Yes. It’s a fucking big deal.
Came across this post and replied it. It is kinda old (when OUYA was raising kickstarter funding)
People who think that you have no right to play games if you cannot afford xBox!
My reply.
And this goes for everyone who wants to show off that they can afford expensive consoles.
I have consoles too, but something like OUYA is unique and I happily welcome it into the market.
Just played the Demo of this game …. and its freaking awesome 
Not sure what many sites were bitching about the controls of the game.. but I didnt seem to face such issues.
Gameplay kept me smiling all throughout the Demo.. there is new COOL stuff every few steps and artwork is pretty sharp (ofcourse there is ton of animated funny blood)
You can’t escape the ‘Wrath of Dead Rabbit’ 
I wanna buy this game’s box copy and store it.. but darn it.. they don’t sell 
SEGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA …argh.
Well Crysis 3 was going to be out soon and I hadn’t played my Xbox for long long time.. I even stopped renewing my XBLA account since June/July-ish.. not sure what came over me.
Anyway, I looked at my C2 progress and was at Rank 47 something… and thought why not get my money’s worth before C3 comes out. Last memory of it, multiplayer sucked due to bad andd droppy match making, unavailable servers and messed up rank battles. Surprise, they had fixed ton of stuff and multiplayer experience did go up (well not as much as BattleField3)
So a week ago or so, I finished C2 ranking to level 50.
Crysis2 – Got my money’s worth.
Makes it the most played game on my console.
My last 3 achievements on C2, – Rank50 obvious, Unlocked all weapons (some of those nasty shotguns that I didnt want to use), and some dedication batch .. for playing after long 6 months
And then…….. download of Crysis 3 beta started.
The game is WHOA!!! over Crysis 2 … and I’m just playing BETA.
– Bigger maps
– Maps have greater traverse difficulty ( not easy to run around like C2 / Call of Duty.. also means more scope for campers 
)
– Graphics is to a next level (although I’m restricted on console.. I can only imagine that this will blow a PC)
– There is a different feel to the POV in C3.
– CrossBow is wicked.. got killed by it couple of times (I need to rank up to get that)
– Ranking system seems faster than C2? (or is it because I was quite noob to multiplayer FPS when I got C2 and now skill is ranking me up faster 
)
– Matchmaking is FAAASSTT.
– No game drops / Server un-avail-abilities experienced
– Game mechanics is so improved
– Cloaking feels better (even at close range.. its hard to find a cloaked player now)
– Sounds.. Game sounds – amazing.. I love the game sounds..and how its not “noise” like in C2. There is music.
– Auto armor .. love it. Armoring up is not my strength in C2… I was more of a Silent killer. This helps.
– New broadcast voice – male (I’d have preferred a female commander 
)
– Melee kills are faster (suit power makes sense now .. in C2 melee took time. Where d ef was Superhuman strength?)
– Bigger Maps (although not as big as BattleField3 … or is it restricted in Beta?)
There are couple of bugs though… shooting is a bit off (may be its the new POV), but on replay it clearly showed couple of times that at a close range fight the player was shooting atleast 3-4 inches away from me.. but it still made damage. And some weapon glitches that can be taken advantage of. Oh well its still beta…Hoping they get fixed before release.
Over all, very happy.. With just couple of minutes playing it.. I had already ranked up to level5, Ended up at top2 in matches, collected ton of dog tags, and got Maximum Radar for the team.
Ah, well Mom sweet Mom is here to visit me again, and concerned about how I am doing living all alone(yet again), staring at empty walls of my house and with unlimited emptiness of my heart.
I don’t discuss my work life with my mom, .. come think of it, I don’t discuss my personal life either… because I think I shouldn’t make her feel worried because of the decisions I take in my life ( and almost all of my decisions are considered weird according to so called society norms)
Anyway, I decided to show my mom what I was working on, and asked her if she would like to play my game “Tank ‘em Up!” (under development)
Here’s a set of expressions she had while playing the game AND what I added some dialogues of what she might be thinking; for fun
Phase: Start of Game
Mom: What the Fuck is this Shit! I thought computer guys are supposed to fix broken computers, make train ticket booking stuff and so on… and he is wasting his time drawing all these tank and what not.
Dammit, the kid who runs internet cafe at the village is at least working… and we made this guy Engineer for this shit!
At start of the game
Phase: Able to move the player tank around the level map
Mom: Oh, this thing moves.. hmm like I can drive this thing huh…. not bad.. so its not a stupid drawing after all.
