Crowdfunding is an interesting new way of gaining funds for your game. Essentially the idea goes that a game developer (or generic “project creator”) will put his project up on a website dedicated to said crowdfunding and ask users for money in return for perks, typically a free game or something like that. It’s a great system that has helped hundreds of developers rake in thousands of dollars to continue development on their respective games. Unfortunately, hundreds, probably even thousands more continually fail to receive the money needed.

I think the thing most game developers don’t realize is that game development, in all walks of the process, should essentially be about marketing. Marketing is key to the success of your game. If you think you can just create something and it will sell then you’re setting yourself up for failure. Crowdfunding is is the exact same idea. You’re selling something and you need people to buy it to continue your development. Only with crowdfunding you’re mostly selling on potential of the idea rather than a completed product, which makes crowdfunding so much more interesting.

So given my unique experience with crowdfunding (I founded 8-Bit Funding), general games marketing and writing I’ve decided to lay out my expertise on the matter.

If you follow this to the letter will you 100% get your money? No. Sometimes you need the right product in the right place. But if you follow this will you at least give your project a fighting chance? You bet!

It all starts with the BASICS: Trailer, Description, Screenshots

Crowdfunding your game all comes down to the basics and when we’re talking about game projects the basics include the game. What are you selling, what makes your game special?

The short of it is that you need to present your project in a way that appeals to people. The development video that’s 12 minutes long and shows mostly code with no audio from 3 months back? Trash it. It has no place representing your crowdfunding project. People funding these games want to see immediate gameplay. They want to see what they can expect out of a final project. And they want to see (or at least hear) you talk about it. If you need money you better be damned passionate about your game to at least talk about it on the video.

Which leads me to the second point: the game’s description. Not all users can watch a video either due to technical constraints, time, or they just don’t feel like it. As such you need a fully thought out description that users can gloss over. One or two paragraphs isn’t enough. You need to explain:

• Title, platform, price(?) of your game.
• When you’re planning release.
• Description of your game.
• Why you need money.
• Who you are or who your team is.

As much information as you can provide the better. You’re not only selling your game project, but you’re selling yourself. Funders want to know you are serious about completing your project and that you’re motivated enough to actually describe it correctly.

Finally, screenshots. Most crowdfunding services don’t offer a direct screenshot upload area aside from the widget thumbnail (although 8-Bit Funding will soon!). As a game developer you should know that screenshots are the best way to leave an immediate impact on your fans. They can be the difference between success and failure. Even if you can’t upload directly into the site, upload them to a gallery (Imgur, for example) and put the link in the description.

Talk, talk, talk

When you’ve got your project essentials down and you’re about ready to publish there’s still the matter of actually getting people interested in your project.

Let it be known right now that putting your project up on a site, no matter which one it is, will not be enough to get the funds you need. Nobody gets funding by just sitting back and watching money roll in. You need to actively get people involved… and the best way to do that is to TALK about your game.

Talk to your friends about it. Talk to your associates. Talk to your fans. Talk to your family. Talk to people you’ve just met. Talk on Facebook. Talk on Twitter. Talk on Google Plus. Talk on forums. Talk on Reddit. Talk on your blog. Talk to other blogs (news sites). Talk… talk… talk.

If you’re not talking about your game or funding project then NOBODY is talking about it. And if nobody is talking about your project then nobody will fund you.

I know it sounds almost stupidly simple, but it’s often the biggest demise for projects. I’ve seen some truly amazing games get overlooked in funding for others simply because the developer wasn’t doing anything to bring people to the game or project.

You have to be relentless. You have to be determined. Some people might get annoyed with you. Some people might ignore you. It doesn’t matter though, you need to be constantly discussing the game.

Make no mistake, marketing your project is a full time job. Give it a half-assed treatment and you’ll get half-assed attention.

The good news is that by constantly talking about your game and getting funders and general interest, you’ll inevitably help your game’s long term success as well because you’re building a fan base. These people will have a vested interest at this point in following your game. Use that to your advantage.

And for the love of crackers, if you get an interview with a publication MENTION your funding project. Even if they don’t ask, mention it. It will only do good if you’re able to directly connect your funding project with the readers of a publication.

Use the crowdfunding tools!

It always astounds me when project creators don’t use the tools available to them. There are so many of them and in order to succeed, game developers should be using every last one at their disposal.

