Mobile games port onto the PC and can be successful. Stuff like Battle Fleet 2 for instance. A 'touch to interact' interface translates quickly and easily to mouse input so if you design the game to eventually support mobile and PC then that's certainly an option.
I think finding an audience on mobile is very hard though, and I don't know how mobile translates to console, so I'd probably start on PC anyway.
Party games around a shared screen are available on PC but work best around a large screen in a family room. Most PCs aren't connected in that way; I think console is a far superior option for that.
Handheld type games aren't an area I'm terribly familiar with. They'll definitely translate to console, because the handhelds are basically small screen consoles (and often run legacy console games) and that means they'll also translate to PC. I think I'd cynically build a game that can port to console then plan to wait a decade then port it to the latest handheld. Greater codebase longevity, and can be tied into the marketing for a sequel..
Many console type games work just fine on PC, or better. Anything RPG, RTS, FPS, etc. Even racing games. I think party games and FIFA/NBA type sports games struggle, but stuff like Rocket League works is popular on PC and obviously there are the PC only games like Rimworld and the Football Manager series.
Starting as an independent with no immediate contacts in those organisations I think I'd focus on building a brand, community and successful product within the more accessible markets first - mobile or PC.
It's a lot easier to go to MS or Sony when you can prove there's demand for your product and it's beneficial to them to help you deliver it on their platform.
But it's never been invitation only anyway, and the indie developers are a big factor in why.
Not all indie developers are going to sell their game to Microsoft for a couple of billion dollars but experienced game designers and developers with proven delivery of successful games will get the invitations anyway.
So even if you want to work for the big companies, you don't need anybody to invite you into the industry. Just start writing games.
If you can already program and just want to learn a new language, find something you want to write (or help write) and just start. You'll learn fast.
First you'll realise you don't know how to craft a basic runnable program. A quick hunt online and you'll get the structure and you're up and running.
Then you wont know how to compile/run it. Another 'net search.
Then you wont know the syntax to add new features. Another quick search.
Then you wont know which libraries come with the language that provide a wealth of functionality that you can reuse. But you'll be searching for 'how do I open a network port' and finding lots of answers telling you which libraries to use, and when, so you'll be fine.
Then you'll get bored of all this shit and want to know how to automate it all, at which point you can become a software engineer.
I stopped subscribing to my favourite sports team's online media because of this.
They published 'free to access' footage of a match as a teaser to encourage people to sign up for the full highlights package. I tried to view the teaser and got told that it wasn't available to me because I was in the same country as the team, and this footage wouldn't be available in my country until the next day.
They got an email telling them that giving content to people for free while refusing it to their paying customers is a shitty way to run a business and goodbye.
I can see the same footage on Youtube anyway so I'm not losing out; I'm just not paying them for it.
My first thought on reading TFS was that the simple solution is to set one price in the EU - the highest price they are currently charging any member nation....
Technically the optimal price will be a little lower than that.
So people in high priced EU countries will benefit, people in the rest of the EU will lose out. Overall it'll encourage further migration from poor to wealthy regions within the EU, further exacerbating existing regional wealth discrepancies and boosting migration related anti-EU sentiments.
But what else can the EU do, without betraying their vision of a single market (or indeed, their seeming mandate to enrich certain countries to the detriment of others).
With the Epic one-year exclusives, that makes it easier.
There are no Epic exclusives except Fortnite. There are several games that have curiously failed to release on time, but the publishers promise me they'll be available next year instead.
To make that claim you have to assume that, to pick one example , no-one would visit Windsor Castle if we abolished the monarchy
If you abolished the monarchy then Windsor Castle would possibly become a greater tourist attraction as the new owners may allow greater access to tourists.
You would however lose the £300m/year contribution made by the Crown Estates to the Treasury, a sum that's net of the payments from the Government to the royal family.
In other words the Queen would receive her current income plus an additional £300m/year. The Government would receive at least £150m/year less than it does currently.
