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The Discovery of Muscovy by Richard Hakluyt is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Copy of the Duke of Muscovy and Emperor or Russia his Letters, sent to King Edward VI., by the hands of Richard Chanceler. The Copy of the Duke of Muscovy and Emperor or Russia his Letters, sent to King Edward VI., by the hands of Richard Chanceler. “The almighty power of God, and the incomprehensible Holy Trinity, rightful Christian belief, etc.  We, great Duke Ivan Vasilivich, by the grace of God Emperor of all Russia, and great Duke of Vladermerskij, Moskowskij, Novogrodskij, Cazanskii, Pskanskii, Smolenskii, Tuerskij, Hugorskij, Permskii, Veatskii, Bolgarskii, with divers other lands, Emperor also and great Duke of Novogoroda, and in the low countries of Chernigouskii, Rezanskii, Volotskii, Refskii, Belskii, Rostouskii, Yaroslavskii; Belocherskii, Oodorskii, Obdorskii, Codinskii, and many other countries, lord over all the north coast, greeting. “Before all right great and worthy of honour Edward, King of England, &c., according to our most hearty and good zeal, with good intent and friendly desire, and according to our holy Christian Faith and great governance, and being in the light of great understanding, our answer by this our honourable writing unto your kingly governance, at the request of your faithful servant Richard Chanceler, with his company, as they shall let you wisely know, is thus.  In the strength of the twentieth year of our governance, be it known, that at our sea coasts arrived a ship, with one Richard and his company, and said, that he was desirous to come into our dominions, and according to his request hath seen our Majesty and our eyes; and hath declared unto us your Majesty’s desire as that we should grant unto your subjects, to go and come, and in our dominions, and among our subjects to frequent free marts, with all sorts of merchandises, and upon the same to have wares for their return.  And they have also delivered us your letters which declare the same request.  And hereupon we have given order, that wheresoever your faithful servant Hugh Willoughbie land or touch in our dominions, to be well entertained, who as yet is not arrived, as your servant Richard can declare. “And we, with Christian belief and faithfulness, and according to your honourable request and my honourable commandment will not leave it undone, and are furthermore willing that you send unto us your ships and vessels, when, and as often as they may have passage, with good assurance on our part to see them harmless.  And if you send one of your Majesty’s council to treat with us, whereby your country merchants may with all kinds of wares, and where they will, make their market in our dominions, they shall have their free mart with all free liberties through my whole dominions with all kinds of wares, to come and go at their pleasure, without any let, damage, or impediment, according to this our letter, our word, and our seal, which we have commanded to be under-sealed.  Written in our dominion in our town and in our palace in the Castle of Moscow, in the year seven thousand and sixty, the second month of February.” This letter was written in the Muscovian tongue, in letters much like to the Greek letters, very fair written on paper with a broad seal hanging at the same, sealed in paper upon wax.  This seal was much like the broad seal of England, having on the one side the image of a man on horseback in complete harness fighting with a dragon. Under this letter was another paper written in the Dutch tongue, which was the interpretation of the other written in the Muscovian letters.  These letters were sent the next year after the date of King Edward’s letters, 1554. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Richard Hakluyt (2003). The Discovery of Muscovy. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4076/pg4076-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Copy of the Duke of Muscovy and Emperor or Russia his Letters, sent to King Edward VI.

