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Er, yes. I changed it to two posts, since I've restricted first posts to Newbie Land, and Introductions is the only place you're allowed to post if you're not a spam bot. It seemed silly to make someone post more than once in Introductions.

That was probably introduced (like the other bug mentioned above) when I upgraded the enemy combat AI for the special Sinister Design-exclusive version of TRPG2. It'll resolve itself if and when I remake the game in the TSoG engine. :)

What's your favorite part of game development?  How about least favorite?

What's the hardest part?

My favorite part is probably a tie between writing dialog and writing music. I guess you could say that I just like writing in general, as long as it isn't writing code. :)

Actually, even programming can be kind of fun, but only the parts where I'm figuring out how to make some new system work. That's kind of like a fun puzzle. The remaining 90% of my coding time is spent fixing bugs, though, and I hate that about as much as anyone can hate anything.

I noticed you said you have Flash 3, the only version I currently have access to is Flash 4. It said something about converting files from flash 4 to flash 3 somehow... but I don't know...

Anyways, do you think I'd actually be able to help you program if I use flash 4?

You mean Flash CS4 and Flash CS3? (I'd be surprised if anyone in the world was still using Flash 4 and Flash 3. ;) ) I'm currently coding TSoG in AS2, which every version of Flash dating back to 2003 supports. So if you know the language and want to help, I might be open to it. Send me a PM.

I think he's suggesting that I get funding from an investor of some kind, then use it to hire artists, programmers, etc. to work on the game for a more mainstream release. But of course, there's no way I could then go on to release the game for free afterwards. No sane investor would bet their money on that.

I would definitely give you ten dollars if we met in person, but the current buying method is really too clunky and I don't see the point of it.

What's so clunky about it? BMT Micro's process is no different than ordering off Amazon.com, or any other web store. You just put in your credit card info and voila, there's your download link. It's certainly faster and more efficient than coming to meet me in person so you can slip me a ten. :P

Also, Ert: did you know that you can order the game on CD off BMT Micro? They burn it themselves at your request, then ship it to you.

Forgive my cynicism, but are you speaking from experience, or from a desire to play Sinister Design games for free? Ads in Flash games really weren't all that lucrative back before the recession hit, and they're certainly no better now.

I do know of a small handful of Flash game developers who are able to make a living releasing free games (Pixel Jam being a prominent example), but most free Flash developers are either in high school or college, and don't have to worry about paying rent, paying back school loans, buying food, paying for doctor's bills, and so on and so on. With Pixel Jam, the kind of games they make--short, addictive action games--are much quicker to put together and release than the kind of games I make, and they appeal to a much larger audience. In short, they're a good fit for the free Flash model. Sad to say, mine really aren't.

Maybe I'll only earn a few thousand on TSoG--maybe not. I'd certainly like to earn more than that. We'll just have to see how things go, I suppose.

Does fate revive the main character? Or does it rewind time to give him a chance at a different outcome?

That's not a bad idea. I'll do that.

Sure, no problem. ;)

Going it alone has it advantages and its disadvantages. The primary disadvantage is that you'll have to make sacrifices, whether that be through reducing the scope and ambition of your game, or through taking many years to complete it. Having a team makes game creation much, much faster.

The main disadvantage to having a team, however, is that people can be unreliable. There's nothing worse than having a game 70% done, then having your artist or your programmer decide he's not interested in working on the game anymore. Do you try to find a replacement to come in and produce similar work? Do you have to scrap everything they did and start over? It's bad news.

Basically, if you're going to create an indie game, you have to choose your poison.

As for whether this is a profession or a hobby for me: I'd like to be able to design my own games professionally. Whether I'll be able to do that and still pay the rent remains to be seen, but as long as I have peoples' support, I remain optimistic. :)

It took me two and a half months to make. The battle system was a little of both--I thought it through ahead of time, then tweaked the numbers as necessary based on my experience playtesting the game.

I actually just added a new rank at 1 post yesterday: Ghost. It wouldn't be much trouble to add in a new one at 25.

I relied on free tutorials from sites like kirupa.com and gotoAndPlay.it, but I also had help from more experienced developers on a forum I visited regularly at the time. :)

Heh. I learned to use Flash by making Telepath RPG Chapter 1. (Which, in retrospect, was probably the wrong way to go about it.) I intended to release TRPG1 as a finished game from the beginning, which is in large part why it's so short.

I originally released TRPG1 on Newgrounds as an entry for an Armor Games competition. (It won $250.)

[Re: Post / Download New Battles!]

It's your call. If you want, you can post the maps here, then link directly to your map posts in your story. (You can get the link to individual posts by clicking the Re: Post / Download New Battles! link right above any given post.)

There are platforms other than Flash that support in-browser games, but most of them kinda stink. One exception I can think of is Unity. While Unity is awesome, however, it doesn't have anywhere near the install base that Flash does. That means that most players will have to download a plug-in and restart their browsers before they can play your Unity game, which will cause a lot of them to say "Ah, forget it."

The biggest advantage to making a Flash game as a downloadable executable is performance. Flash runs way faster when it's not embedded in a browser. (Don't ask me why, but it's true.)

Also, it gives you much more flexibility to make large game files. If I include all the music and art and sound effects I need for TSoG, for instance, it's going to weigh in at well over 100 MB. No one is ever going to wait for a game that huge to load in-browser every time they want to play. It'll be better to make it a file that you download one time and then can execute at will.

I'm guessing that you couldn't directly "sell" a browser game to players, as you could with an executable...?

In fact, you could--that's what indie developer Farbs has been doing with Captain Forever.