This article is all about WebComponents, a new HTML specification for a component-based application architecture on the web. We’ll first take a brief look at the history of web development and then explore what a component-based architecture actually means.

We’ll explore how the WebComponent specification describes a new way for browsers to implement this architecture without needing framework support, and then ways in which existing frameworks can leverage this support to provide an enhanced experience for developers. Along the way we’ll take a detailed look at the actual specification as well as current support by some actual frameworks.

Finally, we’ll see what still needs to be done, as well as some speculation about the future of this emerging standard.

A brief history of web programming

The first websites were simply hosted on servers and consisted of entirely static content. Pages were written in HTML and contained other resources such as images which were referenced within this HTML. Pages linked to each other via hyperlinks; when a link was clicked, the browser would fetch the referenced page and then replace the existing page, then load all referenced resources as necessary for this new page.

As users and developers demanded more from websites, server-side rendering technologies were created. Initially the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) was used for this purpose. CGI is a way of running executables where the standard input is the HTTP request body and anything written to standard output becomes the HTTP response body. This allowed CGI executables to be written in any language, however languages such as Perl prevailed. To circumvent some of the limitations of CGI, other languages and associated web server interfaces were developed, such as PHP. All of these technologies allowed pages to become dynamic, with content built by the server during each request rather than being static.

But increasing demands were not limited to the server-side. In the browser, advancements to scripting also drove increasing complexity. The initial introduction of scripting languages, mainly JavaScript, allowed the Document Object Model (DOM) to be manipulated, such as displaying the current time or providing simple animations without having to query the server each time. For data that needed to be obtained from the server however, a page reload was always required.

Enter XMLHttpRequest! This early web standard bridged the gap between the client- and server-sides and allowed websites (or rather, web apps) to perform requests to the server without loading a new page. For example, a page could be displaying a list of news articles and JavaScript code on the page could periodically query the server via XMLHttpRequest for updated articles and then display them automatically without the user’s intervention or having to reload the page. This technology became known as Ajax and other data formats such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) became widely used as a way to transmit data to and from the server. The popular JavaScript framework jQuery also became popular around this time.

But why stop there? Why not have a “application” that runs entirely in a single page in the browser? All communications would be done via Ajax technologies allowing for a much smoother user experience. This architecture is known as a Single-Page Application (SPA) and is the current state of the art in web app technology.

As well as SPAs, web app developers are also embracing new approaches to managing application state and architecture. For state management, Flux is gaining popularity as a simpler alternative to Model-View-Controller (MVC) for web apps. For architecture, the component-based architecture is rapidly gaining traction, and is the main focus of this article.

Component-based architecture

A component-based architecture uses the concept of a “component” as the building block of an application. A component is a reusable element that should have one well-defined role. This is nothing new, for example HTML is full of components: headers, paragraphs, line breaks, images, etc. What is new however — at least for the web — is the idea of allowing developers to create their own components. For example, we could create a UserAvatar component which is responsible for displaying a user’s profile photo, their name, and providing a link to their profile page. This component should encapsulate all of the necessary mark-up and styles for displaying this content as well as events for interacting with is, such as clicking a link within it. Once defined, this component can then be used anywhere throughout the app.

Components should also be able to contain child components, just like most regular HTML elements, in order to create a component hierarchy. Using a Flux architecture, data is passed down from parent to child via component attributes (sometimes known as “props”) and events should bubble back up when triggered.

It should be no surprise that the most popular frameworks currently provide this component model. Currently, three of the most popular frameworks are Angular, React.js and Vue.js. It’s important to note however that these frameworks offer, some to lesser or greater extents, more functionality over just the component model.

Aside: imperative versus declarative APIs

A recent trend amongst frameworks has been the move from imperative to declarative APIs. But what does this mean exactly? Consider the task of adding up a list of numbers. An imperative program would define precisely how this operation should be performed, for example: –

1. Initialise a counter variable “c” to the length of the list
2. Initialise a “sum” variable to 0
3. Start looping
4. Get number from list at index “c”
5. Add this number to “sum” and update “sum” with the new value
6. Decrement “c”
7. Is “c” now 0?
8. If so, break from the loop.
9. If not, jump back to the start of the loop

At the end of this process, “sum” contains the sum of all values in the list. A declarative API on the other hand provides abstract ways of performing the same operation, such as something like this: –

1. Iterate the list and apply the sum() method to the iterator.

The conceptual difference here is that with an imperative API we need to instruct the computer how to perform a task, and with a declarative API we only need to tell it what to do. With a declarative approach, we delegate the how responsibility to the library itself, trusting that it knows a good way of instructing the computer. This has a few advantages: –

• We are not reinventing the wheel each time; looping over a list is a common task so why should we write each step every time?
• Generalisation: the library can make sure that the same code can work over all iterable things, whereas our imperative code only works over a list.
• Perhaps the library realises that this iteration can be done in parallel and does so, whereas our imperative code is doomed to run serially on one processor.

Most modern web frameworks use the declarative approach. A good example of this shift is the move from jQuery — which itself uses an imperative API — to a more modern framework such as React.js.

Intro to WebComponents

Now we’re all up to speed, let’s introduce WebComponents.

Why WebComponents?

As mentioned above, each of the component-based frameworks are reinventing the wheel when it comes to the component model. While each framework offers something different on top of this, they all implement the basic component model in largely the same way. This is not such a good thing as improvements in one will not directly affect another, and of course there’s a lot of duplication of effort between them.

Due to this separation of implementations, a “component” is not really a singular concept; a React.js component is very different from an Angular component for example in its implementation. This means that a component written in React could not easily be added to an Angular application as Angular has no method of creating and using this React component itself.

The WebComponent custom element specification therefore takes this concept of a component and removes it from the framework, instead placing the implementation within the browser. This has a number of advantages: –

• A browser can make its own implementation decisions so long as it follows the specifications. This means that each browser can optimise its WebComponents implementation however it likes, meaning that it should be much faster and efficient than framework-based implementations.
• As the implementation now exists within the browser, frameworks themselves can become more lightweight as they only need to provide a thin wrapper around the WebComponent specifications.
• Frameworks currently use tricks in order to encapsulate styles within components. With the Shadow DOM specification, this again will be handled by the browser meaning that frameworks will not need to provide any workarounds.

Another important benefit comes from improved semantics.

Semantics

When discussing semantics on the web, we usually refer to how the meaning of information can be portrayed by the markup. For example, imagine a list of films. Currently this list might be contained within an OL element (ordered list), with each film inhabiting an LI (list item) element. So far so good. Within each LI, the film’s title, production year, director name and summary need to be displayed. We might choose to display the title in a header element (H1, H2, etc.), the director’s name and production year in SPANs, and the summary in a P (paragraph) element.

Combined with relevant CSS styles, this list of movies can be made to look good to users. However, the semantics of this list are not as clear as they could be. Imagine that we want to take this list of films and analyse it, perhaps adding the items to a database. The list itself is clearly defined in the markup (OL with LI children) but after this things can become a little more complicated. The film title is marked fairly well by the header tag, but the rest of the information is not so well defined. The page designer decided to place the director’s name and production year in two SPAN elements, however there’s nothing about those elements that tells us specifically what the text within means semantically. For example, a SPAN containing “1983” could be a year, but could also be a rating of some kind or a year representing a different time (e.g. home video release date). The director’s name could be interpreted as the lead actor’s name for example.