Let’s start with the in-site features, and by that I mean the features in the crowdfunding websites:

Each of the major crowdfunding sites have at least three tools to allow you to connect with your funders: Updates, Comments, and the widget.

First the Updates area. There is no simpler method than refreshing everybody who has backed you that you still exist than by writing an update. It sends out an email and gives the user a very specific reason as to why you should check out what you wrote. After all, they have an incentive to find out what’s going on.

Time and again I’ve seen project creators neglect the updates option. Maybe it’s because they don’t think they have anything to write about. Well you do. Write about the latest updates, write to say thank you, write to say what’s on your mind about the current project. WRITE ANYTHING. And include a blurb at the bottom asking your readers to spread the project to their friends, etc. Easy-peasy. Dedicated readers who want to see your project become successful.

Second, the comments. Readers like to comment on your project, ask questions and generally just vocalize their opinions. Never let a stray comment be ignored. This is a prime opportunity for you to connect with your fans or potential funders. In fact, a reply could be the very thing that will convince a potential funder to fund you, or fund you for more than he/she was originally planning. Communication shows dedication. Dedication breeds confidence.

Finally, each website provides you with a widget. Very simple. Take this widget and embed it on every place you own. Your game’s blog, your Facebook page… EVERYTHING. This gives any passerbys to the other areas of your life a clear connection with your project. You don’t even have to do anything else. This is probably the easiest method to connect your entire life with your project initiative. On this note, also just make sure you link your project around as well (without the widget).

Use traditional web tools as well…

Okay so you’ve got your updates running and your replying to comments, etc. Great! But that doesn’t mean you can skimp on the traditional tools as well. In fact, this part applies to all game developers no matter if they’re seeking funding or not.

When I say traditional web tools I’m primarily referring to: Facebook, Twitter, dev site/blog, and some other tertiary sites like IndieDB.

It is extremely important to have a Twitter and Facebook fan page for people to follow and “like” respectively. This is direct communication with fans and others who might just share your interests. I’ve seen developers who neglect to use either and very, very rarely have they gone on to lead successful projects, funding or otherwise. In the social web world that we live in these are mandatory, no matter how much you might despise them.

And don’t just create them and leave them to be. USE them. Use them everyday. Talk to people. Cross promote on each of your social networks to get users to add you on both.

It might seem intimidating to start, but it’s really not that difficult. The easiest way I found to get active users across both was to start on Twitter. Start following a bunch of people who share you interests (other game developers and news/media sites) and try to pick up conversations with them. Reply and make comments. Then when you’ve got some followers ask them to like you on Facebook.

Protip: Facebook ‘likes’ are often more challenging to get and are often lower in number than Twitter follows, but FB users are often more engaged with the project and will connect better with you than Twitter followers. Keep this in mind.

Finally, have some sort of blog or site presence. It simply makes it easy for users to find you and see what you’ve got. It can also be a hub or “base of operations” to lead your entire crowdfunding initiative as you can link everything to it: your crowdfunding project, Facebook, Twitter, trailers, screenshots, news, etc.

Additionally a website adds an air of authenticity when a game developer establishes a serious web presence. Don’t delay on this, a dubious-looking project isn’t helped by a lack of information so make sure that your website has as much info on your game as possible and keep it updated (you can even copy/paste updates from your traditional blog to the updates area of your crowdfunding project!).

And don’t forget to link your site onto your crowdfunding project, twitter, and facebook as well.

Some places like IndieDB.com will help you establish a presence, so be sure to check them out, but the more traditional route would be to get a Blogger or WordPress blog.

Final Thoughts

As I already mentioned, these aren’t fool proof methods to getting your game properly funded. Sometimes you need a bit of luck. Sometimes stuff just doesn’t work out, sometimes it does.

But at the end of the day, the only way you’re ever going to get the money you need is if you put in the work. If you don’t work for something then you’re not going to get the expected results, plain and simple.

As somebody who has worked with game development marketing first hand, as somebody who has been writing every day about indie games and developers since 2009, and as somebody who launched a game-centric crowdfundng website this year (8-Bit Funding) I’ve seen the successes and failures. The successes aren’t successful due to pure luck.

I hope those of you who are considering crowdfunding as a possible way to earn development money will take this article to heart.

