作者：Patrick Chukwura

Fine & Dandy Games是个小型独立游戏工作室，开发了新款iOS游戏《Goop》。在这款解谜游戏中，玩家帮助一群小生物避开上方掉下的危险黏性物闯过游戏的各个阶段。Fine & Dandy Games的成员有两名，我是开发者，Ashli Norton是运营主管并且负责其他所有事宜。

我们有数年小型软件工作室的运营经验，但是在游戏开发这个令人兴奋的行业中还是新手。我从12岁起自学软件开发，总是怀有成为独立游戏开发者的梦想。2010年末这个梦想终于实现了，我决定尽量发掘自己大脑中的创意想法，离开传统的手机和桌面应用开发。

从首日起，创建游戏公司便是个很令人兴奋的经历，包括选择公司名称、编撰和草拟多个游戏名等等。因为我曾经同Ashli在多个项目上合作过，所以无需深思便组成团队，传播我们的高质量游戏概念。我的想法更具分析性，而她更能够从用户的角度来看待问题，这一切使《Goop》取得了今天的成果。

正因为我们是多数苹果产品的粉丝而且能够理解Mac和iOS生态系统，这使得我们决定将此作为首款游戏的发布平台。我们也知道，我们必须在iOS平台上选择一个类别，我们想要制作的是我们玩过的游戏类型。

我们两人的合作增强了团队力量，我只扮演开发者的角色，通常决定的是游戏的创造性。Ashli专注于让玩家大众接触到我们的游戏，还为游戏输入那些我未曾考虑到的创造性想法。我们的音乐和艺术使用外包的方法，因为我们知道自己根本不擅长此道。

正确的做法

1、我们很早便敲定设计和概念并且坚持下来

我们决定开始制作游戏时已经有许多游戏想法，包括记录成文件的想法和未写下的草拟想法。最终，我们选择了一个游戏概念。我们觉得这个概念既可以利用App Store中其他流行休闲游戏的普遍特性，也可以让我们执行自己的想法，比如使用拥有各自个性的独特角色、对多数用户而言较浅的学习方式以及能够吸引好奇浏览者的图像。我们感到自豪的是，游戏并没有出现功能蔓延现象，最终的产品和最初的想法非常相似。

对于按时完成开发任务来说，早日敲定概念是关键。尽管并不像我们希望的那样及时，但是我们很早便可以同设计师交流和分享想法，这使得她能够为我们提供重要的反馈。坚持概念使我有机会全盘规划开发的方向，比如需要如何处理冲突和接触。按照流程开发可以带来的另一个好处是，可以及时地对游戏进行润色，而不用等到应用即将投放到市场之时。虽然我们并没有苛刻的时间要求，但是尽早确定设计和概念能够让项目有个合理的时间框架。

2、对我们想要发布的游戏进行彻底的市场调查

在任意行业中，多数公司在开发产品之前都要先进行市场调查以减少失败的可能性，我们自然也不例外。我们需要了解我们的用户，决定是否还可以继续执行我们的游戏概念。对小型工作室而言，单凭想象力和想法就可以很容易地运转公司。然而，或许你有这美好的愿景和打算，你的想法也有可能同目标市场有所偏离。市场调查帮助我们了解自己的游戏同市场上现存的成千上万游戏有何不同之处。独特和可识别对我们来说非常重要，所以我们花了大量时间来确认App Store中是否有极为相似的产品。

我们评估目前存在于App Store上的其他游戏，看看哪些游戏很流行，哪些游戏会获得媒体的报道，用户最喜欢流行游戏的哪些层面以及为何某些游戏无法获得成功。这些发现着实增强了我们的想法，弥补了游戏概念和营销中的不足之处。

虽然我们从现有游戏中学到了很多内容，但是我们仍然坚信我们的游戏是独特的，这需要通过游戏的名称体现出来。无论你相信与否，这个名称的拟定耗费了数个月的时间。我们搜索整个App Store页面，确保没有出现相似的游戏名称。我们希望游戏名称能够独特、发音容易、可识别而且容易记住。

