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JackSmack
Ok... May I please have my pants back now? It's cold out here.

David Fulton @JackSmack

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Orlando, Florida

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Primary: Post Mortem of sorts.

Posted by JackSmack - February 19th, 2010


Howdy everypeoples!

So, in case you hadn't heard Frozenfire and I released a new game this week. It's called Primary. I thought it would be a nice idea to do a post about the game and the development of the game, kind of a post mortem but not extremely in depth.

I guess I will start at the beginning. I heard about the Power of 3 event a little late... at least it felt that way because all the good programmers were taken. The games had to be centered around the number 3, three of something... I landed on a puzzle game idea where there were platforms in the primary colors and you had to jump from one to another...

The initial idea was very different from the actual game that we created. And mainly that was due to not being able to come up with a great way to graphically represent the abstract concepts that the original idea had. It would have just been to complex for the player.

I was wanting to be the artist for the game and didn't really think of myself as a great programmer by any means. Hell just look at the comments on Primary and you can see that I didn't get everything right.

After not being able to find anyone willing to program the game I shifted gears and became the programmer and started looking for an artist. I asked a few big name people JohnnyUtah said I was the first person to ask him and this was a couple weeks into the event... I had a lot of people jump at the chance to have a programmer but no on really that showed enough promise for me to want to work with them.

Frozenfire saw one of my posts about looking for an animator and he showed quite a bit of raw talent, not the refined talent I was looking for but it was clear that he was more than capable of being a great artist if I was mean to him and made him redo stuff that I didn't think was good enough to be in the game. I have to say that choosing Frozenfire was a good decision because that kid is really a trooper. He stuck it out and cranked on this game for MONTHS.

We hit the ground running on Primary and hit a few snags. One of the first snags was when we had the engine up and running and the game started bugging out really bad for Frozenfire... I couldn't duplicate the issues that he was talking about at all, turns out that I was controling the game with the WASD setup and he was using the arrow keys. I tried the arrow keys and sure enough the game was nearly unplayable.

For any flash developers out there you might find this interesting... other can skip it....
The IF statement I had checking if the WASD keys were down included the arrow key checks. it was if w is pressed OR if UP is pressed both in the same if statement and one worked fine the other was buggy as hell... Exact same code... That was the first time my head exploded, and it wouldn't be the last on this game.

After working on that one issue for over a week and not coming to a good solution I made the call to lose the arrow keys as a control scheme. Apparently this is much to the chagrin of many players but you know what, the game was playable and still fun to me and I don't think it loses anything at all.

I built a level editor next so we could develop the levels for the game as we went along and we divided the levels up so we could both make an even amount. After trying several times to make good levels we both realized that it was really tough to make good levels. Never underestimate the difficulty in something like level design, it is extremely tricky to get right.

We put the level design aside after we hade built some levels to test the engine and put it through it's paces.

We worked really hard and then I got a little burnt out on the game and had to take some time off. At this point Frozenfire started to fear we had given up on the game. I just needed to go through my reset cycle for a few weeks and I came back to the development like a sledgehammer.

In one month I cranked out hundreds of bug fixes, the boss battles, menus, upgrade system, and a few levels that actually made it into the game.

Then... I kinda sorta got laid off from my job, and started freelancing. This kinda rocked my world a little bit and I lost focus again. Once I found it again I once again hammered the game into shape. I kept going this time until the game was as complete as I could make it.

During the development we had been trying to get the music right and there were several setbacks with audio that caused major headaches. Symphony of Sound did a bang up job, I just struggled to convey what I was trying to get across with the feel of the music. After I let go and just let the musicians make the music fit things went much smoother.

Then we waited for the right time to release the game. We were held up on a few minor musical issues for a little while there at the end so the release date kinda wiggled around a little.

We originally had not planned on getting the game sponsored at all. However when I posted the game on FlashGameLicense to try to get some site locked licesnes sold for the launch they pretty much told me to give it a shot and see if you can find a sponsor. I listened and we looked for a sponsor for a couple weeks finally settling on Armor Games.

The newgrounds version of the game does not have any branding in it because it is the Power of 3 version which Armor Games, Frozenfire, and I all thought was important to have because of the origins of the game.

It has been a hell of a ride making the game, and the process was really really really tough. I think it is fair to say that everyone involved with Primary pushed themselves to make the game happen and without everyone coming together with a strong belief in the project it would have never come to pass.