Able to move the tank in my game “Tank ‘em Up”
Phase: On driving through the first mine and getting her tank blown up!
Mom: Heh not bad at all. He probably won’t starve to death… lets hope.
On getting the tank blown up to a landmine
Phase: On figuring out that she needs to blast through the obstacles to progress in the game rather than to turn back and drive!
Mom: LMAO.. Why can’t I just honk instead of shooting things
Why can’t I just honk these guys occupying the road?
Maaa.. you’re playing a battle game!
Phase: Mom’s tank getting PWNED by one of the mini-bosses
Mom: ROFLMAO… this thing is fun… may be you could earn a living as a comedian rather than computer guy
Pwned by mini boss in the game
Well so now I have no idea what is so funny in my game Scratching my head!
Couple of hours ago I got a request for a game review by an Indie/seemingly Indie dev.
Playing that game, and even some similar games earlier makes me write this list of Do’s and Don’ts for an Indie.
SideNote: Yes, I tend to play a ton of games to learn design flaws and excellences, as an Indie myself; I think its a must..
I however, will avoid making references to those games; because I consider it rude/too harsh on young Indies
So, here’s a list of Don’ts to start with.. and I’ll keep adding/updating the list as I come across more and find time to instantly add it.
If you’re an Indie, you might wanna skim through this list.. I know it gets excited and hyper to launch a game, but a quality stuff matters more than just throwing something half done out there and then asking around people to review it.
Take it with a pinch of salt
Indie DONT’s:
1. Don’t release your game as a version 1.0 / any stable to any app store before it actually is a properly done game.
Most of the games I get asked to review look like prototypes.
Please take feedback from other Indie game devs who have already released a good game before considering your game ready for app store shipping.
2. Don’t spoil the gameplay by accompanying it with horrible art.
I’ve seen some games have potential due to their gameplay, but the art sucked to an extent that it made the game eyesore and I stopped playing after 3-5 minutes.
I’m not saying everyone can be a great game artist, but if you don’t have the skill.. please take external help.
Your game will end up selling more and you will see rewards.
3. Don’t spoil the gaming experience by using ear-paining sounds / using no sound at all.
Game sounds are as important as Game Art is. Please get some good sounds in the game…unless your game is the next Limbo.
The player needs to be hooked up both visually and acoustically.
I simply tend to fall asleep if there is no sound in the game; if there is a horrible one, I’d anyway turn off the sound and hence again fall asleep.
4. Don’t ignore your Animations.
Games run on different devices, they can be slow/fast. They could be loaded with other processes eating up the memory.
If a gamer clicks/touches on a certain option on your menu and has to wonder whether the “touch/click” did happen or not… then you’re in trouble. You were probably missing a simple animation that changes color of an option on touch.. letting player know that ‘ok you have touched this option, now wait’.
That’s just the simplest level. There are tons of places where devs/designers seem to miss simple animations that make the game feels responsive.
5. Don’t LIFT art from other games and put them in your Stable release.
Again on the topic of art, I happen to notice a game that uses another game’s Protagonist (developed by a different entity; so not your property) and change the ‘color’ and use it as one of the Antagonist in their game. Not just that, they’ve also used couple of minions (with color changed) in their game.
Which is kinda shocking, because Yes, you can use art from internet for prototyping, you can use license free sprites in your stable release too, BUT using another game’s IP (Intellectual Property), in your STABLE release! A Big NO.
You should be just thanking your stars that your ass isnt sued already.
6. Don’t ask your friends/family/colleagues(non-gamers) to write a Nice review with 5 star rating on app store.
The moment a real gamer looks at those reviews / even a real investor looks at it.. we know that it’s a premeditated review. And on top of that, when we play the game and it turns out to be not-that-great… your game loses even more respect (and even you as a developer lose respect) to have asked people to write “This is awesome. You exceeded my expectations” and also give a “5 star rating”.
I encounter those, I don’t play another game from same developer.. I don’t even care to look at it.
Have some standards, Have some respect to the appstores that might get you revenues later. Don’t forge it. Get real reviews from real gamers.
I’d anyday be happy to play a 3.5/4star rated game that is fairly good, than play a 5 star rated game that has forged reviews and is crappy as hell.
7. Don’t overlook minor User experience stuff
Games that don’t have a ‘Turn sound off’ option, that don’t give enough visual feedback on touches, that don’t have a tutorial on how to play, that has a misguided ‘help’ button, don’t have an exit button/option, don’t bother to reward users on small achievements.
