One Man Crews

How many one man teams are there in the Blitz community?

If you're a one man crew I'd like to see a sample of your work so I know where my standards should lie. Often times I give up on good ideas because I feel they are unreachable with just myself working on them.

My work is located on www.dungeonsoffear.com.

Keep in mind that I am only a hobbyist developer, full time student, and part time dishwasher ;)

Lets hear it for the one man crews!

Hands up, I'm a one man team (can one man be a team?).

Mostly my stuff is none game related as I program apps (not in Blitz) but did have a dabble at writing a complete game a few months back.

Game here >>> http://www.syntaxbomb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1986

Full Source Here >>> http://www.syntaxbomb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2064

It's my first complete BlitzMax game. It's ok for what it is but in the grand scheme of things it was only ever meant as a practice run to learn from.

Currently developing my 2nd BlitzMax game but taking it much more seriously and putting more effort into development so naturally it's taking longer than the month the above one took.

Check the Buzzword link in my sig.

Funny you should ask, I'm about ready to launch my new project, code name "Single Coder RPG Challenge" ;)
I'm going to have a webpage detailing the production and open for comments on all stages.
Final result will be free open source.

I'm coding/designing solo at the moment and for the foreseeable future, but partly as a result I don't have anything to show for it yet. I also am very part-time at this so time isn't on my side too much. But then, it is only a matter of time.

As an independent solo-author you do have to think carefully about your priorities and how much time you spend on stuff, especially on getting sidetracked, distracted and doing stuff that isn't really helping your project along. You also have to consider maybe even altering the kind of games you make based on the time you have to work with. e.g. start thinking in terms of procedural algorithms, compression, re-use of code - making a framework or generic engine so that you're actually writing code for more than one `product` at the same time, picking your projects carefully, etc.

I expect most people here are one-man crews?

Wow these one man things look great, but one thing I notice with the two posts (and from previous observations) is the matching games seem extremely popular among the single coders. What is the attraction to such games? Is it the ease of coding, universal popularity, or does it have to do with graphics (which look fantastic by the way.) I'm anxious to hear the response, as well as more comments from any other one man "teams."

And for ashmantle, I'd love to contribute to that project. I'll text base the heck out of it (why make graphics when they're done in MS paint and look like they came from the early 80's if you don't have to?) Just drop me a line at contact(at)dungeonsoffear(dot)com.

@Sauer: hehe, yeah I agree, but there will be a minimal graphical standard and that is good old 2D isometric that I just can't get enough of :) I'll announce the start of the project on these boards as everyone is welcome to contribute with comments and perhaps storyboard/story aid ;)
Oh, and I'll be making all the graphics myself, so expect programmers art ;)

I never intended to do one in the first place. It was just curiosity about knocking a match-3 engine up and I never had thoughts about making it into any sort of full game until after I'd done the initial engine.

One things for certain though. I'll never be doing a match-3 type again, unless there's a big fat cheque involved of course :p

I was a one man crew for some of my earlier games but now I work with other people which makes better sense if your skills are limited in certain areas and good in others.

If you're talking about Buzzword, its a word game not a 'matching' game.

It wasn't that easy to write, either. I've since written a match three engine which is working about as perfect as a match three engine will ever get. Didn't take long to get the basics up and running, but turning into a generic match three engine and adding a bit of polish took time. Screenshot (bit old, though):

One man (+ a few libs, music, apps from external sources)

http://www.tankuniversal.com

but I've been working a/h on this title for years ;-(

* selfpoints

I rarely ever finish something regarding code, I wouldn't want to disappoint a team with that! :-)

Kick Shot Pool was a one-man project ( with the exception of the sound effects, if that counts. )



My current game is also a one-man project but I'm not ready to show anything from that yet.

Those balls look lush - oooh er.

GfK: Hey nice to see a screenshot. You gonna finish this then? What takes the time in the engine I found (once the basics are up and running) is all the power up items and locked pieces and special conditions etc.

Not sure at the moment. Spending most of my time lately learning more useful skills; HTML, PHP, SQL, CSS, JavaScript, XML etc.

Yeah. My engine has two modes - one where matched tiles are immediately replaced with new ones, and one where new tiles fall in from above. That was a cow to get right, as I had tiles overlapping all over the place at first. Now they all line up neatly.

Adding in locked tiles wasn't that bad. I haven't added any bonus/power-up tiles yet, although the code structure is there to do it when/if I can be bothered.

This is all quite interesting... and I was shortsighted in thinking that Gfk's 'Buzzword' was a match game, so apologies there.

Grey Alien stated:


My problem lies in my graphics abilities... what is the best way for one to become better with graphics? From what I'm seeing the separation of a good one man team and someone like myself is the presentation of graphics. Although I am no expert in Blitz, I have a fairly good understanding and can program quality games.

Learning code is a matter of logic and looking at manuals, but graphics require a different artistic element. Are there any suggestions on how someone such as myself can create better graphics? (Other than a natural artistic gift... but then again if thats what it takes thats what it takes!)

