Last Online: 7/17/08
Brian Colin
Game Designer, Cartoonist, Filmmaker, Avid Camper, Rabid Hiker, Devoted Husband, Demented Father... Resistant to Change in Any Form.
Game ideas invite questions, game designs answer questions.
| Game | What I Did | Difficulty of Development | Anecdote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Concept, Design and Development, Art and animation. | Not Bad | In many ways, the squad-based gameplay, considered by some to be the world's First RTS on amphetamines, was a natural extension of the gameplay in our two previous arcade games: Arch Rivals and Pigskin. This was the first game we developed after leaving a long and successful term as In-House designers for Bally Midway. We said our goodbyes, went to EA in California, and sprung the concept on them. (We had been talking to EA for some months, but we refused to let them know any details until we had actually left Bally Midway) The 24 hour period between leaving a safe cushy job at one of the industry's biggest companies and signing as an independent with EA was one of the most exciting, and stressful, periods of our lives. --- Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman (Game Refuge) | |
| Game Design, Lead Artist | Not Bad | Back in the day, the cash-box was king. PIGSKIN started out breaking all previous weekly earning records, and then, every now and again, a location would report dismal earnings, and then it would shoot right back to the top of the charts again. Arcade owners were concerned... The Problem? Two days before we went into production I asked the programmer to introduce a pre-pay bonus that somehow introduced a bug... a bug that let anyone play for free until the game was powered down!!! We fixed the bug, but the damage was done, and PIGSKIN never got the operator acceptance that Rampage or Arch Rivals did... MORAL? Never, NEVER EVER add something to a game right before production; no matter how trivial it may seem. | |
| Game Design, Lead Artist | Not Bad | A competitor bought Bally Midway during the creation of this game, and Jeff and I were the only two Video game designers they kept on... which was good for them, as it turned out, because sales of the game paid for the entire multi-million dollar buy-out. Considered by many to be the Father of all modern Basketball Games... Arch Rivals pioneered the multi- character gameplay mechanic that is the basis for most sports games to follow. | |
| Game Designer, Art Director | Average | We were visiting the studio, snooping around where we shouldn't be, and we were suddenly confronted by an annoyed-looking, cigar-chomping Levar Burton who demanded to know what we were doing on his closed set! I was uncharacteristically dumbstruck. Fortunately, the game's lead animator, Ben Naumann, (a HUGE Trekkie) was with me and he exclaimed, "Levar Burton! You directed the absolute best STV episode ever! I'll never forget blah de blah blah blahhhh....." Levar was both pleased and appeased, I told him who we were and everyone got along just fine till I somehow managed to frighten Dennis Hopper in the commissary; but thats another story. | |
| Artist, animator, Game designer | Not Bad | It was fun coming up with primary and even secondary uses for literally dozens of items laying around the space stations. At the time, the only games that made use of items in this manner were text-adventure games. Also, the cabinet designer, John Kubik, designed what I still believe is the neatest Arcade Cabinet ever made. | |
| Game Design, Lead Artist | Not Bad | Lot of fun to develop this one! Our new company was less than three years old and everyone was full of enthusiasm and optimism. Wonderful experience from start to finish. I believe that there are a couple of YouTube movies out there that feature some development "home Movies"... I'll find the links and update this shortly. | |
| Game Designer, Lead artist | Average | Unlike most of our games, which start with a manufacturer or publisher coming to us... this game is the result of an in-house "game-play experiment" that turned out to be so much fun we just couldn't leave it alone. Developing this game was easily the most fun I've ever had developing a game. Which is saying a lot, since I've designed over 40 Video Arcade, Console, Redemption, PC and Slot Games... going all the way back to 1982. But surprisingly, launching it as an "INDY" has been much more frustrating than I ever would have guessed. Typically, the manufacturer(s) are responsible for marketing our games... But since this game was a totally in-house experement, I was totally unprepared for releasing the game through independent channels. Still, it's been a blast; and a real learning process, to boot! |
