If you’ve listened to Podcast #8 you know that I’ve got a few different projects in the slow-cooker — including game reviews, part 6 of MGS2: A Complete Breakdown, a new series of commentaries on the state of gaming, and possibly video content — and now I’ve added something else to the mix: game creation.

Using the free game creation engine Unity4, I’ve started learning programming and game creation.  I’ve already learned some coding through web design, Flash animation, and old Blizzard map editors, but this time I’ll be learning JavaScript.  This is not just a hobby or a distraction (although it could become both of those,) but a very practical form of research, getting my hands dirty with the nuts and bolts of game creation so that I can get better insight into the process, complications, and political reality of making something that does or doesn’t suck.  After one night, it’s already taught me a lot.

My game creation goal is to create a game shell (start menu, option interface, etc.) and a single activity, and hopefully not make it terrible.