It’s common to attach classes to elements for styling and sometimes semantic purposes. For example, the SPAN containing the director’s name could have the class “director-name”. This certainly helps, however this is not always the case; sometimes classes are only used for styling such as “smaller-bold”, which does not provide any semantic meaning.

Now consider the same list using custom elements. The OL could be replaced by a tag called “film-list”. The LI could be “film”. The title could be “film-title”, and so on. When viewing this page, users would see no difference, however when analysed the semantics are a lot clearer. The information contained within each custom elements is now given a much greater meaning simply by the use of these custom elements.

It’s important to note that frameworks generally remove this semantic information as part of the processing of the page. While custom elements can be defined in the framework, the rendering pipeline reduces these custom elements back to standard HTML elements, meaning that semantic information is lost.

WebComponent specs

The main WebComponent specification is split into a number of smaller specifications, all of which need to be implemented by a browser in order for it to claim full compatibility.

Browser support is improving all the time and as WebComponents are becoming a web standard we can expect support to improve with each new version. For browsers that don’t yet support one or more of the specifications, polyfills exist which allow them to use WebComponents, albeit with reduced performance.

Custom Elements

The custom elements specification is the real focus of this article as it is the specification that allows developers to define custom HTML elements without the need of a framework.

Custom elements are defined using a JavaScript API (a sub-class of the HTMLElement base class) which allows a developer to specify how the element should be rendered and how it should behave, based on input attributes and events. Once defined, those elements can then be used like any other regular HTML element within the rest of the application. The definitions can of course then be utilised in other applications too, as well as in applications that use different frameworks. As an example of this, check out WebComponents.org for a library of components that are ready to use.

Shadow DOM

Shadow DOM is an important specification that allows custom elements to exist. The regular DOM (Document Object Model) is created by the browser when displaying a page and is a hierarchical structure containing all of the page elements. The Shadow DOM encapsulates a custom element’s internal element structure within the element, allowing a component to separate its own DOM from the rest of the document. This becomes important for re-usability and so that components can look and work correctly regardless of their containing page, so that event handlers, styles and other DOM attributes do not seep through when not wanted.

Styling

One of the benefits of Shadow DOM is the encapsulation of a component’s styles. As mentioned above, existing frameworks employ a range of workarounds in order to implement this encapsulation in their own components, however Shadow DOM is implemented directly by the browser and is therefore more efficient causes workarounds to become superfluous.

The problem currently comes from an inherent property of CSS, namely the ‘C’ in ‘CSS’: “cascading”. Styles defined in CSS, by design, cascade down to child components. A DIV element with a “color” attribute of “green” causes contained text to be displayed in green. This style then cascades to any other element contained within the DIV, unless that element explicitly overrides the “color” attribute. This is of course desirable in most cases and is what gives CSS its power, however for custom elements we sometimes do not want page styles to affect the component styles. For example, a custom element might want to inherit the parent “color” attribute, but not the padding and margin which would prevent the custom element from being displayed correctly.

HTML Templates and Slots

The WebComponents specification also introduces the template and slot elements to HTML. Both of these new elements allow re-use of markup by building a template which can then be used within a custom element.

A template is a container which can contain any other elements and which can be given a specific ID. These templates can then be inserted into a custom element by ID, and the browser will automatically insert all inner elements automatically. This allows common markup to be reused easily without duplication.

A template on its own can only contain static content; to display dynamic content the slot element is required. Slots can be inserted into a template and are referenced by name and can also contain default content. After defining a slot element within a template, elements can be inserted into that slot (known as slotting an element) by inserting the element to be slotted inside the custom element itself and setting the element’s slot attribute to the name of the desired slot.

For example, imagine that a custom element called my-component has a slot defined with the name username. The slot can be filled with a child element like so: –

<my-component>
<span slot="username">Admin</span>
</my-component>


When rendering the above element, the browser would replace the username slot element in the template with the span element.

Comparing this to React for example, this is very similar to the this.props.children system.

For more details of templates and slots, see this MDN article.

Libraries

While WebComponents can be used without any library support currently, there are reasons why the use of a WebComponents library might make sense: –

• Different API: as mentioned, the WebComponents specification defines an imperative API which has disadvantages as listed earlier. A library could build upon this imperative API and provide its own declarative API which might be easier for developers to use, as well as offering other benefits.
• Polyfills: where browsers lack support for certain features, the library can implement those features in a polyfill, which is a pure JavaScript implementation of that feature. While not as good as actual browser support, these polyfills allow WebComponents to work to the level required by the library.

A few libraries currently exist for using WebComponents, two of which will be discussed here. For more details, check out the Libraries page on WebComponents.org.

Polymer.js and LitElement

Polymer.js is probably the most well-known WebComponents library and is built by Google.

The implementation of custom elements in Polymer.js uses LitElement, a new base class for declaring custom elements. This new class provides a declarative API on top of the default HTMLElement which is provided by the browser, and is a sub-class thereof. So instead of declaring a custom element as a sub-class of HTMLElement, declaring it as a sub-class of LitElement instead provides these new features. LitElement also uses lit-html to provide HTML templates. While LitElement is part of Polymer.js, the class follows the WebComponent standard meaning that LitElements can be used with other frameworks, just as standard HTMLElement-based elements, or without the rest of Polymer.js.

Polmer.js also provides a set of polyfills to make sure that web applications written using Polymer.js can run on browsers without full WebComponents support.

Ionic 4 and Stencil.js

Stencil.js is built by the Ionic team, who are known for building a framework on top of Apache’s Cordova to enable running web apps on mobile devices.

Like Polymer.js, Stencil presents the developer with a declarative API on top of the native WebComponents imperative API. Stencil on the other hand is a compiler which takes components written using this new API and compiles them to native custom elements, which can then be used with any other framework. This means that Stencil.js only requires a very small runtime component, which includes a dynamic loader for polyfills based on the host browser.

Conclusion

To summarise, WebComponents are steadily gaining traction as an alternative to the large number of JavaScript web application frameworks which all solve similar problems. As WebComponents are a standard that all browsers will follow, writing web applications using WebComponents liberates a developer from a specific framework lock-in.

Web application frameworks can still be used if necessary, and indeed frameworks such as Angular.js offer more than is encapsulated by the WebComponents specification. However, re-use of components between frameworks means that less work will have to be re-implemented for each, and frameworks might even get smaller as they will only need to provide additional functionality as necessary.

Existing frameworks might also decide to integrate WebComponents directly instead of implementing their own versions of templating, the component model, etc. Such an example is Angular Elements. Some libraries have stated that their component model is sufficiently different from custom elements meaning that they will continue to use their own implementation, however they will still allow interoperability (React.js). Please check custom-elements-everywhere.com for up-to-date details on framework support for custom elements.

Browsers are implementing more and more of the standard as time goes by. The current state of browser support can be checked here: custom elements, HTML templates and shadow DOM.

The WebComponents specification is an exciting addition to the HTML standards, and one that will surely see increasing use within the growing area of web and progressive web applications.

The post WebComponents and the Future of Web Apps appeared first on Square Flame Digital Agency.

