Porter’s Professional Game Consulting

Why Use A Game Consulting Service?

Have you ever made or played a game that had so much potential, but it just fell short of excellence for one reason or another? The answer to that is yes, whether you know it or not. Every year, tens, if not hundreds of games are released that had the potential to be something amazing, but weren’t. These games reached for the highest level of success, only to fall flat on their faces as another decent game in an already existing flood of just that. When it comes to a nearly great game falling to this fate, it’s generally because the developer just didn’t see a few small faults that were completely ruining it, or a few elements that if evolved upon in the slightest way, would have the world raving about how great it was. These issues can range from clunky interfaces, to a slight lack in enemy variation, to the sound effect volumes not being properly balanced. Regardless of the woe that brings upon this unfortunate reality to many games, there are ways to stop it.

Beta testers are not only helpful, but a necessity in game development. You can be as proud as you’d like, but without multiple eyes viewing your game once it’s “done”, your game is going to suffer some major post-launch failure. There are always bugs, and there’s always room for improvement, and while there is a time to call it quits and say the project is done, that time is far beyond when you first say your game is complete. This is where things get tricky. So you’ve finished your game, and are now getting feedback from some anonymous service such as FlashGameLicense’s “First Impressions” system, a closed group of players from a popular web arcade such as Kongregate, or just a bunch of your close friends and family. While this is great, and these people will definitely spot some issues with your game, there is one extremely large flaw with this process, most players don’t know what’s best for a game. 

If you’ve ever released a game, you’ve surely read hundreds if not thousands of feedback comments on your hard work, both praising you, and criticizing you. Quite often, you’ll find people suggesting changes for a sequel to make the game better. While all of these suggestions should be read, and considered, it takes a very rare skill to truly know how to design a game. Adding something new to a game formula might seem amazing, but much like chemistry, even awesome additions to an already stable compound could be devastating to the overall product (think meth, and mercury fulminate!). If you’ve done your homework as a game developer, you’ll know that many players just simply don’t know what’s best for them. They may have ideas that are heading in the right direction, but they are completely blind on how to fine-tune the experience in a way that is truly harmonic with the rest of your creation. This is where I come in.

Services And Rates

I offer two services, but feel free to mix and match, or request a custom job if you feel I’m fit for it. Both services generally require only an hour or two of my time, but if you have a more in-depth project that requires more time, that’s not an issue. I’m currently supplying this service to any game I can run, which includes anything on a PC, or Android device.

* In addition, if your game is up on FGL, I will supply you with a 15 minute screencast of me playing your game, allowing you to see exactly how a player plays. *

Reviewing Your “Completed” Games.

The first service I offer, is a game reviewing service. The way this works, is that I’ll play your already “completed” game, and break it down in every way possible. I’ll give you a lengthy, detailed write-up in multiple formats outlining everything from gameplay, to audio, and everything between. You’ll receive detailed information on what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve all aspects of your game. Common issues addressed contain, but are not limited to, level design, difficulty curves, unbalanced enemies, interfaces, audio levels, fun factor, controls, etc. Think of this service as the ultimate QA. You’ll learn the vast majority of what thousands of players will nit-pick (or sometimes tear apart) about your game after release, through one person.

Rate – $30

Idea Man

The second service I offer, is being your idea man. You show me one of your already released games, I play it, then provide you with a mini (though lengthy) game design document for a sequel. Common content for these documents contains, but is not limited to, new enemy types, player types (male and female, races, etc), gameplay modes, powerups, etc. People have shown extreme interest in this service, and the feedback I’ve received has been amazing. This service is costs slightly more than the reviews, as I strongly believe my original ideas are worth more than perfecting your own.

Rate – $45 / hour

My Qualifications

Games have always been a huge part of my life. I’ve been playing games since I was 3 years old and could properly use an NES controller. While many people started gaming at an age as early as mine, very few have done it with as much interest and ambition as I have. I grew up playing Mario, Gaunlet, Time Lords, Renegade, River City Ransom, Shatterhand, Sonic, Street Fighter, etc. For as long as I can remember, I played these games and craved more. However, I wasn’t just playing these games, I was understanding how they worked, and how they could be improved upon or added to. In my youth, no game pleased me to the extent I desired. This lead to replaying games over and over searching for something I hadn’t found, dreaming about additional levels and features that didn’t exist at a very young age, and even drawing pictures with crayons of level designs which my dad would bring in to work and hang for all to see. When I was as young as 5 years old, I was already dying to tell developers how to make their games better, and to make better games myself. This didn’t stop as I grew up, it simply became more intense. I played games as a favorite pass time my entire life, and still do. When I was 18 I realized I had it in me to make them, and thus began my slow and steady journey to becoming a game developer, more specifically a programmer / game designer. It’s this life long ambition that has given me the skills today to both analyze games in extreme detail, and to create my own games.

