Category: Retrospect

Looking into 2020

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Starting in mid-2014, I’ve made a serious attempt at going independent with the funds I’ve gathered from work. Naturally, it follows that my goals has been to become self-sustaining. The theme for 2020, however, is stability in a different way: I’ll be dedicating a significant portion of my time improving my online presence and seeking for a full-time position, such as fleshing out this portfolio site, updating my résumé and LinkedIn profile, etc.

As one can probably guess, things haven’t gone as planned over the last 5 years. I’ve lost a significant amount of resources, including finance, health, and mental energy. It’s unfortunately been a significant contribution to my seasonal depression early this year, and has forced me to reevaluate a number of responsibilities I’ve accumulated over the last few years. It’s time I start pivoting to other more urgent priorities, and bowing out other duties to give way for other.

First, I have resigned from Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS). A non-profit game-making community and coworking space founded back in October 2014, I’ve been one of the key people to help grow the organization since it first started as a mere Meetup group. I’m incredibly proud of what I was able to achieve as the elected Executive Director during my tenure from April 2017 to, well, this month (February). Some notable accomplishments includes:

  • Executing the New York Digital Gaming Hub grant subaward for 2018 and 2019
    • Help execute New York state’s goal of encouraging more game makers to work in the Capital Region by improving TVGS benefits, establishing new events, and promoting the local region abroad.
    • Budgeting equipment, outsourced tasks, travel, and other business development tasks to build a more stable non-profit and providing more meaningful benefits to members.
  • Lift Off: Diversity Incubator
    • A six-week long program dedicated to mentoring underrepresented minorities and women to learn how to make their first game. Up to seven applications are accepted by the event organizers to be paired by a mentor that’ll meet weekly.
    • My involvement includes research, documentation, gathering resources (both people and materials), finding speakers and mentors, budgeting, preparations, and conducting the event.
  • Protostar Prototyping Pitching Contest
    • A one-day contest of teams pitching their game ideas to a group of industry experts on an opportunity to receive cash prizes to fund their project. The program is intended to both provide funding to deserving projects, as well as give an opportunity for local indie developers to receive expert feedback on how their pitch went.
    • My involvement includes budgeting, setting up necessary technical framework for the judges, preparations, and conducting the event.
  • And so much more!

I did this, while still working as an unpaid volunteer (by choice), not unlike my original co-founder role. While I still believe in the TVGS goals of making game development accessible to everyone, and remain optimistic they’ll grow beyond their grassroots origins, alas, I still need to put food on the table. As sad as it sounds, it’s time I leave the community to better hands, as well as improving my own well-being.

Second, I’ll be working on creating a more focused online presence this year. This includes establishing new online profiles, having a better content creating schedule, and deleting a number of profiles that either have been a serious source of stress, or I have not had the time to dedicate to. I’ve been aware that my time at TVGS has made it look like I have “disappeared” off the face of the internet, which I hope to start amending this year. First, I’m redesigning this website to put a stronger emphasis on the portfolio and (eventually) its videos. I also hope to start setting up a weekly development live-stream this year, both to encourage myself to keep a steady game development schedule, as well as slowly build a community and audience. For the profiles I will be deleting or removing myself from, I’ll be posting a prior notice on when that will happen. For example, I’ve already posted I’ll be closing my Patreon page sometime this month.

My final goal for this year is to return my focus to game development again. As much as I love networking and speaking with people, I’ve had a strong itch to finish a few projects I left hanging for quite a long time now. My first goal is to split up the Template Unity Project to smaller Unity Packages, both to make it more versatile, and reduce the size of future game projects. I then hope to return to Air Flip Drive, and re-examine some of its game design flaws and technical debt. In the meantime, I am indeed looking for paid full-time position. If you’re in need of a gameplay programmer or a Unity developer, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Here’s to a new and wonderful year!

Categories: Retrospect, Updates

What I achieved in 2014

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Now would be a good time to look at 2014 in retrospect and see what I achieved, and what I haven’t.  So without further ado, let’s get right to it!

Major Projects

In January, I’ve visited and teamed up with various friends from IGDA DC and new friends from American University to create a new game for Global Game Jam 2014.  That game? Ichabot Crane, a first-person puzzle game where you can through the lead character’s head to activate switches and have better perspective of the level.  As with the usual game jam rules, it took 48 hours to develop with 5 people to develop this game. The unique premise of the game got a mention as one of the best free games of the week by PC Gamer.  While I moved on to other projects, the rest of the team has been keeping the game alive with an appearance at Smithsonian’s Indies In The Middle event.

