Doumou Gamer-tachi. Anan here.

First time at the helm for the newsletter. I am not much of an articulate writer, but I’ll try my best to put forth interesting stuff and ideas to share with you, our dear readers.

Table of Contents

• …But FIRST

  • Game Programming is Pretty Cracked Actually

• The NEWS From Last Week

• Game Reviews

…But FIRST

Game Programming is Pretty Cracked Actually

Last weekend (16th and 17th November) the Gamer Matters team attended a local games event Indie Jam 2024 organized by the fine folks at The Magic Rain. Alongside a showcase of South East Asia’s organic non-GMO free-range video games, we got to test out some game prototypes made by students for the event’s Student Game Jam.

A bit of personal background, I work as a software developer for my day job. Just a normal business software developer, some complexity in business logic here and there but nothing too difficult. Being a gamer from a wee lad to now an adult plying my trade, going on my own game development journey has always been in the back of my mind, especially when looking at these young talents honing their craft.

“Codice, ergo gamedev”.

Taking inspiration from Descartes first principle, I propose that line as the famous first thought of any non-game coders trying to transition to game programming. ”I code, therefore I gamedev”. Let me give a reality check for you software devs out there. Game programmers are a whole different breed, especially indies.

Where to start? Manipulating objects to move within a coordinate space be it 2D, 3D or God forbid, 4D (shout out to 4D Miner). The gazillion or so objects each have their own interaction logic like for collision and such. Oh, you want networked multiplayer? Stack some networking layer on top and make sure all players’ game state are synced within milliseconds. Flying ship in 6DOF? Make sure to implement quaternion for rotation logic else it WILL gimbal lock. Bounce in some custom soft-body physics because the breasts need to hang and sway just right.

But of course, I am exaggerating a bit here. You don’t have to do all those. Modern game engines/editors will do the heavy lifting for most of the common stuff. Load some templates and customize as you see fit. Maybe your game is just a visual novel about Sultan Mahmud and Puteri Gunung Ledang. More power to the makers. But this is YOUR game, YOUR world, YOUR way. Nothing less for a magnum opus.

Analogous to business software programming, its the customization that turns the difficulty dial to 11. The indie game spirit is producing the different. Not cookie cutter triple-As. Experimental and reality-bending games like non-Euclidean Antichamber and forced perspective Superliminal will never exist if it’s up to the bean-counters of AAA publishers. They want more CODs, more NBA2Ks, more money.

My suggestion is to go ahead and dive in to game development dear software devs. The discipline will make you a better programmer overall as you apply the advanced software development concepts and make it second nature. For the game programmers out there, be proud of the skills you honed in the venture. If all else fails, you can always find opportunity in the business software space and be the 10X, 100X developer everyone else dreams of becoming.

In the meantime, let’s all celebrate the local game development talents especially here in Malaysia. Not just sharing knowledge, expertise and exposure; funding is just as important to support the local games industry. Maybe the T0.1% of Malaysia can funnel some money to these folks rather than their 10th Belgravia Kuala London property.

Peace out Gamer-tachi. Until next time…

The NEWS From Last Week

It is time, for the news!

• Straight from Metronomik’s Wan Hazmer himself: No Straight Roads tally 500,000+ players, mostly from Barat?

• Overwatch 2 Classic Mode limited event with 6v6 and No Limits introduced. So the 5v5 in sequel is not exactly well-received I guess?

• The good ‘ol folks at Good Old Games (GOG) announced GOG Preservation Program to ensure old PC games will still be playable even for future PCs.

Game Reviews

Following up on the impression article, here is the full review of Lego Horizon Adventures by our editor-in-chief Meckronos.

Expect a few more game reviews as we approach end of the year for Gamer Matters GOTY.

That’s the roundup for the week folks. Check out the Gamer Matter website for all news and happenings by clicking the button

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Play games and have fun,

—Anan and the Gamer Matters Team