Ive posted about this in Business sub, but to me it makes sense, the UK is a very expensive place to live and we want to protect the industry. Other country's have much lower corporate tax rates and red tape and lower living costs making them much more attractive to investors. So this helps to level the playing field a little.

Also it's not a flat everyone in the UK gets this, you do still have to meet Criteria such as having British characters and making your game culturally British, its exactly the same tax breaks as the film and theatre industry's get for cultural works.

Its great as it acknowledges the fact games are becoming culturally significant, and a lot of the proposals help out smaller firms like the film side of the business helps out independent film makers. It's not a "hey come work in Britain the tax is low" tax break that makes it unfair on other country's.

Really nice vid Mittens, the game looks excellent, really high quality.

Really cool Idea and execution so far, plus like you say you can't go wrong being inspired by tactics ogre

Wow this game looks awesome great work on the graphics Reilly, Anything that reminds me of advanced wars with style is a win in my book :D

It's certainly good news but unless you live there already AND you are going to make your game based in the UK somehow it's not enough motivation for studio's to start opening businesses there .. so its sort of a luke-warm news overall.

Suppose you want to make an FPS .. in space.  But wait the UK isn't in space? Uh , erm wait I'm going to fictionally say that in the future the UK is in space so can I have my taxbreak!??

Esentially they are creating a funnel/litmus test for your design to meet these criteria in exchange for the taxbreak which is a pretty severe limitation.  I suspect it won't make a significant difference for most developers about what they are going to be doing? 

For a very few though it could be a really great advantage; if you were already going to do a game with this topic material that's a hefty chunk of money to save

Actually that would be possible to still get the tax break about a space game.. You gain points based off criteria such as If the game is set in Britain or if one of the main characters is British, It also takes into account who the members of your team are, so if one of the company founders is based in Britain, and other things like English is the primary language you use for your game for example. There's a wide range of ways to get points, but yeah it does encourage you making culturally British games.

But its not meant to be a "hey everyone come work in Britain" tax break like canada had during the last 10 years, it's a tax break to help out local smaller studios trying to make games that are culturally relevant and made in Britain. Think of it as a simillar thing to the tax breaks small films already get in Britain, it just makes britain a more attractive place to stay rather than shipping out work abroad where labour costs are significantly lower.

Its a good thing to me because it's starting to recognise games as culturally important which has been a long time coming.

The colours, sooo pretty, really cool artwork, loving the feel and style!

No problem I mean for your launch trailer go all out with story and high production values but for green light and the way I know myself and friends use it is, click, watch first 20 secs of video and vote... next... unless im already a fan from forums etc. So I think for greenlight Wow them, then later show them the finer and more gentlemanly story aspects

Loving the style of this, The fight against the rats in one of your older posts reminded me of the terrifying fallout moment where you realised a few rats could kill you unless you kited them and ran away constantly

I was going to comment on the goggle doc, but my comments probably applys to it all rather than a part...

my only comment is I think you have the story the wrong way round...

You start slow, and in 30 seconds I see very little, I think you'd be better off starting with a bang, otherwise people might get bored and not get drawn in.

So I'd switch it, I'd show the game play and the do the multiple biomes and different creatures, some combat..with the narrator rambling over the top. Then settle down to the london gentlemans club.. and have the narrator say "ha old boy, I see I've peaked your curiosity... My Expedition is ready to leave when you are" or somthing to those lines.

LOGO balloon flys over logo...

Thats my opinion on it anyways. hope it's not too critical.

I've finally got on Twitter so time to mingle in 160 characters or less :D

@TPickardDev

This won't be massive news to some of you, but for myself and a lot of other people in the UK, finally being on par with film makers and being able to compete with country's with much lower costs of living this is great news.

The European Commission has finally granted the UK the right to offer cultural tax breaks to computer game makers who qualify. I think my first Indie release will actually qualify for this also, which is excellent news for myself obviously :D

http://www.develop-online.net/news/european-commission-approves-uk-games-tax-breaks/0190657

Not everyone's a fan of tax breaks, but it has worked wonders for the UK film industry, which otherwise would have been shipped off to cheap locations and hopefully it will make developing in Britain easier for smaller developers.