In addition to this passion for gaming, I’ve been an extremely active reviewer in the flash game industry. On FGL (FlashGameLicense.com), I’ve beta tested these services, and had tremendously positive feedback from many developers. This has earned me the position of the highest ranked “player” account on FGL, as the account with the most positively received feedback posts on games.

I’ve already had the opportunity to work with some amazing developers. Below is a list of a few satisfied clients who have used my services, as well as their testimonials.

MunsieGames - ”I asked Porter to play one of my games for 15 min and then spend another 45 min thinking of new ideas for the sequel. I hired Porter for an hour of his time. We’re not talking about polish or control, etc, we’re talking in game elements, characters, power ups, pick ups, etc, etc. No idea was too stupid or too crazy, I did ask him to keep the ideas simple and casual, nothing too complicated.

Porter supplied me with a document (in several formats) which detailed his ideas in enough detail to make me easily understand them. He also went a little beyond what was requested and supplied some additional food for thought which was a welcome surprise. Even though I may or may not end up using any of his ideas in the game (I probably will though), just looking over his ideas in general has started the creative juices flowing and that alone was worth it. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for creative ideas for a game, has a case of brain lock or has been working on a game for so long they’ve come to a brick wall as far as ideas go.

Job well done Porter, I will probably be using this service again…very soon.”

EffingGames - ”I also had Porter do consulting on sequel ideas for 2 games and was impressed by the results. It felt like he was able to accurately assess the strengths and weaknesses of the game and his service is particularly valuable for preventing the idea incest that happens when its just 1 person designing a game. There was only about a 30% overlap between Porter’s ideas and the ideas I already had, and his ideas helped me make a design breakthrough that I was stuck on for a while. Plus the write-ups Porter gives you are pretty healthily sized, and he’s a decent writer to boot!

A+++ Would do business with again!”

LongAnimals – “Just to say, Porter did an excellent review of one of our forthcoming games. I heartily recommend this service.”

Contact

If you’re interested in using these services, email me at:

consulting[at]gemfruit[dot]com

Audacity Soup For The Game Developer’s Soul

Anyone who works with audio needs a good program. When it comes to game design, audio is incredibly important, and there is always a bit of editing that must be done. Many people are under the impression that they need to pay for expensive audio software, or even hire someone to do their audio work, this isn’t true. Audacity is a free audio program that will cover all the basic needs of a game develop, and with ease. I won’t cover the entire program, but I will go over the basics that a game developer doing sound work will need to know.

Working With MP3′s In Audacity

If you’re going to be working with MP3′s in Audacity, which is very likely if you’re working with flash, you’ll need to download the lame_enc.dll. Luckily for you, I’ve provided a download link and you don’t have to search for that wonderful file. When you attempt to export an MP3, Audacity will request you to get the lame_enc.dll. Simply point the file location to the lame_enc.dll on your computer, and you’ll be good to go. I suggest putting this file somewhere safe, perhaps with Audacity’s program files itself, so that you don’t one day delete it from your downloads and lose your ability to export MP3′s.

Adjusting Volume Levels

An annoying issue that many games suffer, is the lack of unbalanced volumes for sounds and music. Having headphones on and suddenly hearing an ear piercing sound effect is the last thing your players want, and believe me it happens. To keep your players pleased with the audio of your game, and to allow them to hear all of your sound effects properly, it’s important to balance the volume of your sounds. Doing so in Audacity is incredibly easy; simply open your audio file, highlight the entire sound (or specific parts if needed), go to Effect, then Amplify. Here you can drag the bar left and right to alter the volume change. Remember that going negative will decrease the volume of your sounds. Test your sound after each adjustment to see if you have the desired volume. I suggest opening all sounds at once in your media player of choice, while running the music in another media player or in the swf. Listen to each sound one after another to ensure you can hear them all, and that their volumes are balanced. You should also have your music done first, this way you can run the swf and listen to your sounds over the music. Remember to keep your computer volume at a constant setting as you go through all your sounds adjusting their volume, this will ensure that in the end, you’ll have a library of sounds that will work well together, and stand out over your music just the right amount.

