… and much more moved here: amir-rahbaran.com

Have fun reading!

More than a year ago, I had already welcomed you and talked about our first game idea, Epic Conflict. Then this blog became pretty silent for 10 months, just announcing the “quit beta” of a completely different game, called Bear Air. Why this radical shift happened, will be the topic in the next pose. What I want to tell you now is the main reason for launching this blog (besides the usual reasons for blogging, of course):

1. How to learn developing game from the perspective of absolute beginners (as we were and well … probably still are)
2. Strategic and entrepreneurial aspects, such as decision-making and the use of resources at hand as small indie developer team. The latter will heavily rely on the research and results of my PhD.

Ok, to keep the (second) welcoming not too long, this blog post will introduce a few links, how we got into programming. So, it’s not just some useful links putting together, but our very own path how we learned coding and game development in general. And the best part: You can actually start learning Flash and ActionScript 3 (the programming language for Flash environments) for free! So, what are you waiting for?

1. Quick introduction video to Flash (this is just a one minute intro from a great learning site called Lynda, so you know what Flash is about). Just a little warm-up.
2. Beginner introduction to Actionscript 3. Doug is a great teacher (scroll down to start with the first lesson). You will love his short video tutorials for beginners. Thanks to Doug I now fully understand what instantiating means. Unfortunately, the files he uses are not downloadable, so you really have to concentrate on his videos.
3. Avoider Game Tutorial. Now,  after Doug it’s time to code your first game. Rock’n Roll, yes. Initially, I started with this tutorial but it was too difficult for me to grasp (never understood this instantiating thing, now it’s part of my DNA).
4. Flixel. Now this is where the real Rock’n Roll starts. Flixel is a “game-engine” and takes care of the most important mechanics (e.g. objects hitting each other). Our first Facebook game Bear Air (Facebook version will be released very soon) is based on Flixel. Don’t forget to check out Phontonstorm’s game development blog and his Flixel and Actionscript 3 tutorials. Phontonstorm has also developed a great tool, called Flixel Powertools.

Although we started this journey just 9 months ago, we chose Flash over HTML 5. I mention this because a lot of people are of the opinion that HTML 5 will dethrone Flash in respect to developing “rich internet applications” (RIA). However, because all top Facebook games (from companies like Zynga to PopCap to Wooga) we looked at were done in Flash, we chose Flash over HTML 5.So, that’s it for now. This will keep you busy for at least 2,3 months. And here’s a bonus link as a great reference:

The Actionscript 3 Basics Series from Active tuts. Great site (although it won’t be updated anymore).

Well … Epic Conflict is not completely dead … But for novices like us, the realization of such a monstrous project was just insurmountable. At least, for now.
We still have left some information and drawings regarding Epic Conflict online, so you have an idea what we were actually about. So, let’s talk about our new project which you can play here.

Our first game is called Bear Air and is a simple side scrolling shooter with a special twist: You can shoot your friends (and receive a fraction of their high score on your current score)!

Anyway, the first open beta of Bear Air has started on Kongegrate today. The special twist is not implemented, yet. This will obviously happen when we launch the game on Facebook.

Play BearAir

And let us know what you think!

Hello and welcome to VoidBox’s brand new blog!In this blog we’d like to give you a glance behind the curtains of our company named VoidBox and our games. VoidBox is a very small company, founded with very little money. We hope we can inspire other game enthusiasts to enter this dynamic and fascinating market; and stop them from being drawn back by their sparse resources, whether it be the poor financial background or the lack of expertise and social contacts. Achieving goals with scarce resources at hand is actually my doctoral topic. More about my thesis and the connection to VoidBox and game development will follow soon. Let’s now talk about our first game, called Epic Conflict.

Epic Conflict is a quick turn-based strategy game, set in a fantasy theme. Epic Conflict is played via Facebook:

So yes, Epic Conflict is just another Facebook game. Well, not precisely; you don’t build any cities, zoos or farms. Epic Conflict is an innovative and therefore financial risky project. What’s different than in other Facebook games? It’s a genuine multiplayer game, but not MMORPG. By multiplayer I mean your opponent must be at the same time online as you are, as each round lasts 3 minutes at most for each player. A game consists of 7 rounds. We really put a hell lot of effort to launch this game. Several coders quit their job, having underestimated the whole project and leaving us back with a messy code. Even potential founders gave up. But finally, we managed to tame this beast.

We know Epic Conflict is far from perfect. It’s our very first game and it is in early beta. Keeping that in mind, we still would love to hear your opinion. For example, we want to know what you like and dislike about the game. Any feature suggestions or user interface improvements are also welcomed.

You are always more than welcomed to leave comments and participate in the discussions. If there are any topics you would to like to read about here, or if you want to make a guest post, email us.

Cheers,

Amir