Wi-fi is everywhere

Cafes and laptops go well together.  There's something about tapping away on a sleek little machine while sipping a drink in the intellectual surroundings of a cafe that appeals to a lot of people.  You only have to peek into a Starbucks or a Cosi's or a Think to see that thousands of others feel the same.  Which is why many cafes offer free wi-fi in order to bring people in.

Wi-fi in cafes I understand.  Wi-fi in some other places... well, it just baffles me.

About six months ago, a burger joint opened up around the corner from me.  I've eaten there.  It's pretty good.  Eating a burger in a burger joint makes sense.  What doesn't make sense is the sign in their window that proudly displays the words "FREE WI-FI!"  I read this and was instantly baffled.  Surfing the web while drinking a double mocha latte?  Sure!  Surfing while munching on a burger?  How does that work?  Wouldn't you get grease everywhere?

I've noticed free wi-fi being offered in bars and diners, too.  I guess it makes a kind of sense, although I have yet to see many people taking advantage of it.  Maybe I should try working in one of those places one day.  In the name of research.


-Dave

More programmer art

You might have noticed the programmer art I posted yesterday.  It happens that Ron Gilbert (no relation) of LucasArts fame also posted some programmer art on his blog.  So in the interests of keeping up with my fellow Gilberts, here are some more of my attempts at programmer art from my previous games.

The Minetta in Blackwell Convergence:

At one point looked like this:




And the construction site in Blackwell Unbound:

Looked a little something like this:

And let's not forget my first attempts at Rosa and Joey:

Maybe I should have kept Joey's original design. Who wouldn't want a ghost slug as a sidekick?

-Dave

Post release philosophy

With all the twittering and Facebooking I do, it's hard to come up with interesting things to write about.  Puzzle Bots came out a few weeks ago.  And in case you haven't heard, it's awesome and stuff.  So you should check it out.

And as I often do after a release, I tend to get a little philosophical.  This is the sixth game that we've completed since we started this studio in 2006, and man have things changed.  And by "changed" I don't mean myself.  When I started, there were very few people doing this kind of thing.  But now?  The entire indie gaming scene has taken off like a howitzer blitz.  Everyone's talking about it.  Mainstream gaming websites and media outlets now dedicate a good chunk of their time to indie games.  The IGF has become a force to be reckoned with.  Game conventions normally reserved for the biggest high-budget console titles (like E3 and PAX) now have indie game booths and they are packed to the gills and swarmed with press.  There are major websites and web TV programs (including the fabulous Bytejacker) dedicated to the subject.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  I could go on, but you get the idea.  It's pretty darn amazing.

As for me?  I'm still that guy in the cafe.  Drinking coffee, plinking away at a laptop keyboard, and somehow ending up with a game at the end of it.  The way I work hasn't changed all that much.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

So what's next for us?  Janet and I are working on a new project, but there's very little to show so we're keeping mum about it for now.  It's very much a "back to our roots" kind of thing, but it's also something very new.  I DO have some truly epic programmer art, done by me, which you can see right here:

I wonder if the game would sell more if it looked like this.

I approve...

... of Matt Smith as Doctor Who.

(and I'll have a real update soon)

My life in limerick form

Hi all!  I'm desperately trying to get Puzzle Bots to beta before the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.  In lieu of a normal update, I thought I'd share a silly limerick I wrote several years ago about my life as a game developer:

Here’s how my time is spent.
While I’m in development.
I seek out inspiration
and maintain motivation
and just hope that it pays the rent.

It starts with writing a doc
That’s solid and tight as a rock
All items common and rare
They are all written there
‘lest anarchy come by and knock

Once the design is complete and computed
The team members must be recruited
For if it were all done by me
Nasty things you would see
‘cuz it would all come out convoluted

Then we all get right down to work
We do our jobs and we’ll never shirk
Pixels are dutifully slammed
The game’s mostly programmed
And hopefully no one’s a jerk

After ages of blood, tears and sweat
It’s complete, but it’s not over yet!
Heed the words I am telling
For now starts the selling
Lots of money we hope we shall get

The PR work is never much fun
But on its shoulders a business is run
Marketing Rosa or Stone
Is a whole different poem
So I that believe this ditty… is done!

So what the heck is a "wadjet" anyway?

Several months ago, I sought the advice of marketing and PR people since I know virtually nothing about the subject myself.  A common thread among their advice was that I should give serious consideration to changing the name of my company.

I have to admit, this is something that I've considered more than once.  "Wadjet Eye Games" was not the best of choices.  It's hard to spell, hard to pronounce, and it has nothing to do with games.  It should have been obvious that the name was iffy when I was nominated for a Game Developer's Choice award in 2007 and the committee completely butchered the name at the award's ceremony.

So why did I give my company this name in the first place?

When I was a kid, I had a brief obsession with Egyptian myths.  I read as many as I could get my hands on, and in doing so I came across the symbol of the wadjet eye.  I thought it was the coolest looking thing ever, and I knew that if I ever needed a logo for anything I would use the wadjet eye.

Flash forward twenty years later.  It was October of 2006 and I wanted to announce my first game.  I was on the internet, fingers poised over a keyboard, the screen locked onto the domain registration page of ipowerweb.com.  In order to announce the game, I needed a website.  And in order to register a website, I needed a name for my company.  I had been thinking and wrecking my brain for several weeks, but nothing was coming.  I had to choose something and now. 

Then, it struck me.  I always knew that I would use the wadjet eye symbol as my company's logo, so why not just use that for the company name?  The decision made, I typed "wadjeteyegames.com" into the registration field, entered my credit card info, hit "confirm", and bam.

Four years later, marketing professionals are telling me that I should change the name.  I thought about it long and hard.  I even posted a thread on indiegamers.com about it, asking what other folks thought.  But, really, the point is moot. 

Would changing it now magically make me super successful?  Probably not.  I've already developed five games (soon to be six!) under the Wadjet Eye Games banner, so there's little point in changing it now. It would do me much more harm than good.  And honestly? I like the name.

So the name is here to stay! But if you could spread the word that it's spelled with a "J" and not a "G", my google searches would be eternally grateful.

-Dave

10 things I've learned from working in cafes:

As I've posted before, I've been doing the laptop cafe thing for awhile.  Here are a few little bits of wisdom I've picked up.  Use them wisely.

10 - It's impossible to sound masculine when ordering a latte.

9 - If you have to answer a call of nature, bring your laptop with you.  If you ask someone to watch it for you, they will always say yes before promptly forgetting about it.

8 - The girl smiling and cooing at her computer screen is talking to her boyfriend on skype.

7 - Get there before 9:30 AM if you want any hope of getting a table near an outlet.

6 - You can coast in a cafe all day on one cup of coffee, but it won't make you well-liked by the staff.

5 - People might look like they are doing important things on their laptops, but half of them are just updating their facebook status.

4 - Free wifi sounds like mana from heaven, but in a crowded cafe (with dozens of laptops) you might as well be on 300 baud dialup.

3 - The people you think are weird are thinking that you are just as weird.

2 - Nobody actually cares what you are doing on your laptop, no matter how interesting you think it is.

1 - Rainy days + warm cafe + sweet jazz music = best work environment ever.