If any of you has any questions please feel free to comment here or email me at geoff[at]diygamer.com and I’ll be glad to answer them for you.

[Displaimer: Geoff Gibson owns and operates (with others) 8-Bit Funding, a competing crowdfunding service. While this article is intended to be unbiased, please keep in mind that each service has its own pluses and minuses that you should evaluate before choosing a crowdfunding service.]

I got into a bit of an argument the other day with an indie gaming pal of mine. Essentially we debated the merits of mobile gaming (as many of you should know I’m not huge on it regardless) and which platform serves up better indie games more consistently: iOS or Android.

As somebody who owned an iPod Touch for a few years (and still owns an iPad) as well as an Android phone since October 2008 (I waited in line for a G1) and an Android tablet I felt like I had some authority in the matter. My friend has had experience with both as well.

Ultimately, we ended up disagreeing. He said that Apple’s iOS had the better, higher quality games which made them immediately more enjoyable for gamers of all types. It kind of makes sense. I think you’d have trouble arguing that there are at least more quality games on iOS than Andoird simply due to Apple’s stricter enforcement.

That said, I persisted in my belief that Android was actually better for indie gamers due to the act that many more games were available for free like Angry Birds and that since Google is less strict with their store, there will invariably be more choice. Along with that you have different sized devices (phones and tablets alike) with can cater to a gamer’s individual tastes. More choice has always, in my opinion, been better.

And of of course then you have Windows Phone 7, which we didn’t debate but I feel like should be brought into the equation as well. Despite not having nearly the massive amount of games and apps that iOS or Android has, WP7 strikes up a nice middle ground between the two in terms of design, choice, affordability, etc. That, of course, is combined with Xbox Live which brings with it a host of features gamers have come to know and love on their consoles.

So I leave it with you guys. Which mobile operating system caters to gamers best? If you had to convince somebody right now, what would you say to convince them?

NOTE: This is a hot topic for fanboys/girls. We here at DIYGamer do not condone rampant fanboyisms. Please discuss this politely and intelligently. Thanks you!

[Discussionware is a weekly feature aimed at promoting discussion with thought provoking topics. Each week we’ll be taking a look at a topic that influences indie gamers or developers and we’ll leave it open for discussion by our wonderful readers.]

Yesterday, Steve Jobs died. I’m not an Apple fan, nor do I own a single one of their products (although I have in the past, including iThings). Really, they’re just not my cup of tea. But looking back over the last few years, it’s hard to see an indie gaming world devoid of Apple and, by extension, the man who brought the iPhone to life: Steve Jobs (RIP).

But this isn’t really an article about Steve Jobs’ death. It just serves as an unfortunate timely coincidence. Really I merely want to discuss the implications Apple has had on game development.

Looking back through the years, it’s been challenging to quantify the amount of games that have been released each and every year, but it’s hard to deny the shear amount of games being released on all matters of platforms in recent years isn’t absolutely dwarfing the amount of games coming out pre-2005. And at the heart of all that game development? The iPhone (and by extension iPad and iPod Touch).

But what do you think? Obviously there are many roles here. Xbox Live, PSN, Android, Facebook, etc. all contributing to this huge market growth. Apple did seem to kick things off with the app store (at least in quantity), but then Xbox Live Arcade was technically first the scene and PC development has been around for, well, ever.

So did Apple start the next great renaissance (so to say) for game development? Or was it a convergence of events? Let’s gets some awesome discussion going as a sort of tribute to the man who, if nothing else, created a device for some amazing games to be on.

[Discussionware is a weekly feature aimed at promoting discussion with thought provoking topics. Each week we’ll be taking a look at a topic that influences indie gamers or developers and we’ll leave it open for discussion by our wonderful readers.]

Cubelands, FortressCraft, Total Miner, Blockade Runner, ScrumbleShip, Manic Digger, Blockland (was pointed out that Blockland is older than Minecraft, point remains the same though!), etc. all share one thing in common: they were heavily influenced by Minecraft, the wonder indie-gem that turned the entire gaming industry on it’s head and not only spawned the most successful indie title in the world but also an entire genre and funding method (alpha funding) for future games.