Then of course you'd also have to pay someone to do all of the long arduous and boring as fuck work that the royal family current perform.
Yes. As are the videos released by the Israeli Government showing the aftermath of bus bombings, the execution of Ceausescu, and any footage of riots.
But I haven't read the wording of the laws. When the UK tries to impose something comparable I'll read them in detail, protest anything stupid and identify how to subvert the system through loopholes in what's left.
It's always fun to turn silly laws against the people demanding them.
Over 20 years into a tech career I'm very aware that I wouldn't be any happier doing anything else as a job.
The many things I'd rather be doing are hobbies and although some of them can become careers that requires engaging with aspects of those disciplines that as a hobbiest I can ignore.
I mean, I could earn an income doing photography. The salary trap isn't stopping me, although it's a significant gap, it's the fact that professional photography needs far more planning, sales and sheer boredom than I can be bothered with. Whereas taking photographs for fun and friends is fun.
They have the right to whine about how gay people are opressing them by their very existence.
They have that right but you've posted no evidence of them using it.
I pointed out several place.
No, you did not.
E.g.
the Heritage foundation wants that man in women's bathrooms
No. That's you reading between the lines and finding a new Tolstoy novel instead of reading the actual words fucking written by them.
Stop ascribing to them things that they haven't said. It's dishonest and you haven't been able to back it up and I'm fed up with your inability to do anything more than lie, lie and lie again.
Stop lying. Fuck it, I'm stopping reading. Why do I always end up having to stop reading your responses?
(Rhetorical question; the answer is of course that you're too fucking stupid to understand how stupid you are).
At least I've been able to ascertain that the accusations of being anti-gay and anti-science are exactly as this comment thread title suggest.
The picture of that burly bearded dude in women's bathrooms? He was born female.
Well fucking forgive me for assuming the bloke that looked like a bloke that you called a dude was actually a fucking bloke.
How fucking bigoted of me to dare to assume the gender of someone, even if I was actually fucking correct.
Bob & Joe getting married does not stop you worshiping whatever god or gods you so please. Claiming it does is you acting like a whiny little wanker so you can oppress them to get your jollies.
Given I'm an atheist I'm not into worshiping any gods. I get my jollies through other means.
You failing miserably to understand the implications for people that do have inane superstitious beliefs makes you a fuckwit, and lacking any empathy for them makes you a cunt.
I did. You ignored it.
I ignored what exactly? You've shown no fucking evidence at all. You've basically libelled them.
I have no idea who these people are and I would happily counter many of the points they raise. But I would do so logically and with evidence, not by pointing fingers and declaring that they should be allowed no voice because they dare to challenge my fucking religion.
You're pointing fingers and declaring they should be allowed no voice because they dare to challenge your religion. Which makes this very fucking ironic:
Yeah some people want the "religious freedom" to harm others who don't believe in tehir god. I'm all in favour of utterly destroying that kind of religous freedom.
they're too cowardly to actually state their position
So you assume it. Project much?
Ye they're too cowardly to actually commit in writing
That's an interesting way of telling me that you have no evidence.
Nonetheless they're advocating that places should be allowed to force this dude to use women's bathrooms
That flat out contradicts the publication on their website that I linked. Perhaps you'd like to show some fucking evidence, because right now you're talking a lot of shit and backing it up with nothing.
yep start off by defining marriage as between a man and a woman
You mean the definition that's been around for centuries? Perhaps gay people should've done the sensible fucking thing and fought to remove any legal recognition of marriage, at which point they can marry who or whatever the fuck they want.
it's more mealy mouthed insinuation and implication to grind their axe about zomg teh geys!111one
What, like this sentence: "Redefining marriage marginalizes those with traditional views and leads to the erosion of religious liberty."
I think that sentence is entirely correct. You may think.. sorry, it's clear that you don't think. People may think that the marginalisation of traditional views and erosion of religious liberties is less important than letting same sex couples marry but I see no harm in expecting them to make that a conscious decision.
