Amiga Format CD 29/amigaformatcd29.iso/-readerstuff-/nick_anderson/articles/others-pt1/why-bother

Text File | 1998-06-02 | 3.6 KB | 78 lines

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Is it really worth writing an Amiga game these days?

It's a question many people ask, but there are a lot of programmers out
there who have lots of great ideas for new and exciting Amiga games, but
are wondering "is it worth the hassle" and more importantly "can I get
a publisher".

The latter question is the most prominent concern for programmers.  Most
game publishers shun the Amiga like a ZX Spectrum, but there isn't any reason
why they should treat it so harshly really.  Alright, the Amiga has been
out of production for a few years, and many publishers have said that they
will be coming back to the Amiga when it returns back to high street stores
and sales take off again (hopefully next year as now).

Shocking though it may sound to some people, it is official that the Amiga
games market is slightly larger than the Apple Macintosh market.  The
few Amiga games we see in high street shops usually sell very well, as do
mail order games.  There are still a hell of a lot of Amiga games out there.

So if you have a good idea for an Amiga game, what should you do?  Firstly
try contacting a company such as "Click Boom" who may be able to offer
you some help with your ideas, whether you want to program the game yourself,
or you just have some ideas for a great new game.

But what type of games are Amiga users playing these days?  Well don't
worry about sticking to the old "basic A1200 2 megabyte" set-up, most
Amiga owners these days have at least 6 Megs of RAM, and a hard disk, and
many have CD-ROM drives.  Give the game space to breathe, make it hard
disk only installable, make it use as much RAM as it needs, but don't
turn into a PC programmer.  PC programmers are notoriously lazy, and don't
bother using any compression, or tidying up of their programs, they just
use pocket-loads of memory to run the program in.

Amiga gamesters are really the same as they have always been.  Most of us
have not been affected by the current rage in the rest of the computer
world. That is 3D this, 3D that, "oh graphics make a game!".  Amiga owners
prefer good gameplay over graphics any day.  But do try to make the games'
graphics as nice as you can, they do add to the atmosphere of a game, but
don't turn into a Playstation programmer and just slap some nice rendered
graphics together and call it a game.

Games that have been immensly successful on the Amiga are adventure games.
The Amiga has quite a shortage of "Monkey Island" type games, and every one
loves them, so it's a bit odd why there aren't more.  I personally would
love to see another game like Monkey Island 1 or 2, they're really fun to
play, and don't need a powerful machine to run on.

Shoot 'em ups have really seen their day, and unless you offer something
totally new and original, the majority of gameplayers aren't going to get
too excited about it.

Doom style games have been done to death, but with twists they can still be
fun.  Game playing is all about putting yourself into the character you are
playing, and this type of "wander around" game is the perfect way to let
the player be the games' character.

The Amiga games scene is picking up as people are preparing for the Amiga's
3rd generation, so why not get those game plans in now, in a years time, if
all goes to plan, there'll be a lot of competition when the Amiga gets
back on it's feet.  So if you get in there now, while things are relatively
quiet, you may stand a better chance.

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