Cleaning Up A Music Loop

First off, and most importantly, you need quality music to work with. If you download a song from the net, even a loop, you’ll still generally have some work to do, depending on the source. Once you’ve selected a music loop, go ahead and open it up in Audacity. You’ll see no issues at first glance, in fact, testing the loop will sound as if it will loop perfectly; in reality, it will be alright, but nowhere near perfect, this is where Audacity comes into play. If you click on the magnifying glass tool, found on the top left in Audacity, you can zoom in on the sound waves to get a closer look. Take a look at the very beginning and end of your audio, you’ll find that there’s a straight line of absolute silence; even if this is 1/5 of a second, it’s going to show (You may have to zoom in multiple times to see this). Zoom in as much as needed and remove the silence as best as possible be selecting it with the mouse, and pressing delete. Do this to the end of the loop as well, removing any silence found at the end of the track. Now for the testing phase. Highlight the entire track, then press Ctrl + C to copy it. Now click on the two arrows pointing to the right in your playback toolbar, this will take your current selection tool to the end of your track. Paste the entire track by pressing Ctrl+V. You should now have a file with your loop copied twice, the copy starting immediately at the end of the original loop. If you successfully removed the silence at the beginning and end of your loop (and have a good loop to begin with), you should be able to play the sound file and hear absolutely no hiccups in the middle where the repeat is taking place. If the loop still doesn’t sound right, and you’re certain you removed all the silence and copied the track correctly, it’s safe to say that the “loop” you downloaded wasn’t the greatest loop after all. If all went well, press Ctrl + Z until the copy of the loop is removed (this was only needed to test that it does indeed loop). You now have an excellent loop and are good to go, be sure to save the file as a .WAV as well as .mp3, having both is always a great idea. If you’re using flash, you’ll want to use the .WAV file, this will ensure a perfect loop after flash compresses your file to an mp3. If you’re using something else, such as FlashDevelop or Flex to compile, you’ll be forced to use a .mp3 (unless embedding a swf or swc) since .WAV’s aren’t supported.

Creating A Loop From A Non-Looping, Full Length Track

If you’re not finding an existing loop with the feel you’re looking for, worry not. Many non looping songs will have portions of the song that can be taken out and turned into a loop, doing this is actually a common task for me, and I find it rather effective. This is where the true power of an audio editing program comes in, you can get some quality loops in a short time, without spending a cent. Take a look at the song Cobalt Blue Sphere, notice how long the song is, and the fact that it isn’t a loop. Now take a look at one of my past games, Gravibounce, created by Andrew and myself of Epic Shadow Entertainment. Go back to Cobalt Blue Sphere on Newgrounds, and listen to the song from 3:58 – 4:25. As you’ll see, this is the portion of the song that you hear in Gravibounce; it was cut out by me using Audacity. Another example of me doing this is in my first solely developed game, Dominus Void. The song “Lost“, by Ryan Stevens, or Reasoner as he’s often referred to as, was edited by myself to be a title screen loop, it came out rather well. With a good ear, some patience, and a free program like Audacity, you too can create great loops such as this. This is far more complicated then simply removing the silence before an already created loop, but it gives you a track that nobody else has ever used, and one of great quality. The trick is to listen to the song closely, and use your ear to find a portion of the song that can loop into itself. When you’ve located the proper position, roughly cut out everything before and after the portion of the song you’ll be using. Be sure to give yourself some extra wave length, this is a good idea seeing as you can remove whatever you want, but you can’t add to the file once you’ve removed too much. Zooming in during the editing process will also give you much more accuracy over what you delete, and you can often see where the new measures starts due to the visual increases in wave length. Use your ear and closely narrow the intro down to the first beat of a measure, this is usually pretty easy to determine in a song, unless it’s something with a tremendous amount of percussion. Once you’ve got the intro down, edit the end of the file so that it ends at the end of a measure, this is usually after 4 major beats as most music is in 4/4 time. Be sure to slice only a little off at a time, then use the testing method as mentioned earlier. Count the beats as the loop plays, if it hiccups before the 4th beat plays, you’ve cut too much off, if it plays a little bit passed the 4th beat, you’ve still got a little more cutting to do. This is an advanced technique, and takes some practice, but it can produce some pretty awesome loops, ones that only your game will have at that. As a rule of thumb, always ask the artist if you can edit their work to create a loop, and always give them credit for their original piece.