角色的命名也是如此。首先，我们需要对角色群进行命名，“Eeeps”这个名称既受人喜欢而且容易记住。给每个角色命名更具挑战性。我们必须确保每个名字要与每个Eeep的性格相匹配，而且名字还不能看起来像人类的名字。除此之外，我们还必须确保《Goop》的角色类型和名字不与其他游戏雷同。角色的名字也必须不具有冒犯性，而且能够便于将来游戏本土版本的语言翻译。比如，角色Plumpy本来拟定了许多的名字，但是我们必须选择个可爱的名字，这样方能确保玩家喜欢上这个角色，所以我们最后保留了Plumpy，这个名字也不会让玩家感到有冒犯性。

3、在编程开始前决定需要使用的技术

我们不希望在项目进行过程中因频繁更换技术而浪费宝贵的开发时间。我们要找到不仅现在易于使用而且在不久的将来也不会改变的技术。我花了数周时间来决定项目所使用的技术，在此期间没有编写任何代码。《Goop》的开发本可以选择使用诸如Game Salad、Unity 3D和主流iOS语言Objective C等工具，但是我认为应该使用那些广泛运用于其他平台上的非专有标准技术。因为我们需要考虑的不只是《Goop》，还包括将来的项目和更新版本，我们希望能够确保不浪费时间。如果需要在随后开发其他项目时学习新机会，这会增加开发时间并延期将来的更新和游戏，我们不认为需要将时间花在这个方面上。

尽管最初计划只将游戏发布在iOS平台上，但我选择使用C++，因为这样可以很容易地将游戏移植到非iOS平台上。我也知道C++是在游戏开发群体中被广泛使用和接受的编程语言，能够确保我在需要支持之时获得援助。iOS平台的好处之一在于，C++、C和Objective C可以在资源文件中互相替换，这会使得在必要平台特殊逻辑和游戏逻辑间的转换更加简单。

iOS也提供了许多处理游戏图像的不同选择，包括Core Animation、Quartz 2D、Core Graphics和OpenGL ES。我选择使用OpenGL ES的理由和选择C++的理由相同：可移植性。OpenGL ES让我可以完全控制图像逻辑，如果利用上述提及的其他技术，可能较难实现这个目标。使用OpenGL的一大优势在于其是非专有且被广泛支持的标准，不仅可以在当代的智能手机上使用，而且还可以在Mac OSX、Linux和Windows上使用，这又简化了《Goop》将来的移植过程。

4、选择能够形成挑战但新团队足以应付的游戏

尽管我们的游戏设计师和音乐作曲师对游戏创作都不陌生，但我对这个行业还并不熟悉。外包给自由职业者不仅对我来说很新鲜，而且花了比预期更多的时间。创造以我们的能力足以应付的游戏使得我们能够更容易同设计师交流想法，因为我们在决定游戏所需资产时会更加自信。

我有两个截然不同的目标：一是项目必须有挑战性，但是以我的技术和才能也能够将其完成；二是项目不可表现出是我首次创作的游戏。也就是说，游戏必须能够呈现大量精致的图像和突出的准确机制。幸运的是，选择开发《Goop》使我可以不在首款游戏中使用物理引擎，要知道物理引擎对游戏开发新手来说简直是噩梦。

对我们来说，游戏产生广大的商业吸引力是首要的目标。App Store有着大量的用户和各种成熟的技术，游戏必须能够吸引那些新手玩家。我们的目标是让《Goop》简单，儿童、成人和首次使用智能手机的人都可以享用游戏。我们不能去开发自己都不了解的产品，因为这样得到的最终产品并不能让用户感到满意。选择我们自己在iOS平台上玩过的游戏题材也非常重要。这可以确保我们能够准确评价自己的作品并有机会更改游戏，添加提升最终用户整体游戏体验的东西。