They have a regressive anti-seience, anti-gay agenda. They never state it but
..that doesn't stop you bleating on about it as though it's true. Sorry but if they're so anti-gay and anti-seience and anti-science then it should have been easy for you to reference this, and you've failed miserably.
jaqing
Still, you've been able to invent a new word. Congratulations, have a gold star.
I intentionally misinterpreted your comment and inverted it, thus creating a comical paradox that needed the context of why it would apply when reversed.
It's called humour. You might want to research it.
Sue for what, exactly? The only thing you would be eligible for is financial compensation, and that would not exceed whatever you paid for the material.
Well, you could sue for the cost of replacement. Which (due to inflation) is likely to be higher than the initial purchase price, especially if you timed purchases for sales.
It's time to realize that anyone talking about the advantages of eReaders and Kindle is 100% a softheaded idiot who should be loudly and publicly castigated.
I took 4000 books on holiday with me. None of them had DRM.
Now admittedly I only read a dozen of them, but I had the choices. I'm too lazy to remove/reload the books I don't want to read right now.
Seems to me the softheaded idiot is the one that thinks eReaders and Kindle require DRM. Consider yourself castigated.
Slashdot Mirror
Mobile games port onto the PC and can be successful. Stuff like Battle Fleet 2 for instance. A 'touch to interact' interface translates quickly and easily to mouse input so if you design the game to eventually support mobile and PC then that's certainly an option.
I think finding an audience on mobile is very hard though, and I don't know how mobile translates to console, so I'd probably start on PC anyway.
Party games around a shared screen are available on PC but work best around a large screen in a family room. Most PCs aren't connected in that way; I think console is a far superior option for that.
Handheld type games aren't an area I'm terribly familiar with. They'll definitely translate to console, because the handhelds are basically small screen consoles (and often run legacy console games) and that means they'll also translate to PC. I think I'd cynically build a game that can port to console then plan to wait a decade then port it to the latest handheld. Greater codebase longevity, and can be tied into the marketing for a sequel..
Many console type games work just fine on PC, or better. Anything RPG, RTS, FPS, etc. Even racing games. I think party games and FIFA/NBA type sports games struggle, but stuff like Rocket League works is popular on PC and obviously there are the PC only games like Rimworld and the Football Manager series.
Nah, Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator are created by what was a small independent studio.
They're not as small any more, but that's because they've been successful
promote a game to the console makers
Starting as an independent with no immediate contacts in those organisations I think I'd focus on building a brand, community and successful product within the more accessible markets first - mobile or PC.
It's a lot easier to go to MS or Sony when you can prove there's demand for your product and it's beneficial to them to help you deliver it on their platform.
Indie games developers are part of the industry.
But it's never been invitation only anyway, and the indie developers are a big factor in why.
Not all indie developers are going to sell their game to Microsoft for a couple of billion dollars but experienced game designers and developers with proven delivery of successful games will get the invitations anyway.
So even if you want to work for the big companies, you don't need anybody to invite you into the industry. Just start writing games.
If you can already program and just want to learn a new language, find something you want to write (or help write) and just start. You'll learn fast.
First you'll realise you don't know how to craft a basic runnable program. A quick hunt online and you'll get the structure and you're up and running.
Then you wont know how to compile/run it. Another 'net search.
Then you wont know the syntax to add new features. Another quick search.
Then you wont know which libraries come with the language that provide a wealth of functionality that you can reuse. But you'll be searching for 'how do I open a network port' and finding lots of answers telling you which libraries to use, and when, so you'll be fine.
Then you'll get bored of all this shit and want to know how to automate it all, at which point you can become a software engineer.
I stopped subscribing to my favourite sports team's online media because of this.
They published 'free to access' footage of a match as a teaser to encourage people to sign up for the full highlights package. I tried to view the teaser and got told that it wasn't available to me because I was in the same country as the team, and this footage wouldn't be available in my country until the next day.