Prisoners on the Electron

Prisioneros en el electrón

Prisonniers de l'électron

इलेक्ट्रॉन पर कैदी

電子の囚人

Prisioneiros do Elétron

Tù nhân trên Electron

电子囚徒

Tokens are digital assets native to their blockchain, to provide interactivity, usability, and uniformity, token standards have been introduced, the most widely used standard for creating tokens in the (Ethereum Request for Comments 20) ERC20, ERC-20, and ERC-777 are some standards for fungible tokens that exist on the Ethereum blockchain. There are many token standards for smart contract development; however, the ERC 20 is the base standard or default standard, immutable and widely used in the development of smart contracts. As a result, adopting a new standard for tokens when existing standards work perfectly fine is a no-brainer and often not considered. However, with the increased use and adoption of decentralized finance, and the huge locked up liquidity with almost non-existence regulation, there is an increased risk for dishonest participants to exploit the ecosystem and profit. Choosing A Token Standard: ERC20 VS ERC777 ERC20 and ERC777 are the two tokens of choice for fungible token development. The choice of a token mostly depends on usage, adoption, features, and security. ERC20 has wide usage, adoption, and security, while ERC777 has improved features and backward compatibility. Purpose of ERC 777 The (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) ERC777 introduces enhanced features to make interaction with tokens more responsive and enhanced. EIP Features such as hooks enable smart contracts to react or perform specific actions when an event occurs, giving token holders more control. This has the advantage of avoiding lost token scenarios where tokens are sent to the wrong destination addresses. Also using operators, smart contracts are granted permissions to perform tasks and can send tokens on behalf of another contract or regular address. The ERC777 standard is with ERC20, this allows for seamless interacting with these tokens as if they were ERC20, using the standard functions and still benefiting from enhanced features. backward compatible What are smart contracts? A smart contract is a self-executing code written by a developer to enforce the terms of the buyer-seller agreement. The code and its agreements are distributed and decentralized across a secure and immutable blockchain network. Smart contracts require no third party, central authority or intermediary to enforce the terms of the code, the code in itself becomes the law. It can enable trusted transactions and agreements to be conducted among unknown parties and trust the safe performance of each person’s obligations. Why are ERC777 tokens being used in exploits? Smart contracts do encounter exploits, these exploits are mostly a result of a bug in a code, be it ERC20 or ERC777 smart contract codes are written by humans mostly in the solidity programming language, and all humans are fallible to mistakes and errors and sometimes unforeseeable events at one point in time can render existing infrastructures vulnerable if not expected for inclusion. The ERC777 has only made it easy to target poorly designed protocols. Uniswap (A decentralized exchange) V1 pool for imBTC and Dforce were exploited using the re-entrancy vector attack. Re-entrancy attacks have become a well-known vulnerability, it came to light during famous DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) hack in 2016, when the ERC777 standard was non-existent. It is very convenient to blame a token standard for an exploit, where developers and project teams to not thoroughly subject smart contracts to audit and upgrades and are solely driven by profit. Use cases of ERC777 It can be used to blacklist or reject tokens from certain addresses Using operators, It can be used to automatically process subscriptions or payments on your behalf. The send function allows user transaction data and operator transaction data to be added for faster reconciliations. It can allow to automatically redirect specific tokens to another contract. Using ERC777 tokensReceived Hook // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity >=0.8.4;

import "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/blob/release-v4.1/contracts/token/ERC777/ERC777.sol";

contract my777Receiver is IERC777Recipient {

  mapping (address=>uint) public balances;
  ERC777 my_erc777;
   
  IERC1820Registry private registry1820= IERC1820Registry(0x1820a4B7618BdE71Dce8cdc73aAB6C95905faD24);

  constructor (address my_erc777_address){
      registry1820.setInterfaceImplementer(address(this),keccak256("ERC777TokensRecipient"),address(this));
      my_erc777 = ERC777(my_erc777_address);
  }

  //ERC777 Recipient Hook
  function tokensReceived(address operator, address from, address to,uint256 amount, bytes calldata data,
    bytes calldata operatorData) external {
  //revert or require
   }

  function () external payable {}

} Using ERC777 tokensToSend Hook // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
//Using https://remix.ethereum.org

pragma solidity >=0.8.4;

import "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/blob/release-v4.1/contracts/token/ERC777/ERC777.sol";

contract ERC777 is IERC777Recipient {
//calling the setInterfaceImplementer function on the ERC-1820 registry with the holder address as the address
  IERC1820Registry private registry1820= IERC1820Registry (0x1820a4B7618BdE71Dce8cdc73aAB6C95905faD24);
  registry1820.setInterfaceImplementer(address(this), keccak256("ERC777TokensSender"), address(this));
  mapping (address=>uint) public balances;