5、格外关注细节和润色

对于润色的重要性以及游戏中每个细节的关注，再怎么强调也不为过。App Store中竞争激烈，坦诚地说，用户习惯使用那些控制简单且视觉效果丰富的游戏。所有熟悉App Store的人都能够理解设计的重要性。这意味着你既要有创造性，也要能够决定添加哪些细节、进行哪些润色。

游戏的润色不只是图像，也必须关注游戏机制。我们必须确保Eeeps能够适当地根据用户的动作、碰撞和游戏中发生的其他事情做出响应。润色游戏机制意味着必须考虑用户会如何手持设备，在使用设备的过程中如何触碰屏幕。我们想要确保从未使用过触摸屏设备的用户也能够玩《Goop》。玩家可以在无需掌握任何游戏功能和阅读任何指导的前提下畅玩《Goop》。

《Goop》的润色直到游戏提交给苹果进行审批的最后一刻才停止。首先，我们有个用重击使Eeeps在游戏中前后翻滚的概念。尽管这种设计能够为我们这样的游戏开发者所领会，但是当我们让我们的父母体验游戏时，由于他们并不曾使用过触摸屏移动设备，所以我们发现由于控制过于复杂，他们根本不知道要怎么做。将控制方式转变成更适合设备的点击互动之后，我很高兴地发现即便只有5岁大的外甥都可以将数个Eeeps翻滚到安全区域。

就游戏的图像而言，在美术方面2D游戏比3D游戏有着更高的成就，我设想用户也会有这种想法。原因在于2D图像如何执行的本质。这些图像通常被运用到更加简单、休闲和对用户更为友好的游戏中，让用户产生游戏从整体上来说比较容易制作的想法。正因为用户感觉游戏更容易制作，因此他们会希望开发者在图像上投入更多的精力。这也正是我们向设计师强调必须使用明亮和色彩斑斓的视觉艺术的原因。我们的设计师Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou很睿智，他的设想是在每个屏幕的背景中添加动画效果，使得游戏感觉起来更加生动、有趣和富含真实性。就

开发层面上来说，利用能够使用的技术来确保呈现出精美图像是至关重要的，这会提升角色、场景和菜单的鲜活性。我们不希望看到有人因为图像质量较差而不喜欢《Goop》。

错误的做法：

1、对真正所需资产的数量缺乏计划和细节分析

在游戏几近完成之时，我们发现显然对每个屏幕所做的计划并不如想象的那样完全。图像方面，我发现自己忽略了某些资产的计划，这些都是很容易被首次开发游戏的人所忽略的，包括呈现游戏中所获得成就的图标以及每个屏幕中合适的字体大小等。

我们还意识到我们没有对《Goop》所需的音频资产做出合理的计划。最初，我们只是构思过游戏需要背景音乐和角色音效，但是我们并没有对究竟需要多少种不同的角色音效做适当的计划和准备。我们遗忘了每个Eeep翻滚时所需的音效、Eeeps被黏住时的音效、按键互动和菜单音效以及其他有益于强化游戏深度的音效。

2、外包接手项目的时间太迟

我必须强调的是，将外包商纳入概念原型和游戏设计阶段是非常重要的。我们原本的想法是，等完成80%的游戏逻辑之后再在概念和设计中考虑到第三方的工作。这完全是个错误的想法，幸运的是，当我们考虑到外包方面时，游戏刚刚完成了30%-40%。

在游戏开发过程早期从游戏设计师处获得反馈帮助《Goop》获得了今日的成就，包括在每个环境中使用动画物体以及将音频控制整合到游戏按键中。但是，某些建议需要改变代码，使得整个项目的完成时间收到推迟。使用静态动画水滴精灵，而不是最初执行的在落向地面的过程中改变布置的水滴精灵，这就可以算作是此类改变。这个改变使得水滴的下落更具真实性，在地面上仍然显示水滴残迹的时候另一滴开始从上方的管道中渗出。如果使用最初的方法，就需要多个精灵进行同步才能实现这种效果。

