Songbird Productions - Not just fun and games...

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Some non-programmer people might think it's easy to make games. Or at the very least, if it isn't easy, it's a lot of fun. Make no mistake about it: developing games is work. A lot of work. If it wasn't, everybody would be doing it, eh?

 

Sure, it starts out fun. You think of this really cool idea, you get motivated to stay up late for weeks on end and get a mini-game engine running just to show you can do it. You feel a real sense of accomplishment early on, because "that's my baby" and look what I've been able to do. Then, reality sets in. If you're going to make a finished product that other people will actually pay real dollars for, you need to -- hold your breath -- finish your game. Yep. You heard right. I know just mentioning a deadline or feature freeze makes developers toes curl backwards (have you ever seen that? It's not a pretty sight), but finishing what you started is what separates the geeks from the wannabes. Umm, wait, which one am I again?

 

While the core of your game is (hopefully!) a lot fun and can be a joy to improve, it's not much fun to put in silly things like title screens, options menus, audio f/x, music, and the like. But gamers everywhere will appreciate those little extra touches, because they demonstrate a passion for the game and a passion for the fans as well.

 

So where does that leave me? Well, I wish I could say I finish every project I start. Or even ones that other people started for me (hi, Ultravore, how ya doin'?). But I don't. And my free time is a lot less in 2006 than it was 8 years ago when I seriously started developing on the Lynx and Jaguar. Still, the games beckon me... so maybe some day.

 

 

 

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