//ERC777 Sender Hook
function tokensToSend(address operator, address from,address to,uint256 amount,bytes calldata userData,
    bytes calldata operatorData) external{
}

function () external payable {}
} Using ERC777 Operators // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
//Using https://remix.ethereum.org

pragma solidity >=0.8.4;

import "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/blob/release-v4.1/contracts/token/ERC777/ERC777.sol";

contract my777Receiver is IERC777Recipient {

  mapping (address=>uint) public balances;
  ERC777 my_erc777;
   
  IERC1820Registry private registry1820= IERC1820Registry(0x1820a4B7618BdE71Dce8cdc73aAB6C95905faD24);

  constructor (address my_erc777_address){
      registry1820.setInterfaceImplementer(address(this),keccak256("ERC777TokensRecipient"),address(this));
      my_erc777 = ERC777(my_erc777_address);
  }

//ERC 777 HOOK
  function tokensReceived(address operator,address from,address to,uint256 amount,
      bytes calldata userData,bytes calldata operatorData) override external{
    // revert();
  }

//Authorised Operator deposit
  function deposit(uint amount) public{
    my_erc777.operatorSend(address(msg.sender), address(this), amount, "", "");
    balances[msg.sender] += amount;
  }

//authorised Operator withdrawal
  function withdrawTokens() public{
    my_erc777.operatorSend(address(this), address(msg.sender), balances[msg.sender], "", "");
    balances[msg.sender] = 0;
  }
} ERC777 sending process A sender, being the owner of a token who would like to transfer tokens to the ERC777 contract will call the send function of ERC777. The contract will then find out from the registry contract, thus the deployed (trusted registry already deployed on the blockchain) whether the recipient address has registered with it to receive tokens. ERC1820 If there is a record in the registry, then the function in the recipient contract is going to be called to receive tokens. tokensReceived The recipient contract can also decide to reject the tokens within the function. tokensReceived ERC777 recipient contract can register ERC20 tokens in the ERC1820 registry to also enjoy the benefits of hooks. Preventing smart contract risks Risk is constantly present and smart contract risk is no exception. It is, therefore, of essence to adopt risk management practices to safeguard entities who use decentralized finance, considering the huge amount of funds being moved into the space. The following are worth considering though not exhaustive to reduce the risks. Audit With the increased value locked up in Decentralized Finance (DeFi), there is an increased need for security audits. Smart contract vulnerabilities, rug pulls, and other code bugs. Smart contract audits can be done manually or automated. smart-contract auditors look into smart contract codes to detect vulnerabilities and security issues, thereby giving a level of assurance that a project code can be safely deployed. Certik, Chainsulting, Openzeppellen, Perkshield are some notable block chain security firms that audit smart contracts. Buying insurance coverage DeFi insurance refers to insuring yourself, or ‘buying coverage’, against losses and risks arising from events in the DeFi space. Decentralized finance (DeFi) insurance is a coverage that protects users from loss in exchange for a fee. Insurance coverage providers may be centralized or a decentralized pool of insurance coverage providers. By buying insurance coverage, the effect of losses can be minimized. Opium insurance, insurAce, nexus Mutual, Bridge mutual, Insure Defi and Unslashed are some decentralized finance insurance coverage providers. The use of experienced developers can help reduce some risks that face smart contracts. Season smart contract developers are more opportune to know some risks that face the industry and best practices to adopt in smart contract deployments. Using Experienced developers: : Copying or forking code from other protocols is a speedy way to develop but may lead to easy exploits because of familiarity and possible incompatibility issues. Avoid copying other codes : Hardware or software devices may be used to store your private keys offline, user access should be restricted to only a few users who require access, a multi-signature contract may also be used to strengthen the security. Limit user access Wrap up ERC777 introduces amazing features for smart contract usage; however, due to it Developers are therefore encouraged to write software codes with risk reduction in mind, they can do this by protecting against known vulnerabilities, subjecting smart contract codes to audit, buying insurance coverage and providing functionalities to halt, pause and upgrade smart contracts. Risk mitigation strategies can not eliminate losses, but it can reduce the impact of losses.