8. Don’t be like an ad serving Porn Site
I agree its difficult for us Indie’s struggling with revenues, but that doesn’t mean you’ll go and put ads at places where player NEEDS to touch/click in order to play the game; forcing users to either click the ad or making user accidentally click ads in between gameplay.
Both are terribly annoying!
I’ll give you an example: Today I played a game that has all its ads stacked up at the end of each level/within a “more games” option in the menu (ads, cross game promotions etc). and then another game that had its ad placed at bottom-center of the screen where I needed to “swipe” to play the game.
Guess what:
First game – I played for 20 mins. I finished couple of levels, wrote them a nice review on app store. Gave 5 star rating. Wanted to tweet but their tweet button was bit broken sadly. Clicked on 11 of their ads featuring other games, downloaded 9 of them and will play them tomorrow. The game still exists on my tablet and I’ll play it again.
Second game – Looked at it 3 secs. Tried to play without touching the ad on accidental swipe. Hated it. Closed. Uninstalled. Will never play it again or may be even not look at another game from same publisher.
9. Don’t have unambiguous/endless/vague objectives if your game has levels and is not an RPG/Puzzle
Damn you if your game says it has 150 levels, and I’m playing the first level since last 15 minutes and your game is a ‘Casual’ genre. Of the 15 minutes, 5 minutes I try to figure out what the fuck I am supposed to do (lack of tutorial), 10 minutes after figuring out due to self-intelligence I’m just killing same minions again and again, with same difficulty level, with no sense of when the stage is “marked” complete or what are the objectives to be met to complete a stage.
Game is uninstalled and it will be long time before I look at another game that says same publisher.
Contributions from Redditors
11. Don’t advertise your game before it’s ready to be advertised. – by HollisFenner
12. Don’t Bite more than you can Chew! – by ChainsawSam
13. asskickingjedi and MrFidelmios have a list of valuable advises which I thought would be injustice if shortened to put them here.
So linking you directly to it - http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/14po9p/indie_game_devdesigners_things_to_do_things_not/
Alrighty Guys, that’s it for now.. As promised I’ll keep updating the list. Gotta get back to work
Dec 08, 2012. 02:03 am IST – A new logo coming up for Toonheart.
Finalising the logo for my gaming startup – Toonheart
Dealing with sprained wrist, but it can’t be helped…. Work is Work.
Nov 18, 2012. 01:41 am IST – Still working on my prototype game.
Fighting 13C weather off with my biking balaclava,
Indie Game Dev’s Life.
and listening to this in loop mode.
To read my past time entries click on (more…)
Exciittttttinggggg News Fellaws…………
Announcing Prototype – Tank ‘em Up!
My first game to go into Development Phase!!
Tank ‘em Up! – 1 page idea? 1 stage gameplay mashup for prototype
Not bad for 1 Page Game Idea
Was reviewing some of the peer devs’ games, when I came across this.
I like the concept where in you are needed to hug and heal the minions you come across in a platformer game ……. which really goes the other way of what we’ve been doing since the Mario era … pop up a bomb/fireball and kill the damn minion
In this game, you lose health/life if you accidentally happy to jump on a minion and kill it.
Ain’t this fun, this makes you be more careful because when you just need to kill, you could go crazy firing all directions.
Not just that, I love the game sounds and the fluidity of gameplay.. brings back memories from 8bit era where you’d have to be really careful to jump between a sequence of floating stones.. and it gets so frustrating that you can’t get through the last one
Presenting you “Happiness“
Happiness – The Game. version: prototype
Note:
1. The game is still a prototype.. so don’t bitch about graphics (its supposed to be retro looking), or it being too easy.. the dev is adding the mechanics as we speak.
2. This blog is not a paid gig… I wrote about the game because I personally liked it and wanted to help out another Indie like me.
Yippie! Just contributed back to the Indie game developers community with my first tutorial on solving an Artificial Intelligence behavior for enemy units in a game.
Thanks to all the gamedevs who have been writing tutorials, sharing their ideas and how they solved particular problems … I’ve learnt from couple of tutorials myself. Thank you for being generous and not being selfish / afraid that someone will steal your potential idea.
This is how Open Source works .. even at sharing knowledge.
Interested people can read my tutorial at http://www.scirra.com/tutorials/408/enemy-ai-for-range-of-fire-and-line-of-sight-top-down-player/
More will come as and when I find time…
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