Why Non Disclosure Acts are somewhat pointless

I often get people coming to me to help them make an app or game. They send me these NDAs for me to sign. I often feel like this is an unnecessary step. The reason is that the idea is rather pointless it is the execution that is way more important.

I have a lot of ideas and I never make anybody sign an NDA when I tell them my ideas. Chances are my ideas aren't really that original anyway. The problem with ideas is that there is little barrier of entry to actually posses them. You simply have to exist and have an opinion. Executing an idea has many barriers to success. These barriers include: funding, personelle, marketing and a myriad of other reasons.

I find that most people like the idea of just brainstorming and coming up with cool ideas. I love that too. But for whatever reasons in the last couple years, I don't sit down with people to brainstorm unless we have a plan to actually release. To me an idea is nothing without execution.

I have been apart of so many projects that have failed for one reason or another and when that number gets really high you start to feel a certain way about ideas. I know that it is somewhat whimsical to hold your ideas close. But really you shouldn't care that much about your ideas. You should care more about the execution and even then you should care even more about attracting people to your idea.

In the end the only thing that matters is that lots of people are using your product. All of the other factors are irrelevant.

If you haven't heard of playMobi yet please go check it out

http://www.appmobi.com/index.php?q=content/playmobi-beta

This is simply awesome. This illustrates one of the biggest advantages of developing with HTML 5. You can get modularity over different devices. If you haven't heard of what playMobi is please go check it out it is a really awesome new service.

For those of you that want the gist of it basically if you make a game with playMobi, you can deploy it to multiple locations such as facebook, iOS devices and android devices. That alone is cool but there is more to it. The best part is that a player can play one game on their mobile device and then have their stats update on their facebook game. Basically, you have one game across many devices! For me the best part is the in game purchases across multiple platforms. That is my favorite part of the service. 

Right now it is in beta and I cannot wait for it to be released so I can start making games on it. 

Mass effect 3 review: The ending and why BioWare shot themselves in the foot

Spoiler alert! If you haven't played through mass effect 3 do NOT read this article.

Alright, there is a full review of mass effect 3 coming later but I have to review the ending first. It has caused quite a stir and I feel that most of the reaction is fairly gut oriented and visceral.

Sidebar: Im going teach you the easiest way to promote your game / project. The more people talk about your game the better, the more tweets, blogs etc. How do you do that? Make something controversial. If you get people upset you get people talking.

The design of the ending in Mass Effect 3 was out of sync with the rest of series. When people say that the last 10 minutes have ruined the series its because the ending did not flow with the rest of the game. It makes no sense and personally they shot the series in the foot. I dare say that this ending was "Lucassian"

Designers: This is why you make your game smooth and flowing, otherwise it will make the player feel unsatisfied.

Having people say "10 minutes ruined the entire series" is a big problem. Mass effect did something that few games can achieve. After several hours you feel invested in the characters and you feel attached to it. Since you feel so attached to everything that is why the ending is so bad. It doesn't give the players any justice to the time they put in. I personally played the Mass effect series for the story not for the action. The story is what really set this game apart from all of the other hack shooters out there. The game mechanics were great too but it was the story that drove me forward. To see it all unraveled has left me unfulfilled. Had they changed the ending they could have achieved the same fulfillment that films and music do. Here is the ending I experienced:

• Find out the catalyst was something else
• Choose the paragon ending option
• Die
• Have the mass effect relay system destroyed
• Have the Normandy end up on some far planet
• Find that they repopulated the plannet

I could go into detail on why these are horrible choices but I feel that it is pretty obvious. The choice that makes the least sense is how the Normandy is stranded on an off world planet. It's pretty random. Here is how I wanted the game to end. Not only is this a better ending it leaves the door open to make more money. When you have a franchise you don't just kill it for no reason. Here is my list

• Get the catalyst working
• Destroy the reapers
• Sheppard lives

This would have been way more successful and it leaves the option open for mass effect 4! Here is what the plot should be for mass effect 4.

• Find out that the reapers are building new ships in their home galaxy.
• Travel to another galaxy where all of the previous species that were collected had fled to
• This could be so awesome. We could meet protheans and other species
• This could be another 3 series if they wanted it to be
• This keeps the franchise open!

Im pretty sure there are employees at BioWare that are not happy with the ending. I invested 80 hours of my time into the game. What if you spent 5 years. Designers can't be happy with it unless this is a ploy for us to buy more content.

What if we have to buy a better ending? I certainly think that this might be the case. Either way, the ending is horrible and they shouldn't have done it.

Circa is getting a reboot

I am pleased to announce that one of MI's game is getting a reboot. Im pretty excited about it actually. You can read the entire article here.

http://mammothinteractive.net/?p=507

Game Virtuosos

We have all heard of musicians who are virtuosos. Their playing is amazing and impressive. Check out the 5th Caprice by Paganini.

So why can't there be game virtuosos? What do I mean by that? I mean why can't somebody be so good at art, programming and every aspect of game development. Personally, it is just a mental barrier and metal barriers are easily broken if you are open minded enough. For whatever reason, people view the disciplines of game development to be very different from one another. In reality they can all be achieved by one person. The biggest obstacle isn't expertise it's time. It takes time to make any discipline great but when technology gets better the time it takes a task to do becomes less.

We have all heard of the 24 hour game jam. I would like to see 24 hour game jams with only one person at the helm

What an indie developer really does.

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Tech people forget about the creative when it comes to learning

I run a course on how to make games. About once a week somebody emails me and says something like this "Why can't I just go to Scirra's website and learn how to C2 for free". I have always had trouble with this kind of question. Sure you can go learn how to use it for free but most manuals tell you how to do things and not why.

The "why" is something you learn more in college. So I usually respond with something similar to that effect: "Sure you can learn the technicals of C2 but you won't learn the creative side. You can learn what to do but not why you should do it". Im sure the person on the other end thinks: "Im not paying for why my ideas are amazing and all I need to know is how to do it".

It seems there is a mismatch in ideals here. Most of the courses that revolve around technical subjects just focus on the technical and not the creative. After consuming tons of these tutorials, the tutorials seem to always be lacking in finess or general design knowledge. Luckily, I have a creative degree and I can fill in the gaps. 

But what if somebody doesn't have that knowledge? Where else are they going to learn the concepts of design. The creative part is arguably more important than the technical part. If anything it's the relationship between the two that makes a project shine. People should talk more about the creative side in tech. That's what I am doing with my courses. They aren't just simple "how to" courses they show you the ins and outs of an entire project.

Design is the number one item that makes an indie game bad. Sure the technical stuff is there but it doesn't look or feel good. I can have a platformer with jumping, projectiles, particle effects, animation, in game purchases and more. The game can work but it won't be 'good'. I think that the arrogance to think that your ideas are amazing needs to get shut down as soon as possible. Every time I pitch an idea it changes dramatically with a couple sentences when I test it. 

"Learn the ins and outs of the creative side of tech and you will be way farther ahead than the narrow minded competition"