Ethereum Tokens: A Dive With ERC 777 And Risk Mitigations

It is evident today that the modern world is seeing more and more wealth created, and that the economies and markets are connected via increasingly sophisticated routes of global trade. Global supply chains underpin the macroeconomy and global markets and are therefore of key importance for a smoothly running economy. The management of supply chains has a direct impact on a company's competitive positioning and ultimately its long-term success. Therefore, enterprises are continuously improving their supply chains by finding new ways to make them faster, more flexible, more efficient, and more accurate. Blockchain technology can assist enterprises in achieving this goal and is already being applied in more and more enterprises. Challenges in Supply Chain Management During the previous few years, the management of supply chains has changed dramatically as a result of new expectations and technological advances. Despite these advancements, such as the application of big data analytics and the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, supply chains can still dramatically improve efficiency, transparency, and limit exploitative behaviors. Supply chains are highly complex and involve many companies working together in order to achieve the end goal. They often manage their data separately in their own internal IT systems which are not always able to communicate consistently with each other. It can take considerable time and effort to track a components' origin and route, which can cause delays, lead to errors, and ultimately result in additional costs. For instance, according to several studies by the international ocean advocacy organization Oceana, seafood in the US is mislabeled up to 43% of the time [1]. Many processes along the supply chain are still paper-based reducing transparency and increasing the likelihood of mistakes. According to a report of DHL and Accenture, 10% of all freight invoices contain inaccurate data [2]. For individual customers as well as for companies it is extremely difficult to truly know the value of products, due to a significant lack of transparency along the supply chain. Whether a specific product or component fulfills quality, environmental and ethical standards, it cannot be easily traced and hence guaranteed. The WWF estimates that 20 to 40% of the global timber production is illegally obtained [3]. In addition, Minca, which is a mineral used in many electronic products is often sourced from illegal mines by child laborers [4]. Another growing problem is the trade of counterfeit and pirated goods which has risen steadily in the last few years and now makes up around 3.3% of the global trade [5]. In particular consumer goods such as electronics and pharmaceuticals fall into this category. Benefits for Enterprises Blockchain technology offers a solution to these issues and has the ability of benefiting enterprises in many ways. The key characteristics of blockchain technology, , play a key role in this context. decentralization and immutability Decentralization means that data stored on the blockchain is visible to all supply chain participants. Immutability refers to the fact that data stored on the blockchain cannot be tampered with or changed by an individual. These very important features lay the foundation for in ways that have never been attainable before. Through blockchain technology, enterprises can follow a product in detail all the way from the sourcing of raw material, right up to the sale of the product. Transparency and traceability allow for great benefits in supply chain management. transparency and traceability Blockchain helps to identify inefficiencies and cut costs Utilizing blockchain technology, companies are able to gain an all-encompassing overview of their supply chain processes and activities. This enables them to identify wasteful inefficiencies and implement targeted cost-saving measures. For instance, paper-based documentation and bureaucracy can easily be reduced through a blockchain based supply chain system. Processes, such as purchasing activities, can become automated and faster through the use of smart contracts and customs transactions. As a result, blockchain technology leads to leaner processes, the identification of human errors and the avoidance of delays. Blockchain helps to improve quality assurance Enterprises can assess both their own performance and that of their partners. They can monitor exactly whether corporate standards, regarding quality, environmental, and social issues are met. This allows enterprises to react on non-compliance and to implement changes quickly, thereby improving quality assurance. Blockchain enhances corporate reputation, credibility, and trust Using blockchain technology within a supply chain also enhances corporate reputation by providing transparency of the various components used in the products, and also strengthens credibility and public trust of the data they share. Customers can reliably check the origin, the components and handling of the product, therefore increasing their level of confidence when purchasing the product. Blockchain enables new partnerships Blockchain technology can also have a significantly positive impact on partnerships and connectivity across supply chains. With blockchain technology, it is possible to interact with other enterprises in a trustless and secure way, opening up