So You Want To Be A Computer Game Star
“Shareware people have it good, especially those who develop games simply for the joy of creating them,” says Rocco Bowling, creator of the strategy game Solace, which is available through Freeverse. “On average, full-time game developers work 50-60 hours a week and are under enormous pressure to perform. And with game development being a cool career to be in, there is a large amount of competition for any game development job.
“Being a shareware developer frees you from all of that, allowing you to focus simply on creating a good, fun game that you want to play.”
Bowling has developed five games since 1999, starting with the tactical game Thrones. Solace is the first that he hasn’t published and distributed himself. He says he went with Freeverse because “successful self-publishing means you have to invest as much time and effort into marketing and promoting the game as you put into making it.
“Time and effort are relatively easy to gather, but knowledge of the target market, pre-established connections in the industry, and initial capital are also incredibly important. I found that Freeverse could more than handle those three items.”
Everyone’s a Winner
He highly recommends the annual uDevGame contest as “an excellent avenue for gaining experience and notoriety. For many new to game programming, simply finishing a project is a huge achievement and confidence builder. So even if you don’t get a prize, you’re still a winner by many standards.
“If you happen to win a prize, it will be related to game development, so you can take that new 3D renderer, compiler, or piece of hardware and apply it to your next project, allowing you to create an even better game for next year.”
Bowling adds: “The contest is also an excellent testing ground for new ideas and genres of games. Since all the games are free, gamers can sit back and admire them for what they are, without subconsciously judging them on their monetary value.
“This garners not only valuable feedback about your new ideas, but it also gives you a connection to the Mac gamers out there. By the end of the contest, you get a pretty good idea how successful your game may be if you continue development and eventually release it as shareware.”