Wow.

benheath85 · Post by **benheath85** » October 15th, 2004, 4:02 am

How's everyone doing? I've come back to this game after a while (I'm not sure how long ago it was when I first played it), and you guys have got the goods! The graphics are very good, and the music... is beautiful. (When did you add that? It's great!) This is my first time posting in these forums, and I really had to complement you on your efforts.

I'm on a few forums around town but I'll introduce myself anyway. I'm a 19-or-20-yr-old programmer named Ben Heath (depending on when you read this). Currently, I'm in community college (I'm not going to lie and make it sound like I'm at Harvard; screw that) and in my free time from work and school, I'm setting up to produce my first computer game.

I just wanted to complement you on your works, and I will give a dollar to the first person who can tell me where the one-liner in my sig came from. Agape! =P

Burnsaber · Post by **Burnsaber** » October 15th, 2004, 4:22 am

Welcome to the forums! Watch out for Miyo and Turin, they bite!(naah, not seriosly). You wrote about how you are going code your first game, you might want to read this http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3294. On that link Dave wrote how he got Wesnoth standing on its own feet.

benheath85 · Post by **benheath85** » October 15th, 2004, 5:01 am

Hey, thanks man. Never seen the term FLOSS before but it's obviously something about Open Source or Free Software, so I got the idea.

Yeah, every game maker comes to that one point and it's frustrating, to say the least. But like a lot of people who got into this field, I don't think there was ever a day when I wasn't thinking something up. Even at infancy. But you live and you learn and you move on. I personally have found, like you probably have as well as Dave and everyone else who makes that big step, that it really shouldn't be that big. Sun-Tzu spoke of molding and honing soldiers until they were perfectly round, invincible. At first, they are rigid and without shape, but when they are worked into this state, it takes only a nudge to get them rolling, and with tremendous force. But you have to work them.

Creative work of any sort really isn't that different. For inspiration, I don't turn to the latest and greatest games and books these days because they make it seem that way. They lie to you, because you have to start small. In my draft treatment for my game, which just a musical Pinball, I repeatedly call the game "little". It's a hummingbird right now: Its heart beats very fast, its appearance is very cute, but with time, it has to calm down.

The game will be forceably GPL'ed anyway due to the engine I'm using, so hopefully I'll get a website going for myself and develop this game online, as Free Software. You can get more help that way, I guess. :)

BTW: This is my inspiration right now.