Cutting Down A Sound Effect’s File Size

Audio is by far the biggest contributor to flash game file size. Although there are a number of compression options to reduce file sizes for audio, there are also a number of techniques that can be done before the files are even imported into your game’s library. One of the most simple, and effective, is to cut the length of your sound effects. If you open up your sound effects in Audacity, you’ll notice that many sound waves die out, and trickle for some time, often times doubling the length of a sound. Although there is indeed sound going on here, you often times can’t hear it, especially over music. To greatly reduce the file size of effects, simply cut off these trickling endings bit by bit. Each time you cut, listen to the sound to ensure that quality isn’t lost, if it is, Ctrl + z is your friend, if it isn’t, keep snipping away. You’ll be surprised at how much of a sound wave can be cut off before any audible changes occur. Using this method on your entire library of sound effects will greatly reduce your file size, making for quicker load times, and in the end, happier players.

Flash Supported MP3 Sample Rates

Ever had an mp3 file that flash just wouldn’t accept? The reason for this is most likely that your mp3 file has a bit rate that flash doesn’t support. You can check the bit rate by right clicking on your sound file, going to properties, then to summary. If the bit rate is not one that is shown on the chart below, you’ll likely encounter problems. The good news is, you can simply import your audio file into Audacity, then export it as an mp3 again; this will change the bit rate to 112 kbps, the default bit rate for mp3′s in Audacity. You can also tweak this rate to any of the other supported rates by going to Edit > Preferences, clicking on the File Formats tab, then adjust the drop down “bit rate” menu under “MP3 Export Setup” to your desired rate. You can also adjust the Hz by going to Quality tab right next to it, and adjusting the “Default Sample Rate” drop down menu there.

Bit Rate Chart, Source: Articulate Blog

Conclusion

Audacity has a lot of power for a free audio program, respect to the authors for such awesome work. Aside from the above, you can do plenty more to your audio files. Some of these include pitch changes, tempo changes, adding echo, adding reverberation, bass amplification, and more. Audacity may not be a full fledged audio program, but it definitely has what’s needed to take care of your basic audio editing needs, and that should be enough for most flash game developers.

Roughly three weeks later, Daughters of Pytheus is starting to take shape, and it’s time for an update! It’s admittedly taking a lot longer than I’d like it to, but I’m very happy with how it’s coming along, so I can’t complain, too much. The game is now looking a lot better, polish is being added very early on to ensure the final product is loaded with it, and things are really coming together. Verena is doing a fantastic job on the art, I’m slowly but surely working down my list of things to do on the programming end, and Mike Taylor has even surprised me with a new music composition that will be going into the game.

The game itself has taken on quite a few transformations thus far. The current game is rather far off from the original concept, but I believe that’s for the better. While the genres of puzzle, adventure, and action still exist, the mechanics of the game have changed greatly. Originally, the game was going to host a mechanic very similar to something I came across while playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, for the Nintendo DS. You would control 2 stone statues, and when one statue moved one way, so did the other. The object of this simple puzzle was to get both statues to a goal. The catch was, that each statue was located in a different area, and the movements of one statue effected the other. This called for careful planning to successfully reach the goal with both statues. I was then going to further spice up the mechanic by having the two goddess sisters you control have moods. When they were getting along, they would move in unison, when their moods were off, they would mirror image each other. While the mechanic was neat, and definitely possible, I realized it was going to be hard to properly relate this to players, the camera system would get odd, and it probably wasn’t as casual as what I was shooting for. With that in mind, I bailed on my original gameplay view, but kept the universe it was built upon and altered a few things to invent a new game.