I am both a games designer and an atheist. The way I see it, games are an awesome framework for teaching, for encouraging and for having fun. Whilst I may not be religious, I appreciate the underlying messages of moral and ethical betterment, and the intent to bring people together as a more caring and kindly society. If we take religion as being a method for helping people and encouraging them to consider their morals, I think this is a very worthy cause to push. But how would one go about combining the two – especially when both seem to flit between indifference and outright opposition to each other? Would such a creation really even work?

Finding Common Ground Between Games & Religion

Well, let’s first take some similarities between the two. Games and religion are both very powerful platforms for change. Religion is used to help convicts understand a better system of morals, to help drug addicts overcome problems with substance abuse, and even to help people overcome instances of loss and grief. Similarly, games have been used to educate people, to aid scientific research and for rehabilitation purposes to help people recover from afflictions such as loss of motor skills. Look back at each of those three examples for religion and games… Are the underlying principles so different? At a base level, I would say they aren’t, but for further evidence, let’s continue.

Both games and religion encourage people to come together to spend time with each other. Religion gathers followers together for sermons in buildings such as churches, synagogues and mosques. They encourage people to come together as a religious family and to look after and encourage each other. Similarly, games encourage people to play together online, to complete epic quests and to aid each other as a team. Both encourage social support – for cooperation and care for your fellow gamer or believer.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, both games and religion share a mutual end goal – a big tip of the hat to Miss Jane McGonigal here – “to offer a healing alternative to our broken world”. When life doesn’t live up to our expectations, when we are feeling down or powerless, or even when we are just world weary – religion and games offer an escape. Admittedly, the way religion and games tackle these issues are a little different, but the end result is the same. If I feel small or un-empowered in my daily life, religion might advise me that I do have an important purpose and that I mean a lot to those around me and to God. Games, on the other hand, make me feel empowered by putting me into an entirely separate world and allowing me to become its all-powerful saviour. At the end of it all, I will still have filled the void of feeling small and powerless.

Religion In Games – A Match Not Made In Heaven

So we’ve acknowledged that they both have similarities, but we still haven’t really answered my previous questions – how do we combine them, and will it even work? Well, when it comes to the development of a religious game, I think there is enough evidence to say that no – a game based strictly around a religion will not work. At their core, games offer entertaining challenges – be they physical or mental – which players must overcome through use of sufficient skillful action. Religion, however, is more of an exercise in listening and spiritual discipline. There is little in the way of challenge or gameplay mechanics which can be gleaned from listening to scripture readings, praying regularly and remaining faithful. That’s not to say that you couldn’t find mechanics if you dug a little deeper into a specific religion – just that it may require you to remodel or to add other aspects to better fit the purposes of a game.

Additionally, games are carefully crafted around the power of positive feedback. Gamers love to “level up”. We love it when we gain experience points, increase our score and win new loot. With this in mind, games encourage people to perform actions by offering them tangible rewards and pats on the back, and also offer gamers visible proof that they’re doing well and progressing, be it through unlocking gadgets, gaining new missions or awarding us trophies. This is a proven and brilliant way to encourage people to perform certain actions, be it side quests, gathering collectables, or even performing certain specific actions, such as defeating a boss with a certain weapon. We will literally modify our behaviour and play styles just for these purposes, and I can name plenty of people who continued to play a game well after completion because they needed to gain all the related unlockables. But this is often juxtaposed to the systems used to convince people to perform certain actions in religion.

Religion focuses more on avoidance of sin and potential punishment for bad actions, rather than positive feedback for performing actions of good. Everyone is aware of the idea of being born with sin, and “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned”, but there is no other hand to this. I’m not implying that there should be some kind of “High Five me, Father, for I helped the homeless”, but there does have to be some form of positive feedback for religion to translate well into a game. Convincing someone to go to church every Sunday to avoid going to hell is an example of negative feedback, and when negative feedback is put into a game, players will simply stop playing. If a game – or anything for that matter – is constantly negative, it’s hard to find any kind of fun in it. With that said, would players download a game that isn’t fun? No. Would religious leaders want people turning away from their religion because it seems negative and boring? Of course not!

Lastly, the issue of re-purposing aspects of religion for gaming purposes is further exacerbated by the staunch and unwavering opinions of both sides, that even if religion did fit easily, it still would have no place in games. This is an opinion which has been firmly rooted into the minds of most people, and more than likely remains the primary issue standing between religion becoming a marketable gaming property. More often than not, religious titles find their messages of morals and value stuck between a market that sees them as preaching, and a religion which sees them as belittling their faith. It seems to be common opinion between both sides that religion is not a game, nor should it be treated as such.

A Focus On Purpose & Meaning – Not Just Religion

I think it is relatively self-evident that religion and games have a long way to progress before they can be fully affiliated, but perhaps the actual inclusion of specific religion within games is not a requirement. Throughout this piece I’ve been speaking of the underlying basis of religion – of the religious principles of moral and ethical betterment, and the intent to bring people together. To build a game which suits these principles does not necessarily require the direct inclusion of any religious scripture or undertones. People will play games with a purpose, both for the enjoyment of playing, and to better themselves or their world in the process. Titles such as “SuperBetter”, “World Without Oil” and “Foldit” have proven that players enjoy games with a deeper meaning or purpose, and that games have the capacity to help people to adapt their lives or to shape their world for the better.

Let’s take SuperBetter as an example. Here is their explanation of SuperBetter, from their website. “Playing SuperBetter helps build personal resilience: the ability to stay strong, motivated, and optimistic even in the face of difficult challenges. Resilience has a powerful effect on health—by boosting physical and emotional well-being. Resilience also helps you achieve your life goals—by strengthening your social support and increasing your stamina, willpower, and focus. Every aspect of the game is designed to harness the power of positive emotions and social connection to help you improve your life.” Does this sound like the end goal of religion to you? It certainly does to me!

SuperBetter encourages you to battle bad guys, make allies, activate power-ups and complete quests – all of which correlate to real life improvements. An ally is anyone you invite to support you on your journey to getting better – giving you social support from others. Power-ups are small things which you can do each day to help you feel a little better – helping to improve your mood and keep you focused on being happy. Bad guys are anything that might oppose your end goals – such as focusing on your mortality when trying to overcome illness. Quests are the things you can do to get closer to your goals. In the case of overcoming illness; this might be doing ten minutes of exercise to boost your immune system. Lastly, each action is tracked by a progress metre – a personal resilience bar, which you can fill by achieving the above tasks. The bottom line is this – SuperBetter provides a support network and helps you focus on being positive and overcoming the problem. Religion might try and help you do these things by providing the same social support network, by providing pick-me-ups and advice in the form of scripture passages. Ultimately, SuperBetter is proof that religion is not needed in the game to achieve this outcome. The end goals are identical – to help someone overcome a struggle in their life. But SuperBetter does a far better job of helping people to achieve these goals and remain motivated.

Shaping The World Through Stories

So why does gaming do a better job than traditional religion? Well; simply because it provides a more interactive and enjoyable method of absorbing the information. Again, the core principles are still the same. Religion and games are both powerful storytelling mediums, and both use stories to provide people with meaning and purpose. Even to this day, Bible stories remain popular and well known amongst all circles of society. We all know about the life of Jesus, Noah gathering animals on his ark and Jonah being swallowed by a whale. They are such powerful stories that they permeate all sections of society and transcend all races and beliefs – these stories are infectiously viral. But they are not just about the stories, in the same way that the Bible is not just a novel. The Bible uses the stories as a means to teach people, and to help them engage and understand the teachings of the Bible. Games are also a means for delivering epic stories, and by their very nature as an interactive tool, they provide a means for truly engaging with the content in a very literal as well as metaphorical manner.

