So You Want To Make Games? Advice From: Cold Beam Games

Last Thursday I posted an interview with James Marsden from FuturLab about his personal experience with the games industry, and advice for people wanting to create their own games.

Following on from that I’ve got an interview with Steve Hunt from Cold Beam Games, the man behind the awesome Beat Hazard (you can read our review here). If you’ve never seen Beat Hazard being played before, you should check out this gameplay video. In short it’s an arcade, twin-stick shooter which is powered by your music. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Steve developed it entirely by himself.

So, let’s get started!

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Q: Did you study at University and which course did you take? Has it helped you?

Steve: I learnt to program when I was 8, BASIC at first and then 6502 & 68000 assembly language later. I went to Uni and did a degree in Computer Science. I think this blend of self taught and formal education is a powerful combination. Both helped me in so many ways.

Q: What inspired you to take the plunge and start making games?

Steve: I just love games. Right when I first started to programming I wanted to write games. It’s just my passion. My first published game was on the Atari 800 in 1987 when I was 14. Here’s a link if you want to check it out! And it’s been pretty much games all the way since then.

Q: Before starting on your own projects would you advise getting experience in the industry first, such as working with an established studio?

Steve: Getting some experience in the industry can only help. You will learn a lot doing that. If the option is there then take it! But I don’t think it’s essential as they will work on a completely different scale to a project you might do on your own. You can definitely be successful even if you’ve never worked in the industry before. I find the Indie scene is pretty friendly, a lot of the Indie guys talk and will help each other out.

Q: Are there any core skills which need to be learnt, such as a particular programming language?

Steve: Definitely. You really need to know C++ or C# as these are the standard languages you will always need (Unless you’re going for flash games, but that’s outside of my area). You also need skills in the other disciplines, artwork, design and planning. I guess small Indie teams need a broad spectrum of skills to succeed.

One point though, don’t feel you need to do everything yourself. There’s a ton of middleware / art / music resources out there that won’t cost the earth and will allow you to focus on the creative part of the product. For example, Beat Hazard PC has licensed music ($49), a free middleware 2D engine and a middleware audio engine ($150). These have saved me months of work! So really look if you can buy a solution before you dive in to doing it yourself.

Q: How much planning and preparation would you advise before getting stuck in with development?

Steve: For me I don’t spend too long here, maybe a few weeks. But that’s normally because the game I’m going to work on has been in my head for ages so I’ve pretty much gone as far as I can from that point of view. There’s only so much upfront design you can do before you need to see how the beast will work when it comes alive. For new platforms I find I need a few weeks to try some sample apps and tools before I’m ready to get started.
I like to spend a lot of time tweaking and testing once the basics of the game are up an running.

Q: What were the main challenges that you faced during development, and how did you overcome them?

Steve: I’m not a fan of low level programming so I personally find all that stuff challenging, e.g. graphics engine coding etc. However, I’ve been able to side step most of this though as I can buy off the shelf solutions. Creative challenges are hard, but sort of fun too. Balancing the game play for all types of skill levels, deciding how much content is enough etc. Sometimes getting too close is a problem too. You really need to get other people to play your game and listen very carefully to what they say (especially if it’s negative). However, think long and hard on how to solve players problems in the best way, don’t necessarily implement what they want to see.

Q: I assume that Beat Hazard 2 is in the works, so are you tackling the development differently in light of your experience with the first?

Steve: It’s rattling around in my head at the moment. I’ve got a load of ideas and I’ve got a good idea where I want to take it. I’m currently adding updates for Beat Hazard PC and looking at doing an iPhone version before I start BH2. When I do start BH2 though, I’m not sure I’d change the development process too much. The first went pretty well and I’d use the code base as a starting point for V2.

Q: Any last freestyle advice you would like to give?

Steve: Yeah, here’s some random thoughts. I think it’s important to write a game you really want to play and to stick with your vision and really work on bringing that to life. Trawl the net for resources and help, there’s a ton of stuff/people out there that can help you. And keep faith I guess, sometimes the going will get tough, you need to get your head down and work through these times.

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Once again I’d like to thank Steve hugely for taking the time to answer our questions. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Beat Hazard on more platforms in the near future (including the PSN), so we wish him the best of luck and hope everything goes smoothly!