而且，我们还将音效和音乐选择搁置了过长的时间，这给音乐作曲师Sean Beeson和我们带来了许多不必要的匆忙工作。尽管我们对《Goop》的音乐选择感到非常满意，但是我们认为如果Sean能够更早地参与项目，那么游戏的整体音频效果可能会更好。

3、未及时营销并与开发者群体建立联系

在任意项目中，尽快开展营销至关重要，尤其是游戏开发。我们犯了个大错误，将自己的想法和项目雪藏了过长的时间，开发者社区本可以提供更大的支持，也可以为我们即将面世的游戏进行宣传。未曾询问过资深开发者是个很大的错误。我们本可以有机会构建起联系，确保这些有影响力的人能够注意到我们的游戏和整个开发循环。我发现开发者社区能够为项目提供很大的支持，我现在意识到许多发行商、游戏开发者和游戏设计师愿意分享他们的经验和知识，也能够在项目开发期间对《Goop》进行宣传。

4、不完整以及迟到的原型

知道游戏多有趣和富有吸引力是开发的重要组成部分。我认为这会让你知道自己的游戏应当朝哪个方向发展，甚至在一开始帮助你决定是否应该继续进行游戏开发。

不幸的是，我们在开发过程的初期却没有及时制作好原型。我们本可以在修改某些游戏关键层面（游戏邦注：比如用户与角色的接触互动等）时大量减少代码的修改量。早期的原型本可以让我们了解到游戏概念和控制方式的复杂程度。在首个阶段的测试中，接受小团队中的早期内部反馈本可以极大地帮助测定如何拓展游戏开发进程。幸运的是，我认为这个项目的结局还不错，但是我们失去了采用更具流线型的开发循环来深化整个项目的机会。

如果原型恰当的话，美工就可以更加顺畅些。如果我们更早地向美工展示可玩的测试版游戏，那么就不需要那些又长又让人困惑的往来邮件。比起我的低质量绘画照片而言，这也会让设计师激发出更多的想象。行之有效的原型可以让设计师更了解游戏屏幕，减少项目中被忽略和被低估的资产的数量。

5、测试不足

对于我们首次进行测试时认为游戏业已完成的想法，现在想来都觉得十分有趣。当时我们很自信，认为游戏已经很“完美”，我们以版本号0.9发布测试版本，期望只需要修改少数简单的漏洞就可以得到能够向苹果提交的1.0版本。

我们的想法完全是错的。经过测试，我们不仅意识到游戏控制并不像我们想象的那样简单，而且我们最为自得的Eeeps家族并没有设定准确的帧率，看起来好像他们在关卡中蹒跚而行，移动循环出了偏差。我们一味沉迷于自己所完成的作品而且觉得它很棒，但是我们并没有客观地测试游戏，尝试制得完美的最终产品。

虽然我们的内部测试很有帮助，确实消除了某些无需让外界测试者体验的漏洞，但是我们要进行的内部测试不应当只是修正漏洞，还要关注更大和更重要的游戏成分——可玩性。

结语

我们认为现在《Goop》已经达到了最为完美的状态。我们在游戏中投入了大量的经历，尽管曾经整夜地坐在Mac前咒骂并修改代码，我们所取得的结果确实是非凡的。无论《Goop》是否算是获得商业上的成功，我们仍然未自己创建游戏公司并制作出较为成熟的游戏而感到高兴。即便在数个月的开发和数小时的测试之后，我仍然感到震惊的是游戏不仅已经完成，而且我们还创造了一个数年之后依然会感到自豪的项目。

《Goop》的未来肯定会比开发过程更有条理。除了常规漏洞修补之外，《Goop》的首个更新就是本土化。对我们来说，这是《Goop》成长的重要环节，苹果正在逐渐增加对新国家业务扩张的关注。本土化之后，我们会发布iPad版本。我们想要向那些在iPad上玩游戏的人提供独特的体验，利用iPad提供的更多的屏幕可用面积。

