David Jaffe has got to be the most candid, personable game designer out there. He continually shows that he’s just a normal person, and isn’t averse to opining on volatile politics or sharing insights on game design. Hit the jump for a few choice videos from his blog.
We’ve all been there: you’ve been working hard for months and you’re hitting alpha, then beta, and while you have something that looks like a game, it just isn’t fun. You get panicky, you lose sleep, and you work really hard to fix that. It’s good to hear that nobody is immune.
I think this compounds my own views on quality of life issues — if anything, sitting in front of a computer for hours on end is going to stunt any creativity. The human brain works better when it moves back and forth from subject to subject and good thinking is wasted when staring at one thing all day.
Tags: David Jaffe, Eat Sleep Play
Hi there, thanks for the post – I’m just starting out on game development, and I think I’ve settled on experimenting with C++ (I’m a web designer so Flash + AS2 are more my kinds of things). Do you know of any good resources or tutorials for learning C++, and the kinds of software I’ll need to download to start experimenting?
Anyway I’m also blogging about my game development *adventure* at progspot.wordpress.com – if you have any advice or pointers please feel free to drop me a note!
Cheers
Heya — there are lots of C++ resources out there, but I keep seeing programmers recommend these free online books:
http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html
http://www.steveheller.com/cppad/Output/dialogTOC.html
As for programs I’d suggest something like Notepad++.
@nickhalme:
Thanks for the links! I’ve decided to go with Code::Blocks for now as my C++ IDE, but I’ll definitely check out Notepad++ when I have an idea of what’s actually going on. Drop by my blog if you have any other tips for a newbie (progspot.wordpress.com)
Thanks again!