By virtue of immersion and engagement, games provide a manner for taking these stories and improving a person’s understanding and their capacity to remember the story’s purpose. Games allow you to live out a story, and by utilising gameplay to underpin the meaning of the tale, help to better hammer home its meaning. As an example, the game Mirror’s Edge encourages people not to use guns, and actively detriments the player for their violence. In order to complete the game with the fastest time and the highest score, the player must avoid using any kind of firearms during a level, instead benefiting from completing their goals in a non-violent manner. This use of gameplay and story helps to hammer home the idea of anti-violence, which sticks with the player far longer than a traditional story would. This takes the traditional religious message of “turn the other cheek”, but presents it in a much more palatable format, removing the religious stigma whilst still encouraging the same core principle. This is in many ways a very facetious example, but by providing a story based around parkour and futuristic society, the same message can be delivered in a far more memorable and engaging way – without even changing the core delivery method of story-telling.

Fundamentally, everyone loves to be attached to epic stories and the sense of meaning that they provide. Whether this is delivered through religion or games should remain irrelevant. As long as the notion of feeling inspired and motivated to do what matters is provided, the root sum remains the same. We become more inspired to continue to perform this action or hold this belief. Where religion currently betters games is that gamers currently spend their time improving virtual worlds, whereas religion focuses on real life. Perhaps by applying the principles of one through the delivery of the other, religion and games can help to provide games with a greater meaning, and provide a method for bridging the gap from the virtual into the real. By taking religious rules, such as though shalt not covet, and applying these as rules in a purposeful game – we better illustrate the point. Reward this behaviour in game, and the positive associations can help people to carry these views into their daily lives. Games, just like religions, require a set of rules to function. Let’s use these to create a place for people to come together and cooperate; to find meaning, purpose and betterment.

Adapt To Survive

Both games and religion encourage us to come together to be a part of something bigger than ourselves – whether that’s helping people to achieve a happy life, or saving planet Alderaan from the Death Star. Perhaps the ultimate underlying issue with the entire concept of religious games is that faith remains a purely personal standing, and even those of the same religion often find dividing lines between their beliefs. How can a religious game encourage us to come together as part of something bigger, if it instinctively separates us by highlighting our differences in belief? Perhaps religion is better left absent in name but present in spirit. If people will bond over a game, but not over a religion, then perhaps subtlety and subconscious teaching are necessary evils, at least for the present.

The world is a constantly evolving place, and we’ve seen religion slowly adapt over time to mirror the needs and ethics of new generations. No longer do we see acts such as stoning for adultery or mass Sunday church attendance, and even hot topics such as homosexuality are becoming more acceptable in many religions. It is this capacity to adapt that has kept religion and its underlying message of human betterment relevant throughout the ages. With this thought of adapt to survive, as the message being delivered changes, perhaps the method by which it is delivered needs to change too? As religious numbers continue to plummet, and the number of gamers continues to soar, perhaps it is time for religion to adopt a new medium for delivering its teachings. If people won’t come to the sermon, perhaps it is time to find a way to bring the sermon to them.

As a conclusion, I shall leave you with a quote from Reverend Susan Sparks, who has already worded everything far more eloquently than I ever could. “People are starving for meaning and social connection – to be a part of something epic. And they are flocking from the church to games, because gamers are the ones creating opportunities for these needs; chances for real people to come together and create global solutions. To put it in religious terms: reality is the world after the fall and games are offering one of the few glimpses of the new Eden – a place where people find meaning and purpose, a world of global cooperation, a community where epic healing can happen.”

The post Can Gaming Be Used To Teach Religion? appeared first on Square Flame Digital Agency.

Why It’s Really Not That Bad

So just as a point of reference, getting a job maybe hard now, but it’s a damn sight better and a damn sight easier than it’s ever been. In fact, there has never been a better time to get into gaming than right now. Our industry isn’t niche any more, and games are big mass market products worth millions of pounds. This isn’t the 1970s or 1980s when you had to sell games in the back of a magazine or on the street corner and employment is certainly reflected in that. There are more studios, more jobs and more internships than ever before, and big studios like Sony are offering more and more opportunities for internships and graduate jobs. But what if you really can’t find an internship? Well no worries, the industry can now cater for that too thanks to the magic of being independent, and I for one am a big advocate of going indie!

The games industry is constantly evolving, and there are plenty of new opportunities and markets opening up for developers of all sizes. In recent years, sites like Facebook have offered huge new platforms, mobile and casual games have become enormous, and even cloud gaming and virtual reality are just joining the party too! Okay, so maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself with a couple of those, but the fact that remains is there are a lot of new markets opening up which offer a lot of opportunity for the little guy. Indie developers don’t just have to work on PC anymore, and smaller and more casual games do have the potential to turn over a lot of money. Every man and his dog now own a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, a laptop, a games console, etcetera, and the number of channels you have with which to deliver your games to them is only increasing.

How To Be Indie: The Basics

Following along these lines, we’ve now entered into a truly digital age, so not only is it easier than ever to find a platform for people to play your games on, it’s never been easier to deliver the product to them. You don’t need a publisher anymore, and games don’t need to be spread via physical media. Digital distribution is becoming the way forward, and with the advent of online games, platforms such as Steam and Green Man Gaming, networks such as Xbox Live and PSN, and stores such as the App Store and Google Play store, digital distribution is how people expect to receive their games. This is of major benefit to independent developers who can access millions of potential users for absolute peanuts each year. OK, so most platforms will take a cut of your sales as well (normally 30%), but this is still a lot cheaper and easier than putting your games on a disk and selling them in stores and it has the potential to reach a much wider audience!

Even the software can be free! Maybe you can’t publish without buying licenses for software such as Adobe Photoshop and Autodesk Maya, but there are plenty of really good open source alternatives out there which you can use and publish from, for free, right now. If you need 2D art software, check out GIMP. If you need 3D modelling software, try Blender. If you need a code compiler, try Notepad++ or Microsoft Visual Studio Express. Better yet, sign up to Microsoft BizSpark and get full access to their professional version of Visual Studio. It won’t cost you a thing to try. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you there are plenty of other resources online, including developer communities, tutorials, and other websites designed to help you. Sign up to TIGSource. Create a Gamasutra account. They’re there to be used and they will be helpful – give them a go! And keep your eyes peeled for grants, growth funds and developer competitions. Digital and creative industries are being invested in so heavily at the moment that it seems there’s always some form of funding available for indies – just keep your eyes peeled and keep searching the web!

So last, but by no means least, marketing. With the advent of the web and social media, it’s never been easier to get your name out there. These aren’t the days of old when you had to go through publishing outlets and games magazines to reach your audience, and there’s nothing stopping you from marketing directly to your audience right now. You can speak to them on Facebook and Twitter, you can release trailers and gameplay videos on YouTube, you can make a professional looking website quickly and easily on sites such as WordPress and Wix, and it costs you nothing to get in contact with online games journalists and YouTube reviewers. Your audience are already online and they’ve never been easier to reach; and believe it or not, journalists on games sites actually want you to get in contact with them about your games! Without your products, they have nothing to review or write about, and sites like Rock, Paper, Shotgun live off of your submissions. You can even find most journalists details on their respective websites, so why not try your luck and get in contact with them?

