Your New Life As An Indie/Contractor

Mike Acton, our gracious facilitator of #AltDevBlogADay, has given us a challenge; show your ignorance (in other words, write about what you don’t know). I’m going to turn that on its head a little and instead write about what I didn’t know when I became an indie, so that you can have more of a head start.

For those of you that made the switch to indie (and those of you who are just about to), that’s great! That’s an important first step towards taking charge of your own destiny. Good for you!

I have been an independent game developer for over 11 years. Out of those 11 years, I have worked from my home office exactly 100% of the time. I’m still learning from my mistakes, so I thought it would be a good idea to point out some things you might not have thought about and give you a few warnings to help you better prepare for your new life as an independent game developer/contractor.

Since I am a software engineer by trade, I normally write about technical/geeky things (like, with source code). I’m starting my #AltDevBlogADay series with something a little different:

Fellow indies/contractors/others with a home-based business, this article is for you… Continue reading “Your New Life As An Indie/Contractor”

Your New Life As An Indie/Contractor

Sharpen Your Blink Test

In 2005, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a fascinating book titled “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.” In it — and broadly-speaking — Gladwell focuses on decision making and first impressions. Specifically, he reveals that the difference between making good decisions and bad ones has less to do with how much information we have and process than with our ability to focus on a few specific details.

In this article, I will show you how you can put this information to work for your apps so that you can, hopefully, see better returns for your time and effort. Continue reading “Sharpen Your Blink Test”

Sharpen Your Blink Test

Track Your AppStore Launch Across the Globe

As I wait for one or two games to launch in the AppStore, I thought that it’s a good time to figure out how other developers/publishers are able to track their launch as it goes live.

It turns out that it’s not rocket science, but it is tedious if you don’t have a system.

This article will remove the tedium and let you focus on the stuff you care about: which AppStore will my app get launched in next? Continue reading “Track Your AppStore Launch Across the Globe”

Track Your AppStore Launch Across the Globe

Tip o’the Day™ 3: Use Lists to Stay Focused

I needed a break after writing the giant two-part series on fog of war so I decided that this week will be a light productivity tip: maintaining focus by using lists.

I don’t mean linked lists or anything else programming-related. I mean an actual, tangible list of things that need to be done. It seems really common sense but I’m still surprised at how effective they are for keeping one’s mind focused. Continue reading “Tip o’the Day™ 3: Use Lists to Stay Focused”

Tip o’the Day™ 3: Use Lists to Stay Focused

How To: Implement a Fog of War – Part 2 – Smooth

The original post was so big that I split it up into two parts.

Continuing from last week’s post showing how to implement a “Chunky” fog of war, this week I will wrap-up the series by showing you how to implement a “Smooth” fog of war. Smooth is by-far my favorite because it yields much more natural-looking fog. Continue reading “How To: Implement a Fog of War – Part 2 – Smooth”

How To: Implement a Fog of War – Part 2 – Smooth