我们确信，在度过将《Goop》发布的首个挑战之后，我们将会面临更为艰巨的任务。我们会为游戏市场的变化做好准备。我们有着雄心壮志，我们可以想象到自己未来将成为游戏行业的一部分。

补充信息：

开发商：Fine & Dandy Games

发行商：Fine & Dandy Games

发布时间：2011年8月

运行平台：iOS

开发者数量：1名开发者（白天做全职工作）在晚上和周末时间制作游戏

外包人员数量：2名（1名游戏设计师和1名音乐作曲人）

开发周期：7.5个月

开发预算：6000美元+生活开销

原资产大小：73.9MB

成品大小：12.2MB

代码数量：21482行

开发工具：XCode 4, Macbook Pro, iPhone 4, Instruments, Cornerstone, Zwoptex, Glyph Designer, Audacity, Garage Band, Adobe Illustrator 其他花絮：开发时期平均每天睡觉时长为4小时。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2011年8月30日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Postmortem: Fine & Dandy Games’ iOS Debut Goop

Patrick Chukwura

Fine & Dandy Games is the small indie game shop behind the new iOS game title Goop, a puzzle game in which players help a group of small creatures navigate the game’s stages while avoiding dangerous goo dripping from above. Fine & Dandy Games is made up of one developer, myself, and one business manager and “everything-elser,” Ashli Norton.

Sharing years of experience in operating small software shops, we are both complete newbies to the exciting world of game development. My experience as a self-taught software developer goes back to age 12, and I have always had the desire to get my foot in the indie game door. That finally happened in late 2010 when I made the decision to tap into the creative side of my brain and shift away from traditional mobile and desktop applications.

From day one, it was a truly exciting experience to begin building a game company. Everything from choosing the company name to writing and sketching out numerous game title ideas was simply exhilarating. As I’ve worked with Ashli before on numerous projects including our current software company, it was almost a no-brainer to team up again to deliver our high quality game concepts. My more analytical way of thinking matched perfectly with her more out-of-the-box, consumer angled focus and this helped shape Goop into what it is today.

Being fans of most things Apple and understanding the Mac and iOS ecosystem made it easier to narrow down a platform for our first title. We also knew we wanted to target a large segment on the iOS platform and create a game in a category we typically played.

Our partnership highlighted our strengths as I was the sole developer and typically made the final creative decisions. Ashli focused on bringing this game title to the masses while inputting her creative ideas from a perspective I typically didn’t recognize. We went with outside help for music and art, since we knew these were skills that weren’t present in our DNA.

What Went Right:

1) We narrowed down design and concept early and stuck to it

We had dozens of ideas for possible games as our first release, from fully documented and sketched ideas to “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas that were never put on paper. Ultimately, we chose a game concept that we felt could utilize some of the common traits of other popular casual games in the App Store while also allowing us to implement our own ideas, such as the usage of unique characters that possessed personalities of their own, a very low learning curve for most users, and attractive graphics that would lure curious browsers. One thing that we’re proud of is that we didn’t let feature creep get the best of the project and the final result is very much similar and to the initial idea.

Nailing down the concept early was key to a timely completion. We were able to communicate and share ideas with the designer early, although not as soon as we would have hoped, which allowed her to give us important feedback. Sticking to concept gave me the chance to fully plan the direction of development, such as how collision and touch would be handled. A very welcomed bonus to staying on course was the ability to begin polishing the game without waiting until the end, the time when you’re just ready to see your app live in the store. Although we didn’t have a hard deadline set, narrowing the specific design and concept ahead of time led to a project that was able to launch in a reasonable timeframe.

2) Thorough market research on the game we wanted to release

Market research is the first thing most companies do before developing a product in any industry to lessen the chance of failure, and we were no different. We needed to learn about our demographic and determine if it was viable to pursue our game concept. As a small shop it’s very easy to let your imagination and ideas run the company, and while you may have all the best intentions, you risk the chance of completely abandoning the very market you were trying to serve with your “what if” and “it would be cool” ideas. Market research helped us determine how our game could be different from the thousands of games currently available. Being unique and identifiable was very important to us, so lots of time was spent determining if there were titles too similar in the App Store.

