Comments on: Gunpoint Development Breakdown

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:17:39 +0000

This is a very insightful post, thanks so much! Can you talk a bit about how you “split revenue according to the size of [everyone’s] contributions?”

Was it something you agreed upon ahead of time? How did you assign an objective measurement like proportion of the whole to something subjective like artwork, or effort?

By: Things to Think About Before Becoming an Indie Dev

Things to Think About Before Becoming an Indie Dev — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:28:56 +0000

[…] Francis’ Developer Blog, I found this Gunpoint Development Breakdown post particularly […]

By: Writing Things More Gud. | BONGOLUDO

Writing Things More Gud. | BONGOLUDO — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 23:51:35 +0000

[…] Tom Francis also wrote what I thought was the best inadvertent game design CV cover letter I’ve ever seen: a suggested re-write of Bioshock’s ending. Notice how it only uses assets and gameplay mechanisms in the rest of the game. He also made the excellent Gunpoint, the development of which he blogged about with insight and wit here. […]

By: What I’m Working On And What I’ve Done - a post on Tom Francis' blog

What I’m Working On And What I’ve Done - a post on Tom Francis' blog — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:55:25 +0000

[…] Gunpoint Development Breakdown […]

By: How to get into the games industry – an insiders' guide | Digital News Daily CA

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 21:25:49 +0000

[…] my own horn and plug my own YouTube vid about making your first game. I’d read Tom Francis’ blog about making Gunpoint from start to finish and watched his talk from Minecon last year – he has some really interesting […]

By: Edubabble – How to get into the games industry – an insiders’ guide

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:53:00 +0000

[…] horn and plug my own YouTube vid about making your first game. I’d read Tom Francis’ blog about making Gunpoint from start to finish and watched his talk from Minecon last year – he has some really […]

By: How to get into the games industry – an insiders’ guide | Soviders Tech

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:14:14 +0000

By: The 2013 Grimmys: Indie Developer of the Year | Horrible Night - Never enough time in the day for video games

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 23:25:45 +0000

[…] Developments work on Gunpoint is – inspirational. Thankfully, he has even provided a breakdown of his development process for the game. Gunpoint is just about as tight as puzzle platformers come and the writing pulled us into the […]

By: Vladimir Dreval

Vladimir Dreval — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:35:35 +0000

Hi, Tom!

Thanks for the great game and all the writing you do here and elsewhere.

I’d love to translate Gunpoint into Russian. Can we discuss this?

Cheers,

Vlad

By: Laurent Moulet

Laurent Moulet — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:39:18 +0000

Hi,
Can you tell us which sound library you used, and why did you go for this one in particular ? I guess it must have been free of most probably that it was owned by one of the composers of the game since you don’t count it in the expenses you made for the game ?
Thx for all the useful info !

By: JP

JP — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:12:44 +0000

It’s really cool that you wrote all this up, I’m sure many others besides me appreciate you doing it.

Regarding promotion, I think it’s worth stating clearly in those sections that you were a veteran game journalist and had spent years prior building up contacts and gaining peoples’ respect before your Youtube video blew up and got the game noticed. Most of the people reading this won’t have that network of (in some cases high profile) industry folks to help spread something cool early on; they’re starting from nothing, trying to get anyone at all interested in their stuff. The barriers to entry are lowering all the time, but it’s worth acknowledging the position one is starting from.

Again, thank you for writing this. Nice work on the game, I am so happy for your success and can’t wait to see what you do next!

By: simplex3

simplex3 — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:20:11 +0000

It’s a great game! It’s worth to pay for!
You really did a great job!
Thanks for the game and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

By: Andrew Osthoff

Andrew Osthoff — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 03:58:45 +0000

It’s really encouraging to hear your thoughts on being a first time developer. The only part that wasn’t a joy was when you talked about writing the story, because holy crap the writing in Gunpoint is great. So basically whenever you talk about the writing impairing game development instead of making it better, I put my fingers in my ears and hummed.
Thanks for sharing, thanks for the game!

By: Brandon Captain

Brandon Captain — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 18:57:20 +0000

Thanks for the insight. I’m working on my first serious non-mod title and I’ve definitely learned a few pointers here.

By: JimS

JimS — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:19:38 +0000

Thanks for this; your transparency and attitude should be nothing but an encouragement to people: I know it has been to me. Anything is possible with a bit of dedication!

By: Hello world! | Relevant Development

Hello world! | Relevant Development — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 19:07:07 +0000

[…] we’ve been working on a prototype game for a few months now and after reading the development breakdown of the lovely Tom Francis‘ game, Gunpoint, I thought maybe it’d be worth posting some […]

By: Colm

Colm — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 14:14:27 +0000

Lots of great info here, cheers for sharing. Found the Work Ethic & Testing sections particularly interesting!

By: Jon Drobny

Jon Drobny — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:49:42 +0000

You know, I’ve thought at times that if I hadn’t just spent years and huge piles of money studying Physics, I’d be pulling a Tom and making an awesome game instead of pulling out my hair trying to get into grad school. Realistically though, I don’t think I would have what it takes to take a leap and go through with something as huge as Gunpoint, not to mention my total lack of ability and experience when it comes to videogames. Everything aside, thanks for making Gunpoint and even more so for sharing your experience – it’s been a blast just watching your success from the sidelines.

By: Antan

Antan — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:38:42 +0000

What’s your work ethic now that you’re your own boss?

By: Fjonan

Fjonan — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 08:52:03 +0000

Thank you, Tom, thank you so much. This inspires and motivates me quite a lot. Sometimes it needs to be written out plain and simple. I am using Redmine, a system that integrates version management, ticket system and a wiki into one system and it is extremely helpful for these kind of projects.

By: Nick Cummings

Nick Cummings — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 22:44:04 +0000

This is really useful stuff. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, process, candid opinions, and so on. As someone who’s working at being a better independent game maker, this post has been really valuable to reference. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

By: Paul Kankiewicz

Paul Kankiewicz — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 20:29:20 +0000

My brother linked me to this site about four hours ago, and I haven’t been able to leave! Your stuff is brilliant! Thanks for all of the posts! I especially like the stuff on how to be happy and about Gunpoint. I guess I’m going to have to buy Gunpoint now :)

By: Naveen

Naveen — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 20:07:53 +0000

Great writeup. I read it whilst listening to the Gunpoint soundtrack. Brought back memories :). Also Gunpoint is probably the funniest game I’ve played. Moreso than the usual nominees on a funny list – Portal, Monkey Island, Borderlands 2.

By: Diego

Diego — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 20:03:50 +0000

Thanks for sharing this :)
I’m having that problem with pixel art. It does simplify creation of art assets but on the other hand it creates resolution/size problems.

I look forward to the “getting a team” part!

By: Beat

Beat — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:34:50 +0000

Don’t feel guilty! I remember people here in the comments section of your blog *begging* you to take money for the game. Your discussed maybe giving it away.

Blame us!!! :-D

By: ben

ben — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 17:52:16 +0000

This is great! Thanks so much for sharing!