This entire subject is completely subjective to your own situation...

For myself.. working on my own is massively counter productive.. Without another person and a shared goal (or a client/paid project etc), my motivation drifts like a leaf in the wind.. changing direction and focus at a whim.. When I'm in a team I'm focused like an arrow...

Also I can't code for shit... I have no desire to learn a skill I will be "below average at best" at whilst I already have skills I'm good at going under used and that I can improve further. I'm an artist(well used) and a designer(under used).. I can't make a game without a Coder. I have lofty goals and ambitions also, that drvie me to making the games I want to, rather than what I can achieve with a limited tool set. And I'm lucky enough to have plenty of good coders who will work with me in my network.

But then I'm coming from a strong position, I have 8 years and 5 AAA games on my CV plus a lot of DLC, 4 of them as a lead artist.. I've always delivered at work and am generally a nice guy to be around and work with. This expereince has let me get involved with a lot of really top notch people whether it's seeing their projects earlier than others or giving feedback etc. But it's been useful. And it also means I can spot the signs of a good dedicated team member and know their strengths and skills. and whaere there might be issues in the future etc.. A newbie or a kid isn't going to have the same knowledge base or understanding of making games, or network to attract the best coders to a game.

Another thing I always put in favour of small teams over individual, is the "sounding board effect" being able to ping ideas around an office is worth it's weight in gold..

Anyways.. At the end of the week It's my last day at The Creative Assembly, and then I will be announcing my own Indie stuff, and somthing else that will be a bit bigger :D but fits with my rehetoric that working in teams is great.. but being a solo dev with god freinds is also a valid path If you got the skills.

 

Great Video - some querys/suggestions if you don't mind

Percentage to hit - Do you think showing percentage to hit is a good thing? I know when I play games like Fallout.. a specific "tohit" % Just causes me to question the game mechanics whenever I miss multiple high chances in a row.. when i was watching one of your videos you had several 90% chances in a row and yet it was somthing like - miss... miss... miss... hit... I could understand if you hit all 4 times but caused little damage because of armour or "glancing blows" etc but to actually miss seems a bit

It also seems a little too gamey and immersion breaking knowing a specific percentage.. rather than a Very Low - low - med - high - Very High chance sort of scale... which keeps you guessing on specific mechanics but guides you towards making choices.

Also connected to this - When choosing your target does it give you a percentage for "criticial" or for "breaking items?" etc?

-

Human army composition.. Ive noticed this before but Are there going to be any cavalry or fast/stand alone scouts etc for the battle brothers.. At the minute I worry every battle will require you to keep a battle line with most of your army as sending someone out alone will levea them too vunerable.. having some scouts or cav who can do proper flanking or hunting of wizards/necromancers etc and be able to hold their own in battle or escape when surrounded might give you options, and you could restrict the use of them by having a very limited number of horses as a resource for example so you wouldnt end up with mass cavalry armys etc..

I'm starting to wonder why anyone would use anything other than Kickstarter.

Kickstarter doesn't take Paypal :X

Kickstarter can't use paypal because Paypal doesn't allow the Back this project "but if it fails don't charge the person" option...

Im sure if paypal was a service that fit the model they would use it

I think as long as theres a meaningful site at the end it shouldn't be a problem.. A facebook page where anyone can comment should surfice... but maybe check the FAQ?

Get the comp science degree... it will help you far more if you become a solo developer, or the only programmer on a team...

Consider your degree your foundations to whatever you build in the future... If a course will give you more solid foundations then pick that one, and worry about the start up aspirations when it's nearer the time. becoming a start up and then being underskilled will be worse than having skills but less help starting a start up.

Although as a AAA environment artist.. the level of difference between HL2 and current games... it's staggering!!! seriously staggering...

I don't know very much about the technical side of 3D art, but I always see the subjective difference between 1998-2002 as bigger than between 2004-2014 for example

Nah seriosuly, I love HL2 etc, and sure the jump is more an evolution than a revolution... but the quality, level of detail, size of environments, and levels of immersion have been immense over this time period.. I agree the perception is less ground breaking... but in my eyes it's like you had early cars and everyone was like "woah no horses!!!" and now you take cars for granted even though they can park themselves and are fuel efficent and safe as houses... Its the evolution of that intial idea and the small bits added/taken away to make it somthing uncomparable...

Half Life 2 still feels new to me, while Half Life 1 feels old.

Around the year 2002 3D graphics became so advanced and the progress on them slowed so much that basically everything from that moment onward feels new...

PS: Also I stopped actively following AAA games around 2003 so maybe that's a factor :D

I guess thats totally valid... I've pretty much stopped playing AAA in last 2 years or so... but i still play shit loads of indie games.. and some of them fall into fave game lists.. like FTL etc... Although as a AAA environment artist.. the level of difference between HL2 and current games... it's staggering!!! seriously staggering...

Old: Monkey Island 1&2
New: Half Life 1&2

My first post here btw.
Hello to all and everyone

Welcome and good choices as said... but Surely Half life isn't considered new in this day and age? :D it's like 10 years old...

[4 months of "eating better" and going for a mile walk 2-3 days]

I started to work full-time from home 4 months ago and started eating better. I was getting fast-food almost every single day! Not to mention all the free snacks and soda at my old job...

After about 4 months of "eating better" and going for a mile walk 2-3 days a week I haven't seen much progress (I really thought cutting out soda and fast-food would have had an impact!).

Bonus Question: What is your favorite getting-fit food at the moment?
Mine is organic pop-tarts!

Errr? change the going for a mile walk 2-3 times a week, to going for a 2-3 mile walk every day... If your working from home your activity levels were probably Sedentary compared to even commuting to work which would have been light anyways... You really need to get up and move every single day if you can... A mile walk is nothing if it's the only thing you do apart from sit on your butt in front of a pc...

