TOM FRANCIS
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Thief: Deadly Shadows Development Quotes

I love these – files developers make of things said during development, taken out of context. This one, via Randy Smith, is for Thief: Deadly Shadows, and I’ll paste my favourites below. Continued

Gunpoint Video Blog: Story Vs Games

I talk a bit about games vs stories: how they end up ruining each other, and how I’ve tried to avoid that in Gunpoint.

I mention the gender of the main villain in Gunpoint in this, but it won’t tell you much.

Gunpoint Dev Log: From A Broken Mess To A Working Game

A quick update on how Gunpoint’s going.

I AM SO SORRY I LEFT AUTOFOCUS ON! I will remember to disable it next time. My camera is great at everything except detecting how far away an almost stationary human in the center of the frame is.

The Calamitous Pacifist In Gunpoint

I’m trying to see if it’s possible to do this level without punching anyone. Not for the first time, my conclusion was: “Nope. Hmm, unless…”

I have to get to those stairs. The guard will shoot me if he sees me. I can’t open the building’s other entrance from the outside. Continued

What I Learned From Gunpoint, And How To Make A Game

I wrote a feature for PC Gamer in which I look at each of the easiest tools you can use to make a game, and interview indies who’ve made great things with them. It’s the Indies’ Guide To Game Making, and I’ve just updated it with some more detailed answers we didn’t have room for in the magazine.

Oi, aren’t you making a game?

I am, but I haven’t finished it yet. I’ve learnt a lot so far, though, and at Minecon in November, I gave a talk about what I’ve learned so far, and what I’d do differently if I was making my first game today. Here it is! Continued

Gunpoint At Minecon

Gunpoint will be playable at Minecon in Paris this weekend! I’ll be around to answer any questions. Say hi if you see me, I look like this.

I’m also giving a talk on the Sunday, about what I’ve learnt as a critic making my first game. That’s at 10.30 AM Sunday, in the Indie Theater, which is in the New York Convention Centre. That’s just a name, it’s in Paris like the rest of it.

If you won’t be there, my talk should be going online afterwards.

Why Isn’t There A Gunpoint Kickstarter?

I get this question a lot, which is lovely because it suggests people want to support the game and are happy to pay to do it. Thank you! I will very much want you to do that at some point!

Kickstarter is awesome and I may need it some day for something, but not Gunpoint. Here’s my thinking. Continued

Gunpoint Level Editor Trailer

Gunpoint will have a level editor! Here’s a quick video of what it’s like to use:

This is by far the most requested feature both from people who’ve played it and people who haven’t. I always planned to add one after release, but when I came to see if it was feasible, it turned out to be easier than I thought. It’s working nicely enough now that I can have it in for release. Which will be… in the future.

Here are some cool things about the level editor: Continued

Adventure Time Game Jam

I did Ludum Dare once, where you make a game in a weekend, and it taught me loads about how to be ruthlessly efficient and cut things before you waste time on them. I’ve skipped every game jam since then, and every event except the IGF, to focus on Gunpoint.

This weekend, though, I’m letting myself do one. Because a) I made loads of progress on Gunpoint last weekend, and am very close to being able to show you a new feature I haven’t announced yet, and b) this will probably be the only chance I ever get to legally make an Adventure Time game. Continued

Game Idea: Slumber

The theme for this weekend’s game-making competition is evolution. As usual, I’m gonna stick to working on Gunpoint but write up the idea I’d do if I had time to get distracted.

I think if you’re going to make an evolution game, you’ve got to actually model evolution. God knows gaming misuses that word enough – we need to repay science for every time a game has claimed some magical goo caused our character to ‘rapidly evolve’ into a superhuman. Continued

Total Biscuit Plays Gunpoint

If anyone else does video stuff with games and wants to feature Gunpoint, mail pentadact+guntube@gmail.com and link me your channel!

Why Are Stealth Games Cool?

While poaching some eggs, I tried to explain what’s particularly cool about stealth games. Continued

An Update About Monetising Videos Of Gunpoint, And Testing

We now have a slightly staggering 5,500 people signed up to test Gunpoint, and I haven’t sent a build out for ages. This means I get more e-mail about it than I can respond to, so here’s a quick FAQ: Continued

Res Gestae

This is my face when coding resolution menus.

And this will probably be the last time I whine about how screen settings stuff is harder than relativity, because I think I’ve done it. Continued

Huh. That Looks Interesting

I’m hitting a few inconsistencies in where the game predicts your jump will go, and where it actually goes. “Through walls” and “Face-first into a wall” respectively. So to make sure the prediction algorithm was correctly guessing what pose the player would be in at each point on the arc, I made it show me. It looks like this!

I can’t really figure out a way to use this as the prediction visual that isn’t super intrusive and surreal, but I rather like it.