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How To Fullfil The (Geek) Rockstar Dream

I've been putting a lot of though to my ongoing desire to write something in the way of a video game. This was my original foray into programming and I just didn't stick with it. Turns out I am such a geek that I actually found database design and protocols more interesting than first-person shooters. Go figure. Still, the old dream burns inside me. I've spoken with a few people here and there that could gain interest if I started something, and I'm thinking the time is arriving that I buckle down into the nights and see what I can do.

I've been looking pygame versus pyglet and hoping to find a ready-to-use accelerated sprite library. Although I really want to write a straight Python, installable game, the lure of the web is strong. There are a lot of fun ideas I could try there, and probably a much larger audience I would reach. Of course, there are pros and cons to both.

















Web-Based
Installable
Pros
  • Zero installation
  • Higher number of users
  • One target platform (for the server software)
  • More powerful result
  • Allow mods easier
  • More justified to charge for the game
Cons
  • Nearly impossible to charge players
  • Limited capabilities
  • Disperse browser platforms
  • Less people will play the game
  • More capabilities to waste my time on
  • Disperse target platforms


My options really aren't very clear. I don't know which I'll go with. Either way, I'm sure I'll bring Python into the mix on some level. Of course, I don't necessarily have to choose one or the other. I'm considering the option of taking both routes. The development time would take longer, but I could try an interesting approach of a demo or slim version of the game for free use, probably supported with advertising. Anyone who enjoys the game enough can buy a full version for download.

There are even techniques to share a significant amount of the development effort between the two versions. I'm sure that would give me some interesting things to blog about and perhaps some fun pieces of code to share.

Of course, all of these options don't even get into the questions of platform support, or javascript versus Flash for the web development. The different choices are really a bit much.
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Anonymous said…
A similar thing happened to me. I was taking a Games Development class last semester, and somehow became more interested in learning about open source, and it's pretty much been downhill from there. :)
4:05 AM
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