enterprises to more potential partnerships and collaborations. Simultaneously, blockchain reduces potential public relations risks from supply chain malpractice. Blockchain secures data integrity and protects against corruption Immutability of data guarantees its validity and accuracy along the supply chain, and avoids instances of data loss, coupled with preventing internal malpractices and manipulation, since changes to the data are immediately detected. This allows for an easier and more efficient regulatory compliance and auditing process. Blockchain deters counterfeit and fraud Blockchain technology enables individuals and companies to identify the source and originality of products, hence preventing counterfeit and fraud. This lowers the losses related to counterfeit goods for companies. Blockchain Technology applied Blockchain technology has already been applied in many enterprises. Some of the most well-known use cases of blockchain technology in supply chain management are those of Walmart and BMW, which utilize blockchain technology to improve quality and to optimize their processes. Walmart - Blockchain for Food Safety [6] Walmart envisioned a fully transparent and safe food system and started a pilot project for food safety in 2017. Walmart was fully aware that apart from low prices, availability and services, its customers require the products they buy to be safe. In case of implications with the product quality, it is important to act fast and to identify the affected product. In the past, this has turned out to be difficult as the food system is very complex, with many different players and many different traceability systems. Additionally, many suppliers still use paper to record and track their products, which makes it impossible to trace food/products easily. In 2018, an infectious outbreak could not sufficiently be traced back and caused hundreds of infections and five fatalities in the US [7]. Blockchain allows Walmart to trace the products quickly, helps to identify, isolate and remove the contaminated product to not only save costs, but also to prevent further infections, and hence leads to fewer fatalities. In addition, it also creates transparency, and furthermore allows Walmarts customers to see how responsibly and sustainably it is produced, and at which location. Benefits of the Initiative: Monitor food safety quickly and efficiently. Create transparency for products. Reduce costs that occur through slow reaction regarding violation of food safety regulations. Increase food transparency and shipment efficiency. The pilot was completed and Walmart announced that it will require suppliers of leafy greens to upload their data to the blockchain by September 2019. So far it has expanded to more than 80 members and has tracked over 1300 products so far [8]. BMW - Blockchain in Logistics Operations [9] BMW uses blockchain technology to optimize its processes and to trace components reliably through its supply chain. The automotive industry's international supply chains are even more complex and involve even more participants with different tracking systems. Consequently, there is a low degree of visibility, and hence a considerable effort has to be made to track components reliably. In 2019, it has introduced a pilot project called PartChain, a blockchain platform that enables immutable and consistently verifiable collection and transaction of data in their supply chain. The pilot project involved the two BMW plants, Spartanburg in the US and Dingolfing in Germany, as well as three locations of the supplier Automotive Lighting. With this new system, BMW and its partners receive accurate and transparent data and can seamlessly trace the components along the supply chain, therefore allowing BWM to easily identify inefficiencies and reduce costs. In 2020, BMW has planned to continue and expand the project to around 10 suppliers. Benefits of the Initiative: Allowing data within supply chains to be exchanged and shared safely and anonymously throughout the industry. Create transparency for the products. Decreasing costs through automated tracking. Increase supply chain transparency through tracking the components' origin and supply route. Lisk Supply Chain Tutorial Enterprises can greatly benefit from incorporating blockchain technology in their supply chain. You can easily build your own simple decentralized supply chain tracking system with the Lisk SDK by following our . Supply Chain tutorial [1] https://oceana.org/publications/reports/oceana-reveals-mislabeling-americas-favorite-fish-salmon [2] https://www.dhl.com/global-en/home/insights-and-innovation/insights/blockchain.html [3] https://www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/waelder/waldvernichtung/illegaler-holzeinschlag/ [4] https://goodelectronics.org/high-possibility-mica-used-electronics-industry-linked-child-labour/ [5] https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/trade-in-fake-goods-is-now-33-of-world-trade-and-rising. [6] https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/50610.wss [7] https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com [8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/biserdimitrov/2019/12/05/how-walmart-and-others-are-riding-a-blockchain-wave-to-supply-chain-paradise/#7ad729be7791 [9] https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0307164EN/bmw-group-uses-blockchain-to-drive-supply-chain-transparency?language=en