We made sure to evaluate other games currently available on the App Store, looking at which games were popular, which games received media coverage, which aspects of popular games users seemed to like most, and why some games couldn’t get traction. Using these findings really strengthened our ideas by reducing weak points in our game concepts and marketing.

Although we did gather a lot from existing games, we were adamant about our game being unique, which is easy to do with the game’s name. Believe it or not, this took months. We went beyond a typical App Store search and looked around the net to make sure there were no other similarly named titles. We wanted the game’s name to be unique, easy to pronounce, identifiable, and effortless to remember.

The same applied to naming the characters. First, we needed to name our characters as a group, which led us to something that was likable and easy to remember ‘Eeeps’. Giving each character a name was a bit more challenging. We had to ensure each name not only matched each Eeep’s personality, but that the names weren’t human-like. In addition to ensuring the names didn’t sound human, we had to come up with Goop’s character types and names which were unique to our game alone. The character names also had to be non-offensive and translate well in the future to localized versions of the game. For instance, our Plumpy character type could have been named a lot of other things, but we had to choose a name that was cute, ensured that the player liked and wanted to save Plumpy, and users didn’t find the name offensive.

3) Settled on the technology that was going to be used before programming began

We didn’t want to waste valuable development time changing technologies in the middle of the project. We wanted to focus on technologies that were not only going to be easy to use now, but were actually going to be relevant in the near future. I spent weeks deciding which technology to use for the project, even before writing a single a line of code. There were easier options for Goop development including using tools such as Game Salad and Unity 3D or even the option of using the primary iOS language of Objective C, but I considered it wise to utilize non-propriety, standard technologies that are widely used on other platforms. Because we weren’t only thinking about Goop, but our future projects and updates, we wanted to make sure we avoided wasting time. Learning additional technologies later on other projects would increase development time and planning in our future updates and titles, time we didn’t feel we had to spend.

Although the game was planned to be initially available on the only on the iOS platform, I chose the C++ route for the ease of portability to non-iOS platforms. I also understood that C++ is a widely used and accepted programming language in the gaming community, ensuring that if I ever needed support, it would be readily available. One benefit of the iOS platform is that C++ as well as C and Objective C can be used interchangeably within source files, which makes switching between necessary platform specific logic and game logic a breeze.

iOS also provided a number of different options to handle the graphics of our game including: Core Animation, Quartz 2D, Core Graphics, and also OpenGL ES. I chose to go with OpenGL ES for the same reasons I went with C++: portability. OpenGL ES gave me complete control over the graphics logic, which may have been more difficult to achieve utilizing the other technologies mentioned. A huge benefit to using OpenGL is that it is a non-propriety, widely supported standard that not only works on most of today’s smartphones, but also Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows, again making Goop’s future portability much easier.

4) Chose a game that was a challenge, yet in the skill set of a new team

Although both our game designer and music composer were no strangers to game creation, I was. Not only was outsourcing to freelancers new to me, it took much more time than we actually planned. Creating a title within our skillset made it simpler to communicate our ideas to our designer, as we felt more confident when determining the assets that were needed for the game.

I had two distinct goals: one was that the project had to be challenging yet something I could accomplish within my technical capabilities and two, it was mandatory that the project didn’t actually come off as my first game. That being said, I knew it had to be a game that displayed an immense amount of graphical polish and highlighted pinpoint mechanics. Luckily, choosing Goop allowed me to forgo the use of a physics engine in my first title, which could be daunting for a first time game developer.