So remember guys and girls, the job scene has never been better for your industry, and it’s never been more receptive to self employment either. There are more opportunities now than there have ever been for a placement in games, and if you really can’t find a placement anywhere, there’s now always an option make your own! You can do everything on a zero budget, you can be paid to do your hobby, and trust me that you can have fun while you’re doing it! So chin up and keep looking for that ideal job – we wish you the best of luck in your search! But just remember what we told you; if you need a “plan B”, don’t be upset! Think of all the positive things you read in this post and then go out and be indie!

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So with that said, I’m going to paint a picture of how I think 90% of the business plans are going to sound for readers of this blog post. You’re looking to start up an indie dev studio. You’ve got your computer, you’ve got the skills and you’ve got the enthusiasm. A bunch of your friends are interested, and you’re all going to work full time from home, some of you coding and some of you doing art. Either you’re sharing a home, or you plan to use Facebook and Skype, and you’ll share your files using those two methods. You’ve got a game title planned which you think is awesome, and you’re certain that other people are going to enjoy it once you release it. It’s probably a mobile game, you probably want to release it on Android and iOS, and you probably think that it can sell millions. If this broadly describes your thought process or your intentions for the company, hold your hand up now. Is your hand raised? Good, mine is too, so I can probably help you. Is your hand down? Just read on anyway. You might find it useful, or at the very least you can laugh at my previous incompetence. So here goes with 10 things I wish I knew before starting up.

1. Someone has to run the business

What we at Static Games failed to grasp when starting up was that running a business and a development team is not a small part time job for one of the developers. It’s a lot of work. Seriously. A lot. In fact, I’m now the managing director and that’s what I do full time. I have contributed to the coding and development on occasion, but developing games isn’t actually a part of my regular day job and probably isn’t ever going to be. I was the unlucky member of the team who had to trade off my future developing games and become passionate about running a company instead. Luckily, I enjoy business so this was okay with me, but if you don’t enjoy business, then go out now and find someone who does. Not only that, but make sure they’re comfortable talking to people and giving presentations, or tell them to learn! As an example, I perform networking and gaining contacts, I sort out finances and taxes, I arrange contracts and perform negotiations on the company’s behalf, I look for opportunities such as competitions, loans and grants, I handle project management and keep projects on track, I handle budgeting and ensure that we make good games but within financial parameters, I present whenever the company gives a presentation, I handle paying staff, I sort out any disputes, I make most business decisions, control leadership and direction of the board and the company, and generally perform pretty much any non development related task you can think of… And when I find the time I handle the marketing too. Which leads nicely on to point two…

2. Put as much effort into marketing a game as you do into making it

There is absolutely no point in making a game if you never tell anyone about it. One thing which we really neglected at Static Games for a very long time was marketing our product and putting our names out there. But if a customer has never heard of your product, or if they never see the game, how do you propose to get this person to buy it? Marketing goes a long way to dictating your sales, and sales are what will determine your money and your success. Marketing doesn’t have to cost anything, and with the internet making it so easy to get your name out there there’s no reason not to start marketing immediately, though most of you won’t! So many people get so caught up in building the product that they neglect building a fan base or letting people know the game exists, and if you release a product with no hype and which no-one knows about, your sales will reflect this. It takes time to build hype and excitement around a product, but it costs nothing to set yourself up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other social media, websites can be made for free on places like WordPress and emailing press and outlets like YouTubers costs you nothing and can build a mutually beneficial relationship. Marketing will take a lot of time, but you need to put a lot in to get a lot out of it. If you’re going to spend months making a game, it make sense to do everything you can to make sure you can sell it.

3. You don’t need money to start up the company, but you do need it to live!

Static Games did not need any money when we started up. We all had a student loan, a laptop to work on, some open source development software and a great sense of enthusiasm and opportunity. However, living costs money, and you really need to factor these costs in before you quit your day job or become an indie dev full time. Remember that a loan or your savings has to last you a very long time here. If your game takes nine months to develop, you need to have money in the bank to pay for rent, bills, food and drink, travel, entertainment, unforeseen costs and much more. If you don’t have more than enough in the bank to pay for all of this, then maybe think again about going indie. Or at the very least, do what some of our team did and get yourself a part time job on the side. There’s absolutely no shame in it – personal survival has to come before business survival.

4. Don’t just think you’ll start making your own IP if you can’t afford it

Static Games started off with our own IP already in development, and we have made some money off of it. However, it’s worth remembering that you have to make your IP before you can sell it, which can mean long periods with no income, and even then your sales may amount to far less than you can live on. With this in mind, it can sometimes be better to start your company as a work for hire studio. Work for hire is something which Static Games have done a lot of, and it can be much more lucrative than making your own IP when starting up. Certainly, the money is more assured, and to be honest, there are benefits to honing your skills on other people’s products before you start working on your own. As an example here, Remode Studios are successful and after six years are still transitioning into making their own IP. Similarly, our friends at Bournemouth based Amuzo Games, were founded as 4T2 Multimedia in 1998, and have just begun making their first original IP in 2014. Just saying…

5. Start off with a small team

Seriously, only take on the people you really need. I love our team, but this was a major oversight when we started up. The smaller your costs are at start up, the better; and if you can make your product with fewer people, I would seriously consider doing it. It is a lot easier to make the sales and revenue required for two people to live than it is for seven people. Think of it like this. If you make £40,000 off of your first product, and your development team was two people. You’re both taking home a decent chunk of change. But if this game was made by a team of seven, like us – that money isn’t going to go very far! Unless someone is invaluable to your company or they can speed up product development by a really significant amount of time, it might be worth considering whether you really need them and potentially omitting them from your plans.

6. Don’t make anything too ambitious for your first project

Okay, so I want you to calculate how long you think it will take you to complete your first product. Now multiply it by two. That’s how long I think your product will take to make. As a minimum. So many people when starting out fail to comprehend quite how long games take to make, so always start off with something that’s fun, but also easy and simple to make. The odds are that it’s going to take longer than you anticipate, and remember, you’ve still got living costs to pay! In addition, it’s unlikely that you’re going to make a splash with your first game, so just try and release something you can make some money off of and hone your skills. If you try and spend too long making a world beater of a game, the likelihood is that you’ll run out of money and have to close down without ever having released anything. Don’t be that studio.

7. Being known is better than protecting your idea

A lot of indies I’ve met have been very hesitant to talk about what they’re doing or what games they’re developing in case someone steals their idea, and I always find this strange. The successful ones, however, are always chatty and community driven and are more than pleased to talk about what they’re working on. The fact is that the more people know about your game, the better. That’s more people to spread the word and get excited about it, more people who can give you feedback and advice on it, and more people who can inform you of any opportunities that it could offer you. When talking to some people, I get a sense that they’re scared of people stealing their ideas, but the fact that remains is that with thousands of indie developers and thousands of products out there, most ideas just aren’t that original. But if someone did release a game like yours and you have a back catalogue of updates and screenshots on your website, most people will look at that game and go, “Hey, that looks like [insert game name here] by [insert developer name here]”. You don’t lose anything from announcing what you are doing, but you do stand to gain from all the related marketing you’ll get. Just keep that in mind.