How Blockchain Can Improve Supply Chain Management

Hello Hacker Noon Community! I’m JP, one of the founders of . Welcome to our dev blog, thanks for stopping by! Insular Games I’ve seen quite a few dev blogs online throughout the years; most of them with updates about their upcoming games, or discussing some aspects of them (design, programming, art, etc.). Before deciding to go indie, I did quite a lot of research online. It was not a decision I took lightly. And while I did find a lot of information, it was really scattered. So I decided to try to compile things I learned so far throughout this “indie adventure” in this dev blog. I will include my past experiences, things I read about while doing research, or discovered the hard way while working on our game, . Gravitators My main objective with the blog is to pass some of this the knowledge forward, as many things I learned were previously uploaded by someone for free. It’s the least I can do for the next generation of indies. Sometimes journalists and outsiders tend to focus on the bad aspects of our industry (OT, working conditions, etc.), but something that is never mentioned is the "camaraderie" between devs. It is probably one of the most positive aspects of our industry: while in reality we are actually competing in quite a harsh and saturated market, we still help each other out a lot. So this blog will be our little contribution to that. On a side note, I’ve also read that writing a blog can increase traffic to your website or visibility to your game. So I guess we'll test that out too. I actually posted the blog on Reddit the other day but didn't get views. Then I got busy launching our Demo for the Steam Festival, and just yesterday I saw a "Call to Indies" from Limarc Ambalina from Hacker Noon, for us to start writing on this site. I took it as a sign I should be writing the blog here instead, so here we are. Who’s this blog written for? Anyone considering starting with indie development, either alone or with a group. Players curious about the comings and goings of indie developers, or curious to know how Gravitators came to be. : the information I’ll be writing in the blog entries comes from my own personal experience, both past and present, and knowledge I accumulated from books or articles. But what worked for me might not work well for you. So: take what you think it’s useful, and feel free to ignore the rest. Disclaimer 1 : In future blog entries, I will probably mention several things about Gravitators mechanics or story. If you’re interested in the game, I suggest you play it first (currently in development, demo will release soon though). That way you will avoid any potential spoiler I might write here in the blog (I’ll try to avoid it or at least warn about it). Disclaimer 2 With that clear, for this first blog entry I’ll give the first piece of advice to anyone looking to start working on their own company/game: Read as much as you can! In 2020, we’re lucky enough to be working in a rather mature field (guys in the 80s were basically experimenting). Today there are tons of resources that can help you develop your video game idea and/or set up your own video game company. On top of that, material can be easily reached online on Youtube, e-learning videos, or other e-formats (amazon, google books, etc.). Location isn’t important anymore in order to acquire knowledge in our industry. There’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of other developers knowledge. But how do you choose what to learn first? The first thing you (and your potential group) need to do before starting is to do a self and honest evaluation. What are the things that you are good at? And what are the things you have no idea about? I’ve met some very talented people in the past that could design, do 2D/3D art and code. But even these people (who are more an exception than a norm) might still miss some key knowledge or skills that are required to put a successful game on the market. For example: Project Management, Sound Design (both sound effects and soundtrack composition), Marketing, Budgeting, Legal/Accountancy, etc. Most indies will notice when working on their first project that positions and task divisions tend to get blurry/fuzzy sometimes. And that's OK. You will most certainly need to get out of your comfort zone, and do and learn a whole bunch of new things that are completely different from your past work experience. If none of you is not comfortable with that, you are going to be needing a much larger team. On the other hand, if your team’s experience is enough to cover all required items, that’s great! You’ll have a lot of work to do but you’ll certainly have it easier than most teams out there. Our team consisted in: 2 programmers (mainly Java and C# but with some C++ experience too). 3 artists (all 2D artists, with mostly pixel-art and some concept-art experience). 