The Game is Afoot
The game is afoot? No we aren't making a game about feet. It is Shakespeare's way for me to announce that this project has begun.
Like just about every other person on the planet (it seems) I have no shortage of cool game ideas. Making a game always seems like a fun idea when you haven’t made one before. If you have made one or more games before then you know it really is fun, and it is also a ton of hard work and a never ending list of problems to solve. If you are the type that enjoys solving new unforeseen problems just when you think you have all the previous problems solved, then you’d probably enjoy game development (or any technology development for that matter).
I started my career in the late 80’s as a computer graphics artist for visual effects (VFX). I became a software developer at the same time because it was necessary to develop your own tools back then in order to make cutting edge computer graphics and VFX. I’ve studied game technology for a long time, since ID’s Doom first left my jaw hanging open in the early 90’s. I was working at SOFTIMAGE at the time and I'll never forget the dozens of software engineers grouped around two computers waiting to play. My first game rendering engine attempt as a hobby was in 1993, and my first commercially released scalable 3D rendering engine (written in C++ from scratch for OpenGL) was in 2003. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of releases while upgrading that engine over the past four years.
Recently, the ubiquitous adoption of broadband Internet access that has been promised for over a decade, has arrived. Mix the social aspects of “always online” and easy content sharing, with the fun of great gameplay, and you get a completely new and exciting experience called online multiplayer games that is growing fast, and here to stay.
The recent explosive growth of online games, whether the massively multiplayer online (MMO) type like World of Warcraft or EVE Online, or simpler casual games like Pogo, earned my attention (along with every other business person it seems). It was enough to make me spend the time to establish a business case and pursue the research to confirm if it was worth the time, effort, and money required to succeed. The answer was clear. I decided in late 2007 it was time to take many of the cool ideas I’d cataloged over the years, and mix them with the latest technology to create many fun and unique online gameplay experiences. O-Zone Games is where that creation is taking place, and this blog is where I am sharing it.
More to come soon about the creation of our first title, a little game with a lot of FUN, called Sno-Zone.