Sidenote: You can take from this editorial what you will as it’ll contain some history, speculation, etc. but my ultimate point is to help quell the notion that every voxel game out there is “ripping off” Minecraft. The simple fact is that game development is an evolutionary process and Minecraft just happens to be the gaming equivalent of Homo habilis or Homo ergaster (to borrow from human evolution).

Like Metroid, Castlevania and Rogue before it Minecraft has done something that few games have ever done before, it has single handedly superceded itself to become the basis by which others games mirror it. That is not only incredible it’s downright phenomenal (yes there’s a difference!).

But let’s slow down a little bit and assess some history first. Minecraft was not the first voxel-based game, which is largely what I’m referring to when I say Minecraft has become a genre (i.e. Minecraft-like), that honor actually dates back further to Inifiniminer (and maybe even further than that!).

Infiniminer was an open source game developed by an indie studio named Zachtronics that started gaining popularity in early 2009. This was the game that inspired Notch to create Minecraft and was really the basis for Minecraft’s explosive popularity upon release as many Infiniminer fans turned to Minecraft when Zachtronics confirmed development of the game was discontinued.

Few gamers actually know this however which is why so many claim that other games are “ripping off” Minecraft because they use voxels. In reality they’re copying a copy of sorts. That’s not to say Minecraft “ripped off” Inifiniminer. It’s just the natural evolutionary path.

Now, back to the point at hand that I’m trying to make, since Minecraft exploded in popularity the reason we’ve seen a large amount of other “copy-cats” isn’t because Minecraft made millions and millions of dollars (well at least it’s not the sole reason) but rather because it brought to light an entirely new type of game. Prior to Minecraft most gamers probably never even knew what a voxel was (I sure as hell didn’t!). So when Minecraft came out to the masses, it was really simply showing off a new type of game that could be successful. Imagine when the first homosapien began using tools. It’s a similar theory of evolution. Voxels were merely a new tool for game developers to use.

And use it they have. I gave you a brief list at the beginning of this article, but rest assured that is not all of the voxel-based games being developed today. This time next year I’d be surprised if we didn’t see many, many more types of those games. Which is FANTASTIC!

Let’s look at the issue with some gamer goggles on. Metroid, released for the NES in 1986, was a fantastic game. It brought the platforming gameplay of Mario Bros. and merged it with an almost RPG-like interface where your character was no longer bound to single levels. Instead you could acquire new stats and explore a huge world. Metroid revolutionized the platforming genre to create what’s now been termed the Metroidvania genre (which also borrows from Castlevania).

Because of Metroid, today we have games like Shadow Complex, The Goonies (NES), Cave Story, La Mulana, Legacy of the Wizard (NES), and many, many more games. Each of these borrowed from Metroid the core concept and style but evolved it in such a way so as to expand the genre as a whole.

The same theory will persist with Minecraft. While it’s easy to look at FortressCraft and claim boisterously: “MINECRAFT RIPOFF!” The reality is that FortressCraft is still an evolutionary step for the genre. In fact, if you play each game you’ll see there are some significant diverging paths in each game where Minecraft is becoming more RPG-like, and FortressCraft is focusing instead on creative building (with some things Minecraft doesn’t have!).

So when the next Minecraft-like voxel game appears (and it will!) please don’t try and put the developer down for “copying” Minecraft. Minecraft doesn’t need your help in quelling similar games (they make enough money I assure you!). Instead, remember that Minecraft is now more than its own self, it’s a genre for game developers to explore.

And that’s just the natural evolutionary process…

[UPDATE: I'm well aware of Ace of Spades. Apologies for not including it as I didn't mean to exclude any specific game. My point was merely to highlight the fact that voxel games aren't merely rip-offs, but rather the evolutionary process. This wasn't a contest for best Minecraft-like.]

Blockade Runner is just one example of an alpha funded game

[Discussionware is a new weekly feature aimed at promoting discussion with thought provoking topics. Each week we’ll be taking a look at a topic that influences indie gamers or developers and we’ll leave it open for discussion by our wonderful readers.]

Alphafunding. It’s kind of an odd concept if you think about it. Essentially you’re paying for a game that’s unfinished but with the promise that it’ll get better with future updates.

Ever since the launch of Minecraft last year, the idea of alpha funding has grown from something that was relatively niche and a “quirky idea” to being a new form of game funding by developers around the world.

