Polytechnicast

Jerzy and I return to a shared podcast event, first one in quite some time with more to come. It's a thoughtful and playful chat about what got us to this point of collaborating on the Doctor Baer video game. We share the official name and the Steam page where you can wishlist it today.

Related Links and Resources

Additional Links to Support the Show

Episode banner art with screen captures from Josh Anthony’s game Dice Gun Commando

Have you been curious about making your own video game or perhaps already jumped in? This episode of the Polytechnicast I'm joined by Josh Anthony, indie game developer who created Dice Gun Commando and Dice Tower. In our conversation we get to explore how Josh started making games, what it was like starting from being a creative first and later growing into being an engineer. We talk about picking up skills to make games, learning from failure as data, finding what good-enough means and what that unlocks for learning systemically from what you're making and sharing with your community.

And before we recorded I asked folks on my socials: What's a question you have for someone who codes, makes visual art, music, and wraps it all together in an entertaining interactive experience? We got some great questions to explore from that too.

Whether you've been making games for years or are just starting out I think you'll enjoy this conversation with Josh!

Related Links and Resources

Josh's Links

Community Links We Mentioned

Rob's Links

Gettiing back to you from behind the microphone, I had a list of five things and manage to cover three. First is the massive game development focus that's truly been gong on longer but the last couple months hitting some big adventures. That covers telling the story of moving from Godot 3 to 4 with my core game tech and porting Lexilotl fully to Godot 4. After all that:

A topic potpurri, grab bag, buffet, three for one deal. Two topics didn't make it this time but they are coming: partnering vs dominance and getting unstuck creatively.

Also I mention that I'll be doing an interview soon with the game creator of the indie games Dice Tower and Dice Gun Commando: Josh Anthony.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Album art for episode featuring a sketch of a conversion funnel for selling indie games

Making Lexilotl, my latest game which is a crossword puzzle run where you get a clue and three tries to solve a puzzle and can keep going until your tries run out. I had planned on making ad supported right away but ran into a roadblock and went a different way. Here's the story of that and some of my other explorations in making money by making games. Also, a negative comment on one of the Lexilotl announcement videos gave the the idea to explore this topic.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

It's been a busy few months and I'm glad to be back and share some updates, fun projects, and encouragement here on the Polytechnicast. Word Turtle Island is out in the world now 4 months along and I started making my next game already. It's a word puzzle crossword style game called Lexilotl.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Word Turtle Island is now 1.0. Four years in the making and here it is. Officially released on Apple's App Store, Steam, Google Play, and Itch! I share what it's like now with it officially the full version, things I would and wouldn't recommend doing again looking back at the development path of WTI, and a bit about the game I'm prototyping next. Also: WTI won an award for art direction!

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

An intertwined creative challenge: make a more ambitious game than I've made before, make it work as a business, and succeed in marketing it well. In this Polytechnicast I focus on the marketing part of that challenge and what I've learned these past few months publishing a video every single day. Especially the adapting from being stressed about aspects of it to finding framings and habits to make it sustainable, meaningful, and still figuring out the effective part.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Not sure when exactly the marketing push should have started with Word Turtle Island but I do see it needs to be happening now. In this epsisode of the Polytechnicast I'm exploring the creative challenge I started to do daily video posts, while also doing more marketing, while also getting Word Turtle Island ready for it's next updates in June and hopefully 1.0 in July. Remember that time I thought it'd be ready soon a couple years ago? This estimate is more credible but also please be kind considering the source is an optimistic busy artist.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Two main topics this episode. First it's what I've been learning so far with making small videos while exploring topics like teaching interactive design, show and tell about Word Turtle Island, and even video blogging inspired by the old Art Soundoff creative challenge. Second it's about reaching a point of saturation in learning by researching with people playing my game.

The bulk of this I recorded into my watch while running errands so the audio isn't great, but I've reviewed and edited and gotta say there's a lot of good ideas, examples, and encouragement here well worth your background co-working audio time.

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make

Last episode of the Polytechnicast I shared some projects I'd begun and was about do dive into. These are the spinning plates driving this episode. Did any fall? Are there more plates spinning?

Related Links and Resources

Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make