Faster Sprite Creation

Creating sprites for 2D games can be a very time consuming process.

After becoming so smitten with Inkscape for vector graphics it occurred to me that one could use vector graphic animation to generate sprites. I've not used it, but Synfig is a free / open source 2D vector animation package.

After creating a vector graphic character, you can build an animation quickly from a few key frames, rather than animating every frame at, say, 30 frames per second. You can then quickly export the animation to bitmaps, and plug it in (likely using some other tools for image manipulation). Finally, you can quickly modify the animation and re-export it without the need to manually touch thousands of pixels.

Small Basic

Microsoft have created Small Basic, a Basic language aimed at kids (and adults) learning to program. If you've not programmed before, or want to teach a kid, then this looks like one good option. Taking a skim through their PDF, it looks like they guide you through a wide selection of fun learning projects.

It's based on .Net, and so has advanced features like auto completion and context based help. I wish I had some nice features like that when I was learning basic on my ZX Spectrum :)

Now there's a useful gift for a kid - the ability to program computers. Happy Holidays!

Edit: Note that there's also an official blog which gives updates and sample programs.

Getting fresh ideas from your staff

Having worked at several companies, I've often heard 'We want your ideas for cool new games.' If an employee suggests an idea, here's the deal they normally get:

"Give us your cool idea. If we like it, we keep all the money and you get a T-shirt.  If we don't like it, you still lose all rights to it."

Sound like a good deal?

Let's say that an employee comes up with an idea you like, and it makes your company three million dollars in profit.

• Would you be willing to give that person a small percentage of the profit? (Let's say 5% - 150K).
• Let's say that someone else suggested an idea which you didn't want to use. Would you be OK saying the following? "We're not planning on using your idea now, so you can keep it".
• If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should formalize the rules and let your staff know how it works.

 

Inevitably, a lot of questions will come up - do my royalties continue if I leave the company? What happens if the company initially says they do not want my idea, but use it later on? What happens if sequels are made? What if my idea is smaller, like a mini game or new funky shader? etc.

Here I have a few suggestions:

• Answer all these questions on an intranet page which people can look at without having to ask the questions themselves. If people have to ask, you put them in the awkward situation of implying "I've got a cool idea, but I don't want to give it to you."
• Let your guiding principle be that you want to be nice to the employees, so they're happy to share. They wont share if they don't trust your intentions.
• Your intranet page explaining how the deal works is basically a sales letter, or offer. If you don't make the offer tempting enough, they'll just hang on to their ideas.
• You can cover your back with whatever legalese you want. Just make your intentions clear and honest, and 'do the right thing' if issues arise.

It would take some courage to formalize something like this, but it's my feeling that a company capable of doing so is going to be making a lot more money.

Free Subversion hosting at XP-Dev.com

I had been using Assembla.com for Subversion control of my files. They recently announced that private repositories are no longer going to be free of charge (though they are cheap).

I decided to look for another alternative and found this list of free SVN hosting sites. From the list I decided to choose XP-Dev.com. It's a relatively no frills site, but free. It's only been a couple of days so far, but I really like it. The guy who runs it is very friendly and quick to help.

If you're thinking of moving from Assembla to XP-Dev.com, here are some steps which make it easy:

1. Check all your code in to Assembla.
2. Download a dump of your repository from Assembla. To do this, click on: SVN/Trac > Import or Export your Subversion repository here > Get SVN Backup
3. Set up an account and repository with XP-Dev. This takes about a minute, it's easy. Note that your username and repository name together become the url of your repo, e.g. BradPitt_MyRepoName
4. Email your Assembla repository dump and new repository name to XP-Dev support, and they'll set it up for you.

Then just set up a new folder to point to your repository. (With TortoiseSVN - Make a folder. Right click and select 'SVN Checkout'. Give it the server URL and username/password as needed.) Also I recommend keeping your old Assembla linked folder around, just in case you forgot to check a file in.

Happy coding!