Kobus de Villiers is a Software Programmer with more than four years of experience in implementing agile solutions using best of breed methodologies and engineering practices. He has more that ten years of experience in the software industry ranging from roles in testing, quality management, programming, and project management. Kobus has been a manager, supervising project teams and has worked as a member of a team on several projects. His experience in developing, implementing and executing project plans and analyzing problems enables him to be a valuable resource in any environment. He is currently unemployed and has taken this opportunity to start programming games for the Xbox 360 and Windows using the Microsoft XNA framework.

Kobus is the lead programmer for the games developed by GroundupGames and is also the person responsible for creating and maintaining this website, groundupgamesonline.com. His experience creating business applications in C# for the past few years has enabled him to easily step into the role of game programmer. The early games undertaken by GroundupGames was selected to enable Kobus and the rest of the team to slowly progress from simple game mechanics to more difficult ones with each new game selected for development.

With the first project well underway and close to publication, Kobus answers some questions regarding the industry where he now finds himself.

Q. What were your goals with Blox of Doom and why did you create it?

A Tetris like game represented a good opportunity to learn more about game development while not trying to undertake something that is too difficult. Tetris might seem like a very simple concept but it introduce many of the basic concepts that is still needed for more advanced games. The game play might be simplistic but you still need to understand how to identify the player, how to progress the player through the different screen menus.

The XNA framework makes some of these concepts easier to implement and provide the programmer with some building blocks that makes the development process less time consuming than creating everything from scratch. It still took me a while to get familiar with the framework and the art work is definitely not my area of expertise. In the end Blox of Doom was an easy enough challence to undertake while giving everybody an opportunity to learn and grow into our new roles.

Q. Where did you spend the most time in the making of Blox of Doom?

As I mentioned creating the art content is not my area of expertise so that definitely delayed me at times. However, I spent most of my time tinkering with the game mechanics and working with the general timing of the game. Everything needs to happen in a certain block of time and it was probably the most difficult concept to come to grips with for Blox of Doom. You have to redraw the block and handle any input from the user based on this block of time. At first I struggled to get the timing right and I tinkered a lot with the details even after getting the basic game mechanics in place.

Fortuantely the forums at the Creators Club for XNA is a very helpful place and I made use of the expertise and experience of other developers to help me where I got stuck. Each day I think of something else to tweak and adjust but there comes a time when it is best just to step back and let other players tell you where the programming and implementation needs additional adjustments.

Q. Where should someone start who is interested in learning how to program games?

I found the XNA framework to be an easy starting point and my knowledge of C# definitely had an influence in me decision. That said, what everybody seems to say is just start creating and programming games. That was directly responsible for my decision to start with Blox of Doom and create something that was not too difficult. It also put me in a position to take this knowledge and experience and hopefully transfer it to the games that we undertake next.

There are always questions about what is the best programming language and what is the best console or type of game. I don't think there would ever be a conclusive answer to these questions. For me the XNA framework presented a very good entry point and my experience in creating object oriented solutions is equally applicable to games. The sooner you start the sooner you will know if this is the industry for you and I'm looking forward to the next challenge.

Q. Do you enjoy collaborating on game projects?

it is great to have someone else to discuss the details with. The forums and tutorials are good places to learn what to do, but there is no substitute for conflicting and alternative ideas. We're not a big team but as soon as someone voices an idea the other one expand on the concepts and takes it even further. As you can see from the projects we're planning, most of these are in active discussions and I think it is key to having a solid game. We all bring different ideas to the table and we've been able to use these ideas to challenge ourselves to create something better than what can be produced by a single person.

I like games and I like to discuss games so it is always a benefit to have someone else on the team that shares my passion for games and forces me to think critically about my ideas and concepts. If a true games cannot understand the ideas, then it will probably be difficult to gain acceptance in the wider gaming community.

Q. What avenues are there for independent game developers to get an audience for their games?

I think the Xbox community games presents a great opportunity for budding game developers to get into the gaming industry. As the community continues to expand I would hope that greater exposure and acceptance can be gained. There are opportunities to better market these games and groundupgamesonline.com is an attempt to get some exposure for us and help to gain some additional exposure. Hopefully we'll be able to release Windows versions of our games on this website soon and thereby further expand our audience.

There are also some well established independent gaming sites and communities and I hope that we can work with those sites to expand the growing independent gaming community. There are also a number of blogs and podcast that review independent games and is trying to educate the gaming community on the best options for their entertainment time. Ultimately the better games will float to the top and the gaming community will start to identify with the game developers that can continually deliver new and fun alternatives to the AAA game studios.

Q. What is next for Kobus de Villiers and where would you like to be a few years from now?

One of the things I really would like to be is gainfully employed. For now I'm putting my energy into these games and website to try and contribute constructively to the independent gaming community. The future is unclear but if I can look back on a few successful games that brought pleasure and fun to the gaming community then it will all be worthwhile. We're living in a changing society and the independent game developer is as important to the future as other entrepreneurs in general. We bring alternatives that could push the envelope without being afraid that a failure will be a severe financial knock.