A game title with wide commercial appeal was goal number one for us. The App Store has a vast market of users, with varying technical proficiencies, and the game had to appeal to even the most novice gamers. Our goal was to make Goop simple and enjoyable enough to be played by children, adults, and first-time smartphone users alike. This eliminated the need to cater toward a specific niche that we may not have been knowledgeable enough to provide a pleasing and satisfying end product. It was also important to pick a title in a genre we played ourselves on the iOS platform. This ensured we would be able to critique our own work and have the opportunity to tweak the game, adding things that could make the overall gaming experience better for the end user.

5) Paid extensive attention to detail and polish

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of polish and paying attention to every detail in the game. The App Store is highly competitive and quite frankly, the users are used to awesome looking titles with simple and predictable controls. Anyone that is familiar with the App Store understands how vital it is to have the very best design. This means you have to be both creative and determine where polish will be added.

The polish of games goes beyond graphics. Attention to the game mechanics was a must. We had to make sure the Eeeps responded appropriately toward the users’ actions, as well as collisions and other happenings in the game. Polishing our mechanics meant considering how the user was going to hold the device, how they would touch the screen while using their device. We wanted to make sure a person who has never used a touch screen device could play Goop. The user had to be able to play Goop without any previous knowledge of the game functions and without reading any guides or directions.

The polish of Goop continued until the last seconds before submitting the game for Apple’s approval. At first, we had the concept of swiping the Eeeps to tumble them backwards and forwards in the game. Although this made complete sense to us as the developers of the game, when we handed over the game to our parents, who didn’t own touch screen mobile devices, it was quite painful to watch them not know what to do because of the complicated controls. After switching to a more expected tap interaction appropriate to the device, I was pleased to see that even my five year old nephew had the ability to tumble dozens of Eeeps to safety.

From a graphical perspective, I personally hold 2D games to a higher standard when it comes to art versus their 3D counterparts, and I assume users do the same. This is because of the very nature of how 2D graphics are implemented. These graphics are typically implemented into simpler, casual, more user-friendly games, giving users the idea that the game in whole was simpler to create. Since the users feel the game was simpler to make, they expect more of an investment into better graphics. This is why we wanted to emphasize to our designer the use of bright and colorful artwork. Our designer, Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou, is simply talented and had the idea of adding animations in the background of each scene to make the game feel more alive, more fun, and realistic. On the development side, it was vital to us take advantage of the technology at hand by making sure we added retina-display supported graphics, which enhanced the bright feel and vividness of our characters, scenes, and menus. We wanted to avoid having someone dislike Goop because the graphics weren’t as bright or as crisp as in another title.

What Went Wrong:

1) Lack of planning and detailing the number of assets truly needed

Near the completion of the game, it became painfully obvious we didn’t plan every screen as completely as we had hoped. Graphically, there were items that I believe no first-time game developer could have planned for, such as the icons that would represent the achievements earned in the game or the appropriate font sizes for each screen.

We also realized we didn’t plan the proper amount of audio assets required for Goop. Initially, we just had a high level idea that the game needed game music and character sounds, but we didn’t prepare for exactly how many different character sounds were needed. We forgot sounds were required for the tumble of each Eeep, the sounds of the Eeeps getting gooped, the sounds for button interactions and menus, and other sounds necessary to add depth to the game.

2) Bringing in outsourced talent too late in the project

I cannot emphasize how important it is to include the talent you will be working with in the initial concept and game design. We had the idea that we would be able to finish 80 percent of the game logic before involving any third parties in the concept and design. This was a complete mistake, and luckily we only completed about 30 to 40 percent of the game before including talent.

Getting feedback early in the development process from our game designer helped shape Goop into what it is today, including the usage of animated objects in each environment as well as the integrated audio toggle with the play button. However, some suggestions required coding changes on my part that added unnecessary time to the entire project. One such change was using a stationary animated drop sprite versus the initial implementation of a drop sprite that changed positioning as it fell toward the ground. This change allowed for an easier implementation of a more realistic drip by showing drop residue on the ground while another drop was beginning to ooze from the pipe above. This would have required multiple sprites in synchronization to accomplish using my initial method.

