to focus on moving forward? I’m torn between doing some business stuff or doing some design stuff, so help me decide by making some requests!

Drop a comment or contact me with your thoughts. Best of luck if you’re working on wrapping up your 4k entry!