It has been a while since my last post. Due to personal reasons I’m going to take a break with game development for a while. Though I still have a very strong love towards PBBG design burning inside of me I can’t seem to enjoy it that much any more. It may partly be some sort of burnout but I think other personal problems in my life may also be a cause of this lack of motivation.

It’s really weird. I don’t enjoy playing and creating games any more but I strongly want to enjoy it. When I go through my old stuff I notice that game development (and definitely not playing games itself) has been an interest of mine since I was much younger, more than I could remember.

Currently I’m 17 years old (I’ll be 18 in November) and the first time I remember creating some sort of game I must have been 7 or 8. I would draw creatures on little pieces of paper and tape them all around the house (or the toilet mostly) and I really can’t remember what the rules were. I remember it must have been some sort of trading card game. I used a lot of eyes in the “images” and one eye on the back (if I remember correctly) — like pokemon cards would have a pokéball on their backsides. I guess they would also have had an attack value or something of that kind … I think I used quite large numbers (but rounded ones).

So now, 10 years later, I feel like game design and development is an important part of me. Although I really want to enjoy it I can’t seem to make it work. I’m going to take a break and when I’m ready I’ll be back.

I don’t know when I’ll be back. It may be tomorrow, in a few months or never (I doubt that though).

Take care everybody and don’t forget me!

Let me summarise that. I saw the news today. Shitty people were talking bullshit. They didn’t care about creation. They only cared about making their point, destructing “the opponent”, fight for their so called “revolution”.

I also noticed something else. The man that reached the top preaching for a change, preaching for his revolution, was very quiet. He got to the top by taking others down. Now it’s his turn to re-build but it’s not something he really thought about before. It’s harder than he thought. Now he knows that it’s easier to destroy than to rebuild. Now there are people bashing him. If only they could see that creating something together from the start has so much more value. That only by creating something else you can change something.

Ha, I watched the news and I got angry. Then I thought about how we, PBBG developers, create beautiful games every day. That thought made me smile just a little bit.

I think that what we do is important. We work so hard. We make so little money. We create beautiful things. If some one ever tells you that what we do is useless, or even harmful, make him shut up immediately. This is my revolution. I reach out for you. I ask you to create. There is a power in games. A power that binds people. A power that teaches people. Games is dreaming, games is imagining. Games is creation.

I ask you: create great games with your heart. Tell your players what you need to tell them. Educate those who dare to play, these are the ones who dare to dream. Embrace the power of creation.

Start Now

The Game Crafter

Publish your own card- and boardgames with this very cool service. Order pieces to use for prototyping. Toy around with the opportunities this service offers.

How To Think Less And Do More: Turning Life Into Flow

You need your flow to create. Don’t fight life.

43 Things

Write down your ambitions and dreams. If you want to create, you need to set goals. You really need to do this.

Non Toxin and TED.com

Enrich yourself with wisdom. A true creator is some one who lives life looking at what matters. To see that creation is so much better than destruction is wisdom. Educate the ones playing your games. They need to know about wisdom, since it has become very rare these days.

There’s much to think about here. Instead of sharing my own thoughts on the subject though, I’m going to let you draw your own conclusions. Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

Just a lil’ something of my own, Summary:
1. We need to create more games that engage players to change the real world.
2. How are we going to do this? How do we create that ‘link’ between the real world and a virtual world?
3. How can we get the most out of it? How can we step our game up from experiment to full-powered life-skill-teaching game?

One of my concerns lately is the quality of new browser games (facebook, Evony, …). I’m afraid that money will always be more important than good education…

Goals and motivations can differ from one person to another. Knowing where we stand is important though. That’s why I asked 9 developers to answer the following questions:

1. Why did you originally want to make browser based games?
2. Why did you choose browser based games over other media?
3. Why do you make browser based games now?
4. Why do you still make browser based games, instead of going to other media?
5. Why should, or shouldn’t, people play browser based games?

This was not a scientific survey or anything like that but rather a glimpse of the minds of some fellow developers. Some of them already have games online for quite a while, others are still creating their first PBBG.

Maybe their answers, and my view, can help you to answer those questions for yourself.

1. Why did you originally want to make browser based games?

When I was younger I played browser based games since we didn’t have much stand alone games. I played because my friends played, because it was easy to get into (games aren’t really that easy when you’re a child).

What I looked for in a game was the experience of doing things myself. Instead of having an image in my head, or on tv, I would be able to make it real. Playing a game made it real. Off course there are too many restrictions in a browser game for my huge imagination.

Creating things has always been important too me, whatever it may be. I have a huge imagination and I need to make something of that real, concrete. So creating my own game, my own world, is something really tempting to me.