They got an email telling them that giving content to people for free while refusing it to their paying customers is a shitty way to run a business and goodbye.
I can see the same footage on Youtube anyway so I'm not losing out; I'm just not paying them for it.
My first thought on reading TFS was that the simple solution is to set one price in the EU - the highest price they are currently charging any member nation....
Technically the optimal price will be a little lower than that.
So people in high priced EU countries will benefit, people in the rest of the EU will lose out. Overall it'll encourage further migration from poor to wealthy regions within the EU, further exacerbating existing regional wealth discrepancies and boosting migration related anti-EU sentiments.
But what else can the EU do, without betraying their vision of a single market (or indeed, their seeming mandate to enrich certain countries to the detriment of others).
With the Epic one-year exclusives, that makes it easier.
There are no Epic exclusives except Fortnite.
There are several games that have curiously failed to release on time, but the publishers promise me they'll be available next year instead.
That's ok, I can wait.
I'm contemplating just buying big computer monitors to replace my TVs when they wear out.
Although computer monitors are increasingly software defined now too :(
They do produce an exceedingly well rated camera.
I didn't even consider buying it though, because rootkit.
Girls play Fortnite too.
Record low sexual activity is due to a range of societal factors. Fortnite doesn't even make the top ten.
To make that claim you have to assume that, to pick one example , no-one would visit Windsor Castle if we abolished the monarchy
If you abolished the monarchy then Windsor Castle would possibly become a greater tourist attraction as the new owners may allow greater access to tourists.
You would however lose the £300m/year contribution made by the Crown Estates to the Treasury, a sum that's net of the payments from the Government to the royal family.
In other words the Queen would receive her current income plus an additional £300m/year. The Government would receive at least £150m/year less than it does currently.
Then of course you'd also have to pay someone to do all of the long arduous and boring as fuck work that the royal family current perform.
It's royalist propaganda.
No, it's basic accountancy.
The FAA doesn't investigate aircraft accidents. That's the job of the NTSB.
You'd best tell these guys then: https://www.faa.gov/about/offi...
Yes. As are the videos released by the Israeli Government showing the aftermath of bus bombings, the execution of Ceausescu, and any footage of riots.
But I haven't read the wording of the laws. When the UK tries to impose something comparable I'll read them in detail, protest anything stupid and identify how to subvert the system through loopholes in what's left.
It's always fun to turn silly laws against the people demanding them.
I believe you haven't read Article 7, section 4 of the GDPR.
https://gdpr-info.eu/art-7-gdp...
Over 20 years into a tech career I'm very aware that I wouldn't be any happier doing anything else as a job.
The many things I'd rather be doing are hobbies and although some of them can become careers that requires engaging with aspects of those disciplines that as a hobbiest I can ignore.
I mean, I could earn an income doing photography. The salary trap isn't stopping me, although it's a significant gap, it's the fact that professional photography needs far more planning, sales and sheer boredom than I can be bothered with. Whereas taking photographs for fun and friends is fun.
They have the right to whine about how gay people are opressing them by their very existence.
They have that right but you've posted no evidence of them using it.
I pointed out several place.
No, you did not.
E.g.
the Heritage foundation wants that man in women's bathrooms
No. That's you reading between the lines and finding a new Tolstoy novel instead of reading the actual words fucking written by them.
Stop ascribing to them things that they haven't said. It's dishonest and you haven't been able to back it up and I'm fed up with your inability to do anything more than lie, lie and lie again.
Stop lying. Fuck it, I'm stopping reading. Why do I always end up having to stop reading your responses?
(Rhetorical question; the answer is of course that you're too fucking stupid to understand how stupid you are).
At least I've been able to ascertain that the accusations of being anti-gay and anti-science are exactly as this comment thread title suggest.
The picture of that burly bearded dude in women's bathrooms? He was born female.