1 of me :) I’m a bit of jack-of-all-trades, as throughout my work experience I had accumulated knowledge on QA, Project Management, a bit of Game Design, but also managing Budgets, HR, Accountancy and Legal. All of our experience, however, was doing Mobile Games. But we wanted to do the jump towards the PC (because even though I had worked in Mobile Games, I’ve always been more of a PC player). You can see from the team composition that we didn’t have an experienced Game Designer, a 3D Artist, or a Sound Designer (a couple of us have some experience with music composition, but not at professional level). I decided to take the responsibilities for the Game Designer, as I was the one with the game proposal. As Gravitators was 2D, we didn’t need a 3D Artist for this project. And Sound Design is the easiest job to outsource, so it wasn’t a big deal not to have one on the team. I've always been comfortable providing feedback on games and deciding when something is well implemented or not. However, starting a game design from scratch is a totally different challenge. I also worked exclusively on the “development” side of games, so my experience in marketing and branding was zero. That’s why I decided to focus most of my reading on Game Design first, and then on Marketing. We also decided to outsource Sound Design. You should do the same. Focus on learning skills that you can improve or you think you are very interested in or want to learn, and check about outsourcing the ones that look too hard to do. It's very important to analyze time (to learn) vs cost (to outsource) at the beginning of your project. I’m sure that most developers and players have imagined their own "dream game". Except some rare occasions, all these games will almost always be a combination of mechanics and art style from various existing games, old or new. So with your dream game idea in mind, I suggest you read and learn, and use that new knowledge to polish your game design, find the most suitable art style, code it the most efficient way (which includes choosing the game engine too) and find your audience. I’ll be going into more detail on some of this stuff in later blog entries. For now, I’d like to recommend the following books or courses, which have proven useful to me one way or another: Game Design . This is an excellent introductory book for anyone that wants to design a game, but it still provides very useful insights that can help even experienced designers. You will find a lot of information on Game Design, seen from every possible angle you can imagine. If you’ll only get 1 Game Design book, get this one. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (2nd edition), by Jesse Schell . These guys are amazing. You can basically learn most of the things required to develop a game here: Coding (Unity / C#, Unreal / C++), 3D Art with Blender, 2D Art, VR, etc. I’ve personally taken the Unity course a few years ago (I also got the 3D Art course but haven’t had the time/need to do it yet), and found their coding teaching method fantastic: they explain the topic, and give you a task that’s slightly more complex for you to practice. GameDev.tv You pause the video and do it, and then you continue the video to see the resolution. If you follow this method (instead of continuing the video and just see the solutions), you will learn a lot. BTW I actually found them through , which every once in a while gives HUGE discounts in all their courses, including theirs. My advice is to wait for their store sales and get as many courses as you need from these guys. www.udemy.com . This book goes into extensive detail of everything that a Game Developer might need. Being from 2015, it’s a bit outdated in some info, but most of the book is still useful if you never worked in the industry or even you’ve always worked with huge teams (these teams have all tasks distributed so much that everyone is a specialist of a very small part of the game development). The Indie Game Developer Handbook, by Richard Hill-Whittall So you’ll be reading about different game engines, software, stages in game, platforms, presskit, marketing, etc. etc. It’s well organized, and it even includes some interviews to different studios (both successful and not so much, which is equally useful). . What I like about this book is that it explains concepts of Game Design but seen more from a theory/academic point of view. Some of the concepts explained here are similar to Jesse Schell’s book, but they are more to-the-point (which can be good or bad, depending on what you’re looking for). It’s still worth a read. 100 Principles of Game Design, by Wendy Despain . This book is a bit old (you’ll notice right away when you see the “new” games it mentions), but I still found a lot of useful ideas. And it also includes some cool interviews to industry legends, which were my favorite parts. Game Design: Theory and Practice, by Richard Rouse III Art With some exceptions, I don't normally work on the art for the game, but I still found the following books very interesting: . The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators, by Richard Williams . The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas . A lot of interesting suggestions and advice on how to do Pixel Art. If you haven’t worked with Pixel Art and you’d like your game to feature this style, it’s a good starting point. Pixel Art for Game Developers, by Daniel Silber Marketing If you are going indie, there's a big chance you don't have someone with marketing experience or 100% dedicated to