Just take a look at the newest candidate: Blockade Runner, the Minecraft-like that’s based in space. The development team has currently released an alpha version for free but you can also pay to get access to updates as they come in. So far, in just over a week, the team has sold over 1200 copies at $10 each. That’s $12000 in a very short amount of time.

Other developments include Desura’s recent efforts to promote alpha funding on their platform by giving alpha games a dedicated section. Through Desura, a very legitimate (and my personal favorite) digital distribution store, you can now pay to play what are essentially unfinished games.

I remember a time when the beta versions of games were free…

But what do you think? Is alpha funding a new way to simply get a game to release? Do you participate in alpha funded games? Sound off in the comments!

Geoff's personal Pick of the Week

Welcome to DIYGamer.com’s newest weekly feature. Some of our long term readers probably remember a while ago when we used to feature nothing but Xbox Live Indie Games each and every Thursday. It was called XBLIG Thursday and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, there’s just not enough time in a single day to sit down and play all the Xbox indie games that are worthy so slowly, but surely the feature just faded away.

In a rare case of double uh-ohs, however, with the fading of XBLIG Thursday, we eventually sort of forgot about Xbox Live Indie Game titles entirely. Honestly, we were just getting too busy with incoming press releases from PC, iOS, PSN, XBLA, etc. developers. We didn’t even notice our XBLIG coverage had waned until a few readers started pointing that out to us.

As such, we are back to delivering steady coverage to some of the best of the best Xbox Live Indie Games out there. Each and every Friday, I’ll put together a list of the best XBLIG titles for the week prior. No need to search and scavenge for titles anymore… just come back every Friday and we’ll set you on the right path.

So, without further ado, enjoy this weeks’ picks:

Aron’s Journey in Dreamland
240 MS Points

Discover the strange adventures of Aron. Lost in the forest, he’ll try desperately to go back to the Inn he chose for his holidays. Bad luck, a storm is approaching! This dark castle could be a refuge! Really? No, of course, not ! It’s the mansion of some mad professor! And, just because he’s mean, he has captured Aron’s girlfriend! What? Aron has NO girlfriend?! Definitely strange!

Avatar Street Basketball 2
80 MS Points

Shoot hoops with your avatar to be the best scorer in the world! Six courts and six different game modes are waiting for you in the firts “basketball” game with zombies on it!

GET TO THA CHOPPA TWOOO!!2
80 MS Points

(Geoff’s note: I own the original and it’s pretty fun!)
Are you ready for round twooo?! GET TO THA CHOPPA is back! Control a hot gun wielding girl, dodge missiles and mines, shoot zombies and use all new extras like the njyon pup or knight power! Not enough? Online highscores will put your skill to the ultimate test! Go, go, go!

Avalis Dungeon Chapter 2
240 MS Points

(Geoff’s note: I won’t lie, this game is fairly NSFW. But the game play is actually pretty good too!)
Experience a story filled with sexy and dangerous creatures in the second episode of Avalis Dungeon!

President John America
240 MS Points

The United States is on the verge of collapse. In steps John America to win the 2012 presidential election. His intellect is the size of his ego, which is also the size of his biceps, which just so happen to also be the size of his love for America. John promises to personally hunt down the most dangerous terrorist threat the world has ever known, and eliminate a national debt of trillions!

Dead Pixels
80 MS Points

(Geoff’s note: My personal favorite game of this week’s bunch. Zombies + side scrolling awesomeness + $1 = fun times!)
When The Dead Start Walking, It’s Time To Run.

Did I miss anything? Any games here you’re particularly excited to try out? Sound off in the comments!

[Xbox Live Indie Games]

The Wager is an interesting beast. Somewhere between the classic Sid Meier’s Colonization and the odd Strange Adventures In Infinite Space, it manages to merge the two into a Frankenstein monster that somehow works. And it works very well. So well, in fact, that it’s taken a spot alongside Desktop Dungeons as a coffee break game of choice. Nothing quite like relaxing with a little betting, after all. Or exploration. Or both!

We’ve covered PPP Team’s major franchises, and their often experimental one-off games. To polish up, and possibly to set the stage for another whole realm of discussion, we’ll look at their third branch of development: the tribute games.