8. You will suffer from apathy at some point when starting up

If you’re working from home, you will get hit by the apathy bug sooner or later. Self motivation is a really key thing to indies, and convincing yourself to get up in the morning can be really difficult at times. Morale can drop if you all work in different places and you can’t see the overall progression of the game or the progress made by other people, and motivation is certainly lower when there’s no-one there to give you a kick up the backside. With no rigorous nine-to-five schedule, and only self imposed deadlines to hit, you’re probably going to fall behind at some point, and there will definitely be days when you won’t get up until noon and you only work a five hour day. But it’s really important not to let this be the norm. I have some quotes from a motivational speech made by a man called Eric Thomas, plastered on my desktop background. When I get lazy, I read them. And it works. Find something that motivates you, and keeps you working, no matter what it is. Remember that your team members are counting on you and that you can’t be successful if you don’t put the time and effort in! Find something that motivates you, and find it fast, and trust me when I say you’ll want an office as soon as you can get one! Hard work is the only thing that will finish your product, and the sooner it’s finished, the sooner you can start making money off of it.

9. You’re not just a developer, you’re an entrepreneur

I suppose this is fundamentally similar to my first point, but remember that you aren’t just a developer. You’re a business owner and your job doesn’t stop when developing the game finishes. Yes you have to make the game, but you also have to market it, publish it, support it and handle all other parts of the production pipeline. You are probably self publishing, making you a publisher just as much as a developer, and it’s important not to forget it. In addition, remember that you need to handle the business, including purchasing insurance, filling out tax returns, setting up a bank account, etc. You have to be more than a developer to succeed!

10. You don’t have to know everything, and you don’t have to take the word of anyone!

When I started Static Games back in April 2013, I knew nothing of business or games development. I just had a positive mindset and a healthy willingness to learn. There’s nothing stopping you starting your business and learning as you go, and truth be told, I think it’s the best way to learn. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from anyone and never be ashamed to admit if you don’t know something. Your honesty and willingness to admit that you aren’t perfect is usually enough to convince people that you’re worth helping and that you have the drive to learn to be successful. Also remember that it’s OK to fail, and that any failing you do during start up is simply a learning experience for something which would have cost a lot of money if you had done it down the line when you’re rolling in it! Always look at failure as a way to learn something new and remember that you can’t improve without first failing – just don’t repeat the same mistake twice! And most importantly, if you have asked someone for advice, always use your own judgement on whether to trust them. Other people might well have more experience than you, and it’s unlikely that they’ll deliberately lead you astray, but some of the worst advice I’ve received whilst running Static Games has come from some of the most successful and higher up members of the industry. Remember, it’s your company and you should do what you think is right for you!

The post 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Games Studio appeared first on Square Flame Digital Agency.

So for those of you don’t know me – I’m the managing director, Rob. I am a student, a programmer and a web developer. I’m coffee fuelled and 100% pure geek. I started an indie games company called Static Games Ltd a couple of years back, and we’ve won more than our fair share of awards and plaudits, both nationally and globally. I then founded a digital engineering agency called Square Flame, and we make lots of really cool techy products for some really big clients, most of whom I can’t mention due to NDA. I was briefly involved in an online gambling website, though I left due to ethical differences… And now I’m opening up an e-commerce site selling models, textures, sound effects, etc to the games industry. So that’s my background. And the following, are 11 thoughts on starting your business…

1. You probably can’t do it all alone

Running a business is a full time job. Marketing is a full time job. Product development is a full time job. And being a student is a full time job. Business requires you to wear many hats, but unless you are superman the weight of all those hats on one head will break your neck. You aren’t going to have all the skills required, and you certainly aren’t going to have the time. If you are a freelancer, and you are selling your time as a temporary employee, you can probably get away with it, but I would hesitate to call it a business as it isn’t scalable. When you’re starting up your business, make sure you identify all of the positions needed and then find people with complimentary skill-sets to your own in order to fill those roles. Don’t just hire your friends – find the best person for the job. Yes you need to get along with them to a degree, but it’s better to have someone who is going to push the business forward and who shares your drive and ambitions. Out of interest, do you intend on being the MD for your company? Well, I’m currently the managing director at Static Games and here’s the dirty little secret. Power comes with a price – I have contributed to the coding and development on occasion, but developing games isn’t actually a part of my regular day job, and in all honesty, it probably isn’t ever going to be. This is to say that I’m not a part of developing products any more – I simply develop the company. Luckily, I am in fact a boring, emotionless, number-crunching kind of guy, but for those of you reading this who would rather work on the fun exciting products than the business itself – remember to bare this in mind!

2. Do not be over ambitious – you are starting your business, not running a multinational company

Your first business is not Sony or Ikea… Yet! It’s okay to have long term goals, but for now, focus in the short term and building up a foundation. It’s not about losing sight of where you want to go, it’s about working within the time-scales and resources you have now and ensuring you make something that’s feasible and achievable. Before I can consider goals like being published by Sony, I need to be hitting goals like building the foundation of the software, sorting all the bugs, finding play-testers, etc… Remember, survival is key, so find yourself a niche (gap in the market) and push it. If you try to be the next Sony at start-up and you start developing some kind of 3D, virtual reality, touch-screen, thought-powered super computer, you’re going to run out of time and money quickly, and you’re never, ever going to ship. If you don’t ship, you make no money and your company fails. Don’t be that person. It is okay to grow, but do not try to be all things to all people. Keep your goals reachable and within scope. Shipping the product is worth infinitely more than trying to make the next big thing.

3. Start off small

I’m absolutely certain that you’re all a lot cooler, funnier, smarter, and more popular than me, and because I’m bitter and twisted, you’ve definitely got more friends. But when you start up, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, work with everyone. Only take on the people you really need. I love our team at Static, but this was a major oversight on my part when we started up. Survival is key during start-up, and the fewer people you have on board, the easier it is to survive. The smaller your costs are at start up, the better; and if you can make your product with fewer people, then do. It is a lot easier to make the sales and revenue required for two people to live than it is for five, six or seven people. Think of it like this. If you make £40,000 off of your first product, and your development team was two people, you’re both taking home a decent chunk of pocket change. But if this game was made by a team of seven, like us – that money isn’t going to go very far! Unless someone is absolutely invaluable to your company or they can speed up product development by a really significant amount of time, it might be worth considering whether you really need them and potentially omitting them from your plans.

4. I cannot stress this enough… Market your product or service and market your company

Tell everyone you can, as loudly and as frequently as you possibly can. There is absolutely no point in making a product or offering a service if you never tell anyone about it! One thing which we really neglected when we started Static Games was to market our products – and we still haven’t truly gotten this down! But if I’ve never heard of your product or company, and if you never show me it, how do you propose to make me buy it? To go all business on you for a minute, marketing is really your one opportunity to try and boost your sales and increase your chances of success – do not squander it! Marketing doesn’t have to cost anything, and with the internet making it so easy to get your name out there there’s no reason not to start marketing immediately. So many people get so caught up in building the product or business that they neglect building a fan base or letting people know the they exist. If you release a product which no-one knows about, your sales will reflect this. You might have developed the most amazing product in the world, like a game in which jousting, cosmic unicorns battle for control of the galaxy, but if you want me to buy it, you need to tell me that the game exists! In fact, if you do build that game then you have to let me know immediately because that would be fucking awesome and I totally want to play it… Anyway, it takes time to build hype and excitement around a product, but it costs nothing to set yourself up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other social media. You should also look into Hootsuite to save you some time posting across social media sites. I’m sure some of you may already have websites, but if not, use Wix or WordPress and set up a site for free. Email press and outlets like YouTubers – they’re surprisingly friendly, it costs you nothing and they secretly want to hear from you. They need something to write or talk about, and if you give them a story, you’re making their job easier! Marketing will take a lot of time, but you need to put a lot in to get a lot out of it. If you’re going to spend months building a product or company, for God’s sake make sure you do everything within your power to make sure you can sell it!

