Gamify Yourself – Part 1: Introduction

The ultimate way to brand yourself: Gamify yourself! There is a lot of time, energy and skills involved, but it is worth it! What is cooler than showing what your strengths are in a game? Say goodbye to writing application letters!

[swfobj src=”https://edwardkobus.eu/wp-content/uploads/TheAmazingWorldOfEdwardKobusBeta003.swf” width=”608″ height=”468″ allowfullscreen=”false” required_player_version=”9″]
Click on the game with your mouse, then move around with the arrow keys

Creating a game; It’s fun!

Above you can see my latest effort to create a game starring myself. I started it in 2007. Due to lack of time and the founding of a music blog, I had no time to develop it. Until I saw the game this year on my hard disk.
I became excited and now I put a lot of free time in it. Because if there’s anything more fun than playing a game, it’s creating a game!

Not finished
The game as you see on this page (if you have a flash player) is not nearly finished, which in this case is not so bad. It is a good starting point for anyone who wants to built a game with theirselfs (or their clients) as the main subject.

Insight
There are several important aspects for the development, all of which I want to discuss on this blog. Think of story telling (and how to translate that into a game), functional design, graphic design, animation, sound (music) and the final construction of the game.

Do not think of these articles as tutorials. Consider them useful documentation, giving you insights into the matter that -eventually- will make you outrageously rich!

The game so far

In the game you see me walking (and jumping) through a fictional city (inspired by the city of Leeuwarden in the 30s) where I have tried to grasp the atmosphere of the paintings of Carel Willink, a famous Dutch painter. I take a great example of his craftsmanship and ability to create so much atmosphere in an image.

Beautiful things work better!
I have spent a lot of time drawing the different objects in the game (houses, lampposts etc). I follow a strict law: Beautiful things work better. Because I follow a strict law: Beautiful things work better! This compensates posible technical shortcomings. Apple does it the same way!

I have designed and programmed the platform game in Flash using ActionScript 3.0. But regardless of which program you choose, the principle of the game is still often the same.I’m somewhat skilled in that code, but nevertheless found it very convenient to make use of a very good series of tutorials.

Challenge
The challenge I now stand for, is coming up with a good idea for a story. Afterall, I want to present myself as a creative multimedia specialist with a passion for music. Now you wonder how I wrap all of that in a pre-war world? Wait and see. To be continued…

Other articles on gamifying yourself:

– Part 2: What’s Your Story?
– Part 3: Functional Design

Tags: gamification, personal branding
Geplaatst op: november 9, 2012