I guess it was inevitable that I would start a blog of my own one day. Its such a tempting thing to find a podium to stump up to and start chatting into the void.
I'm keeping it safe and non-philosophical for the moment by running a blog about my internet game company www.towergames.com. Its something I started a few years ago with my friend Chris as a way of getting the kind of games we actually like to play on the web. I also wanted the chance to play with my Java skills and Chris wanted to play with marketing and web site creation.
Its been bumpy at times but a great deal of fun. My aim was to create a game outlet for other indie game writers but of course they haven't been attracted much because we don't have a zillion customers yet who would give them royalties. Our two games so far, Line of Muskets and Lightning War, were written by Eric (who is a 3rd party outside of Tower Games) and myself respectively. We have had a number of bites but because we can't afford to stump money up front just yet they tend to fail to complete. Ah well.
We have had a lot to learn. Making the games play as java applets has been both good and bad. It means I have had to set up a cross platform lab out of my own pocket to ensure everything works on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Chris and I have both had ongoing tussles trying to work out how to get Google to rank our web site properly. Trying to attract players who like more thoughtful and turn based games is, well, fascinating. We have more ideas on the board than we have time to implement so its a slow process.
For example I'm building an online scenario editor for Lightning War which is fine, but that has to come with a whole "plug-in-to-Tower-Games" system to allow 3rd Parties to create online editors for their games and manage the process of scenario authors keeping work files and having their scenarios tested, automatically gathering and evaluating playtester feedback, releasing new scenarios for play, automatic payment of royalties and on and on.
I think its fair to say I like a challenge!
About Me
- Danny Stevens
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Danny has been writing software since his Apple II days in the early 1980s, has been writing Java code since the awful Java 1.0 days, when he helped write a Web based document management system, and gets into using the Web to do new things. He is knowledgeable about science methodology and many areas of science. Danny is also a teacher in thinking techniques such as Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking hats. he was trained in these techniques by Edward DeBono and others.
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