The PPP Team members wear their influences like long johns; sometimes they’re under the surface of their normal clothes, and when they’re certain that no one is looking, that’s all they’ve got on. We have discussed some of the apparent shareware and Commodore references in their original games. Amongst the five surviving tribute games we find a broad and instructive spread of creative input, from classic arcade games to 1990s shareware to 16-bit Japanese platformers to Japanese anime and manga to the techniques of existing Game-Maker games.

Perhaps noteworthy is how fully the team embodies the games that it chooses to pastiche. Some creative whims aside, they replicate the originals as closely as possible within the limitations of RSD’s game engine. Where they meet technical or conceptual barriers, rather than force the design they simply go in a new direction that follows from the original both in logic in spirit. One gets the sense that these tributes are where PPP Team really found their footing as designers; whenever they were uncertain what to do next, there was always another influential game to dissect and put back together.

F1 Eater Mania

The Game-Maker vault is littered with Pac-Man tributes of various aptitude and originality. PPP Team sidestepped the issue by, deliberately or not, making a clone of Namco’s Rally-X (1980) – which, granted, is basically Pac-Man with cars. There are a few differences, though, and in F1 Eater Mania those differences are compounded with alternating forced-scroll stages that call to mind Sega’s Monaco GP (1979). Or, one supposes, Matthew Groves’ Jet Driver.

The game is bare-bones and comes off like a weekend experiment. As in other dot-hunt games, collecting a full board of blue blips opens the gate and lets you out. This being Game-Maker, counters never reset; die with three dots left to go, and all you need is three more. Curiously, the green “power pellets” increase the player’s HP – meaning that for every pellet you can crash into one opponent without totaling your own car. That’s one way to do it.

It’s genial and it plays well, with a minimum of avoidable glitches or design problems. Aside from the counter issue, the only thing that stands out is Game-Maker’s lack of a context-sensitive idle state. Not much to do about that except ignore it.

Commander Xeen

Xeen also is stripped-down in the manner of Biokid or Blork Carnage, which may on reflection be a bit of a PPP calling card, with for most of the game a single regular enemy type, a minimum of counter work (even extending to HP bonuses), and fairly straightforward level elements. What makes it amongst PPP Team’s better games is the way that those elements are combined into an environment, and the accurate-feeling look, tone, and flow that they create.

Both the decor and the architecture of the levels subconsciously lead the player forward like stripes in a Half-Life corridor. In the early levels, light and shadow created by block patterns draw attention to and propel the player along the intended path. Platforms placed just outside the player’s jump height, multiple key colors, hidden passages, and Keenesque useless-yet-tantalizing trinkets also attract, divert, and frustrate the player’s attentions at appropriate moments, creating a psychology not unlike Tom Hall’s original designs.

Speaking of jumps, there are a few quirks of design. In Commander Xeen, vertical jumps are higher than diagonal ones. Not the most intuitive decision, but as far as RSD’s engine goes, the jump physics are about as clean as variable jumps get.

The other main mechanic is weirder. To shoot, the player needs to collect gun icons. The game is generous and enemies are few, so running out is rarely a problem. Yet when the armory does empty, Game-Maker’s quirks get in the way again. Due to limits on button-mapping, the character uses different buttons and animation sequences to shoot left and right. Each of these animations is married to a different counter. Although the gun icons refill both counters, the act of firing only diminishes one counter at a time. Thus if the player fires to the right more often to the left, soon there will only be left shots, er, left.

These hang-ups are minor. The high vertical jumping does have parallels in games like Super Mario Bros. 2, and the level design does seem to take the different heights into consideration as an advanced technique. If you remember that you can rocket straight up, several tasks will be easier than the layout at first suggests.

The game is short, satisfying in its rewards, and gentle in its punishment. You only have a single hit point, so avoidance and caution become big elements of navigation, adding a bit of strategy and mild puzzle solving to some areas. When you do die, the game plays a few awkward notes and the character looks a bit sad; then you start the level over. Although as with every Game-Maker game you can save and load at will, here the design compels the player to tough it out and just try again.

Pengo Adventure

PPP Team’s first game arose as many first projects do, as a collage. Pengo Adventure is a tribute to Donkey Kong, assembled with a mix of borrowed parts and original elements. The character is RSD’s own Penguin Pete, lifted from a design tutorial largely intact. The backgrounds are both minimalist and fiddly but mostly original, save the odd decoration. Sounds are a mix of borrowed material and original samples.