Well fucking forgive me for assuming the bloke that looked like a bloke that you called a dude was actually a fucking bloke.
How fucking bigoted of me to dare to assume the gender of someone, even if I was actually fucking correct.
Bob & Joe getting married does not stop you worshiping whatever god or gods you so please. Claiming it does is you acting like a whiny little wanker so you can oppress them to get your jollies.
Given I'm an atheist I'm not into worshiping any gods. I get my jollies through other means.
You failing miserably to understand the implications for people that do have inane superstitious beliefs makes you a fuckwit, and lacking any empathy for them makes you a cunt.
I did. You ignored it.
I ignored what exactly? You've shown no fucking evidence at all. You've basically libelled them.
I have no idea who these people are and I would happily counter many of the points they raise. But I would do so logically and with evidence, not by pointing fingers and declaring that they should be allowed no voice because they dare to challenge my fucking religion.
You're pointing fingers and declaring they should be allowed no voice because they dare to challenge your religion. Which makes this very fucking ironic:
Yeah some people want the "religious freedom" to harm others who don't believe in tehir god. I'm all in favour of utterly destroying that kind of religous freedom.
they're too cowardly to actually state their position
So you assume it. Project much?
Ye they're too cowardly to actually commit in writing
That's an interesting way of telling me that you have no evidence.
Nonetheless they're advocating that places should be allowed to force this dude to use women's bathrooms
That flat out contradicts the publication on their website that I linked. Perhaps you'd like to show some fucking evidence, because right now you're talking a lot of shit and backing it up with nothing.
yep start off by defining marriage as between a man and a woman
You mean the definition that's been around for centuries? Perhaps gay people should've done the sensible fucking thing and fought to remove any legal recognition of marriage, at which point they can marry who or whatever the fuck they want.
it's more mealy mouthed insinuation and implication to grind their axe about zomg teh geys!111one
What, like this sentence: "Redefining marriage marginalizes those with traditional views and leads to the erosion of religious liberty."
I think that sentence is entirely correct. You may think.. sorry, it's clear that you don't think. People may think that the marginalisation of traditional views and erosion of religious liberties is less important than letting same sex couples marry but I see no harm in expecting them to make that a conscious decision.
They have a regressive anti-seience, anti-gay agenda. They never state it but
..that doesn't stop you bleating on about it as though it's true. Sorry but if they're so anti-gay and anti-seience and anti-science then it should have been easy for you to reference this, and you've failed miserably.
jaqing
Still, you've been able to invent a new word. Congratulations, have a gold star.
I intentionally misinterpreted your comment and inverted it, thus creating a comical paradox that needed the context of why it would apply when reversed.
It's called humour. You might want to research it.
I find that a scurrilous claim and deny it with evidence: I post on many topics and actually like many men.
But as attacking women for being women is already seen as unacceptable I am merely seeking equality for people that aren't women.
Isn't that diverse and forward thinking of me. You should be proud.
Sue for what, exactly? The only thing you would be eligible for is financial compensation, and that would not exceed whatever you paid for the material.
Well, you could sue for the cost of replacement. Which (due to inflation) is likely to be higher than the initial purchase price, especially if you timed purchases for sales.
If I buy a physical copy of a book, I can give or sell it to somebody else, but then I won't have it any more.
My guess is that that's legal for electronic books too. I mean, it is for software..
It's time to realize that anyone talking about the advantages of eReaders and Kindle is 100% a softheaded idiot who should be loudly and publicly castigated.
I took 4000 books on holiday with me. None of them had DRM.
Now admittedly I only read a dozen of them, but I had the choices. I'm too lazy to remove/reload the books I don't want to read right now.
Seems to me the softheaded idiot is the one that thinks eReaders and Kindle require DRM. Consider yourself castigated.
Interesting. Which DRM was on his paper books, and how would he have stripped it?
How would you recommend he backs up the books too, especially without dismantling them?
I find your passion enthusing but remain nonetheless confused.