When I was a kid I had this dream of having my own games studio called “Orange Drake Games”. So when I had to come up with a name for my company (to fill it in Unity, I don’t actually have a company), I didn’t have to think about it. When I came up with the name I had this idea that a drake was not just a term that was used for a dragon, but also one used for a male swan. I really liked the idea of a swan-like dragon for whatever reason. I have no idea as to why this dragon should be orange though - I have no real fondness for orange (in fact I find that it is a difficult colour to work with) and the main character in the story I was writing at the time was Aurelius, a gold dragon. Either way the name has stuck in my heart, even though a drake is actually a male duck and not a swan. Since I found this out I can’t help but think of the ugly duckling, except in reverse. Here I thought that I had an elegant swan and it turned into a duck. Then again every day I see ducks on my morning walk and I will admit that I find them quite endearing so maybe it isn’t so bad. So why am I talking about nomenclature? Well I recently applied to get a spot in the indie game room at Adelaide’s AVCON and I was successful. I also managed to delete the email notifying me of the fact in a feat of absolute elegance. My fumble made me think of the comparison between ducks and swans. 

You often want to think of yourself as a beautiful, elegant and majestic swan, especially when you are successful. Most of the time though you remember that you are just you. That isn’t a bad thing of course, because in the end it was the real you who achieved everything that you achieved and not an idealistic swan version of yourself. In fact I think it is best to try to forget about this version of yourself. I had been told that I should start a blog earlier or expand my online presence in some way. I ended up really hung about the correct or most effective way to do so and didn’t do it. Instead I was dissatisfied that no one would ever play my game and it would require me to surrender something to try to go onto platforms I dislike. Except of course really all I wanted was a few people to take interest in something I made. I’d love to sell millions of copies but… Even having one or two people come up to me at a playback session of the local game developers community or having some people come past my booth at AVCON will fulfil my dream just as much. More than that, how can you sell a million copies if you can’t even draw a passerby to look at your game?

I am sure I have said enough already but I will end on a list of the various glitches I found while demoing my game in the last week:

• Can’t sell items.
• Many characters can equip balance abilities, but only Praelectus, Queen Asteria and Emilia should be able to.
• Health bars clip into archer’s Bycocket.
• Enemies on random maps have no abilities equipped.
• A wall in the final level jade fortress is incorrectly rotated.
• Merchants are partially disolved
• Cannot switch to movement skill if friendly target ability is equipped

So has test driven development brought a new era of prosperity? I’d say so, but I think I just need to add some more tests into the game! It looks like the splash screen for specials might have to wait a bit longer.

So long (and thanks for all the fish)