Although the game has its charms — in particular the premise of penguin romance and the atmosphere in some of the later levels — and you can see the budding style that would later declare itself in games like Badman 2, Pengo is just awkward to play. As Sylvain Martin has observed, RSD’s engine does not handle ladders as well as it might. There are ways to make it work, but it’s annoying – and when you’re paying tribute to Donkey Kong, you want the ladders to be perfect. So that’s a pretty inherent problem. A more manageable issue is player control.

As adorable as he might be, Pete’s control mapping has always been a problem even in his own game. Taken out of context, with few to no changes, Pete has trouble just leaping from platform to platform. What PPP Team really needed to do was either design a new character from scratch or to ditch Pete’s character file and rebuild it with a mind to their planned game concept.

Still, for a first game, Pengo Adventure explores just about every aspect of Game-Maker’s design options. It exhibits intertitles and introduction screens, full sound and music support, and just about every basic block feature. Even here there’s an understanding of contextual background properties, and the way to get around certain collision issues by swapping static monsters for background tiles. By many users’ standards, this would be a fairly advanced game. So, not a bad way to start.

Twinnbee Land

In Japan, Konami’s Twinbee series has long been the bouncy, juvenile counterpart to Konami’s flagship shooter Gradius. Outside of Japan, the series is fairly obscure. There’s Stinger for the NES, and then in some territories there’s a curious spin-off game for the Super NES, Pop ’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures. Unlike the rest of the Twinbee series, Rainbow Bell Adventures is a side-scrolling platformer in that refined and codified 16-bit mold. To hear him tell it, this game is also one of Sylvain Martin’s biggest influences.

Thus, with a few logistical tweaks, we have Twinnbee Land. Whereas in the SNES game the sprites are kind of enormous, here they are tiny. The SNES game has rolling terrain with plenty of diagonal surfaces, allowing characters to bowl along; here we have a maze-like level design with huge jumps across open spaces. The game takes more liberties as it goes on, with odd character transformations – first the ship grows in size, then turns into a huge Mazinger-style mech. Combine this absurdity with the deliberately cutesy voice samples, and perhaps you can take Twinnbee Land as an affectionate satire.

The game is actually rather long, and is dotted with fairly complex boss fights in the vein of the Badman games. Naturally enough, many background elements are borrowed from PPP’s earlier efforts. Sometimes they fit well; sometimes not. The character floats about half a tile above certain platforms, for no discernable reason.

Of particular note is the jetpack, which – rather like Xeen’s vertical jump – allows the player to rocket upward much farther than a normal leap will allow. It’s a little awkward to use, and one forgets about it, which is as well for such a powerful feature. As with Xeen, this command often lends the level design another layer.

Unlike Xeen, the design itself is often confusing. The geography tends to lead the player away from goals rather than toward them, and the properties or behaviors of background elements are not always clear, occasionally leading the player into inadvertent traps. Combine this frustration with slightly awkward control mapping, and at times it feels like the game is deliberately undermining the player’s efforts, as in games such as I Wanna Be The Guy.

The question of tone is central to Twinnbee Land. It seems like a straight tribute, until it starts to get bizarre. It seems inviting until it starts to pull the rug out from under the player. It’s unclear exactly what the game wants to do. Whatever it presents, it seems to immediately subvert in some way, whether deliberately or not. There’s even an animation where the character holds up a nudie picture for the player to see. Why? Well, presumably to subvert expectations. Which seems to sum the game up.

Dragon Ball Z 2: The Death of Vegeta

Of all of the surviving PPP Team games, this is probably the strangest. Pascal, a friend of the founding members, was a huge anime nerd and also a beginning user of RSD’s tools. With his dubious illustration skills he roughed out a couple of games based on Akira Toriyama’s famous manga and TV series. When he showed the Team his second game, they took the game into their fold and adapted it to their developing house style.

As Pypein has it, they were at the time unseasoned to anime in general, never mind Akira Toriyama’s particular illustration style, so they ran the game through a Badman filter. The result looks and feels very much like a stock PPP Team game – and very much unlike Dragon Ball. Thus, Pascal thanked them and took the game back. He undid most of their work and decided to remix his original sprites with new backgrounds scanned in and colored from the manga. This was an arduous process, to which Game-Maker was less than ideally suited, and so Pascal soon abandoned the project.