[but i don't see how what you said, like, matters? why should bad things not be allowed on the front page? no matter how this type of elitism is done,]

@knifeySpoonie - no, i didn't listen to the whole video, i'm not going to listen to someone ramble for 15 minutes. unless he said something that can't be summarized in a written post i don't think it's a good use of time to watch something like that

but i don't see how what you said, like, matters? why should bad things not be allowed on the front page? no matter how this type of elitism is done, or where it's restricted to, it's still basically the same thing -- a small group sees themselves as privileged, and wants to restrict other groups from using a site that they like. why should people who like casual facebook games or shovelware or games from "2003" (which isn't even old) not be allowed to have the games they would want to buy featured on the front page? are adolescent males somehow special that only their own precious FPS games be allowed there? or is it games that have huge budgets that are somehow special? a storefront should be a storefront, not an awards show, or a badge of honor

besides, why couldn't it work like amazon's frontpage? amazon customizes its frontpage for each user. it shows people the types of things that they have a history of liking. i don't see any reason steam couldn't work the same way. i'd love if the steam storefront would stop showing me the types of games that i never buy (AAA FPS games) and showed me more of the types of games that i do buy (turn-based strategy games, indie games, and the like)

If your going to quote a source you really should watch the entire thing or you end up either missing the point or taking points out of context.

You call it elitism, I call it a reward for good work, If my work isn't good enough it doesn't make the front page, the front page should be an aim for every developer no matter what type of game it is they're making, It should be a reward for hard work. It should be a showcase of the best, I don't see a problem here, you don't walk into a department store looking for new plates, and expect a back catalog through history you go to a different store that specializes in retro plates..

Although I do agree with you on the tailoring what types of games make your individual front page, have settings and tags, and price range, then it curates it based off your selections and buying history, I'd happily have a front page full of Indie games and strategy games, but I still want my front page to be the best or newest stuff in those category's. But when a new user joins a store front and hasn't made any selections or bought anything, the front page should be the best and newest stuff in my opinion.

I also think you care too much about elitism we're human beings, people strive to be elite in their field of expertise, and being rewarded for being good Is not a bad thing, this world has too many people giving out participation medals to every competitor and not keeping score, I'd much rather have to work damn hard to reach the elite status of my chosen path of life.

Also 2003 is old.. in game terms anything older than about a few years is considered old, which isn't a bad thing cause classics do float to the surface.

[denying others the ability to buy those games out of some idea of purity of the store or something is what the problem is]

That Total biscuits video pretty much sums up my opinion on the situation too, Drowning good new content with shovelware and old games is terrible practice for any business, and Steam will eventually hurt themselves if they make finding good games harder.

does it somehow make amazon a worse store if it carries bad books? not in the least, stores are expected to carry a mix of good and bad products. if a product is completely defective and buggy it of course should not be carried, but as long as a product *works*, i don't care how good or bad it is. shovelware exists because people buy shovelware, and many people enjoy shovelware. a lot of people also enjoy buying old games. you don't have to buy games you don't like, denying others the ability to buy those games out of some idea of purity of the store or something is what the problem is

thankfully steam seems to know this, if it listens to the idea of store purity it wouldn't last much longer

I don't agree discovery mechanics on internet are very good: wikipedia, video games sites, metacritics, blogs, google, forums, whatever ...

The difference is not discovery it's push vs pull. Internet is based on pull, ie the user is searching, storefront like steam is push, ie the system present a curated list to the user whitout him searching.