We also unfortunately waited too long to make sound and music selections for the game, which caused an unnecessary rush on the behalf of our music composer Sean Beeson and ourselves. Although we are thoroughly satisfied with the music selection for Goop, we can only imagine how much better the overall audio could have been if Sean was included in the project earlier on.

3) Not marketing and building connections soon enough

Marketing as soon as possible in any project, particularly game development is crucial. We made the big mistake of keeping our ideas and our project to ourselves when the development community would have been more than supportive and would helped spread the word about our upcoming game title. Not asking experienced developers for guidance was a mistake. We could have taken the opportunity to build connections to ensure these influencers were aware of our game the entire development cycle. I’ve found the developer community to be hugely supportive and I am now aware of lots of publishers, game developers, and game designers that would have been excited to share their experience and knowledge earlier on, while also spreading the word about Goop as the project developed.

4) Incomplete prototyping, too late.

Knowing just how fun, appealing, and easy to play a game can be is a crucial part of development. I think this allows you to know which direction your game should go or even if you should continue to develop the game in the first place.

Unfortunately, early prototyping was left out during the development process. We could have greatly reduced the number of code changes when key aspects of the game needed to be changed such as the user touch interaction with the characters. Early prototyping would have made us aware of how easy or complex the game concept and controls would be for the average user. Receiving early feedback internally from our small team from first stage alpha testers would have helped tremendously in gauging how to further progress with the game’s development. Luckily, I think this project ended well, but we missed the opportunity to have a more streamlined development cycle resulting in added time to the overall project.

The art development could have gone a lot smoother with the use of a working prototype. The ability to show our artist a playable demo would have eliminated long, confusing back and forth emails. This also would have sparked the imagination of the designer much more compared to the low quality photos of my lackluster whiteboard drawings. A working prototype would have introduced game screens to my designer, reducing the number of overlooked and underestimated assets in the project.

5) Not enough phases of beta testing

It’s hilarious to us in hindsight how complete we thought the game was when it was sent out for beta testing the first time. We were so confident that the game was “perfect” that we boldly sent out the test version with a 0.9 version number, expecting only simple bug fixes here and there to get us to the final 1.0 version that would be submitted to Apple.

We were absolutely wrong. Beta testing is where we not only realized the game controls weren’t as simple as we thought, but our adorable family of Eeeps weren’t set to the accurate frame rate, and looked as if they were hobbling across the stage instead of working through their complete walk cycles. What would have been an obvious misstep to a non-partial party like a beta tester, was “perfection” in our eyes. We were so mesmerized by the simple fact that we completed the game and that it looked great, that we couldn’t objectively test the game to make a perfect end product.

Although our internal beta testing was helpful and truly eliminated a lot of bugs that external beta testers would have needlessly experienced, our internal testing was more about bug fixes and leaks, versus the bigger and more important component of the game: the gameplay.

Conclusion

We honestly believe Goop couldn’t have turned out better. We put a lot of work into the game and even through all the late nights of yelling at my Mac or simply cursing my code for the glitchy surprises it threw my way, the end result to us is phenomenal. Regardless of whether Goop is a commercial success, we will remain pleased with simply realizing our dreams of creating a game company with a first title that doesn’t scream “our first game.” Even after months of development and hours of testing, I am still in shock that not only is the game complete, but we made a project that we could be proud of for years to come.

Goop’s future is honestly more organized than the development process was. One of the first updates for Goop beyond typical bug fixes is localization. To us, this will be fundamental in the growth of Goop, especially with Apple’s ever-growing focus on expansion into new countries. After localization comes the iPad version. We want to provide those who enjoy Goop on their iPad a unique experience and want to be able to take advantage of the additional screen real estate the iPad has to offer.

All we know for sure is that after the initial challenge of getting Goop out the door, we are now one tougher bunch. We feel prepared for almost anything the gaming market has to throw our way. We feel inspired and can longer imagine our futures without somehow being a part of the gaming world. (Source: Game Career Guide)