There were hundreds of teams for the Power of 3 event and 5 games have actually been finished so far. We are very proud to have been one of the few games to actually make it to the end of the process, it only took a lot longer than expected.

If I had to say what is the biggest lesson that I have learned from making Primary, I would say... risk management. When making a game of a large scope it is important to scale back the project to a manageable size and scope to where you can create it in a timely manner. No one likes to have an unfinished project, and the larger the project the longer it will stay uncompleted.

I think I will be working on some smaller projects for a few months then take a stab at something larger again, once I forget how much the last month of working on Primary took out of me.

I seriously doubt that anyone will read all of this but I thought I would share my thoughts about the development of our game with whoever is willing to sift through them. Perhaps you might learn something or you have a comment about something that I did that I could have done better...

Please share your thoughts with me here I would love to hear from you.

Primary:  Post Mortem of sorts.


1

Comments

great to hear from you dude. i'm glad you didn't bail out :) cus it was an awesome game. wasn't buggy for me, the art was great, and the music change per character was fascinating as well. amazing job guys!

I hear things are going well for you with Closure, I only played the flash version but it blew my mind. Thanks for the praise coming from you that means a good deal.

I never really came close to bailing out on the game, I just seem to have two gears, full speed and off. Glad to hear the game was not buggy for you, I think you and three other people. :D

Well, as they all say, eat bits of your big elephant instead of eating the whole thing at once and then have a huge stomach ache.

You have both done a great job. I really can't wait to see how your future will turn out. In fact, I would have love it if primary was ported to a gaming console (xbox 360? PS3?)

Don't let anybody let you down. You guys are impossible.

Awww you are too sweet Dave Im going to miss you telling me to start over all the time :3

And damnit, you WERE ALWAYS RIGHT GRrRRrrrrr

It's always cool to see these little behind the scene things. And you hit the nail on the head with level design being difficult. Anybody can make a level for a game. It's a whole other story to make a GOOD level. Over the last weeks I've been making level designs for a platformer I'm working on, 24 levels. Not easy to come up with fresh concepts for every level. Anyway, great game, and good luck in the future.

Well I read through the whole thing, great read.

And the game turned out really well! I am happy for you that you finished it.

Not a flash developer in any sense but I did enjoy reading all of that. As a player, I prefer WASD to arrow keys anyways so that's fine. Also, I think it's fine to be "branded" as that really doesn't detract from anything at all and it may make you more money or something. Same with ads for the most part, even if they like, come between games in some sort of multiplayer flash game and stuff. Maybe like 10-15 seconds or something. More money for developers means more games for players, yeah? Happier developers, too.

Flash games may not seem like a big deal, but I think they're taken for granted so much. All these whiny bitches whining and bitching about the littlest things. What if there were no flash games? If these nice developers didn't take their time to make these games so you can sit on your fat ass and not even enjoy them.

You know, I always given you a hard time about your animtion tutorials, and your robot dress up games. But you blew me away with the work you put into primary. Congrats. And a well made, well thought out game.

I am really glad that I was able to impress you with some of my work, especially since I know that you are brutally honest with your opinions. I have to admit that for the most part you are usually right. I hope that Primary has finally earned the popularity that I seemed to have inexplicably gotten over the years.

Very nice! Hope you're still working on the bugs I PM-ed you about =)

I have some other stuff that came up before I can fix the time trial bugs, but I will fix them before Monday.

The smooth art makes this game. I've played many games similar in concept to this one, but the art hear really stands out to me. Its just so smooth! I hope freelancing works out for you. One of the nice things about working for yourself is that there is no limit to how much you get paid; the harder you work, the more you will make.

Incredible work. Your effort really is obvious; the game feels enormous. I haven't finished it yet (or even passed the half-way mark), but I can't empathise with your comments about level creation. For the vast quantities of level editors I've used (case in point: last year's obsession with "Spewer's" level editor), I feel like my problem would be having too many levels and not enough game. On the other hand, I've never made a game and really have no idea what I am talking about!

Nice game. I've been reading the reviews, and it seems like this game isn't left-hand friendly. That seems to be its only MAJOR major issue. I'm right-handed, but maybe compensating for both kinds of people would really help.

It's a fun game. However I'm not sure how to get the awards that I wasn't logged on when I got. When I logged on, I didn't get the achivements I had unlocked. I got color blind, the boss thing and another thing I don't remember.

Will there be a sequal? Secondary?

Game wasn't buggy for me. Awesome game, Jack. i love it.

Make a sequel "secondary"