Creating Games With Friends
It took me a while to realize that creating a game becomes even more fun with friends. Before I met Doug Sharp, I was a private admirer of his work and created my own clone of ChipWits. Though it was in Visual C++ for Windows 3.1, I had a lot of fun doing that (honestly). But it was not nearly as much fun as we’re having right now! Many years later, when Doug and Mike released ChipWits II, we connected when I contributed a web-based mission editor to their project. Since then, we’ve assembled a four person team and an awesome group of play testers for the modern reboot. The more people we get together, the more fun it has become for all of us to create the game. The quality of the game has only increased.
One reason we put this website together is to share real-time updates with you (our community!) about our progress on ChipWits. If you join our mailing list, we will send you a weekly digest of new content, so you can easily stay up to date. That’s participating in “read-only mode.”
But an even better reason for creating this website is to get real-time feedback from you so that we can create this game together! This Game Devlog is where we plan to have that two-way discussion. We’re eager for you not to just read these posts but also to respond and give us your feedback and ideas. When you do, we will all have more fun!
Building the ChipWits Community Together
Our team made a decision pretty early on that the most important thing we can do to modernize ChipWits is to incorporate a strong community element. Thinking back to playing the game, I had the most fun with it when I could show off my robot creations to my friends, and to see and learn from what they did. We would have a blast competing with each other to see who could build the best ChipWit for a given mission.
We want to launch with a strong and thriving community, and to do that we have to start to build that community even before we release the game. We want to build what the community wants, and to do that we have to open a dialogue as early as possible. We want to have as much fun as possible making ChipWits, and to do that, we need you!
Your Participation in this Game Devlog
At least once a week, one member of our team will post on a topic related to our process and progress. Whether it’s about the game’s art, music, UI, puzzle design, code, marketing, or some other aspect, we hope these posts are both informative (to you) and formative (to the game’s development).
We hope you will read these posts, but even more we hope you will participate and share your own thoughts. By responding with your ideas, you will help influence the direction of the game!
Speaking of participating, we want to extend a special thanks to TheOdd1, one of our early access play testers, for supplying us with the “Incubating ChipWit” image. You can find more of her amazing AI Artwork here!
Discussion
Tell us: What would you most like to see in this Devlog? What are some examples of great Devlogs? Do you enjoy creating games more when you go it alone or when you create with friends?
We’d love to hear from you!
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