Partner Wanted

I'm looking for a partner for my big idea. Read about it here.

I'm interested in a 50-50 partnership, and ideally the division of labor would be as follows:

• Me:
• Programming
• Partner:
• Administrative work (taxes and other paperwork)
• Shared
• Teaching
• Doing art with kids
• Constructing the arcade cabinet with kids
• Making sales pitches to schools
• Everything else

My ideal business partner would have education experience and a passion for innovation. No programming experience is necessary, but comfort with computers goes a long way. Being detail oriented is also a plus.

I would like to launch this business in New England, so if you live in the area and are interested, please email me at fegleynick (at) gmail (dot) com.

My Big Idea Pt.2

The Game

I substitute teach at a K-8 school, and for the last few months, I have been making a video game with the help of the art teacher and all her students. You can play it here. It's a work in progress, and at the time of my writing this, there are about 12 completed levels.

The kids come up with level themes and do some level design, and then the art teacher sends me their work and some instructions. I do some a lot of programming, and in the end each class gets their own level.

A sprite sheet for one of the levels

The kids then have the opportunity to send me feedback through the menu on the left of the game screen. And they do. A lot. Feedback is varied, and I include some of it here because it makes me smile:

The whole game was really cool, but when I got to the end, where the blue castle/tower is, I had no idea what to do!!!

maybe you should make the boats a little faster

This is really hard but really cool. I like the effects. Something you could work on is putting more features in.

i really likes the game! i just wish that when u get to the end of the level there is somethnh like that say congradulations or somethings

These are just some of the emails that students have sent me through the feedback form.  It's exciting to see students invested in a project.

The Machine

When I'm not working on the game, I'm working on my arcade machine:

My scratch-built, fully function prototype

This is just a prototype, so it's pretty ugly, but it's fully functional. The monitor is just an old (barely functional) CRT TV because it looks a whole lot better than an HD monitor.

The version in the picture is running off of a Raspberry Pi, but I recently switched to a Beelink Pocket. There's also an Arduino Micro in there that converts button and joystick presses into keyboard input.

The board I made to connect the Arduino with the computer.

 The Big Idea

What I would like to do is build arcade games with students professionally. Everything I've done to date has been for fun, but I don't have the time and financial stability to continue much longer without monetizing in some way.

I'm envisioning an artists in residence program that pushes into a school for a week. During that time, students would break into groups and each group would be responsible for some part of the game development:

• Story and Level Design
• In-game Art
• Digital Image Editing
• Cabinet Construction
• Wiring and Soldering
• Cabinet Art
• Sound Design

No one student will learn the whole process, but together the students will construct an arcade cabinet that they could play in the cafeteria/library/art room for years to come.

This is an ambitious project, but I believe that it has the opportunity to really change how students view themselves and the games they play.

Also, I'm looking for a partner.

Read where this idea came from in part one of this post.

My Big Idea Pt. 1

Mortal Kombat II

About four years ago I was working as a bartender in a small restaurant/resort. The owner had a few dated arcade games that I'd sometimes play after work. One day he came to me and offered to give me a broken Mortal Kombat II game, and I loaded it on a trailer, and transported it to my parents' garage.

MK II in my parents' garage.

Upon getting it home, the first thing I did was open it up and look inside.

It was amazing.

Before opening the machine, I had always assumed arcade games ran on magic. The act of opening it was one of the most empowering things I've done. Seeing how the wires connected, and realizing that I could (with some time and money) make my own, made me feel powerful. Games weren't magic, they were technology, and I could control that. I felt as though I had been let in on some cosmic secret, and I knew in that moment I would stop at nothing give others the same experience.

A couple of months later, I didn't have enough money to make some repairs on my car, and I reluctantly sold the MK II machine. I almost entirely forgot about the whole thing.

Time Runs Out

Three years later. I was working as a substitute teacher (I still am) and I ended up in a fourth grade classroom. I saw a student drawing a picture, and I asked him if he could draw me a picture. The next week he gave me this masterpiece:

Time Runs Out

I knew that this picture wanted to be a video game more than anything, and that weekend I went home and made it one. You can play it here. It was one of my first attempts at writing a game in JavaScript, and looking back there's a lot I could do to improve it, but I still think it came out ok.

The next week I showed the student the game. He was ecstatic. I watched him play a game that he made, and saw a look on his face that reminded me of the time I opened the MK II game. For him, video games were just this little pocket of magic the existed on the internet or on an X-Box, but in that moment they became something he could do. He was empowered. It was awesome.

And so began my big idea.

My Big Idea Pt. 2. In which I explain my big idea and the progress I have made.