There is a point in your life when you do something you regret; you might let your fish die, or kill your husband’s mistress, or become a regular at Subway. Unfortunately, I have succumbed to the latter.

It started at the beginning of the year, when I discovered how expensive London is. I have grown up paying £2 for lovingly made sandwiches of fair size and taste. (If you visit Truro, find Warren’s by the Cathedral!) Subway had never quite been worth it in my home town – the extra pennies are not justified when the cheese tastes worse than the plastic bag it comes in. However, in London, there is no Warren’s, and every meal costs you more for less. And that was when it started.

Soon, the pretty salad girl smiled at me when she saw me. She would ask how I was. I got a ‘Subcard’, which gives you a free Sub if you spend £50 instore. I ate my free Sub.

Sometimes days would go by, but I would always find myself drawn back to the little Subway at the end of the road. (Originally my brain wrote ‘end of the world’ – perhaps that says too much about my London existence.) It is worse than an addiction simply because it isn’t an addiction – I would find this so much easier if I could just say “I’m addicted”. But I’m not, and I keep returning… My problem is, I think I like Subway.

Yesterday I was miles away, and thought I would try the Subway there. They splatted half a scoop of meat onto the bread, threw a couple of leaves on, and declared the Sub complete. My heart broke; I discovered I do not like Subway. I like my Subway, and the pretty salad girl.

_{PS: I need to get out more.
PPS: This footnote has the HTML tag “<Sub>”. That made me smile.}

Last year I played an absolutely stellar game that you haven’t heard of – what’s more, it turned out to be my favourite game of the entire year. Imagine Super Smash Bros, on a handheld console. Now imagine deeper fighting mechanics, and a tactics system stronger than Pokemon. (Though that’s not saying much.) And finally, imagine that it had licensed characters you recognised – and not just one series, but from 41 series. Forty-one series. This game simply doesn’t sound possible, in this day and age.

Turns out, it’s real! The game is called Jump: Ultimate Stars, and it is simply jaw-droppingly good. It is the best Nintendo DS game. And it has never been released outside of Japan, of course.

It manages to license so many series because it is the game of the manga, Shonen Jump – the manga that launched most of the series on offer. There is something oddly satisfying about using Luffy to beat down Naruto, though I hasten to add I am no particular fan of any series on offer. (Since, alas, Cowboy Bebop was not serialised in Jump). This game is just good, in so many ways.

It requires a little patience when playing without knowing the language, but, on the plus side, complete translations are available through that amazing thing called the internet. Frankly, knowing what ‘Deathmatch’ is in Japanese may be hugely useful in your life, should you ever find yourself taken captive and put in Japanese gladiator matches. But I digress: playing this game in a language I don’t speak was still tons of fun, because good game design is universal.

Allow me to post the first picture on the internet where, in official media, Vegeta punches Rukia in the face:

_{Multi-series violent fanfic now has official material to work from!}

The game’s strength is how it takes the simplistic-yet-addictive mechanics of Smash Bros-style multiplayer combat and adds depth through rock-paper-scissors strengths and weaknesses, and a completely customisable ‘deck’ that is brought into battle on the lower touch screen, for easy character changes, heavy attacks, and bonuses. (Triple jump was my personal favourite, as victory often comes in speedy entries and exits.)

In essence, this game works because it is the only game in the Smash Bros style that focuses on competitive play, where the better player always wins. If you die, it is always your fault, and nothing compares to that feeling.

The game never made it outside Japan because of the immense licensing issues – how would one go about licensing 41 series? (For that matter, that is probably why the magazine the game is based on, Shonen Jump, is not published outside Japan.)

I got it for the startling price of $5.20, though I would recommend it even if it costs ten times that. This is the best game on the DS.
(Also, don’t emulate – this game is for playing with your thumbs!)

Also known as: Why I will never be as rich as Notch.

It bothers me how often developers ask, “What’s the in genre? What will make me the most money?” I am not bothered by developers being callous and in it only for the money; I am irked by the answers usually given. Indeed, I think any answer that involves a specific genre is wrong.

Tower defense. Physics puzzles. By the time they are popular enough that they are well known as the in genre, there are already dozens if not hundreds of competing games available. If a potential, money-hungry developer asks this question, by the time they have produced their game, sold it, and released it, they will be at best a few months late to the party. At worst, they will become yet another developer whining about how there is no money to be made in Flash.

I would like to draw your attention to Minecraft for a moment. It is freeform. It is creative. And you already know about it.