As for Healthy eating? were you calorie counting? or did you just eat less junk food but still eat the same ammount of calories of "healthier" food? Your not going to lose weight if you went from 2500 cals of junkfood a day too 2500 cals of nuts, seeds and salad....

As for Pro tip... your organic pop tarts are... 200cals per pop tart!... change to porrige with a bit of fresh fruit for simillar calories but feeling much fuller and then not as hungry later in the day :S

The right circles - groups of other devs who can vouch for you (and the clients that are looking_, and hand you work when they're overloaded. You then build your own reputation in the field, and then people come to you directly... Once your established and you have a number of projects under your belt, work will flow in..

Also being prepared to make other apps not just games is a large part of unity work, my friend does a lot of AR (alternate reality) and VR work using unity these days... he's got so much work being speicalised as VR he often has to turn down work or pass it on too his network...

I'd say If you can successfully describe the gameplay mechanics to another person it's probably a game... If your struggling to explain what makes somthing a game it's probably a piece of interactive entertainment.. And if you can't explain the expereince then it's possibly even interactive art...

But also in this day and age what does it really matter... theres so many people in the world that theres markets for all sorts of expereinces, you just need to be able to get that product in front of someone looking for that type of product..

Sooo many of my friends use Unity now, and the best guys are having to pass on work because they have so many contracts... It's certainly very lucrative if you get in the right circles and push yourself as a "unity" developer...

Love the costume aspect... and the spooky part... hate the door to door begging..eeerrrr sorry trick or treating,

I'd much rather celebrate with friends and family and do the whole haunted house thing, and make the effort with costumes, spooky cocktails and snacks etc. Cause it's fun.. I don't get the whole lets go round peoples houses and if they're not in toilet paper their house or egg them etc... Maybe it's cause I didnt grow up with it, but it feels forced and an excuse for candy companies to sell more shit to people...

Oh somthing I used to do when I lived in a smaller town with one gym, was go to a bunch of exercise classes.. And my absolute faveorite was Kettle Bell Circuits... If you don't know what a kettle bell is it's basically a cast ball of iron with a big fat metal handle... They come in 12, 14, 16, kg etc upwards... but the good thing is... 90% of the exercises are compound exercises... so you work your entire body or a good proportion with each movement, it's also got a bit of a Crossfit vibe to the structure of the workouts and so you get a really punishing class that works your entire body...

Man I need to find a kettle bell class near me again :D

Looking really nice man, love the whole vibe, and the little touches like the pencil shavings appearing when you hit the sharpener..

One thing I'm less keen on is the way the cars appear on the track, It feels like they're floating a little and not "glued" to the road.. If that makes sense, when they turn they sort of tilt from the middle which to me looks a bit funny and makes them feel a little disconnected from the world they sit in. I'm assuming this was a stylistic choice to emphasise the 3d feel? but It makes it feel a little loose when I watch the video, whilst I actually expcet the game to be super tight

I enjoy weight lifting, I'm not sure where it comes from though, my dad and borther are very skinny, I'm a mix of muscle (with a bit of a beer gut) I've always enjoyed the feeling of successful workouts and building up strength beyond what you can do with just body weight,

Theres a primal feeling about lifting heavy things, a rush of endorpines and a hormone high that can be quite addictive after a punishing workout.. once you get past the initial burn (the pain and aches of the first month) and get into a routine with a gym buddy, where you're both pushing each other to improve... It can be quite rewarding and push you to better things.

Also like Netsu says the body you get is different, Calisthetics will give you a naturally toned body, and the muscles that will be strogest tend to be the useful muscles.. Weight lifting is ironically about building up less useful muscles by doing obscure exercises... Biceps for example are useful but mostly a "good looking muscle", but your triceps are far more important and are used in dat to day life a lot more, same goes for Abs or general core muscles, you may want a six pack, but building up your lower back is actually far more "benefical" for exercise point of view.. a strong back will allow you to put more power through most upper body exercises because you'll have more control and stability etc...

[Update 349]

Thank you! We're not through yet though 

Update 349

Shortcut visualizations coming along.

Ha thats a really cool and straight forward way of showing that.. but it works so well

It's a shame that white cheese is not a thing anywhere in the west... I really miss it whenever I'm on vacation.
It's basically a hard block of cottage cheese that you can either cut into slices or mix with cream or yoghurt. It has A LOT of protein and is frakin delicious (I've been eating it almost everyday for 20 years now).

edit: Apparently it's called Quark in english and is common in German speaking countries and in Scndinavia, but I've never seen it in German or Norwegian shops (and I've spent two and a half months in Norway) and Norwegians didn't understand what I mean when I tried to explain to them what it is.

I've seen Quark in my more speciality supermarkets but never really known what it was. I might give it a try as I've started to lift again

Thing about lifting is, it's going too two fold affect your metabolism... you'll be using a lot of energy building muscle, and then to maintain it you'll use more energy... so as you muscle up you need to be eating more or your body will struggle to find theresources to actually build muscle...

If your serious about lifting you want be having a calorie surplus, you then focus on building muscle mass (and a little fat) then once you've built a bit of muscle you go on a "cutting" programme to lose the fat and get tone... Either way you need to be slamming calories down.. As for the Gallon of milk thing... I would be soo sick drinking that much milk across a day, which is why protien powder exists, get the protien hit in 2 does's then you don't need to drink a gallon of milk...

We finally finished the game! Here's the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ThinkHugeInc.EpicDragons 

Coool will check this out tonight when I get home Enjoy the feeling of "completion" hope it goes well for you guys moneywise.