Circuit Hive

Developer's Blog

Almost There

Posted on March 14th, 2018 by Peter Robinson

I just finished reading my previous post from a year ago. It’s a little depressing to know how much more I really needed to do to cross the finish line. Like watching a movie where you know something bad is about to happen to the main character, but you can’t warn them. It was true, a year ago, the game seemed very close to done, but there were things – major things – left on my to-do list. Today it’s a different story. The game is done.

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So It Begins!

Posted on May 10th, 2017 by Peter Robinson

It has been over a year since my last blog post, and admittedly, I could have sailed around the world in that time. However, I was busy trying to accomplish something much more difficult: completing Pirate Code! At this moment, it remains unfinished and unpublished, but I’ve decided to break radio silence and start the process of showing some of the awesome features that have made their way into Pirate Code. Here we go!

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3 Gates to Indie Game Success

Posted on April 30th, 2015 by Peter Robinson

I’ve struggled with how much time I should dedicate to marketing versus actual game development. The problem is always time. Even with large teams, there just isn’t enough time to do everything. So to help myself, I broke down the process of selling a game into three tests that a game must pass in order to sell. If you’re an indie game developer, I hope you’ll find them useful as well.

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5 Tricks to Help You Finish Your Indie Game

Posted on March 1st, 2015 by Peter Robinson

Building an entire game can be a daunting task for a small group of developers. You don’t have to work on your game for very long before you realize that you’re in over your head. Most indie developers quit at this point – typically to pursue a new game idea. Stubborn developers press on…

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How to Make Awesome Water for a 2D Game

Posted on September 16th, 2014 by Peter Robinson

Three months ago, we decided to upgrade the graphics in Pirate Code. Since we’re an indie game developer, we needed to get the most benefit out of the time we spent on graphics. Time is our most precious resource. We determined that the elements that appeared the most in the game – and more importantly, in the screenshots – mattered the most. Since Pirate Code happens in an ocean, water matters most.

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Graphics Are Everything

Posted on May 22nd, 2014 by Peter Robinson

When I was younger I vehemently held to the idea that graphics don’t matter. A game should be judged by its game play, which was defined in my mind as some combination of game mechanics and raw fun. But I was wrong. The reality is that graphics DO matter.

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Ship Design: The Clockwork Guppy

Posted on January 5th, 2014 by Eli Ramos

You may think that working on the 3D art in a game is the most enjoyable part of the game making process – and, well – you’d be right. Still, creating 3D art assets presents a special set of challenges. During the development of Pirate Code, my responsibility was to design 3D models of the ships in the game. Although I realize I’m not the best 3D artist in the world, I hope to share some of the challenges I experienced during the process of designing and creating these ships in 3D.

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