In July, I worked with e4 Software to make one last game with them: ZUP!  It’s a tilt-based arcade game where you have to swerve Top Hat Joe away from spikes and other obstacles while collecting power-ups to help his journey up to the stratosphere and beyond.  The project was in development for 1.5 years with 4 people.  Since it’s a mobile game, it’s available in a few app stores, including iPhones, iPads, Androids, Amazon Kindles, and Barnes & Noble’s Nooks.

In September, I developed a game that speaks loudly of my experience with making mobile games: Not a Clone.  The minigame collection of cloned mobile games signifies the shallow and frequently short nature of clones.  It’s heavily critical of the mobile app stores allowing clones to become popular without providing any highlight or care to the original product.  It took about a month working solo to create this game.  It was featured in GameJolt, and also got a mention in Warp Door.  Thanks to the GameJolt feature, it’s one of the fastest growing game I’ve created, with a strong Let’s Play following.

In October, I developed an application intended to help developers create more engaging games with Make it Juicy: Easy Methods to Make Your Game More Engaging. It was created in 2 weeks solo for a presentation at Capital Region Unity Developers.  Hopefully, other developers had found the application to be educational as the Unity Developers had during the presentation.

Also in October, I participated in Bacon Game Jam 08 to create a game in 48-hours again.  As a result, I had an innovative accident, and developed Suddenly, Thousands, a game about controlling multiple synchronized characters at once while traversing levels and solving their puzzles.  Shockingly enough, I’ve managed to create it in solo within the 48-hour time limit.  Despite the short development time, this game had the highest critical praise: it was the highest rated game in Bacon Game Jam, had a mention as one of the best free games of the week in PC Gamer, and a positive review in Jay Is Games.

In November, I’ve started on Prototype: Murakami, an on-rails third-person shooter with point & click puzzle elements inspired by Killer7, but due to poor scoping, I haven’t been able to finish it in the one month schedule I originally estimated.  The prototype is still in development right now, so it might see the light of day…

In December, Robert Denner and I teamed up with Indies Need Booze to create a Indies Need Booze patron-exclusive Letters From Secret Santa, a narrative platformer where the words are your platforms.  It took about a week to make the game, with Robert as the writer and level designer, and myself as developer.  As it remains a patron exclusive for a few more days, the only reception we’ve received were from AbleGamers‘ Twitch live stream interview.

In December, a number of Tech Valley Game Space members gathered for Ludum Dare 31, and created Laundry Day, a laundromat simulator.  8 people participated, mostly on-and-off, to make the game in 72-hours.  Instead of using the Unity engine to make the game as I usually do, we decided to learn how to use Construct 2, as this was the first game most of the team members has ever developed.  With a game engine like Construct 2 that doesn’t require programming, it would make it easier for others to contribute.  Despite being a completely goofy satire of social and free-to-play games, we ranked within the top 100 games for humor, so many thought it was an interesting game.

With 7 projects finished, and 1 in development, 2014 was quite a productive year for me.  Here’s to hoping that I can finish Prototype: Munch pretty quickly.

Major Events

There were some major events going on in 2014.  After a long 4 years working as a regular software engineer, I’ve decided I’ve had enough saved (and endured enough stress) to go independent.  On August, I quit the company I was working at, and started working for my own company, Omiya Games, full-time.  Furthermore, I moved from Maryland to New York to rent a cheaper location.  There, I was able to get in contact with Albany IGDA, and re-establish a few contacts there.  I happen to meet with Jamey Stevenson in one of their meeting, who was working on establishing a game developer community near the area.

Sure enough, late October, Jamey managed to secure a co-working office, and we both moved in to the new Tech Valley Game Space.  The office has been spectacular so far, and we’re both really enjoying it.  I’ve showcased Suddenly, Thousands at the Rensselaer Game Showcase on November, along with Jamey Stevenson and Keith Morgado from Binary Takeover.  Lastly, I helped Tech Valley Game Space conduct the Ludum Dare game jam.  Overall, it was a busy, exciting year.

On To 2015

So what’s there to look forward to in 2015?  A lot, it turns out.  With Tech Valley Game Space established, a large part of my time will be spent helping them out as they gather more developers and create a more inviting environment for those curious in joining in.  The projects I’ll be working on at the start of the year are already fixed: there’s Global Game Jam going on at MAGFest that I plan to attend, and I still have Prototype: Murakami to finish.  Right after those two projects, I need to figure out how to make Omiya Games sustainable.  Given the large number of game jam games I have in my disposal, I simply need to look for the game with the best balance between popularity and simplicity to reduce development time.  In this case, Not a Clone and Suddenly, Thousands seems to be the most ideal, although the former is expensive to develop despite short development time, and the latter will require a lot of experimentation.  If I don’t make any progress in making the business sustainable, well, it might be time to seek a new way to make income.

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