Well, I've done it now.  I have officially given notice at my day job.  On January 1^st 2012, I will disconnect from the mothership and start working as a full-time Indie.

Scared? Excited? Happy? Yes, all of the above. Crazy? Maybe that too.

I know some folks reading this may be shaking their heads, remembering  Jeff Tunnell's famous quote "Don't quit your day job!" (from his timeless article "Five Foundational Steps To Surviving As A Game Developer".)  However, for any naysayers out there I say, "There was never really a choice.  I have to do this."

Working for myself is a life goal.  I simply had to answer this question to make up my mind:

"How will I feel years from now if I look back and know that I didn't seize this opportunity when it presented itself?"

The answer is, "I'd feel like a damn failure." , and I don't like to fail.  At least, I don't like failing without even trying.  So, I hope you will wish me well in this new adventure.

My first iPhone/iPod game has been accepted and is now for sale on the iTunes store.  As you might expect, I'm happy and a little excited about this.  If I sell at least one copy of this game, then I can finally label myself a 'professional' game developer.  This is yet another goal I can check off my list:

• Working For Self [i.e. quit the day job]  - Not yet, ... sigh
• Professional Game Developer - (Update: It's official, I've made a sale and I'm in the club...)
• Professional Non-Fiction Writer - Check!
• Professional Fiction Writer - Not yet, but this is on the list...
• ... sure there are more, but that's not what this post is about.

If you read my prior posts (1,2) about this game, then you may wonder why I'm selling it instead of giving it away for free.  Well, I thought long and hard about this and I realized that, yes, the core mechanic is borrowed, but I have elaborated on this mechanic by adding new block types with various interesting behaviors.  So, I went with the lowest priced tier ($0.99) and left it at that.

Of course, I am giving away a few free copies to my readers.  If you have a iPhone or iPod and want to give my game a try, please use one of these codes:

• L943F6YEATLM
• MMJLW7H7PHEY
• LMJH69RPKMRN
• W4NJ7JJYRELM
• J7L3ATN4HL9T

Thanks for reading and to those who supported me and gave feedback in during this effort I give a special "Thank You!"

-edo

Although I have been quiet for some time, at least with regards to game development work, I have not been idle. Over the past six months (or so) I've been spinning on various projects.

Spinning being the operative word.

Among these projects were (in no particular order):

• TSTK - Torque Script Tool Kit - A conglomerate release of many scripts I've written (some written by others) to make scripting tasks easier under all of the Torque engines.
• TGB SSK - Super Starter Kit (for TGB) - A free drop-in kit than can be used with TGB 1.74 to accelerate game(++) development. There is a lot more to be said about this, but there is not point in my repeating the details which can be found on the Wiki.
• A Wiki - In addition to using WordPress for my main site, I've added a standard Wiki. I added this because I wanted to produce documents which were simpler to format and 'control'. WordPress is great for Blogs and short articles, but tutorials and documentation work better under a Wiki.
• MAGS - A couple of years ago (at least) I dreamt of creating a sub-site containing all kinds of tutorials for making games with the Torque Game Engines (TGB, TGE, T3D, and eventually T2D). I've gone beyond dreaming and am almost ready to release the first of these tutorials. This is what I'm spending most of my time on now. I am calling this the "Make A Game Series" and will be dividing it between TGB, TGE, T3D, and T2D (when it is released). In this series I take a single game idea or generic variant of a game genre and walk through the steps to make the game using one of the aforementioned engines. I'm starting with TGB and then I'll work out to T3D, etc.
• Games - I've actually written (read as partially completed) several games in this time. I'll start releasing some finished games as time allows, but my main focus is on MAGS, so don't hold your breath.

Let's see what else? I've still go the day job taking up an inordinate amount of time (sigh... where are those big bags of money), and life itself takes time, oh and I've been playing squash recently... and that is about it for this update.

So, till next time. I wish you all the best in your game dev(++) endeavors.

- edo out!

I went ahead and opened/created/installed a Wiki for maintaining documentation on my site.

I'm currently documenting my second major for-free product, namely the TGB Super Starter Kit (SSK).  There is a lot of work yet to do in terms of releasing, organizing, and documenting, but you can download, install, and try the kit now.  Simply go to the SSK page and follow the directions you will find there.

After I finish up the SSK release and documentation I will move the TSTK and other lesser-product documentation over to the Wiki.  I will continue to provide support for my book here, but using a Wiki for documentation, tutorials, etc is far superior to using the WordPress 'Pages' mechanism.