Basically the problem is not discovery it's marketing aka increasing channel of visibility.

there are still a few problems with this:

- not everyone trusts random sites. people tend to trust sites they can trust and know the names of. they also like to have all their games in one place. there are tons of people who are like 'i won't buy your game on your site but i'll buy it if it's on steam'

- saying that 'marketing' is the same as 'discovery mechanisms' conflates two completely different things. that's like saying 'this giant world called Earth is the store, and your discovery mechanism is getting people into your smaller sub-store called your lemonade stand'. it's wishful thinking to think that people can do that

Did you listen to the whole total buscuit video? he says "yes these games should be allowed on steam" "BUT the store front should be managed to highlight new and good games" It makes perfect sense, New products are what keep customers coming back, if every time I go to steam I have to trawl through shite to find anything good, I'll stop using it and find a store that actually has either proper search functions, or quality control...

If people want to go digging for bad games from 2003 for £3 thats cool, just don't stick it at the front of the store, stick it away for when some searches for it..

That Total biscuits video pretty much sums up my opinion on the situation too, Drowning good new content with shovelware and old games is terrible practice for any business, and Steam will eventually hurt themselves if they make finding good games harder.

Yep that's a good one too, Peer review is always important..

Another important one is take days off occasionally and Socialize..., It keeps you sane and breaks up the work, It's easy to get into an ongoing routine of work work work, and It's dangerous not having other experiences and things to focus on to clear your head.

Ha Gambrinous I was typing your exact tip as you posted and it told me to review my post

I think If you've worked from home before you'll understand the pitfalls and dangers.. I still have a pretty well paid job to go back to come may so I'm also not worried about financial problems etc I might be If I went full time indie and was relying on making money from my game or a kick starter before my savings ran out..

I'll only put my biggest tips down though in case others who are thinking, "hey I can easily work from home" are reading and want to know.

1. Routine - Get into a routine!! and stick to it. I constantly drift between good routine and terrible routine... last night for example I worked until 3AM!!! but I forced myself to get up at 8AM because I know I could easily become nocturnal

2. Exercise - Do some exercise daily, even just a couple of 10 minute walks to break up the day. Sedentary lifestyle while easier is terrible for you in general and your work will suffer..

3. Get Dressed as if your leaving the house - It may seem awesome working at home, you can sit in your underpants and a T-shirt and it'll be awesome, but its a bad habit treat your development as a Job, get up, shower, eat breakfast, get dressed etc then your work day starts It'll make you feel like what your doing is more like a Job.

4. Schedule - make lists and targets and deadlines, without anyone pushing you, you need something to aim for. If you fail to hit a target do a postmortem on why and make a new target. Get used to failing, learning your mistakes and adjusting till you don't miss any deadlines. Your estimates will become more attuned to your work rate and you can then set stretch goals to boost work rate.

So yeah they're my bigger tips

You guys need to hurry up with that playable alpha :D

This is looking pretty cool, good luck with going full time on it. I'm currently taking a career break and working on my game, the amount I get done working full time is immense compared to doing it part time.

Yeah I think this would be really useful for when looking through for specific subjects. Maybe include one for postmortems too?

So is there an end game? or just a high score mechanism?

If we're talking about the final version of the game, there will be a true end game, yes. The whole adventure is basically a hierarchical system of needs. Every day, aliens will become more dangerous, increasing the chance of the player's death. However, with every person you build a shelter for, you will get an extra life. To build those shelters you will need resources, and to get them you will need to plan and execute some good runs, all while escaping the tireless monsters.

With more personnel will come more possibilities - base defense, scouts, manufacturing, etc. The game will always be focused on action, but everything you do in it will be highly meaningful, with huge consequences. I will write more about this soon - but, I hope this is enough to make the end game clear: Build an ark spaceship and escape Earth with fellow survivors.

Of course, you might also lose all personnel, in which case it is gameover.


Now, if we talk about the current prototype alpha version, the end game is rather simple: Reach a certain distance before the timer goes off. Because the environments are unpredictable, you must always improvise. This was very useful development-wise, because despite the randomness, I could balance the game to give specific results on average, given a constant skill involved.

As the prototype reaches beta, I will work toward adding multiple stages with increasing difficulty.


Having all that said, high score is not going to be set-aside. I would like to extract all challenges from the main game mode into separate, competitive ones.

Awesome sounds really interesting. Will keep an eye on your progress