Thus there are two versions of the game; a cartoony European-flavored one, and a much rougher-looking remix that ends after one or two levels.

As for the game itself, apparently it’s an adaptation of a specific story arc from the manga. The sprites are appealing enough, and the backgrounds are atmospheric. The controls are a little strange, with a stilted repeating jumping animation, a dash move that’s about the same speed as walking, and special attacks that don’t always work as they are meant to. The game is largely silent, aside from the rare anime voice sample or occasional borrowed music file.

DBZ2 is far from PPP Team’s best work, but it has some interesting properties. One assumes the game was a learning experience for everyone involved.

There are still at least eight missing games, and apparently a large chunk of Badman III, probably lost to time. For now, though, that’s PPP Team’s catalog. Pypein, aka Sylvain Martin, would go on to develop his own code, and is currently working with the Nintendo DS hardware. His brother Piet would go on to sequence his own music, much of which is now available under the artist name Cyborg Jeff. It is thanks to some of Pypein’s later efforts that we have some of the images used in the course of this column. Thanks also to Sylvain for his time in recounting his long-dormant memories.

You can download this final batch of PPP Team games at this link. Remember to run the games in DOSBox, and to turn up the clock cycles as far as they’ll comfortably go.

Everybody wins!

During this past GDC Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, told Gamasutra that the company wasn’t looking to “do business” with the garage developers of the world. Essentially, anybody who doesn’t consider themselves a full time game developer, either by choice or because they need another job to make money and support themselves.

For those of you unsure about just what a “garage” developer is, just take a look at Apple’s App Store, pick a game, and it was probably made by said type of developer. Essentially these are the kinds of people we love here at DIYGamer. Developers who make games in their spare time because they have the desire to create something.

When releasing this quote, many took Mr. Fils-Aime’s quote as a slight against indie developers. Perhaps Nintendo, in all their arrogance from being the market leaders in both the handheld and console space over the past few years had acquired a certain sort of hubris that left Sony humbled this console cycle. I honestly can’t comment on that. What I can say, however, is that as much as Nintendo doesn’t want garage developers, garage developers don’t need Nintendo.

Nintendo has never been indie friendly. It’s expensive (for an indie) to develop a game on their system and in order to even be allowed a dev kit for their systems you need to be a recognized business with an official office space (no “garages” indeed). But for all that, even if you do set out to be an indie Nintendo developer, of which there are some, Nintendo simply isn’t a great place to sell your game.

WiiWare, DSiWare, “3DSiWare.” Each of Nintendo’s downloadable distribution channels are notoriously bad for everybody but the most popular games and even then they pale in comparison to the likes of an XBLA or PSN title in sales volume. World of Goo, as an example, was a game that was simultaneously released onto Nintendo’s WiiWare and PC. It should come as no surprise that, even despite the game’s cutesy design (a must have for Nintendo success) the PC version still sold far better.  We won’t even begin to discuss the game’s recent success on the iPad because that would really make Nintendo look bad.

I’m not writing this because I’m angry at Nintendo for abandoning developers we know and love, nor am I trying to warn indie developers off from pursuing a relationship with Nintendo. All I’m saying is that despite what Nintendo wants or doesn’t want for their development platform, the fact remains that indie developers simply don’t need Nintendo. They offer nothing to the vast development community that isn’t better served elsewhere.

[via Wired]

Many of our regulars may have noticed we disappeared, literally, from the face of the internet this past weekend. We weren’t closing down, or ceasing operations or anything like that, we just experienced some major technical difficulties. Apparently our server’s hard drive failed causing everything to go ‘kaplooey.’

Anyway, as you can see we are live once again. Mostly everything is back to normal, although there are probably some oddities here and there to be smoothed over.

We’ve also, unfortunately, lost about 2 weeks worth of articles. We’re working through Google right now to recover said articles through their amazing cache system. Hopefully we’ll have the majority of all our important content up and running once again.

Oh and for those of you who will be getting free ad space, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you. Your ads will go live today.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to the Indie Gaming reddit community and the wonderful coders who helped diagnose and fix our broken little website. Particularly Thomas of IndieCity who actually was the one who brought the site back online and fixed many of our problems. I always said the indie gaming community was one of the best there is and this just goes to prove it.

Cheers guys!