it. Marketing is an absolute must today, with the indie market being rather saturated. Games today must find their audience or risk failure. . A book written specifically for indie developers that have zero experience on Marketing. Reading this book won’t guarantee that you’ll be able to market your game properly and efficiently, but you’ll still be better off than if you haven’t read it. A Practical Guide to Indie Game Marketing, by Joel Dreskin . Indie Game Marketing Secrets: How to get noticed, sell more copies, and grow your fanbase, by Raghav Mathur, Daniel Doan, Raquel Hayner . Market Your Indie Game Like A Pro: Techniques Beyond App Store Optimization, by Amol Wagh Story Depending on your game, it can go from non-existent or an afterthought, to a novel-like story, with many main and secondary characters, and layers upon layers of complexity. While our medium works radically different vs other mediums (as players normally have control of their avatar's actions), it's still very important to know how other media builds stories, so you don't fall short if you need to have one. . This book explains very well how stories are structured and organized. It has a somewhat slow start, but it’s totally worth it. If your game has a heavy focus on story, you should definitely give it a read. Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks . This book is aimed at screenwriters, but the content absolutely applies to novels or games. It's one of the most famous books on the subject. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee Extras . You might have heard of this one. While more oriented towards innovative products (meaning, products and services that are more on the experimental side), the ideas in the book are very different and counter-intuitive vs “normal” business strategies. The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries It also gives a lot of insight and examples of companies that started with a fixed idea of a product, but then changed it over time for different reasons. Which sounds exactly as the evolution of many games. Mind however that many ideas of this book are currently contested, so I suggest you probably read some criticisms after you finish with the book. While I've added links to all book suggestions, there are other online stores where you might get them for a cheaper price. Browse around. I found that sometimes had books I was looking for (although I’m not entirely sure if they are legally uploaded there). archive.org I’ve also read other books but I thought the list above was a good, varied summary. There are countless articles, videos and tutorials online too. Whatever topic you think you should learn, do search online and learn as much as you can about it. Even better if you do it before you start working on your game. They will help you structure the game idea better in your head, and save you time. Speaking of time, it is hard sometimes to actually find the time to read and learn new things, especially if you still have a daily job or other responsibilities (parenting, formal studies, etc.). I found 2 ways to “force myself” to read these books or watch the courses: Consider it part of the job. Try to schedule yourself time to read, the same way you do to work on tasks for the game. Even 1-2 hours a week is better than nothing. Replace some leisure activities with learning. This means: reduce some of the time you use to play video games, watch TV shows or movies, read fiction books or newspapers, or whatever other activity that isn't mandatory on your daily life. The easiest for me was to drop any fiction reading at night (which I used to do). This gave me 30-45 minutes to learn something new (usually I read a game design related book). Also, by reducing the amount of days I watch a TV show or a movie, I get 2 extra hours each time. As long as the learning topic is interesting for you, this shouldn't feel like a chore. This brings me to the last advice of today: It’s probably the best purchase you’ll do. I was hesitant for years, as I considered myself more of a “traditional reader”, and thought that I’d be missing the feeling of paper in my hands, and that the device would feel weird to hold or read. I stand corrected now. Get an e-book reader. I was absolutely when I realized I didn’t even have an adjustment period. I loved the feeling immediately after I started reading: you don’t need to turn the lamp on at night (bothering your significant other). It’s very lightweight to hold on your hand for long periods of time. amazed You can download all your books immediately (no more shipments nor lack of availability if you’re in a foreign country like us), and the greatest feature of all: you can highlight all the important things you read that you might need later, or leave written notes. This means that whenever you need the info, you can easily go back to all your highlights/notes and jump back to the juicy parts right away. Consider all the time you spend learning and doing research as an investment. It will save you time and money in the end. That should be all for the first blog entry, hope it wasn’t too long for an intro. Stay tuned for the next one.

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