5. Your idea is not original

A lot of businessmen I’ve met have been super-duper hesitant to talk about what they’re doing or what they’re developing in case someone steals their idea, and I’ve gotta say, I’ve always felt that this was just dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. I’ve always found the successful ones to be chatty, community driven and more than pleased to talk about what they’re working on. The fact is that the more people know about your product, the better. That’s more people to spread the word and get excited about it, more people who can give you feedback and advice on it, and more people who can inform you of any opportunities that it could offer you. I often get the sense that people are scared of others stealing their ideas, but really, with millions of other businesses and products out there, the likelihood is that your idea just isn’t that original. But if someone did release a product like yours and you have a back catalogue of updates and screenshots on your website, most people will look at their product and go, “Hey, that looks like [insert product name here] by [insert your name here]”. You don’t lose anything from announcing what you are doing, but you do stand to gain from all the related marketing you’ll get. Just keep that in mind.

6. Money matters

Static Games did not need any money when we started up. We all had a student loan, a laptop to work on, some open source development software and a great sense of enthusiasm and opportunity. However, living costs money, and your internet provider probably doesn’t take smiles and best intentions as a form of currency. You really need to factor in living costs before you quit your day job. Remember that a loan or your savings has to last you a very long time here. This is my favourite part of the blog because I get to be a kill-joy. Okay, so I want you to calculate in your head how long you think it will take you to complete your first product. I’ll give you a few seconds here. Okay, now multiply it by two. That’s how long I think your product will take to make. For a minimum viable product. If everything goes perfectly. If your product takes nine months to hit the shelves (and I’m betting it takes longer than that), you need to have money in the bank to pay for rent, bills, food and drink, travel, entertainment, unforeseen costs and much more. If you don’t have more than enough in the bank to pay for all of this, then maybe think again about starting up just yet. Or at the very least, do what some of our team did and get yourself a part time job on the side. There’s absolutely no shame in it – personal survival has to come before business survival, and if you can’t afford to live, your business can’t either! With that said, for any students reading this – whilst you’ve got your loan, now might be a good time to test the water before you have dependants or a larger number of bills. I’m not trying to put thoughts in your head here, I’m just saying… Give it a go whilst you have a safety net because you’ll never get another chance to try with such easy-going financials!

7. Is the cost of your own IP too much for you?

Static started off with our own IP already in development, and we have made some money off of it. However, it’s worth remembering that you have to make your IP before you can sell it, which can mean long periods with no income, and even then your sales may not make you enough money to live on. With this in mind, it can sometimes be easier, or at least cheaper, to start your company selling a service. Work for hire, or contracting, is something which we do via Square Flame, and it can be much more lucrative in the short term than making your own IP. The money is more assured, and to be honest, there’s something to be said about honing your skills on other people’s products before you start working on your own. I understand that for people starting up who want to sell a product such as socks or TVs, you can’t mitigate that risk… But here’s the upside – your business is much more scalable and I think you can make a lot more money in the long run.

8. Contacts give you contracts

So to quickly address those of you looking at starting a service based business, always remember that contacts give you contracts. When you’re starting up, always meet as many people as possible. Attend networking events and just trust me that they get easier with time. Pester people on LinkedIn. Email the people you want to meet and ask if you can have a chat over coffee. You’ll find that most business owners will be happy to talk to you in one form or another. I always remember being told – you have to ask for the sale; and low and behold, after bugging enough people and having a coffee with probably half of Dorset, I managed to land a few contracts and a severe caffeine addiction. I specifically remember asking Mike Hawkyard from Amuzo Games who I should be contacting for work, and not two days had passed before he began handing me over the contracts that weren’t big enough for his company. This was great and it allowed us to build up a portfolio and a chance to gain contracts through recommendation. There is a definite level of truth to the old saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, so make sure you know as many people as possible! Oh, and if you ever read this – thanks Mike!

9. Money, no strings attached – the art of equity free funding

So briefly, about finding money. I hate equity and giving away parts of my business. I also hate loans and paying back money with interest, so as a point of reference, these are the places that I would look for money.
1) Competitions – We went through a competition called “Make Something Unreal” prior to starting up. Competitions are a good source of equity free funding and a way of getting your name out there. They also provide a good starting point for people like me who have no exact idea of the product or business they want to create.
2) Grants – An obvious one, check charities such as the Wellcome Trust, organisations such as Nesta or Creative England and local councils such as Poole Borough and Bournemouth Borough, they can provide essentially free money to help you get started.
3) Contacts – A wee bit old school and probably not for everyone but no-one’s gonna believe in you like your nan! Asking friends and family members is still one of the easiest ways of accumulating capital and they don’t tend to attach interest rates.
4) Crowd funding – The most modern method of acquiring cash without having to pay it back, just remember to factor in tax, the platform cut, cost of rewards and cost of shipping on top of the amount you are looking to raise. Also don’t expect to receive funding without putting in a lot of effort into your campaign. Try Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.
5) Zero Percent Interest Loans – Sometimes offered by groups such as Creative England and local councils, they allow you to start up on someone else’s wallet without offering equity and without accumulating further debt.
6) Match funding – If you already have a little in the bank match funding is a great way to throw more money in the kitty without giving up equity and without having to pay it back. Groups such as Nesta or Creative England are more than happy to match your money or double your money at no extra cost provided you match certain criteria.

10. If you’re working from home, you will get hit by the apathy bug sooner or later

Self motivation is a really key thing and convincing yourself to get up in the morning can be really difficult at times. Morale can drop if you all work in different places and you can’t see the overall progression of the product or the progress made by other people. With no rigorous nine-to-five schedule, and only self imposed deadlines to hit, you’re probably going to fall behind at some point, and there will definitely be days when you won’t get up until noon and you only work a five hour day. But it’s really important not to let this be the norm. Find something that motivates you, and keeps you working, no matter what it is. Remember that your team members are counting on you and that you can’t be successful if you don’t put the time and effort in! Find something that motivates you, and find it fast, and trust me when I say you’ll want an office as soon as you can get one! Hard work is the only thing that will finish your product, and the sooner it’s finished, the sooner you can start making money off of it. Incidentally, make sure you’re communicating frequently with any work colleagues, because for all of the motivational posters and other crap you’ll read online, nothing will motivate you quite as well as the size ten boot your business partner will walk up your arse when he finds out you’ve taken an unscheduled week off from product development.

