Big Changes (tm) for those of you who haven't been by in a while! The primary focus of the website has changed!
The original focus of this website was to track the progress of Pariah's games as they were developed and brought
to market. That process still continues, but the simple fact is that for most of the development period there is very
little to say, unless you are hyping your product by commenting on an endless series of screenshots. This is especially
true when some of the projects are intended to go for several years and many of the coolest features are not supposed to be
revealed until close to release. Furthermore, you are expected to contribute most of that information first to websites
devoted to the game itself and I'm way too lazy to want to rewrite the same thing just to post it on my own website.
It's much easier to just give you a link to the first article.
It also costs money to maintain a website like this. And it is a horrible waste of time and money to own and maintain a
website that only sees updates every couple of months!
So I began to think about what I wished to find in a website as an Indie developer.
The focus for game developers is considerably different than for those who simply want to talk about games, or
present in depth info on a game they are addicted to, or comment on the cool mods for game X. The interests
of game developers are generally pretty specific and center primarily on... "How can I do X?" and, "Has
anybody already done it so that I don't have to do it again?"
Developers have a pretty clear idea of what information they want (as evidenced by the specific questions they
ask when they head to the forums - or when they ask if a piece of source code can also do X...) Developers gather such
information and hoard it. Books, magazines, I even have a small collection of DVD's on how certain games were made...
For me, it is one of the major reasons to buy the 'Collector's Edition" of a game.
Like many others, I gather such information and study it even if it is not for a game I am currently working on. I
browse old issues of Game Developer Magazine, Dr Dobbs Journal, research papers... My own library of game development
titles fills about half a small library in my house. I know I'm not alone.
Then there is the cost of a book. One of the companies I really admire is GarageGames. They have taken on the idea
of creating a place where indie developers can get a start. They provide tools, and forums where people can gather to
ask questions about their tools. And they provide their tools and software development kits a very reasonable prices.
They give constructive feedback. They are not the only company to do this. There are others.
However, when it comes to books about their products they are all in the same publisher's trap. Documentation and
knowledge about a product and related tools always comes well after the product is released to the public. Books on
game engines become generally outdated quickly, and it costs dearly to purchase them. A game book on the Unreal game engine or
how to use the latest version of Photoshop can easily cost anywhere from $40.00 to $80.00 US.
I see the cost of information as one of the great weaknesses of the Indie Game movement. Big companies can afford to
reimburse their developers for the cost of book purchases. Indies have to scrounge the web looking for information in forums,
websites, and chat rooms. The cost of books cannot be easily changed as long as the costs to manufacture, ship, and
stock books is involved. This is especially true when few of the books will move off of store shelves. It is far more
profitable for a bookstore to have a hundred copies of "The Da Vinci Code" on its shelves rather than five copies of
"Seminumerical Algorithms."
But, in a website devoted to Indie Game Development it would be possible to create a small online bookstore of focused topics.
These online books could be purchased for far less than the regular book price because the costs of shipping, storing and
stocking would be eliminated. As a writer I have never wanted to see people pay $50.00 for a book I wrote, especially when I would
only see a fraction of that amount. It just meant that they would not be able to buy other books.
So, the new focus of the new Pariah Games website is information. Specifically information for developers. Now you will find
Reviews - of books, CD's of game music and SFX, even games being turned into movies (and vice versa). I am taking pieces
from books and white papers I have written in the past, both published and unpublished and turning them into smaller more
focused titles that you will be able to purchase for far less than a regular title.
Initially they will only be available in Adobe Acrobat format to download online for a much lower fee than most computer books.
Later as I get further along I hope to also offer to publish them directly on paper - either through Amazon.com or through a
company like GG Press. We'll see.
So, a ton of work is ahead. The website update has begun, negotiations with companies like Amazon and Paypal are complete.
I have to pore over hundreds of pages that I have written and break out what can be used, update it and put it in a
consistent format.
Amazingly enough it actually sounds to me like a lot of fun.
Of course I will still continue coverage of all the game that Pariah is working on, including Adellion and Tournament Paintball.
However, the site will not be nearly so inactive as it has been in the past, since now I have lots to put up on a regular basis.
I am still hoping to recruit additional artists and programmers for some of the projects that are moving so slowly at the moment.
One possibility is that with the additional revenue from the sale of books I can afford to "share the wealth" and hire a few people
to help with my development projects. Time will tell.
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