In the Beginning

After working in the games industry for fifteen years, I’d become tired of the treadmill, the corporate environment, the clichés, the licences, and indeed, the apathy and blandness that seemed to pervade most corners of the industry at the time. Looking for new avenues and fresh pastures, in 2004 I formed a new company, Scary Fish Ltd.

In August of that year I began learning the Blitz+ programming language, the aim being to produce a PC version of a classic Commodore 64 favorite of mine. I needed to re-invent my love of games from the inside-out, and this seemed like the best way forward; I would have complete control over every aspect of the project, and the ability to dictate exactly when the project should be released. The indie scene is increasingly overlooked by the industry it once spawned. I guess I just wanted to redress the balance.

Author Andy Roberts

During the research phase, it rapidly became clear that I'd need a map editor of sorts to put the levels together. However, having spent days scouring the internet for likely candidates it became clear that there wasn’t a single worthy contender. Ironically, the community forums were full of would-be programmers who’d also started writing their own editor, but most were only half-finished and thus fell woefully short of the mark.

It became apparent that the next generation of bedroom coders all went through the same process, that of re-inventing the wheel, creating half-baked editors instead of their magnum opus. The ratio of programmers versus the number of games being produced was (and still is) completely unbalanced, and the toolsets on offer to 2D game developers are exceedingly thin on the ground.

My motivation was therefore two-pronged; I could produce a comprehensive map editor so that the indie community could focus on making their games, and during the process I could learn the Blitz+ language, an invaluable primer for the skills I’d need to produce my up-and-coming game.

Plus, I’d never worked on a Windows application or an editor before. “Hey, this could be fun,” I thought, blissfully unaware of the nightmare/adventure that lay ahead. And thus I began working on "FishEd".

Research, Research, Research

The first phase of the project involved researching the competition. Plenty of editors existed for putting together Game Boy maps and tilesets, and these were often some of the best of the bunch. They were, however, completely redundant for anything other than Game Boy development.

I paid particularly close attention to Open tUME (http://members.aol.com/opentume/), particularly as I’d used the program on previous projects and it seemed exhaustive in its list of options and features, and I also rounded up every single map and tile editor I could find. The aim was not to leech ideas, more to find out what was lacking. My biggest inspirations, however, would turn out to be Photoshop and my old favourite, Deluxe Paint. The emphasis here would be on an intuitive, user-friendly experience. I wanted an artist-friendly editor, not a programmer-centric tool.

What emerged after over a year and a half of part-time programming was something I’m immensely proud of. Towards the end of the project, FishEd became a lesson in the importance of dedication and perseverance when tackling even the smallest of projects, and it’s fair to say that completing the project, at times, became more important than the actual end result.