11. Perseverance = success

Leading on from that, I strongly believe that its simply perseverance that creates success. No-one expects you to start your business and be an instant success and it’s absolutely okay to fail. In fact, I’m going to steal an analogy off of my buddy Oli here because I think it fits in perfectly. Say you use Tinder… You don’t expect to find a great match every time, but as long as you fail with these guys and girls quickly, cheaply and regularly – you’ll find a person you like a lot bloody sooner. So persist, persevere and don’t get disheartened. Any failures you make now are just ones which would have cost you a lot more had you made them further down the road. Also, don’t get disheartened by negative feedback or criticism! Negative feedback is great as it shows you that someone is interested in your product, and it helps you to improve what you’re doing!

When I started Static Games, I knew nothing of business or games development. I just had a positive mindset and a healthy willingness to learn. There’s nothing stopping you starting your business and learning as you go, and truth be told, I think it’s the best way to go. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from anyone and never be ashamed to admit if you don’t know something. Your honesty and willingness to admit that you aren’t perfect is usually enough to convince people that you’re worth helping and that you have the drive to learn to be successful. Also remember that it’s okay to fail, and that any failing you do during start up is simply a learning experience for something which would have cost a lot of money if you had done it down the line when you’re rolling in it! Always look at failure as a way to learn something new and remember that you can’t improve without first failing – just don’t repeat the same mistake twice! And most importantly, if you have asked someone for advice, always use your own judgement on whether to trust them. Other people might well have more experience than you, and it’s unlikely that they’ll deliberately lead you astray, but some of the worst advice I’ve received whilst running Static Games has come from some of the most successful and higher up members of the industry. Industries are constantly changing and advancing, so you will never find someone who knows everything! Remember, it’s your company and you should do what you think is right for you. Good luck!

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The answers given by some of the bigger industry figures included, “You’d be surprised how quickly you get over the death threats,” and “I ignore forums these days – there are just too many people who attack developers without even considering the thoughts and efforts of the person who was trying to make an awesome game for them.” Fair and humorous answers, but I feel like they danced around the question a bit. Okay, if someone sends you a message to the tune, “You’re fat and I hate you,” they are indeed an arsehole and you should just ignore them and move on. But the proper kind of negative feedback – constructive criticism, should never be ignored! It is absolutely vital to the development process and frankly, it is much better than receiving a message of congratulations and thanks.

Negative Feedback Is More Useful Than Positive Feedback

We all want to hear how well we’ve done and get a pat on the back, but whilst motivating, positive feedback is normally fairly useless. How much can you really get from the words “good job” or “I like it”? Nobody likes people suggesting that they are wrong, that’s just human nature. But without someone correcting you or telling you when you do something badly, you can’t improve. I think it’s a universal principle, and I’m convinced that criticism is the key to getting things perfect.

How I Learned To Love Criticism

A few years ago I first started learning to code. Having never touched code before in my life, I set out on my journey with nothing more than a healthy interest in computers and a desire to make my own games. So after a few days of coding up a very simple blackjack game, I decided to proudly show it off to my friend and now colleague, Simon. Simon had been coding for many, many years at this point, and having taken 20 seconds to look at my code he could already rattle off a long list of changes which needed to be made. Obviously, this was a heartbreaking moment for me. I’d just made what I thought was a very cool and functional blackjack game and he had taken just 20 seconds before tearing it apart. All of my time, my effort and my hard work reduced to nothing in less than a minute. It sucked!

So why am I telling you this story? Well, what Simon offered me was constructive criticism. He looked at my code and congratulated me on completing my first game. He then explained how unoptimised it was and that it could run much faster if I used functions and arrays. He then showed me how to use an array and how to write a function and sent me on my way. The net result? My skills improved and my code became optimised, and years later I’ve been through the process so much that I can make a legitimate living as a programmer. Without Simon teaching me proper coding techniques a few years back, I would still be tomb-stoning my code. His criticism of my coding helped me to improve and to get better at what I do. It was useful, it taught me a lot and is still probably the best thing to happen to me as a programmer.

It also made me realise that you have to be prepared to accept criticism if you want to get better. It is a vital part of the improvement process – if no-one tells you something is wrong, you will continue to do things in your incorrect or inefficient manner. By listening to and working on the criticism people offer you, you stand to improve. Remember that it is important not to take criticism personally and just as important not to ignore it! If you take it personally, you’re going to make a lot of enemies, and if you ignore people giving you negative feedback, you’ll never improve and you’re setting up to fail.

Criticism Is Great, If It’s Constructive

So criticism is great, right? Well, yes – but only if you can learn from it! Criticism is only useful in the form of constructive criticism. If someone gives you negative feedback, they should be able to tell you what is wrong, why it is wrong and suggest a way to improve it. Going back to the story above, Simon explained that my code ran very slowly, he suggested that this was because it was completely unoptimised, and then he suggested a starting point to change my code so that it ran quicker. I think these three elements are vital to criticism, and that without them, the usefulness of the feedback begins to dwindle.

Obviously criticism in the form of insult is not helpful. In this instance, remember that opinions are like arseholes, and the worst arseholes voice the worst criticism. Similarly, posts of “I don’t like it” aren’t going to help you much. But both types of criticism have the potential to turn useful if you want them to! If you can spark a discussion with these people, you can often glean useful information from them and turn them into ardent supporters. If you can meet these people with responses such as, “I’m sorry to hear you don’t like our game. We would love to know what it is that you don’t like and if you have any ideas for how we can improve it, we’ll do our best to work on them!” Again, whilst the initial posts may not be useful, if you can turn the discussion into constructive criticism and gain the what, why and how, it can be immensely helpful! Again, just make sure you don’t go attacking people for insulting you. There’s no reason to lose reputation over one angry person!

Reasons Why You Should Love Criticism

So we’ve established that it’s hard to reach the top of your game if you’re surrounded by “yes men”, but what exactly is it that makes criticism so damn useful? Well, if someone wants to offer you criticism then they are trying to give you feedback. They want to see you improve something and they are invested enough in what you are doing that they want to make sure you create the best possible product. As a general rule (and there are exceptions), this tends to make them your target market – they are trying to make sure you deliver them what they want. Awesome! You can now learn more about your target market and how you can better satisfy their wants and needs. If you can get them to tell you what they are looking for it takes all of the guess work out of identifying problems and allows you to identify the perfect solution. You can now spend more time and resources on creating the perfect product. They are your market and you want to sell to them – listen to them and give them what they want!

Secondarily, without asking people and getting feedback, how do you know that what you are doing is good? This is why we do testing – trying a product with a user group and getting them to tell you what they don’t like is the best way to find out what needs to be improved and how you can make it better. This helps you to generate the best product and reaffirms that it is “good” (I.E. it matches the user’s requirements). By evaluating your work and recognising flaws or potential improvements, you ensure that you are heading in the right direction to deliver a better product over time!

I honestly believe criticism works out well for everybody, so as a game developer, I’ll conclude with a games example! Imagine that I make a really generic shooter. My audience don’t really like it, it reviews poorly because it could be more innovative, and it doesn’t sell well as a result. If I’m sending out beta copies and testing, I can hopefully get lots of critical feedback. If the game is poor, hopefully most of that feedback will be criticism and will direct me towards what people aren’t enjoying and how I can improve it. By receiving and working on this feedback I then have a chance to build a better, more innovative game which matches what my users wanted. In this way, the audience get the game they wanted and have more fun, I stand to review better and feel awesome about myself and my creation, and the game stands to sell better giving the publisher a better return on investment. Everybody benefits, right? Well, that’s just my viewpoint anyway… Or maybe I’m just a pessimist!

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