Now that you know what the game was going to be, I think I’ll get to what it’s actually become. As I stated, the core mechanic of the game is definitely puzzle, but I feel that the adventure genre is either equal, or right behind with a close second. The puzzle side has a very close feel to that of what you’ll find in the flash game Two Rooms, and the exploration and other minor elements are somewhat like what you would find in an older Zelda game. You play as the two daughters of Pytheus, Athela and Celestia, and must navigate your way back to the throne room of the kingdom to face off against the evil wizard Ack. Ack has transformed the kingdom into a labyrinth of puzzles and traps, and only by having the two sisters work together can you make your way through the kingdom.

As I mentioned in the into post, Pytheus has turned the two daughters to stone, in order to protect them from Ack. As you can imagine, this makes traversing the kingdom rather difficult. The green flash I mentioned when Ack attacked, was actually Pytheus turning himself into a magical energy of sorts, that can embed itself into one physical object at a time. Using this magic, you can press SPACE to switch which daughter is currently embedded with the magic of Pytheus, and bring her to life, turning the other daughter back to stone. While one of the sisters is in a stone state, they’re completely invincible, and this will actually be used in some of the level design in a clever way. For instance, you may find yourself traveling down a long narrow corridor with something that shoots fireballs from far ahead. You can’t make the entire hall in one sprint, so you must move ahead, and turn to stone as the fireball approaches, with the second sister following close behind. Leaving a sister behind in a stone state will also be used for holding down pressure switches to open new pathways, as well as various other mechanics that are both in place, and being added as I further development.

Something neat, and somewhat unique to Daughters of Pytheus, is that each character gets their own health. The game uses a heart system for health, much like what you’re used to seeing in Zelda, as well as many others. Just like in Zelda, you can find giant hearts that expand your max health, however, only the character that collects these will gain the life addition. This means that it would be wise to take turns with who picks up what, or to develop a strategy where one sister is dominant and takes the lead. I wouldn’t recommend the latter though, there’s a decent chance that these sisters may get separated somewhere in the story

Overall, the game is going to be a puzzle filled adventure where you’re dodging lightning bolts, fireballs, endless pits, and all sorts of other objects. You’ll solve puzzles, read conversations between characters, and partake in a pretty neat story that’s filled with emotion. The scenery is beautiful, the music moving, and the amount of detail is pretty impressive. I’ll be sure to share some of the neat atmospheric additions I’m proud of in the next update, and let you know how everything is coming along.

Being a few weeks into development of my latest game, it’s only right that I start to release a bit of info on it. Daughters of Pytheus is my latest game in development, and it’s coming along pretty nicely. While the game itself is still in early stages of development, things will be speeding up shortly now that the artist for the game is done taking summer classes, and the ground-work on the programming is nearly complete.

The game takes place in a fictional land, within a Kingdom ruled by the great Pytheus. You play as Athela and Celestia, the two daughters of Pytheus. At the start of the game, the king is at his throne, and is awaiting the arrival of his two daughters, to speak with them about an important matter. As the two young goddesses arrive to the throne room, things take a turn for the worse. A winged messenger flies in, badly wounded, and warns the king of an attack. Before the king has a chance to react, his eyes catch site of a great evil entering the throne room from where the messenger flew in from. Without hesitation, he turns towards his daughters, scepter in hand. He quickly casts a spell to turn them to stone,  and a faint whisper can be heard saying “it’ll be okay”. An instant later, a large fireball hits where Pytheus sat, and a blinding flash of green light fills the room. When things settle, the king is nowhere to be found, a scorch mark rests on the throne where the fireball hit, and an evil figure stands tall in the room. It glances at the two stone sisters, mutters words of disgust, and waves his hand, sending them flying through the Kingdom, all the way to the Atrium. As this happens, the kingdom transforms into a trap filled fortress, blocking your path back to the throne room.

The above story will take place at the start of the game, and will likely be displayed as a number of images with text, with possible voice acting. Once that’s witnessed (or skipped), you’ll find yourself as the entrance of the Kingdom, with a quick tutorial and explanation of what that bright green light was, and how it plays a crucial role in the game. As for what genres the game is, I’ve marked it as puzzle/adventure/action, and we’ll take a much deeper look into that in my next update.

While all I’ve told you is the a bit of the story, and the genres, hopefully that gave you some sort of mental image and has your interest piqued. I’ll be updating frequently with concept art, gameplay additions, and possible demos, so check back if the game interests you at all. I’m rather excited for how the game is turning out, and I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be nothing short of awesome.