23 SEP 2023:
This week and next I’ll be talking about other stuff —no Scrapship updates this week as I’m still on my business trip.
Thoughts on the Unity pricing scheme:
When you fill out an application to start a business, one of the fields you have to enter is something like “Purpose or goal of your business” and from the books I’ve read, the usual answer is “To make money”. So on the one hand, I understand that Unity is trying to do just that. But on the other hand, I do think they went about it the wrong way. It really did come across as if a bunch of suit-and-tie executives on the 40th floor made the decision without even thinking to talk to actual developers about the sort of impact this would have.
It’s good that they walked it back, but like I’ve seen a lot of developers say, trust is hard to earn back. I totally agree.
I do think this has underlined the importance of staying flexible with how a game is made. At the end of the day, game engines are like tools in a toolbox. Some are better at certain tasks than others, but a small hammer can still drive in a nail like a big hammer can. Or even a flat side of a large wrench.
I’ve heard of a lot of Unity devs talking about switching to Godot or Unreal but I’d like to propose a third option — code the game yourself in C# (the scripting language Unity uses). Now you’re not even using a game engine and have ridiculous amounts of flexibility. And yes, there may be a steep learning curve.
Scrapship is not made with a game engine. It is programmed in QB64PE which is a more functional, modern version of QBASIC. The freedom of programming a game from scratch is unparalleled. Anything I want to do, I can, assuming I know how to do it. Some people might think that you need to already be a “master” of a programming language to even start making a game — I’m telling you that you don’t. Prior to making Scrapship, my knowledge of QBASIC came from modifying existing programs back in High school and trying to make my own, a 20-year gap, and then watching a Youtube tutorial series before getting back into it. IF . . . THEN, DO . . . LOOP, etc were my initial building blocks and I just added on to that knowledge as I went along.
All I’m saying is, keep your options open — some people even make games in Excel!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
This week I’ll be recycling a quote from one of my favorite vloggers, Eva zu Beck, who is currently halfway through a 60 mile ultramarathon this weekend.
Running a marathon is a lot like making a game in that both require tremendous amounts of discipline — especially if you’re a solo developer. What Eva found helped her was coming up with a mantra that would help motivate her through the low points. In one of her vlogs, she shared what her mantra was:
“I GET to do this.”
Instead of imagining running as something she had to do, she reframed it as something that she was privileged to do. As she points out in several of her videos, girls in Afghanistan can’t partake in a lot of sports that we take for granted.
There are lots of us here on Itch trying to fulfill our dream of making a game, but there are some places in the world where making or even playing a game is probably unheard of. A quick look at Wikipedia shows that the only game from North Korea is “Pyongyang Racer”. How sad is that?
So when you’re getting frustrated with your game development and ready to throw in the towel, just remember that you are doing this because it was a dream you had. No, it’s not something that you HAVE to do, it’s something that you GET to do.
“I GET to do this.”