Level Up with Brandon Wu

Take a moment and watch this.

If you are using PlayMaker plugin for Unity3D and are struggling with touch input in your game built with mouse events, I made a FSM to convert touch input into mouse input in my project so that it will work on my Mac and iPhone at the same time. Just drop the prefab into your scene, or create a GameObject, add FSM, and paste the template in the .asset file.

Download link: http://ge.tt/57U7eII

Basically, when a user touches the screen (Touch Began), this FSM will send a MOUSE DOWN event to the object touched, and send a MOUSE UP event to the object touched when the user lifts his/her finger (Touch Ended).

What do you do when your taste is so much better than what you are producing?

"In an exclusive interview, Brandon Wu discusses changing his professional career from working at big-wig AAA companies to founding an indie studio that caters to a starving market niche." - Game Rant

My interview on Game Rant.

Brandon Wu Interview – From EA, To Sony, To Indie And Beyond!

"A little more than a year ago, I was working in the strategy division at the Sony headquarters in Tokyo, busy making financial forecasts for new ventures and evaluating business deals. I had a typical MBA job, working with spreadsheets, writing feasibility studies and business plans, and meeting with executives to discuss high level strategies for one of the largest consumer electronics company in the world. My job couldn’t be further away from what I am doing today.
Armed with an education only in Economics and Business, I had no experience with programming a game, creating 2D and 3D art assets, or making sound effects and music for games. Not to mention my lack of proper game design experience. In the beginning of 2010, when I quit my corporate job, I had nothing but a desire to make games, and an idea for the first title. Insane? Maybe, but at that point, I had already decided that, no matter what it took, that game had to be made. Here is the series of events that led to the birth of “Megan and the Giant.” "

Part one of my article on Gamesauce on getting started with the development of Megan and the Giant from scratch. The rest of the article here.

1/ What first made you start thinking about becoming an indie developer?

It was a result of two trends in the gaming industry:

First, in 2009, I noticed that the rise of social and mobile platforms (Facebook, iPhone) enabled games to reach an audience that didn't have an interest in games before. I've always believed that video games can be a medium capable of appealing to everyone, and I was excited to see these new platforms drawing more people into the game industry. 

Secondly, it was the growth and availability of development tools such as Unity, Shiva, Torque...etc. These tools lowered the barrier to entry for game development, especially for people who aren't seasoned programmers. I started playing with these tools in 2009 and was really excited whenever I saw something I made moving on screen. It was all very basic at this point, but it led me to think that maybe I can make games myself. 

I grew up with video games, and even after I stopped playing games, I still found the creative game industry fascinating with ever evolving technology and ideas. My passion for the game industry, my desire to make games for the non-gamers, combined with the tools and platforms available, were the major reasons why I started thinking about becoming an indie game developer. Or simply, I just wanted to make games that my non-gaming wife would play. :) 

Interviewed by Indie Game News. For the rest of the interview go here.

View In iTunes

• $0.99
• Category: Games
• Released: Feb 01, 2011
• Version: 1.0
• 1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
• Size: 46.4 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Studio Pepwuper, Inc
• © 2010 Studio Pepwuper, Inc

Rated 4+

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Megan and the Giant is finally out of the door! Woot!