Why We Make Games
Making games is painful and joyful at the same time.
Like most people, I ended up on this path because I played the creative work of the people who came before me, and passion carried me the rest of the way.
Speaking from my own experience, I’ve been on student teams and at a small mobile studio. I’ve worked with teammates who slacked off and bosses who promised the world. After being turned down by big studios more times than I can count, I decided to seriously make an indie game, and that’s how I ended up here.
Thinking about it, this is the first time in a long while that I’ve been able to sit down calmly and think about what experience I want to give players and what I actually want to make, without (for now) worrying about earnings reports, daily active users or update pressure.
This week we showed the demo to some people from a big studio, one whose logo is yellow, with a letter and a star. They were all encouraging and full of praise. In that moment I almost couldn’t hold back the tears, and my face went as red as a tomato.
Making games is a lot like baking a cake by hand. You work hard for a long time, but when it finally reaches someone else, or a player, a single compliment or seeing them enjoy what you made makes it all worth it.
Thank you to everyone on the team for your hard work since the project started. There are only a few months left before our planned release next year, and the game is going through optimization, testing and content work on every front.
Indie development isn’t easy. To every team and developer still on the road, I hope you enjoy the journey!
(Although, going by the algorithm, right about now I’m supposed to say indie games are terrible and beyond saving.)
A first look at dialogue
The Threads version of this post came with a video of the game’s dialogue system. It works a bit like Ace Attorney: while you push further into the dungeon, you unlock new topics to talk about with NPCs back at camp. We’re planning four NPCs closely tied to the story.
The protagonist’s updated portrait is almost done, and we’ll share it next week. Happy National Day, everyone!