My direct motivation was the fact that there were so many games and none of them seemed to do it right. Frustrated about the games that didn’t draw out all the potential the PBBG medium has I wanted to make a game I would really like to play. A game that would be fun, or interesting, for my standards.

It might also have been about proving myself. Or experiencing how far I could get or how it would be to create a game.

Originally, creating games was not about money or status. I didn’t desperately wanted others to have fun or to say I created a good game. It was just about doing what I wanted to do and creating a world of my own. There is not just one reason why I wanted to create browser based games but rather a whole bunch of reasons stacked together.

If I had one sentence to describe why I originally wanted to make browser based games it would be: “Because I wanted to be able to create my own world and others to experience that world”. I don’t mind if others enjoy that world, I just want them to be able to experience it.

I wrote more on my first journey, and how it began, in this post-mortem about CeasterTrade.

In my little survey people gave quite similar answers.

One motivation is trying to create better games. People who see the potential in browser games being abused and who want to create something different, something new.

Some found making a PBBG a challenge. They thought it would be fun to do a PBBG on their own and were curious how it would turn out.

A very popular motivation was, and I was a little surprised, that people wanted to learn php / mysql. They wanted to learn programming and thought that a PBBG would be a good and fun way to do that (and it is, obviously). This motivation changes after a while, like you’ll notice when we get to question 3.

Chris, from bbgamezone, answered that his motivation was: “for others to have fun and money”. I was surprised, because I thought that he at least would know you won’t make big money with browser based games. I guess the “fun” part is key here.

2. Why did you choose browser based games over other media?

The answers on this one are loud and clear. Not everyone gives the same reasons but the advantages are clear for everyone. In short:

1. Easy to make
2. Easy to learn
3. Low cost
4. Accessibility: no download + access from everywhere
5. A different “feel” to browser games
6. Casual gameplay
7. Low / No costs for players
8. You can do it on your own
9. Low competition
10. Special connection with browser games from own experiences

Chris said it was technological paradise:

It is extremely simple to make browser games compared to standalone PC games, there are no technological changes forcing you to throw away the code in the middle of the project becuse it became outdated, you can do it all alone, low competition since no real programmer consider webside a serious game project, basically the competition is a bunch of kids that don’t even know what assembler is. In short, it is technological paradise.

Doidel, also from bbgamezone, said this:

I wanted to create something complex, something alike a game. I had never played browsergames, still, I coded one, and then one day someone told me this what I was doing there is called a “browsergame”.

3. Why do you make browser based games now?

There is a large and growing market. You, as a designer and developer, are able to make a living doing what you like to do. You can create something other people enjoy.

Quote from Glenugie, from bbgamezone:

Now I make them because everyone on the team, and our members seems to enjoy using the game.

A strong motivation is creating something different, something better. This motivation counts for more developers after a while, more than in the beginning.

Apparently we like doing it. Why we like it? Actually, I don’t know. Maybe a lot of underlaying reasons count for a lot of people. Doing what we like to do is a great motivation though.

4. Why do you still make browser based games, instead of going to other media?

It was clear that for all developers PBBG development is a niche they feel very comfortable with. They see no reason to go to other media. The advantages of browser based games are well known and nobody wants to bother learning something new. The low costs are a major concern. Even when some developers have experience with other media, they prefer a PBBG.

5. Why should, or shouldn’t, people play browser based games?

Delvagan, from http://cmrpg.net :

These games will always appeal to a certain niche. Someone is is big into games like WOW etc make look at these games and snub there nose. But, for someone on a budget that doesn’t have a state of the art gaming machine these games fit the bill. These games appel to those that can’t access the fancy 3D games like at school, work, library, or mobile phone.

Harkins, from http://push.cx/ :

People should play browser games to add a few minutes of fun to their
daily routine.

Justin Rhodes:

I wouldn’t say people SHOULD play, but i wouldn’t discourage anyone from playing either. They are great time killers on a slow day at work. they only require a few minutes a day to participate in, but you can spend as much time as you want. you have great communities grow up in the games. I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to play.

Glenugie:

People should play browsergames because ultimately they are only limited by the creativeness of the developer, and if you know what sort of games you like, you’ll be able to find a BBG out there that’s suited to you (And if you can’t, make one!)

Doidel:

Anyway, most people I know who play browsergames play them for one simple reason: They just do they started once and didn’t quit them anymore.

I think that we all agree persistent browser based games are something unique. I am convinced that they will never go away, especially when you see the passion of their creators.

This was a collaborative project between BBGameDesign and Building Browsergames. Visit bbgames for a little bit more info.

If you have anything to share, contributing is easy, so don’t hesitate!

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