Category: Game Development

Written by lcoombes89

Gamedev & My Stupid Confidence Problems

My self-confidence has never been great. Most of it came from not wanting to bother or annoy anyone. Consequently, I’ve always had trouble asking for help with things; not wanting to put anyone out or waste people’s time. As a young child I barely spoke. I have a distinct memory of my junior school head teacher giving me the nickname “The Ventriloquist” due to my tendency to mumble when put on the spot. In a roundabout way, game development has somehow ended up helping me a huge amount with this stupid problem.

Written by lcoombes89

Games & Science : A misspent youth

Before I’d even considered a job in games (beyond an idle daydream), I’d been a huge games fan. Since early childhood I’d spent most of my spare time playing games. It was how I relaxed, learned stuff, hung out with friends. My parents had to hide cables to stop me playing when I’d not seen the sun for too long. When I wasn’t playing games I was hanging around talking about them with other like-minded people who also didn’t like sports.

Written by lcoombes89

Making a horror game when you suck at horror games is… interesting

Almost a year ago I started work on a horror game. I suck at horror games. I can play for about half an hour of the first Dead Space game in one go before I need a dread break. I’ve had Alien Isolation since Christmas and I’ve got about 2 hours in because every time the alien kills me I rage-quit and have to go and calm down a bit. I played 1.5 hours of Amnesia over the course of an entire year. So you get the picture. Because I suck at them I don’t tend to play them very often, but weirdly I love the idea of playing them and am fascinated by them.

Written by lcoombes89

What I actually do as an Indie Game Developer

Don’t you just play all day?

This is the most common thing people ask me when I tell them what I do. My response to this is mixed. Firstly, as a typical self-deprecating British person who feels the need to instinctively defend “How hard I’ve got it” compared to everyone else, it’s actively difficult to admit that I actually enjoy my job and it isn’t that much of a grind. Eventually I’ll typically end up agreeing with whoever’s said this as it’s easier than explaining what I actually do every day…

Because the truth is actually yes, I do play all day…