This is a diagram of how players go through my games:

This is a diagram of how players go through Minecraft:

I like to craft experiences, where the player is made to feel the emotions that I want them to. (I just made myself sound like an evil dictator. I promise, I do it for the good of my players!) What this means is that I have all sorts of fans, who really enjoyed spending half an hour on my games – and no more. There is a built-in limitation to how involved my fans can be. The way to get the ultimate fandom is to have an experience that never, ever ends.

Give a child a jigsaw, and they will be occupied for a while. However, give a child a bucket of LEGO to build from, and you may occupy them for hours, even days, before they need feeding again. This translates directly into the gaming sphere: Fantastic Contraption, Line Rider, and Canvas Rider are the first Flash examples that spring into my mind.

I confess, this is not how I build games, so I will never be as rich as Notch. But it does answer the original question.
The way to get rich somewhat quicklyish, is to build an addictive game that lasts forever.

_{Has anyone tried building a game-creation engine in Flash?}

After my post on storytelling, I got a recommendation to try out “To The Moon” from Freebird Games. It truly is a special experience, and I wholeheartedly extend the recommendation to anyone interested in exploring the potential of storytelling in games.

Kan Gao is the team director, and was kind enough to offer a few words to share.

Can you give a quick intro to who you are and why you make games?

Kan: I’m just some guy from Canada who struggles to hold his chopsticks. I make games mainly to tell stories.

What other games inspire you and your projects?

K: The old school RPGs in general, I suppose. I’ve always enjoyed the storytelling in them, even if contrived at times; it made you feel involved.

What era of games did you grow up in?

K: Late 80s and early 90s.

It appears that you use death as a running theme, what draws you to that?

K: It’s only a running theme in To the Moon, I think. At the time I started the project, my grandfather was ill, so it was one of the things that got me thinking, and eventually became the base of the story.

Are you proud of your results?

K: Well, things could’ve always been made better, but aye, I’m more than happy with how things turned out.

That’s good. What is your development process? How long does it take you to produce a game?

K: Not that I recommend it, but it’s pretty loose and non-strict. It’s pretty much just me working away at it, doing one thing today and another tomorrow as fit. Then I’d run into things that I can’t do, and knock on talent peoples’ doors with a jar of cookie while begging for help. To the Moon took about 1.5 year to make, though it wasn’t full time.

Would you ever work for a studio that didn’t give you creative control?

K: Not entirely unlikely; there’s a lot to learn from experiences like that too, such as work ethics. Though for now, I’d be a lot happier to be able to finish To the Moon’s series as I see fit.

Do you have a plan for the future?

K: Late lunch.

Hah. On a more business-oriented note, have sales met expectations? Do you care about finance at all?

K: Aye, it’s my first commercial project and I’m hoping to be able to devote my time to this for a living, so I’m really glad that the sales are gaining enough support to make it viable for now.

Superb, I’m glad to hear it. Finally, do you have any advice for other developers looking to write more compelling stories?

K: Writing stories is a pretty personal thing, so I can’t exactly dictate the exact directions. . . but if there’s a choice, I think it’s better to write smaller-scaled and delicate stories than epic ones. There are plenty of the latter around nowadays, but we could use more of the other.

Thanks for your time, Kan.

K: No problem, thanks for the opportunity!

So there you have it, some thoughts on development and storytelling from the developer behind Gamespot’s Best Story of 2011. If you didn’t notice at the beginning of the article, I seriously enjoyed this game and I demand you download the demo now.

What do you think?

Post-mortems are terribly, horribly interesting. I love seeing how Flash games died. Some developers are willing to describe all the gory financial details, writing up accounts so that we can all learn from their mistakes.

I have written two post-mortems in the past, and now I have finally added them to this site (with some longer-term stats added to the bottom):

The Man with the Invisible Trousers
Slide Racing

PS: I have a secret wish that people will read those and decide that I should be paid far, far more. 4 million plays per game is worth more!
PPS: For what it’s worth, Unevolve has 210,000 plays and earned $200 for 2 people, so that’s alright for a 2 day game.

But I am not the most interesting developer, nor the richest, nor even the most bitter! I present to you, a list of every post-mortem I could dredge from the mirth of the internet.

Concerned Joe
Community College Sim
Gravinaytor (Which I always read as Gravy-nator, and you should too.)
(I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors
MegaDrill
The Moops – Combos of Joy
Pixel Purge
Plastic Attack
Robo Riot
Solipskier
SpeedRunner
Steambirds
Tentacle Wars
TumbleBall

I will attempt to keep this list updated with all the post-mortems I can find. If you know of any I’ve missed, comment or shoot me an email with the address at the bottom of the page.

For what it’s worth, this week I also added three more short stories, if anyone still does fiction!

Until next time… *Batman swoosh*