3 Useful Programs

Hello, everyone! I’m Daedalus, a staff member for Calis. I currently have a game in development, but I had an extra few minutes, so I figured I’d write a blog post. I’ve come up with a list of three programs that can help you and your team out, or at least that’s what I’m hoping. There’s obviously far more then what I’ve listed, and if you know any interesting ones, feel free to send me a private message on the forums. Let’s get started.

Team Viewer (http://teamviewer.com/)

There comes a point in everyone’s game development hobby or career when they’ll need to show off the game’s progress off to other members of the team. This can become a hassle if your game is a larger file size, and can repel people away from doing so, which can easily create problems. Team Viewer is an easy solution to that, or maybe you just want some team members to see what you just did, or watch you work. Whatever the case, Team Viewer is a very useful program that allows you to view other people’s computers who have Team Viewer, or show off your own. It’s very easy to figure out, and it’s the best that I’ve come across, and it has extra features, such as voice communication, video communication, and a white board.

Skype (http://www.skype.com/)

Skype is a well known communication tool, mostly its strongest point being its quality for voice communication. I find that Skype is actually very useful for a few team members to discuss a few things, or just keep each other company while you’re working. Skype also has some other features, such as a screen viewer, but it isn’t up to par with Team Viewer’s. A very handy feature in Skype is the ability to add multiple people to a conversation that doesn’t end when it’s closed, however, it can get a little chaotic with more than 4 people talking at once.

FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

Now you may be asking “Daedalus, why the heck would I bother making mind maps?”. It’s a far question, but FreeMind is a very useful tool for doing this, it’s free and isn’t a large program at all. Yuoaman actually showed this program to me. Again though, why make mind maps? You’d actually be surprised at how much information you can get down in one of these things, and it’s very easy to do. FreeMind has some neat features, such as exporting it as a web page, and a few other things here and there.

And that’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have more time to write another blog post in the future, but I’ll have of think of something to write about… perhaps a continuation to the list, or something completely different. Who knows! I’ll see you then.