And I'm still looking for more one man teams to post your stuff, so don't hesitate ;)

Practice, practice, practice :)

Yah sometimes graphics and/or sound can be difficult to do well if you are naturally inclined more toward logical code. There are really lots of skills you can get from doing graphics but like anything, and like Qube said, it takes practice so that you learn from it and discover your abilities. Ultimately once you've mastered the medium that you're working with it's then entirely up to your imagination what you can come up with, but learning graphics `tools` doesn't always come so easily as logic tools.

I think, at the moment anyway, that I would probably want to have a hand in all areas of a game otherwise I probably wouldn't be happy with how it works together. I probably will have to relax that `integration` at some point.

im a one man coding crew :)

Me too, although i sometimes collaberate un-bindingly for certain things with others.

One man here, though, I have got plenty of help from others on the internet! :)

*Dabz points at Qube*

One man team here ... working on 2 projects at the moment ...

Polymanics


Stramash

Yep, another one many team here (coding wise). Sometimes I turn my hand to making 3D models, but have never made my own music.

Finished two games, and one app so far and busy finishing another long running project at the moment.





More info on website listed below.

both, im working with a small company(security coding) and writing my game on my own.

I am a one man crew too :)
I take much satisfaction in doing the graphics, coding and music/sounds all by myself.
That's the way i prefer it. Working in cooperation with other people never worked for me...


http://pagesperso-orange.fr/amagumo/games.html

One man army here, too. Though for my gaming interests I am in bad need of an illustrator.

I'll consider myself a one man crew when I'm damn-well done.

All on my own here too.

Mark

http://www.x-sailgame.com

:P I drew this weird dark lord that controls the universe and it looks dumb, but it's better than what I used to draw :P

One man crew here!

Main projects are my blog, a web comic and a top down space shooter/rpg game:



Still a long way to go on that though ^_^

On my own here too :)



This is my latest game. Be finished by the end of the month ;)

Me too most the time. I'm crap at animating 3d models though and frustrate myself with my lack of modelling skills. Texturing is also pretty poor.

So, when you can't do any of these, it's very hard to get anything done :o)

Probably why i like 2d stuff alot

Working in a team is great when everyone is pulling in the one direction and everyone has the time. Sometimes, something will come up in their lives, and they simply don't have the time to sit in front of their computer. Real life always comes first :o)

Another loner here. To me learning is the most important thing about making games. Not the final product. I've been working with only one game for several years now. It takes time to do everything by myself, but I'm not in a hurry. Here's a little peek:

This is all fantastic... thanks to everyone that posted.

Clearly, I need to step up my game. (Bad pun alert!)

What is the average amount of time it takes to create a finished project? I'm hearing "years" from a couple people... is this typical to all developers or just the ones that work alone. Obviously the more people on a project, it will probably go faster, but are there advantages to working alone in regards to time?

Buzzword was about a year, but that included BlitzMax's learning curve (although I programmed since 1986 in various languages).

My other 12 published games ranged from 30 days to about eight months.

Lol lonely bunch aren't we

Edit 4 benefit of mr serious: I mean in blitz except the forums of course. Does anyone know locally living blitzers in 'real' life? Wish i did.

Um, no?

Definitly a 'one man crew' here.
most recently ive been revisiting my old BattleZone screensaver/game project:

originally it took a week, retooling it took only a few days, but that doesnt include the AI library that i used, that took awhile.
my main 'secret' project has been going on for around 6 months now, but that also includes alot of code that was recycled from its predecessor.

P.S. sorry for the bad picture quality.

One man team here too!
Student and program as hobby.



planning to start another major project soon...after exams. lol

I'm a one-man crew, but I've been in many projects with teams big and small. I'm just getting back into the whole "lone wolf" thing, so things are slow going, but quite satisfying.

Sauer: I made a simple tetris game in two weeks. why so long? Well I had to figure out how to support windowed mode in BlitzPlus and lots of other technical stuff to make it a proper "finished" game. I made Holiday bonus in about 5 weeks BUT I worked like 12+ hour days, it was crazy, plus someone else did the art and music. Other games have taken 3+ months and Fairway took 8+ months. I think that modern commercial casual games are taking longer and longer now and require teams...to finish any game, even a small retro game, is still going to take several SOLID months I'd say (or years if part time). Yeah and as GfK says, there's always the language learning curve to get past (or you can buy my framework ;-))

I've been working on Iron Coffins for about 3 years now.

one man too, nobody's crazy enough to coop with my wierd project :)

Im a one man team. But to tell you the truth, my stuff is really nothing to brag about..

One man band here too.... my current projects aren't worth bragging about for another 3 years or so - then I will rule the world Moo hahahahah....

Grey:
I'd buy your framework but I'm working with only BlitzPlus here... so I'm out of luck there.

As for the last three posts: I share your lack of bragging, but to a higher degree. ;)

The rest of the posts have been stunning, I had no idea the amount of one man coders there were, as well as the quality work produced by them. I have renewed hope... a little...