Rant: Game Design without Limits!

I've considered making an Intellivision version of No Quarter. (You're looking at the mock-up in the thumbnail.) When I discussed this at AtariAge, I was informed by one of the members that: 1. He wouldn't help me if I didn't lose my attitude, as if he was the interim high school principal and I got caught pulling all the fire alarms. 2. The game I was making could be done in thirty minutes, as if THAT was a Domino's pizza. 3. I had to make the choice between commercial enterprise and passion project, as if the two were mutually incompatible. You don't have to sit through the rambling commentary in the video for the answers. I'll just provide them here: 1. Your assistance is too expensive if it's incumbent on my changing who I am. This is me. I've said this previously... I'm loud and angry and have an acid-tipped tongue. When you spend your childhood getting rolled in broken glass, you become hard to handle as an adult. Some people manage to make it work, probably with leather gloves. Those who can't are entirely within their right to withhold their support, but no, I won't completely reconfigure myself and deny the person that I am (sharp pointy bits and all) for your benefit. Luckily, I don't have to do that. I can find the information I seek elsewhere... it's out there. Oscar's book on ColecoVision programming (and admittedly, some help from Oscar himself) went a long way toward getting me adept at ColecoVision game design. He's also got an Intellivision book, and I have that book. There's always more than one way to the goal in IT. Always. And groveling supplication to a self-anointed guru is not a path I wish to take. 2. This is so reductive and ignorant that it's barely worth addressing, but here's the deal... you CAN make a game like No Quarter in thirty minutes. You can cook a turkey in thirty minutes, if you don't mind salmonella. Thirty minutes might be enough to make a simple demo, but if you want it done right, you give your game the time it deserves. For instance: This game right here. No Quarter was "finished" in a week, but input from other members of AtariAge (offered freely, without conditions) suggested that it needed more time in the oven. I adjusted the difficulty and added significant new gameplay elements to cut down on the repetition, and the result was a better game. I'm not against criticism when offered in good faith. Sometimes it makes a good game terrific, and a shaky game better. However, that did tack a week and a half of dev time onto the final product. It took me a total of two and a half weeks to make No Quarter, and it's kissed with the careful design and quality artwork that's become a JessCREATIONS trademark. And it only took two and a half weeks. This is not a long development window for an Atari 2600 game by any stretch... Howard Scott Warshaw's rushed adaptation of E.T. was closer to six weeks. The extra development time invested in No Quarter was time well spent. 3. Why not both? Passion projects are fine, but that passion needs to be fueled with support... both encouragement from other gamers, and you know, money. I'm not making games if I'm shivering in a cardboard box. Instead of plucking the fruit of the indie game developer while letting the tree wither and die, you could pick up a damn watering can. I'm trying to practice what I preach. I get a lot of backing from CollectorVision for my software (much thanks to them for that, by the way), and I try to pay it forward by investing in other projects that tickle my fancy. Oscar Toledo doesn't demand money for his considerable contributions to retro gaming, but his work has tangible value, and should be treated as such. After a year and a half of being a cheapass, then broke, then a cheapass again, I paid him an unofficial software licensing fee for CVBasic, because he deserved it. He MORE than deserved it. Another example? Itch dot IO projects like JOTD's many Amiga arcade ports. It's what I've always wanted from the Amiga computer, so why shouldn't that be supported? You know, instead of the prevailing online attitude of "Someone else was gonna do it. Quit milking it!" You expect this stuff to just magically appear out of thin air, and that's not the way these things work. I don't know. Maybe I'm expecting too much. (Anything? Anything is too much?) I'm selling buggy whips in the digital age, but with modern video games sucking colossal amounts of ass, buggy whips are back in fashion. And if you want me to whip it good, that requires support. arugulaz.itch.io